a fabulous team aperture adventure [open]

[smug_silence]

They were very most definitely in space.

Chell hadn't wanted to believe it--as horrible as Aperture was, the Laboratories were at least familiar and...not space--but the overwhelming evidence was right in front of her, nearly everywhere she looked (and she'd made it her personal mission to look everywhere). Knowing all the ins and outs of a place

Comments

[lessafool]

Aldrea (Esplin) was walking back from the run she'd had through Hydroponics, physically feeling refreshed, even as the nature of the passage made Aldrea's skin crawl. Feeling enclosed was anything but happy for Andalite psychology. One of the amusing realities for a species that had then taken to the stars and spent years trying to design space-worth craft that could remind them of home while they were so far away.

They'd succeeded, she knew, with the dome ships. Yet this ship hadn't been designed by the Andalites, nor had it been designed as a fighting vessel. A reworked prison ship was not immensely comforting, let alone when the Warden in charge of it hadn't been completely overwritten.

She didn't expect Chell and Wheatley, let alone know what to make of them. < Are you looking for Engineering? > Esplin asked, his voice -- her voice -- outright disbelieving.

Humans were so peculiar, and so weirdly balanced. Why did this one make it even more difficult for themselves?

[smug_silence]

Chell was coping with the ponies. She could deal with them. She could deal with the fact that not everyone on this ship was entirely human. That was okay. It was weird, but okay. She would get used to it, just like she would get used to being stranded in space.

What was standing in front of her, however, was an alien. A true, honest-to-goodness, what-the-hell-is-that extraterrestrial. She could not help but stagger backwards, nearly dropping Wheatley as she was addressed inside her head.

If there was one thing she didn't like, it was disembodied voices. This, while not necessarily disembodied, was so unexpected that it very nearly drove her to panic. Staring wide-eyed at the strange creature, she clutched her robot companion tightly to her chest out of instinct--at the very least, he'd make a good shield.

[makesyoudumb]

Wheatley, as a robot, could not hear the alien's telepathic voice. Indeed, he only became aware of her presence when Chell held him up in front of her. He reacted in the most calm, collected way imaginable.

"AAAAH! ALIEN! DON'T SUCK OUT MY BRAIN! ...OR HERS! IN FACT IF YOU COULD JUST LEAVE BOTH OUR BRAINS INTACT THAT WOULD JUST BE SUPER! OH AND DON'T PROBE US BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE JUST GROSS!"

[lessafool]

Did they look like a Skrit-Na? No Andalite would have to resort to probing someone for, well, that kind of information. Aldrea stepped further to the side, main eyes watching the human and AI warily. < Would you inform your speaking AI friend that I'm not equipped to do anything to anyone's brain? >

Granted, she could in theory hack into both brains, but it'd be messy and earn her Punishment and that was just not on Esplin's "to do" list for the day. Or ever. Other people being Punished? Sure.

Just not him.

Aldrea's bladed tail came up, not held at ready so much as made obvious. The human looked more wary, not very threatening, and the AI was shouting.

... Not very threatening, if Aldrea was pointing out that Yeerks didn't suck out brains, just, you know, terribly evilly take them over. Finer distinctions in life.

[smug_silence]

Somewhere in the midst of her panic, Chell knew that every person on Stacy was in the same boat, so to speak, and would gain little from trying to harm one another. Even if the sentient spaceship prevented unsavory murders of fellow crewmates, killing people was an unproductive use of time, and it was silly to expect such a thing. Right? The bladed tail, however, was not comfortable in the least.

Neither was the voice in her head. Telepathy? The creature didn't have a mouth, so maybe this was just how it spoke.

She tried to steady herself with deep breaths. Calm. She could be calm and collected and not offend fellow crew members right from the get-go.

Wheatley's screaming was not helping, and though Chell would not inform him of the request in such detail, she at least looked down at the core in her arms and brought a finger to her lips. A harsh, abrupt shhhhhh sound hissed from between her teeth, probably the closest to a 'shut up, Wheatley' she'd ever get.

[makesyoudumb]

Wheatley stopped screaming for just a moment. "Oh... Is it safe? All right then, I'll just keep quiet then. Mum's the word for ol' Wheatley here. Not a sound, not a peep out of me."

For now.

[lessafool]

The robot hadn't heard her, if the human had. Aldrea wondered what kind of connection the two of them had, for the human to fail in verbalizing while the robot responded to one particular sound.

Well trained, if a bit excitable.

< I didn't mean to startle either of you. > She made an effort to lower her tail, if part of her wondered how they would have reacted had she been in Alloran's form. The male Andalite's tail blade was notably more impressive and deadly looking. < Are you all right? >

[smug_silence]

Excitable was right. Excitable and painfully insensitive, which was, quite honestly, a quality of the AI that was a bit harder to stifle. The last thing Chell wanted was for Wheatley to offend this creature when it had a dangerous-looking blade on its tail and they were mostly defenseless.

Now that the initial shock was over, she found herself thinking more clearly, better able to cope with the strange new sensation of a voice ringing not in the room around her, but inside her mind.

She swallowed hard and nodded quickly in response, trying her best to rid herself of the deer-in-the-headlights expression.

[makesyoudumb]

Being unable to hear the Andalite's telepathic voice, Wheatley just watched in confusion. As far as he was aware, the two were just staring at each other and making gestures.

"So, um... Can... anyone here talk?"