#kasuar

Well, he hadn't checked up on his receptionist in a while. It was strange, he always found himself coming out of his office to bother her in his downtime. Adler knew he had books, knick-knacks, and enough paper to keep writing for the rest of his operational lifetime. Yet here he was walking to the door of his office once more. The hydraulics inside his door hissed and the metal creaked a little as the door opened.

KSAR H3579 "Perl", looked up from her desk as Adler entered the room. She smiled at him quietly, adjusting her glasses before continuing to write. She spoke as she worked. "Restless again, administrator?"

Damn, apparently it was obvious to his receptionist how often he came out to bother her. Not that it should be surprising, she was always so observant, and Kasuars were known for their pattern recognition skills. The nation doesn't template just any mind after all. He nodded to her, escaping his internal monologue. "I suppose I'm rather obvious aren't I?" He intended that to be humorous but it was clear she didn't exactly pick up on it.

"Well, with respect, Administrator; yes. I would say you telegraph your intentions rather clearly." Perl still did not look up from her work, mostly just double checking all of the day's landing requests, reports from protektors and storage intake for any possible errors. Adler had never seen a single error escape her desk without a correction, she was without a doubt the most diligent receptionist he'd ever had.

Perl was rather new to her position, her job was originally held by a Gestalt man that Adler frankly couldn't stand. When the man eventually had a job change, the Administrator tried his hand and placed a request for a dedicated Replika assistant which was eventually approved. Originally he had gripes with having a KSAR working under him given their infamously low quality mechanical design, but all of his doubts were swiftly buried after he met her.

He placed a hand down on the far corner of the desk, keeping his other behind his back as he spoke. "Have you considered taking a break, Perl? I'd rather you not work yourself into an early grave." He didn't really need an answer to know that she hadn't, but he waited for a response anyway.

She didn't look up from the desk as she responded, sliding papers across the desk from spots for unchecked to checked work. The piles were roughly equal in size. "The lights don't go off for another two hours. In the past 97 papers I've caught two errors. The last thing I need to do is leave this unfinished when there could be more."

Adler raised a brow in surprise, seeing that many of the papers were already ones that crossed his own desk. Perhaps he was getting sloppy, not that he took offense to her observation, that's just what Kasuars do, obsess over every detail. Besides, the administrator found it comforting to be kept on his toes about his own work. This didn't make him budge however, he could see the woman in front of him scan individual words two or more times, her eyes blinking rather excessively at times. "Your daily efforts are catching up with you. Your eyes keep returning to places on the paper, Perl you're burning out. I need my receptionist at full capacity."

Despite his eagle-eyed observation, it seemed not to do much in the way of getting his assistant away from her work. Oh well, if it couldn't be helped...

Adler reached across her desk and pushed her stapler as slowly as possible to the edge like a cat testing someone's limits. It clattered to the ground unceremoniously and Perl finally looked up from her work. If a Kolibri had been in the room, the level of violent thoughts flying through her brain would have gotten her suspended from duty or worse.

Her chair rolled out from the desk slightly as she leaned down to grab her stapler, slender fingers plucking a spilled staple from the rug below before sitting back up. Plopping the stapler back in its rightful place, Perl looked across her desk for her pen. She knew it was supposed to be right there, and she hadn't bumped the desk enough to make a standard issue anti-roll pen like that fall off of her-...

Her thoughts crashed into the oncoming traffic which was the fury of realizing what just happened.

"Adler."

The administrator looked up from the tip of the cheaply designed pen that he spun between his fingers. "Yes Perl?" He scarcely remembered replika names, but he always paid such close attention to his direct subordinate.

"My pen." The words spilled from between her gritted teeth like steam from a pressure cooker. "You have," a pause. For emphasis of course, "my pen."

He gave her a sly smile. "Well, I was acquiring additional resources. I know it may be hard to continue your task without a pen, so I'll be a good boss and let you take the rest of the night off. Does that sound good?" It was draped in a serious tone, leaning forward as he spoke to emphasize that it wasn't a request. "Perl please. I want you to recover. Two hours can mean a lot."

She pushed out from the desk in a huff, but quickly composed herself afterwards. She looked down at the papers. "Administrator this work is important." It was one last plea, her life was always work. Kasuars were hard to separate from tasks, and Perl certainly struggled to maintain herself without being told to.

Adler sighed, holding out the pen to her. "I won't stop you again," he said, allowing her to take the pen from him, "but I'm worried about you." His normal commanding voice had softened, it was hard to tell her no when she looked this upset. "I'm sorry for bothering you."

Perl looked at the pen in her hand, clutching it tightly before letting it drop onto the desk. "No, you're right. Don't apologize for being correct. As the administrator you probably ought to be above such things."

With a smile, he opened the door to his office, fetching something as he continued the conversation from a distance. "Well, for someone with so much dedication to the chain of command," Adler paused, audibly grunting for a second before continuing, his voice getting closer to the doorway now, "you probably shouldn't be telling your superior what to do." The male replika wandered out to the lobby, now holding a record player.

The teasing commentary was met with a roll of Perl's eyes. Though as he came out the door, the Kasuar's optics locked onto the record player. "Oh, do you want the space? I could leave if you want me too. I understand if you'd like to be alone." Her circulatory pump dropped a bit as she thought about leaving. She hated the Kasuar dorm, she felt so alone around her own cadre, none of them talked, smiled, brought up interesting stories. Most Kasuars didn't have anything to talk about.

Then again, no one she saw regularly actually talked much to her.

With one exception.

Loading a disk onto the player, Adler turned the machine on. The room was suddenly filled with the tones of a piano serenade. "No, you don't have to leave if you don't want to. Actually I have a cot packed up in my office, I could set it up in the lobby if that'd make you feel better." He was pretty well aware of her hatred of the Kasuar dorm. Frankly he agreed, it was dingy, usually cold. Thinking about it, most specialist replikas had quarters in their specific area. Apparently it increased efficiency and kept them invested in their work space.

Watching Perl's face light up, Adler knew what to do. His head went straight into problem solving mode, if she was going to move into the lobby she'd need an actual bed. "I'll tell you what, why don't you bring your things to the lobby tomorrow, I'll see if I can hunt down something more comfortable than a cot to sleep on."

The KSAR unit wobbled on her feet as her glasses fogged up a bit. She wiped them off as her face went flush with oxidant. It was hard for Adler not to smile. His day to day had been so drab before she started as his receptionist, wake up, do his job, go to bed. Over and over, the little toys and journaling just never captured his attention for long enough, but Perl?

Every conversation they had, he studied her movements, her little expressions and habits. She would tap morse code while she was deep in thought; "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" on repeat. She would pause once every three hours to carefully inspect her glasses.

Adler was always envious of her name, too, it was unique, she wasn't just some Kasuar, she was Perl. His words escaped his thoughts and ran off of his tongue. "Perl, how does someone come up with a name?"

She looked up from her glasses, not only did it help their cheap optics avoid strain and assist in focus, but they also functioned as fetish objects for KSAR units. She was polishing the glass after having fogged it up. "Oh, I uh..." She struggled to answer him. "Well, most replikas earn a name from their cadre or just choose a word that jumps out to them."

He brought his hand to his chin with a smile. "I rather enjoy the thought of being given a name. Though, I'd have to say without a cadre to call my own..." He meandered around the point, genuinely struggling to get the words out. He was honestly embarrassed, why was he embarrassed? It was just a friendly conversation, he trusted her implicitly. There was no reason to fear someone he trusted so much, and yet...

She giggled a little, watching the man squirm as he fought the words at the back of his throat. "Are you asking me to name you, Adler?"

He was right. She could read him far easier than he wished she could. "Well, I know it sounds frivolous given I am the only Adler on the station. It's just that I can't help but find a real name far more personable. Though maybe my opinion is swayed by outward circumstances."

As she slipped her glasses back onto her face, Perl looked up to him before quickly looking back down. He was doing that damned face again, the one where he looked like a kicked puppy. It wasn't fair he could just do that! Especially when he didn't even realize what he was doing. She took a deep breath. "Okay, but why would you ask me of all people? Why not a Eule? They're far more creatively inclined than some number cruncher."

The ADLR unit let out a defeated sigh. He felt pathetic for admitting it, but at least he could say it to someone who he trusted as much as her. "In short, you're the only one that knows me. Like, properly knows me. You talk back, you advise regardless of rank. I trust you with the well being of the station that's my solemn duty to protect, trusting you with everything else comes as easy as breathing."

Perl was stunned. The administrator really thought so highly of her? Even entertaining the thought internally felt ridiculous, she was supposed to follow him, hell and back if he went there. Not the other way around, she never thought he would care for her as much as she did for him. "W-well, if you really want me to name you, I could I just," she paused, shifting from one hoof to the other as she looked back to her desk. She wasn't really looking for anything, but her nerves were getting to her, "I feel like I'd give you a pretty silly answer."