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 Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 5:36 pm
"Ah, yes." Of course that was how official rules worked! Someone in an underground top-secret facility wrote some down and that was that. He followed Maia without hesitation as they began back toward her room. She certainly had perked up, hadn't she? He'd have to remember this.
"No? Are you the queen of selkies?" Dari asked, "Or is it a more complex political system?" He was kidding, of course. Selkies in one place didn't tend to know about any selkies in another and hierarchies were built amongst themselves.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 6:07 pm
Maia seemed to consider Dari's question for a long moment. Huh. Queen of the Selkies. She liked that! She beamed at him. "Of course I am," she said, "I'm the best of all selkies." It didn't matter that she hadn't known any selkie but her parents. And besides, the one Toby had shown her was an agent.
"You can be part of my court. And Toby too. As long as he doesn't wake us up too early."
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 6:12 pm
Dari laughed and nodded, then stepped ahead of Maia and struck a deep bow.
"Allow me to express our appreciation, Your Grace." Then he rejoined her, still smiling, and held the door open to return to the apartments. Yes, he had read a lot of human books, he was very up on their phraseology especially. Why not play along? She wasn't hurting anyone, and he was sure she knew she was only teasing.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 6:50 pm
Dari's actions earned a giggle from the selkie. She grinned at him as He opened the doors leading towards the apartments. This queen thing, it was a fun game. She followed him towards her apartment, taking his hand again. "Can we swim tomorrow too?" she asked. "Tomorrow night?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 8:00 pm
"Sure, if you like." It would be a good stress-reliever after classes, if she began them. He should still have the time to visit and swim with the allotted time for the assignment still running its course. If nothing else he could see her this early in the morning again.
Probably.
If they didn't have him working the night. He brought her back to her apartment and waited for her to open the door. He didn't have the key, at least not on him.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 8:24 pm
"I'd like that," Maia said. With all the scary things happening, with all the new things and people, it was nice to do something she'd always done. And with a friend. She offered Dari her key when they reached the door. "You're staying the night?" she asked him. She was hopeful. She didn't want to wake up and find him gone.
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 11:05 am
"I can if you'd like," Dari agreed, taking the key and opening Maia's door for her. He held it open until she was inside and offered a smile. Would she want him to lay down with her or was he free to do whatever? Either way he'd likely have to retrieve something from his apartment.
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 11:30 am
Maia led Dari into her room, climbing onto the bed. She nestled herself into the blankets. She indicated Dari should take the other side of the bed. "Schooling starts tomorrow," she said. "I'm scared. This whole place..." It was overwhelming . But Dari had stayed with her, kept her company and taken her swimming. That'd made it easier.
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 11:51 am
Ah, forget it. If he left his phone down the hall just this once he wasn't going to be in any trouble. Besides, Toby was bound to come check on him before their shift anyway. He was going to lose himself again because the thought of simply laying in one place awake for several more hours wasn't all that attractive. He climbed into bed beside the young woman and lay down.
"It can all be very overwhelming at first, but I promise you that it gets easier. The people who will be helping you are our friends and colleagues. We'll be sure they take good care of you."
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 12:22 pm
It got easier? Maia doubted that. He was right, it was overwhelming. "Your friends?" she asked. She didn't feel particularly comfortable working with people she didn't know. "Can't you teach me?" she asked. "Please?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 12:33 pm
"I'm sure they'll let me teach you some things, but there are specialists who are far more suited to the job. I have other work, unfortunately, but Toby or I won't just leave you." A client usually either wanted nothing to do with them or had developed a sort of desperate attachment. Maia seemed to be one of the latter.
"There are only good people here." A lie, in theory. Some of the workers' opinions were not necessarily what Maia would consider 'good,' but the usual teachers were all dedicated to their work.
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 1:39 pm
"How to read and write? You said you might be able to teach me that." Maia said hopefully. "I know," She agreed when he said he had other work. Saving other creatures who needed them more than she did now.
She made a face. She turned to him, shaking her head. "You told me people almost incinerated you when you were helpless. That doesn't sound like good people to me. You were eating and growing, that obviously meant you were alive." She frowned. "Those weren't good people."
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 1:47 pm
"Yes." Dari nodded and rolled to face Maia when she turned to him. He was fairly proficient at various forms of human language, but English seemed the most useful out here and even sometimes out there.
"Dissolving through man-made materials and getting larger isn't necessarily conducive to life. Since then, they've learned. It will never happen again."
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 2:19 pm
"Neither is floating around seemingly aimlessly or scooting around the ocean floor at a speed humans can't see because it's so slow. But those creatures are alive," Maia pointed out. "And if they made that kind of mistake once, I bet they'll make it again." She draped an arm around Dari. "I don't trust them. I didn't trust you two either, but I do now. I could've escaped. You weren't fast enough to catch me, even with your tail. But I didn't! Because I like the two of you. We're friends."
And she was sure she wouldn't like the other agents. At least, most of them.
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 2:39 pm
"But those things have cells and are carbon-based and can't live without water and have bodily processes I lack, and so on and so forth. Generally people don't scrape something off of a wall and find that it's living, especially when nothing else on the ship is." There were several downsides to being the lone survivor. They had just happened to scrape together enough of the right parts to revive him, or create him. Whatever they had done.
"These people have all been through the same classes and the same training we have. Trust is a big part of what we do." Plus they could have found her with only mild inconvenience if she had run, but that wasn't exactly an appropriate fact to share at this moment. "We are friends. Now try to get some sleep."
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