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 Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 8:03 pm
"Park?"
Jack smiled at the girl in his arms as he crested the hill that overlooked the playground beneath. Regina still spoke very little and only in soft, hushed tones but it was a start. "You bet, princess," he replied. "I thought it'd be good to get out o' the house for a bit. Get some sun in those cheeks o' yours."
Regina's small hands moved up to touch her cheeks at his words and she turned round, worried eyes on him.
"Not that pale isn't pretty on you, princess," he reassured her quickly. "But fresh air is good for growin' kids."
She considered this for a moment and then, pointing, she indicated the swingset below them. "Please?"
"Right you are." With another huge smile, Jack crossed to the metal structure and settled his daughter into the sling. The chains groaned ever so slightly at her weight and he instinctively glanced up at the fastenings. Seeing that they would hold, he began a gentle pushing motion, keeping his hands on the sides to stabilize things. "Up we go!"
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 10:09 pm
When the cat's away, the mice will play... or so the saying goes. Tristan was out for the weekend, off to attend a conference on the promising field of Nuclear Subspace Superatomic Physics, something Tune didn't even pretend to understand. He could fix anything six ways to Sunday, but the actual science behind the technology was utterly beyond him. However, with Tristan out, it meant he had the next four days alone with Six.
There was never any doubt in his mind of the girl's humanity, but Tristan denied it vehemently. Any chance Tune got, he tried to treat Six as one would treat any normal child, with the sort of love and affection one would bestow upon their own offspring. The problem was, any chance Tristan got was spent undoing Tune's work by forcing Six through combat training and all manner of other borderline torture. He considered it a minor victory that Tristan had finally accepted the child's name, although she insisted it was a "Designation" or a "Call sign".
Tune took Six to the park, and he told himself that, for all the world, they might simply look like father and daughter. Gaia was full of all sorts of strangeness - a cyborg child of human parents could easily be overlooked. He set the girl down on the grass by the playground and motioned towards the climbing structure.
"Go play," he told her. Six blinked at him.
Finally she asked, "Play?" The word meant absolutely nothing to her.
Tune sighed and motioned to the playground. "Go climb," he said. "Go run around. Go laugh. Go have fun."
Six furrowed her brows. That sounded like fighting that Tristan made her do. "Fun?" she asked.
"Laugh. Smile," said Tune, and demonstrated. "Makes you feel good." How did she lack a concept of fun?
Finally understanding, Six nodded and set off towards the structure. She tried to play by herself for a bit, but ultimately curiosity got the better of her, and she went to investigate the creatures by the swinging chains. She'd never seen another person besides Tristan and Tune, and certainly not ever one her own size!
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Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:31 pm
As if sensing the other girl's approach, Regina lifted her head and looked over. Jack only turned when he witnessed the full-body freeze of his daughter, his hands catching the chains to still the movement of the swing. He, too, gaped at the near-perfect copy of his little girl. Regina squirmed in her swing until she could grab hold of his shirt front, claiming him.
Finally, Jack summoned a gentle smile. "Hey, there," he said quietly, just in case this one spooked as easily as his own, "what's your name?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:33 am
Six froze, uncertain of how to proceed. No one besides Tune and Tristan had ever, ever spoken to her before. In fact, until a few minutes ago she hadn't even known that anyone besides Tune and Tristan even existed!
Name- name- She thought, and remembered that she had one of those. "Six," she said, and felt a bit self-satisfied for having answered the question. She studied the man, who did not look anything like Tune, and then the little girl, who looked like how she remembered herself looking when Tune snuck her to look at a mirror.
She took a few steps closer, meaning to investigate, but then hesitated and looked back towards Tune.
Tune, being several meters away, had not noticed anything unusual and motioned for her to keep going. Six took a few more steps. She nodded astutely.
"My name's Six," she said.
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 8:56 pm
"Hi, Six. Are you here with your parents?" Jack looked around to check for adults in the vicinity.
Regina, meanwhile, peered down at the other girl. She kept hold of Jack's shirt but leaned forward more on the swing for a better look. She wrinkled her nose when she saw the number on Six's forehead and pointed. "Six," she said quietly.
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Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 11:16 pm
Six shook her head uncertainly and looked over her shoulder at Tune, who gave her another encouraging wave. She wasn't sure what parents were. "Here with Tune," she answered, thinking that might explain it. She didn't think Tune was a parents, though. Whatever that was.
She looked up, trying to see whatever it was the other girl was pointing at, but it was kind of hard to see what was on your own head. She reached up and felt the cool metal.
"Ohhhhhh," she cooed. She frowned at the other girl and leaned closer to investigate.
"Where's yours?" she asked, confused.
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Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:20 pm
Blinking a bit, Regina lifted a hand to feel her own forehead. Nothing was there; it was as smooth as ever. She frowned and pulled her hand away as she squinted again at Six. Something was clearly bothering her about the other little girl. Jack watched her warily. Finally, she shook her head and settled back into her swing. She moved her small feet a bit. "Don't have one," she answered. "No Regina number." She pointed again and repeated, "Six is six."
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:56 am
"One, two, three, four, five, six," said Six, who knew how to count. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Regina. "Regina no number?" she asked uncertainly. "Regina is zero?"
She eyed the other girl's exposed hands, and then held up one of her own. "Got metal fingers," she said. "LIke me."
Tune wasn't really sure what was going on, but it didn't look like playing. He started over, meaning to see what was going on. When he came closer, he too realized the remarkable similarity between the girls. He paused. The same model of android? Were there more of them?
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Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 8:51 pm
"Yes." Regina seemed not at all interested in dissecting their similarities even though her focus remained politely on the other little girl. She brought her hands back up to curl around the chains of her swing and cocked her head to one side. "Seven, eight, nine, ten?" she offered vaguely. Then her attention shifted abruptly to stare at the approaching man.
For his part, Jack ignored Tune and, one hand still resting comfortingly on his daughter's back, he crouched to be more on level with Six. "Would you like to ride the swing, too, sweetheart?" he asked. "I can push both o' you if you wanna try it."
(I'm sosososo sorry for the delay!)
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 5:40 am
Six approached the swing cautiously and gave it a nudge. Her eyes widened - she could make it move! She gave it another nudge. It moved more! Would she like to ride it? Yes, she thought she did! She looked up at the man, Regina's parents or whatever, and nodded eagerly.
"Yes!" she said, tugging the swing towards her.
Tune took that moment to approach. He nodded awkwardly to the man, and narrowed his eyes at the other little girl for a moment. Six wrapped her arms around his legs.
"Tune!" she exclaimed. "Gonna ride swing!" She let go of him and pointed, for Regina and the man's benefit. "Tune," she explained. "Tune takes care of Six."
"Hi," said Tune.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 8:03 pm
Jack smiled up at Tune and nodded. "Hiya," he answered mildly. "Mind if I put Six up on a swing?" Without waiting for approval, he neatly slipped his hands under the little girl's armpits and rose to his feet with a faint grunt of exertion; she was just as weighty as his own daughter. Carefully, he settled her into the swing next to Regina and showed her how to wrap her hands around the chains. "Hold on tight, sweetheart, so you don't fall off," he instructed.
Meanwhile, Regina studied Tune with a solemn amber-eyed gaze. Then she detached one hand from the chains supporting the swing and held it out to him. "Hello," she said quietly. "Mr. Tune."
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:03 am
Six's lips puckered into a little 'O' of surprise as she was lifted off the ground and placed on the swing. Hardly anyone ever touched her, and when Tristan did it was to punish her and when Tune did it was to repair her after said punishments.
She was good at following directions, though, and curled her little metal fingers tightly around the chain.
"Hello," replied Tune, unnerved by the girl's resemblance to his own ward. He noticed one key difference - the lack of a numeral.
"Did you order a combat android as well?" he asked the other man. Maybe this was a recurring thing and more people had suffered the same shipping mixup.
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:22 pm
Jack paused with his hands around the chains above Six's hands and he stared at Tune. Slowly, a dark, forbidding look closed over his handsome face, shutting down the open amusement and smiles. "No," he answered shortly. "And I still don't have one."
Looking up at her father with surprise (she had already learned what the emergence of his very-proper Oxford accent meant), Regina blinked. Then she turned her focus back to Tune. She kicked her feet a bit, meditatively. "Combat?" she repeated. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head as if trying to rid herself of a sudden, uncomfortable memory. She kicked again and craned to look over her shoulder. "Push?"
Eyes still on Tune, Jack put a hand to either girl's back and gently pushed them forward to start the swings going.
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 5:31 am
Six clung tighter to the chains holding the swing up, not very sure she liked where this moving thing was going. She looked plaintively to Tune, who looked away and made no attempt to step in and get her down. After all, swinging was part of a normal childhood and Six deserved to at least have interludes where she was allowed to act like a normal child.
"My boss," he explained, sensing the situation starting to flounder. "She ordered a combat android. And, we, er, got Six instead."
Six did not look up at the mention of her name, just clung even tighter to the chains. She did not seem to be able to feel them pressing into her palms.
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 8:59 pm
"Ah." Jack studied Tune for another moment and then removed his hand from Regina's back, stepping to stand more fully behind Six. Both of his hands settled on the chains, absently adjusting her fingers before shifting to balance his hold and push very gently again. "I see," he added mildly. Then he looked down at Six. "It's okay, sweetheart. I'll be careful. Just hold on tight there."
Regina frowned at her father's abandonment but then turned her attention to Tune. She looked almost expectant. When he didn't get the idea right away, she sighed. "Please?" she asked, indicating that she wanted his help in swinging.
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