Futuristic Transsolar

[Marianne]

Saundary bit the last two pieces of her sandwich before she repositioned herself, so that her left side was leaning more towards Saami. She had went from thinking about the things that he had done, to simply admiring the plants. There were times, where she would drift to other thoughts, such as expedition, but they were nothing compared to the million and one questions she had for Saami, yet she was too comfortable to ask. Eventually she did ask, "May I lean on you?" Glancing to her left, and upward, her leafy green eyes would stare at him expectantly for an answer. He didn't have to say yes, and she'd prefer it if he didn't say so just because he felt obligated to. And she didn't want to control Saami in any way, she wanted him to see a friend in her, the same way she intended to do regarding himself. Right?

Deciding not to dwell on that, Sandy thought up things she had realized about Saami. The one thing Sandy came to definitely realize, is that Saami didn't really talk so much, she often asked the questions. And she had no problem with that, but it also made a small part of her feel empty inside; not many people are interested in her, something she often thought had made her vain. But, that didn't matter anymore, because her attention was immediately replaced when Sandy's light green eyes met Saami's just to catch his eyes drawn to her. Her brows shot upward, all the while she gasped and asked quietly, "Do I have something on my face?" Which was a serious question, for Sandy tends to have a lot of crumbs on her face when she eats. Her mother often scolded Sandy, for the poor girl often had a hard time keeping her visage clean. Due to this, the young woman brought her small hands up to her face and patted softly, trying to search for the food without a napkin.​

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami quietly shook his head, yet still took a cloth handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. He was ever so slightly dumbfounded at her question to lean on him, though not in a dismissive way; he simply needed more time himself to figure out if he truly wanted it.


"No Miss Saundary, your face is fine." Slowly he felt an ever so slight blush glow on his face as he realised he somehow had misspoken. He had meant to say 'clean' not fine, but now he couldn't correct himself without blatantly pointing out his mistake in the first place. She wouldn't notice right? It was hardly a large mistake to begin with, a simple slip in words as he had been too focused on her request.


Would it be okay to accept? Was that something people did, once they were friends? Deep inside he liked the thought, but he also knew that he shouldn't lead her on. Still... just as friends would be okay right?


"If you truly want I suppose you can lean on me Miss Saundary." The answer seemed out of place and utterly delayed, as the topic of the conversation had already switched. Yet it would feel wrong to leave her question unaddressed, so the least he could do was clear up her doubts.

 

[Marianne]

Smiling kindly, Saundary took the handkerchief from Saami's extended hand and wiped her face gently; smiling for two reasons after wards. For, the young lady paused as she looked at Saami in mid wipe, catching his slip, although it wasn't a big deal, as she said, "Thank you, and only if you would allow me to lean on you, Saami." In all honesty, Saundary didn't want to impose, and she had already used so much of his time, and she some how felt as though she was invading. Only just now acknowledging this, the dame put the handkerchief down, folding it slowly - patiently, while waiting for his response to her answer. Quickly injecting, in a faint whisper, "I wouldn't want to impose on you, Saami."

​

 

[Dragongal]

Adira finished up with the scientists and moved on to navigation.The first thing she noticed as she stepped on the bridge was that Saami wasn't there. Of course he was allowed to enjoy the day off too, but she had expected him to be working. Concerned about what had happened earlier, Adira pulled out her communicator and typed off a quick message. "Is everything okay? Marshall's been dealt with.... Just checking in." She didn't want to make it seem like she wanted him back on work, but she was a bit concerned. To burn time, she ran a few diagnostics on the navigation systems. Once she was satisfied, she walked off, typing a message to Woods: "Meet me in my room in 15 min."


She she looked down at her communicator, she had a slight smile on her face, which faded the moment she bumped into someone. She staggered back, looking at the woman in surprise. "I'm so sorry, that was entirely my bad." She'd seen her before... an engineer, yes?


@Elvengarda @BookWyrm

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami

​

Slightly surprised he looked at Saundary as she whispered her worries. How could she ever think she was the one imposing?


"Of course not Miss Saundary, if anything, as your boss, I should be worried about misusing my position of authority instead." That and several other things. Yet he was sure of one thing, that she in all her innocence had little to fear about imposing on him. "I am perfectly capable of drawing lines Miss Saundary. I will tell you if you happen to accidentally cross a line, but if you genuinely want to lean on me as a gesture of kindness then I am fine with that." Perhaps a bit more than fine, as somewhere he did know that the idea appealed to him slightly too much. At this rate he was looking more for excuses to allow her to push that line just a little bit further. It wasn't too bad, right? What harm could a little bit compassion in a secluded area truly do?


A mere six seconds later he got a message from captain Adira asking about him. It seemed more like she was worried than that she wanted him to return to work, but he could still feel his heart fall ever so slightly. Barely enough to escape a wonderful intoxication called Saundary. Of course he still had tasks, responsibilities, ones he couldn't forget, but had been moved out of focus nonetheless.


"I will have to return to my duties this afternoon Miss Saundary, you surely understand."

Nadanya

​

She had been carrying a large stack of boxes filled with carefully bubblewrapped gears and coils she had planned on... liberating into her care. Had been. That was until the small not-so-lady lady bounced back against someone who clearly hadn't been paying attention either. Though of course it wasn't her own fault.


Immediately she sprung into defensive mode, not caring much about the mess of parts. Instead more about releasing her frustration, which went accompanied with electric sparks.


"Are you blind?! Or just a dumb, ignorant bi,-" Halfway through her eyes grew wide as she realised whom she had just been about to chew out. "ehm, a biiii-autiful lady. Morning Captain Rik. Nice weather out isn't it? Nadanya, Commander of engineering." While talking she tried to blindly shove the mess of stolen parts behind her using her foot. Hadn't she just thrown... ehm, Manny... Marle... Marshall! in the good old gaol? Rather she'd seen roboboy gone. "Wassa bit of a pickle this morning I heard. You sure you should let the autopilot run wild? People sayin' he's faulty, and that serial code of his... no good." With eyes wide she shook her head, as if she had seen him get possessed by a demon herself. "0 42 13. Nothing. Death. Bad luck. We'll be doomed for!"

 

[Dragongal]

Adira looked at Nadanya with a raised eyebrow and slight smile as the mechanic started yelling. Saami's number was bad luck? Stupid superstitions. "I've been blind before, I promise you I'm not now." Bad medicine combination after a mission on planet gone wrong. It had only needed time to wear off though. Two weeks' worth of time. "Saami is an INANES, not an autopilot. The Lullaby does have an autopilot system, but I prefer to have someone running it. And the people who say he is faulty have just been unable to read his records. He is an INANES, but he was made quite a bit differently, so what they consider 'faults' are actually normal." That was a good way to cover for Saami. As much as Adira hated lying, she didn't feel bad about protecting Saami... especially from Nadanya.

 

[InsanEleven]

Having lost her fire a bit and being shut up by the captain Nadanya took a mental step back, not sure what to say now that her accusations had been nullified. "You sure he isn't faulty? I mean those blinky dead eyes..." To put the visuals to the words she put her hands in front of her eyes, opening and closing them while adding sparks to make it light up. "Those damn things are never innocent though. They get to kill before they're five years operating. There are rumours, that they use them for assassinations. Sniping." She made a gun with her fingers and put it against the side of her head. "Pew." After pretend-blowing her brains out she went to pick up her parts. "Watch your back Cap, its always the ones you trust."

 

[Dragongal]

Adira chuckled quietly as she started to walk away. "I'm sure Saami has killed people before - he is one of the best pilots, you don't get that without killing someone. Then again, are you and I innocent of killing anyone, ever?" Over her shulder she added, "I have been stabbed in the back before. Literally. I suggest, however, you pay more attention to what is in front of you, so you don't drop your machinery parts again. Not looking ahead is how you break what you have." Truly, if Nadanya continued watching her back and criticizing everyone else, she'd mess up eventually - and as head engineer, that could cause major trouble. Adira walked down the halls and resent her message to Vince.

 

[Spazzycat101]

From Lydia's room there came a gleeful, excited shout followed immediately by the silence of focus. Only one other time between the beginning of her meddling and now had she so much as dared to venture out into the hallways of the ship, with the goal of fetching the samples of flora she had gathered on the trip to the surface of Odian's moon. It crossed Lydia's mind that technically, were today not branded a free day, it was the samples of greens she was to be studying in the first place. Still, she decided that she would take only a fraction of the samples for her unauthorized project, if only to more easily keep it confined to her room. She wanted no part of this escaping into the laboratory and lighting the fuse of gossip.


She quickly resettled herself among the scattered-looking collection of supplies that included but was not limited to a microscope equipped with several glass slides, several chemicals with which to irritate the samples of plant, and trays upon which to do so. The whole place looked like an organized mess.


Lydia was biting her lip over a plant that reminded her of severed octopus tentacles in the way that, even when trimmed, they didn't seem to like being handled. It was then that she heard the sound of footsteps down the hallways nearby, and paused to hold her breath. Perhaps she was quickly becoming a small bit paranoid about breaking the rules in such a fashion? Probably. She wasn't much for straying off the course of such guidelines, but then again it wasn't often she found herself in such a place to do something about the death of a crewmember or some such thing.


Also, it irritated Lydia how the Captain was essentially keeping her from doing her job. She was a biologist, and those spiders, they were extraterrestrial life! Even if most of the specimens would be ravaged by the disease she would throw at them, she could still study their reaction to it. And, if it didn't destroy their corpses too much, she could probably still manage to study them. Sadly, it wouldn't be possible to research them as extensively as if they were alive, but something would be far better than absolutely nothing...

 

[Marianne]

Saundary looked up at Saami, her eyes widening somewhat in confusion before what he had said clicked, her head nodding in confirmation. "I understand, i'll just enjoy this," she said, already leaning on the male as her eyes stared outside their one way window in thought. "What if life only worked in one direction; we couldn't go any other way, but one. Thus, chances - risks, everything is exactly like this window. No telling what is inside, only what is outside." Sandy looked up, her brows furrowed in the darkness as she tried to find the faint color of his snowy white hair, her hands having a mind of their own once again as she ran her hand through the strands of hair surrounding his ear. "You're really pretty, Saami," and she laughed as she said so - what she was saying wounding up sounding like a fact that nobody could deny. "Everything about you is pretty," she continued, smiling fondly still. From the restrictions of him being a robot, to the restrictions of him being a human. The restrictions from the feelings he so honestly feels when he encounters those who do not truly understand. With a slight frown puckering on her petite petals, she removed her hand and leaned more onto her boss, Saami, with her lazy gaze wounding back to the piece of paper she had written on for him.

Beautiful, she thought. The beauty of all things great, and terrible, in the world the most beautiful pieces of objection she has ever seen - and wanted to see.​

 

[InsanEleven]

Quietly Saami sat and listened to her words, not exactly sure what to do with them as he had never been posed neither a question like that nor had he been called pretty so blatantly. So instead he did the only thing he could think of; analyse her words mechanically.


"I truly hope life is not a one way window Miss Saundary. Imagine all the things you missed on the inside. If you can't look inside of me, how do you know if I really am pretty? Surely it'd be like a forever locked wooden lacquer box; made with care, to be hold dear... but without any purpose. Eventually you'd just forget about it, like you'd forget this room if you walked by every day and never cared to look inside." And if she knew what his purpose had been, all the things he hid behind his one sided mirror, she would never have called him pretty. But for now he let her hands dart through his hair, knowing that one day she wouldn't want to anymore.

 

[Marianne]

Sandy giggled the moment she heard, ". . . Imagine all the things you missed on the inside. .," she allowed him to continue though. "If you can't look inside of me, how do you know if I really am pretty? Surely it'd be like a forever locked wooden lacquer box; made with care, to be hold dear. . . but without any purpose. Eventually you'd just forget about it, like you'd forget this room if you walked by every day and never cared to look inside." So what about the things she could miss on the inside? What if one has seen all, and nothing can be any better than just blatant ignorance? Well, she thought. She took that back, but it never changed how she felt about life - life was like a one way window.


With a mocking nod of her head, and cheeky smile, Sandy spoke:

"True, however, I believe I would have still cared enough to look inside, for I like looking for rooms that. . give meaning to the atmosphere, and to me. I wouldn't want to neglect any other room, like this, on this ship." She looked up at Saami with her brow cocked upward as she said, "Now, regarding you, you're not supposed to understand why, or how, you are pretty. You are only allowed to know that I believe that you are pretty in my eyes. A fact for me, a clearly spoken opinion to others - and to myself, because I know it's an opinion," and before he thought she was finished, she sat up and looked him dead in the eyes, leaning close, but not to close as she said, "I also might just forget this room, yes, but it still holds dear to me because I found this room with Saami, and Saami would have never found it without me."
​

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami quietly stared at Saundary as she got closer, not even managing to get in a word. Yes, she already knew precisely what she wanted, and what she wanted him to be. And for a moment he felt nearly sad as she told him he wasn't allowed to understand, the why, the how, the everything.


Instead he shook his head and looked back at her, doing something he had only ever dreamt off; denying her. Denying a person who told him what to be.


"No Miss Saundary, you are mistaken. Like all the other people who ever told me that I had to be someone. I'm not a doll you can paint pretty, whose strings you can tug. Not anymore." Never again. Yes he had no choice in his job, yes he was property, whether it be he's or the military's.


"I am Saami. I have a name and a face, just like every other human. So hold this room dear, because we found it together." His words were defensive, spoken quick, but not with agitation at her. Instead they contained an odd kind of pride and excitement. Finally haven spoken the words, even if they maybe were too late and aimed at the wrong person. He had found more than a mere room, and she was the only one he could tell.

 

[Marianne]

Although his words had offended her some, she was still very astonished and very content. "You're right, you're not a doll, and i'm sorry." Sitting back, she decided to sit in front of Saami with her back leaning against the window, smiling as she tucked a neon colored, blue strand of hair behind her ear. The softly, however bright, colors of the flora behind her dancing on the carpet as she placed her hands on top of them and attempted to trace them absentmindedly. "Indeed. We found this room together," she whispered just before quickly asking, "Saami, what was the one thing that you really want to do? Out of everything in the entire world?" By now, Saundary was really comfortable, not wanting to leave or go anywhere else, despite the fact that Saami had to leave soon. Which was disappointing, yet expected since he is the Co-Captain, so his responsibilities do vary. Admiring the way the room was designed, she kind of wanted to change the way her room had looked pronto, and she had the right kind of equipment for that. At least, she had believed that she did, she would have to double check.

Another memory, she thought. Yesterday's memory was a dream, a moment. Today's memory was. . . comfort. A comfortable moment, something way too real to even be considered a dream, no matter how small it was.​

 

[Dragongal]

Adira got into her room and quickly set to trying to puzzle out what to expect from Vince. Wasn't it customary to dress nicely - almost formally - when courting? Or no, was that the Canarans? Or the Talphanians? No, wait, it had to be humans... right? Adira growled quietly to herself as she paced her room. Why am I doing this, it's so unprofessional, what is wrong with me? Every time I try to tell him to keep away my voice stops working and I say something entirely different! Dammit! If he loses this job... didn't he say he'd be killed? And that would be my fault. I don't want Vince getting hurt. I've spent years clawing to get to this position, I might lose it, but... I can't bring myself to push him away. I was so comfortable last night, and he was too. I guess we should just see how this goes... yeah, that'll do.... DAMMIT. Why am I comfortable with the idea of just "seeing how it goes" in things as important as dealing with ambassadors and war threats, but I'm not at the thought of dealing with him? She almost wondered if it would just be better to bury her head in work again and pretend nothing special had ever happened. She was scared of this thing she didn't understand, scared he would get hurt, scared that they would both lose everything. But didn't everything precious come with a risk...? If she didn't try this, how could she know what she was missing? And deep down, she knew she didn't want to stay away from Vince, for some reason she didn't fully understand.


Finally she sighed. Let's just... see how this goes. No restrictions, just... just have some fun, I guess. Now back to the question - what did humans normally do? Or was this even considered courting? Since she was still the Captain, she might be called upon at any time, so it would be best to keep her "uniform" on - her jacket and boots, with her gloves and helmet on her belt. Shouldn't she wear something nice as a sign of respect? Respect for his asking her for time? Or was that even what this was? Adira paused her pacing to lean against the wall. Compromise, that was the key to everything. So... he had complimented her hair earlier; she could change that without changing her uniform. So she left her clothing the same and left her hair down, but pinned it back with simple silver pins with pearls on the end - a gift from a crewman, supposed to be for officer's balls and galas. It would do well for this.

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami looked at Saundary's hands as they went over the carpet, and after the sudden outburst before his form had become ever so slightly relaxed. What was it he wanted most of all? Usually he would have said something he needed, very shallow things; clothes or food or even just a faster computer. But that wasn't the right answer, and as he wondered he slowly let his fingers crawl towards hers. To do so he had to lean forward, and now it was his turn to stare at her.


"To become a good person." He had wanted to say freedom, but realised he couldn't truly understand what that would contain. He had been born as an item, spend his entire life being told he was a thing. Manufactured, produced, forced. Freedom was something he couldn't understand, and he couldn't truly want it either.


The moment his fingers touched hers he was on her height, looking her straight in the eyes.


"I want to be a hero, a real one. Not a soldier held to be a hero, or someone made out to be one. Just a really good person." It might've sounded childish, ridiculous even, if it weren't for him looking and speaking on a dead serious tone. He knew it was impossible, that he had no way to be one, but he wanted to be. He wanted to save lives, instead of ending them...

 

[Marianne]

Saundary clung to every word he said, not really realizing how his head, nor his hands, were getting closer to hers as he admitted that he wanted to become a good person. Her leafy eyes watching his intently, obviously signifying that she was listening to him. "To become a good person." She heard him say this, and it had her wondering: what made him a bad person? He must've done bad things, but imagining it was kind of hard to process, if not for the incident with Marshall from before.

She wasn't really aware that Saami was close until she felt his fingers touch hers, and he wasn't so close, but the unexpected touch surprised her to the point where she was glad that the shadow hid her flustered reaction. "I want to be a hero, a real one. Not a soldier held to be a hero, or someone made out to be one, just a really good person." Never truly realizing that she was holding her breath, until she spoke, did Sandy manage to say quietly, "Who's to say that you aren't one already?" She paused, staring into his turquoise eyes before continuing in a hushed voice, "To want to think that could make you a good person. Whether it be the mechanics that has you wanting to defend all persons on board this ship, or the human side of you, the thought still counts. You're still a good person, Saami, and although you might disagree. . . I think otherwise." She meant it too, because he was. He probably hadn't realized it yet, but whether he was designed to want to do those things or not doesn't matter. He was embracing what he wanted to do, and wanted it to be his own want, not something made into him; thus, Saami changed it and made it his own personal goal. His words now having a deeper meaning to them than what they once held.​

 

[BookWyrm]

Vince had received Adira's message both times it was sent. The first message had caught Vince in the middle of dealing with the sedative issue. When he saw the communicator flash with Adira's name on it he had a slight panic, until he saw that he was to come to her room. He sighed, perhaps a little too heavily, before looking over his attire. He was wearing his grey tee shirt and the standard issue charcoal cargo pants that were issued to the security team for use on board the Lullaby. Of course his duty belt was set and ready in case he needed it, so in honest truth he didn't feel the need to change into anything. He looked casual enough to...was this actually considered a date? Courting maybe? Oh what the hell. His clothes were comfortable and functional if the need arose. He finally typed up a reply before walking out his door. On my way now.





If Vince thought that the butterflies would leave the closer he got to her room, well....he had lied to himself. By the time he finally stopped outside her door he had to take a few moments to breath deeply and compose himself before finally knocking.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira had put the last of the four hairpins in when Vince knocked. She jumped a little and took a few slow breaths to compose herself. You're a Captain, you've fought battles, negotiated for your life and your crews' lives, why are you scared?! She walked over, opened the door, and gave Vince a smile. "So, did you have any specific plans?" She truly hoped he did; she had no clue what to do. Though, they could go to the kitchens, or the holochamber, or something....

 

[BookWyrm]

Vince smiled when Adira opened the door, though he quickly found himself scratching at the back of his neck as he chewed on his lip. "If we are being honest...I...well..my first inclination was to take you to dinner, but I remembered we are aboard a ship. Not many choices here. Second thought was the holochamber, but I didn't think training was an appropriate activity for this kind of evening together." Vince looked at Adira with the most honest smile and shrug he could muster. "For all of my experience and training, I was never prepared for a date."

 

[Dragongal]

Adira chuckled a bit. "I never was either. How about... well, there's a small arboretum onboard. Then we could go to the kitchen in the down hours, I could make us something, I doubt anyone would be around." Shame there wasn't a program for the holochamber that was... fun. Leisurely. Maybe she could speak to Saami about that? That was for later, though. Adira thought her suggestion was pretty good, the only catch was that if they were seen together, they couldn't show that they were... together. Not unless they wanted to take those tests, and possibly get into a lot of trouble. Which was sad, because she had kind of wanted to hold his hand.

 

[BookWyrm]

Vince chewed on his tongue for a couple of moments. "Maybe we should go to the arboretum a different time? I like the kitchen idea, but I'd rather not risk..well...prying eyes and all." Vince stepped into Adira's room, mostly to get out of the open and let the door provide some well received privacy. "Your hair looks nice.", he said after a moment. He had noticed the change immediately upon her opening the door, but he thought he'd wait until the right moment. He smiled as he reached out and brushed his fingers against Adira's hand before taking it gently. The thought that Adira was holding a hand that hadn't been there when Vince was born managed to weird him out enough to make him look away for a few moments. "Does it bother you that my arm is synthetic?"

 

[InsanEleven]

When he heard Saundary speak, Saami just sort of kept moving forward; and by the end of the sentence he was hugging her. His head landed in the hollow of her neck, and there still a reasonable distance between them, it being more of a loose holding than anything.


She still believed it, and though it wasn't true in his head, he couldn't help but feel happy that she did. Just for the moment, he wanted her to believe and then maybe he could try pretend it was right. Until she would find out, and this little moment of happiness would be nullified.


"You wouldn't say that if you knew... but..." Slowly he shook his head still on her shoulder, his hands holding her loosely, yet with no desire of ever letting go. "I can't tell you. Even if it is just you, and just a moment, I don't want it to be over. Not yet." He'd be a monster and a freak again, a weapon created in a lab. A test tube killer. But with her, and in this tiny room, he had felt human, maybe pretend and maybe falsely. Yet he rather was a fake human than a real machine.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira blushed a bit when Vince complimented her, glad he had noticed. It was worth the extra bit of time. The feeling of his taking her hand was wonderful too... oddly safe for such a small gesture. She had even forgotten that his arm was synthetic. She looked up at him in surprise when he asked about his arm. "Not at all. Does it bother you, though?" If it did, she had to pity him. She could understand why he would be upset or embarrassed by it, but he had to live with it.

 

[BookWyrm]

Do I tell her the truth? Vince looked off at nothing in particular for a few moments before sighing. Yes. "I don't know why it does. Well, I guess I do know, but I don't understand why. It is better than even the top of the line synths in the civilian market. Maybe because it feels real? It feels like you are holding my hand right now. I feel my thumb rubbing against you. And your skin, so soft and smooth. But....it's not my arm."