Chapter 35: Chapter 34 – Marin

When the next day came, Alpha was sitting on his bed, leaning against the wall. In his hands was a new datapad with a prototype weapon’s schematics. He was reading it through the second time, already making mental modifications of its design. He was not doing it blindly of course. He noticed it when he first opened his eyes. He could see weird lines, converging, being tangled up, resonating with each other, wherever he looked. It was in everything, in everybody. He quickly noticed that it must be something that only he saw. Especially when they started showing him different schematics. They were… weird. Many lines on them were completely tangled up. Uneven. Not in harmony with each other. When he fixed them and presented it to the scientists they were always amazed by his works. It was the only proof he needed to be sure that nobody else saw the world as he did. He read about what scientists did in the past and by instinct, he decided to not tell them about it. It was best to hide it, before they decide to open him up. He did not want to… expire yet. Every time they tried to scan his brain he made sure that those lines, those strings, connected to the machines, were severed and their equipment failed. Be it computers or whole AI cores. As his mind was wandering off, it was the moment when the door to his room opened up. He looked up from the datapad, watching Lizzy come in holding the hands of a small, little girl. She was dressed up in a small, pink dress and she was looking around curiously. It was her first time to come to the place that her mother was working at. The only thing Lizzy told her was that there was a young boy she could make friends with. She was immediately hooked as she didn’t have any friends, besides their home’s AI, Alice.

“Hi! My name is Marin!” She said immediately as soon as their eyes met. She was not afraid at all and just let go of her mothers hands, walking next to his bed. “What are you reading?” 

“A theorem with schematics included. About a newly developed disruptor rifle. Designed to disable smaller crafts’ shields.” He said, giving it to her.

“Huh?” She tilted her head, taking away the datapad, looking at it but grimacing immediately. “This is sooooo booooooring!” She rolled her eyes, giving it back.

Seeing that her daughter was already taking the lead and not even bothering with the atmosphere, Lizzy just smiled, silently leaving, not interrupting the two.

“It is still faulty.” Alpha nodded. Agreeing with her, but in a different way.

“No, I mean reading something like this is boooooring! Why do you read it at all?” She asked, climbing up to his bed.

“Because they want me to.”

“Who?”

“The scientists.”

“My mom?” She mused, tilting her head to left then to right. “I am going to ask her to not do it!” 

“I like it.”

“No way!” Marin laughed. “You are weird if you do!”

“Am I?” Alpha asked, slowly blinking his eyes, pointing at himself. 

“Yes you are! What is your name? It is rude not to tell it when others tell you theirs!”

“Alpha.”

“That is not a name!” Marin shrugged, rolling her eyes at him. Again.

“That is what they call me. It was Omega before that.” He remembered, hearing it when he was still in the vat of his. He even remembered that Lizzy was furious at the other scientists, saying it is a bad omen to call somebody like that. He may be the last of the babies, but he is going to be the first of a new evolutionary step of the human race. So she started to call him Alpha. Simply out of spite of her colleagues' bad joke.

“That is not a name either!” Marin raised her voice, placing her small hands on her hips. 

“...” For the first time ever, Alpha was stunned. This new, smaller human before him was not acting like anybody else. “That is my name. Professor Lizzy calls me that the most.”

“That is a stupid name! I won’t call you that!” She protested, crossing her arms. “Mmm… I am going to call you Alfy! Yep! That is cute and short! From now on, you are Alfy! Hehehehe!”

“...”

“Aren’t you happy? At least it has a proper feel to it!” Marin said proudly.

“Okay.” He nodded in the end, thinking about it for a little. “What now?”

“What now?” Marin asked, looking around, noticing how empty his room was. “Good question! What kind of games do you like to play?”

“Games?” Alpha flinched, blinking his violet eyes rapidly for a brief moment.

“Duh! Games! I usually play with Alice when mom is not home! Last time she downloaded a new modification that lets her project different blocks into the room! I built many different castles! It was so much fun! I should have brought her along…” She murmured, scratching her chin. 

“Oh.” Alpha nodded, finding it useful as he could recreate the schematics in 3D with something like that.

“Oh? What is that?” She pointed at the wooden board in the corner and the stack of papers and pencils. “No way, are those real?!” Marin jumped off of the bed, rushing forward, and soon she was already drawing. “I never used real pencils before! I only have a digital drawboard! This is only one color… but hehehe! This is fun! Look, this looks like you!” She held up a crude circle with googly eyes and a frown.

“That looks like nothing like me.” Alpha answered calmly, walking up to her, kneeling down on the carpet.

“Hah! Yes he is! He has the same dumb look as you do now!” She grinned from ear to ear.

“Really?” He tilted his head, honestly considering it but he just couldn’t see the resemblance in that drawing. “No. It doesn’t look like me.”

“Hmmm, you sure? Let me see how you think you look!” She nodded, giving him a piece of paper and a pencil as a challenge.

Alpha did not hesitate and just started to draw. It only took him a few minutes to finish a perfect sketch of not just himself but of Marin too.

“Woah… you can draw very fast!” She said with enlarged eyes, looking at him, honestly surprised. “Woah! Woaaaaah! That looks like me! So cool!” She exclaimed, seeing her own face appear on the paper.

“Done.” He said, giving it to her. “This is what we look like.”

“Can I keep it?” She asked, completely fired up, holding it with sparkling eyes.

“Yes.”

“Awsooooome! You draw so well! You should become an artist and draw me my favorite shows! Ahahaha!”

“Mmh?” Alpha tilted his head, thinking about it. Her words made him call up the previous day. The movie that he watched yesterday was… interesting. It was an unreal depiction of the world yet also not, giving him weird feelings. He couldn’t help but start to imagine things, what they would be like if they were real. Lifted out from the movie’s story and placed into reality. For a first step, he could draw them out… and go from there.

“What are you thinking about?” Marin asked, seeing him falling silent next to her.

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“Nothing.” He replied. “I can draw you again, if you want it.”

“Really? Ehehe, should I pose or something? Like in the movies? Can I become your… your… what is it called… ummm… whatever, so, can you draw me like a princess?!”

“Sure.” Alpha nodded again. “I don’t need you to pose. I have a good memory.”

“Mmmm, then next time, draw me like the Warrior Princess of Luxia!”

“What is Luxia? What is a warrior… princess?” Alpha asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

“Huh? You don’t know the movie? Geez! It is one of the best movies! She is a strong and righteous warrior who saves innocents from demons in the world of Luxia!”

“Oh. So it is a movie.” Alpha nodded, coming to realization as he remembered that there was one cartridge that had the same title. “I have it.”

“You do?” She stood up, scanning the room, noticing the right end of the bookshelf, filled with holo-cartridges. She was already before them by the time Alpha managed to also stand up. “Oooooh! These are my favorites!” She laughed happily.

“...” He considered saying that it is no wonder as it was Lizzy who brought them here. But in the end, he remained silent about it. 

“Here it is! Let's watch it!” She picked it up, searching for the holo-projector. 

“Sure.” Alpha nodded, not really seeing an option to refuse her wishes. Especially because she was like a whirlwind, already crouching down and putting it into the player. 

“Come, come! Sit! This is a great movie! As some would say it is a Crám de lu crám of fantasy movies!”

“It is Crème de la crème.” 

“What?” She asked with an innocent smile.

“The expression. It is pronounced Crème de la crème. You said it completely wrong.”

“I said it my way!” She rolled her eyes, not even bothering with it. “It is something mom used to say, it is her fault if she says it wrongly anyway!”

“Really…?” Alpha asked, but he already knew she was lying just to deflect her embarrassment onto her mother who was not even here. The moment she was embarrassed, the strings in her body changed colors, reflecting her feelings and thoughts.

“Yeah! Anyway! It does not matter! Sit!” She patted the carpet next to her. “It starts with an… um…” She thought about it before saying. “In… ‘in medias res’!”

“That is the correct pronunciation.” Alpha nodded when he saw her look at him with one eye.

“Of course it is! I am not stupid!” She said immediately, puffing up her chest. “Sssh! It's starting!” 

“It is you, who are still talking.”

“Ssssh!” 

“...”

“...”

For him, it was a very weird movie. It was the first time he saw a fantasy epic. He couldn’t help but think, if the fantasy creatures were nothing but an undiscovered alien species… and magic was nothing but some incredible, unexplained technology. Still, even though his brain was going in circles, theorizing all the way through the movie, it was a weird experience. It was different from watching it alone. Not to mention Marin’s constant chatter, explaining characters, events, spoiling the whole movie’s ending, while adding her own thoughts to even the smallest details. Yet it did not bother him at all… it was… a new experience. And he liked it.

…

….

…..

By the time Lizzy arrived to pick his daughter up, after a few hours, he found the kids in a weird situation. Alpha was kneeling on the carpet, looking at Marin, who was walking up and down before him, lecturing him with a serious tone.

“I also want to look pretty on the drawings! With the same armor Feya was wearing when she turned into the Warrior Princess! I want the same rapier too! With flames on it! Also, draw me alone first, then with my flaming wings and amidst a battle, defeating the evil Lord of Skulls! Oh, oh, and also I want images when I am surrounded by skeletons but I defeat them too!”

“Um.” Alpha nodded, mentally writing down everything she was asking from him.

“I assume you had a great time?” Lizzy chuckled, watching her daughter instructing Alpha like a teacher.

“Mom!” She grinned. “Can I come tomorrow too?”

“No, tomorrow you can’t.”

“Oh…” Said not just Marin but Alpha too, right at the same time as she did. It surprised Lizzy but it also drew a big smile onto her face. 

“Don’t worry, you can come again soon enough! Come, it is time to go home!”

“Um.” Marin nodded, hesitating a bit but then she just turned and smiled at Alpha who was still kneeling there. “See you then, Alfy!”

“Okay.” He nodded in response while Lizzy led Marin out, leaving him alone in the room. 

He watched the door slowly close, thinking about who knows what, before standing up. At first, he fixed his simple clothes on his body before placing the movie back to its place on the bookshelf. He glanced at the datapads on his bed but for the first time ever, he didn’t have any urge or feelings to read them again. Instead he walked to his wooden board, sitting down and he started to draw, using his own imagination instead of following the lines. When the first image was done and he looked at it, watching Marin, drawn as the Warrior Princess, he frowned.

“The proportions are off. Her head on an adult body looks… weird.” He murmured to himself, before tearing it up and tossing it away, starting all over once again. The second version was also off as he looked at it. “No… this isn’t good enough.” Furrowed his brows, finally realizing something. He couldn’t just replace human body parts as he did with the ships, when he redesigned them. Metal was easy to work with, exchanging its parts was like playing a puzzle. Yet with human bodies he couldn’t do the same. It just didn’t look real. Or good at all. He had to do much more which was a challenge as he went at it again and again. He couldn’t just follow the lines of strings, he couldn’t just mix them, he had to come up with new ones by himself. If Lizzy would be here she would be surprised that on Alpha's face a small smile was forming as he was ‘struggling’ with drawing Marin as the Warrior Princess of Luxia.

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