01 - The Jelly Incident

[marvelous_murderbot]

[The camera comes on to Guri who looks...completely normal, sitting there. But mildly off-put.]

It appears that the first unusual incident has already happened - fortunately enough, I was never a child or adolescent, so I have been spared that, however there are certain aggravating effects nonetheless.

So since I will retain this form, if anybody is in need of an adult to help watch over the children, I can certainly...

[Her hair seems to move.]

Oh, bother

[And a mass of golden hair suddenly appears, erupting outwards like a Christmas tree being cut from its wrapping, covering her face and dropping all the way to her waist. There is a moment of pause, tapping her hand on her knee before parting the hair.]

My hair does grow, so it keeps coming back. All of it.

Comments

[video]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

This may not be the time for it, but you should consider keeping the long hair.

[Edge. Priorities. Jeez.]

Re: [video]

[marvelous_murderbot]

[It may not be the best of priorities, but it does raise questions for her.]

I usually keep it shoulder-length. Obviously the mass is the problem rather than the length. This is the sixth time this has occurred.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

It just looks really good on you! [Edge rubs the back of his head, grinning awkwardly beneath his mask.] Besides, it might just pop back to normal at the end of this, so you could take some time to enjoy it and consider the change when this is all done!

[marvelous_murderbot]

Well, thank you, but the predicament is that it keeps coming back as one mass, so I either have to keep cutting it or become a blond piece of plant life since I can no longer properly move.

[sciencegirl]

As someone with a lot of hair, that seems inconvenient when you can't just move it out of the way.

Is it following any sort of schedule?

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Well, I should've been clear and said I meant when this was all over, you should keep it. But it's very strange that you keep going backwards like that when most other people stopped... [Is it because she didn't have a past, apparently, to judge from what she'd said?]

[marvelous_murderbot]

I am not 'other people', and since I was created fully-formed, all that grows or changes on me is my hair. So I guess that is what this...effect focused on.

Also, how much do you think I should keep?

[marvelous_murderbot]

[She lifts a mass of it it, looking curious.]

Yours responds to command?

And so far, I believe it is occurring at rotating intervals of two hours, followed by forty-five minutes.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

As much as you're comfortable with, without it compromising your abilities! [Whatever they are. He assumes fighting is one of them.]

I'm interested in that story if you want to tell it though.

[subcircuits]

[Oh no. Hair. Not many folks on the train know this yet, but Devero has a weakness for hair.]

I assume you've been cutting the regrowth? Would it be an option to just... keep it long, for now?

Video

[soldier_blade]

[Cue a really..not entirely confused, but more inquisitive teenager.] How were you never a kid or teenager...[If the woman doesn't feel the need to be shy, she doesn't feel bad in asking about it.] Are you a robot or something...or some alien that grew up in a plant pod?

[And...Sonya might've just outted herself as a science fiction geek

[marvelous_murderbot]

[A mass of it is tossed back with some effort so she can properly see.]

I usually keep it to just below shoulder length, really. I like it, aesthetically. But it does not impede functionality.

And where would you like me to begin?

[marvelous_murderbot]

That was an early consideration, after the second regrowth. However, if left to its own devices, it begins to impede my movement. And I cannot properly see

Re: Video

[marvelous_murderbot]

Oh, I can assure you I am not born from a plant pod, though of course such is always a consideration when cloning is a possibility.

[Well, she's run into someone for who all of that is just plain fact.]

I am, however, to some extent robotic - I am a Human Replica Droid. I think the simplest explanation would be "blurring the lines", if that makes sense.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Well, if you didn't come out the, uh, natural way, how DID it happen?

[Edge has no idea what is offensive in this situation, so he's blindly muddling through.]

Re: Video

[soldier_blade]

They have cloning where you're from? [She's really trying to not sound like a nerd. But after the morning she's had, it's getting rough not to, especially when she mentions droids.]

Woah!...You're actually a droid? I didn't know they could come out looking that human! Or..well, I guess that's the whole point of a 'human replica droid.

[Great job Blade...completely managing your cool there.]

[marvelous_murderbot]

Oh, yes. Not what it once was - but my own skin is, technically speaking, cloned. Or at least properly grown for me. They used to clone in the millions, but that was in a different time.

And I am considerably more human than a standard droid - though not as far along as I'd wish.

[marvelous_murderbot]

[Well that makes sense, as neither does she, really.]

I am what is termed a Human Replica Droid. My hair, my skin - those are organic, grown. My organs, too, though they were created synthetically. But my skeleton is metallic, my senses enhanced with various sensors. And I have an AA-1 Verbobrain, modeled to operate much as the human brain does.

[She leaves unsaid the musculature.]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

[Okay, he hadn't been expecting that, and it takes him some time to figure out how it works. So she's basically human but with metal instead of normal bones, as he understands it...]

Okay, I think I get it! It sounds like all this is the really advanced technology that we didn't have and I don't understand, but clearly the end result is pretty amazing!

[marvelous_murderbot]

[It's a start, at any rate.]

Well, thank you. Many people would consider me a glorified toaster, so I appreciate the sentiment.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Really? Why?

[That doesn't make any sense to him. Is it just because she was made? But then why make her as a person if they didn't want her to be a person?]

[marvelous_murderbot]

Many people view artificial life forms, like me, as lesser tools. Not worthy of full respect, and certainly not warranting self-autonomy.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

You're alive, thinking, feeling. Why is that artificial just because some of your parts are different?

[No, he understands the prejudice; the question is rhetorical, accompanied as it is by his eyebrows lowering.]

[marvelous_murderbot]

Again, kind of you.

[She inclines her head in acknowledgement. Or what can be seen of it.]

[subcircuits]

Have you tried... putting it up? Or is there something more going on than just having a lot of hair? [He's thinking of Entrapta's magic hair there for sure.]