Research Division Corporal Aspis Buckler

There was an excited hum that escaped the reploid. When was the last time he had truly experienced what the others referred to as a vacation? Most of the Archivist’s time was spent looking for ways to be more efficient, so much so that on occasion his co-workers(once upon a time when he had them) would lug mountains of their unwanted work onto him. Not that he paid it much mind. 

“Its… odd. I’m not used to the sensation of being with free time. Even when it appeared I was idle, I was working on a project for the facilities benefit. I suppose I just never fully comprehended it as an option.” He said solemnly. Despite his tone there was a smile on his face.  “To think, an organic organism could be replicated with such accuracy to fit in with todays standards– I’m very excited to meet these creatures.” 

“Work hyperfocus is something that hits us all.” Aspis nodded, very familiar with the mixed blessing and curse it brings. Considering how much work it took to get her own boss to take breaks this Archivist was being pretty compliant and easygoing about it.

fallingprotector​:

knowledgekeeperofthegate​:

If there were anything more intimidating then those words, he couldn’t think of any. It was one thing to appear as a threat. It was another to confirm that, if there was intent to be, there would be a threat. Xel'xe would be drenched if sweat had been a function for reploids.

His nerves did appear to calm. A little. Even despite initial misgivings he harbored about the Amazonian facsimile before him. Slowly he swiped an index over his pad. The only information he could find on the Nuvola was the brief exchange between them. “Yes,“He confirmed without looking up and voice still somewhat quivering, “I’m Curator Xel'xe Attis. I’m not finding any data on your craft however… it must not have been registered with any of our connections. I trust it’s safe and up to code?”

Apparently her words weren’t as effective at comforting as they could have been but it was close enough. At least he had stopped running.

“The Nuvola is a large military vessel and as such I don’t expect that there would be incredibly detailed information floating around for security reasons. If you’re talking about the specific craft that I came down in….there’s a different reason for that one not being widely known yet.”

There was a hint of a smirk crossing her features. “The DN-01′s official registration was delayed as Commander Avianna had tried to make some adjustments. The naming committee had managed to get the paperwork well into the system and locked in before she could do much more than just give it a shorter callsign as an approved AKA abbreviation.”

She looked back on the ship. “The Dignified Name is still a solid craft and will get us up there fine. And I’m pilot-rated for combat, simple passenger flights will be no problem.”

"sounds like this commander may have needed to put in adjustments and or requests far in advance to the naming committee getting their hands on the paperwork.” His tongue poked at his upper lip. Seemingly as the corporal spoke he was transcribing everything in a detailed report into his pad. Clearly planning on filing it in the proper spot upon mission completion. “Sky vessels are hard to keep track of without regulated landing procedures for upkeep and maintenance.” He fired as if a fact he had pulled from the network. Tone shifting a bit,“ And even then, there are ways to keep inspections confidential. That would account for a large craft not being on file. Especially if the registry is kept as such among crew personnel only. With what information I’ve gleamed so far however, I am under the impression that all repairs take place airborne.” The arctic reploid tripped on his tongue. biting it slightly and feeling the fluids in his face grow warm. Hoping not to lose face despite the fact that he had, much to his chagrin, rambled on there. A hint of wonder filled his voice as he’d never been around anyone combat rated before,“ So you’ve used your craft for combat before or you are certified for combat? Because if you’ll pardon me for not thinking your vessel is worthy of surviving a well aimed and strong enough blast.”

“That’s the thing about ‘strong enough’. Everything has its breaking point. This vessel isn’t specifically suited towards direct combat but it’s sturdy and still has some punch. I haven’t personally taken this plane into combat, as it is on the newer side, but I’ve flown similar into hot zones. GIven that this mission is more of a simple transport than a combat one, this was deemed a suitable choice.”

fallingprotector​:

daxwebster​:

He wasn’t going to win that one. So Dax pressed on. The next twenty minutes or so flew by, with attempt after attempt of varying seriousness. He tried on a wholesome shy puppy approach, a straightfoward business-like one. Even whipped out the occasional raunchy angle to remind himself that he didn’t have to take this seriously because the entire point was that this wasn’t playing for keeps.

In all honesty, it was helping. Even if he didn’t have much of an idea of the approach he wanted, it took the edge off the nervousness of looking forward to trying. But this would only get him so far.

“Look, I appreciate this, and I think it probably has done some good but there’s only so much trying to seduce your cat I can handle before I need some time to reflect on my life choices.”

He stood to start getting ready to leave, but felt he should do a little more to repay the balance for her help, unexpected as it was. “You know, since you were so interested in finding out how my hands work, I recently got my workbench back from where the Hunters stashed it after I got nicked. I’m going to have to re-calibrate and set everything back up if you wanted to snoop and nose around while helping.”

Her datapad was full of a lot of notes, including a couple phrases she would have to look up later, although from how they sounded when spoken they were probably quite filthy. But he was right, and to be honest she probably should be getting back to her duties anyway.

His offer struck a nerve, and oh it was tempting. “Lieutenant Dax Webster, if I didn’t know better I would think you’d just changed your target and are trying to flirt with me instead.”

“Was not my intention.” He started the line reflexively, but as he spoke he reflected on the implications. Avianna and Aspis got along very well, and part of that was shared interests and motivations, including an emphasis on scientific inquiry. While Dax was still working on getting his read on Aspis dialed in, she did seem to have a genuine interest….and was making a valid point.

“That would be the perfect opener though, wouldn’t it? Get her alone on an engineering task to tinker with, technically the conversation would already be about me to begin with as the bench is an extension of how I work my abilities. Be natural to transition from there to talk about other interests from there.”

“That is, if you don’t mind giving up your chance. I already made the offer, so you do have dibs.”

“As much as I’d like to hold you to that offer, I’ll survive.” Besides, it was a worthy sacrifice to see the more important experiment go farther. “You go find out how to bring up the topic. I can probably make some movements to help ease the workload for her short-term and make sure that she’ll have the time free to give you an opening.”

fallingprotector​:

daxwebster​:

Dax watched as Aspis executed her carefully laid plans….to have him practice confessing his affection….to her cat wearing Avianna’s hat.

“……Ah, Commander, you look…different today. Did you do something with your hair?” He couldn’t help but laugh a little as he said it. “Aspis, I appreciate your help, but I don’t know if this is going to be super helpful. Commander Avianna is far less likely to meow at whatever I say.”

“I mean, you don’t know that for certain.” She’d had a pretty good idea of the plan and she was sure it would work and be helpful, but she hadn’t actually thought about how silly it would actually look until just now. She had to save a couple images from this because Aubrey was very cute in Avi’s hat.

“Look, I know he’s not going to respond the right way, but that isn’t the point. This is a chance to prototype things. Test the concept of what you want to say, try things out that you know won’t work when there’s no real cost for failure. Find what works, build on it, go from there.”

She adjusted the hat on Aubrey’s head. “Okay Aubrey, now look intimidating.” “mrow”

“Close!” Aspis turned back to Dax, “Just give it a try.”

This was, perhaps, the dumbest idea he’d ever been offered to do, and it bothered him to no end that it was amazingly thought out and he couldn’t actually find a reason to say it was wrong.

He paused, closed his eyes for a moment to fix Avianna’s image in mind because the resemblance really wasn’t there, and opened his mouth to try a line. “Avianna, I wanted you to know that I really appreciate all you’ve done for me and I’m rather fond of you and…”

He trailed off as he heard the sounds of a pen scratching on paper, but rallied and finished. “Wanted to know if you would be interested in maybe trying something with me.”

That was as far as he’d worked out, and he was distracted by the question that he wanted to ask Aspis. “Are you taking notes?”

"I’m being scientific about the matter.”

She was indeed taking notes. The datapad was going to be put to great use, both to aid in the immediate project at hand and to check it against some of the documentary texts that she was pulling inspiration from. They tended to rely on happenstance and just worked, but this was a chance for some scientific rigour to come into play.

fallingprotector​:

She’d kept her guard up even as she spoke, and if the reploid had acted aggressively she was entirely ready to pick him up and make Unapproved Modifications about his personage. But she was instead greeted with amiable distraction and fear.

She sighed just a little, used to that part of the reaction, although normally the intimidation she caused wasn’t quite so dramatic. “If I was here to hurt you, there wouldn’t have been a chance for you to ask me not to.” She tried to calm his nerves.

The other part of his reaction, getting so distracted by his own tech that he forgot about his own safety, gave Aspis a clue of what kind of reploid she was dealing with, as she knew many of the Engineering types who would do just the same thing. So if her hunch was correct…. “You must be Curator Xel’xe Attis? I’m Corporal Aspis Buckler and I was here to give you a ride to the Nuvola. unless there’s some emergency that you can’t get away from.”

If there were anything more intimidating then those words, he couldn’t think of any. It was one thing to appear as a threat. It was another to confirm that, if there was intent to be, there would be a threat. Xel'xe would be drenched if sweat had been a function for reploids. His nerves did appear to calm. A little. Even despite initial misgivings he harbored about the Amazonian facsimile before him. Slowly he swiped an index over his pad. The only information he could find on the Nuvola was the brief exchange between them. “Yes,"He confirmed without looking up and voice still somewhat quivering, "I’m Curator Xel'xe Attis. I’m not finding any data on your craft however… it must not have been registered with any of our connections. I trust it’s safe and up to code?”

Apparently her words weren’t as effective at comforting as they could have been but it was close enough. At least he had stopped running.

“The Nuvola is a large military vessel and as such I don’t expect that there would be incredibly detailed information floating around for security reasons. If you’re talking about the specific craft that I came down in....there’s a different reason for that one not being widely known yet.”

There was a hint of a smirk crossing her features. “The DN-01′s official registration was delayed as Commander Avianna had tried to make some adjustments. The naming committee had managed to get the paperwork well into the system and locked in before she could do much more than just give it a shorter callsign as an approved AKA abbreviation.”

fallingprotector​:

knowledgekeeperofthegate​:

It felt slow. Like taking painful effort to slow down already recorded footage. Xel'xe looked over his shoulder to see the giantess sprinting. Near on his heels. Just as soon as he’d seen her did he set his gaze on his front.

It surprised him that a reploid, clearly not built for the arctic, was speeding on his six. Was she going to actually catch him? That thought worried him. After managing a small distancing between them, he found himself at the gates of his facility. Fumbling with what seemed to be a combination keypad and DNA scan to open the door. It was going to take forever! The airlock beyond the door would make the process take longer. He was doomed.

Had the reploid fled in a direction in the open, she might not have been able to keep up on the open terrain, although without cover she certainly would have been able to follow him for a distance. Instead, he’d fled towards the building, trying to gain entry.

Aspis looked at the doorway as she advanced on it. It was almost wrong to call it a door, as her engineering eye made its observations. It was a seal that regrettably had to be opened sometimes. If someone had the right codes, it would eventually turn into a door, but only after making sure that nothing would harm the integrity of what was inside.

The skittish Reploid seemed to have valid entry credentials, which left open the possibility that he was supposed to be here.

While she wouldn’t lower her guard completely, she felt confident enough to try talking. She skidded to a halt just before barreling into him. “Is there something I can help you with?” She was close enough that she had to look down to get a good view at him.

Clack clack! “AH!—” The reploid jumped the moment the large female bot slid into direct sight. It was possibly the most unimpressive jump anyone had ever seen, primarily because of the layers. Like a lump of fluff attempting to hop. “Oh no…” He bent down to scoop something up. He looked at the object he’d dropped in the excitement. It hadn’t cracked so that was good. “Thank goodness. I really do not want to have to replace another holo-pad…” The code punch had been completely forgotten about. Heck even Aspis seemed to have momentarily blipped from existence for the curator. – Wasn’t there someone he was runnin-oh right. “P-Please don’t hurt me! I’m sorry! I… I’m not used to other reploids… and you’re just so big. And battle hardened!” He put emphasis on that last part a little too much.

She’d kept her guard up even as she spoke, and if the reploid had acted aggressively she was entirely ready to pick him up and make Unapproved Modifications about his personage. But she was instead greeted with amiable distraction and fear.

She sighed just a little, used to that part of the reaction, although normally the intimidation she caused wasn’t quite so dramatic. “If I was here to hurt you, there wouldn’t have been a chance for you to ask me not to.” She tried to calm his nerves.

fallingprotector​:

She only barely needed permission, and she been standing up before Dax was done giving it. “Wait right here.”

And she was gone. Leaving Dax alone in her quarters with his tea and snacks.

At least, alone for a little. Shortly after she left, there was a scuttling sound from one of the vents, and the small feline-esque shape of Aubrey came into view. He padded out into the open, looking at Dax inquisitively. After taking a look at Dax, it started looking at the tea. Aubrey looked around the room, searching for Aspis, and then settled back on looking at Dax when she couldn’t be found.

Dax recognized the little repair bot as it entered the room. In all likelyhood, Aubrey was probably part of the reason he was in this. He absolutely would put money down that the little buggers keep track of things, and this one was Aspis’ favourite.

He was pretty sure he detected a smug look from the catbot, but had the satisfaction of watching it turn into a look of confusion. He met the mechanyaloid’s gaze, giving a nonchalant shrug. “Guess neither of us know what is going on anymore”

Whatever reaction Aubrey was going to have was interrupted by Aspis returning. “I’m back and--oh good.” Before he could react Aubrey was unceremoniously scooped up, placed into a chair opposite Dax, and had a hat placed on him.