"That sounds interesting. Yes, I would like to learn that."

And the kobold grins and launches into an explanation of the general principles and the specific things she noticed with the droids. "I've only met droids under six months old and one that was twenty; I think the every six month wipe schedule like the Jedi do it is a good idea if you're not going to just let droids be people like anyone else, but I am curious to see if there's a more obvious change sometime after the six month point."

"Letting a droid become a person defeats most of their purpose as skilled labor requiring little investment."

She nods. "I didn't mean you should do it on purpose."

"I have no droids close to that cutoff point. That said, my Archivist system has been several years without a wipe."

"That would be interesting to look at."

Occlus pulls out her portal hoop and activates it, then places it in front of the kobold.

The kobold sticks a clawtip through and casts about with her mage-sense. She checks the guard droids first, to orient herself...

They have a surprisingly complex intelligence, much more so than any droid she's scanned before. It also feels... bigger, somehow.

Huh.

She looks some more, checking for things she associates with personhood: sense of self, metacognition, complex wants or intentions, and so on.

All of these things are present. In addition, the same intelligence seems to be guiding all three bodies, and it feels like it has more, further inside the facility.

"They're not as obviously a person, but you should probably consider them one," she reports. "I'm not sure they think of themselves as one exactly, but they think of themselves as something, and they're doing enough complicated things for it. Have a look?" She passes the portal back.

Occlus sticks her finger through. And then checks the kobold for comparison.

"I see."

"Unfortunately the sense can only show us what's going on, not what it means - asking them if they think they're a person or what they think about being wiped might help, if you want to. That's how I figured out that the six-month wipe was probably okay; the droid I talked to about it couldn't imagine not being, so they weren't able to have an opinion about it."

Occlus tilts her head.

"It may also help that I personally wrote much of its programming."

The kobold chuckles, just once. "That would, yeah."

"Any other recent developments I should be apprised of?"

She pauses to think. "That one Jedi from yesterday thinks it was a trick; they're going to have a meeting about it. I haven't said anything one way or the other."

"It was, of course. Though I imangine in not quite the sense he is thinking of."

"Yeah," she grins. "Well, if they decide it's a trick and want something better, there's still Raafi, if the Jedi will believe them and they'll agree to it; Raafi's magic answers the kind of question they're trying to get at a little more straightforwardly in some ways."

"I'd want to know what his answer would be before that information gets shared."

She nods. "That's understandable. There's also - I'm not actually sure I should even mention it, but - a spell they can cast that can change the answer, too. Very strictly voluntary, if they cast it and you don't want it to affect you it won't and it hurts them, but if you do want it, it's an option."

"Detection is one thing, but I do not think I would be willing to let an unknown magic affect that sort of thing about me."

The kobold nods. "I didn't think so. Well, I'll keep an eye on things, and bring Raafi by if it seems like they might be useful to you."

"Farewell, then."