milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Vergil, right now, is one of the happiest Huragok alive. D0G brought gifts! Lots of them! So many ancient bits of technology to play with and take apart and learn from! So many possible reconfigurations and alterations! Vergil really must come up with some suitable way of thanking the robot...

... so for those of you who've only just stopped in, there's a lovestruck six-foot glowing levitating space squid fooling around with Earth tech toys at alarming speeds over at one of the tables. Just so's you know.

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The KATHUNK KATHUNK KATHUNK approaching Vergil's location may sound a bit familiar.

What's unfamiliar is the fact that it's coming not from the robot, but from the pregnant woman who is dragging the robot along by one of his headflaps.

!

Vergil scarcely notices the stomping woman; it's looking over towards D0G, and raising a foreward tentacle in a complicated gesture of gratitude. It'll notice the human in a bit, really.

D0G would respond in kind, but he's too busy squawking in protest as Alyx pulls him forward.

"You. You're responsible for this?" says Alyx, pointing at the LED assembly on D0G's undercarriage.

Well, yes; Vergil isn't about to try and deny that, it's the absolute truth. It whistles an acknowledgment and dips its head to get a better look. It's not coming loose, is it?

"I don't care what your motivations were. Unless he's falling apart on the spot, nobody touches D0G's circuits but me. Nobody. Got it?"

Bwaeeeoop! protests D0G, sounding for all the world like a teenager grousing about curfew.

But- but- but D0G seemed to-

Huragok sputtering doesn't really resemble human sputtering. Mostly it's tentacle twitching and a slow heaving of body sacs, deflating and inflating one after another. There's a lot of that going on just now, as Vergil honestly doesn't know how to respond to that. D0G wanted to- but-

V-E-R-G-I-L O-F-F-E-R-E-D, D-0-G A-C-C-E-P-T-E-D, D0G signals.

"What? You let him poke around in your circuits?? And you didn't even tell me?!"

The Huragok cringes. It was only a surface addition! It didn't probe anything vital or open up anything dangerous, it really didn't! It would never hurt D0G!

... of course, how much of this is immediately comprehensible to the human is up for debate. But still.

Yeah, Alyx would have to be actually looking at Vergil to catch any of that.

"D0G, you know better than this! You should have at least come to me afterwards so I could check it over--"

Vergil's just going to grab the nearest available piece of paper and writing equipment to start roughing out the schematics. D0G shouldn't have to suffer because of Vergil's decision, after all.

Although Vergil is feeling oddly lightheaded, for some reason.

So is D0G. He wobbles and sags backward, very nearly collapsing on the spot.

"D0G??" Alyx, alarmed, steps forward and grabs his arm to steady him.

Vergil lets out an unsteady twitter and blinks rapidly. That... didn't feel right at all. Something-

What was it doing a minute ago? It shakes its head a few times, trying to clear its vision.

"D0G?? D0G, wake up--!"

D0G's eye irises open, then shut a few times, the equivalent of bewildered blinking. What just happened? He was just arguing with Alyx... about...

!! D0G leaps to his feet and starts pawing at the LED plate in alarm.

Oh, Precursors, what is this nonsense Vergil is remembering now? Did it really-

Vergil's head whips around and it whistles in alarm, hastily sketching out the rest of the schematics- that's the kind of thing she'll need to remove the LED panel. What was it thinking?

Alyx looks from one to the other in bewilderment. "...what just happened here?"

Vergil heaves a sigh and drags one tentacle over its face. It has no idea how to explain this in such a way that the human would understand, but-

Well, maybe it does. Just a moment. Going to get the Etch-a-Sketch now, and start drawing furiously on the way back down from where the device is stashed in the rafters.

The first picture is of Vergil behind a block with what looks like bottles on it- tending Bar, possibly- and something big and D0G-shaped standing not far away. Then there is an arrow, pointing to a similar sketch, but with both beings surrounded by emphasis lines and the closest thing one can get to exclamation points when one is working with an Etch-a-sketch.

It's not sure how to do the next part, but at least it can show Alyx the initial pictures.

"So... you saw each other, and...?"

Rather than attempting to draw the next part, Vergil opts for something easier: demonstrating the Huragok equivalent of fatuously happy goo-goo eyes. It is horrifically embarrassed to even make the attempt, but... well, it's the best it can do.

"But... you and... how does that even happen??"

(D0G, meanwhile, is too busy avoiding eye contact.)

Vergil. Doesn't. Know. It makes an embarrassed noise as it huddles its head down low, indicating with one tentacle that the sentiment was mutual.

It was just trying to make D0G happy. It's never going to live this down.

This makes no sense. Neither of them have any reason to have those kinds of feelings, let alone for another species...

"...wait a sec. What day did this happen?"

Vergil thinks for a moment, then shakes out the Etch-a-Sketch and roughs out a calendar. It taps one tentacle against Monday, the 14th of February.

Countdown to facepalm in 3... 2...

"Fucking Milliways."

"Prrrt?" is Vergil's only response to that; it has no idea what Alyx is talking about. Does D0G?

"It's an American holiday. Celebrating love, supposedly. And if the Bar celebrates it like it celebrates Halloween..."

Oh... oh. So that's- oh. That... makes an odd sort of sense. It doesn't make Vergil any less desperately embarrassed. But it makes sense.

The question now is, how does it make up for that.

Bwaap!

"Easy, easy, D0G, I'll take care of it..." Alyx gently takes the robot's head in her hands and lifts it so as to get a better look at the LED panel. "That really is an impressive piece of work, y'know."

Well, even besotted, Vergil still does its best with anything to do with machines. Which is why it's shaking out the Etch-a-Sketch and going back to the schematics once again; if the LED panel is going to come off, the least Vergil can do is make it easier for Alyx to remove it without harming D0G.

"Okay, okay, D0G, calm down..." Alyx gives D0G a reassuring pat before turning back to Vergil. "Sorry, I was a little harsh before... it's just, D0G's really powerful, and having other people mess with his systems--it's a security risk, y'know?"

Perfectly understandable. Vergil makes a 'don't worry about it' gesture with its two rear tentacles; it's got to use the forward ones to work the knobs adequately... ah, here; will this help at all?

"Ohhh, okay, so that's how it works," says Alyx. "Thanks."

Alyx is quite welcome. It's the least Vergil can do after causing such a mess.

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