Showering as a Lapi doe wasn't all that complicated. Long ears are a lot easier to deal with than a long tail and wings. There were the feet though. Tasha never learned how to clean toes after all. And the lack of finger pads was still a bit jarring as well. The main issue was adapting to the height difference, as Liza was under five feet tall, not including her ears. It made Tiza feel a bit like a child.
And so Tiza stares at herself in the mirror in a moment of wry self-reflection. A wry Liza is something to see; she suddenly pictures herself wearing black, smoking, with some glasses and a whole lot of earrings, or some other equally edgy Terran fashion.
At least she's starting to get used to it. Being pregnant limits what she can do, though, and so her worries about being able to respond to an emergency problem linger.
Tiza wonders how many other people on the base are going through some variation of this exact mirror-facing scenario.
Even though Sharon is human, she still has a body-dryer in the bathroom. It leaves Tiza extra fluffy though. She's never been so fluffy. It isn't exactly a confidence booster! Liza must use towels or do a lot of brushing. Hopefully she'll still be able to fit into the clothes she was wearing.
Tiza just laments her lack of Lapi knowledge as she stares at herself, again, in the mirror. With so many hours having passes she figures more than half of the people on base are also dealing with something they'd been avoiding -- bathroom use, sex, showering -- so she doubts she's alone in how she feels.
Tiza picks up her clothes and starts dressing; if it doesn't work out, she can try heading to her own tower apartment and seeing what will fit.
There's a bit of static, but everything fits. Liza apparently made sure her clothes could stretch comfortably, since she still has a ways to go in her pregnancy.
Chances are, people will have returned to their own quarters just for the feeling of familiarity. Unless they really wanted to go to their hosts' places to try on their clothes.
Tasha-in-Liza is once again glad for Liza's planning and foresight. She slips out of the bathroom and checks on Shaaron, whom she assumes will be asleep by now. She considers checking in on base command comms, but of course she won't pass the security check.
Shaaron is flat on his back and lightly snoring. Is that something Sharon does or something Aaron does? Or both?
The bunny stands with a hand on her hip considering this cosmic question a moment, then she simply shakes her head, grabs her -- or rather Shaaron's coat -- and steps out.
Tiza has two goals now: check on her body and ask the real Liza if she has permission to approach the Astraeus to check on Galatea.
Finding the real Liza should be easy, since she was last in the room she shares with Aaron. She's just in the body of Sasha at the moment. Katie last had Tasha in the cafeteria, but may have returned to her quarters.. or the machine shop. Or even Tasha's room.
Tasha decides to wander a bit; she could call, but there doesn't seem to be a rush, and she'd like to see how people are doing along the way. She decides to go to her tower first, however, to pick up some clothes and see if she still has a anyone-use headset stashed away in her emergency supplies.
Getting to the penthouse is fairly easy, since Sharon's room is at the bottom of the same next tower over. It's just up a level, then across the connecting bridge and up to the top. She can hear the breeze before she makes it to her room, as the windows are still undergoing repairs. When she gets to the room she can see the slight blue glow at the edges of the glass, and even hear it growing. All of the broken bits have been cleaned up already.
Tiza frowns at this unexpected blue glow, automatically reaching for her menu of weapons -- only to find it missing. So instead she readies her fire; not outwardly, but inwardly, just in case. She really should just leave, but if there's a problem here, there'll be a problem everywhere else, and better to alert people now -- and she has the ears to alert.
Deciding Lapi-tactics are her best bet as a Lapi, Tiza walks up to the wall near her door and puts an ear to it.
There's a low hum, which Tiza takes to be causes by the power conduits themselves. Something may be drawing a lot of energy.
Tiza backs off and makes her way back down the hall. She locates a communication station, dials in Yue, and reports, "Something in our room is drawing power from the base conduits. I don't want to enter, I can't risk Liza's body."
It takes a while before there's a response. "The repair systems are running, and I think they uses microwaves to power the nanobots. So probably best to stay out, even though they aren't supposed to be dangerous other than making you feel warm after a bit."
"Then that's what I'll do. Have you seen Kasha? Or Lasha? I need to check on my body, and I need to see if Liza's alright with me entering the Astraeus. If not we might have to send Katie," Tiza relates. She eases up, dusting herself off. "I need to check on Galatea. Kai might also know."
"Kai is probably still in the cafeteria," Yuriel says. "I think Kasha went to Katie's room. I'm in Yue's room waiting to change back. No idea about Lasha, unless he's still in the Lapi's suite. I hope Liza didn't ride him too hard."
"Poor Sasha," Tiza says with a slightly amused tone. "I'll check on Katie's room, then I'm heading to the cafeteria, unless you think my adorable face needs to pop up elsewhere for morale?"
"I think a of us are just planning on sleeping it off," Yuriel says. "It's a good thing Shojo and Lacci are on Caltrop. Someone swapping with Shojo could have been bad."
"I agree, we'd probably have needed to sedate them," Tiza confirms. "Well I'll be at Katie's place, Tiza out." She grins in to the display, then waves, and adds, "Tell me about how being Human was later big boy."
It's especially bad coming from a tiny rabbit.
"Contact me if you need me!" And then the doe vanishes from the screen.
Everyone's quarters are clustered in a few connected towers, so getting to Katie's place is just another short jaunt. The shortness feels unsatisfying though. Now that Liza's body has taken its fill of sex for the time being, it wants other kinds of exercise.
Tiza tries jogging, but it's not much of a jog. Maybe she'll run some laps around the base later if things persist, it's not like she has much else to do aside from her short list of check-ins.
When she reaches the apartment she pokes the bell. "It's me, Tiza."
"Come in," Kasha replies through the intercom. It's Tasha's voice of course, so a bit odd.
"Weird," goes Tiza, who waits for the door to automatically open, then steps inside, hands behind her back, step more jaunty than she meant given how unused she is to oversized feet and the athletic energy. "So how have you been?"
Kasha is on the floor, trying to do sit-ups. "How do you exercise with these wings in the way?" she asks. Of course Katie would have a daily exercise regimen!
Tiza comes over, hunches down, and pops her head on her hands to examine her body trying to do pushups. "It's a lot more effort, especially now that I'm half as strong and shorter to boot. That's the sacrifice for fly-any-time wings, everything else gets more complicated."
"Well, I'm not using the wings, so they should just vanish when you don't need them!" Kasha complains, and flops over onto her side. "Your body never seemed this weird from the outside. And.. there are other weird things.."
Tiza sits down to look down at herself. Huh, she thinks, so that's how she looks to others. "Your first time being in a new body is always the strangest, and my body is stranger than most of the humanoids, though not the most dangerous to get stuck in, not like Shojo or the Phins. So, what else is weird? For me I have some experience thanks to having been Human a while, but the ears are new, and I'm really short. And there are other things."
"I could feel you having sex with Shaaron!" Kasha blurts. "It was weird! Even though it was Sharon, it was also Aaron! A guy!"
"So Hakeber probably felt it too, since she's in Sharon's body," Kasha adds.
"Well Hakeber won't mind at all, I'm more worried about you. Are you okay? I didn't mean to subject you to that, we don't entirely understand how our resonance works, and well, this body has, um, needs." Tiza gestures at herself. "I'm only fine because I got it out of my system. Well, Liza's system."
"It wasn't bad," Katie admits. "Just weird. This body.. can't respond like that body can for one thing," she points out. "I don't think I got the whole experience, just that I knew I was missing out on some of it."
"I'd appreciate you writing a report on it later for us to review, so we have a better idea of what we're dealing with and how it will effect people." Tiza wiggles her nose. "As for me, being a Lapi isn't that bad. I think Gabriel's having a very safe time of things, Liza and Aaron are abusing the other two parts of me, annnd oh, beware of Shaaron. He knows you've had an interest in him, and I think all the bunny-power is going to his head. Both of them."
"I'm interested in Sharon, who is now Hakeber, and is therefore.. pretty easy to get I imagine," Kasha notes. "But in this body? I don't know if it would work. I mean, obviously you've been with Hakeber, but she was never really on my to-do list."
"With these wings though, I could tickle her into a catatonic state.." Kasha muses.
"Oh Hake's fun and she knows what she's doing, but if you don't like her there's no helping that." And so the Lapi shrugs her small shoulders. "Also she's weak to being tickled in any state. So is the Kavi." And so the rabbit winks.
"The Kavi who is now the biggest wolf in the world," Kasha says, and waves her hands to indicate this private little world.
"I like that, biggest wolf in the world." Tiza grins widely, which makes her buck teeth very prominent. "By the way you have my permission to do whatever, just don't get me killed or pregnant. Oh and if my ansible systems come back online, be careful with those. You might also get an attempted communication from Galatea. Speaking of Galatea, I'd check on her, but I can't risk this body. I may need you to do it."
"Does she give off radiation or something?" Kasha asks. "Should I wear a space suit?"
"She can do almost anything, so I don't like to take chances, especially not with several children and my former maid's body," Tiza explains, nodding slowly in head dips. "And we don't know what her ultimate status is. Bringing sensory equipment's a good idea though and I'll guide you from here if you accept."
"So, space suit with a radiation detector," Kasha says. "Anything else?"
"Keep your readout funneled to command so we can analyze things," Tasha adds. "If Galatea thinks you're me, tell her who you are and that you're using my body, and that you're there to help her if she needs it, then relay what she asks for."
"Anything in particular I should watch for?" Kasha asks.
"Go upstairs, find the crystal and wire mass in a tank, observe the situation. You may get some static, that's Galatea trying to communicate. You can talk out loud, she might hear you or she might not. She's likely attempting to reconnect to her body so there's the possibility she may hijack mine, which may create a problem situation where someone isn't in control of anything, or dual control. We'll watch your vitals and address things as they happen." Paramilitary Liza is a strange, strange change of personality.
"Right, I'm heading to the Dark Horse to suit up then," Kasha says, standing up. She's small for a Karnor, but still a good bit taller than Tiza. "I'm going to jog to it. You really need to exercise your body more."
"I know, I've been trying," Tiza says airily. "I used to be in shape until I died. Playing catchup is a pain in my tiny adorable tail." The Lapi also gets up, then thumbs back towards the entrance. "I'll head to command then and loop in Gabriel, Jonas, and Kai."
Some time later in the base command and control center, a bunny, a kitty, and two humans watched the stereo-feed from Kasha's cameras. There was also a lot of cursing. The old armor that Tasha wore before didn't fit as well now, and had given Kasha a lot of trouble. "Do I need to announce myself to the ship or anything?" she asks once she gets to the boarding ramp.
"Do not talk to the ship," Kai advises. "Or it will never shut up."
"The ship will likely detect someone else is piloting my body, too, so don't be surprised. It doesn't see us as hostile and it's not damaged as far as I'm aware, at least not from any recent event." Tiza has her feet up at her station, pillow behind her back to give it some rest. "And yes it's talkative. And strange. I was never able to figure it out."
Kasha heads up the ramp into the ship, and looks around. She only ever saw a small part of it before. "I thought it would be roomier," she notes. "Go up a level to reach the stasis tubes," Kai notes. "They're along the central corridor, because of course that makes sense."
"The ship was put together from spare parts from a lot of other ships and... other things. The design's unconventional and probbaly unique," Tiza elaborates on Kai's sassplination.
"I see the tubes," Kasha reported, even though they all saw what she was looking at. She held up a hand-scanner. It was one of the modern ones, not a replica from 5000 years ago. "Lots of positron flux," she reports. "Like.. 600 kilos of bananas worth. Nothing serious." She still held the sensor out like a shield as she checked each tube until she found the occupied one. There was something like a brain, but it was translucent and full of flickering lights. The skeleton was starting to reform as well, and there was a beating heart with main vein and artery growing from it. The recovered pieces were all connected up with golden filaments, and a lot of the space that a body would take up was dense with them.
"Well there's a sight for sore eyes," Tiza says with a obvious air of relief. "It seems like she's figured out what happened and is reconstructing her body, or at least the ship is. I'm not sure how much the control crystal can process on its own, cognitively speaking, so I'm not sure how aware she is, but the brain's a good sign. She might even be aware of you."
"No eyes," Kasha says. "She must be aware of all of us if she's shuffling us around like this. Unless the shuffling is an accident."
"That's what I'm afraid of, that she's still in a maintenance or recovery mode, or that there may be lingering damage. Well, we can only hope for the best." Tiza pauses, then says, "Tap on the glass, put her hand to it, and tell her, "We're all here for you, don't worry about a few problems, we can handle it. Focus on getting better.""
Kasha followed the instructions, a bit awkwardly. It probably didn't matter that she was talking through a helmet or that her hand was armored.
"Hmmm," Joressa purrs contemplatively. "Could she oppurrate a spare body that Kai makes?"
Tiza rubs her chin. "Possibly. Kai?" The bunny looks to Kai, ears perking straight up.
"I think she's too unfocused for that right now," Kai notes. "Once she's got her sense of self in order it should be possible though. She needs to separate from all of you first."
"Hmm, so she's piggybacking all of us then. Maybe to bootstrap her consciousness and CNS," Tiza muses, nodding slowly. "Well, you've done what you can, you can head out Kasha. We'll just have to wait until her system is done utilizing us."
"Could you not say 'utilizing us', it sounds disturbing," Kasha says as she makes her way out. "I want a full tour of the ship for doing this," she demands.
"Getting used to disturbing things is like fifty percent of being me in my body," Tiza notes. "Get used to it, soldier!" Command Liza is even worse than Paramilitary Liza, and Tasha is clearly aware of it. "I'll have Jonacat check you out, then you're free to do whatever." She kicks her chair off and spins to face the others. "Well this was a new experience."
"Being bossed around by Liza is not a new experience, Yuriel claims. "How is Shaaron doing? Do I need to hide?"
"Every female and maybe a few males should be alerted to the danger," Tiza reports, pushing her chair so that she spins around, "Even me, though we took care of that already. How about all of you, any dangerous situations to report?"
"Nothing has tried to sneak up on the base," Yuriel reports. "No dragon attacks or kidnapping attempts."
"Some expected clumsiness but no serious injuries," Joressa adds.
"I'm bored," Kai notes.
"Sadly Kai did not get to experience life in another body, for example, maybe with a soul," Tiza tsks. She then slaps her hands to the armrest and pushes herself up with a hop, to standing. "Alright, Joressa, see to Kasha, Yuriel, want to go have something to eat, maybe drink?"
"We can eat the same thing, too," Yuriel says, stretching. "Soooo limber! I was thinking of hitting the hot spring too. Being wet in this body is.. something else."
"How about we eat, then relax in the sauna?" Tiza walks over and snatches Yue's hand. "I was going to go for a jog, if that sounds better."
"Yeah, I know Yue jogs most days," Yuriel says. "Food after, will have a better appetite then."
"Off we go then. It's sad, too, I'm not even exercising my own body," Tiza complains. Soon they're off though, such as they are.
It's easy to doze off in a hot bath, and Tiza was in that warm, comfortable place when things switched around again. Or didn't. She was definitely in her own body. But she was also in everyone else as well. And it wasn't just her alternates either. She was in Gabriel, and Jonas and Yue and Liza and Aaron. But there was still enough self identity to control her body, which was in Katie's room. She knew exactly where Katie and her body where. She knew where everyone was!
"Don't panic," Tasha says out loud, to herself and everyone who is listening. "We have a bit of a hive mind going on, so every busy little bee should take things very slowly, and move away from any dangers or hazards, and maybe lay down." She follows her own advice, shuffling her ward toward's Katherine's bed. Very slowly. There's so much information, it's like swimming through selves and identities. She wonders if Galatea is using this to help bootstrap self-awareness and her own identity.
This.. is half successful. Those in motion stay in motion, heading towards their own quarters. Several people are hungry (especially Sasha and Vasha) but nobody is heading towards the cafeteria. Eating would probably be a bit weird, depending on dietary tastes.
Tasha aborts her bed attempt and decides to just lay down where she is, if she can. "Galatea, can you hear me? Us?"
There's no response. In the web of consciousness she finds herself in, there doesn't seem to be any unaccounted for minds.
Tasha rolls on to her side just in case she vomits. There's little to do but wait it out, though at least now she's has a direct experience with a hive mind, a form of life she could have -- and still could yet -- easily become. She tries to see it as a learning experience and keep herself steady, for the others.
The monkey wrench in all of this are the Lapi, as their hormonal condition is seeping through to everyone. And they're beginning to converge on their suite. Gabriel and Katie are converging on Tasha as well.
Well, could be worse, Tasha both understates and over-complains, for the comedy of it. She decides to just remain where she is, since they're coming to her regardless, and she's comfortable on the floor.
It's a short wait. "This is not my fault!" Katie declares when she arrives. "You made me go to the ship!"
"This was probably inevitable!" Tasha says from the floor. "She's bootstrapping her self awareness and individuality from our own recognition of self, I think."
"The rabbits.. and now Sharon is heading towards them.." Katie says, and starts to take her clothes off. "I'm not getting caught unprepared this time."
"So much sex... " But Tasha starts pulling her outfit off, too. "At least it's my own body this time. Want to pull my ears, Gabriel? I found out I like that."
"Your ears?" Gabriel asks, as he arrives. Somewhere in the network, Hakeber is thinking about spanking too. "I thought you'd prefer having your tail pulled."
"I like both. Now. I like both now," Tasha insists. She then unfolds her arms in a welcoming gesture. "Well here I am; I'm a bit beat from Katie trying to exercise me to death."
Gabriel pounces on Tasha, acting a bit like Shaaron did, and bites her ear as a means of tugging on it. Of course, this means Tasha also feels what's like to tug on her ear and pounce since she's also Gabriel at the moment as well.
Things soon get a bit confusing. Tasha isn't sure if she's the one actually controlling her body, or if she's controlling Gabriel.. or if things are being done by consensus. As a team bonding exercise it's certainly effective, if a bit too intimate. And the longer it goes on, the more blurry things become. Jonas reacts with a realization of what's happening, but doesn't seem to be capable of action. Yue's consciousness lasts the longest, a focused spot in the tangled blur, but even she has a limit. One by one, parts of the hive mind go dark, and Tasha isn't the last to do so. When consciousness begins to return, she finds that she's just herself, but has the worst hangover ever, and she knows hangovers. She feels numb, like her brain was a limb that 'fell asleep' because she laid on it wrong for too long.
And so Tasha does what she always does when she's has a massive hangover.
And that is vomit.
Unfortunately there's no rail nor bucket handy, so she just empties her stomach on to the floor in wracking heaves until there's nothing left, and then she convulses a few more times out of sheer momentum.
Even that feels difficult to accomplish. Katie might describe it as 'running on fumes' but in this case it's 'thinking on fumes' instead. Katie herself looks comatose, and Gabriel is snoring.
It's also difficult to remember all that happened.
Tasha slides down to lay on the floor next to her vomit. The only benefit is that her brain is too worn down to process the smell well, nor any reaction. She struggles to think about what happened but there's little to find, so she instead struggles on the 'why' of it -- and she suspects her earlier assumption is correct. That Galatea is, in her own way, rebooting, some form of deep system restart and restructuring that is taking available resources -- namely them -- and using these resources to model, simulate, compare. contrast, and assemble. She isn't sure if there's a conscious mind behind the action however, or if some low level, automatic, emergency system is doing what it's built to do, within it's limits.
The door to Katie's room opens, and through dark-spotted vision Tasha sees a mechanical nightmare. It's the medi-bot from the Fenris! And it has it's injector at the ready as it rolls towards her.
Tasha lets out particularly animalistic growl at this assumed hallucination, she doesn't have time nor energy for mind ghosts right now! On her belly and on the floor, one could be forgiven for forgetting she's a sentient creature and not a wounded beast.
The machine bears down on her, and presses the injector against her neck. She can feel the coldness of the fluid, and there's quite a lot of it, too. But then the robot is finished and moves on to Katie and Gabriel, once it plots a course around the vomit. Some of Tasha's mind-numbness goes away, and she can at least see and smell and move again, if slowly.
If Tasha had the energy and wherewithal, that machine would have gotten bit. Instead she's the one who got bit, and by a needle no less. For a moment traumatic nostalgia washes through her. The needle. The tube. Nora.
She misses Nora. She wishes she was here.
The thought stirs her from her angry, braindead haze, and so she props herself up with one arm, then the other. It's Katherine's room; she only knows it so well., but at least in her own body she has regained command access. "B-... Base. S-staaatus re-port, all hands, sen-sors and trah-kers o-only. Ah-ll haaands."
A synthetic voice replies, "Recovery efforts are underway." Then after that a message from Jonas: "Sorry for the delays. Once I realized the danger, I started synthesizing acetylcholine. There isn't enough to completely replace what was lost, but it should be enough to allow for consciousness and motility. If you are still suffering from aftereffects, make your way to med-bay or use the intercom to summon help."
That dealt with, Tasha pulls herself over to Gabriel and Katherine and begins prodding them with a finger, going back and forth. "R-report in you two, c-come on." Even the motion feels a bit exhausting, but she's not unused to hard work, long hours, and being drained from over indulgence.
The robot makes its exit after injecting the Karnors, and they respond to Tasha's prodding in much the same way she did to waking up - by vomiting. "I feel like.. I've been stuck in a centrifuge for an hour.." Gabriel mutters afterwards.
"Uh-huh," Tasha says, understandingly. She slides back to the floor, and might look dead if she didn't blink every so often, wings twitch, tail flop like a dying snake. She takes the rest time to attempt to reconnect to the ansible, checking its activity status, communications, signs systems may be coming back online.
All she gets is a silent connection, but still a connection. Galatea isn't answering still.
"Sorry for the silence. We've had complications here. I didn't forget you, I just couldn't talk for a while. Get better soon." The emotional and mental load proves significant, and so Tasha closes her eyes. She considers, in the vaguest, lightest, abstract, the value of better integration with local systems. She reflects on being a hive mind, something she is capable of becoming. She drifts in and out of consciousness now that everything seems to be handled.
This seems like a good recovery strategy, aside from the smell of vomit. But eventually she gets hungry anyway. Whatever happened burned a lot of calories, both physically and mentally. Katie curses about something, then goes quiet for awhile. While they were all unconscious, they weren't really sleeping, so that exhaustion is still there as well. After an unknown amount of time, there is a knock at the door.
"Eeenteeer," is the expressionless, robot-even response from Tasha. She hasn't moved at all, she thinks her leg may be asleep. At least she manages to crack an eye open, so she can see who, in fact, enters.
The door recognizes the command and opens, and in flow several Kobolds. One leans down slightly (since it's already low to the ground) to examine Tasha. "Done puking?" it asks.
"No-thing left," Tasha replies. She opens another sticky eye and examines the Kobold, then asks, "Dragons m-making the r-rounds?"
"Gotta bring you all together," the reptilian says, and Tasha notices the wheelchairs being brought in. "Up up!" Tasha's tender says, holding out its hands.
Tasha doesn't argue, though the dragon-hearted part of her is for some reason annoyed by being ordered around by a Kobold. At least they're cute, she comforts herself, and so Tasha pulls herself to her feet and hunch-shuffles her way in to the seat, dropping in to it with a clatter, wings out so she doesn't crush them. Then, she reaches over and pats the head of the nearest Kobold, just because.
"Mind the horns, miss," the patted Kobold says. Then Tasha is being rolled back out into the hall. The chair seems to know where it's supposed to take her, so there isn't a Kobold pushing her. But for whatever reason it does by going backwards. This at least lets Tasha see Katie's chair appearing before hers enters an elevator, then takes a connector bridge over to the base.
Tasha wonders about the reversing, but it's a problem for later, if it's even a problem. The ride to where-ever she's going is, in its own way, relaxing. For at least a moment she isn't the one setting course, directing the ship, guiding things. For this little span of time she can just get carried along, and rest, and watch the world drift by.
Eventually she ends up in the main cafeteria. Whisper is in the kitchen making the only thing she's learned how to make: waffles. The dragons are in their humanoid forms and organizing things. Who knew the base had so many wheelchairs! Tasha's chair eventually turns around and rolls her to a table with her alternates. Vasha looks pretty alert, while Sharon and Sasha look half-dead. Vartan brains may be better at pumping out neurotransmitters.
"Hey," Tasha greets the rest of her in the most nonchalant tone she can muster. She reaches over and takes a napkin from the dispensers all the tables have, then dabs at her muzzle. "A-at least one of us is up and running.
"Not running, too dizzy," Vasha claims. "Dat was pretty weird, yeah? Got me thinking though.."
"Pret-ty weird," Tasha agrees. She starts to nod, then thinks better of it. "You're considering we could... dooo... that ourselves?"
"We do that anyway sometimes," Vasha says, and waves a claw. "Nah, problem I see is we lacking in the beef department here. Gabe is great, but I don't wanna share if I don't have to. And Sharon needs a guy too, that isn't a pair of Lapis that will drive her crazy."
Sharon makes a grunting sound, and mutters, "Bunnies.."
The edge of Tasha's muzzle quirks up in a ever so slight grin, she glances at Sharon for a moment, then looks back to Vasha and nods. "I understand; you want your own things. Hard to just go out and g-get people, though, especially for us."
"Yeah.. but we can make people," Vasha notes. "Just need a template soul, right?"
"You want to... To make people? Us? Clone... others? For r-relationships?" Tasha squints, she's pretty sure Vasha understands ethics, but sometimes she isn't sure.
"Just need a volunteer," Vasha says. "Shouldn't be hard! Make a Vartan and a Human, with bunny skills and nice personalities. Not.. toys.. necessarily. Gotta be more than that. But hard to just go find someone, go through all the hassle o' exposing them to this but maybe then it doesn't work out and then what?"
The Vartan leans in, and whispers, "We don't want to end up with more Kai types, y'know."
"Whispering won't keep her from h-hearing," Tasha says, quite out loud. "And you w-won't offend her. You c-an't, really." She then risks rubbing her face at this line of thinking, turning to look to the others to try and read their reactions. "W-we don't make people for recreation. Galatea would n-never approve and it's, uh, p-probably wrong. And a b-bad idea. relationships take time an e-effort. If you're having t-trouble here we could transfer you to C-caltrop."
"Caltrop is boring," Vasha claims, leaning back. "Vartans there are all crazy types. Maybe.. maybe I can work something out with Sojo and Lacci, y'think? Shojo is the ultimate beef."
"Kobolds," Sasha blinks and suggests. "Didn't you like one of the big ones?"
"Mmmmmm, didn't work out like I thought," Vasha claims. "They really hung up on their dragons."
"You'll have to work it out. L-lacci will be jealous, she's in-sec-ure." She then turns and offers Sasha the slightest of nods. "T-that. Also, if you w-want I can put in a call to my c-clan contact and see if she'll take you."
"I.. don't want to leave," Vasha says, as if admitting it is embarrassing. "Don't wanna leave you guys."
"I can help you out then," Sasha volunteers. "Mressa and I.. she would understand. I've had sex with you before. You know it's intense when it's two of us. And I'm not too big for Sharon."
"Fluffy," Sharon admits.
"And Tasha can join in too when she wants," Sasha adds.
"Aww," goes Tasha, who pats a hand over her heart, her tone both teasing and heartfelt. "We'd miss you t-too, but we don't want you to be unhappy either, I think. The situation is just hard on everyone. Ever for m-me, sometimes -- often -- I feel like I don't have time or energy or the mind for everyone. Leading and spearheading is r-rough."
"We need to put our heads together more often then," Sasha says. "Share the load. Just not to the point we run out of thinky-juice."
"Why'd it stop?" Sharon asks. "Because we passed out?"
"I think it was... Was Galatea. Or some c-core system, using the local resources to simulate, model, and outsource processing time. I think it's running pre-reboot models. Trying to model consciousness, looking at local b-bodies, extracting useful data. The system may have r-recognized we couldn't take much more and cut out after reaching safety limits. Mel's got systems like it." Tasha taps the side of her head. "No contact yet, communications remain open."
"Just realized we've never touched Melchior," Vasha says. "Now I'm jealous and want my own titan."
"You can't have my motorcycle," Sasha says. "Use the utility suit in the hangar."
"They're not e-exactly mass-produced," Tasha admits, head shaking. "At least not ones like... Him." Another distant friend, partner, lover, another uncertainty. "You can learn to p-pilot the Grunt in the hangar, it's a mech, and a Vartan mech at t-that. Shojo's got command to worry about."
A Kobold comes by and sets out plates and utensils. "You want kafe?" it asks, probably meaning coffee.
Tasha could eat a whole cafe, she thinks, building and all. "Yes," she states without hesitation. Looking back to the others, she adds, "We can see about other equipment, but we only have so much room on the ship. Powered armor or the larger powered suits would be e-easier. And more maneuverable. I think Sasha's more in to shuttles."
The Kobold hesitates, looking at everyone. Especially the women. Everyone is naked after all, and it probably hasn't seen so many different kinds of breasts before. Then it runs off to fetch coffee.
"I'm not interested in having a titan or a motorcycle," Sharon says. "Maybe.. roller-skates."
"Roller-skates we can do," Tasha confirms, now able to nod without heaving. "Little things are easy. We still need to think about our mission, too, we can't be spoiled or it'll reflect badly on us."
The Kobolds return, carrying mugs of coffee, a platter of bacon-waffles and a tray of different kinds of syrup. "No little roast bird," the waffle-bearer apologizes. Thus, it does not count as being spoiled.
"It will have to do," Tasha declares, imperiously. Then she drops the act and starts snatching bacon-waffles. "Hokay everyone dig in, we have a lot of brain juice to fill."
It's an effort for some of them to reach the platter, but eventually they manage to eat something. It's during this that the main doors open and Kai and Pheeny enter, the latter carrying what seems to be a bundle of white feathers.
"Looks like everyone survived," Kai says as she looks over the tables.
There are some complaints from the other tables at that statement.
"You have some new information, Kai? You've been absent for a while," is Tasha's reply. She's polished off quite a lot of food by now, and it kept from eating more by stomach space rather than a lack of interest.
Kai comes over, with Pheeny following. "Oh, I was working on something," she says. "Pheeny helped. It should ensure there aren't any more psychic incidents." A tiny, white-scaled draconic head peeks out from the bundle of feathers the young Phoenix is holding. It has golden eyes, soft features and a single golden back-curved horn in the center of its forehead.
Tasha leeeans over. "You made a baby dragon..?" She shoots a look towards Vasha, half-expecting Vasha to want her own dragon, and looks back. "That's a... A very familiar look. I've seen this dragon before, haven't I?"
"It's a remote for Galatea," Kai says. "So she can focus on it instead of everyone else. It's just a tiny version of her dragon form. A big one would be troublesome."
"Cute!" Vasha declares, and reaches out for it.
"I imagine so," Tasha agrees, nodding slowly as she looks upon the dragon. She's too worn out to have much of an expression, but she hasn't look anywhere else besides Vasha, either. "Is it... connected?"
The little dragon bolts out of Pheeny's arms to avoid Vasha and knocks over anything in its way as it runs across the table, only stopping to grab a piece of waffle.
"It's connected, but.. uh.. you can see how aware it is," Kai notes. "It can talk, once Galatea reaches that stage."
Tasha watches this all happen to the sedate amusement of someone used to seeing disasters and chaos transpire. "I vote Vasha cleans this up later."
Vasha squawks, as a pitcher of syrup ends up in her lap. "Ah, it all in my hoochie!" she complains.
"At least it wasn't coffee," Sasha says, having grabbed his mug immediately and holding it against his chest.
"Is it house-broken though?" Sharon asks. "Are you going to be taking care of it, Kai?"
The homunculus smiles. "I don't know.. depends on how much fun it is to watch her run loose."
"Back to the doctor," Tasha says of Vasha, "Can't have you getting a yeast infection or, I guess, a waffle infection."
For her part Tasha waits until the dragon circles back around, then when she can get it to meet her eyes, she suddenly is lined in a roiling, red aura, reaching in to her draconic heart to exert her draconic presence, feeling a adult dragon is needed to calm a baby one.
This immediately gets the remote's attention, as it sits up straight (while sitting on a waffle) and growls at Tasha. It also gets the attention of the Kobolds, who all rush over. "Need something?" "Massage?" "Milking? Mammals need milking." "Braid your hair?"
"Like moths to a flame," Sasha notes.
Tasha considers her myriad options. "A massage would be nice, and so would a hair braid." She nods, again imperiously and this time without seeming to do it for comedic value, then she she growls right back at the little dragon -- before holding her hand out.
The remote's feathers puff out to make it look bigger, before it sniffs at Tasha's hand. Then, like a cat, it rubs its cheek against it.
Tasha eases off on her aura, reaching to rub the little dragon's cheek without staring down at it, turning her attention elsewhere but maintaining a certain authoritative dignity. "Well then, I suppose I'll look after the dragon for a bit. When I can walk, I'll try bringing it to the ship and see if we can get a connection."
"Give it time," Kai suggests. "Physical interaction is important at this stage, I think."
"I made it alive," Pheeny chirps.
"Very nicely done, Pheeny." Tasha reaches over and tries to rub Pheeny's head fondly. "I'm sorry I've been busy, a lot happened here. As for the little dragon, we can let her wander around more, sure. We'll just have to assign someone to keep an eye on her so she doesn't bite a power conduit or something."
Sharon lets out a small shriek as the dragon climbs onto her shoulders and head.
"Food might work to.. uh.. make it behave?" Sasha suggests, and looks to Kai. "It does eat, right? It went after the waffle."
"It should," Kai says. "Out of curiosity if nothing else."
Meanwhile, Kobolds start to wash Tasha's hair while she's sitting.
"Or chew on Sharon," Tasha adds, as if life had just suggested it and she predictably agreed. She does reach out and pet the dragon without watching it, knowing her cats often prefer to be petted without the unpleasantness of being stared at. On hearing about food, she does the dragon mother thing and picks up a bacon-waffle and tries holding it near the little dragon's face. Not in front of, but near.
As for the Kobold service, she realizes she could get used to this. And she does qualify as a dragon, apparently, so it's not even cheating!
Vasha bristles a bit. Where are her minions? While Tasha's hair gets washed, she also gets a scalp and shoulder massage. The dragon notices the tidbit, and jumps down off of Sharon's head to get closer to it.
"If you want to mother it, I can make you lactate," Kai says, looking between Tasha and Sharon. Vasha does not seem the mothering type apparently.
Tasha decides to wiggle it a bit, to make it more enticing, and hopes her tail doesn't pay the price for this innovation. "Some day maybe you, too, will be a dragon Vasha, then you can have Kobolds. You'll have to fight, kill, and eat a dragon's heart, though -- it's not as easy as it sounds." She then looks to Sharon with a 'well, how about it', look. "I have more responsibilities," she tells the Human.
Sharon's eyes go big at the suggestion, and the little dragon makes a grab at the waffle. "I could do it," Pheeny offers.
Tasha decides to make the waffle difficult, because otherwise maybe it's not worth having. She wiggles it, moves it around, causes it to vibrate as the little dragon tousles with it. "You can, Pheeny? Do you have the right, ah, equipment?"
The Phoenix tilts her head. "From my mouth," she says.
The dragon keeps trying wrestle the bit of food away from Tasha's grasp, but the bacon strip inside is sturdy.
"Ohh, yes, that makes sense," Tasha agrees. Normally she woulnd't assign a one day old mothering duties, but Pheeny is the Pheonix, and maybe as old as time itself, which may well be better qualifications than Tasha's own 'I ate a dragon and I'm kind of bossy' merits. "Are you sure, do you feel up to it? I doubt doubt you, but you did have your rebirth only recently."
Tasha looks down, smiles a contended smile, and keeps wiggling the waffle-bacon.
"She's my baby," Pheeny insists. It isn't exactly clear how Kai does this sort of thing and why Galatea or Pheeny or Samael need to be involved, but the girl clearly has some sort of connection with the little dragon.
Tasha waves Pheeny over, then reduces, but does not release, her grip on the waffle-bacon, "Here, take the food. She seems to like wiggling it. Dragons like challenge and conquest, it's less fun if it just lays there." Then she guides Pheeny's hand to take the item before leaning back.
The avian smiles as she plays tug-of-war with the little dragon. This also gives the Kobolds their chance to massage Tasha's arms. One of them looks at Tasha and reaches for her breasts but pauses. "Muscle?" it asks.
"You can leave that part alone," Tasha tells the Kobold gently; she's not going to fault them for not knowing how to handle a quasi-dragon like her when they normally interact with quadrupedal reptilians. To the others, she says, "Well, we made it out of another one. With luck Galatea will be able to reconnect. The Phoenix is safe. Everyone is, so far, in some state of alive."
The Kobold tries to massage Tasha's hooves instead. "Clothes would have been nice," Sharon says. "And a shower. I am.. sticky."
"We tough!" Vasha declares, and Sasha just drinks his coffee. "We got waffles from a demigod too," he notes.
"Then lets rest up and then get clean," Tasha she gives Sasha a thumbs up. "See, that's the adventure-spirit. And now we have a cute little dragon running around. And look, I'm Kobold-approved!" She makes the absolute minimal effort to gesture at the work around her, as if that were beneath her as, well, a dragon.
"It needs a name, like Tidbit or something," Sasha says. "Something to think on while we clean up.."
"We'll come up with something," Tasha agrees as she does not move or otherwise show signs of getting up to clean anything. "For now, lets rest and regain our strength."