agentmanatee
Riaxh
Lord Zee
Lumiere
Slipspace was a unique endeavor for the Aylv who had formed a habit of bracing in spite of the seamless transition from a standstill to hurtling past stars and celestial bodies without the slightest jolt of acceleration. Kaite seemingly hadn't noticed in this instance, eyes looking up to meet Raymond's for the briefest moment as he felt the captain noting his demeanor. The gesture spurred him to look down, lingering in his official stance with little to do with himself than wait. While he ached for the words to chime in, the series of events replayed in his mind ad nauseum and the hollow expressions of his robotic associates conveyed, what Kaite felt to be, a cheap semblance of consideration that carried enough weight through a series of ones and zeros.
The chill from Jolenar's silent dismissal of the event and the AI 'Tango's homogenized announcement to be followed by a canned condolence twisted Kaite's heart, rending it in silence aside from the click of a fang sliding against a tensing jaw. In this, the call for the crew to be at ease was immediately followed by the small figure sidling past the captain and quickly mashing the button in the elevator. The was a moment of hesitation as the smooth systems registered the command, and doors slid shut, cutting off whispers from the Aylv who wiped off the eyepatch screen with a bit of their shirt.
"Fly; flee. Fail to fall. May no sky to dark...to dark...-"
----
Think of it this way, you don't have to put up with her names, anymore!
My name is Kaite...like a kite, whatever that is. Its more than a number and I love it, dearly.
You could have other names! That Jericho guy was your father, right? 'Sinclair' has a good ring to it, eh?
...Everyone calls me 'Kaite'. I think it is a good name. Fitting, at least. Anyway, its too late to change something like that.
I hear humans change their names all the time.
The idea of shirking heritage makes your argument less compelling, I would rather be a number than abandon a defining memory.
Mushrooms mushrooms mushrooms mushrooms...
Mushrooms mushrooms mushrooms mushrooms...
Did you add them?
Of course I did! Mushrooms are delicious and I will fight lies that claim otherwise.
Check again.
I am staring at them...
Does not hurt to be sure.
"Jeh...zehy could ouf been eaten...by a giant bird..." Kaite slowly and numbly spoke with vacant eyes as he stared into the glass lid of the crockpot of spaghetti sauce he was making in the kitchen. Chuckling once in a daze, the blip of a text message read off on his screen. It was a message from Tango that spelled out cautiously steady, accompanied by the soft voice from the chef's earbud.
- I hate to interject, but...who are you talking to, Kaite Zero-Seven-Three?
The words manifested on the eyepatch screen in the light-adjusted white text as it occurred to me that I was staring into the culinary device where I had thrown together a thick spaghetti sauce. I figured appetites may be weak, and the apparatus could keep the meal fresh all day if need be. From what the clock read, it had been about three hours...of what?
Kaite's eyes widened with drowsy, horrified shock as he searched for an answer to his and Tango's questions while dragging himself together from what felt like sleep. Though he had small episodes of zoning out for a few minutes at a time, never had he ever lost hours of time...standing...in the middle of something.
The dry, sauce-crusted spoon clattered to the ground, slipped from the fingers of the Aylv whose hands trembled before clapping to the sides of the crockpot. Muscles tensed and pressed into the exterior of the device as his lips parted and bared fangs in manic frustration. After a moment, he relaxed and imagined making a scene and wasting food he'd put considerable work and time into would be less than becoming. The motivation for the thought to dash the contents on the floor eluded him.
With a long sigh, Kaite shook his arms and made his way to the sink to splash his face a few times with cold water to hopefully wake himself up. Slipping his eyepatch and the control glove back on, he stared down the question for a moment before reaching out to enlarge the keyboard icon.
- Myself. There is no one else here.
- Some of the staff are still awake if you seek conversation, as well as myself.
- Insightful, I will keep that in mind.
Murmuring softly as he typed, Kaite concluded the engagement he intended on keeping brief as he exited the kitchen and continued down the hall. Having already excused what happened as dozing off, he felt the need for a walk but considered it more of being 'on patrol'. It was a funny notion since he didn't expect anything out of the ordinary to be taking place on such a ship, however, it wasn't long before the click of the ship-wide broadcast cut the otherwise silence of the halls, heralding the captain's voice.
As inspiring as the speech was intended to be, Kaite couldn't help but be confused by a few points that Raymond had tried to make. There was nothing for him to 'go home' to, and his reason for fighting was a convoluted contract and a few signatures before money changed hands. Little more than property, it was heavily implied through the aylv's naive intuition that the captain's goals and reasons were expected to be his own. In this, The Monroe was his home and their business was his life. Sourly, Kaite figured it made the crew his family of sorts, even the automatons who he was unsure where he sat with.
So no, 'going home' wasn't an option or an expectation for the clone. He didn't belong in the world outside The Monroe which already had a place to sleep and people to co-rely on...minus one.
Kaite felt a cartwheel would help him feel better, and it admittedly did, though forgetting to take off the control glove left his HUD blurry with random letters and numbers as well as open a few windows. Closing the various cookbook entries and pictures of vaguely annoyed crewmembers, especially Tahillie who had a few extra after the aylv found it fun to bother them with the flash setting, he'd taken while figuring out the eyepatch, he took the glove off and folded it in a pocket before continuing his foolery. Light clicks of small hard-soled boots echoed faintly, mixing with the ambient whirr of machinery.
The dull chime of the elevator cut into the otherwise stillness of the bridge, doors opening as Kaite stepped out, still finger-combing his hair back into order. "Captain on deck..." he quietly chirped, looking around as he made his was over to the deactivated weapons terminal. With a few taps, he shifted over to on-board security cameras to monitor the halls and other general rooms of interest while leaving more intimate quarters out of the lineup. Sleep was a fickle mistress, and his exertion certainly hadn't helped as he soon found himself laying a cheek on folded arms that rested on a deactivated keyboard.
The chill from Jolenar's silent dismissal of the event and the AI 'Tango's homogenized announcement to be followed by a canned condolence twisted Kaite's heart, rending it in silence aside from the click of a fang sliding against a tensing jaw. In this, the call for the crew to be at ease was immediately followed by the small figure sidling past the captain and quickly mashing the button in the elevator. The was a moment of hesitation as the smooth systems registered the command, and doors slid shut, cutting off whispers from the Aylv who wiped off the eyepatch screen with a bit of their shirt.
"Fly; flee. Fail to fall. May no sky to dark...to dark...-"
----
Think of it this way, you don't have to put up with her names, anymore!
My name is Kaite...like a kite, whatever that is. Its more than a number and I love it, dearly.
You could have other names! That Jericho guy was your father, right? 'Sinclair' has a good ring to it, eh?
...Everyone calls me 'Kaite'. I think it is a good name. Fitting, at least. Anyway, its too late to change something like that.
I hear humans change their names all the time.
The idea of shirking heritage makes your argument less compelling, I would rather be a number than abandon a defining memory.
Mushrooms mushrooms mushrooms mushrooms...
Mushrooms mushrooms mushrooms mushrooms...
Did you add them?
Of course I did! Mushrooms are delicious and I will fight lies that claim otherwise.
Check again.
I am staring at them...
Does not hurt to be sure.
"Jeh...zehy could ouf been eaten...by a giant bird..." Kaite slowly and numbly spoke with vacant eyes as he stared into the glass lid of the crockpot of spaghetti sauce he was making in the kitchen. Chuckling once in a daze, the blip of a text message read off on his screen. It was a message from Tango that spelled out cautiously steady, accompanied by the soft voice from the chef's earbud.
- I hate to interject, but...who are you talking to, Kaite Zero-Seven-Three?
The words manifested on the eyepatch screen in the light-adjusted white text as it occurred to me that I was staring into the culinary device where I had thrown together a thick spaghetti sauce. I figured appetites may be weak, and the apparatus could keep the meal fresh all day if need be. From what the clock read, it had been about three hours...of what?
Kaite's eyes widened with drowsy, horrified shock as he searched for an answer to his and Tango's questions while dragging himself together from what felt like sleep. Though he had small episodes of zoning out for a few minutes at a time, never had he ever lost hours of time...standing...in the middle of something.
The dry, sauce-crusted spoon clattered to the ground, slipped from the fingers of the Aylv whose hands trembled before clapping to the sides of the crockpot. Muscles tensed and pressed into the exterior of the device as his lips parted and bared fangs in manic frustration. After a moment, he relaxed and imagined making a scene and wasting food he'd put considerable work and time into would be less than becoming. The motivation for the thought to dash the contents on the floor eluded him.
With a long sigh, Kaite shook his arms and made his way to the sink to splash his face a few times with cold water to hopefully wake himself up. Slipping his eyepatch and the control glove back on, he stared down the question for a moment before reaching out to enlarge the keyboard icon.
- Myself. There is no one else here.
- Some of the staff are still awake if you seek conversation, as well as myself.
- Insightful, I will keep that in mind.
Murmuring softly as he typed, Kaite concluded the engagement he intended on keeping brief as he exited the kitchen and continued down the hall. Having already excused what happened as dozing off, he felt the need for a walk but considered it more of being 'on patrol'. It was a funny notion since he didn't expect anything out of the ordinary to be taking place on such a ship, however, it wasn't long before the click of the ship-wide broadcast cut the otherwise silence of the halls, heralding the captain's voice.
As inspiring as the speech was intended to be, Kaite couldn't help but be confused by a few points that Raymond had tried to make. There was nothing for him to 'go home' to, and his reason for fighting was a convoluted contract and a few signatures before money changed hands. Little more than property, it was heavily implied through the aylv's naive intuition that the captain's goals and reasons were expected to be his own. In this, The Monroe was his home and their business was his life. Sourly, Kaite figured it made the crew his family of sorts, even the automatons who he was unsure where he sat with.
So no, 'going home' wasn't an option or an expectation for the clone. He didn't belong in the world outside The Monroe which already had a place to sleep and people to co-rely on...minus one.
Kaite felt a cartwheel would help him feel better, and it admittedly did, though forgetting to take off the control glove left his HUD blurry with random letters and numbers as well as open a few windows. Closing the various cookbook entries and pictures of vaguely annoyed crewmembers, especially Tahillie who had a few extra after the aylv found it fun to bother them with the flash setting, he'd taken while figuring out the eyepatch, he took the glove off and folded it in a pocket before continuing his foolery. Light clicks of small hard-soled boots echoed faintly, mixing with the ambient whirr of machinery.
The dull chime of the elevator cut into the otherwise stillness of the bridge, doors opening as Kaite stepped out, still finger-combing his hair back into order. "Captain on deck..." he quietly chirped, looking around as he made his was over to the deactivated weapons terminal. With a few taps, he shifted over to on-board security cameras to monitor the halls and other general rooms of interest while leaving more intimate quarters out of the lineup. Sleep was a fickle mistress, and his exertion certainly hadn't helped as he soon found himself laying a cheek on folded arms that rested on a deactivated keyboard.