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 Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 9:39 am
...Flights of Fancy...
She should have been asleep an hour ago, but she couldn't get her brain to shut up about the 'right' image she needed to project tomorrow for the air force. And James. Her brain was mostly concerned with James. She was concerned about not being arrested or shot.
Perri sighed, glaring at her woredrobe. It was good for projecting plenty of images, but young single mother who still manages to be cute and competent was a little overspecific. It was mostly shades of business and geek, the two never meeting and always glaring at each other suspiciously. If she hadn't said homeschooling the casual end of her suits probably would have worked, but now it was just silly. From what she'd said she clearly worked from home.
Somehow, somehow, she needed to cobble together something believeable. Where were her nice jeans? Moms wore jeans, right? Of course they did. And they washed things a lot, so the clean was good too. Blue wasn't at the age that she was throwing food so it could be maintained...
Perri took a moment to laugh at herself. Her 'kid' didn't even call her mom, and here she was trying to shoehorn herself into the part. Sheesh. Just think of it as a regular con, she told herself. You have a part to play, and costuming makes it believable. Yes.
She'd have to remind Blue to call her 'mommy' or something while they were at the base. And she'd have to remember to respond to it.
Jeans, nice sweater -Turtleneck?-, light jacket... brown leather. Cream sweater. Yes. Shoes? Ankle boots that match the jacket. Low, wide heel of course because they have to look comfortable...
She frowned at the outfit in front of her, nodding her head. It would work. It was more of a professional than the more classic sporty mom, but she hated trackwear with a passion so the second wasn't happening. She'd explained she owned her own business, and had met with a client first...
Perri put the clothes aside, tidied up, and did her best to put the coming day out of her head. She got ready for bed and tucked herself in, the whole time trying not to think.
Tomorrow was going to be a disaster.
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Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2006 4:41 am
...Into the Blue...
"Perri! Drive faster!" Blue cajoled, ready to be there already.
"If I speed too much and get pulled over by a cop we're never going to make it." Perri hissed back, reaching a hand over to tug on the girl's shirt. "Sit still. We're almost there."
The child settled obediently into her seat, craning her neck to see out the window. "Can I get into a plane?"
"Probably not a working one, but they may have a dismantled one you try out."
Blue pouted. "Awww. If it's pulled apart I can't try driving it!"
"I think that's the idea." Perri said to herself, turning onto the road that would take them to the air base.
"I wasn't going to drive it with my hands." the girl said haughtily. "That would be silly since I'm not trained."
"You want to dive it with your feet?"
"With my mind."
Her caretaker frowned, parking her car and turning to stare at her. "Come again?"
"At least I think I can drive, uh, pilot, with my mind. I've got some wireless plugs back here..." Blue reached to the back of her head, feeling under her hair.
Perri grabbed her hand, shaking her head and unbuckling them both. "Don't. We'll talk to Doctor Brune about it later. Right now, we are a normal mother and daughter pair with nothing the government would want to study about us at all."
The child noted her caretaker's significate look and nodded. "I'm human. We dyed my hair blue for halloween and it hasn't washed out yet. I won't rub my face so the make up stays on and my circuits won't show. A crashed my bike last week if anyone asks about all the bandaids on my hands."
The woman nodded and put on a smile. "Perfect. You're very sneaky."
"I'm a transformer!" Blue exclaimed, grabbing her "mother's" hand and following her to the main building.
"Oh?"
"A robot in disguise."
She laughed, shaking her head. "Right."
They day went surprisingly well. James was both nice and Irish as Perri had suspected, and he and Blue took to each other immediately. She got to meet two jet pilots and a woman who flew relief helicopters, and dazzled them all by asking more technical questions than most of their first-year cadets could pronounce. One of the jet pilots complimented her on her Starscream shirt, which made her happy and even more sure she'd meet the real Transformers someday. Perri felt bad she'd be heart broken.
She didn't get to sit in a real plane, but they did have some dismantled cockpits that she climbed into and frowned when she was too small to reach things. The helicopter lady promised to get Blue a ride in a city news copter some time, and Perri found herself cajoled into giving real contact information out. She really hoped no one checked up on her.
James gave her his number and told her to call if her daughter had anymore questions. Also, there was an airshow next Saturday, and would they like to go? Blue wanted to go. Perri said yes. He smiled. She felt very lost.
They went home, and Perri made dinner, and Blue spent the rest of the afternoon doing techincal research on jets and helicopters on the internet. Maybe tomorrow, the girl suggested, they could go to a BMW store and learn about cars and motorcycles, cause BMW used to make German war planes back in WWII, did Perri know that? The woman said she didn't, and maybe after she came back from their meeting they could. Promise? Maybe. Perri kissed her on the forehead and said goodnight.
She didn't have a meeting. She was going to the lab. She needed to know what was in Blue's head.
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Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 2:58 pm
...Failure to Communicate...Perri Indiya Perri stormed into the labs early in the morning, dressed in business casual that seemed to have been assembled in a hurry. She did not look happy, a strange mix of concern and anger playing across her features.
"Where is Doctor Brune?" she snapped at the first employee she saw. "I need to talk to him now." Doc Albert Doc strode out of the lab calmly, relieving the panicked intern of having to face the enraged Perri.
"Yes?" he asked, smiling pleasantly. "What is it?" Perri Indiya "Why the hell are there plugs in Blue's head?" she snarled, hands on her hips to keep herself from strangling him. "Are you tampering with her brain?" Doc Albert Doc frowned, trying to figure out what the small woman meant for a moment. Then he remembered.
"I have no access to the wireless routers on her body," he stated. "Only Blue can control them."
He paused a moment, smiling mischieviously.
"When the order came in, it was for a child that could learn to remotely control any vehicle it ever came in contact with. I was told to offer the child to you specifically out of my entire list of potential parents."
He chewed his lip.
"I wonder why." Perri Indiya Perri sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and doing her best to calm down. "Well, that certainly explains a few things. I should have never taken her to the air force base. Is she going to swipe my car?" Doc Albert Doc shook his head. "She seems well behaved enough," he stated, "And even if she were to get it in her head, it would take a long process of trial and error for her to get it to go anywhere. She knows the ability is there, maybe, but she has no idea how to use it." Perri Indiya "If she does..." the woman fumed to herself. It had been her dad's car! There would be no forgiving anyone who wrecked it. "Well, good. Do I want to know how she'll learn to use it? She'll try to even if she doesn't know how." Doc Albert "Like I said," shrugged Doc. "Trial and Error. She'll start small. Get her a remote controlled car or something to practice on. If she gets good at it before tackling big things, she's less likely to wreck anything irreplacable." Perri Indiya Perri groaned. "Why? Why this? It's just so... disruptive." Doc Albert "Think of it as an adventure!" exclaimed Doc, winking.
Nodding to her, he added, "Good day, Miss Indiya."
And with that, he strode back into the lab.
Clearly, the conversation was over. Perri Indiya "Well, aren't you helpful?" she hissed to the empty room, turning and heading back to her car. Damn. Oh well. Back home, change, take Blue to the BMW dealership in town...
She'd deal with this later. And she'd buy an RC car that was not to be used in the house. Hopefully the stopgap would work.
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Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 10:59 am
...Motoring...
It was really creepy watching a kid control a car with her mind, even the kid was a gynoid (andro meaning male and gyno meaning female, after all), and the car was an r/c truck. I mean, if anyone would understand the wireless technology Blue was using to transmit control recievers from her brain to the tiny attachment she'd connected to the car it was Perri, but it really bothered her that the word "brain" was in that sentence. It was neat as hell, and she itched to inspect the back of the kid's head to see more of it, but at the same time wanted to run screaming. She loved computers. She was bad with people. She really couldn't handle it when the two mixed.
Not that she let Blue see that. It wasn't her fault about this and anyway she was very quiet and focused while practicing control of her car. She looked like Perri suspected she did when she got some new tech in and was busy dismantling it to learn all of its secrets. It made her proud to see her ward filled with so much concentration and purpose, as if it had somehow rubbed off from her or something. And when she mastered the next little movement, the kid positively lit up. It was rather heartwarming.
Maybe... maybe she should just take this all in stride as a sign of Blue's growth. There were others as well that were easier to focus on, and surely they could lead Perri to slowly accept the stranger parts: her hair was getting long enough in back to put in a ponytail, even if it stuck out at all angles. It would really look cute in two small, low pigtails, but she was pretty sure Blue wouldn't let her hair be styled at all. She seemed bigger, even if she wasn't really physically, and Perri wanted to assume her clothes wouldn't fit. She guessed she'd have to take the girl back to the lab to grow or something. Have her circuits updated. Bad wiring replaced. Stuff like that. She wondered if she could fix the little one if ever came up. She was fairly certain she didn't want to.
An adventure, the doctor had said. Oh, it was. And it was scary as hell.
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:25 pm
...A Jet, a Jet, my Kingdom for a Jet...Amyla Edana "Mum, do we not have enough kids in this house? Do you have to volunteer to babysit another?" Kayce inquired, her usually inexpressive face demonstrating a clear dislike. The fae watched her mother put the baby down for a nap and then followed Amyla out of the living room and down towards the kitchen.
Amyla rolled her eyes and bit back a sigh. "Kayce, just because you don't like strangers does not mean that we can't be good and polite people. Besides, this child is from the same place as Eowyn. Isn't that something positive?" she asked rhetorically. Truth be told, she hadn't really known what to expect when the woman had called her and asked her to babysit her Kybernetik for the day. Apparently she had gotten the number from the doctor (which didn't shock Amyla in the least). Amyla didn't mind taking the child for the day. She was just a bit nervous that she didn't know the child... or the guardian.
Seeing that her protests would not change the situation, Kayce exited the room, though her shadow remained in the room, watching their mother closely. "When they will be here?" Eowyn asked, quietly taking an apple from the fruitbowl on the table and beginning to nibble on it. She honestly didn't want to have an invader in the house, but she was less bold than Kayce about voicing her dislike. Perri Indiya A large, black, vintage model car pulled into the driveway, rumbling to a halt when the engine was carefully shut off. A small woman with short brown hair in her twenties got out of the driver's side, and a small girl with blue hair bolted out from the passenger's side. They walked up to the door hand in hand, the woman knocking to come in. "Are they nice, Perri?" the child asked. "Doctor Brune says so. You be good and don't break anything." Amyla Edana Amyla was saved from having to make some trite, useless answer to Eowyn's question by the sound of a knock on the door. Flipping her long dark braid back over her shoulder, she made her way to the front door, Eowyn padding along behind her.
"May, were we expecting- oh yeah...." Aiodhan's voice echoed from upstairs, causing Amyla to chuckle as she unlatched the front door and opened it up. Forgetful idiot, that man.
"Hello! Perri, right?" she inquired, smiling at the two beings on her front porch. "Come on in."
Eowyn, about ten feet back from the door, nibbled silently on her apple, gray eyes narrowed slightly as she examined these two unexpected and unfamiliar people. It was too bad Amyla had confiscated her practice sword for the day. She had been looking forward to more practice with Kayce, and the confiscation of the sword, not to mention the visit of another child, put a serious crimp on her plans for the day. Perri Indiya "Yep. You must be Amyla." Perri said with a smile and an offered handshake once she and the little one stepped inside. "Thank you so much for watching her - I got called into the office for a client last minute and just couldn't say no." Blue looked around the house, eyes immedately drawn to a girl about her age who seemed to be a kyber like her. "Hello! I'm Blue!" she called to the other one, hoping for a playmate. Amyla Edana "Yes. It's no problem at all. I know how work can take up a lot of your life. That's why I'm glad to still be on maternity leave," Amyla said wholeheartedly, taking the offered handshake and smiling down at Blue. "She's adorable. Anything in particular she likes to do?"
Eowyn just blinked and nodded, continuing to take bites out of her snack. Blue... what a silly name. What was she named for... her hair color? At least Eowyn's own name had some significance. It was a royal name, after all.
It dawned on Eowyn right at that moment that she was actually expected to play with this other girl. She paused in eating, her eyes wide. This was not expected. Or welcome. At all.
"Oh, there she is. This is Eowyn," Amyla said, finally spying the girl. She tried hard not to sigh at the somewhat accusatory look the kyber sent in her direction. Oh dear. Good thing she had confiscated that sword earlier. Perri Indiya "Practice with her remote control car and do research on fast vehicles." Perri explained, handing over a duffle bag that held some of her charge's toys and DVDs. "She knows that she's not supposed to use the car in the house." Blue frowned at the other girl, not liking being ignored. Well, if she was going to be that way she could entertain herself easily enough. Deciding she'd work on her fellow kyber later, the child turned back to the new adult. "It's very nice to meet you Miss Amyla." Perri smiled and gave the little one a quick hug. "Okay kid, I'm off. Don't break yourself." Amyla Edana Amyla grinned. Remote control car? She hadn't seen one of those in ages. "Sounds good to me. I'll make sure she has some space outside to practice if she wants to," she replied, taking the duffle bag. Now that Aiodhan had gotten off his lazy rear and fixed the back porch, it was remarkably level. Perhaps Blue would want to practice out there at some point. "It's nice to meet you as well, Blue," she said, delighted with such a well-mannered and friendly child. Why couldn't she get one of those sort of kids for once?!
If Eowyn had possessed fangs and the ability to do so, she likely would have growled. Instead, she settled for glowering at the people gathered in the foyer. The apple was now gnawed down to the core, and the kyber might a swift exit into the kitchen to dispose of it. Maybe if she got out of her mother's range of vision, Amyla would forget she was even there... Perri Indiya Perri waved goodbye and ran to the car, starting it's rumble again and peeling out. She had three drops to make today in close succession, and if she was late on even one she'd never live it down. In this business, reputation was everything. Blue watched the car lovingly as it pulled out and sighed before turning back to her host. "Is it okay if I watch some Transformers DVDs? Eowyn can come too but I don't think she likes me." Amyla Edana Amyla waved at Perri as she ran out. Poor woman. Closing the front door, she turned back to Blue and nodded an affirmative. "Of course. I'll show you where the TV is at. If you get hungry, I always have fruit sitting out on the kitchen table, or you can ask for something else. I've got just about every kind of food in this house. This family eats a lot," she chuckled before gesturing the girl toward the family room and pointing at the TV. "And don't feel badly about Eowyn. She doesn't like much of anybody."
No sooner had Amyla said that then Eowyn, who had been hoping to make an escape through the family room toward the stairs, emerged from the kitchen. Her look of deep thoughtfulness turned to one of mild irritation at the sight of her mother and the guest. Bah. Definitely no sword-practicing for her today.
"Ahhh, there you are. Would you like to show Blue how to work the TV?" Amyla queried, raising an eyebrow in Eowyn's direction.
The kyber very much wanted to say no, but she hadn't yet acquired the sense of bold independence that her elder, and even more irritable, sister had mastered. "Yes," she acquiesced before padding over to the television. Perri Indiya "Thank you." Blue murmured, not wanting to offer the girl politeness in return for bad treatment, but too bad at keeping a bad mood up for long to avoid it. "Have you ever watched Transformers? It's a lot of fun and about robots." Amyla Edana Sensing that the girls needed to work out the situation on their own, Amyla decided it best to take her leave for the moment. "I'll be in the kitchen if you girls need anything," she said before disappearing through another doorway. She had some bills to get caught up on, and at least from here, she could hear what was going in the other room.
"No," Eowyn responded simply in response to Blue's question. "I don't watch much television." Truth be told, she had never really been interested in it. Her interests seemed largely grouped in outdoor things: horseback riding, swordfighting, tree-climbing. The TV got boring. Quickly. She pushed a few buttons on the TV and DVD player and then frowned faintly. "Stupid Erin," she muttered before going on a round-the-room search for the remote, glancing under the coffee table and behind one of the chairs. "Hid the remote again." Perri Indiya "Who's Erin?" Blue asked, not sure where else to go with the conversation since the other girl didn't seem to be full of interaction or ideas. "We could do something else, if you wanted. What do you like to do?" Amyla Edana "One of my sisters. She's little and likes to hurt people," Eowyn said, her voice slightly muffled as she looked behind the couch. "She wears pink, and she has a tail. Don't go near her." Her voice held a rather fervent note, unusual for her, as she had learned the hard way not to mess with Erin.
Suddenly, a shaped slab of gray, button-covered plastic came flying over the back of the couch to land on one of the cushions. A few moments later, Eowyn re-emerged, holding what seemed to be nothing but a big ball of gold and tan fur. "I ride with my sister. And we practice swordfighting," she said, though her tone conveyed a bit of bitterness. "But Mum took my sword away." She put the-- now it was moving-- ball of fur down on the couch and turned her flat gray gaze toward Blue. "Where's your movie?" Perri Indiya Blue peered curiously at the ball, wondering what it was. "Is that a pet?" At the other girl's question she reached behind her and slipped a hand under her jacket, producing the case a moment later. "Here, this one's my favorite. What do you ride? Motorcycles?" Amyla Edana Eowyn followed the direction of Blue's gaze, realizing the other girl was asking about the furball she'd just put on the couch. "That's Sala," she said simply before taking the case from Blue and walking over to the DVD player to put it in. "No. Kayce's horse, Missy," she added by way of response to the second question. She closed the DVD slot and pressed play before wandering back to the couch. She picked up the gold and tan ball of fur and sat herself down. "You can sit on the couch."
Sensing that one-who-gives-attention was now holding her, the lion cub, who had previously been napping, uncurled her little body and picked up her head. She uttered a curious purring noise and then glanced over at Blue, blinking in sleepy bewilderment. Strange creatuers, those humanish things... Perri Indiya Blue sat down on the couch and watched the cub warily, not quite sure how to react to it. She had a vague notion of how pets were to be treated, but no practical experience. Perri's computers were her kids and pets all rolled into one, and the kyber had never been particularly interested in having animals around. "Wow, a horse? I bet you're really good at that. I'd never be brave enough to get on one." Amyla Edana "It isn't hard, but I have to ride with Kayce since Missy is too big for just me," Eowyn said practically, gently stroking the lion cub's head. She gave the TV a mildly curious look and then ignored it. TV.... blah, blah, blah. How dull. "What do you do, then?"
Noting that Blue was not bestowing on her the usual affections of pettings, ear scritchings, and general fur-fluffing, Sala very daintily extended her neck out towards this new face, sniffing lightly at the new person. She made a curious 'mrow'ing noise and tilted her head to one side to stare. Perri Indiya Blue quickly flipped through the disc menu and selected an episode that took place on a ranch, complete with horses, in effort to address Eowyn's preferences. She thought it was a rather silly episode, since giant robots really had no business on a ranch whether or not their human companions thought it was fun, but hey. She was trying to be nice, and there were some funny scenes. "I can drive things with my mind." Blue said cheerfully, reaching under the hair on the back of her head and pulling out one of her wireless connectors to show the other girl. "I just plug one of these in - I have a few different sizes and configs - to a chip-enabled vehicle and I can control it. Well, somewhat. I'm practicing on the R/C car so I can do bigger and faster things someday. And I still want to learn to drive, since I can't plug into to older models." Blue cocked her head, watching the cub curiously and tentatively extending a hand towards it's head. "Does she bite?" Amyla Edana Eowyn briefly glanced at the TV again with the appearance of horses, but it was only fleeting. She preferred live, touchable things to those prancing around on a television set. Such a strange child. "You drive things with your mind?" she asked, peering at the chip with a mixture of wariness and curiosity. She had never heard of someone able to do that. The thought of Blue driving around a normal-sized car with her mind was both interesting and... well, slightly frightening. "Is it just cars?"
She watched Blue reach her hand out to Sala and shook her head in response to the question, still stroking the cub's back. "No, she doesn't bite."
Sala, as if to confirm that, stretched her neck out further to sniff at the offered hand before offering up a raspy sort of purr, ears relaxing back against her head. Perri Indiya "Any vehicle with a computer chip or two in it: cars, motorcycles, jets, planes, trucks, whatever." Blue looked whistful. "Someday I'll get to drive the real things." She took the chip back and snapped it back into it's port, being careful not to catch her hair. She watched the cub for a moment longer, and then lightly petted it on the head. "We don't have any animals at home." she explained, smiling at the fuzzball. "Do you want to go outside when this episode is over? I could work with my car and you could practice with your sword or something. Can you do other types of fighting? Like, archery, or staves, or spears?" Amyla Edana The very concept of Blue running around controlling a plane with her mind was mildly concerning, although interesting. "So you could drive a racecar without having to be in the car," Eowyn mused. She looked surprised, eyes wide and eyebrows raise, upon the announcement that there were no pets at Blue's house. "None? We have a lot. Sala, Zam, Kveairo, Lili, Rajni, Missy..." she said, listing off just a few of the many fur- or hair-covered beings that lived in the house or roamed the property. Their family just seemed to attract the things. She wasn't quite sure how.
Outside? Yes, that had possibilities. For the first time since Blue arrived, Eowyn looked mildly pleased. "I like it better outside. I don't have my sword, though. Mum took it." She frowned at that. No way was Mum going to give her the sword back. "I just use a sword and shield. Kayce uses two swords and can throw daggers." Perri Indiya "I guess," Blue said with a shrug, "but where's the fun in not going fast?" She flipped the electronics off with a few presses of a button, making sure to retrieve her disk first. Leaving the couch, she exchanged her DVD for her R/C car from her bag. "Shall we go? You could still practice sword fighting with a stick, right?" Amyla Edana Yes, there was less thrill at a walk than a run, and Eowyn much preferred to take Missy at a gallop than a trot. But it would still be interesting to race a car without having to risk crashing while inside the car. She very carefully set Sala on the floor and then got up herself, eyeing the R/C car that Blue took from her duffle bag. "What kind of car is it?" she asked. No one in her family played with them, really. She had a very strange family, apparently.
She made a face at the thought of practicing with a stick. "Yes," she acquiesced, though she wasn't pleased with the idea. Splinters were quite painful. She shrugged and waved a beckoning hand and then made her way to the back door, unlocking the latch and opening the door. She stepped out, Sala darting past her to trot out onto the wide back deck. "We just have to close this door so Erin doesn't get outside," she added. Really, it wasn't just Erin, but there was no need to frighten Blue with how many people lived in this house. Perri Indiya Blue followed, helping to make sure the door was closed when they got outside. "It's R/C: remote control. You usually drive it with this controller, see? It's remote because it's wireless." She put the car down on the deck, switched it on, and demonstrated some regular driving as well as a few tricks. "Want to try?" Amyla Edana Eowyn, carefully standing to the side and out of immediate crash-range (she hoped), watched the car zoom around on Blue's command. It was neat, watching it drive about without someone behind the miniature steering wheel. But she still liked horses better. "No, thanks," she responded. "What else can you do with it?"
Ever the playful lion cub, Sala was proceeding to clumsily-- and quite obviously-- stalk the moving vehicle. It moved, and it wasn't larger than her. Therefore, it was something worthy of stalkage. Perri Indiya Blue noticed the cub going after her car and grinned, putting the vehicle's back to its stalker and moving it slightly, as if it were grazing unconcernedly. "If we built some jumps I could do so aerial tricks." Amyla Edana Sala, seeing that the vehicle was moving very slowly, dropped into a crouch and snuck along the ground. Her tail swished very slowly behind her as she took each inching step forward.
Eowyn watched Sala for a moment, head tilted to one side as she considered. Jumps, jumps, jumps... where did they have jumps? "Horse jumps or ramps?" she inquired curiously, glancing in the direction of the stable. She was sure she could find something in the stable that would work for a jump of some sort. Perri Indiya "Ramps that lead up to horse jumps. The car needs an incline to run up so it can take off." Blue focused her attention back on the vehicle, keeping it still until the cub got close enough... Amyla Edana Eowyn nodded. She knew where things like that were. The stables had some little jumps and ramps that Mum often took out for Erin to play cars on. She could get those. "I'll be back," she said before hopping down the porch steps and jogging across the yard to disappear into the stable, which was roughly a hundred yards back from the house. She reappeared a few moments later with a ramp in one hand and a simple foot-high jump in the other. Yes, she knew they had these lying about somewhere.
Sala, meanwhile, had continued stalking the little vehicle. Being a cub and somewhat clumsy, though, she got a bit too close to her 'prey' and bumped it a bit with her nose. With a loud squall, she darted behind Blue and huddled down on the porch, shivering in fear and surprise that the thing had 'bitten' her. Poor dumb cub. Perri Indiya Blue made the car jump and zip away, as if it too were afraid. "See? It's just as scared of you as you are of it." Amyla Edana Eowyn hauled the small ramp and jump up onto the deck, a task made challenging by the fact that the stairs were... well... made for someone with a bit longer legs. Still, she made it in time to see the car zip off and hear Blue's comment to Sala. She just shook her head. "Sala is scared of a lot."
As if to confirm that, the lion cub gave a vigorous nod and edged over toward her 'human,' cuddling up against Eowyn's leg. "Scawy..." she declared in a very young and squeaky voice, eyes wide as she stared at the retreating vehicle. Perri Indiya The car darted around behind Blue, revving excitedly at the prospect of the ramp. She may not have had living pets, but her toys more than made up for it in her mind. They were more predictable. Blue walked over quickly to help Eowyn with the unwieldy set up. "...she talks?" Amyla Edana Sala stayed glued to Eowyn's side and well away from the moving (and seemingly excited) car. She made a low growling noise in an act of bravado, regardless of the fact that she was a complete coward.
Eowyn set down the ramp and scooted it around so that the car could get momentum running lengthwise down the deck. "Yes. She'll get better when she gets older. The other one is grown-up and talks like Mum and Dad," she added, tactfully leaving out the fact that the other one was roughly at eye-level with a few of the older kids in the house. Perri Indiya "What's a dad?" Blue asked, walking along the deck and getting an eye for the distance of things from more than one angle. Standing off to a safe distance and making sure her two companions were also out of the way, she back the car up as far as possible so as to get good air time. The car's wheels squealed for a moment before they caught purchase on the deck and screamed towards the ramp, flashing up it and sailing into the air with a majestic arc. Blue's favorite part was the speed. Amyla Edana Eowyn looked at Blue in surprise, too shocked by the question to even watch the car in its beautiful flight. While Sala made a growling noise again and huddled closer to her leg, the kyber stared at her new playmate. "A.... dad? You don't know what a dad is?" she asked, absolutely flabbergasted by this. Who didn't know what a dad was?! It was one of those irreplaceable (and thoroughly beat-up-able) figures in a kid's life, the one who usually said 'yes' when mum said 'no way!' Perri Indiya "Not really. Is it like a guy mum?" she asked, guessing from context. She was more concerned about the car than the conversation, and focused her attention back on driving the vehicle to safety and setting it up to jump again. Blue and Perri were quite happy by themselves, and she certainly didn't feel she was missing anything in particular. Amyla Edana "Yes, but better. Dad is a lot easier and won't take away my sword unless I hit someone with it. He was the one who told Mum to let me keep it," Eowyn said, still shocked that a child could be without a dad. Who would balance out the strictness and feminine nature of her mother, if she had no father? She pulled a slight face at that thought. She would never survive if that happened.
Sala, meanwhile, had decided that the car was not something to be feared and had stalked out of her hiding place. While she kept her distance from the moving vehicle, she did keep a very close eye on it. She would retaliate for its 'bite.' Perri Indiya Blue frowned, thinking this comment over. She didn't have a sword of course, but Perri had never taken away one of her toys. Instead, she loved encouraging her interests in technology, to the point of building the child her own laptop and taking her on trips to the air force base. "I think Perri is a lot more like a dad than a mum. We do fun things all the time." The car backed up again, pushing it's front end down before racing towards the jump. Blue thought it would do better lower to the ground because there'd be less drag going into the jump. It got stuck. Amyla Edana Eowyn tilted her head to one side. "I think it would be weird to not have two parents," she said thoughtfully, scarcely able to imagine what sort of state the house would be in if it was only Mum or only Dad about. Chaos, if it was just Dad.... and a veritable military installation if it was just Mum. She spied the stuck car and frowned. "It's stuck."
Sala, taking advantage of the car having difficulties, snuck closer to investigate. She hesitantly reached out with a paw to poke at the unfamiliar, now un-moving thing. Perri Indiya The car wiggled on its shocks, slowly working itself free and backing up. Blue tried to keep it from running over the cub as best she could. "I think it would be funny to have two. Perri would be grouchy all the time. She's not a people person, even when the people are nice." Amyla Edana As the car moved again, Sala let out a yowl of displeasure and darted back behind Eowyn, muttering various feline obscenities beneath her breath. She was slightly mollified when Eowyn scritched her behind the ears, though she was still glaring at the offending vehicle.
"But it would be someone that she liked. Mum and Dad wouldn't be parents together if they hated each other," Eowyn pointed out with all the wisdom of her young age. Her parents had always loved each other... as far as she knew. "Where does she work at?" she asked, suddenly curious. Perri Indiya "A big office building in town," Blue lied smoothly, having understood early on that the truth of her caretaker's employment was something that could only get them in trouble. "She's the boss of all the computer people." The car zoomed towards the ramp again, a bit higher than before so it made it over. It flew beautifully, but ended with unhappy crunch of collision. Amyla Edana Computers were cool, Eowyn supposed, but to work with them all day? That would get boring. "Does she like being the boss?" she inquired, trying to imagine being the boss of her own household. That had promise.
She did have the good grace to wince at the sound the car made upon impact. "That sounded bad," she said plainly, the sound reminding her clearly of the time that Erin had thrown a toy out her window and onto the driveway below. Perri Indiya Blue sighed, the car trying to respond to her summons but physically unable to do so. She walked over and picked up her toy, looking it over for breaks. "It wasn't too loud. Hopefully it just cracked something small." "I don't think so. Being the boss means she spends more time with people than computers, and that's not why she does what she does." the girl said, answering the question. "But it is why she got me, so it's not all bad." Amyla Edana Eowyn strolled closer to glance at the toy. Not being experienced in the workings of small, remote-controlled vehicles, she wisely kept silent. That sound hadn't sounded good to her, but Blue knew best in this case. "Like Mum says: good and bad to everything," she added, thinking about Perri's situation. That'd be annoying, to have to be dealing with people all day long. Granted, Eowyn herself spent most of her time with Kayce, but she chose to do that. She wasn't forced to. Perri Indiya Blue grinned, sitting down and beginning to tear the toy apart to see what exactly had snapped. "On the good side, she is the boss, so if people are mean to her they get in trouble." The car's casing popped off and a spring zinged into the air, never to be found again. "Circuits! Well, I won't be fixing this until I get home." Amyla Edana The workings of mechanical things were entirely too complex for Eowyn, so she just knelt down and watched. "But people probably say stuff when she isn't around," Eowyn pointed out with the wisdom of one who had multiple warring siblings. The gossip in the house was unbelievable at times. If kids were that bad, how bad were adult?!
She jumped in surprise as the spring disappeared into the oblivion that small inanimate objects usually do find themselves in. "Did you need special tools or something?" she queried. Perri Indiya "I needed glue. Now I need a new spring." Blue said with a shrug, putting the car back together as best she could. Switching the vehicle off, she retrieved her wireless reciever from the controller and returned the small object to the base of her skull. "Perri should have one that'll fit in her spare parts drawer." Amyla Edana Eowyn frowned. How she wished for simpler things. "What d'you want to do, then?" she inquired curiously. "Do you do other stuff too?" For a being that spent ninety percent of her waking time running around outside doing a multitude of things, sometimes many at once, it was incomprehensible to ever be out of things to do.
She suddenly remembered Sala and glanced about for the cub, only to find that the lion had disappeared off into... somewhere. Strange creatures, lions were. Perri Indiya Blue frowned for a moment, trying to think of something she liked that might interest Eowyn. They were so dissimilar... no thoughts presented themselves. There was always being sneaky. "I like new things! Want to show me something you like to do? You seem to do all sorts of stuff I've never even thought of!" Amyla Edana Eowyn, a bit surprised by this sudden turn of events, didn't respond for a moment. She simply tilted her head to one side to ponder. Hmmm... this had possibilities. "Sure. Mum took my sword, or I'd show you how to swordfight," she said, looking very offended by the thought. Maybe once she got a bit older, Mum would give up on confiscating it.
"I can show you Kayce's horse. She's very pretty," the kybernetik added after a moment, making her way down the porch steps and across the small backyard. Perri Indiya Blue followed obediently, doing her best to hide her nervousness. Horses were neat and all, but she'd never actually been near one. "What kind is it?" Amyla Edana Eowyn made her way across the lawn at a brisk trot, heading straight for the building that stood about a hundred or so feet back from the house. "She's a Morgan horse, and she's a dark bay. Her name is Mistress Mischief, but we call her Missy."
She neglected to mention that the horse often chewed on hair. Best not to bring that up just now. Perri Indiya "Mischeif?" Blue frowned, her pace slowing. She shared Perri's belief that machines were your friends but animals were unpredictible at best. "Does she bite?" Amyla Edana "No, she doesn't bite. She nibbles on clothing sometimes, but she doesn't bite," Eowyn said, shaking her head. Missy had never, ever bitten her. Not even the time she'd had the carrot hidden in her pocket. "But she's big."
No sooner had she reached the stable when the horse was led out of the side of the stable in all her dark, fidgety glory. The halter on her head was attached to a rope, the other end of which was in the hand of a fae, who was looking rather annoyed by this whole turn of events. Her face softened a bit when she spied Eowyn, and she nodded at her younger sister. "Eowyn. Who's that?" she asked, eyeing Blue now.
Eowyn skidded to a halt, wide-eyed. "Ohhh... hi, Kayce. That's Blue. Blue, this is my sister, Kayce. And that's Missy," she said, gesturing at the dark horse who was currently trying to get her teeth around Kayce's hairband. Perri Indiya Blue smiled and waved, casting a wary eye on the large animal. "Hello! I'm another Kybernetic. That's a... a big horse." It sounded dumb, but that's all she she could think of to say. The animal was incredibly daunting. Amyla Edana Kayce surveyed Blue briefly and then managed a polite nod. It wasn't as though it was anything personal. She just didn't like humanoid beings in general.
Eowyn walked right up to Missy and reached up her arm to pat at the horse's shoulder. "She isn't so big. Mum knows some that are bigger," the girl pointed out, gently stroking the horse. "You can pet her." Perri Indiya "Um, okay." Blue said, reaching out carefully so she could touch the horse's hide while staying as far away from it as possible. "She's, er, very nice." ..to be finished..
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:26 pm
...Go Ask Alice...
The moment the pair arrived home after Blue's day at Eowyn's house and Perri's day making sure a whole lot of money went to people it didn't really belong to, the child pulled her R/C car out of her bag and made her caretaker look at it. The woman agreed that glue and a small spring were all that was really required to fix it at first glance, but suggested they pull out the wiring on the battery case just to make sure that hadn't gotten its connections jostled in the crash. Blue loved taking apart electronics and messing with them almost as much as Perri did, and so didn't argue in the least.
The connections, it turned out, were fine. A wire was a little twisted but that was easily fixed. Putting that case back together, they attacked the outer casing with super glue and left that to dry while they rifled through the spring section of the junk drawer for the right sized coil of wire. A few possible candidates were found and a great debate was had, which left only two to be tested when the glue dried. Then dinner was eaten, Galaxy Quest was watched and they both went to bed.
Long after she had climbed into her pjs and wrapped herself in blankets, Perri stared at her ceiling unable to sleep. Something Blue had said on offhandedly on the ride home stuck in her mind like a burr, leading her to pick at it instead of rest. Even after the good afternoon and evening they'd had, it worried her. She really hoped it had been a rhetorical question, because for the life of her she had no idea how to answer it.
Did robot kids get acne?
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:28 pm
...Changing Shells...Perri Indiya Perri and Blue blew into the lab, the human woman looking frazzled and her mechanical companion full of glee. The child was giggling to herself as her caretaker waved down a passing assistant. "The Doctor said we needed to come right away? Something about tests?" Doc Albert Doc, noticing the assistant's signs of distress, got up from the central desk and called Perri and Blue over. "Not tests," he corrected gleefully. "I've got everything in order for Blue to grow up a little more."
He smiled at the little girl. "Would you like that, Blue?" Perri Indiya "Can you call Perri and scare her again like that?" Blue asked in a rush. "You have no idea how fast she was going on the way over here." "The speed limits bow before me." Perri muttered under her breath. "But yeah, growing, sounds neat." the child conceded, still in the glow of adreneline. Doc Albert "Good!" replied Doc, beckoning them back into the lab. "It's a rather simple process. You go to sleep, and when you wake up, poof! You're big!"
He showed them into a clearing divided by an oriental room divider. On the visable side was a child-sized gurney. He patted it, instructing Blue to lie on top. "Any questions?" Perri Indiya Blue looked at the guerny, still full of exuberance. "Sure! Sounds easy!" Perri glanced at the Doctor and frowned, but she didn't bar the child's way. "Have fun, I suppose." Doc Albert  Doc smiled and lifted the little girl up onto the gurney and retrieved a metal rod from the workbench. "This will temporarily drain the electricity from your body," he explained. "In other words, you'll go to sleep." With that said, he waved the baton in front of her eyes. She went limp. Doc turned to Perri.
"You mustn't repeat any of the following events to her. I don't know the psycological risks of knowing them."
He looked back down at Blue's still form and removed the chip from the back of her head.
"Follow me."
Doc, chip in hand, crossed over to the other side of the room divider where what looked like a larger, older version of Blue lay on a stretcher. Doc propped the body up and slid the chip into the compartment on the back of the head and then set it back down. Before re-awakening her, though, he adjusted the other gurney and the room divider so that there would not be a way to see behind it on the way out.
"Waking in 3... 2..."
He waved the baton back across Blue's eyes. She blinked, sat up, and looked around.
"Where'd the stars go?" she asked dejectedly.
Blue has grown to Pre-Adolescent.
Doc hasn't mentioned it, but her body is nanotech now.
Please record her dream. It indicates important things about her character, theme, and future.
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