OsakanOne
Retired Member
Aiesu sat waiting. She hated waiting. From time to time over the last hour, she'd scratched at the stump where her lower leg should have been and refastened her prosthetic legs, tweaked her neck-tie and interfered with her glasses - even scuffed up her messy hair for the sake of volume.
The wait was beginning to get to her. She reached for the scar about her neck, recalling the events on the station. It had taken two weeks for her memory to return to her in full.
A knock sounded at the door - making her yelp as she was disturbed in deep thought.
She dashed to it with a hop of her synthetic feet, fingertips immediately undoing the chain about her door. Words were had with the delivery person and a large wooden crate brought into the room - pushed by him, since she could never get the traction on those legs. She signed papers then locked her door, slamming it shut with her back to it - doing the bolt up behind her shoulder - and then the other bolt - and then a third.
For a few minutes, Aiesu walked, orbiting the crate several times, eyeing it suspiciously before reading a sheet of paper before she gathered tools normally only used on her vast battery of humming computers and digital cabinets that filled up literally a whole wall of the small place.
Wrestling the wooden shipping casing off, she then stared at the plastic and glasswork inside, the refrigerator shaped thing, laying it down carefully and then punching in some numbers into a dialpad.
From there, she waited again, as the timer ticked down from thirty, milliseconds counting alongside in hundredths - making the moment last longer than it should have.
30:99...
29:31...
28:22...
Thinking about it, Aiesu had made so many of these but she'd never had the misfortune to have to meet with one, so this... Would be interesting.
03:67...
02:44...
01:02...
00:52...
00:00...
HIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
The lid slowly decompressed and came away, opening like a coffin. Wafting the vapor aside and coughing some, she leant over, glancing into the case - noting a figure and a number of wrapped presents placed over her body.
"Hello in there?" she leant over, tapping spacebar on one of her keyboards. A song began to play.
A short slender arm slowly rose from the foggy vapor - sight seared by the light. Two claps of Aiesu's hands could be heard, the lights dimming to about 10%, less painful now. Dizziness rocked the pale figure's head as she - or even he sat up, the wrapped gifts rustling as they fell from her flat chest down about her lap.
Only she wasn't a she.
"Happy birthday!" Aiesu blew on a party whistle over-dramatically - the thing unrolling to sing loudly and almost cynically from her as she sat in her computer-chair, leaning over the stasis-module. The music bleated quietly in the background.
"Did you sleep well?"
The figure rose, eyes opening for the first time in its life. It blinked once. Then twice.
"This. . . Is not where you put me under the scanner," the figure croaked, feeling a little dehydrated. He felt like rolling back into the. . . whatever it was and going back to sleep, except for two things.
Actually, now that he thought about it, he was as naked as the day he was born. Immediately, one hand went to cover his groin while the other folded over his chest.
"Eya!" Seiren squeaked, blushing profusely.
"You're a boy" Aiesu said flatly. "Why are you covering your chest? Irregardless, I'm Aiesu. Aiesu Kalopsia. We've met before. Actually, some people call me Alice. Well, a bonkers Elysian dockmaster who got me gambling calls me Alice. But like I said, she's off her rocker and Alice is not my name. Huu... I think I might be a bit excited. This isn't like me, so you'll have to excuse me. I don't usually get guests."
Seiren ignored the question.
"When the-what-why am I naked!?"
"Yes. Well. That's exciting too."
She reached aside, tossing a towel in Seiren's direction and then pulled out a shelf beneath the decking he was laid on out over her floor. The first was a thin slice on one side loaded with clothes.
"Well, you certainly pack like a woman... Your effects madam?"
The other of the two was a thick deep drawer loaded with cases and packages - packed level.
Her eyes rose up to meet Seiren's. "These are replicas of whatever you fed into the duplicator, atom for atom" she said, still getting over the fact she had a boy - a real boy in her dorm-room, and a pretty one too of her own invention. All to herself. She swallowed audiably, taking a deep breath. Nasty bad wrong thoughts. Ugh.
"I trust when we met last, I told you all about constructs?"
For the second time (or the first, depending on the perspective one takes) in his life, Seiren managed to vocalise an ellipsis. How he managed to do so was beyond him, but he clothed himself faster than a whirlwind tears down a house of cards. That is to say, very fast. It was a simple Yamataian kimono, snow grey with green trim.
"...What an odd sound. And such odd dress. Well... As I said... Did you get the briefing or did that come after the read process? What's the last thing you remember me doing to you before the big machine came down over your head?" Aiesu quizzed, adjusting her glasses with her thumb.
"Well, I remember there was a lot of food involved, and then you did a bodyscan and touched me inna-" he started saying, but then stopped once he actually got a good look at Aiesu. He started to say, "You're an Elysian? Huh. I thought Elysian wings were. . . y'know. . . large. And-"
"Lorath. I asked you about Lorath food" Aiesu said, glancing at a transcript of the conversation he'd had with the other her. 42C.
"Oh, duh. But-"
But then he noticed the legs. They were. . . well, they weren't the cybernetics or flesh he was used to seeing. In an attempt to NOT ask about those, he switch the subject to himself.
"I was expecting. . . to be a robot or something."
"Well, technically you are."
"Wait, so..."
"I'm the original Aiesu, that's right."
"Huh. You're kinda short."
"You're not exactly a tower of power yourself, little man"
"You're shorter than me! And you were ... Taller earlier. Wait, this is way off topic! So am I getting paid absurd sums to be your manservant?"
"Room-mate, actually" Aiesu said, detatched as she returned to her computer. "You're classed as my room-mate. The new rules state no room can accomodate only one person, and that I'm allowed to invite someone else in, provided they join the academic programs..."
"Wait, so does that mean I have to go to school?"
Seiren's jaw dropped.
"Well... I've enrolled you in advanced home economics and food sciences. That's catering and manufacturing, so you can learn about those processes" Aiesu reeled. "There's still two slots open for classes if you want to do something else. I sort of broke into the university computers and edited some records. They think you're our Nepleslian exchange student."
"But I'm Yamaaaatiaaaaaan," Seiren complained.
"...Nobody around here really likes Yamataians... Its like a form of institutionalized racism, because of the thing with scandal with Hanako. I'm doing you a favor, trust me. They'd lynch you."
"Right, right. . . Hey! Did you know that Kamen Sentai Nekorangers is based ON some of Hanako's explots?" The construct said in an attempt to diffuse the sudden awkwardness.
Aiesu glanced at her book-shelf, up at the figurines sat on the highest shelf behind glass. An assortment of Sami's complete line - Hanako's very character - before slowly looking back to Seiren, noting he'd have seen them. "No, I have no idea what you're talking about" she said, her expression utterly deadpan.
"Well, more the YSS Sakura, but that's a whole different story." Seiren sighed, leaning against the stasis thing. "I guess I'll take some sort of programming class. I've been meaning to bone up on data structures for a while, anyways. It makes integration of foreign weapons into Frames easier."
"Well... I have a joint degree in software engineering and AI development, so.." she corrected her glasses with her thumb. "I can probably help you out with that one if you want to join an advanced course..." she scratched the back of her neck. "Though... I uh... slipped some extra stuff into your construct"
"Woah, woah, woah. Define 'extra'. How extra are we talking? Are we talking transforming robot extra, giant laser cannon extra, supercomputer extra, or transforming supercomputer robot with a laser extra?"
Clearly, Seiren had watched too many saturday morning cartoons when growing up.
"You... Likely have a working knowledge to build most of those now, actually" Aiesu leaned back in her chair, tweaking the red frames of her glasses before she began typing something.
". . . SUGOI!" Seiren yipped, pumping a fist in the air and lifting off the ground for a moment. The overjoyed look on his face was nearly so sweet that a food critic would shut down a restaurant just because it made the entire menu too sweet.
"It... It'll take a few months to set in..." she said, grimacing at Seiren's Yamataian fanfare. "And you'll have to use the knowledge individually before it takes and the different diciplines talk to eachother so you could but... There's a little bit of me in your construct."
"Say what now?"
"Parts of my mind are what makes this particular you" she replied, still typing.
"Wait so am I me or aren't I?"
She paused. "You're this you. I can't explain it any simpler. Oh, by the way. This is a girl's dorm, so in public and the student database also thinks you're a girl. I could have made you into one but I figure you'd be annoyed with me if I did."
"Yes, yes I would have been."
"But to explain what you are..." Aiesu reclined, drumming on her thigh with a pen. "You're basically a computer inside a synthetic skeleton with its own drive joints and a self-contained fairly low-end portable nuclear reactor, wrapped in organs and muscles and nerves and flesh and hair. You're for all intents and purposes, a real person, just a bit more survivable. How could you think you were synthetic? If I moulded your winky for an android, it would have been bigger, trust me."
"Ignoring that last comment, did I at least. . . prepare for this sort of eventuality?" Seiren asked. It really was a pointless question, considering that he already knew what he'd do in this situation.
"Eventuality?"
"That I would have to crossdress to survive."
"Oh, I see. Its hardly cross-dressing. You never went through puberty, like she -- I -- told you. You're a girl with a penis, basically. But yes, I did add in some Lorath ettiquette in that sense, so you know how to conduct yourself in public beyond aesthetics."
"Good to know I already know these things, knowingly."
"Tell me, did the other me call it a winkie too?"
"Uh, not that I know of. In fact, she didn't ever say any such word."
"Maybe it was a replication error then..." Aiesu pondered to herself. "Well, sorry about that, but it does sort of aid your cause. Regardless..." Aiesu tipped the stasis unit onto its side, like a drinks dispenser or refridgerator now. "Could you move this for me? I need it in that corner, where the fridge used to be. You should know where that is from my memory."
"Uh, yeah, I guess. . ." Seiren replied, assisting her with moving it. "Out of curiosity, what happened to your fridge?"
"Sold it. A stasis unit is much better."
"Right, you mentioned something about it storing food perfectly or something. Wait, did any of my food ship with this?"
"Some of it. Check the packages... But some of that's mine too. I don't know what the rest of it is though, like those three suitcases on the bottom layer are. You packed it all."
"Right, right," He mumbled, pulling out several of the containers. "Scallops, that's mine. . . LOTS of Mac and cheese, definitely yours. . . Ah whatever. Scallops for now. You have a microwave or some sort of fancy heater?"
"Uhm... Sure. Its a micro-wave oven. It heats as an oven or as a microwave... Just don't put metal in it on microwave mode."
"Yeah, 'course," the construct replied, moving over to the device and popping the scallops in on oven setting. He stood there in silence, waiting for it to heat up.
It really was awkward when you didn't have anything to say.
"Since you were on the Garancier, I thought I'd make a point that we don't have anything quite so fancy here. The money-trail doesn't come here."
"And my own funds?"
"You've got some money here but... You'll have to get a job."
"A job. . . A JOB?!?!"
The wait was beginning to get to her. She reached for the scar about her neck, recalling the events on the station. It had taken two weeks for her memory to return to her in full.
A knock sounded at the door - making her yelp as she was disturbed in deep thought.
She dashed to it with a hop of her synthetic feet, fingertips immediately undoing the chain about her door. Words were had with the delivery person and a large wooden crate brought into the room - pushed by him, since she could never get the traction on those legs. She signed papers then locked her door, slamming it shut with her back to it - doing the bolt up behind her shoulder - and then the other bolt - and then a third.
For a few minutes, Aiesu walked, orbiting the crate several times, eyeing it suspiciously before reading a sheet of paper before she gathered tools normally only used on her vast battery of humming computers and digital cabinets that filled up literally a whole wall of the small place.
Wrestling the wooden shipping casing off, she then stared at the plastic and glasswork inside, the refrigerator shaped thing, laying it down carefully and then punching in some numbers into a dialpad.
From there, she waited again, as the timer ticked down from thirty, milliseconds counting alongside in hundredths - making the moment last longer than it should have.
30:99...
29:31...
28:22...
Thinking about it, Aiesu had made so many of these but she'd never had the misfortune to have to meet with one, so this... Would be interesting.
03:67...
02:44...
01:02...
00:52...
00:00...
HIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
The lid slowly decompressed and came away, opening like a coffin. Wafting the vapor aside and coughing some, she leant over, glancing into the case - noting a figure and a number of wrapped presents placed over her body.
"Hello in there?" she leant over, tapping spacebar on one of her keyboards. A song began to play.
♫ Nena - "99 Red Balloons"
A short slender arm slowly rose from the foggy vapor - sight seared by the light. Two claps of Aiesu's hands could be heard, the lights dimming to about 10%, less painful now. Dizziness rocked the pale figure's head as she - or even he sat up, the wrapped gifts rustling as they fell from her flat chest down about her lap.
Only she wasn't a she.
"Happy birthday!" Aiesu blew on a party whistle over-dramatically - the thing unrolling to sing loudly and almost cynically from her as she sat in her computer-chair, leaning over the stasis-module. The music bleated quietly in the background.
"Did you sleep well?"
The figure rose, eyes opening for the first time in its life. It blinked once. Then twice.
"This. . . Is not where you put me under the scanner," the figure croaked, feeling a little dehydrated. He felt like rolling back into the. . . whatever it was and going back to sleep, except for two things.
1: It was kind of cold.
2: He lacked a blanket.
Actually, now that he thought about it, he was as naked as the day he was born. Immediately, one hand went to cover his groin while the other folded over his chest.
"Eya!" Seiren squeaked, blushing profusely.
"You're a boy" Aiesu said flatly. "Why are you covering your chest? Irregardless, I'm Aiesu. Aiesu Kalopsia. We've met before. Actually, some people call me Alice. Well, a bonkers Elysian dockmaster who got me gambling calls me Alice. But like I said, she's off her rocker and Alice is not my name. Huu... I think I might be a bit excited. This isn't like me, so you'll have to excuse me. I don't usually get guests."
Seiren ignored the question.
"When the-what-why am I naked!?"
"Yes. Well. That's exciting too."
She reached aside, tossing a towel in Seiren's direction and then pulled out a shelf beneath the decking he was laid on out over her floor. The first was a thin slice on one side loaded with clothes.
"Well, you certainly pack like a woman... Your effects madam?"
The other of the two was a thick deep drawer loaded with cases and packages - packed level.
Her eyes rose up to meet Seiren's. "These are replicas of whatever you fed into the duplicator, atom for atom" she said, still getting over the fact she had a boy - a real boy in her dorm-room, and a pretty one too of her own invention. All to herself. She swallowed audiably, taking a deep breath. Nasty bad wrong thoughts. Ugh.
"I trust when we met last, I told you all about constructs?"
For the second time (or the first, depending on the perspective one takes) in his life, Seiren managed to vocalise an ellipsis. How he managed to do so was beyond him, but he clothed himself faster than a whirlwind tears down a house of cards. That is to say, very fast. It was a simple Yamataian kimono, snow grey with green trim.
"...What an odd sound. And such odd dress. Well... As I said... Did you get the briefing or did that come after the read process? What's the last thing you remember me doing to you before the big machine came down over your head?" Aiesu quizzed, adjusting her glasses with her thumb.
"Well, I remember there was a lot of food involved, and then you did a bodyscan and touched me inna-" he started saying, but then stopped once he actually got a good look at Aiesu. He started to say, "You're an Elysian? Huh. I thought Elysian wings were. . . y'know. . . large. And-"
"Lorath. I asked you about Lorath food" Aiesu said, glancing at a transcript of the conversation he'd had with the other her. 42C.
"Oh, duh. But-"
But then he noticed the legs. They were. . . well, they weren't the cybernetics or flesh he was used to seeing. In an attempt to NOT ask about those, he switch the subject to himself.
"I was expecting. . . to be a robot or something."
"Well, technically you are."
"Wait, so..."
"I'm the original Aiesu, that's right."
"Huh. You're kinda short."
"You're not exactly a tower of power yourself, little man"
"You're shorter than me! And you were ... Taller earlier. Wait, this is way off topic! So am I getting paid absurd sums to be your manservant?"
"Room-mate, actually" Aiesu said, detatched as she returned to her computer. "You're classed as my room-mate. The new rules state no room can accomodate only one person, and that I'm allowed to invite someone else in, provided they join the academic programs..."
"Wait, so does that mean I have to go to school?"
Seiren's jaw dropped.
"Well... I've enrolled you in advanced home economics and food sciences. That's catering and manufacturing, so you can learn about those processes" Aiesu reeled. "There's still two slots open for classes if you want to do something else. I sort of broke into the university computers and edited some records. They think you're our Nepleslian exchange student."
"But I'm Yamaaaatiaaaaaan," Seiren complained.
"...Nobody around here really likes Yamataians... Its like a form of institutionalized racism, because of the thing with scandal with Hanako. I'm doing you a favor, trust me. They'd lynch you."
"Right, right. . . Hey! Did you know that Kamen Sentai Nekorangers is based ON some of Hanako's explots?" The construct said in an attempt to diffuse the sudden awkwardness.
Aiesu glanced at her book-shelf, up at the figurines sat on the highest shelf behind glass. An assortment of Sami's complete line - Hanako's very character - before slowly looking back to Seiren, noting he'd have seen them. "No, I have no idea what you're talking about" she said, her expression utterly deadpan.
"Well, more the YSS Sakura, but that's a whole different story." Seiren sighed, leaning against the stasis thing. "I guess I'll take some sort of programming class. I've been meaning to bone up on data structures for a while, anyways. It makes integration of foreign weapons into Frames easier."
"Well... I have a joint degree in software engineering and AI development, so.." she corrected her glasses with her thumb. "I can probably help you out with that one if you want to join an advanced course..." she scratched the back of her neck. "Though... I uh... slipped some extra stuff into your construct"
"Woah, woah, woah. Define 'extra'. How extra are we talking? Are we talking transforming robot extra, giant laser cannon extra, supercomputer extra, or transforming supercomputer robot with a laser extra?"
Clearly, Seiren had watched too many saturday morning cartoons when growing up.
"You... Likely have a working knowledge to build most of those now, actually" Aiesu leaned back in her chair, tweaking the red frames of her glasses before she began typing something.
". . . SUGOI!" Seiren yipped, pumping a fist in the air and lifting off the ground for a moment. The overjoyed look on his face was nearly so sweet that a food critic would shut down a restaurant just because it made the entire menu too sweet.
"It... It'll take a few months to set in..." she said, grimacing at Seiren's Yamataian fanfare. "And you'll have to use the knowledge individually before it takes and the different diciplines talk to eachother so you could but... There's a little bit of me in your construct."
"Say what now?"
"Parts of my mind are what makes this particular you" she replied, still typing.
"Wait so am I me or aren't I?"
She paused. "You're this you. I can't explain it any simpler. Oh, by the way. This is a girl's dorm, so in public and the student database also thinks you're a girl. I could have made you into one but I figure you'd be annoyed with me if I did."
"Yes, yes I would have been."
"But to explain what you are..." Aiesu reclined, drumming on her thigh with a pen. "You're basically a computer inside a synthetic skeleton with its own drive joints and a self-contained fairly low-end portable nuclear reactor, wrapped in organs and muscles and nerves and flesh and hair. You're for all intents and purposes, a real person, just a bit more survivable. How could you think you were synthetic? If I moulded your winky for an android, it would have been bigger, trust me."
"Ignoring that last comment, did I at least. . . prepare for this sort of eventuality?" Seiren asked. It really was a pointless question, considering that he already knew what he'd do in this situation.
"Eventuality?"
"That I would have to crossdress to survive."
"Oh, I see. Its hardly cross-dressing. You never went through puberty, like she -- I -- told you. You're a girl with a penis, basically. But yes, I did add in some Lorath ettiquette in that sense, so you know how to conduct yourself in public beyond aesthetics."
"Good to know I already know these things, knowingly."
"Tell me, did the other me call it a winkie too?"
"Uh, not that I know of. In fact, she didn't ever say any such word."
"Maybe it was a replication error then..." Aiesu pondered to herself. "Well, sorry about that, but it does sort of aid your cause. Regardless..." Aiesu tipped the stasis unit onto its side, like a drinks dispenser or refridgerator now. "Could you move this for me? I need it in that corner, where the fridge used to be. You should know where that is from my memory."
"Uh, yeah, I guess. . ." Seiren replied, assisting her with moving it. "Out of curiosity, what happened to your fridge?"
"Sold it. A stasis unit is much better."
"Right, you mentioned something about it storing food perfectly or something. Wait, did any of my food ship with this?"
"Some of it. Check the packages... But some of that's mine too. I don't know what the rest of it is though, like those three suitcases on the bottom layer are. You packed it all."
"Right, right," He mumbled, pulling out several of the containers. "Scallops, that's mine. . . LOTS of Mac and cheese, definitely yours. . . Ah whatever. Scallops for now. You have a microwave or some sort of fancy heater?"
"Uhm... Sure. Its a micro-wave oven. It heats as an oven or as a microwave... Just don't put metal in it on microwave mode."
"Yeah, 'course," the construct replied, moving over to the device and popping the scallops in on oven setting. He stood there in silence, waiting for it to heat up.
It really was awkward when you didn't have anything to say.
"Since you were on the Garancier, I thought I'd make a point that we don't have anything quite so fancy here. The money-trail doesn't come here."
"And my own funds?"
"You've got some money here but... You'll have to get a job."
"A job. . . A JOB?!?!"
