[open] a friend in need's a friend indeed

[nedofpies]

Who: Ned and OPEN
What: Random encounters & fallout from dream-walking tomfoolery
Where: House 20, the garden, anywhere around town
When: Day 89

It's been a long week. A long, mostly-sleepless, weird week during which Ned has seen far more of his friends' and neighbors' subconsciouses than he would have liked to. Plus, a creepy city made of crystals that everyone seems to have seen, but no one will claim as their own. Shady stuff. Today, he is determined to wear himself out. Perhaps if he's tired enough, whatever mojo the men behind the curtain have put on him won't be strong enough to stir him out of a deep and dreamless sleep.

It's probably a futile tactic, but he can't just do nothing.

So he is a bustle of activity - cleaning the house, walking around town, checking on the crops to see if they are holding up well (carefully, with an eye for any enterprising tigers roaming too close to the edge of the forest), keeping an eye out for new faces and an ear out for rumors of missing ones.

Comments

[nedofpies]

"Jane," Ned repeats. He understands the need to pick a name of one's own. There's a reason he goes by Ned, and only Ned. No one here knows any other name of his apart from that (except River, but psychic knowledge doesn't count, and she knows not to ever use it), and he intends to keep it that way. Besides, Jane is such a lovely name. He's sad to hear that she and Dirk parted ways, but it makes sense to him that she'd want to see the world, if she was able. To have adventures, find her place, somewhere where people might not know about her origins, and be able to use them against her.

Dirk's question about Daneel baffles him; he excuses away his interval of silence by saying, "You might want to ask him that. I can't speak for him." But that wasn't what Dirk asked - he asked what Ned thought. He lets out a little, half-exasperated sigh, as they are coming upon the community garden, "The way he's programmed, depends on being able to sort people into very rigid categories. There are humans, and there are robots, and there's nothing else. The Laws that govern the way he thinks are based on that. Robots exist to serve humans, and protect them. That's supposed to be their only reason for existing."

Ned kicks at an errant stone, sends it skittering off into the distance. It's a small, but effective way of venting his frustration. "But then he came here and there are aliens, and human-looking people with strange powers calling themselves mutants and refusing to be called humans, so he doesn't know how to categorize anyone anymore, including himself. Add to that the fact that he got turned human for a bit and didn't feel all that different or superior, and it's giving him a bit of a headache-slash-complete-existential-crisis."

[zen_navigator]

"I can see how that'd throw him for the proverbial loop. Or the causal loop."

He takes a moment to think over the information chunk Ned's just dropped on him. It's odd to think of Daneel being in service to humans when he already seems so much like one. "To protect and serve." He huffs out a chuckle. "So with all the new input, is he still protecting and serving the local population of humans?" It would explain why he'd been so helpful, but Dirk doesn't know how he feels about someone with Daneel's doubts and self-proclaimed desires continuing to see himself as something dependent on humanity for a purpose. "Is he serving you?"

[nedofpies]

Ned nods in response to Dirk's question about Daneel looking out for the general population of the town, but when he asks about Daneel serving him, his face goes quite pink. Unintentionally, Dirk has stumbled on a rather confusing and delicate facet of their relationship.

Shoving his hands deep into his pockets, Ned speaks rapidly, anxiously, "I- no. He isn't. He doesn't. No more than he does anyone else here- less, I hope." Of course, the fact of the matter is that what he's saying isn't strictly true, according to certain interpretations. There are certainly things that Daneel does for him that he doesn't do for anyone else, here. Again, it is mostly Dirk's wording that Ned takes issue with. "He knows that I wouldn't... that the idea of giving him orders makes me sick. I don't want him serving me. That's not how things are, between us. I just... want to make him happy. If anything, the fact that he's been programmed that way make things more of a challenge for the two of us, but we manage."

[zen_navigator]

"That's...good." He glances sideways at Ned, taking in his sudden fidgety weirdness. At the best of times, Dirk isn't particularly good with social cues. Any implication of a romantic relationship is going to have to be shoved in his face before he gets it, but it'd be hard to miss this new strangeness.

The most interesting part to Dirk is how is seems Daneel has singled Ned out for, if not preferential treatment, at least some sort of exclusion. It could just mean that they are good friends, but he wonders if that means that Ned isn't entirely human, either. "What makes you different than the rest of the humans here?"

[nedofpies]

For a split second Ned contemplates willfully misinterpreting Dirk's question. It's a sign of just how much he's changed being here, how accustomed he's become to everyone knowing about his powers, that it seems the less socially awkward option to reveal them, talk about how he can bring the dead back to life. But in the end, he decides not to feign ignorance. What is going on between him and Daneel isn't a secret, and he's not ashamed of it. He's just... shy, when it comes to discussing it, particularly with someone he doesn't know all that well. What finally convinces him to do it is the fact that Dirk spoke of Jane so fondly, seemed almost completely without prejudice in that matter.

"He and I are... we're..." But what word to use? Dating seems silly, frivolous, not really suited to being trapped in a science experiment where the closest they can come to a normal date is a walk on the beach, where there are at least not that many cameras. In love is too intense, too revealing for a casual conversation. Living together might be misinterpreted as nothing more than housemates. "The two of us, we're... well I guess you could say I'm his boyfriend."

It sounds ludicrous, but at a certain point it is better to just spit out something stupid than keep stammering over himself and drawing out the awkwardness.

[zen_navigator]

"Oh. Right." Well, that clarifies quite a few things, starting with why Daneel had been so protective of Ned and ending with why Ned wants to make Daneel happy.

It doesn't bode very well for the possibility of making Ned his interim partner. People who are attached usually have more pesky qualms about throwing themselves into difficult situations in the name of progress. And then their partners have even more qualms. Nonetheless, he can respect the relationship. As far as he knows, both men are more or less reasonable and not at all apt to make plans to move to Cambridge without notice.

"How long have you been...dating?" Yeah, he's going to go with dating here. Normally he wouldn't ask, but he's trying to figure out the extent of the situation.

[nedofpies]

It's odd, the way he can lose track of time, here. Time in captivity, even after he'd mostly grown accustomed to it, isn't exactly the same as time elsewhere. Some things seem to fly by so quickly, but on the whole the days drag and weeks feel like months, and months years.

"Little over a month?" Ned isn't quite sure on which day precisely he should fix the beginning of it all. They'd sort of... fallen into it, mutually surprised by the way things were developed, both unsure and confused and hesitant for their own reasons.

Dirk, it seems, is more than willing to accept that someone like Ned and someone like Daneel can be involved romantically. He doesn't exactly spring to the congratulations, Ned notices, and there's an odd sort of neutrality to his reply that Ned can't quite suss out, but he's polite, at the very least. Ned appreciates that. It makes him feel, well, normal. Feeling normal isn't something he's altogether used to, so it's nice, to experience it.

"In fact," Ned glances at his communicator, taps at it to display the time, "I ought to get back, make sure he isn't worried I got mauled by another tiger. It was-" in the happy flush of talking about Daneel, of hearing about Jane, Ned has completely forgiven the whole pushing incident, "-good talking to you."

With that, he waves at Dirk, turns back towards the house, and the person he knows will probably be waiting for him there.