Watching Without Eyes (Lemley, Ask)

[Watcher Three]

Watcher Three stood on the observation deck of the spacedock above Ryloth that had recently become a haunt of his. The Spyglass was being repainted to its normal shade of deep red after a battle that had put dings and dents all over Watcher's poor little bird. The Typhoon Squadron was all out on shore leave, as all three ships needed some repair and supplies.

The Replica Droid never understood why observation decks always appealed to him. He couldn't actually see anything, of course, but interesting things always seemed to happen on observation decks.

He couldn't help but wonder what would happen this time.

[member='Lemley Orion']

 

[Lemley Orion]

Stars. So numerous and old. Eventually burning out in a blaze of glory. They either become a gaping hole that sends all in it's path into the void, or a lifeless rock that is little more than a shadow of it's former beauty. A predictable outcome. One that is never happy.​

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Lemley gently placed her hand on the glass, letting her sensory nanociruits take in the chill of the observation window. The sensation of touch was the only thing she could experience that was even close to human anymore. Her dulled eyes drifted from one tiny pinprick of starlight to the next; something she had done so many times that it became second nature to her.​

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All of them were the same. White or red, blue or yellow. Every star would die someday. She longed to be one of those stars. Time could not be stopped for them.​

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Someone walked in from the other side of the observation deck. Their footsteps broke Lemley's concentration for only a moment. She remained as she was, not even caring enough to glance in their direction. She had long since stopped wondering what others thought of her. They did not understand her, and therefor they didn't matter.​

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[member="Watcher Three"]​

 

[Watcher Three]

Watcher sighed with a bit of disgust at the lack of activity so far. Sure, he loved his ship, but 'watching' it be repainted wasn't exactly his idea of fun. He heard a small, almost inaudible, scratching noise on the glass, and though he couldn't see the person making the noise in question, he could tell that they weren't breathing normally. But there was no noise that would suggest some kind of trouble, so it didn't really catch his interest.

He picked up his bottle of beer from the windowsill and sat down in one of the comfier chairs on the deck. Waiting was something he usually dealt with by shutting off and processing gathered data, a sort of 'sleep', as it were. But that didn't appeal to him for the moment. And, so, he looked in the direction of the person scratching on the glass and said in an amused tone, "I'm glad it ain't me paying for that glass. Sounds like you might scratch through it."

[member="Lemley Orion"]

 

[Lemley Orion]

A male's voice broke the silence. Instead of answering him, Lemley merely lowered her hand to her side. She turned her head slightly to glance at whoever had spoken. A man with long blue hair. She looked back to the window. A tiny, but visible, scratch had appeared where her hand had been. No amount of synthetic skin could entirely soften the sharpness of her skeleton and inner workings.​

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"I apologize..." She replied softly.​

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[member="Watcher Three"]​

 

[Watcher Three]

Watcher chuckled, drank some more beer, and settled himself into a more comfortable spot in the chair. So, that was definitely a more feminine voice. And... the sound of scratching had been replaced by another sound... The breathing. It'd been louder for a split second, and had sounded... unnatural, if a droid could ever think such a thing. For the first time in a while, the Typhoon Commodore blinked at what he assumed was probably a woman. As he 'looked' closer, he heard an almost inaudible whirring noise near her body. He tilted his head to one side and replied, "I don't know why you're apologizing. I was joking. I do have one question though... Why are you whirring?"

[member="Lemley Orion"]

 

[Lemley Orion]

It seemed a bit odd that someone who was staring right at Lemley couldn't tell that she wasn't human.​

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"Can you see me?" She asked bluntly.​

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The only explanation she could find for this male was that he was blind, and therefor oblivious to her physical appearance.​

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[member="Watcher Three"]​

 

[Watcher Three]

Watcher once again... blinked. This girl was an unusual one, it seemed. Most people weren't observant enough to tell that he was blind, no matter how obvious he made it. It made him laugh. Hard. For a full thirty seconds, he laughed, and then took a sip of beer, and then jumped out of the chair towards her. Still laughing, he replied, "And now how did you come to that conclusion, girlie? Because you're right, you know. You're probably the fastest person to guess tha-"

His laughter died, though, when he reached down to pat her back in a jovial way... and felt metal. And the realization hit him, "But you're breathing so... You're a cyborg? How much of you is reconstructed?"

[member="Lemley Orion"]

 

[Lemley Orion]

Lemley watched as the man broke out into laughter. When he started coming up to her, she felt a bit uncomfortable. Normally people would just stare at her from a distance. She was fine with that. But coming up to her and actually touching her was a different story. She shifted away from him a little and looked back to the window.​

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How much of her was reconstructed, he asked. She blinked slowly. She didn't like when people started to ask her questions about "it", either. She mostly prefered to be alone.​

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"Too much." ​

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[member="Watcher Three"]​

 

[Watcher Three]

Watcher didn't really step away, but instead hopped up and sat on the window sill. His former facade of giddiness was gone, and simply replaced by a mixture of curiosity and actual concern. He was, as far as he was concerned, a creation in a human body. This girl, from what little he could tell of her was exactly the opposite. The problem was, she could be immensely old and angry, and possibly try to smash him into a puddle of gooey robotic sexiness. He liked being his normal, solid-state robotic sexiness.

He lolled his head against the glass and raised an eyebrow, "You don't mind if I ask how, do you?"

[member="Lemley Orion"]

 

[Lemley Orion]

"How or why is irrelevant. The result was still the same."​

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It didn't suit Lemley to tell her story, even if this man wasn't a complete stranger. She knew it would only make people feel sorry for her. If being a walking talking metal husk wasn't shameful enough, pity would only make her feel that much more empty. She didn't feel like dealing with that today.​

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[member="Watcher Three"]​

 

[Watcher Three]

Watcher's eyes wandered around the room as he continued drinking, and then frowned at the bottle when he found it was empty. He sat there for a couple of minutes, totally silent, and then tapped his own fingers against the window. Far harder than the girl had been doing. When he pulled his hand away, he could feel inch-deep rents in the glass.

Finally, he said, "I used to think that, but it ain't true. That ship down there is mine. The scratches on my armor are mine, too. Being a pirate sort of gives a guy a feeling of possession over the things 'round him. But no man with proper eyes can see what I see. Think about that a moment. I need another drink."

[member="Lemley Orion"]

 

[Lemley Orion]

There was logic in what the man said. At least, there was some logic. But Lemley still said nothing in regards to her "rebirth". She instead glanced at him once more and then turned around. She slowly walked over to the other window of the observation deck where seats were located, her feet making metallic clicking noises as she moved. She sat down on a cushioned footrest that went with one of the chairs and started staring at the stars again.​

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[member="Watcher Three"]​

 

[Watcher Three]

Watcher heard the metallic sound of the girl moving, and the nearly inaudible creaking of one of the chairs in the room getting weight put on it. He turned around, picking up two beers and walking over to where he'd heard her sit down. He dropped into one of the chairs, and set one of the bottles down next to her spot with an audible click. Staying completely silent, he popped open his bottle of beer and took a sip of it, and then turned back towards the window. Might even have had a nice view if he's been able to see it.

[member="Lemley Orion"]

 

[Lemley Orion]

Lemley continued her staring contest with the galaxy while casually asking, "What is the purpose of filling yourself with a beverage that does nothing good for the body?"​

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She never did understand why people chose to drink alcohol. It was clearly an error in better judgement, as it often left bad things in it's wake.​

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[member="Watcher Three"]​

 

[Watcher Three]

Watcher chuckled again, continuing to drink his beer before leaning farther back in his chair and sighing somewhat contentedly. The question flipped through the droid's mind like a kid's flying toy, and landed in a spot that brought him to a perfect conclusion. And what he said back to the girl was almost the same thing he thought, "There's no point in consuming anything for me, except to feel more human. Which I'm not. Not even close. Nothing is good or bad for my body, per se."

[member="Lemley Orion"]

 

[Lemley Orion]

So she had been correct in her assumption. This man was not human at all. Something about his features hinted this to Lemley when she first saw him. He seemed almost... artificial. He had her full attention for the moment as she continued watching him.​

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"Why do you wish to feel like something that you aren't even close to?"​

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Lemley had stopped "feeling" human soon after she'd reawakened in her new body. She could sleep, and breath (though it wasn't necessary), and talk, and blink, and even experience the sensation of touch. But all of it was pathetic compared to how it used to be. So, she stopped trying to feel human. She accepted that she wasn't alive anymore, and that nothing she did would change it.​

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But Lemley had been human once. This man seemed as if he hadn't been. So, why was he trying to be?​

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[member="Watcher Three"]​

 

[Watcher Three]

Watcher sat there, with his eyebrows furrowed, for a few minutes. He'd never really sat down and thought about why he enjoyed his bit of fake humanity. It was something that he'd just done because he felt that it made him fit into his role as a Human Replica Droid. He even 'slept' to process information fully, instead of simply filing it like a normal droid. Finally, he just shrugged and answered, "Because it's my role to do so. Human Replica Droid. More importantly, I enjoy it. I have free will, and I can do what I enjoy."

[member="Lemley Orion"]

 

[Lemley Orion]

Enjoying something that was useless, and got him no closer to anything but longing for something he couldn't have. Lemley felt a small grain of pity for this Human Replica Droid. She had known something that he never would.​

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"I wish I could be like you." She said, a touch of sadness in her voice.​

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This droid had never known humanity as Lemley had. He could wish for it, but be alright with what he was because he had known nothing else. But to have once been human and died, only to have that and even your own death ripped away from you forever was something Lemley couldn't bear. More than anything, she wished she couldn't remember her life. She wished she were like this droid. Ignorant of organic experiences. Just a synthetic being who really liked humans.​

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[member="Watcher Three"]​

 

[Lemley Orion]

Enjoying something that was useless, and got him no closer to anything but longing for something he couldn't have. Lemley felt a small grain of pity for this Human Replica Droid. She had known something that he never would.​

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"I wish I could be like you." She said, a touch of sadness in her voice.​

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This droid had never known humanity as Lemley had. He could wish for it, but be alright with what he was because he had known nothing else. But to have once been human and died, only to have that and even your own death ripped away from you forever was something Lemley couldn't bear. More than anything, she wished she couldn't remember her life. She wished she were like this droid. Ignorant of organic experiences. Just a synthetic being who really liked humans.​

​

[member="Watcher Three"]​

 

[Watcher Three]

Watcher shook his head in mock-disappointment. The girl didn't understand, did she? She was actually a lot like him in certain ways, and the only real difference was that she missed her human self, while he was always feeling closer to humans than other droids and artificial intelligences. He was able to embrace life, and she felt like she was no longer able to. That didn't make him feel attracted to her at all, more... like he had to help her.

He tilted his head towards his beer bottle, listening to the liquid sloshing around behind the glass. It was a familiar sound that made him feel happy, even if the full effects of the alcohol were lost on him. Thinking about that, he replied, "I'm an aberration of an assassination program that I once thought forced me to fake being human. I hope to hell that any human would be unable to be like me."

Another sip of beer, and he continued, "Are you seriously telling me that you wish you didn't know better, or at least enough to be able to show me that you're a person who's capable of picking themselves up and being a person, rather than sitting here and telling me that beer is useless?"

[member="Lemley Orion"]