[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

[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.

[onemind]

No, it's all right. I was just joking. I'm not sure I'd be able to utilize the parts right now anyway.

[It'd take more advanced tools than he has available on hand and more coordination by far. But it's something to consider for the future, he thinks. If there is one, he might ask one of them to assist with reassembly.]

Thanks for taking care of me while I was doing repairs.

[headinjuries]

It was the least we could do. I mean, a few people here are total dicks but most of us aren't.

[onemind]

[He laughs. It's a little weird.]

Well either way, I appreciate it. --I didn't scare you, did I? Earlier when I showed up. [A thoughtful pause.] I'm sorry; I can't place how long it's been since then.

[headinjuries]

Nah. I mean, I can only speak for me, but I think most of us are harder to scare than that.

[ Considering that their merry little band is full of superheroes, demons, apocalypse survivors, and God only knows what else. ]

It's been about a week.

[onemind]

[He makes a small whistling noise.] That's longer than I would've thought.

[But that's okay. He can deal with it. He'll need to send some messages out while he can-- No. Not from here, he reminds himself. It'll have to wait.]

Has anything happened in the city while I've been doing repairs?

[headinjuries]

Not really. I mean, there was the Arista Parade, but nothing else like...more bombings or anything.

[ Just the gentle slide back to complacency now that things aren't exploding. Sigh. ]

[onemind]

Well that's good. [He sounds genuine.] Have there been any addresses by Representative Saffit lately? Do you know him?

[headinjuries]

I think he's been talking, but nothing like...super major? Most of the city seems like they're getting back to routine, it's mostly just the really gung-ho types paying attention now.

[onemind]

[A murmuring noise of some low, mechanical process.]

Typical. [It's a dry assessment, tinged with just a shred of something like disgust. After a moment, his optical receptors click around in his bare skull vaguely in Sam's direction.] Oh well. These things happen. Did you have questions for me? That's why you're here, isn't it?

[headinjuries]

Everyone's got questions, but...

[ He shrugs. ]

I think everyone else has the important ones covered. I just wanted to see if you were okay.

[onemind]

[Click. Click. ??????]

That's very strange.

[He sounds genuinely surprised.]

[headinjuries]

I guess it is? But it shouldn't be.

[onemind]

[He makes a small noise, not dissimilar from a laugh.]

How old are you?

[headinjuries]

Fifteen.

[onemind]

[Click. Whir. The android's internal functions emit a soft series of noises, benign and strangely rhythmic - musical even. In another place, another circumstance, it might be pleasant.]

I hope this question isn't rude and I don't mean to imply you're age makes you less valuable or capable, but is there a particular reason the organization you work for employs minors? Espionage seems like a particularly strange subset of a work-study program. Are you a prodigy of some kind?

[headinjuries]

I dunno if I'd say prodigy. But there are a few things I'm really good at, compared to most people.

[onemind]

What things? If you don't mind me asking, of course.

[He sounds genuinely curious rather than, say, a mercenary spybot.]

[headinjuries]

[ The flying and throwing energy around stuff is off the table. There's no way to pass that off as even somewhat normal. But - ]

I'm good at telling when people are full of crap.

[ That could just be great intuition. ]

[onemind]

Ah. A very useful skill. Though I imagine it makes things difficult for you. I find organic life is fond of misrepresentation.

[It's a survival strategy, isn't it?]

[headinjuries]

Yeah. Sometimes I'd rather just...not know.

[ Maintaining faith in humanity takes a lot more work when you know exactly how much shit some people are full of. ]

[onemind]

[A pause; a hesitation, even - as if he's not entirely sure how to respond. But that's a very organic response, isn't it? Is the pause programmed, or natural? What's natural for a sentient collection of metal and plastic?]

I'm sorry.

[headinjuries]

[ It actually feels more like talking to a person than even Vision did, and he thought Vision was some pretty sweet science. ]

Eh, it's cool. I mean, it's useful, too.