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memento_vivereWritten today: 2065
Posted Words : 1810/50,000
Unposted Words: 255
Prompt: Colours (not used yet)
Ahhh, it was good to get a bit of nice weather, for once.
Sprawled out on a huge, squashy cushion just inside the Institute’s massive front windows, Rae stretched his legs out in front of him and wiggled his long, clawed toes in the pool of sunlight, relishing the heat of the noontime sun slanting down through the window and against his dark skin. He’d planned on a spot of sunbathing, out in the Institute’s rooftop park, but Kust’s traditionally-changeable spring weather put paid to that idea. A nasty little mid-morning squall blew in off the ocean, battering rain against the windows and leaving behind copious puddles on the huge paved area out the front. Sunbathe? Swim, more like.
Instead, the laima headed down to Basement Level One, stole as many of the big slouch pillows as he could carry from the common room, and spread them out under the Institute’s huge main atrium window. One of the advantages to life in the abandoned university building, no-one minded if you moved the furniture about.
“I know my ‘guideline daily caloric intake’ has been exceeded!”
An elevated voice and a bang! roused Rae from his sunbathing with a little start, and he glanced around to see what was going on.
Still in filthy work coveralls with her hair tied back into a scruffy ponytail, a small laima woman stood remonstrating with the building’s central computer. Again. A dirty handprint on the glass face of the automated food vendor revealed the source of the bang.
Rae swallowed a sigh. Originally hailing from a world where self-aware machines were not only the norm, they made up the bulk of the population, Blink found it particularly difficult not to credit the Institute’s computer with far greater autonomy than it actually had. Clashes often resulted.
“I heard you the first time! It’s only a guideline, and I’m hungry. Stop being obstructive.”
“It is my duty to safeguard your health and I am obliged to inform you of poor dietary choices.” The building’s tall holographic interface stood in front of the vending machine, as though to form a barrier, but didn’t seem to be having much success – Blink simply reached through her. “You have already greatly exceeded your advised daily intake of sugar and saturated fats.”
“It’s a guideline, Interface.” Blink drew the treat close to her chest, protectively, backing away with a defensive glare. “One or two transgressions won’t kill me. Or are you trying to tell me I’m fat?”
Interface moved in front of her, attempting to maintain her attention. “I agree that your weight is within healthy limits, but you are on the upper end of the normal distribution for your height. If you continue in this manner you will exceed your healthy weight.”
“Rrgh.” Frustrated, Blink kicked one of Rae’s stray cushions clean through the hologram and over to where her friend sat in the Institute’s huge main window. “Fine, when I end up so huge I’m unable to walk? You can say ‘I told you so’.” She stomped across the floor, claws clicking on the linoleum. “Now leave me in peace.”
“I must insist-”
“Turn off, interface!”
With an actual sneer and a dismissive jangle of one earring-laden ear, the holographic kiravai turned herself off.
Blink plopped heavily down onto the spare cushion and crossed her legs under herself, muttering invective under her breath. Another straggly clump of dirty straw-coloured hair escaped its tie and drifted into her face.
Rae gave her a drowsy smile. “Interface giving you grief again, huh?”
Blink pursed her lips and stabbed at the frozen confection, mushing it around the bowl with the back of her spoon. “I hate to say it, but… some days? I wish I could just… turn her off,” she griped, quietly. “It’s especially terrible for me to be saying it. I just… she’s so… inflexible.” She shot Rae a glance, from the corner of her eye. “Was I ever that bad?”
“Eeh. Honestly?” The spur wiggled his hand in a sort of ‘so-so’ gesture. “At times. You sure used to hang onto emotional problems with a pretty good deathgrip.”
“Huh.” Blink pursed her lips and concentrated on her bowl. “How are you doing, anyway? You look tired.”
“Oh, I’ll be a’right. It’s just Sadie’s immunoglobulins. They might stop me running around biting things, but they always leave me feeling wiped out for a while. Soon as we figure out how to mass produce the part of you as makes you immune to this stupid virus? I might even go back to tiao’I.” He lifted a cautionary finger. “And before you say anything, I liked being a baggage handler. I can deal with lost suitcases. Fighting for my life against creatures determined to eat me? Not so much.”
A tiny smile flickered across Blink’s lips. “Yeah,” she said, softly. “I know the feeling. It’ll be nice to be normal again.”
Rae watched her settle a little more comfortably on her cushion, and smiled privately to himself. ‘Normal’. Some hope of that. His friend’s story was… unusual, to say the least. Not only had Blink not always been a fessine, she hadn’t always been biological – when Rae first met her, a small eternity ago in tiao’I spaceport, Blink was a machine. Enormous and powerful (and usually somewhat battered around), totally self-aware and autonomous… and cripplingly depressed. She’d slowly been shuffled from one spaceport to another, doing a little work everywhere she went to earn enough fuel to keep herself running, but totally unreliable and unable to hold down any job for long.
That unexpected abduction was probably exactly the kick in the pants she needed. Without it, she’d probably have just… drifted on, out of Rae’s life and into obscurity, getting further and further away from friends and family until she just… ran out of fuel. Sure, there were probably better ways to have done it without dragging her all the way out here to plague-world, but it sure stopped her running away from her problems!
Surviving the disease – and then surviving Tevak’s brutal plans for her – had reminded her what she had to live for. With the tyrant’s shadow no longer hanging over her, Blink threw herself back into one of her favourite pastimes – making things, and fixing things. Being useful. And wouldn’t you know, she actually looked like she was enjoying life again. Not just sitting there like a ghost, pale and sad. Finally getting back in contact with her family after all that time running away? She looked… happy. Confident.
Her spindly little body had bulked out reassuringly, too. The fragile, almost-emaciated frame that always looked like it was a hair away from tripping over its own shadow had filled out to something far more heavy-set, tough and capable. In truth, most of it was muscle, and probably a natural consequence of her job – half-engineer half-builder. She could have really given the monsters a good run for their money, now.
But food? That was a whole new adventure, and something Blink had confessed to, uh, well, really quite enjoying. Maybe, uh. Maybe she’d miss it, a little, when she got her real body back. If not for the Interface’s continued insistence on meddling, a lot less of Blink’s considerable physical development would have been muscle.
Rae watched her dissect her dessert. “Isn’t Sundrop supposed to be arriving today?”
“Skydash,” Blink corrected, quietly.
“…Come on, Bee, the two of you have been planning it for months, you should be bouncing off the walls by now. Changed your mind about it, or something?”
“No.” Blink hunched her shoulders and grimaced her way to a halfhearted smile. “Why do you think I’m eating so much? Never been so anxious in my life.”
Rae watched her stir the melting food around the bowl, and noticed that she hadn’t actually eaten any of it yet. “It’ll be all right.”
“Until I get tongue-tied and do something stupid, again? Of course.” She finally licked the spoon, being unnaturally thorough about it.
She didn’t have to say I don’t want to talk about it, but Rae got the distinct impression this was meant to indicate the conversation was over. Still feeling flattened by his medicine and not inclined to push, he let his eyes drift closed, and listened to the subtle jangle of Blink’s spoon against her bowl. It didn’t take long for the delicious, soporific warmth oozing through the window to set him adrift on a doze.
Eventually, he noticed the sounds had dwindled to nothing. Rae cracked an eye open, just a fraction; Blink sat watching the sky, her lips uneasily pursed. “So what time is she due to arrive?” he prompted.
“She said she’d signal when she was close.” Blink swapped her bowl for the radio handset she’d dumped on the floor next to her cushion, and inspected the display. “Nothing yet.” She glanced his way. “Do you think something’s happened?”
“Don’t be daft.” Rae gave her a playful swat on the arm. “She’s been travelling a long time. She’s probably tired!”
Blink hrm-ed and twiddled the radio dials aimlessly for a moment or two, distracted. She stared down at her hands, and the scratched fingertips blackened with muck and grease from the vehicle engine she’d been working on. “I should go and have a shower. I probably stink.”
Rae refrained from agreeing with her. “I doubt she’ll care. She’ll be so pleased enough to see you, what you look like won’t even matter.”
“Oh, that’ll be a nice greeting. I know we haven’t seen each other in person for more than two years, Skydash, and I know you’ve been the most important aspect of my life for most of my life, and I’ve been planning this day ever since we first spoke, buuut I really felt it was important to spend all morning of the day you arrive cleaning all the gunk out of that old engine the Library want to use. It’s not like I’ve been putting it off for weeks just so I’d have something to procrastinate about-”
“Skeida. Go have your shower.” Rae gave her a little shove with his toes. “I’ll call Zee to come and give you a hand with your hair.”
She pouted. “I don’t need help, Rae-”
“No? So explain why you always look like a scruffbag who rolled around in the laundry and accidentally got some clothes stuck to her?”
Blink grunted an exasperated argh! before flailing her way out of her seat, and stomping off towards the door that led out the back of the sunny atrium. “So much for I doubt she’ll care what you look like!” The words echoed back over her shoulder.
Rae smiled to himself and laced his fingers over his stomach, and wriggled down into the cushions. Sometimes, a person just needed a gentle push in the right direction…
1810 ♥ 50,000
Posted Words : 1810/50,000
Unposted Words: 255
Prompt: Colours (not used yet)
Ahhh, it was good to get a bit of nice weather, for once.
Sprawled out on a huge, squashy cushion just inside the Institute’s massive front windows, Rae stretched his legs out in front of him and wiggled his long, clawed toes in the pool of sunlight, relishing the heat of the noontime sun slanting down through the window and against his dark skin. He’d planned on a spot of sunbathing, out in the Institute’s rooftop park, but Kust’s traditionally-changeable spring weather put paid to that idea. A nasty little mid-morning squall blew in off the ocean, battering rain against the windows and leaving behind copious puddles on the huge paved area out the front. Sunbathe? Swim, more like.
Instead, the laima headed down to Basement Level One, stole as many of the big slouch pillows as he could carry from the common room, and spread them out under the Institute’s huge main atrium window. One of the advantages to life in the abandoned university building, no-one minded if you moved the furniture about.
“I know my ‘guideline daily caloric intake’ has been exceeded!”
An elevated voice and a bang! roused Rae from his sunbathing with a little start, and he glanced around to see what was going on.
Still in filthy work coveralls with her hair tied back into a scruffy ponytail, a small laima woman stood remonstrating with the building’s central computer. Again. A dirty handprint on the glass face of the automated food vendor revealed the source of the bang.
Rae swallowed a sigh. Originally hailing from a world where self-aware machines were not only the norm, they made up the bulk of the population, Blink found it particularly difficult not to credit the Institute’s computer with far greater autonomy than it actually had. Clashes often resulted.
“I heard you the first time! It’s only a guideline, and I’m hungry. Stop being obstructive.”
“It is my duty to safeguard your health and I am obliged to inform you of poor dietary choices.” The building’s tall holographic interface stood in front of the vending machine, as though to form a barrier, but didn’t seem to be having much success – Blink simply reached through her. “You have already greatly exceeded your advised daily intake of sugar and saturated fats.”
“It’s a guideline, Interface.” Blink drew the treat close to her chest, protectively, backing away with a defensive glare. “One or two transgressions won’t kill me. Or are you trying to tell me I’m fat?”
Interface moved in front of her, attempting to maintain her attention. “I agree that your weight is within healthy limits, but you are on the upper end of the normal distribution for your height. If you continue in this manner you will exceed your healthy weight.”
“Rrgh.” Frustrated, Blink kicked one of Rae’s stray cushions clean through the hologram and over to where her friend sat in the Institute’s huge main window. “Fine, when I end up so huge I’m unable to walk? You can say ‘I told you so’.” She stomped across the floor, claws clicking on the linoleum. “Now leave me in peace.”
“I must insist-”
“Turn off, interface!”
With an actual sneer and a dismissive jangle of one earring-laden ear, the holographic kiravai turned herself off.
Blink plopped heavily down onto the spare cushion and crossed her legs under herself, muttering invective under her breath. Another straggly clump of dirty straw-coloured hair escaped its tie and drifted into her face.
Rae gave her a drowsy smile. “Interface giving you grief again, huh?”
Blink pursed her lips and stabbed at the frozen confection, mushing it around the bowl with the back of her spoon. “I hate to say it, but… some days? I wish I could just… turn her off,” she griped, quietly. “It’s especially terrible for me to be saying it. I just… she’s so… inflexible.” She shot Rae a glance, from the corner of her eye. “Was I ever that bad?”
“Eeh. Honestly?” The spur wiggled his hand in a sort of ‘so-so’ gesture. “At times. You sure used to hang onto emotional problems with a pretty good deathgrip.”
“Huh.” Blink pursed her lips and concentrated on her bowl. “How are you doing, anyway? You look tired.”
“Oh, I’ll be a’right. It’s just Sadie’s immunoglobulins. They might stop me running around biting things, but they always leave me feeling wiped out for a while. Soon as we figure out how to mass produce the part of you as makes you immune to this stupid virus? I might even go back to tiao’I.” He lifted a cautionary finger. “And before you say anything, I liked being a baggage handler. I can deal with lost suitcases. Fighting for my life against creatures determined to eat me? Not so much.”
A tiny smile flickered across Blink’s lips. “Yeah,” she said, softly. “I know the feeling. It’ll be nice to be normal again.”
Rae watched her settle a little more comfortably on her cushion, and smiled privately to himself. ‘Normal’. Some hope of that. His friend’s story was… unusual, to say the least. Not only had Blink not always been a fessine, she hadn’t always been biological – when Rae first met her, a small eternity ago in tiao’I spaceport, Blink was a machine. Enormous and powerful (and usually somewhat battered around), totally self-aware and autonomous… and cripplingly depressed. She’d slowly been shuffled from one spaceport to another, doing a little work everywhere she went to earn enough fuel to keep herself running, but totally unreliable and unable to hold down any job for long.
That unexpected abduction was probably exactly the kick in the pants she needed. Without it, she’d probably have just… drifted on, out of Rae’s life and into obscurity, getting further and further away from friends and family until she just… ran out of fuel. Sure, there were probably better ways to have done it without dragging her all the way out here to plague-world, but it sure stopped her running away from her problems!
Surviving the disease – and then surviving Tevak’s brutal plans for her – had reminded her what she had to live for. With the tyrant’s shadow no longer hanging over her, Blink threw herself back into one of her favourite pastimes – making things, and fixing things. Being useful. And wouldn’t you know, she actually looked like she was enjoying life again. Not just sitting there like a ghost, pale and sad. Finally getting back in contact with her family after all that time running away? She looked… happy. Confident.
Her spindly little body had bulked out reassuringly, too. The fragile, almost-emaciated frame that always looked like it was a hair away from tripping over its own shadow had filled out to something far more heavy-set, tough and capable. In truth, most of it was muscle, and probably a natural consequence of her job – half-engineer half-builder. She could have really given the monsters a good run for their money, now.
But food? That was a whole new adventure, and something Blink had confessed to, uh, well, really quite enjoying. Maybe, uh. Maybe she’d miss it, a little, when she got her real body back. If not for the Interface’s continued insistence on meddling, a lot less of Blink’s considerable physical development would have been muscle.
Rae watched her dissect her dessert. “Isn’t Sundrop supposed to be arriving today?”
“Skydash,” Blink corrected, quietly.
“…Come on, Bee, the two of you have been planning it for months, you should be bouncing off the walls by now. Changed your mind about it, or something?”
“No.” Blink hunched her shoulders and grimaced her way to a halfhearted smile. “Why do you think I’m eating so much? Never been so anxious in my life.”
Rae watched her stir the melting food around the bowl, and noticed that she hadn’t actually eaten any of it yet. “It’ll be all right.”
“Until I get tongue-tied and do something stupid, again? Of course.” She finally licked the spoon, being unnaturally thorough about it.
She didn’t have to say I don’t want to talk about it, but Rae got the distinct impression this was meant to indicate the conversation was over. Still feeling flattened by his medicine and not inclined to push, he let his eyes drift closed, and listened to the subtle jangle of Blink’s spoon against her bowl. It didn’t take long for the delicious, soporific warmth oozing through the window to set him adrift on a doze.
Eventually, he noticed the sounds had dwindled to nothing. Rae cracked an eye open, just a fraction; Blink sat watching the sky, her lips uneasily pursed. “So what time is she due to arrive?” he prompted.
“She said she’d signal when she was close.” Blink swapped her bowl for the radio handset she’d dumped on the floor next to her cushion, and inspected the display. “Nothing yet.” She glanced his way. “Do you think something’s happened?”
“Don’t be daft.” Rae gave her a playful swat on the arm. “She’s been travelling a long time. She’s probably tired!”
Blink hrm-ed and twiddled the radio dials aimlessly for a moment or two, distracted. She stared down at her hands, and the scratched fingertips blackened with muck and grease from the vehicle engine she’d been working on. “I should go and have a shower. I probably stink.”
Rae refrained from agreeing with her. “I doubt she’ll care. She’ll be so pleased enough to see you, what you look like won’t even matter.”
“Oh, that’ll be a nice greeting. I know we haven’t seen each other in person for more than two years, Skydash, and I know you’ve been the most important aspect of my life for most of my life, and I’ve been planning this day ever since we first spoke, buuut I really felt it was important to spend all morning of the day you arrive cleaning all the gunk out of that old engine the Library want to use. It’s not like I’ve been putting it off for weeks just so I’d have something to procrastinate about-”
“Skeida. Go have your shower.” Rae gave her a little shove with his toes. “I’ll call Zee to come and give you a hand with your hair.”
She pouted. “I don’t need help, Rae-”
“No? So explain why you always look like a scruffbag who rolled around in the laundry and accidentally got some clothes stuck to her?”
Blink grunted an exasperated argh! before flailing her way out of her seat, and stomping off towards the door that led out the back of the sunny atrium. “So much for I doubt she’ll care what you look like!” The words echoed back over her shoulder.
Rae smiled to himself and laced his fingers over his stomach, and wriggled down into the cushions. Sometimes, a person just needed a gentle push in the right direction…
