Private How to be Human

[Jasper Kai'el]

Denon
Tags: Marissa Shoda

Thunk.... Thunk....

"Just... a minute," Jasper groaned, rolling over to cover his head under his pillow.

As he did so, his blanket came off ever so slightly, letting a draft under and onto his exposed skin. This was enough to stir him from his sleep. He shot up, quickly located his clothing, and opened the door of his room. His BB unit was at the door, Blip, who regularly woke him up. Jasper did, after all, tend to oversleep.

"Hey, buddy," he greeted in a daze. "I'm up, alright?"

Blip beeped melodically, as he so often did due to an error in his droid-speech synthesizer. Something along the lines of... "Good morning, Jimmy?" Jasper wasn't awake enough to understand or respond. He was simply off to his kitchen to make breakfast. Accept, it seemed to already be made. Marissa seemed to already have made him some, which prompted a smile on his drowsy face. Where was it that she had gotten off to though? She didn't seem to be in the main living area. Perhaps she went to check on Phyla. With a slight stagger in his step, Jasper descended into the lower deck to find the former officer looking over the shard, who was still very much asleep.

"You don't need to worry about being quiet," Jasper told her. "She sleeps like... well, a rock." He snickered a little bit when he made the joke. "Her hearing is still not right, remember? You... still curious about how she pilots the body?"

There certainly was a curious look about Shoda. It seemed logical that she was still trying to figure that out, as she had asked yesterday.

 

[Marissa Shoda]

Marissa wasn't sure at all what to expect as she loomed over Phyla, who merely looked like a droid powered down. The only sign of... life... was the energy readings coming from the chest area. Was she expecting her to stir awake? Make some kind of funky noise? The longer she watched, the more she realised she was being a little awkward about the whole thing.

Jasper's voice managed to startle her, but she quickly recovered with a laugh at his joke. "You know how many rock puns she'll be able to make once she gets the hang of things?" She snickered before standing on her toes to plant a kiss on Jasper's cheek. At the question of how Phyla interfaced with the body, Marissa gave a nod. "I got a rough idea on how these things work. Basic mechanics, programming, slicing and stuff... that I can figure out. But this? It's still weird to see." She admitted as she looked up at him.

She finally turned and made her way out of the cargo hold, not wanting to potentially wake Phyla up with their chatter. Despite the body's faulty hearing, it was simply common courtesy. "While you show me that... you got anything that needs to be done on the ship? I'm completely floating in limbo over here, my routine is wack." She continued once she reached the mess room. Though her face turned a little more serious as she glanced back at the cargo hold. "I've... also been thinking... if we give Phyla to the Jedi Order... I'd love to see her from time to time still. You think that'll be something we can set up?" She asked him, fiddling with the caf machine.

Jasper Kai'el

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Denon
Tags: Marissa Shoda

"While you show me that... you got anything that needs to be done on the ship? I'm completely floating in limbo over here, my routine is wack."

"Obviously your schedule is out of wack," Jasper snickered. "You just quit your job." He paused for a moment, thinking about something she could do. "Well, you take a look at the door to the cockpit. It sustained a bit of damage a while back and I never had time to fix it. It's sort of sitting idle right now in an almost fully-open position. I think one of the hydraulic pistons came loose, or one of those circuits is dead. One of the two."

Jasper needed to head to the cockpit anyways. He'd need to prepare for take off soon, and he was sure that Shoda was eager to see Coruscant for the first time. She had only recently been off world when they went to the Hapes Gala.

"As for how the body works, it's pretty simple," he shrugged. "Thoughts are pretty much just electrical signals. If you can interface those signals with a computer brain, they can be translated into desired functions. Movement, communication, so on and so forth. After a while, the thoughts that cause movement become reflexes. It just... takes a little bit for that to happen fully."

Teaching a fully cognitive child to walk was much different than teaching an infant, even if Phyla was, relative to the lifespan of her species, practically that. It wasn't long before another question came though...

"I've... also been thinking... if we give Phyla to the Jedi Order... I'd love to see her from time to time still. You think that'll be something we can set up?"

"Of course," the knight answered. "A lot of Jedi keep in touch with their families and friends when they go off to join the order." Suddenly, a mischievous grin spread across his face. "What, just because I'm an orphan everyone else in the order is?"

He was joking, obviously, but there were a good deal of orphans in the order. It was simply better for them to be sent to the Jedi in many cases. But there was, of course, many more Jedi who had connections back to and even families of their own.

"A lot of Jedi raise their own kids," he added. "Master Noble has one. It's certainly not uncommon. A lot of that 'no emotion' stuff is spouted by the older Jedi who believe in history or whatever. It's a... complicated topic."

A lot of complicated stuff that he didn't think mattered all that much, really.

 

[Marissa Shoda]

Marissa breathed a sigh of relief when Jasper mentioned the cockpit door. Something like that would definitely keep her busy for a good while, especially when she had to factor in her research time on the mechanism. "Thank goodness. Yeah, don't worry about that, I'll sort it out easy peasy for you." She casually remarked.

He went on to explain how he hooked Phyla up to her body which had Marissa listening with utmost attention. "Wait... You serious? It's that easy? Just some kind of receiver that can pick up on Phyla's impulses?" She asked, making sure that she was following properly. "That's pretty damn straightforward, I thought it was a super tricky process." She thought about it for a moment, leaning against Jasper in thought. "You know... I can always take a crack at checking her body out from a software side. Maybe something that can help her interface a little easier, get her to communicate better with it." She offered, looking up at him with a warm smile.

Her smile quickly turned into a laugh at his rather terrible joke about being an orphan, earning a light slap to his chest. "Hey, come on! With those robes and stuff, you lot could've fooled me." She quickly countered with a snicker. "But that's good to know, though. Thought that it's game over for family once someone becomes part of the order." She continued with a bit more sincerity.

Wrapping her arms around Jasper, Marissa savoured the moment of peace and quiet around them. The silence was practically deafening for her with the sudden transition. No sirens, gunfights and screaming people in need. The noise of Denon was far behind her now, allowing her to enjoy her time with him properly. "Thanks again, Jas. For this." She muttered, reaching up for a deep kiss on his lips. "Now... what do you do if you ain't got nothing going on?" She asked as she pulled back a little.

Jasper Kai'el