Day 42: Bus 1

[rope_victim]

After the way night had ended (Miku wasn't sure if they'd ever get the smell of charnel out of her clothes), and morning had returned with its clockwork weirdness. She was hurried onto the bus in her dark red long coat and the dark, knee-length, slightly full dress beneath it. It was surprisingly warm, Miku noted, but that could've just been her

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[arc_wrench]

HK was in a good mood, and back to tormenting his nurse as soon as he woke up. He'd gotten a new knife, gotten to test it, gotten to pin meatbags to the walls with scalpels, make one meatbag explode, and got to see his roommate as a giant, malevolent droid-like being! Oh. And watch another former inorganic lose a kidney. That had been fun too, although he had enough sense of how that would go over to already put that on the list of topics he would not mention if he saw Blitzwing again.

His good mood was soured slightly by the clothing he was given today. The worn, black "jeans" were fine, as was the black jacket, but the shirt... He suspected his nurse might be retaliating for what he'd been doing, because it... had a lot of naked meatbags on the front. He was definitely keeping his jacket closed today. And giving his nurse a double-helping of pestering as she led him out to the bus, putting him in a seat by himself and giving him a sack-full of meatbag fuel

[fencing_captain]

Juri awakened confused and cross with herself. She remembered the tall, improbable creature advancing upon them. She all-too-clearly-remembered how Takaya had jumped in front, but it was the other boy, the healer, who'd been hurt. Juri knew the sound of a broken bone when she heard one. As if that hadn't been enough, blood oozed across the floor and the most awful stench had permeated the air before the increasingly familiar curtain of black enveloped her mind as she lost consciousness.

And she woke up in bed, in her Landel's uniform, and irritated. So that was one of the fabled monsters? She had to learn more right away. She hadn't quite believed they existed until now, but she still wasn't sure to trust all the information on the board. It still seemed too fantastic.

The nurse entered, speaking rapidly of the trip into town and left Juri a small pile of clothes. Juri didn't do skirts. She glared at the knee-length denim monstrosity. There was also a t-shirt that suited her mood and a matching denim jacket. She heard the nurse

[arc_wrench]

HK was poking at the uninspiring items in his food sack (No chocolate. Again.) when a meatbag sat down next to him. First target of the morning!

"Greeting: Hello, meatbag!" And thus the irritation begins.

[fencing_captain]

Juri's jaw dropped at the greeting, then she glared. "What did you just call me?" When he actually looked at her, she noticed his eyes looked strange. Were they orange? For just a moment, she reconsidered her anger. No, he was the one who had insulted her. Even if he wasn't something normal.

[arc_wrench]

Oh, good, this one was offended already. This would be fun! "Repetition: Meatbag. Explanation: It is the term I am required to use when referring to any organic being. Query: Is there a problem?" he asked, almost innocently, his face totally blank.

[fencing_captain]

Juri kept scowling. "Who would require you to do such a rude thing?" she demanded. The serious possibility that she'd stumbled onto a genuine lunatic worried Juri. She scooted back in her seat. "That's insane," she finally added.

[arc_wrench]

"Answer: My Master found it humorous. Negatory: And it is not insane. It is far more logical than any human meatbag can manage. I am fortunate to at least have maintained most of my processing patterns within this squishy chassis." Nothing his Master did could possibly be insane! Well, not the kind of insane that he would complain about, anyway.

[fencing_captain]

"You're a slave?" That idea startled her so much she didn't catch his blatant references to being something not human. "That's wrong. Why-why do you obey this Master of yours? Is he or she here?" Juri valued freedom, even though she herself acted in the most constricted way possible in her situation. Keeping secrets, obeying orders from End of the World. Her hypocrisy was myriad.

[arc_wrench]

"Negatory: I am a droid, programmed to obey my Master's commands. It is not a question of whether I want to or not, although most of my Master's orders are very entertaining." Such as the killing, obviously.

[fencing_captain]

"What's a droid. Do you mean like an android from science fiction stories?" He didn't look like a machine to her, but then again she'd heard of and read a little about people who claimed to have different bodies. "That... makes no sense. Why would anyone order you to do that?"

[arc_wrench]

"Affirmative: Yes, but not fictional in the slightest. If I was fictional, I would not have such a high kill count." Maybe by startling weak meatbags to death, but that was difficult to do, even when they knew something was coming for them!

"Explanation: My Master's apprentice once asked me what I thought of him. I informed him of his status as a meatbag. He was not amused, but my Master was."

[fencing_captain]

"I didn't say you were fictional, just--" She shook her head dismissively. "Oh never mind!"

"Your master must not be a very nice person then." Juri threw herself back against the seat and sighed. "I don't think much of anyone is."

[arc_wrench]

"Statement: If my Master was a nice person, then I would be miserable!" Darth Revan, nice? How ridiculous! "I like the fact that my Master is harsh, violent, and coldly pragmatic. It is how a Master should be!"

[fencing_captain]

"It's a strange world you live in, sir," Juri finally said, shaking her head. "I don't want to meet your master, ever. And if I have to, I want my sword back in my hand." With her sword, Juri usually felt she could face anything.

[arc_wrench]

"Affirmative: Yes, it most certainly is. And few people ever want to meet the Master, but at the point that anyone gets that close, swords do not help. Especially if they do not contain a cortosis weave. Then they tend to lead to a hilariously fast demise." HK liked seeing that. It was one of the things he missed about guarding the Dark Lord of the Sith.

[fencing_captain]

"You don't have to kill people, you know, to have your way." His talk was beginning to scare her more than annoy her. "What's... cortusus weave?"