Welcome to Gaia! ::

”Do I still believe it works? ‘Course I do, and you just proved it!”

Buffel flashed a cheekier smile now. Placing his kid bot beside him, he stood up, feeling he was about to get shed of this competition once and for all now. The kid bot roused next to him as he spoke, watching intently.

”Hate to break it to ya, but just look at yerself, Pol! The little ankle-biter was crying and you read it a story! It pulled yer necklace and ya papped it away! If that ain’t lusus-on-troll behavior I can’t begin to reckon what is.”

Buffel walked over her sleeping bot and knelt next to it, papping its expressionless face gently. His bot began walking as well, but not in the same direction. It waddled off towards some fancy drapery that hung on the walls, partitioning some of the bookcases and adding some flair of decor on the empty spaces where they didn’t reside. Buffel picked up the dormant kidbot gently and brought it back to Polair.

”And what’s more, ya seemed to like it! I don’t reckon it’s more than once in a green moon that I’ve seen many a genuine smile cross yer mug, let alone that warm grin you had plastered on for that whole final chapter!”, he teased. Gently he elbowed her with each barb, careful that he weren’t gettin’ her back up too much with his good-natured ribbing.

Elsewhere, his bot had taken a gentle hold of the drapes. Seemingly feeling them in its claw, its grip tighten and its eyes turned red. It emmited a deep, dramatic laugh as it pulled vigorously. Hearing this, Buffel whirled around in shock. Upon setting eyes upon the beast, he pushed Polair’s sleeping robot into her arms and ran after his charge.

”Dag-nabbit ya little guttersnipe, get away from those! They’re very delicate and they aren’t ours!”

Buffel grasped for the meddlesome metal miscreant, fighting hard to snuff it movement so he could reach it’s arms. It thrashed and wailed a hollow, chittering wail against its aluminum windpipes. Buffel took more than one kick to the gullet as he attempted to accomplish his goal.

”Plus, no object could be- ugh! -this much of a nuisance! - BLEH! - Am I r-right?!"

With one arm ‘round the belly of the little trouble maker, he papped the robo-child’s cold claws off the drapes, quickly throwing his sarape over his head and handing a corner to it as it geared up for a crying fit. It considered all of this, before grasping the corner tightly and letting out metallic giggles as it tugged happily. He held onto the larger sum of it and restrained the child from gallivanting off with it.

"Phew, there we are. Finally simmering I think."

Picking up the android, he coddled it as it made delighted chirps of approval. He brought it over to the highblood and let her observe its newly docile state. He matched her eyes as he rocked it gently.

"And fer what it’s worth, I think you’d make a good one. A uh, lusus, I mean…er, given the right circumstances, o’ course."

Buffel delighted in seeing her laugh. He brought his robo-child over to her and slipped the metal miscreant over to sleep mode, content with enough theatrics for one night. Hearing the compliment, he found himself momentarily balled up, losing speech for a tick as he tried to respond.

”Oh, really? Gee I don’t- uh, I mean thank ya kindly for sayin’ so, but I don’t know about all that. I’ve been goin’ on gut-feelin’ so far, and it’s been working okay, but I think as a real lusus I’d probably need to come at things with a bit more, uh, forethought an’ such.”

Tussling his hair, he stared down at her motionless robot. After the tantrum it kicked up before, it seemed almost peaceful now. He never would've guessed what these things were capable of on their own.

Guess trolls are that way as we grow up too..., he pondered.

Breaking from his stare, he realized he'd been staring and decided it was time to let sleeping bots lie. Kneeling down before her, he steadily propped his bot to sit snuggly next to hers and conceded, ”Heh. Y’know, maybe we both could do well to learn from each other some. If we put our heads together we might actually make out one half-decent lusus!”

Standing up, his face now had his usual grin plastered on it once again. He stretched wide and let out a long, yawn, finally releasing all the tension he’d gotten up his back dealing with the rascals.

”Welp, now that the little ones are out for the night, what say you to kickin’ up a tour of your fine abode, Miss Rision?”

Buffel gave a soft chuckle as Polair rattled off the various warnings she had about her hive. All this attention to making sure he wasn’t frightened or hurt, and she couldn’t see herself being a great lusus? It weren’t adding up to him, but then again he couldn’t picture himself as a particularly reliable one either. Maybe we’ll get it when we’re older, he mused. His ears had come back in to the tail-end of her warnings, just in time to hear, "Oh, and do try to keep up with me. I tend to be overwhelmingly quick and precise when I'm explaining."

This statement of the obvious was enough to make him outright guffaw.

”I do know that much by now Pol! Ya don’t hafta give me the whole hootenanny about it, just tell me what I’m lookin’ at!”

He playfully elbowed her and they chattered into the distance as the two kid-bots sat soundly in sleep mode. Through the heat of each other’s vents, it seemed that night as if they might be as much a bastion of warmth as their lusii were to each other.