Chapter 39 – The little home

"I'm conflicted." Levia mutters as she leans onto me on the floofy seat.

We're right now on her deck in the den as she calls it, and I can only say it's fantastic. It's dark, floofy, comfy and very... very home. It's a moderately large room with a very thick, very floofy, very black carpet that devours your feet when you step on it, a lot of pillows in various colors, though mostly black, violet, and white, and a couple of soft floofy seats. There is also a large sort of hole in the ground padded with the same carpet, and the walls are a bit like black leather, but uniform and not so slippery. Now there's only a floofy fox missing. There is a lot of floof, isn't there? Well, that's only facts. Oh, and it's all lit up by soft light with purple tinge, giving the place a sort of mysterious feeling, though not making it bright at all with all the black around.

Now we're sitting on one of the seats and cuddling. Both are really nice and I love them, and both are a good remedy to the... not relaxing talk we had a while back. Especially for Levia, since for me it wasn't as emotionally investing as it was interesting and thought-inducing.

"I'm not surprised you are conflicted." I say quietly to Levia. "It's a lot to take in, for you, for me, and for your parents as well. Would you like to talk about it?"

She stays silent for a moment and sighs softly, nudging my shoulder with her chin and placing her hand on my lap lightly. "...I think so, yeah. So... what I'm conflicted about is that I didn't get to know a single thing about it till now, I guess?" She says a bit uncertainly, glancing at me. "I know that makes sense, but it's a bit... I don't want to say unfair that you got to know it as well, but I just wish they gave me some time to process it all. I feel like I lied to you, by describing what Mechanical are?"

"You didn't." I say quietly, but firmly. "Even if you knew beforehand about the whole matter, you wouldn't have told me, and I wouldn't believe magic is real till I experienced it. Honestly, I'd argue it's a good thing you didn't know it before, because you didn't need to hide it from me consciously."

"Mmm. Okay." My girlfriend mumbles. "This actually explained to me many things I was suspicious of before, so for me there's also that. In hidsight there were a lot of hints about it. What about you though?"

"You're asking how I feel about the whole thing with radiolarian fluid?" She nods lightly. "Well, it doesn't concern me directly, so for me it's not a big deal emotionally. Though it's a big deal in terms of what it means. Just the fact that magic already existed here in some form is already pretty amazing." I pause for a moment. "As for your parents... I've no idea how to feel about it. But I think it says a lot of good things about them that they told us all that now and didn't hide it." I glance at her and smirk lightly. "And I'm glad they're cool about our relationship. Maybe even a bit too cool, to be honest. I'm just glad I get to be with you." I lean to her and kiss her lightly on the forehead. "I've had enough drastic events in my life for a few years at least."

"Oh, yeah." Levia mumbles. "My parents have a pretty loose relationship, so that might be a large reason. Let's just get through my transformation, and then we can relax for two months at least."

"Hm. Speaking of." I sit straighter and look at her properly. "How do you feel about it? The transformation?"

"I... I like it, I guess?" She says uncertainly. "I mean, I'm not sure if I explained it properly to you, but in VOW I felt like a human. All the feelings I experienced were much fuller, and I loved it. I kinda miss it now? I'm not sure what you did to me, um, yesterday night." She gets a healthy shade of red on her cheeks. "But I felt exactly like I felt in VOW back then, and I absolutely loved it."

She pauses for a while and collects her thoughts.

"Also, frankly, it feels like a direct upgrade from what my parents are?" She mumbles quietly. "I mean, I kinda have nanobots that work in very similar way, but they're much better. If I had anything against it, it would be that I'm pretty much jumping into a complete unknown, but you're doing the same, so... yeah. I'm actually looking forward to it, I guess."

"Hm, alright." I nod and look at her with an eyebrow cocked in amusement. "What about your name, Violet?" I ask and she immedistely shrinks in embarrassment.

"Um..." She begins. "I kinda got used to you calling me Levia?" She squeaks out.

"Well, okay. How would you like me to call you from now on?"

"Uuuh, I'm most comfortable with Letty, I think? Vi is kinda sharp, so I prefer Letty. Though when we're in VOW, call me Levia. For now at least."

"Alright, Letty. I can go with that." I nod with a grin. "Also, I wanted to ask before but kinda forgot, if you've this den here, what is your bed for?"

"Um." Letty hesitates for a moment. "I often sleep here in the den, but also sometimes in bed. Though it's also to deceive the visitors and entertain them? I've had quite a few human guests who weren't aware I'm a Mechanical, and I have a proper bathroom, proper kitchen, proper bed, and a living room so that there are no suspicions. Though I also use all that from time to time, save for the toilet."

"Hm. Alright." I nod. And I guess now it will all be a bit more useful, since I'm here. "Out of curiosity, what else do you have on your deck?"

"Hrm, actually." Letty pulls herself up and grabs my arm to help me up. "I'll show you around real quick."

"Sure." I nod and stand up with her help.

We both exit the den straight into her bedroom, Letty closing the door behind her and I watching still amazed as it melds into the black wall and disappears from sight, then walk out of the bedroom. We enter the corridor and turn right, and Letty leads me to the door on the end of the corridor.

"To the right there is the bathroom, but I'll spare you from seeing that since there's no point. I only have a shower there, no bath, if you're interested. Though I think I should make a bath somewhere... anyway." She says and I nod my head as she slides the door open. Even if she doesn't show me, I see it with my magic sense, the parts that have some supernatural energies in them anyway. Hm, could I do something to sense things with nothing in them? Food for thought, and for later.

The door opens up onto a large, living room with white walls. There is a glass tea table in the middle with two soft gray sofas on the sides, a large screen on the opposite wall to the door, and a large cupboard thingy on the right by the front wall. Just to the right of it half of the thin white divider is absent, and I see cupboards on the far end of the whole... ten or so meters of the room, indicating it's the kitchen. I also see that the floor shifts into very light yellow there.

"Alright, that's neat." I comment, wiggling my eyebrows and stepping into the room after Letty. "Can you eat, by the way? I don't think you ever told me."

"Yeah, I can." Letty nods her head, if a bit hesitantly. "I don't need though, and it hardly benefits me. I might be a human mind, but in Mechanical body, so..."

"Yeah." I nod as her voice trails off. I walk up to the divider and peek behind it to see... an ordinary kitchen. An oven, a fridge, a freezer, probably a dishwasher, a large flat table top and a lot of cupboards, all in black and pale yellow colors. It's even surprisingly old-fashioned. I would expect food on a ship to be made by AI in a separate compartment. Maybe I'll try doing it sometime? I thought about it before, merely I knew how it would end up if I asked my mother about it. Though now that both I and Letty don't need to eat... hm.

"That's nice. I expected it to be much more modern." I say, turning back to her with raised eyebrows.

"Well, there is also the modern food fabricator, but mom insisted on putting it all here." Letty shrugs with a smile. "I like it though."

"Mhm." I mumble in response.

I walk up to her and she turns around, and she leads me out of the room back onto the corridor. We turn to the right, and now I'm getting excited as it is Letty's workshop in front of me. And I'm pretty sure I already see some amazing things with my magic sense.

"Here's my workshop." Letty says as she taps on a panel by the door, which, now that I look at it, is visibly stronger than the other three here. "Please don't mind the mess, I haven't cleaned it up in five years or so."

I hear a quiet whirring of a motor and with my magic sense notice a bar and some more things moving aside, and Letty pushes the heavy door open. What first comes into my sight is a long row of shelves with a huge amount of smaller, larger, simple and complex mechanical and electric parts of various things or whole things. Some of them are distinctly using technology I'm not familiar with, and in most cases I can't even guess what they are for despite the fact I have dabbled with engineering for a long while. I gave up, because it wasn't productive according to my parents, eh. But I'm still intersted! Maybe I'll do something on that front again?

I step inside and first thing I pay attention are the stairs under my feet that go down by the long wall. I walk a few meters down onto proper floor, my claws clanking on the steps, and I look around curiously while Letty closes the door and pads after me with a small, embarrassed smile on her face. I spot a large white table by one of the shorter walls of the room far to my front, and a huge mess of various parts spanning like two thirds of the floor, most of them by the table, and leaving only a wide passage by the right wall empty. So, yeah, it's a mess.

The room itself, by the way, is huge, easily four hundred meters squared and around eight meters in height, and could be called a hall just as well. Both longer walls are occupied by storages, shelves or various machines, plus there is a huge multi-purpose machine arm attached to a rail on the ceiling and now resting in the corner by the table. The most basic thing for an engineer, though sometimes seen in other forms like a floating robot.

I look at the shelves on my right for a while, spotting some things I still recognize and inspecting them curiously. "I've been interested in engineering for a long while, have I told you that?" I say, glancing back at Letty, and she shakes her head.

"You haven't. It doesn't seem like your thing though?" She asks curiously.

"Well, kinda." I smile wryly. "But I like to impress people, which I now realize is my Pride." I look at a large engine on the floor by the shelves, probably a plasma engine by the looks of it, and trail a finger over its shiny black casing. Huh, how... nostalgic. "One of the easiest ways is to flaunt your possessions, which I don't really like if it's all you're doing, but I always wanted a large bike I would ride around the city over clubs and bars, you know?" I make a small smile and look at Letty.

"You didn't have one?"

"Nah. I wanted to buy one and even chose a model, but my parents wouldn't allow me, and neither would they let me out to clubs and all that." I pause for a moment. "My parents forced me to take economy for my studies, but I never really knew what I wanted myself. I had a lot of passing interests, and engineering was one of the longest of them, beside flying and racing, which I also didn't have much chances to do." I shake my head with a sad smile. "I would really like to get a bike sometime. Maybe even make, though that would be a tall order."

"I can help, if you want." Letty offers with a smile. "I've more experience with ships and things connected to them, but if you give me a model to work with, I could make you something you would never buy."

I think for a moment and nod my head with a grin. "I'd like that, though not now. Putting aside when I'll actually have a chance to use it, I'd prefer if you did it after your transformation. Maybe we could figure out a way to power it with my Primordial Energy?" I shrug lightly and stand up. "Well, that's for later. What about your engineering... or actually, what exactly are you doing here?" I ask curiously.

"Uh, technically it's various branches of spacecraft engineering, but I do a lot of other things as personal requests or for fun. I've always been interested in it, in building things, since I was less than half a cycle old, so around three Gaia's years. I had mom to teach me, so I got good really fast, and now I'm earning some money by making and repairing things. I told you before that I scheduled everything for one month ahead?" I nod my head. "Yeah, that's it. Though just like mom and dad I have no real job, just what I earn for what I do here." She waves her hand in the general direction of the table.

"Is that a lot?" I ask and she frowns lightly.

"Depends what's a lot? I don't earn very much myself, mom and dad earn much more, but I'm not trying to. My definition of a lot might be skewed though." She shrugs lightly. "What I get for the work varies greatly, but generally it's something around... twice average for an engineer in the Empire? In a period of time, I mean. That's probably a lot? Technically I'm living here for free, we've an agreement that anything I want to get that's not essential for me I need to buy for my own money. I make do like that, and what I earn for working a couple hours a day has been more than enough."

"Oh." I nod. So that's a lot for me, though it might be a bit different for her since I'm not familiar with prices and costs of basically anything out there.

"Well, alright." I nod. "What about me?"

"What?" She looks at me in confusion.

"I mean, like, as much as this is convenient for me, I'd rather not stay here for free and don't give you anything in return." I see her opening her mouth to deny, but I continue. "At the very least, I'd like to earn money for myself. I'll feel bad if you give me everything for free."

"Hrm." Levia looks down on the ground and shuffles her feet awkwardly. "Um, alright. I'll think about it. I didn't really think how you would feel about it..."

"It's alright." I step up to her and wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her closer. "Maybe it's my Pride acting up? But all I'm asking for is a chance to repay you in some way, alright?" I kiss her lightly on her forehead and she finally looks up into my eyes.

"Mhm. Okay." She says softly. "I think you could help me with engineering for now? At least until we find something proper."

"Sure, I'd like that." I nod. "But both wouldn't be anytime soon?"

"Um, not really? I sheduled everything a month ahead, but it doesn't mean I can't take care of it earlier or take some new orders. We'll see how it goes." She sighs lightly. "Though I'd like to spend a while with you without worrying about anything." She mumbles and my lips curl into a smile involuntarily.

"We can do that." I agree happily and give her another little kiss.