Finished The Stars Look Very Different Today

Zora

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"Wow... I have never been to such a place like that. It sounds crazy," Azlin admitted as she glanced up at Cambrissa.

"Thirteen had a place, J'dzoar Emporium. I used to work there," here Azlin began to look a bit uncomfortable as she spoke. "There was music, but not much dancing. Most people went there to just get drunk, take some Xipor, and find someone to hook up with or spend some time with, a sudari, a dream-maker," Azlin explained as she purposefully avoided Cambrissa's gaze, slightly embarrassed now.
 

Kada

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"That sounds skizzin' great, actually! I used to have a stock of high quality Xipor on board but that was one of the first things to get looted of course. I can't really take any of it but my passengers always said it was the best."

Cambrissa reached out and took Azlin's hands in her own, her nanites adjusting their collective temperature to be pleasantly warm to the touch. Her smile softened and she showed some genuine concern in her eyes as she looked at the other woman. "I know you had things rough on 13. But hey, at least now if you take some drugs or have sex with someone, it'll be because you want to, right? No doing stuff that grosses you out to survive anymore."
 

Zora

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Azlin just nodded mutely and then gently squeezed Cambrissa's hands in answer. She was not overly used to people being kind to her and, at first, didn't exactly know how to respond.

"Thank you, Cambrissa," Azlin said eventually as she gazed at her crewmate gratefully. "You are right, of course. Nero has even tried to tell me the same thing, but I -..." here she just shrugged kinda helplessly while continuing to hold onto Cambrissa's hands a moment longer.

It was hard to explain, but Azlin wasn't sure she even knew anymore what being properly attracted to someone actually was.

"I guess, it's all about discovering those things for myself, isn't it?!" Azlin conceded as she finally let go of Cambrissa's hands.
 

Kada

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"Absolutely! And we're all here to help you discover them. And keep you safe while do. And display the spines of anyone who attempts to harm any of you along the side of my hull to warn those who would harm you guys! I'm thirsty, would you like a drink? The minibar still has a small stock that I can draw from."

Cambrissa's mood never faltered even as she clearly glitched slightly, her normally sunshine yellow eyes turning a piercing, malicious red for a second. But she skipped over to the far wall, leaving the hologram up while a panel opened to reveal a number of bottles and a small bar with drink mixing supplies. "The syrups are probably bad at this point, but I still have some bitters that are preserved that could make a killer cocktail if you want. No skulls of our enemies to drink out of though. Tragic."
 

Zora

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Azlin stared in mute awe at Cambrissa, her exuberance and optimism were oddly reassuring. Although Azlin had to admit she was also not quite sure if her crewmate was serious or not about flaying anyone who tried to hurt them or not.

"A drink would be nice actually," Azlin said after a moment as she followed Cambrissa over to the bar.

"Cocktails were kind of a luxury on Thirteen. I remember once somebody got their hands on a few bottles of Matrile," she told Cambrissa, mentioning a very sweet, almost cloying fruit-based brandy.

"And we mixed it in some firewater to make it last longer," she explained, wrinkling her nose at the memory, as she proceeded to look at all the bottles on display with interest.

"It was really quite awful," she admitted with a grin.
 

Kada

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"I bet. Well this is the good stuff," she promised with her own grin as she poured the drink into a shaker glass and added a few drops of the bitters. Ice was easy enough to come by, at least, and she started shaking the liquid together.

"You deserve nice things, Azlin. You all do. I can't thank you enough for saving me. If you guys hadn't come along, my batteries would have eventually died and I'd be gone. Just... poof. My hard drives would have rusted and there's be no saving me."

She poured two glasses of the chilled beverage, pale translucent green and turned to hand one to Azlin with a smile.
 

Zora

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"Thank you," Azlin said as she accepted the drink from Cambrissa.

"You know, I could say the very same thing. If it weren't for you, and Nero, especially Nero... I'd still be on Thirteen, stuck working at J'dzoar's forever or til I found somebody who wanted me as a wife or concubine," she told Cambrissa, wrinkling her nose at what might have been her life if she had stayed on CES-V-13.

"Maybe it was fate that brought us together?!" the Descender mused as she tried the cocktail Cambrissa had made and smiled at how delicious it was.
 

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"Fate? I don't know that I believe in fate, but it's a nice concept isn't it? There's a concept called a thermonuclear miracle: naturally occurring events that have such an infinitesimal chance if occurring that they might as well be impossible. And yet..."

Cambrissa took a long sip from her drink. It did nothing for her: the nanites that made up this body couldn't get drunk. But she could simulate it for solidarity. "You're a strong girl, Azlin. You survived a world made to kill you for you entire life. That's amazing, you know?"

The hologram images in the center of the bridge slowly faded and shut down. She didn't want to admit it, but she couldn't keep all of her systems running all the time at the moment: her battery was still too depleted. So she just smiled and concluded to be a distraction until Azlin got tired and needed to go to sleep.
 

Zora

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"I don't know but that sounds strangely like fate," Azlin remarked after a moment, during which, the descender had wrinkled her brow in an attempt to understand what thermonuclear miracle was.

Then, after a sip or two in companionable silence, Azlin finally got up the courage to ask something that she had wondered about ever since she had met Cambrissa.

"Can I ask you something?" Azlin asked as she stared at her drink. "I don't know much about AIs. The idea that you are real, I understand, but do you feel things like emotions?" she asked hesitantly, going slightly pale and lowering her gaze, unsure that she had just not insulted her crewmate with her ignorance.
 

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"I do, actually," Cambrissa said, setting her drink down to lean back against the bar, resting her hands against it. "The gist of it is that my program was developed to learn and respond much like an organic mind. Then I was seeded with artificial experiences to develop my personality in ways that fit the role I was intended for. In my case, to be a kick-ass party yacht host."

She smiled softly and gave a noncommittal shrug, indicating as best she could that this didn't bother her too much. "But I do feel all the same things you do. The full gamut: anger, joy, lust, sadness, fear. Maybe not the same way; all of my responses are based on thousands upon thousands of stored experiences giving me context for how to react to a given stimulus."

Pushing off of the bar, she closed the distance between herself and Azlin, lifting her chin up gently with her hand so that their eyes met. "You didn't upset me, Azlin. I get it - I'm like nobody you've ever seen before. I'm weird to you. You don't have to be afraid to ask questions."
 
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