Devero (emID 771-Prosp0202-00745) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
subcircuits) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
voidtreckernet2021-03-04 07:18 pm
subcircuits) wrote in voidtreckernet2021-03-04 07:18 pm
Early Kazoo 2
[An hour or two after today's morning announcement, the ICPs light up again, this time showing Devero's face. He made himself fairly scarce yesterday-- he had a new toy to play with!!-- so newcomers, you may not have seen him around. (If you had, you'd probably recognize the distinctive device that he wears on his face.) He's wearing it now as he looks earnestly into the ICP camera. From the background, he's obviously in his cabin.]
Hello, folks, a moment of your time, if you please! I promise to be a lot less annoying than Glowstick was last night.
First, for you new passengers, my name's Devero. Unfortunately, that's not what it says on the passenger roster, but please don't try to call me by that string of numbers and letters. That's my ID code, but it's not my name.
Second. [He holds up a compact little brick-looking thing in one hand, showing it for a moment before he takes it and opens it up into a futuristic-looking tablet.] I'm donating this to the library. It's a course to teach yourself sign language-- well, GSL, the sign language where I come from. [He sets down the tablet, steps back far enough from the ICP that he's visible from the waist up, and as he speaks the next part, he signs it too.] We have a few folks on the train who would benefit from more people knowing it, so if you want to learn, come find this in the library. [He stops signing and gets closer to the screen again.]
I'm going to try to be in the library for lessons or anyone who wants to practice on certain days too. I'll put it up on that board in standard when I have a set time nailed down.
Third, in case you hadn't heard: Cassie's hosting a ballroom social tomorrow in the evening. You can ask her for the details; I just wanted to say that after I'm done here I'm going to park myself in the gym for a few hours. You want to brush up on your ballroom, or learn some steps so you can do a turn on the dance floor with your blind date? I've got you covered.
Oh, one last thing. [He turns and reaches out of the picture, then draws his hand back into the frame. Hovering above it is a vaguely loaf-shaped metal thing with a big camera lens in front and a purple ribbon tassel hanging off the antenna on the back.] This is my new Mantiscope. It's a kind of robot pet from my world, and it's completely harmless. [He makes a gesture in the air with his free hand, and the floating loaf extends its neck and its legs, dropping lightly to his palm. It swivels its elongate head and focuses its lens-eye on his face. That little antenna on the back end pivots up and down, making the tassel wave.] It's new, so it should stick by me since I'm its user. If you see it on its own anywhere, will you let me know so I can come collect it? I'd appreciate it.
Okay, that's all I've got. Thanks for your time. I'll head down to the gym shortly, but let me know if you have any questions while I'm still here.
Hello, folks, a moment of your time, if you please! I promise to be a lot less annoying than Glowstick was last night.
First, for you new passengers, my name's Devero. Unfortunately, that's not what it says on the passenger roster, but please don't try to call me by that string of numbers and letters. That's my ID code, but it's not my name.
Second. [He holds up a compact little brick-looking thing in one hand, showing it for a moment before he takes it and opens it up into a futuristic-looking tablet.] I'm donating this to the library. It's a course to teach yourself sign language-- well, GSL, the sign language where I come from. [He sets down the tablet, steps back far enough from the ICP that he's visible from the waist up, and as he speaks the next part, he signs it too.] We have a few folks on the train who would benefit from more people knowing it, so if you want to learn, come find this in the library. [He stops signing and gets closer to the screen again.]
I'm going to try to be in the library for lessons or anyone who wants to practice on certain days too. I'll put it up on that board in standard when I have a set time nailed down.
Third, in case you hadn't heard: Cassie's hosting a ballroom social tomorrow in the evening. You can ask her for the details; I just wanted to say that after I'm done here I'm going to park myself in the gym for a few hours. You want to brush up on your ballroom, or learn some steps so you can do a turn on the dance floor with your blind date? I've got you covered.
Oh, one last thing. [He turns and reaches out of the picture, then draws his hand back into the frame. Hovering above it is a vaguely loaf-shaped metal thing with a big camera lens in front and a purple ribbon tassel hanging off the antenna on the back.] This is my new Mantiscope. It's a kind of robot pet from my world, and it's completely harmless. [He makes a gesture in the air with his free hand, and the floating loaf extends its neck and its legs, dropping lightly to his palm. It swivels its elongate head and focuses its lens-eye on his face. That little antenna on the back end pivots up and down, making the tassel wave.] It's new, so it should stick by me since I'm its user. If you see it on its own anywhere, will you let me know so I can come collect it? I'd appreciate it.
Okay, that's all I've got. Thanks for your time. I'll head down to the gym shortly, but let me know if you have any questions while I'm still here.
abuse trauma cw's just going to continue from here
Inside the shield of Entrapta's hair, Devero buries his face in his hands and hides his hands against his knees, as if he's trying to huddle down into nothing. That's easier said than done when a fellow is a slab of beef, but he tries regardless.]
Valdana. [He says it quietly, an almost inaudible whisper.] Her name is Valdana. She-- she--
[Say it, Devero. Confront it.]
She's the one who-- who-- [His throat closes with fear and despair but he chokes it out anyway.] --broke me.
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[Devero hasn't had much to say about her, and if it was that bad she can't blame him. While some people liken being broken to ceramics you can fix with gold and make stronger, some people are like broken machines you need to refurbish. They function, they work, but they're still going to need to be maintained.]
[Devero is a sturdy machine, not ceramic reinforced with gold.]
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[Curled up in this tiny private place, the words start to spill out of him, his voice low but fervent nonetheless.]
She's the Administrator of my community, Techstead. She's my boss. She's everyone's boss. She's the visionary who gave all of us hiteks-- us real hiteks-- a place to work and collaborate and push the boundaries of what we can achieve with our hardware and our software selves.
She's the woman who-- who put me back in an exo after my discharge. She gave me Babysitter-- [He falters there for a moment. He doesn't know when-- or if-- he'll ever get back home, but if he does he knows things won't go back to the way they were with Valdana-- and for the first time it occurs to him that he'll lose Babysitter. The exo is his, but at the same time, it's not. It's Gov's property, entrusted to Techstead, entrusted to him.
Rust and ruin, if he has to leave Techstead-- he'll have to leave Techstead, he won't be able to stay, he won't be able to stand it--
He'll have to leave that part of himself behind. He looks up from his hands, horror-struck.] ...I'm never going to get in Babysitter again.
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[She knows she's going to be full of questions. Which can be irritating, when the other person is overflowing with emotion. And Devero is, keeping it all bottled in.]
[It's only been six weeks. People can hurt for years. Maybe he doesn't know it's okay if it takes time? She really hopes they can make it so they don't have to go home.]
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[He falls silent, overwhelmed, and buries his face in his hands again. A wretched sob escapes him, muffled.]
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[Her immediate thought is to just take it away, request it and pay for it as an item and not let them have it. Whatever Devero did to make it unique, whether it was parts or chips, taken for himself.]
[It's almost miserable how Sandra comes up and offers Devero one of his own socks to cry with, but Entrapta waves her away.]
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[...But there's something he could take. Now he lifts his face, actually managing to meet her eyes.] I could ask for the processor core. That's-- that's Babysitter's brain, that's the part that knows me.
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[She's a very fixit approach to grief. And this is grief. Pain. But there's also a strategic element; Dev needs a win. He needs a real win, even if it's just a processor core.]
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[It's obvious that Devero's made to feel mediocre when he's anything but. Just some kind of useful tool for the people that mistakenly see themselves as brilliant.]
But having something that's all yours is important. You're allowed to want a better life for yourself.
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[It... hurts to admit that, when the society he came from really is so good in so many ways, especially compared to the hell worlds so many of his friends and fellow passengers hail from. But he had been miserable, and that good society had failed him. He's still very much in the process of coming to terms with that, but he can, at least, see it.]