Day 24: Lunch

[jei]

Not wanting to be dragged along on whatever Mission of Annoyance Schuldig had planned for himself at lunch, Farfarello instead headed straight into the cafeteria, alone

Comments

[arc_wrench]

"Statement: This food item has undoubtedly been in the vicinity of a number of meatbags before its arrival on this tray. There must be billions upon billions of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other infectious agents within it." HK's face remained as blank as always, but his voice grew more emphatic. "Query: You expect me to willingly take this plague carrying piece of deceased meatbag and insert it into my body?!"

The female that had dragged him away from assaulting the infuriating meatbag (now mentally labeled as 'target for forceful vivisection') sighed as HK recoiled from the tray of food. "If you don't want the meat, have some of the salad." She led him over to an empty table and placed the tray in front of him. "And all of it's been properly prepared- it's not going to make you sick." HK began to protest, but the female had already left, leaving him alone with the tray of organic matter.

HK stared at the contents of the tray, which remained impassive and unintimidated by his gaze. Something in his torso felt like it was readying for rejection of any attempts to force the disgusting stuff into him. HK groaned unhappily. This is torture far beyond any a droid should ever have to face!

[clone_boy]

No matter how many days he'd been here, a part of him was still mildly surprised to find that food was given regularly and given fairly often. And it was probably a lot less nutritious than the wholesome, balanced food cubes that served as the field rations.

Darman wasn't quite sure what a "sloppy joe" was supposed to entail, but it looked a bit like red, chunky mud lopped onto some kind of bread. The nurse claimed it was edible, so he supposed he'd just have to take her word for it and hope it wasn't mud or some kind of exotic animal vomit (which it also looked like). Looking around, he saw a few faces he recognized - Ordo was otherwise busy - and he headed to one of the more empty tables. Another patient was already there, staring at the food as if it was poisoned. Maybe the same thought it was animal puke had crossed his mind.

"I'm pretty sure it's edible," Darman said by way of introduction.

He didn't ask to sit down, sliding into a seat across from the other prisoner and sizing him up. He reminded him vaguely of his brothers - he had tanned skin, black hair - but he wasn't anyone he knew. Or could place exactly where he was from.

[arc_wrench]

HK looked up at the new target meatbag. "Statement: Even if it is considered fit for consumption by meatbags, it does not mean that this," he pointed at the monstrosity on his tray "is going to be entering my digestive system." The fact that he had a digestive system at all made him feel even more ill than before.

[clone_boy]

Darman blinked. He'd heard all kinds of slang and euphemisms, thanks to his exposure to Kal Skirata, other clones, and outsiders like Etain and Jusik: he was familiar with wet-droids, walking dead, clankers, and cannon fodder, but somehow he hadn't ever run across "meatbags". It could be Earthian, but they'd seemed content with their words like fuck and shit, from what he'd seen, although he'd have to ask Claire about that sometime. Maybe "meatbag" was a universal thing around these parts.

Darman actually grinned.

"Meatbags, huh?" he said. And took a big, hearty bite of the sloppy joe: it tasted meaty, and sopping with some kind of sauce that he couldn't identify other than the fact it had a taste at all. "Well, I don't feel dead yet, so I think it's safe to eat."

This human (well, he looked human, at least) had struck him as eccentric, but then again, so did just about every non-clone he met up close and personal.

[arc_wrench]

The showing of teeth in response to his statement was rather confusing. An actual positive reaction to his favorite derogatory term? That was new.

"Statement: Your continued existence is noted. But as a droid--" he stopped, making an unhappy noise. "Correction: As of today, former droid. I cannot even look at the stuff without certain organs going into minor revolt."

[clone_boy]

While Darman was relieved that this man knew what a droid was in the first place, he was also claiming that he was one - or had been, according to his own words. His first conclusion was to jump to the possibility that this was yet another mental deficit human, seeing as Landels appeared to have several, but at least this one was at least from a galaxy he knew. Then again, there was the possibility they'd begun to make human replica droids, although he'd have thought that wasn't possible yet or simply wasn't practical.

"You're a droid?" Darman asked. Hard to tell if this man was telling the truth, seeing as he didn't exhibit the body language he was usually familiar with seeing in humans. "I've seen a lot of droids, and you don't look like one."

Was it some kind of new Separatist tactic? Dress up their tinnies in synth skin and try to fop them off as humans to try to confuse the superior clones they were pitted against? Darman thought that'd probably be awfully expensive to pull off and they probably wouldn't look as...well, as effective and real like this man. His manner of speech, however, did strike him as droid-like, so that seemed like a bit of a giveaway.

[arc_wrench]

"Repetition: As of today, former droid. Should I use shorter words to make it easier for you to understand?" The annoyance of the last encounter and the unhappiness of his organs were making him even more judgmental of meatbags than normal. If that was possible.

"Statement: I was the galaxy's only example of the 47 series HK unit. However, I was somehow shut down without my authorization, and booted up to find myself in this positively revolting meatbag body." He stared at the male human, face blank. "I am sure this sounds as if I am merely a meatbag with a malfunctioning personality core."

[clone_boy]

That didn't entirely answer the question of whether he was one hundred percent human or not. Darman forgot all about his lunch, shoveling it away without even tasting it as he looked up with interest at this stranger, this not-droid. 47 series of HK unit? I've never heard of any HK-47's, Darman thought, but then again, that did fit with his explanation that he was the only model. However, it seemed like he wasn't used to a human's "positively revolting meatbag body" (Darman would have to tell that one to Fi next time), so there was the idea that maybe this so-called upgrade - or downgrade, depending on who you asked - had been spur of the moment. And certainly without this droid's consent.

Not that you exactly needed a droid's consent; if they were capable of real independent thinking, Darman probably would've heard a lot of protests when he slotted countless numbers of them on his missions. Not that would've changed anything - he'd still have slotted them regardless.

It would've just been a lot noiser, that was all.

"No, I can buy this idea of a droid with a human body," Darman said. "Or a very good human replica of a body, anyway. So did you have any affiliations? Republic or Seperatist?"

Probably best to try to find out who was this HK-47's owner, and see if these new droids were going to be a threat or not to Palpatine's new Empire. While it wasn't exactly in the job description of Order 66, Darman decided it was safe to be thorough...and make sure the Jedi weren't trying to build an army of these things to try to regain power.

[arc_wrench]

"Query: Separatist? Unless my memory units are impaired--which is highly doubtful--, the only galactic factions of any importance are the Republic and the Sith Empire, led by my Master, Darth Revan."

He tilted his head slightly as he examined the man more closely. What he had said made no sense at all. "Are you malfunctioning, meatbag?"

[clone_boy]

So no Seperatists. Darman had heard and seen proof that it was possible to capture people from not only different places in the universe, but also different times - the younger General Kenobi was solid proof that this was true. It was just a matter of trying to figure out if HK-47 was from the past or the future, and how far along. Darman wanted to say the future (Sith empire? It was possible that this Revan was a descendent, although this business about a Republic was baffling). But considering the fact that HK-47 outright said his master was a Sith, the clone knew now that he wasn't an enemy.

Maybe not exactly ally, but probably not a tinnie he'd have any business trying to dissemble like all the others. He didn't know this Revan, but he had the feeling that slotting his - her? - favorite droid wasn't the best idea if he wanted to keep on living.

"And no, I'm not 'malfunctioning'," Darman replied, looking just as amused as earlier. Fi would've loved to be sitting on this, and Atin probably would've killed for a chance to examine this not-droid up close. "First of all, I'm bred not to 'malfunction', as you insist on calling it, and second, I passed all the psych examinations. So I'm not mentally deficit."

[arc_wrench]

"Query: Bred not to malfunction? What system do you come from?" The only prominent genetic manipulating meatbag group he could think of was the Arkanians. But this meatbag certainly wasn't Arkanian- he had five digits on each hand, for one.

[clone_boy]

Darman shrugged. By now a good number of people knew that the clone army that had seemingly sprouted up overnight for the Jedi and the Republic and come from Kamino - the Seps had even tried mounting on attack on the place. Of course they'd failed and gotten their collective shebs handed to them, but that battle had put Kamino right back on the map. It wasn't particularly revealing to say that was where he was from, so long as he didn't give anything that was actually incriminating like his rank or what squad he was from.

"I'm from Kamino," said Darman, as if it should be self-evident. He polished off the sloppy joe, and began methodically working his way through the plate of green vegetable slices they'd called a "salad".

[arc_wrench]

Kamino. Ah yes, he did have some information on that. "Statement: The system that produces kyber darts. Highly effective against a wide variety of species." And there were so many more species to test them on!

"Query: So you are the product of their genetic manipulation? And I still cannot find any record in my memory of any major group commonly identified as Separatist. Clarification would be appreciated."

[clone_boy]

No record of it in his - Darman supposed it was a more appropriate term, but it was difficult not to assign genders when said droid appeared to have one - memory? Strange, but that could possibly mean he was just that far in the future (or past). Either way, it was something completely alien to Darman, especially when he knew he would undergo physical degeneration within the next ten years. Anything over than that was just out completely of his understanding and he supposed that it was possible that the war with the Seperatists had fallen out of the history books from wherever and whenever HK-47 came from.

"I guess you could say that," Darman said. "But I'm surprised you haven't heard of the Seperatists. The CIS? Likes to use droids for their armies? A Confederacy made up of a good number of systems who decided they didn't want to be part of the Republic?"

He wasn't really good with his history - knowing the inane details about the Seps never really struck the Kaminoans as need-to-know, only that all their products knew the best way to kill a Sep - but he could at least say that much.

[arc_wrench]

"Statement: I have never heard of this group. The only recorded conflicts against the Republic featuring droids was the unsuccessful movement known as 'The Great Droid Revolution', lead by an HK-01, which gained sentience and reprogrammed other droids. However, this group was never identified as a Confederacy." HK tilted his head slightly as he went through more memory files. "The only major conflicts against the Republic have been with the Sith and the Mandalorians."

[clone_boy]

This was all news to Darman. But it was when HK-47 mentioned Mandalorians that Darman leaned forward, eyes wide. Was he serious? As far as he knew, the Mandalorians from his time were a dying race, with no definite homeworld, and with the culture spread to a population of clones that would be outlived by their Mandalorian batch instructors. The chance for continuing the Mando'a way would probably die once the clones did, but what this not-droid said gave him hope.

"You...said Mandalorians?" Darman tried not to feel too excited, but he knew that news like this would make Sergeant Skirata's day. "I thought they were practically dying out, but you said they're an actual threat to this Republic from when you're from?"

Skirata never had any love of Jedi, as a whole, although he liked some of them (not a lot) as individuals, but he had plenty of love for his adopted "sons", all one hundred of the commandos - well, what was left of them after a war had gone through and decimated the ranks. He loved his sons and Darman knew just as well as any of his brothers that he loved his Mandalorian culture. It's our heritage, he'd said once, but it'd been with a small measure of sadness, like watching something wither and knowing he could do nothing to stop it.