The civilian standing before TO was a strange sight: A blob of undulating reddish-green which moved about by stretching its body and pulling itself in the direction it needed to go. They were mostly opaque, but even so TO could see the outlines of organs moving about freely within them. While this civilian seemed to have no true face–no mouth, no nose, no ears–it had two eyes floating about right next to the surface on the upper part of their body. The two black orbs twisted as they looked about, often with one eye looking in an entirely different direction than the other.
Really, TO didn’t know if this civilian had any discernible body parts but it wore a simple shirt over its midsection, the sleeves dangling uselessly at the sides. It looked almost comical, but Arkane had a nudity taboo, and if they didn’t wear something, then the citizens of Arkane might have thought them strange. Well, the blob creature was strange to TO, anyway. They had eyes, but TO couldn’t note any emotions from them as they lacked any form of eyebrows, ridge muscles, or eyelids. They also had no facial features, so TO couldn’t make a guess on what the creature was feeling from the contortion of their features. And, of course, they didn’t have ears emotive or otherwise.
“Blorp!” Pearla said, beaming as she approached the blob. “How are you?”
“B-blorp?” TO asked.
Pearla smiled at TO, “Let me introduce you: TO, this is ‘Blorp’. They/them. Blorp is a nickname though because I’m unable to make the right sounds in their language with my vocal chords. It’s like how I can understand some synth speak, but I can’t speak it because I can’t do the weird breathing-in-and-out-at-the-same-time thing you can.” She looked at Blorp, smiling, “Blorp, this is TO. Also they/them.” She smiled as her cheeks darkened, “They’re practically family, since their sibling is my partner.”
Practically family? TO’s ripped their attention from the undulating blob as they looked at Pearla, “Really?” They asked, their ears perking up.
Pearla looked at TO in silence and surprise for a moment before she broke out into laughter, “Of course!” She said, “I mean, You and GiDi are family, and they love you a lot.. And I love GiDi.” Her face deepened in color again, “I don’t want to change that, So I can only join you!” A second after she finished speaking, her face suddenly dropped, and the color seeped from her face, “Oh.. I.. I'm sorry.” She said, “I mean, that’s presumptuous of me-”
“No! You’re fine, I was just surprised!” TO insisted. There was no way they could describe the level of relief they felt hearing her say that. There were still a lot of things they were concerned about, especially where GiDi was involved, but at least this was one thing they likely didn’t have to worry about anymore.
“Wait.” Blorp said. their voice was odd to TO, and it hummed against their ears strangely. As far as TO could tell, Blorp was vibrating parts of his surface in a very specific manner in order to create the sounds that mimicked Galactic Common. “I heard you had a partner down here! I heard about GiDi!” Their body turned red, “GiDi is a synth?”
Pearla’s tail slapped the ground behind her, causing the stones to shake. The sound of it made TO’s ears flick down protectively, and when her tail impacted the ground, Blorps' color went from red to yellow. The power in her tail was so surprising to TO. When they looked at Pearla, they saw a rounded civilian. Everything about her seemed soft and kind from the curls in her hair to her rounded figure which was so different from synths. She had no fangs, no claws, and didn’t seem dangerous in the least!
To see all the power she had in just that split second shocked TO.
Even as her tail slapped the stones, Pearla smiled at Blorp, “Nope! Chilacian.” she said, “Just like TO and uh-” She looked around the room, searching, “DH, if you’ve met them. The one going around with Goretta and helping.”
Blorp’s coloring changed suddenly, going from yellow to a cooler blue-green which reminded TO of the green held in the Arkanian skies and seas on nice days.
“They’re not synths?” The blob asked as one of their big black eyes shifted inside their body and turned to look at TO even as the other remained focused on Pearla, “But the others said that they were.”
“Decon turns Chilacians into synths.” Pearla said, her eyes narrowing slightly, “Apparently he does this by altering Chilacian brains. TO is a Chilacian; they have a natural brain.”
It felt weird to have all this said so frankly before someone TO had just met. It also felt so stupidly simple. The line drawn between Synth and Chilacian couldn’t be that clear! There was more to being a Synth than just the state of their brain, right? The overseers had trained them as a synth; they lived as a synth in training, and for a time they had a synth’s assignment. Did the composition of their brain, it’s raw nature, undo all their lived experiences?
“... I thought Decon made synths.” Blorp said, The more TO could hear, the stranger their voice seemed. It was like they were speaking through a layer of water and gurgling through the syllables. “I mean, that’s what we’re told, right? I didn’t think he actually made biological creatures, but I thought he made robotic AIs”
“Do you really think King Dick would be smart enough to build an AI that can act like a synth does?” Pearla huffed, “And honestly, does anyone really believe he can make an entire creature, a whole species, from scratch?” She chuckled, “How would that even work?”
TO’s eyes widened, “Theoretically, it’s possible.” They said. “If one had all the genetic markers mapped out, then it’s possible to create entirely new species!” Their ears dropped, “Though… right now, that’s only been possible to do in a laboratory setting with very simple, single-celled creatures. I was very interested in figuring out how King Decon made us from just the base proteins and sugars that make DNA, but..” Their ears dipped. “But… Of course, he didn’t make us. It was a lie.”
King Decon had lied to them. Lied to TO, to DH, to all the synths! They had a entire world, a culture, and a biology that they never knew, and King Decon kept that from them. It still hurt every time TO remembered it, though they didn’t know why. They should have been over that... Right? Why did it still hurt?”
At any rate, Pearla’s explanation seemed to be enough for Blorp; The creature’s color turned a darker blue. Did this creature’s species show emotion through their color? Well, that would be easier to read than facial expressions. TO noticed that occasionally, the eyes would twitch oddly. Did that have any meaning? Was that further emotional expression, or a solid means of communication. Was it similar to how TO’s ears moved, or more like how many species just blinked.
“So… it was all bullshit.” Blorp said as their external membrane seemed to shudder for a moment. “I always thought it was impossible to just make a species.”
“Not impossible.” TO said, remembering their research, “Just not yet done.”
Pearla smiled at Blorp, “At any rate.” She said, “TO’s trying to help us plan for leaving the planet.” She said, “They have some questions for you.”
The blob flashed red for a moment as one eye stared at Pearla, while the other looked at TO. After a moment, both eyes turned to TO. Finally, slowly, their coloring shifted back to blue.
“Alright,” they said, “What can I do?”
TO felt a sigh of relief escape them as they started asking their questions. A living blob had to have special requirements on a ship in space, TO was certain. What did they eat? What did they need? What was their species even called!?
Even after they got the information, TO knew they’d need to do a lot of research.
======
“That was a lot easier…” TO muttered as they left the dormitory. Working with Pearla for a single hour had allowed them to get more work done than they had in the three hours they worked alone!
“You should have asked for help!” Pearla said, “Honestly, why didn’t you ask in the first place?”
TO’s ears dipped back. There were many reasons they hadn’t asked for help; the desire to work until exhausted, the need to keep busy, and the desire to do well on the job assigned to them.
“I just thought it was something I could handle on my own.” TO said.
“Well, this doesn’t work if we all try to get through on our own.” Pearla said, “Now, what’s next?”
“I-I can handle it.” TO said, “You can go back to GiDi-”
Pearla sighed, her hands on her hips, “You realize that GiDi needs to sleep from time to time, yes?” She said, her face flushing slightly. “Even during this… thing”
“Yup. I know.” TO said in a fast, clipped tone, their ears dropping and burning bright blue, “ No need to talk about it!”
“Good!” Pearla said, “Then we don’t have to talk about it, and I can help you. Now, what’s next?”
TO attempted to voice their protestations several times, their words becoming stammered syllables in their mouth. Despite everything, the thought of talking to Pearla about anything related to Enkavma was absolutely mortifying, and the only way they could get around her argument was to do just that!
In the end, TO sighed and looked at their list.
“There are a lot of tasks I can manage on my own later.” TO said as they skimmed the list and went over the tedious prep they had to do in order to make sure they had all their supplies ready to go, as well as the modifications they had to prepare for when they had secret access to their ship once more. As they approached the end of their list their ears flicked down as they saw something that would require more interaction with civilians they didn’t know.
“... But I need to check on the tunnel leading to my ship” TO’s eyes flicked to a little red dot next to that item on the list. With a sigh, they checked it, and saw a note added to the task.
===Hey, maybe not a big issue, but if you could send one of those synths up here to check out something on their ship? We think something is wrong, but we don’t know. At any rate, we think we hit the ship. Here’s a picture.===
TO opened the picture to see what it was, hoping that it was something they could fix easily from a distance. It soon became clear that they couldn’t. While TO’s eyes were excellent in low-light vision, the camera that took the photo was not and darkness obscured most of the image, leaving what they could see grainy and vague despite what looked like a flashlight on it. At any rate, TO was fairly certain that they were looking at the front of the emergency transport for their ship.
“What’s wrong?” Pearla asked.
“Nothing, Probably.” TO muttered as they tried to make out details in the picture. They finally sighed and looked at Pearla, “Is this really how you see things in the dark?” They asked, turning the projection towards Pearla.
“More or less.” Pearla said with a light grin on her face. She leaned in to look at the picture. “Why, what’s wrong?”
TO sighed, “I don’t know.” They said, “I have to go to the tunnels and talk to someone there.”
Pearla perked up, “Oh, well, that’s where Tham is, so I can visit and say hi.” She headed down the hallway, humming slightly until she realized that TO wasn’t following her. “Come on.” She said, “This way.”
TO hadn’t seen Tham since that night they learned about the alteration to their chip and hadn’t wanted to see them at all. They had entirely forgotten that Tham was in the tunnels, organizing the expansion of their existing tunnel system to reach TO’s ship and helping as much as he could give his injured arm.
For a moment, they wondered if they could just ask Pearla to go look. That would be easier, and then TO wouldn’t have to see Tham again! But no, if there was a problem, they’d need someone familiar with the ship and with synth technology. At any rate, this was TO’s job which Flit had assigned to them.
TO sighed and followed along.
