MoonMan
Inactive Member
Even from the start of Cirrus Research Station's illustrious opening, there had always been small hitches and problems. With a dedicated science facility as large and diverse as the Cirrus, these problems were bound to spring up, however nobody could have predicted that they could have been as large and diverse as the station itself. The Freespacer-manned Robotics research facility had its fair share of constantly-reemerging issues, inherent in putting someone such as Circuitbreaker Peke Twenty-Two in charge. Machines and robots ran rampant on what seemed to be an hourly basis, with Administrator Peke doing little, or nothing, or perhaps even being the cause of such rampaging herself. The military weapons and research division didn't fare much better either, despite being manned and comprised of several very professional individuals. Administrator Dick Vanderhuge kept a tight ship, so to speak, but even he couldn't foresee a dangerous explosion-prone prototype or incorrectly-packaged shipment. He did what he could, however, and as of then had succeeded in avoiding the complete destruction of his section of Cirrus. Purina Popjoy, Administrator of the Biological Research module, however, was a near constant problem for CSS members. Animals, beasts and strange alien flora running amok amongst the labs seemed to be an everyday occurrence.
This particular day, however, saw Administrator Popjoy's work environment peculiarly devoid and free of any offending creatures. Purina and several of the science crew, as well as a handful of CSS members pulled from their nearby duty, were working on moving equipment from one lab to the next, further down the hall. The reason eluded most of them; Purina had mentioned something about close proximity of electrical equipment could be a potential danger to the sealed environment module just on the opposite wall, but nobody actually understood what she meant by it. Purina didn't need for them to understand, luckily; just for them to be able to lift 85 or so pounds and walk a ways down the hall. For this, she had commissioned several of the on-duty Cirrus Station Security members assigned to her area to give the science teams a hand. As everyone carefully trudged their loads into the new lab, Purina stood in the midst of the movement, her white lab coat placed over her usual pink floral clothing beneath. Purina held a large data slate in her hand, carefully checking each piece of equipment that entered and checking it from the list to ensure it was all accounted for.
One of the very CSS member heaving equipment, was none other than Kokuten. He moved rather gingerly, one crate over one arm, another under his other. Normally, he'd not be too keen on just doing manual labor, but compared to his regular duty, and the antics he normally became a part of, lifting crates was a little welcome. Not only that, he also got the chance to test out the maximum load with his new arms, and a stress test for his enhanced spine. So far, he only felt a mild twinge of simulated ache as the servos locked to keep the crates from falling over. His spine seemed well-enough up to the challenge.
"Here we go, two," announced Kokuten behind his polarized mask, setting down the first crate. "More." Then, he set down the other down in front of Purina to check. The Captain stood up straight, and stretched, his arms going out wide to let his servos work off the heat. "You got a lot of stuff, Administrator."
Shnnk shnnk. He rubbed his back. "I thought we had wolverines for all this."
Purina looked up from the large datapad in her hands when Kokuten addressed her, giving him a knowing smile. "Well, Kokuten, Wolverines wouldn't be able to make it through the halls that well. We'll just be using powered lifts to move the big things, but while we wait for those to be delivered, I wanted to get the rest of the stuff in here first," Purina explained with a wide smile. Cheerful as ever, Ms. Popjoy checked off another thing on her list, glancing behind Kokuten as another scientist carried in a brown cardboard box full of what appeared to be clear glass panels. "I am very glad you could help me out as well, captain. It's always nice having you around, you know?"
"Well, it's good to be around." said Kokuten, opening the visor on his helmet, revealing his bright green LED eyes from where they had been hidden. He gave the Administrator a bit of a smile. "You've giving me a good chance to stretch my legs, and test my new arms. It's also nice to work for you, your assignments are never so bed." He looked to the side, his eyes turning a dark shade of sage, "At least, they don't start out like that."
The displaced Captain looked off to the other boxes down the way, before looking back at the Botanic Administrator. "Normally when we do this sort of moving, the Head Administrator is usually right over our shoulder when we're heaving things around. You know, making sure we don't scuff the walls." His mouth curled into a mild frown, "I'm guessing she's still not well enough to go about."
The pink-haired Administrator tilted her head to the side and gave Kokuten an odd look. "Um? Wait, you mean you haven't noticed?"
"What do you mean?" Kokuten blinked at the bubble-gum haired woman.
Purina tucked her datapad underneath her arm and motioned her head towards the door behind Kokuten. At a glance, he would notice a familiar figure floating by atop a hover platform, red ponytail and white lab coat drifting behind her. Although it was just passing by, Kokuten could see quite clearly that the familiar figure was, in fact, looking straight into the room as she passed, before disappearing from sight again beyond the edge of the large set of open doors. The CSS Captain's eyes turned a rather empty looking white, decorating his deadpan face.
"That's... not very subtle at all."
"She's been doing it for the past hour or so, pretending to be doing other things while she just zips on by," Purina stated in a very matter-of-fact tone, giggling slightly to herself upon realizing that Kokuten had just noticed himself. "I figured someone as sharp and experienced as you would've noticed by now."
"Cassefin isn't as alarm-triggering as she used to be. Besides, I've been getting a little into this moving business. With all of this work I can tune my arms to enhance their performance, I can already feel a few servos that could be loosened up, and some that could be tightened. A proper tuning can increase joint capacity, calibrate for faster reaction times, and increase the life of your cybernetics. Cyborgs like myself often relish at the chance to properly work our hardware. It's sort of like body-building, except the weights are boxes, and the muscle-building is just tightening and loosening screws and tensioners." Kokuten rambled, while bending down to stack one of the boxes on top of the other. Though, after a few moments, and another noticeable pass by the red-headed stalker, he looked back at the door. This time with his visor closed, as to not be seen looking directly at it. "... Now that you've pointed it out, it's... a little hard to ignore."
Purina couldn't help but stifle another giggle, all too amused by the situation to remain serious in Kokuten's presence. "You should be flattered; she doesn't do this very often, you know? Playing her spy games in person instead of on camera. I guess I should be flattered as well, Cassefin hasn't done something like this for a while," the pink-haired bright-eyed woman said wistfully, checking off another item on her list as Cassefin whizzed by the door again. Kokuten watched her go by, behind the polarized mask closed over his face, wondering just how many times the Head Administrator had stolen glances into the room that morning.
Shnk. The visor opened, Kokuten putting a curious glance in Purina's direction.
"By the way you make it sound, it must be a big deal." commented the Captain, who bent over to grab one of the boxes, and put it between the two of them and the door. Shnk, his visor closed again, trying to time when she went by. That time he was a little to early, but he gathered she was simply stopping and turning around at the same point, as the administrator seemed to take just about the same amount of time as last time to flutter by. "What does she usually do this for?"
"Oh wow, it's been so long since the last time," Purina said, tentatively placing two fingertips lightly against her chin in thought as her eyes sailed skyward. "She usually does this when she get possessive or jealous. I think. I never really, ah, confronted her about it. I like to pretend she's as sly as she thinks she is," the woman cracked a playful smirk, tilting her head to the side again. "The last time was, oh, maybe a year ago, when the electronics contractor she really liked started hanging around me a whole lot. Cassefin would drop whatever she was doing during the Cirrus' construction and sneak on by while he was here. I guess to make sure I didn't do anything funny while she wasn't looking?" Purina questioned, mostly to herself, crossing her arms over her stomach in contemplation. "I never could tell. But she did it for him, and the fellow before that, and the one before him. And once when I wanted to borrow one of her physics projects... ever since I've known her, back when she was a little kid."
The pink-haired administrator's eyes brightened a bit when she finished, turning her gaze back to Kokuten. "Which wasn't that long ago, really. Did you know she's only twelve years old? Which, well, wouldn't be that big a deal if she was a clone, advanced aging and all, but she didn't have all of that. I first met her when she was 8, and I was 18, she was still just a lil' sprout!" Purina smiled gleefully at the memory.
Kokuten was in the process of lifting another box, listening the Purina's story with rapt attention, before stopping mid lift, already having a row of for boxes between them and the door, with the fifth in his hands. He paused there for a moment, funny thoughts twirling about in his mind as he listened to how girlish Cassefin really was. Though in that one moment, he realized just why Cassefin was indeed, so childish and girlish.
Because she was a child.
"Wait... Wait wait wait... What?" asked Kokuten, double-taking from his box to Purina. "She was eight? But... You went to college with her. Marissa said she decked a professor in the jaw! Last I checked, eight year olds weren't exactly capable of busting jaws!"
"Uhmm..." Purina suddenly cast a sidelong glance, looking as though she was just realizing that she might have potentially let loose something she had not intended to. "Well... she's not really 12, either. We both went to Brann University as young, lovely ladies!" Purina did her best to smile, although she quickly realized that her answer wasn't entirely an answer at all. The woman laughed nervously, looking to see if Cassefin was at the door again. She was not, at least not at that moment.
"Ah..." Kokuten had his sixth box stacked at that point, half-way done with the next row. His pace had slowed considerably as Purina brought forth this information. "Then... Augmh..." The Captain rose a hand to speak, as if he were about to speak, as his face couldn't be seen, but did not. His hand went back to his helmeted chin.
"Well. Chiaki. Ahm," Purina spoke in singular words, making long motions as her voice revealed some nervousness inherent in explaining things to him. She stood like that for a moment, giving Kokuten another nervous smile as she spotted Cassefin drive herself by once more. "Well... Cassefin's not really what you would call a 'normal' girl, you know?" Purina began attempting to explain, holding her hands out, palms up, as though she were offering her words to him. "She's got a bit of a different thing going on. Which isn't all that strange! But still, it's... well, I guess it's alright to say. It's not like a big secret or anything."
"I just... This is... a little surprising. I feel..." Kokuten cleared his throat, shaking his head, before picking up his eighth box, and stacking it on the small wall that was forming. He had only used the decently sized containers, and it had come up to their waists thus far. "Some things are really beginning to make sense, now that you mention this. I'm not sure, exactly, if it's my business to ask about her youth, but..."
Up went another box, starting the third row, "It sounds like the two of you have been very close, for a very long time."
"Well, yes," Purina's smile brightened a bit. "I've known her ever since she was little. Well. Little..." her words fumbled over themselves as she continued to try and reasonably explain things to him in a way he could understand. "The thing is, Cassefin is her mother's daughter, but Arilisa kind of did her a bit different than how you'd normally have a child. Kind of like a clone, but kind of not?"
Purina understood that she wasn't making much headway, but continued anyway, despite her growing frustration. "It's like this, Chiaki. Arilisa took her genes, like all the little strands, and bioengineered them into a number of sperm cells. In a really interesting way, too, Arilisa was always very good at-" Purina paused for a moment, realized she was falling off topic. The pink-haired woman cleared her throat and started again. "Anyway. She carried Cassefin and gave birth to her, like normal, but about a year after she was born, Arilisa had Cassefin get the same cybernetic brain that she had. Pretty common, since the Geshrin body takes accepts cybernetic enhancements very well when young. But Arilisa sort of... umm... passed? Passed all of her knowledge INTO Cassefin, after she got the cybernetic enhancement."
"So, the short of it is that Cassefin's mother artificially inseminated herself with bio-engineered sex cells, and then imprinted her mind into her child?" answered Kokuten, getting his tenth box on the wall, and reaching down for the eleventh. That explanation made sense, and furthermore, gave him reason to wonder, and worry. Cassefin had been worrying she would become her mother. Was this what she had meant? "I've heard of the practice, but it's seen in the same light as cloning."
"Well, it's like cloning," Purina said thoughtfully, her eyes trailing upwards again as she contemplate the concept. "It's like... natural cloning, instead of artificial. I guess? I mean, I'm a biology major, but I specialize in botany and zoology and things associated with those, so... yeah," Purina nodded along with Kokuten's assessment. Purina's smile went down a bit, however, as she lowered her voice and continued. "But! Arilisa really wasn't able to fully imprint herself onto Cassefin. She wanted something like an heir; that's why she had Cassefin. But Cassefin is a whole different person, just with all of Arilisa's knowledge and life experience. Even I don't really know how to take that sort of explanation, but that's how it is. Cassefin is Cassefin, strange tendencies and all," she finished with a serious nod, as though to reaffirm her final statement.
"That sort of process is the way of egomaniacs and eccentrics." Kokuten, put up the twelfth box, finishing the third row on his wall. His progress had become a bit slower with how the conversation went, and his up-beat attitude had dropped a few notches. "As a neurologist, I've studied the processes of mental-imprinting, and their effects on youth and adults. The imprint jars the development of brain-cells, forcing them to adapt to the excess of information. Thus, a child's brain would develop and begin to mature early, rail-roading their development into adolescence. Since brain cells cannot be rewired or changed without the most delicate of surgeries, or at the risk of completely altering a person, the child starts their life on someone elses frame-work."
The Captain let out a short sigh, stacking up the thirteenth box. "It's no wonder Cassefin thinks she's going to end up like her mother, she really doesn't have a choice."
Purina gave Kokuten a peculiar glance. "Hm? What do you mean?"
"Think of it like this, the way we develop in life is based on our experiences. To judge our actions, and shape our personality, our brain refers to past events and those experiences. If a child, like Cassefin, already had those experiences, why would her brain seek new ones?" Kokuten bent over again, stacking the fifteenth box, almost completing the fourth row. With that, he decided to give his grand wall a break, and looked back to the bubblegum botanist.
Shnk. Went the sound of Kokuten's visor as it opened again, his eye still maintaining that soft, green glow. "The answer is, it won't. As a child, Cassefin had all her mother's answers, and her body and personality would reflect to change that. Yes, personal experience introduces small variables that alter development, but in the long run her brain will develop along a linear path-way set by the life imprinted onto her at childhood. Cassefin is smart enough to realize this, and worries that she'll simply become her mother as time goes on."
As Kokuten attempted to explain, Purina's amused and slightly perplexed smile suddenly shot into full-blown surprise when the doctor finished. "Wait, what?! Cassefin thinks-" Purina paused for a moment, realized that her voice might be a bit too loud for this sort of conversation, casually looking around with a quick smile before leaning in closer to Kokuten and speaking in a more hushed tone, although still very determined. "She thinks she's going to be like Arilisa?! Did she tell you that?!"
"Yes." was Kokuten's simple, quiet answer, as he stacked the last box up on his wall, completely obscuring the door from their view. "She's an imprint-child, who just recently had a brush with death. You don't think someone considers their life and the way it's going after something like that? She isolates herself in her office, wards off people and social contact, and works herself excessively for the sake of the station. I think the event of a few weeks ago made her realize just how disconnected she is. Furthermore, she's realizing just how it's detrimental this lifestyle is to her own individuality in being herself, rather than her mother."
"Well I didn't know any of that! She never told me anything like that!" Purina said in frustration, grabbing Kokuten by the front of his CSS suit and dragging him towards the corner, the tall Captain stumbling over himself all the way out of direct view of both the giant pile of boxes and the front door. "Cassefin never told me any of that?! Are you sure you're not just mistaking things? When exactly did she tell you all this?"
The Captain frowned at Purina, somewhat lacking in the will to simply out and tell her. He thought back to that night, and his turned downwards to his feet, causing him to embarrassingly remember the events. There were some decent moments, but he had shamed himself somewhat.
Kssssh! Came the sound of Kokuten's helmet as it depressurized, and was pulled away from his head. He pressed the head-gear against one of the magnetic hard-points on his pack, before sighing, and putting his hands to his hips.
"I was tending to her bandages, and we got talking... And... Well, things just happened. She gave me everything, the loneliness, the frustration, the fear. She was almost on the verge of tears." whispered Kokuten, leaning forward so the Administrator could hear him just fine. He looked behind himself for a moment before giving Purina a sterner stare, "Didn't you visit her while she was in convalescence?"
"Did you?" Purina returned to him a very critical stare. "I was busy trying to fix everything back to the way it was after De Soto messed up everything. Everyone was," the woman explained. It was true, in a sense; ever since De Soto was taken into custody, the remaining staff of the Cirrus Station under each Administrator was doing their best to try and undo many of the changes that De Soto had forced upon them during his graciously short stay. Purina's module was hit the hardest; De Soto was not keen on her brand of research. He found it useless, and by extension, he found her and her entire department useless.
Despite her previously skeptical glare, Purina's features softened back and she tilted her head back to the side with a sly smile. "D'aawwww... you went and comforted her? That's so adorable... I'm a little jealous of her now. Maybe I should buy a floating platform too and zip by her office later tonight a couple times."
Kokuten's eyes turned an impassioned red before he snatched his helmet off his hangar and snapped it over his face. He stood rather still for a moment, before the helmet sealed. Even then, with his hands aside and small, subversive glance, he had little to say. He became a little twitchy, and then raised his hand to speak, but then quickly retreated. Then, with a quick turn-around he changed the subject.
"This isn't a joke, Purina." Kokuten clasped his hands on the woman's shoulder, his polarized visor only giving a very faint outline of his face with the proximity, "The Cassefin I met that night was broken in more ways than one. She feels alone, she feels weak! She thinks she has no friends at all, and she wasn't even sure with you."
Purina's smile faded, looking a little pained by Kokuten's words and lack of enthusiasm for her light-hearted jest. "She wasn't even sure with me what, Kokuten?" Purina asked tentatively, already somewhat privy on the answer, but hesitantly dedicated to having it told to her by the one in front of her.
"She thinks you... aren't her friend. She believes you two have become very distant, and she feels this." answered Kokuten, dropping his hands from her shoulders, gripping his hips. "Marrissa's betrayal, this whole situation, and being stuck in the station? It's put a heavy weight on her."
"Oh..." Purina sighed softly, her face drooping into a downtrodden frown as she listened to Kokuten relate his experience with Cassefin. "Well... I... guess that is sort of my fault, then, huh?... Purina allowed herself to admit, nervously rubbing away at one shoulders as her eyes trailed off to the side.
"Likely it's the fault of both you and Cassefin. You're the one here who has known her the most. If you just talk to her, I could see it going miles for what it's worth. She just needs to know her friend is still there, and maybe..." Kokuten rolled his hands over, one after the other, "Maybe you two can try not being so much for business? Maybe a little social interaction will get her to open up, and it'll get her out of this troublesome rut."
"No... it is mostly my fault," Purina admitted once more, taking a firming stance. "Cassefin, Marrisa and I were the ones who got the ideas and work started for the Cirrus, but it was Cassefin's idea to begin with... and her mothers before her. We all put in a lot of work, had a lot of fun... but Marrisa ended up leaving us and started working for Laj Vinross Yu."
"The truth it, whenever we finally finished construction of the Cirrus, NAM picked Cassefin to run it... and I was jealous," Purina said, a shameful look across her face, as though she were admitting it to herself as much as she was to Kokuten. "I was always the smartest of the three of us, but Cassefin had so much more drive than me. I could be the smartest woman in the universe, and it wouldn't mean anything because I could never have anything close to Cassefin's passion for what she does. Even if she thinks she hates it. Every time I saw her after she became Head Administrator, it reminded me of why I wasn't in her position. So... I kind of just distanced myself from her. She always acted like she didn't like me all that much, ever since I met her; it was sort of easy, you know?" Purina offered Kokuten a weak smile of shaky assurance. She was met with a small measure of silence. The Captain leaned his head back, a small sigh rolling off his lips, sounding through his externals, before his polarized gaze came back on Purina.
"Administrator, do you consider yourself her friend? Do you really want to help her?" came Kokuten's small ultimatum.
Purina had to think about it for a long moment, lightly putting a single hand over her mouth and drawing her eyes down to the floor in thought. After that span of time had elapsed, Purina clenched her fist tightly in front of her and took on a much more determined gaze as she looked back at Cassefin. "Always, Chiaki. She's still one of my only real friends, and will always be if I have my way."
The Captain reached forth, and plucked the pad from Purina's grasp and thumbed towards the door. "Then go over there, and let her know it, it's the one thing she needs more than anything else right now," he let that roll of with a sort of wistful tone, before wratting his fingers on the edge of the board, "If it'd be best, I could watch the shipping while you do so, but please. Do it now."
"You're right!" Purina almost shouted, the encouraging words doing wonders for her confidence, taking great strides towards the doorway. As she neared, however, Cassefin zipped by another time, and the two locked eyes for what seemed like a vast, empty eternity, Cassefin's red-hot irises burning flaming daggers into Purina, which caused her to stop mid-step. As the Head Administrator zoomed right back out of sight almost instantaneously, Purina's frozen form turned her head back towards Kokuten, giving him an awkward look as she displayed a newfound hesitance for the idea.
Armored shoulders slumped just as Purina found reason to stop her spirited advance. He was beginning to feel exactly what she meant by how she lacked the fire Cassefin had. The Captain simply stared at her, before opening his visor, his face torn into curious disgust.
'What the hell was that? Why'd you stop?' he mouthed to her with his arms up in the air.
"She's so scary," Purina exclaimed out loud. "Are you sure she was crying?"
"Oh god damn it." Kokuten pressed a finger in her direction, his frustration mounting, his formerly well-known geniality far gone from himself. His visor closed with a forced sound as he pressed his words, "Either you deal with her, or you're going to have to deal with me. Take your pick."
Purina shot him a sly smirk. "Are you offering, Mr. Kokuten?"
Once again, she had put him to silence, but not for long, "And if I were?"
"Between my crazy old gal pal and the handsome captain?" Purina looked almost shocked that he didn't already know her answer to such a comparison. "I'm a scientist, not a saint, sir."
Handsome? Well... I wouldn't say... Kokuten grabbed his chin-guard, resisting a mild grin behind the visor. Cassefin never said I was handsome... He shook that thought off before, almost literally shaking his head with it.
"Well the handsome captain isn't offering." said Kokuten, before stepping over to the pink-haired, puffy Administrator. "Because the lovely administrator needs to have her chat with her less-approachable-yet-still-lovely friend." The slipped behind Purina, and placed a hand against her back, and began to push, "And if I have to flag her down, then that just ruins the genuine nature of it. So. You need. To..." He pushed roughly, getting her to move out into the hall, "... do it yourself!"
Purina let out a small yelp of surprise as she was thrust into the hallway, stumbling a bit across the off-white tiles. At Professor Popjoy's immediate right, Cassefin Montreal and her floating circular platform were mere feet away, speeding along her intended path past the doorway again. Upon catching sight of Purina suddenly obstructing her way, however, Cassefin's eyes widened in sudden shock and the hovering platform came to an immediate, abrupt halt. Cassefin, who was leaning forward on the handrail at the time, sailed over them with a cry of surprise, landing atop Purina and sending the two of them tumbling to the ground.
"Ah... ouch... PURINA!" Cassefin managed to growl in rage as she hastily recovered from the painful fall, laying atop Purina. The pink-haired Administrator smiled sheepishly behind her own wince of pain, letting out a nervous giggle in response to Cassefin's growing discontent. "Eh heh... h-hi Cassefin-"
"DON'T YOU 'HI' ME, PURINA," the fiery red-head spat out inbetween Purina's words, not giving the woman a chance to explain herself. "Just what do you think you're doing, jumping out into busy hallways? And what were you doing in there with Captain Chiaki, while we're at it? Plotting some crazy scheme, making trouble behind my back, hm? HMM?!" Cassefin's angry gaze inched forward little by little with each word, Purina's own face shrinking back with each slight movement. Upon reaching a close enough distance, however, Purina reached up and turned the tables on the Head Administrator, clasping her hands behind the woman's back and dragging her down into a great big hug, squealing in delight as she did so.
"OH! Cassefin, I'm so sooooorryyyyyy!" Purina cried out, both in joy and on the verge of tears. Cassefin had no chance to escape, being in such close proximity and caught off-guard, she was mercilessly squeezed to the point of horrifying embarassment. "GUH! ACK! PURINA! STOP!' Cassefin vainly attempted to pry herself loose, only to have Purina hold her even tighter, the pink-haired scientist mashing her cheek against Cassefins as she openly blubbered her heart onto her boss. The harder Cassefin struggled, the more fervently Purina embraced her, much to her chagrin. "Oh Cassefin! I'll never be mean to you again, so stop being so sad! You're not like Arilisa at all! YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND! I LUV YOU SO MUCH CASSEFIN! I'LL NEVER MAKE YOU SAD AGAIN!!"
"PURINA! HNNGH! PURINA! OH MY GOD, LET ME GO! STOP! PURINAAAA!"
