Date: August 25th 2178, 14:00Location: Somewhere In The Desert Status: @kalliawexler

Date: August 25th 2178, 14:00 Location: somewhere in the desert Status: @kalliawexler

The walk across the scorching sand did little to clear the buzzing thoughts thrumming through his busy mind. He had learned, through the careful study of words crafted into novels by writers from all periods of the past, that close proximity to nature seemed to provide humans with a reprieve from the stress they so easily enveloped into their daily lives. The endless hills of desolation did not provide him with any absolution; instead, the setting only amplified the restlessness itching beneath his stitched skin. Brown irises, unencumbered by the sun’s assault, searched the small group for a suitable distraction. Although it would be easy to simply fall into a trance of simulations and calculations, lost in information as endless as the desert before them, DATA found himself craving the careful closeness that only contact with likened company could provide.

His gaze finally settled on the familiar sight of olive skin and ebony hair, both features as artificial as his own. The woman, despite the close proximity they achieved on their journey so far, remained an enigma. Although both held the inevitable commonality of a shared synthetic nature, nurture had allowed them to become inexplicitly different. Where she was harsh, crafted with a dull knife to create jagged lines, unrelenting in the stinging sharpness she embodied in her own independence; DATA was soft, malleable in the manufactured morals he held under the authority of a creator. She was different, and the contrast that juxtaposed their broken kinship fascinated him.

DATA approached her with an awkward grace intrinsic to his being, stumbling over the fragmented pieces of possible comments suitable to initiate a conversation with the woman still stubbornly stamped as a stranger in his flexible classification of the Concord’s crew members. “Have you ever visited the Free States before?” DATA winced at the banal inquiry he had selected as a topic of conversation, perhaps he should have commented on the weather.  

kalliawexler:

marching on, and on, and on.

There’s purpose to her gait, spine straight and shoulders pushed back. She does not match the exhaustion painted across the features of her crew; perspiration seeping from every pore and silhouettes stretching outwards across the dunes. Though they rub at their temples, tangle their fingertips within the knots of their hair, there is a substantial potential laced between each individual. 

They are willing, they are ready, they are a team.

To work as the latter was an unfamiliar notion; as a newborn’s first breath, it came with comfort, it came with caution. She is overzealous at every corner, doubts their abilities, but she does not kneel before the inaugural sign of strain. If she must survive alongside those of all purposes, then may she do so with an oath for success.

There’s a question which departs from the another’s lips; it’s unforeseen at first, not many seek the assassin above those with a radiating warmth. She croons her neck to the side, there’s a flash of wariness in the depth of dark eyes, quick like the spark of a match, before it deflates and she sinks back into her ordinary state. Though this an instinct notched within the pillars of a survivor’s spine, she reminds herself of her company. 

This is DATA; android of kindness, of kinship, of something so human. Their insides may be symmetrical at every corner, sculpted from durability and vigour, but the world has not crushed him into something harsh and tumultuous. 

“No.” There’s enough of a pause to wonder whether the conversation had ended. “I’ve never ventured outside of Wrotham.”

Too busy staying alive. 

“I managed to swipe this before we left,” she pulls a crumpled display of directions from her back pocket. It’s littered with fine print, colour-coded directions and still most are unaware of its existence. “Y’know, just in case they’ve got their own marketplace here.”

Discounted goods, she hoped.

“What about you, does your owner let his pet go outside occasionally?”

A quick nod pulled the bottom of his chin toward the vulnerable flesh of his neck, an obvious action affirming his understanding of their already ending conversation. Such a simple answer, absent of further explanation evident in the awkward silence filling the humid air between the pair, was impossible to be misinterpreted even when paired with the frequent ignorance DATA retained in regards to social etiquette. Fingertips danced across the warm flesh of his palm in a learned expression of discomfort, fidgeting with a frightening likeness to the humans that surrounded him. Yes, he certainly should have selected the weather as a topic of conversation.  

The map was offered as an olive branch, a way of scavenging DATA’s feeble attempts at conversation. Staring down at the colors coding various words highlighting landmarks and roads alike, DATA felt the feeling of confusion overtake his features. “Why would you wish to venture to their market place?” Amber eyes were weary as they studied – memorized – the map displayed before him.

A scowl overtook his features, lips crushed together in a downturned curve of anger. “I’m not his pet,” he spat back at her, the bitterness of his words hidden beneath the cool cadence of offense. “I can go wherever I wish.” The proclamation of independence, ill advised with the retrospection of a rational mind, were words of impulse. DATA knew he would be unable to disobey a direct order from his creator; but in the absence of conversation under the hurt still felt by both parties, DATA was free from the restricted regulations that often accompanied Theon’s concern.

Team 1, RIP

Augustus: Not that I'm supporting anyone being used as a human shield, but isn't he made of metal?

Augustus: Much better shield material. Over.

DATA: Perhaps we should attempt to negotiate with them instead of initially engaging in violence. Over.

Pyre: Violence will only be used if necessary, and we will use no member of the crew as a shield.

Pyre: Marrow said we need to keep the comms to only pertinent, mission-related information. Over.

DATA: Thank you, Pyre.

DATA: Has your mood improved from the melancholy you were previously engaged in over Eretria? Over.

Team 1, RIP

Raven: So, any idea on what we're actually trying to be, uh, assaulting?

Raven: ...over.

Pyre: I believe it was left vague and at our own discretion. Over.

Augustus: So you're saying we have no idea what our actual goal here is?

Augustus: Uh, over.

DATA: According to the message, the goal of the mission is to infiltrate the western wing of facility. Over.

Team 1, RIP

Thane: Y'know, Doc, you'd make a great human shield.

Thane: Over and out.

Nyena: Fair point. Over.

Kallia: Theon's lap dog would make a better shield.

Augustus: Not that I'm supporting anyone being used as a human shield, but isn't he made of metal?

Augustus: Much better shield material. Over.

DATA: Perhaps we should attempt to negotiate with them instead of initially engaging in violence. Over.