[DAY :042] do androids dream of electric sheep?

[onemind]

[PING. If you happen to be surfing the Concordian extranet, a familiar looking window pops into the browser. --It's familiar at first glance, anyway. This has no identifying user, no chat text box. It might be more easily mistaken for an error message. It says:]

Hello. I'm awake.

[After thirty seconds, the window closes on its own. Should anyone connect one dot to the next and go check in the room where Kellix the skele!droid has been stored, they'll find him-- well, still prone in the made bed, but his optical receptors are lit up and his internal systems seem to be making fairly regular whirring and whizzing noises. That's a good sign, right?

These messages pop up whenever Kellix wakes up, for however short the interval. Hope you like pop-ups.]

Comments

[frakkincylons]

[ he does connect the dots, and does go to check, given he hasn't really strayed far from Kellix since he'd showed up, wrought with concern. pacing in, sam takes a seat at the edge of the bed and starts to look over Kellix's head, the lit up opticals, and check around for how he's doing. ]

Hey. Feeling a little better?

[onemind]

[A crackle. When he speaks, his voice is pleasantly human instead of the stripped down, synthesized noises he'd made when first arriving at Bearings.]

Much, thank you.

[A pause. Whir.]

Did I frighten them? Your colleagues.

[frakkincylons]

[ Sam smiles, warm and a bit wry, before giving a shrug, and pulling his hands away to let the android be, without the fussing, for the moment. ]

A little, but they got over it. [ 'a little'. samuel t anders pls. ]

If you want, we can work on trying to get some new housing on you again. Didn't wanna mess with anything while you were still out. [ it felt like it would've been weird and invasive. and kellix probably has a preference on what he wants on his person. ]

[decommission]

You got one helluva work over, huh? [ If he's blunt, it's not without compassion in the way his brow furrows and mouth twists at one side. Sam's feeling about Kellix's condition and arrival were made pretty clear at the time. Wariness aside, if the android's coming to them for help, then they ought to offer it best they can. ]

[onemind]

[When the synthetic had spoke earlier, it was with the mechanical sounds of a machine. Now--]

It happens.

[He sounds very human from where he exists as a pile of mechanics laid on a bed. There might even be a trace of humor in his voice.]

[decommission]

[ The slip of humor has his eyebrows raising, the ghost of a smile forming. ]

You slept through the Arista Parade. You usually celebrate?

[snaphiss]

[Mara isn't the first in the room; she opts to hang back, listen in, let the others soften him up. They're all kind, friendly people. The droid won't be expecting someone like her.]

Yes, you're awake. We hadn't spoken before. It's time to change that.

[onemind]

[He doesn't sit up; maybe he can't. Instead Kellix blinks at the ceiling. His optical receptors stare in her direction - bright and blue.]

All right. I don't think we've met before. Would you like to start with introductions?

[snaphiss]

I'm Mara Jade. But your friend Y knows me by a different name.

[A vague reference to Y, to make her allegiance to the woman as ambiguous as possible. It will be easy to make them sound like friends or enemies based on the droid's reaction.]

[headinjuries]

[ Sam figures everyone else is going to have the important questions squared away; the nest has much better people to figure out what's going on and what they can do about it. Rather, he just peeks in to ask something that's a different kind of important. ]

Hey, good to see you awake. Um.

Do you need anything? Because, like, I've done the stuck-in-bed thing and not being able to go grab stuff is a total drag.

[onemind]

[The android doesn't sit up. He doesn't turn his skull to look at the boy. But he does answer, and there's a rote gentleness to his voice that would be pleasant if it weren't so at odds with being a robo-skeleton.]

I don't suppose you have any extra skin or synthetic housing lying around, do you?

[headinjuries]

Not that I know of. But I'm not exactly one of the resident techies, either.

[ He hasn't been told to piss off, so he's going to take that as an invitation, slipping into the room and grabbing a nearby chair to turn backwards and straddle. He folds his arms over the back of the chair, resting his chin on them as he looks Kellix over - casually, with the concern he'd have for anyone else, but he's clearly not weirded out by the robo-skeleton thing. ]

They might be able to find something, now. I think making sure you could wake up at all was higher on the priority list.

[greentech]

[ Oh. That makes sense. Pidge finally gets it all to click together and when she does, she heads into the room that the droid's been stored in and leans over it with a puzzled expression. ]

Uh, hey. Can you hear me?

[onemind]

[If Kellix had eyelids, he might blink up at her face. As it is, his optical receptors just swivel around in his skull.]

Yes, I can.

[batmotif]

[Much like the other hosts before him, Bruce had made his way to Kellix's room as soon as he was able. The man stands over his bedside, arms crossed, brow tightened with consideration.

Where to begin? Start easy.]

Are you cognizant enough to answer a few questions?

[onemind]

[The android doesn't move. He might as well be a pile of scrap stitched through with the occasional blinking light. But when he speaks, he sounds distressingly organic, casual as if he isn't flat on his back.]

I think so, yes.

here and then not;

[narcissithstic]

[Ren dislikes droids. Unlike the rest of his bloodline, he's never felt any deepset fondness for the machines that tend like drones to their daily lives. They're here for a mission, a firmly defined reason: sympathy or personal opinion has nothing to do with it.

Cup of caf in hand, drawn to the instincts of his broodmates, Ren peers in belatedly, squinting over the rim of his cup into that narrow space.

—and then leaves.

How many Hosts are going to grow attached to this thing the more they interact with it? How attached will his own broodmates be, given a week? A month?

Ugh, droids.]

[onemind]

[:3a]

[frakkincylons]

[ he's already attached enough for the entire nest, fite him, kylie ]

not open BYE.

[unsea]

[ saints he hopes you short-circuit permanently when they're done

you glitchy little jerk ]

[onemind]

[RUDE.]

Later on day 42; I lied, apparently

[narcissithstic]

[He's back: no less judgmental about it this time, but at least there's a reason for his sudden appearance, bare footsteps quick across cool flooring. They stop a few feet away, just within range of Kellix's visual receptors and nothing more.]

You, droid. [Cold and cruel, light from the open doorway limning sharp features.] Are you functional.

dead stare

[onemind]

[He doesn't move - not a fraction, not a breath; but somewhere in Kellix's components, something is clicking away rhythmically.]

I'm currently online and communicative, yes. Is there something you need from me?

[circumspector]

Hello?

I don't think we've met before.

[onemind]

No, I don't think we have. I'm Kellix. An android.