+ Sentient + [Draco]

[Cheesigator]

"... And please welcome our guest, Imogen V Morrison and his companion droid."


The polite clapping rang throughout the room as they stepped out into the bright light, a soft ivory chiffon gown trailing just so slightly on the ground behind them, a shawl draped around their back, held loosely in the crook of each arm, exposing plastic and silicone joints that glinted under the glittering chandelier lights. The fluttering in their chest was synthetic, a remnant of the human scan inside their hard drive, but it still felt real. Like real nerves, as they looked at the crowd of rich Aedolians and their Pilot guards below. They were never a fan of public appearances, and nervously they reached up to tuck a loose strand of softly curled red hair behind their ear, fallen from its ornamental bun that was decorated with lavish crystal pins.

A man beside them in a fitted tux was smiling and waving cordially before they started down the steps, the droid following behind him by several steps out of respect as they joined the crowd below, where he was greeted by a butler wielding glasses of fine champagne. The droid took nothing, as they couldn't move their lips to drink, and stood dutifully next to "Imogen" as the final announcements were made, clapping softly at the last few arrivals to show up before the night was officially set off with a toast and the guests were left to mingle before dinner was served.

With a nod from "Imogen," the droid meandered off through the crowd, slipping past the others in attendance like a silverfish; none of them cared about a droid. One curled his lip at them. Nobody really liked droids. They were just fancy plastic nannies to most.

Stepping out to a balcony, a gentle breeze stirred the light fabric of their dress as they rested their plastic hands on the railing and leaned out, watching the flashing lights and movement of the bustling upper class of Haviah all around and below them. A glance up saw artificial moon and starlight, deep blue shadows mixing with the soft orange and yellow glow of the city and the chandeliers in the ballroom of the gala behind them.

They were here to do their job and they would soon; people were usually more fond of talking business after they had food and good drink in their bellies, they found, and so there was little point in standing around listening to pleasantries of who's child was arranged to be married to whom and who had purchased new land and so on and so forth. It was boring and not of any consequence to Imogen; they were here to strike business deals, no more, no less.

Their chest raised a little with an artificial sigh that sank back down as they let the pretend breath out, more remnants of the human that'd been used to make them.

[Draconian]

Hurray. Guard detail.

Sullivan sighed and closed his eyes while he rolled them so he wouldn't get caught doing it.

It was a big fancy event and Pilots weren't the main guests, at least the ones not attached to powerful family names. Sullivan was one such Pilot. Freshly minted Pilot Noble, he was nothing overly special and was just here for one job. Keep eyes open, destroy any threads, look handsome.

Well, he could do all that. He kept decent watch, parked by the balcony doors to watch the comings and goings of every which person. Usually the beginnings of these were outright boring. Before everyone got drunk and high and had some sort of pseudo-fun. Sullivan sighed and closed his eyes again, hands clasped behind his back and his feet shoulder width apart. He was ordered to dye over the rainbow dyed side of his head but... He'd 'forgotten'. It helped remind him that he wasn't alone in this. Helped remind him who got him through everything up til now.

He should call Desmond when he was finished this job. Sulli glanced off to the side for a moment, spotting a strange looking person encased in ... Oh shit that was a robot.

Sullivan had always found AI interesting. He didn't fancy himself smart enough to understand any of it but it was still cool and he found himself forgetting where he was for a moment. Watched the robot-person breeze past him to go outside. Which was suspicious right? Which meant he should discreetly follow the robot person, right?

Right!

A glance around, eye contact with another Pilot across the room, Sullivan turned around slightly to follow the robot outside, watching for a moment. Probably creepily so. It was so... Human looking. Sullivan blinked and turned away for a moment, looking back into the room before he decided... Fuck it, he was a Pilot.

"Hello?" Sullivan said, his voice raspy from disuse for the past few hours while the party was getting set up and the people had started to filter in. "Hi, Sullivan Riviera, Pilot Noble" he moved to stand beside the robot, offering a quick little smile and standing beside it, motioning to the rank indicator on his uniform.

"You know, if you're out here you're going to need a guard. If you're a guest there may be someone watching and you may come to harm. I'll need to ask you to go inside or ... Deal with me hovering - for your protection." The usual spiel, though it felt weird saying it to... A Robot.

[Cheesigator]

For just a moment they let themself get lost in the life of the city outside, and just that moment was enough for someone to sneak up behind them.

The sudden voice they heard so close gave them a jolt, quickly turning to see, indeed, a Pilot Noble standing there, as he'd introduced himself as such.

They felt stupid for a moment for letting themself get distracted before suddenly their hardware caught up and they realized he looked awfully familiar.

But... But Desmond was..?

"Desi?" They questioned at first, the word slipping out of their un-moving lips before their facial recognition software finished processing.

No, no this wasn't Desmond. This was his brother, right--"Sorry! Sorry, I meant to say Sullivan. It's nice to meet you. Really kind of a calm evening for so many guards, but you don't need to worry about protecting a simple droid like me. I just, ah," They glanced back at the balcony for a moment, hesitating, brows knitting, before they softened again and looked back at him. "I don't get to enjoy this different view very often."

Nevertheless they dutifully stepped back inside, closer to him to stay away from the balcony edge, if it might make him feel less uneasy. They tried not to look at him directly. "Congratulations on your promotion, I saw it in the news."

[Draconian]

Whoa. It was like a real people.

Sullivan was distracted by listening to the droid - apparently not robot - talk. He just watched,  a little enchanted, eyes moving up and down its body and escourting it back inside while it tried to make small talk.  A little preoccupied.

"Thank you, took a lot of work but..." Sulli shrugged and then gave a long pause while he scanned the room. It had been good few minutes since the droid spokr and he could only pause and stare and his mouth fell open.

"Desi?" Sullivan reached up to touch his own face, "You know Desi?" He gave a surprised laugh and looked equal parts surprised and disbelieving. "Usually people mistake Desi for Sulli. Not the other way around. Wow." Sullivans duty was forgotten with the mention of his twin, eyes bright and he smiled brightly at the droid.

"How do you know my brother? And you can't take it back and pretend you don't. Only people he likes get to call him Desi," Sullivan pointed at the droid, arm close to his body to keep it as incognito as possible - which failed of course.

[Cheesigator]

His responses at first were a bit quiet and contemplative, and for a moment Im wondered if they'd fucked up and said something offensive. Nervously they clasped their hands together in front of their skirts, watching him in anticipation before he suddenly started to laugh in disbelief about their mistake.

"I--ah--yes, I know Desi," They said quietly, a bit taken aback that he'd taken their messup so... Well.

When he asked how they knew him though, they obviously hesitated, brows knitting together as they looked away and fidgeted with their plastic fingers for a moment. If they could blush they'd definitely be doing so now, especially when Sullivan mentioned--

"People he likes? Oh, wow... Um, I met him in a chat room. And helped him out. Now he's staying at one of my, uh, company's hotels." Shyly they continued to look away as one of their hands came up to subconsciously touch their face in a bit of embarrassment, hiding their mouth behind their fingertips. "I didn't realize that meant so much, ahh.."

So that meant that someone liked them? They had no idea how to process that kind of information--and they'd have never predicted it for themself. They could calculate and predict rising trends in technology and stock markets all day, but the idea that somebody actually liked their company? Couldn't compute.

[Draconian]

Met him in a chat room?

Sulli frowned gently, eyebrows going up and creasing his forehead. Concern clear on his face. Sullivan didn't keep tabs on his brother, knowing that he'd have hated it. Sullivan also had assumed that his beloved sibling would have come to him for help, which incidentally, seem to not be the case at all.

The robot doing robot stuff was pretty cute and Sullivan smiled all the same at how shy and cute it was acting. Weird for a robot but endearing none the less. Sullivan glanced around the room, eyes peeled for any ne're-do-wells. Then, of course, his attention was grabbed again and he just looked at the robot. Droid? Android? Sullivan could never remember the difference. What was the difference between a robot and an android?

"Well, thank you for helping my brother. I guess Desmond is more proud than I gave him credit for. No offense but looking for help in a chatroom is last place I expected to hear about any of that." Sullivan reached forward and caught the android's elbow in a very brief caress, offering a quick smile. "What did you say your name was again? You realize, helping out my twin makes you and I practically family."

Sulli was kidding, sort of. His duty was long forgotten and all he could really think about was his brother now, which was terrible of him, sure, but gods know sometimes Desmond got it rough. Even then, who could take care of someone who didn't want to be taken care of? The few times Sullivan had offered money or to pay for his groceries he'd been shot down and the last thing he wanted to do was overstep any boundaries Desmond put up. "How's he doin'?" Sullivan said, party long forgotten now, "Keeping good care of him?"

[Cheesigator]

They saw the look of concern on the Pilot's face and their shoulders hunched a little with tension. Had they perhaps said something wrong..? Oh--oh, no, of course. Of course he would be worried that his brother got help from a chatroom, oh gosh--

"H-He wasn't asking for help," They quickly stammered, "He... I offered the help." They looked away, tucking a loose strand of hair behind their ear when suddenly their elbow was grabbed--or rather, fingertips went through it.

The projection was marred for a split second as Sullivan's fingertips slipped right through the intangible being, and Imogen's eyebrows moved upwards in a kind of sympathetic, yet also pathetic, sadness.

"See? That's why I said you didn't need to protect me." They said, nervously clasping their hands together in front of their ballgown and looking down at the floor, polished so brightly they could see their own computer-generated reflection. His comment about being family, well, they didn't know how to process that, and if he was joking or not. They assumed he was joking and gave a polite laugh.

"My name? Um. It's easiest if you call me 'V.'" They said, looking over at him in the brighter lights of the room and seeing he did in fact look to be a spitting image of Desi.

Life was so fascinating like that, before they knew it they were staring at him in robotic awe and wonder. He was beautiful; his hair was pretty, too. Bright. And while he did physically look the same, the way he carried himself, the way he spoke, the way he watched and how his eyes betrayed his emotions, and those emotions in and of themselves, were all so inherently different from Desi that Imogen had no doubt at all now they could easily tell the two apart.

Oh, hello, earth to droid, Sulli asked a question.

"Ah--!!" Quickly they looked away, hiding their face in embarrassment behind their hand as if they could actually blush. "I--yes! He's doing well, I mean, as well as I suppose he can. We currently have him hosted in a company hotel while he gets better, uh--"

Oops, maybe they shouldn't have said that. That might make Sullivan worry, if he had no idea what was going on, then..

"He's um, m-my first friend."

...

.....

Wat.

They had just blurted that out as something randomly generated based on fact to try and distract from what they'd said previously, and in doing so made a complete and utter loser of themself. Oh, gods. If gods cared about droids, save them now. They couldn't look at him as they kept their hand firmly by their face as if that would make things any better.

[Draconian]

Sulli, having ignored his job now for a decent length of time continued to do so. Watching V and smiling softly, head tilted while the robot-android-guy-girl-thing spoke. The hand going through a hologram was a little alarming but he was a trained soldier, which meant that he was at least somewhat decent at hiding any surprise. Quickly the shock was masked and he blinked a few times and just... Observed.

The words filtered in and he tucked a bunch of them away for processing later, because 'while he gets better' alarmed Sullivan all the same. Though of course, V's quick thinking tucked that away and the human blinked in surprise again, eyes wide while a slow smile pulled across his (or so he thought) handsome face. "Your first friend?"

Sullivan leaned back slightly, arms crossing over his chest while he squinted and tried to keep that handsome smile in check. "Desi. My Desi? Your first friend." Sullivan couldn't really imagine it. Neither of them had been the most extroverted of people growing up and while Sulli could fake it, he knew Desi was in and out and Work Extroverted.

Going out and being someone's friend though? Sulli was quietly suspicious, chewing on his lip for a moment while he pondered and watched V. "That seems about right. He isn't the most friendly but he likes quiet people well enough... So, what's got you at this venue? You a guest or ... Following help? You came with the Imogen guy, right?" Sulli nodded in whatever direction to indicate 'over there'. "How's the work? Intense?"

[Cheesigator]

Imogen almost couldn't bear it as he echoed their sentiment and almost seemed to be in a state of disbelief; they made the mistake of glancing back over at him and he was smiling. It was enough to give them pause to lower their hand a bit from their face as they got caught up in the look in his eyes and the way his features just seemed to... Light up, when he smiled. He and Desi were both very handsome.

And then they quickly looked away again when they realized they had been staring (even though they constantly stared, because they had no eyebrows, but they didn't think of that right now.)

"I--well, he was. Generally friendly, in the public chat. I was... I was the one who reached out to him." They admitted, almost a bit in shame as their shoulders drooped a little. "I hope I wasn't too pushy... But he didn't seem to mind when I met him... He was nice."

Their hands came together back in front of their hips again, fidgeting with their own plastic fingers as their eyebrow spots came together in a look of worry and concern; at least until he brought up the reason why they were here, and then they looked at him a bit in surprise. Oh, right, it was probably his first time at one of these functions. Something in them itched when he said their name in reference to someone else.

"Oh, ah, yes, I'm an... Assistant, I suppose. To Imogen." They immediately looked to his spot in the room as if they'd known where he'd been wandering this entire time. "I attend every event with him should he need me." They looked back at Sullivan when he asked about their work, and they dropped their gaze, feeling a bit awkward about answering.

"The work is... All I was programmed to do. Personally I don't find it difficult. I guess humans might, but I wouldn't know."

They really hated the fact that they were a robot. That they weren't allowed to be here in this moment, physically. They could only pretend what it smelled like, pretend how the breeze felt earlier on their plastic face. And even then, those memories and thoughts were based off of their predecessor; his experiences, his memories, his imagination. They'd never gotten to experience any of that for themself, ever. And probably never would.

They realized they were getting distant and quickly looked back to Sullivan and went back to maintaining their soft and polite personality though, realizing that getting mopey in this kind of setting was highly unprofessional.

"What about yourself? Are you enjoying your new duties? I imagine it's much different from what you did as a Pilot Echo."

[Draconian]

"Huh," Sullivan watched V move around awkwardly, kept playing with ... Their... fingers. He looked across the room to the Imogen character and... Eh. Sulli wasn't impressed. Sure the guy had a lot of money and did a lot of stuff but...

His eyes snapped to V when he was asked about his promotion and Sullivan blushed slightly. A strange reaction to the question but he wasn't used to being talked to by pretty robots. "New duties?" Sullivan shrugged and glanced away, giving a shrug and rolling his shoulders.

"I guess this is a new duty," Sulli stated, looking around the room before eyeing V again, taking in the image of the person that had all but saved his brother. "A nice sort of day off before I get sent out again," Sullivan chuckled and shrugged. It was awkward now and he wasn't sure what there was to do or talk about.

"I'd be okay if I got to do more of this stuff," Sullivan looked around before eyeing a glass of champagne and wishing he could drink. He'd go out for drinks after, he decided. Whenever this event ended. "This is much more relaxing than washing spider guts off of my helmet," He said smiling softly before glancing away, "Are you one of those cool robots that can lift trucks and stuff?"

[Cheesigator]

They noticed the change of color on Sullivan's cheeks and recognized it as a blush, perhaps of embarrassment? He seemed to be a very humble man so it made sense, and they secretly found it rather endearing. He also gave the feeling of being very gentle, though perhaps that was just his professionalism?
The more he spoke, the more they wanted to hear and know about him--they wanted to see how he was different from Desi. They could already see the numerous differences but surely there had to be more and their curiosity had them itching to ask more questions, perhaps more than would be considered polite or professional.
They gawked a bit (as well as they could given their lack of eyelids to widen) at the mention of spiders. “O-Oh, oh my,” Right, that made sense. Right now he was dressed in a fine suit but normally he was likely dressed in a flight suit and killing things. Or people. That chilled them a bit.
“I suppose--giant spiders? Really?” They didn't know much of what lay beyond the borders of Aedolis as far as wildlife was concerned.
“Ah,” Then he asked that strange question and for not the first time in their life they felt they were a disappointment. They looked sheepishly down at their feet, hidden behind the glittering fabrics of their gown. “N-No, I mean I could be easily equipped to do such things, but I am not inherently built with that intent. We do have plenty of other droids like that, though. Most of them are military grade.”
For a brief moment they considered showing him one in the form of a hologram but then they realized that he'd probably already seen pictures, or videos. It was different than seeing one in person, of course. Stupid idea.
“Sorry.” They inclined their head a bit further before looking back up at him. “I mostly just, um… I handle numbers and mathematics.” Put very, very, very simply.