D
Dumont
ON> Queen's Slave, Arccos' quarters.
"If they want more information we can talk at a different time..."
Given comparison to the wide open CIC, or the more personalised quarters of some of the others of this group; Arccos' quarters on the Queen's Slave were far more humble. On the way over to 188604 she'd laid claim to a small corner of the cargo bays presently used to store power armor, and cordoned it off with cargo netting that could be refastened to the roof when she wasn't present. The little nest offered some bare essential privacy, but was... Cozy to a certain extent. Everywhere little bits of random junk; small jars of various liquids or fruit and nuts in odd combinations, scrap circuitry, right up to Arccos' datapads and quantum processing node were tied up with string to either the netting, or fastened hardpoints on the internal hull.
Everything hung down, rather than rested on the floor, as if the one who resided here were paranoid that the gravity could give out at any moment. Arccos herself sat on one of the few things that had been pulled in to accomodate her guests for the evening (or whatever time of day it was outside), an MRE crate. A couple of them rested around, while a single hammok hung in the corner as the only furniture available to sit or lounge on. Some simple life.
"So... You wanted to know about my biology?"
The chattering of the curious I'ee sisters could be heard long before they came into view, with Sammy leading the Ioth into Arccos' nook by hand; a daisy chain of space wasps. "Hello, Miss.", Sammy greeted pleasantly, arranging the two Ioth sisters before the 'spacer and chattering to both of them. The sisters boths raised their right forelimbs and waved to Arccos, apparently a practiced gesture, glancing curiously at their surroundings.
While the smaller of the two began examining a few of Arccos' jars, the taller one approached her and bowed politely, then began chattering and squeaking rapidly to her.
"She wishes to know more about your body.", Sammy translated. "She wonders if your height is natural, and how much of your body is composed of mechanical components. Furthermore, she wants to know why your body does not look overtly mechanical in the first place." Sammy finished translating soon after the Ioth had finished speaking, after which the smaller Ioth squeaked and approached Arccos as well. "Oh,", Sammy translated for her as well. "They also ask if they can touch you."
With the rather rapid fire barrage of questions, it took Arccos a moment to compile some sort of internal list of priorities of answering. She didn't quite get to respond to the greeting before thinking on her answers.
"Okay, they can touch me as long as they don't try and dismantle me." She started, first taking off one of her gloves and offering out a hand for a second, before withdrawing it and pressing a finger to a slight seam in her skin at the top of her left arm. A small hiss, as if something internal had depressurised came from it. "My body is about... Mm... One fiftieth of my original biology, with only my brain and a bit of my spinal column remaining. The rest is cybernetics."
She gave a hard tug at the skin on her bicep, slowly peeling it down like one would an orange. The external synthetic layer coming down like one long glove, revealing a dull grey metallic shell, with a few revealed components beneath being corded synthetic muscle made of some sort of metallic coils. The elbow joint looked like a metallic sphere surrounded by small plates to make an appropriate frame for the exterior.
"Height was by choice, I was originally about this much shorter." She held up one metal hand and one still covered in synthetic skin, about a foot and a half apart. "I can also offer you schematics for the cybernetics if you're particularly interested... And I look mostly organic because this is... Uncomfortable. It's disturbing to not recognise yourself in a mirror after the prosthesis is in place..."
Sammy nodded and spoke to the two sisters, who listened intently to his translation. They both let out little gasps when they saw Arccos peel away the 'skin' of her arm, and immediately pressed closer like excited school children on a science excursion. The next couple of minutes were taken up by the Ioth sisters gently poking, squeezing and feeling at Arccos' arms; each taking turns to examine the uncovered and covered arms. All the while, the Ioth chattered and squeaked to one another like budgies, the smaller one even climbing up onto the 'spacer's lap and poking at her face using her antennae; Arccos could see her face reflected in the I'ee's eyes.
"Be... sure to tell me if they get too carried away...", Sammy noted, watching the excited doctor I'ee with bemusement.
"It's fine." Arccos said, trying to hold still so as to not get in the way of whatever they were looking for, same time she couldn't quite keep a smile from her face since it was surprisingly cute. "Freespacers don't really have a concept of personal space. Although if they have questions I can answer."
Her reactions were a bit odd, though. Or maybe not odd. She didn't seem to react to touch in any way, as if she had no real sensation at all. At the same time up close they could sense that she didn't breathe steadily, nor really need to blink. At the same time, her body temperature was a bit abnormally high.
The smaller sister squeaked when she saw Arccos smile, stroking the tip of her antenna over the corner of her mouth before turning to Sammy and chattering to him, apparently asking a question. Sammy answered back in their own language before translating for Arccos: "They find it curious that you would retain a function like smiling when so much of your old body has been replaced.", he reported. Meanwhile, the taller sister was examining Arccos' feet and legs, pinching each toe between her claws and wiggling them about to test how flexible the joints were whilst squeaking curiously.
Surprisingly, after hearing the reply to her earlier question, the littler sister gave Arccos a hug, pressing up close to her on her lap and wrapping her four 'arms' around the spacer's torso. The I'ee nuzzled against her, heedless that her head was pressed into Arccos' chest, then remained still for a few moments before squeaking to Sammy again. "She says she can't feel your breathing, and that you are quite hot.", he translated for her, blissfully unaware of any possible misconceptions to what he just said. "She asks if these are natural for your people."
All through the bug hug, Arccos just looked down, raising her eyebrows a little. She understood how this could be a bit weird, but then considered that these creatures were one of the most alien things she'd ever encountered... If there was some misconception, she was more concerned about being on the end giving insult. It seemed answered when Sammy explained the breathing curiousity, and her eyebrows lowered.
"There's five different types of Freespacers... And those are just broad categories. But for the Type IV and Type V Freespacers, breathing is abnormal. I do breathe, but it's through a steady sort of... Pump mechanism, I suppose." Arccos rather timidly extended both her arms for a moment, returning the hug, but making sure her touch was light enough that the little one in her lap could wriggle free if it wanted. "It's continuous rather than in cycles of inhaling and exhaling, although I can modulate the power of it to give that impression. My ribs are more like a solid metal cylinder, though. You'll not feel me breathe. The heat is from an internal thermo-electric generator, which I need to remain motive and provides small doses of radiation that I need to keep my biological components alive and well."
Down below, she wriggled her toes once or twice. They were flexible, but compared to some of her other engineering they didn't seem to be as well reinforced. The I'ee being easily able to press in on the synthetic skin to sense hollows inside the toe-framing metal beneath. It seemed likely they were purely cosmetic.
The smaller Ioth sister squeaked, apparently in surprise, when Arccos returned the hug, raising her head to look up at her; antennae raised attentively like a rabbit's ears. Then she let out a soft, affectionate whine and gently squeezed Arccos' body. Hearing this, the older sister perked up as well, then squeaked in a happy tone, getting to her feet and giving Arccos a hug of her own from the side, chattering softly to her.
Sammy, meanwhile, chortled quietly, stepping a little closer with a claw touching his 'chin'. "They like that you hug back.", he stated. "She says that it feels nice."
Arccos gave a little grin, holding the hug for a few more seconds before releasing and holding out her limbs as if to convey that they wanted to examine her; not just hug her.
"I don't really know what hugging means to your people, so I didn't know if it was rude or not... Figured it would be ruder to deny?"
Sammy himself squeaked this time. "We greatly enjoy hugging.", he affirmed. "It was honestly a nice surprise to find out just how many alien species shared it." The larger of the two sisters began squabbling with her smaller sister, who after a brief, chattery argument, climbed off of Arccos' lap and was immediately replaced by the larger sister; who promptly cuddled up to the 'spacer again. The smaller one huffed softly to herself and resumed their more practical interactions with Arccos' body, examining her from behind.
"Hmm...", Sammy tilted his head, watching the affectionate, larger Ioth snuggling up to the 'spacer.
"Well, it's something like a universal sign of closeness I think..." Arccos mused, hugging the larger Ioth sister. From behind, it was evident that Arccos had some sort of central spine armature connecting most of her body together., all connected with more artificial muscles. It seemed that most of her body was underneath some sort of artificial shell with an internal frame covered in synthetic muscle, the frame only really evident to the touch under her neck and at the joints.
"Shows you're willing to just be close with something or someone, without hurting them... I guess anyway, I'm not a mindtwister who'd study this sort of thing..." She released one arm from he Ioth sister, extending it out to Sammy is if to say room for one more.
Sammy squeaked timidly when Arccos opened her arms to him, tilting his head and clasping his hands together nervously before tottering closer and giving her a hug. Again, the smaller sister let out a little, affectionate whine, and hugged Arccos from behind; a cuddle pile of three insects on the far taller Freespacer. "Thank you, Miss.", Sammy said, nuzzling against her shoulder.
Arccos let out a little laugh, the I'ee were surprisingly cute for what could be a quite terrifying creature.
"Any time. But I think you're getting a bit distracted if you were here for some sort of analysis."
"Y-yes, I think so.", Sammy agreed, chattering something to the two Ioth sisters, who only responded with a grumpy huff, cuddling up closer to Arccos. "They say they just want to cuddle now." The Ee'ith ambassador sounded a little embarrassed, but not so much so that he actually stopped hugging Arccos himself. "But if you want us off, please do tell me."
"Well, I can keep this up indefinitely, but I thought you were here as some sort of fact finding mission... Learn more about the universe, that sort of thing. I can give them full schematics of my cybernetics, as I said, but I thought they could do with seeing a working model or something..."
Arccos gave a little pat on the back of Sammy's head, as if to reassure that there was nothing to be embarassed about.
"Oh, I believe the curiousity of these Ioth sisters was more simply indulgent.", Sammy remarked, hugging closer to her. "Our mission is more specifically to find technologies of a practical nature for self defence. My family, at least, are only here to meet with new alien species and communicate with known ones. The Ioth are here solely for medical aid, so they have no true scientific research to carry out here."
The I'ee in Arccos' lap seemed quite relaxed now, lazing against the spacer's chest with drooping antennae, her abdomen pulsing gently in time with her breaths. Similarly, the shorter Ioth sister had rested her head on Arccos' shoulder, and was making soft, squeaking sounds.
"So you've crossed the stars to find new and novel peoples to hug?" Arccos asked with some amusement, "Shame there aren't more people out there like you."
"Ideally, yes!", Sammy said with a soft, chortling laugh. "My family would love that!" The sleepy, tall Ioth raised her head sluggishly to look at Sammy in response to his laugh, then made a soft, grumbling chatter and nuzzled back into Arccos' bosom.
"Well, I can bootstrap a connection to the Deoradh Sentience and put you out there as friendlies. The rest of the Free State should be willing to offer hugs, or at least a friendly reception from then on." Arccos thought on it for a second, "Well, with a few exceptions. But those are usually few and far between."
Sammy let out a happy squeak, not really knowing what either were, but finding it irrelevant. "That's good!", he said, nuzzling into Arccos' cheek with his antennae. "Thank you, Miss!"
"It's no problem. Always a good thing to meet friends out there." Arccos tightened the hug a little, settling in as there didn't seem to be an end in sight to I'ee affection.
Sammy agreed with a happy squeak, which the two Ioth sisters echoed in a short, high-pitched chorus of affection.
"If they want more information we can talk at a different time..."
Given comparison to the wide open CIC, or the more personalised quarters of some of the others of this group; Arccos' quarters on the Queen's Slave were far more humble. On the way over to 188604 she'd laid claim to a small corner of the cargo bays presently used to store power armor, and cordoned it off with cargo netting that could be refastened to the roof when she wasn't present. The little nest offered some bare essential privacy, but was... Cozy to a certain extent. Everywhere little bits of random junk; small jars of various liquids or fruit and nuts in odd combinations, scrap circuitry, right up to Arccos' datapads and quantum processing node were tied up with string to either the netting, or fastened hardpoints on the internal hull.
Everything hung down, rather than rested on the floor, as if the one who resided here were paranoid that the gravity could give out at any moment. Arccos herself sat on one of the few things that had been pulled in to accomodate her guests for the evening (or whatever time of day it was outside), an MRE crate. A couple of them rested around, while a single hammok hung in the corner as the only furniture available to sit or lounge on. Some simple life.
"So... You wanted to know about my biology?"
The chattering of the curious I'ee sisters could be heard long before they came into view, with Sammy leading the Ioth into Arccos' nook by hand; a daisy chain of space wasps. "Hello, Miss.", Sammy greeted pleasantly, arranging the two Ioth sisters before the 'spacer and chattering to both of them. The sisters boths raised their right forelimbs and waved to Arccos, apparently a practiced gesture, glancing curiously at their surroundings.
While the smaller of the two began examining a few of Arccos' jars, the taller one approached her and bowed politely, then began chattering and squeaking rapidly to her.
"She wishes to know more about your body.", Sammy translated. "She wonders if your height is natural, and how much of your body is composed of mechanical components. Furthermore, she wants to know why your body does not look overtly mechanical in the first place." Sammy finished translating soon after the Ioth had finished speaking, after which the smaller Ioth squeaked and approached Arccos as well. "Oh,", Sammy translated for her as well. "They also ask if they can touch you."
With the rather rapid fire barrage of questions, it took Arccos a moment to compile some sort of internal list of priorities of answering. She didn't quite get to respond to the greeting before thinking on her answers.
"Okay, they can touch me as long as they don't try and dismantle me." She started, first taking off one of her gloves and offering out a hand for a second, before withdrawing it and pressing a finger to a slight seam in her skin at the top of her left arm. A small hiss, as if something internal had depressurised came from it. "My body is about... Mm... One fiftieth of my original biology, with only my brain and a bit of my spinal column remaining. The rest is cybernetics."
She gave a hard tug at the skin on her bicep, slowly peeling it down like one would an orange. The external synthetic layer coming down like one long glove, revealing a dull grey metallic shell, with a few revealed components beneath being corded synthetic muscle made of some sort of metallic coils. The elbow joint looked like a metallic sphere surrounded by small plates to make an appropriate frame for the exterior.
"Height was by choice, I was originally about this much shorter." She held up one metal hand and one still covered in synthetic skin, about a foot and a half apart. "I can also offer you schematics for the cybernetics if you're particularly interested... And I look mostly organic because this is... Uncomfortable. It's disturbing to not recognise yourself in a mirror after the prosthesis is in place..."
Sammy nodded and spoke to the two sisters, who listened intently to his translation. They both let out little gasps when they saw Arccos peel away the 'skin' of her arm, and immediately pressed closer like excited school children on a science excursion. The next couple of minutes were taken up by the Ioth sisters gently poking, squeezing and feeling at Arccos' arms; each taking turns to examine the uncovered and covered arms. All the while, the Ioth chattered and squeaked to one another like budgies, the smaller one even climbing up onto the 'spacer's lap and poking at her face using her antennae; Arccos could see her face reflected in the I'ee's eyes.
"Be... sure to tell me if they get too carried away...", Sammy noted, watching the excited doctor I'ee with bemusement.
"It's fine." Arccos said, trying to hold still so as to not get in the way of whatever they were looking for, same time she couldn't quite keep a smile from her face since it was surprisingly cute. "Freespacers don't really have a concept of personal space. Although if they have questions I can answer."
Her reactions were a bit odd, though. Or maybe not odd. She didn't seem to react to touch in any way, as if she had no real sensation at all. At the same time up close they could sense that she didn't breathe steadily, nor really need to blink. At the same time, her body temperature was a bit abnormally high.
The smaller sister squeaked when she saw Arccos smile, stroking the tip of her antenna over the corner of her mouth before turning to Sammy and chattering to him, apparently asking a question. Sammy answered back in their own language before translating for Arccos: "They find it curious that you would retain a function like smiling when so much of your old body has been replaced.", he reported. Meanwhile, the taller sister was examining Arccos' feet and legs, pinching each toe between her claws and wiggling them about to test how flexible the joints were whilst squeaking curiously.
Surprisingly, after hearing the reply to her earlier question, the littler sister gave Arccos a hug, pressing up close to her on her lap and wrapping her four 'arms' around the spacer's torso. The I'ee nuzzled against her, heedless that her head was pressed into Arccos' chest, then remained still for a few moments before squeaking to Sammy again. "She says she can't feel your breathing, and that you are quite hot.", he translated for her, blissfully unaware of any possible misconceptions to what he just said. "She asks if these are natural for your people."
All through the bug hug, Arccos just looked down, raising her eyebrows a little. She understood how this could be a bit weird, but then considered that these creatures were one of the most alien things she'd ever encountered... If there was some misconception, she was more concerned about being on the end giving insult. It seemed answered when Sammy explained the breathing curiousity, and her eyebrows lowered.
"There's five different types of Freespacers... And those are just broad categories. But for the Type IV and Type V Freespacers, breathing is abnormal. I do breathe, but it's through a steady sort of... Pump mechanism, I suppose." Arccos rather timidly extended both her arms for a moment, returning the hug, but making sure her touch was light enough that the little one in her lap could wriggle free if it wanted. "It's continuous rather than in cycles of inhaling and exhaling, although I can modulate the power of it to give that impression. My ribs are more like a solid metal cylinder, though. You'll not feel me breathe. The heat is from an internal thermo-electric generator, which I need to remain motive and provides small doses of radiation that I need to keep my biological components alive and well."
Down below, she wriggled her toes once or twice. They were flexible, but compared to some of her other engineering they didn't seem to be as well reinforced. The I'ee being easily able to press in on the synthetic skin to sense hollows inside the toe-framing metal beneath. It seemed likely they were purely cosmetic.
The smaller Ioth sister squeaked, apparently in surprise, when Arccos returned the hug, raising her head to look up at her; antennae raised attentively like a rabbit's ears. Then she let out a soft, affectionate whine and gently squeezed Arccos' body. Hearing this, the older sister perked up as well, then squeaked in a happy tone, getting to her feet and giving Arccos a hug of her own from the side, chattering softly to her.
Sammy, meanwhile, chortled quietly, stepping a little closer with a claw touching his 'chin'. "They like that you hug back.", he stated. "She says that it feels nice."
Arccos gave a little grin, holding the hug for a few more seconds before releasing and holding out her limbs as if to convey that they wanted to examine her; not just hug her.
"I don't really know what hugging means to your people, so I didn't know if it was rude or not... Figured it would be ruder to deny?"
Sammy himself squeaked this time. "We greatly enjoy hugging.", he affirmed. "It was honestly a nice surprise to find out just how many alien species shared it." The larger of the two sisters began squabbling with her smaller sister, who after a brief, chattery argument, climbed off of Arccos' lap and was immediately replaced by the larger sister; who promptly cuddled up to the 'spacer again. The smaller one huffed softly to herself and resumed their more practical interactions with Arccos' body, examining her from behind.
"Hmm...", Sammy tilted his head, watching the affectionate, larger Ioth snuggling up to the 'spacer.
"Well, it's something like a universal sign of closeness I think..." Arccos mused, hugging the larger Ioth sister. From behind, it was evident that Arccos had some sort of central spine armature connecting most of her body together., all connected with more artificial muscles. It seemed that most of her body was underneath some sort of artificial shell with an internal frame covered in synthetic muscle, the frame only really evident to the touch under her neck and at the joints.
"Shows you're willing to just be close with something or someone, without hurting them... I guess anyway, I'm not a mindtwister who'd study this sort of thing..." She released one arm from he Ioth sister, extending it out to Sammy is if to say room for one more.
Sammy squeaked timidly when Arccos opened her arms to him, tilting his head and clasping his hands together nervously before tottering closer and giving her a hug. Again, the smaller sister let out a little, affectionate whine, and hugged Arccos from behind; a cuddle pile of three insects on the far taller Freespacer. "Thank you, Miss.", Sammy said, nuzzling against her shoulder.
Arccos let out a little laugh, the I'ee were surprisingly cute for what could be a quite terrifying creature.
"Any time. But I think you're getting a bit distracted if you were here for some sort of analysis."
"Y-yes, I think so.", Sammy agreed, chattering something to the two Ioth sisters, who only responded with a grumpy huff, cuddling up closer to Arccos. "They say they just want to cuddle now." The Ee'ith ambassador sounded a little embarrassed, but not so much so that he actually stopped hugging Arccos himself. "But if you want us off, please do tell me."
"Well, I can keep this up indefinitely, but I thought you were here as some sort of fact finding mission... Learn more about the universe, that sort of thing. I can give them full schematics of my cybernetics, as I said, but I thought they could do with seeing a working model or something..."
Arccos gave a little pat on the back of Sammy's head, as if to reassure that there was nothing to be embarassed about.
"Oh, I believe the curiousity of these Ioth sisters was more simply indulgent.", Sammy remarked, hugging closer to her. "Our mission is more specifically to find technologies of a practical nature for self defence. My family, at least, are only here to meet with new alien species and communicate with known ones. The Ioth are here solely for medical aid, so they have no true scientific research to carry out here."
The I'ee in Arccos' lap seemed quite relaxed now, lazing against the spacer's chest with drooping antennae, her abdomen pulsing gently in time with her breaths. Similarly, the shorter Ioth sister had rested her head on Arccos' shoulder, and was making soft, squeaking sounds.
"So you've crossed the stars to find new and novel peoples to hug?" Arccos asked with some amusement, "Shame there aren't more people out there like you."
"Ideally, yes!", Sammy said with a soft, chortling laugh. "My family would love that!" The sleepy, tall Ioth raised her head sluggishly to look at Sammy in response to his laugh, then made a soft, grumbling chatter and nuzzled back into Arccos' bosom.
"Well, I can bootstrap a connection to the Deoradh Sentience and put you out there as friendlies. The rest of the Free State should be willing to offer hugs, or at least a friendly reception from then on." Arccos thought on it for a second, "Well, with a few exceptions. But those are usually few and far between."
Sammy let out a happy squeak, not really knowing what either were, but finding it irrelevant. "That's good!", he said, nuzzling into Arccos' cheek with his antennae. "Thank you, Miss!"
"It's no problem. Always a good thing to meet friends out there." Arccos tightened the hug a little, settling in as there didn't seem to be an end in sight to I'ee affection.
Sammy agreed with a happy squeak, which the two Ioth sisters echoed in a short, high-pitched chorus of affection.
