12: I'm not a furry shut up

[fetchthestick]

I got big.

...

My masters would'a loved this. I mean, I'm sure they liked me as a puppy, but now they wouldn't have to wait! I can do what the grown-up pets do now.

'cept my masters aren't here. [Sigh.]I wonder who they would'a paired me with when I got big like this? I mean, for fun. Sure they would've put me with a bitch to make puppies

Comments

[electroniccrane]

[Motoko is enjoying her newfound English proficiency and listening to the comms.]

Are you a robot? You talk really well!

[What else would he be with all that talk about "masters?"

Motoko's not quite clear on reproduction yet, since it's not something that matters to a full-body cyborg, so some of what Thom's talking about goes flying over her head, and she doesn't notice the potential flaw in her reasoning.]

[fetchthestick]

[Yay English! Or... Common! Or whatever!

Thom laughs. He's just as cheery now as he was as a pup.]

No, I'm a canine! Canis sapiens erectus!

Are you a robot?

[That must be why she asked, right?]

[electroniccrane]

[Her wonderful new English lexicon informs her that "canine" means dog, and she's about to comment when--]

I'm not a robot, I'm a cyborg!

[Why is everyone here insulting her?]

[fetchthestick]

Okay!

[Hey, that's the only reason she would have asked why he was one, right?]

I'm Thom. Who're you?

[He doesn't recognize her voice and Thom isn't bright enough to remember ID numbers.]

[electroniccrane]

[She asked because of context clues and unspoken cultural assumptions.]

I'm Motoko.

[It's...not quite the response she'd expected of him. It's weird here.]

Are you a talking dog?

[fetchthestick]

Motoko... wow, that sounds really familiar. I think maybe I knew you?

[He thought of her as Major, so her first name is rather lost among his neurons.]

Yeah, I am! I think... I think my species name means that. Sapiens means I can think, right?

[electroniccrane]

Um, I don't think so. There are lots of girls named Motoko, maybe you know one of them.

[Batou neglected to give her Latin.]

It does? That's really neat. I didn't know they made talking dogs.

[It's within the reach of her culture, but Motoko doesn't know of any companies selling talking pets. Robots, sure, but her world hasn't done much with genetic engineering.]

[fetchthestick]

I guess so.

[Who needs Latin anyhow.]

Oh, I wasn't made, I was born. My bloodline's really old.

[electroniccrane]

Uh. Don't they have to do genetic engineering to make it so you can talk?

[fetchthestick]

Umm... well I know there's lots of breeding involved. I'm probably real different from what my species was like before the Zenrenthi made them pets. Does that count?

[electroniccrane]

Oh, sure.

[She thinks "Zenrenthi" is a corporation. Probably Russian!]

I had an aquarium once.

[Her conversational skills never got any better, apparently.]

[fetchthestick]

[Eh, close enough for horseshoes.]

Yeah? That's... for fish, right?

[Thom is easy-going enough so it really doesn't matter.]

[electroniccrane]

Yeah! I had guppies and zebrafish and, um, tetras. They glowed! The tetras did. They don't make other kinds that glow, I don't think.

/Cue aquarium geek spaz

[fetchthestick]

Wow, that sounds neat! Could they talk?

You know it was her parents taking care of the tank.

[electroniccrane]

No, they were only three centimeters long. I don't think that's big enough for a cyberbrain.

Well, yes.

[fetchthestick]

That sounds small.

What's a cyberbrain?