Okay, so, I apologize for leaving a comment on a story that's more than two years old, but I wanted to tell you how much I absolutely love Duality. Like. This is the story that I judge all other stories involving AI characters, from within RWBY and outside of it.

The story isn't long- it takes about, oh, five to ten minutes to read- but I love the depth of Penny's growth and watching her make connections and define new things, and really develop into a person. I've read novels that barely manage the same loving care to characters and depth in more than ten times the words.

Eramus' death is a tragedy, one of lost potential and opportunity, and of losing your first connection to the world. Barely two sections about him (one of which was after his death) and I knew it was a tragedy to lose him. Gray and Peridot are such big parts of Penny's, well, childhood, much as that term applies, and she's so sad to leave them. They're minor characters and we barely know anything about them. But Penny knows them. Knows them and their faces, and she watches them, and learns, and in losing them, we feel her loss.

Watching Penny learn and adjust is just such a fascinating process. She goes from not understanding what pain and harm are, struggling with the definitions, to understanding life and pain and happiness and how all those things can fit together.

Her finding all the similarities between her and the humans around her is just nothing short of adorable and absolutely lovely. She doesn't quite understand a lot of things, but she wants to try, she wants to learn, and she wants to fill that void within her consciousness. It makes her wonderfully curious, though that never overshadows how much she cares about the people around her and how delightful she finds them.

My favorite lines are the ones where she tries to apply her own reasoning and methodology to something human. Sorry, that's not exactly the best way to phrase it, but I don't quite know how to otherwise. An example (and one of the best dialogue lines in this, in my opinion) is ""That's awful," she said. "I'm glad I don't have that. I think that's evolutionarily disadvantageous and you should look into ways you could try uninstalling it.""

She cares and she's expressing her opinion, but she's doing in terms she recognizes and applies to herself because she can see the similarities between her and everyone else, despite the differences.

Thank you so much for this story! I apologize again, because this /is/ kind of out of the blue, but I realized I hadn't ever taken the time to tell you how much I adore Duality, and I had to attempt to fix that. It's kind of how to express how much I love this story, but, again, thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this. I'm so glad you shared it so long ago.

I am speechless. Everything about this one-shot is absolutely everything I wanted in a Penny origin story. I'm glad I took a look through your older stories, because this was an absolute treasure. The descriptions were clinical, yet somehow very emotional. You captured Penny perfectly, the way she looks at the world and her enthusiastic curiosity. The evolution of my baby robot daughter simply took my breath away. Her final description of life made me clench my chest.

I am in pain.

I love this fic so much. x3 I love how Penny and her guards interact with one another in the show-they honestly care about her, not just as a piece of equipment but as a person, and that's not something typical of those particular circumstances, and this fic just so accents that-it's absolutely amazing. Incredible job with this!

I thought this was a very good story of Penny's evolution. I liked how she gradually pieced things together until she became the girl we know.

So I'm honestly not sure what was the greatest thing about this story; the concept, the sheer emotion, or the way you made me actually really like Penny. Fantastic job!

Great Penny story.

That was the greatest thing I've ever read!

This was a fantastic read! Very well written and so full of detail. Kudos to you. This is really awesome. :)

I just have one regret - that this is only a one-shot. There's so much potential here to explore on Penny's point of view...
Very well done.
- Sanguis

Exceedingly well-written. In fact, this story makes me reluctant to hear penny's cannon back story if and when it's revealed, simply because if it's not this story then Rooster Teeth wasted a golden opportunity. Not only does this story explore Penny's back story, but it also provokes a deeper look at sentience itself. Even the existentialist undertones are well-executed; they're there if you're looking for them, and if you're not, they blend seamlessly into the story. I applaud Xekstrin for the thought-provoking content in a beautiful story.

I want to write like this.

Very, very, VERY well done! The build up, the conversations, the ending - absolutely beautiful.

It is incredibly rare, even among professional authors and famous books, to see someone depict the idea of 'life' so clearly. Of course, contradiction is merely one aspect of life, just as how pain makes us grow stronger, but to be able to actually portray it without the usual clichés with perhaps the perfect character - imagined as it is, because we don't have a background for Penny yet - is amazing.

There are many one shots out there that can use an epilogue or additional chapter, but this fits the one shot format perfectly; a wondrous short story. There are no additional chapters needed, there's a strong sense of finality that does not compel the reader wanting for more and be SATISFIED, and that is the most important thing. Salutations, friend. You did Penny well. You did Penny very well.