Sixteenth PSI

[a_gentle_boy]

[For most of the summer, torturous sounds have been coming from the music room of the school during the late afternoons.  After deciding the recorder was a bust, Lucas had moved on to the violin, the trumpet, and the flute, passing through each one and deciding in short order that he had better stop for the good of humanity.  It was only about about three weeks ago that he had decided to try his hand at the piano sitting dusty and forgotten in the corner.

He had seen something like it before, with the DCMC.  Duster had taught him a little about instruments while they'd been traveling -- He'd even been allowed to pluck a little at Duster's bass.  And, of course, there'd been that whole business with feeling the beat of the enemy's life force.  This didn't mean that he knew anything about playing instruments.  The futility of the summer had proved that.  Yet . . . when he'd begun to plonk away at the keys . . . something just clicked.  Sure, the torturous sounds continued.  But after a little while . . . they at least began to resolve themselves into something vaguely resembling a song.

It was a song he wouldn't forget soon.  The song that had played in that room . . . The song that meant . . .   And with his last meeting with Vince still fresh in his mind, Lucas somehow thought he knew what the song was trying to say.]

Do you hear me call to you?  Can you even hear my heart's cry?
Still I call out to the wind . . . Even as it flows on by, for
I believe our dreams can still come true.  I'll always keep my faith and trust in you

Even if I'm a fool, I'll always feel the same about you.  I believe in friends and laughter and the wonders love can do; I believe in second chances and that's why I still believe in you.

 . . . . . . i . . . believe in second chances . . . . . . .

[Later that night, he returns to the park and sings his song quietly with a good sense of pitch.  He is wearing his school clothes from last year.  They are too small for him.
Time moves on.]

((Feel free to comment while Lucas is practicing on the piano as well. He will sound pretty awful unless he's playing this song.))

Comments

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

Humans tend to grow fast from what I know.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[pause]

You mean I outgrew them? But it's never been like this before . . . The pants barely reach my ankles.

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

You might want to ask someone that actually knows about puberty, but I think that's probably normal.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

. . . . . . P-Puberty?

[suddenly
a fragment of a movie begins to replay in his head]

Um.

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

Hey, don't ask me. I'm a robot.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[well that's significantly distracting]

A robot? That's like someone who doesn't even have the fleshy parts of a chimera, right?

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

[. . .]

Chimera?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

Those're animals with other animal parts sewn on. Or animals with iron and steel machine parts sewn on.

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

Cyborgs. At least, that's what a biological creature with robotic attachments are known as in my world.

[. . .]

I'm built with nothing but machinery. There are parts of me that imitate biological functions, but that's all they are: imitations.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Lucas nods. He's heard a little about things like that due to his association with the robot space aliens and Massimo.]

But not right now? Since Mayfield changes people . . . I was going to say you looked a lot like a human, but yeah.

Do you like it better that way?

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

Not particularly.

[. . .]

But it doesn't really bother me.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

. . . So you'd still rather be a robot?

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

Yes. I would. Anything you think is strange about that?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

I've never met any robots who were normal people before I came here. Most of them just wanted to kill us.

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

[. . .]

You remind me a bit of a friend back home.

[. . .]

Do you want to hear something a great hero once told me?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

OK.

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

"It's not the body that counts, but the heart."

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Lucas thinks about that for a few moments.]

That's right. But it's still a little strange . . . How do you get to be a person? I don't think he ever figured out how to make them that way. To be real people . . .

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I'm not really the philosophical type. If I had to guess, a part of the answer may be 'he didn't want them to be'.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

You're probably right. I just never thought they could be.

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

[. . .]

There is one good thing about being human, even if it's an inconvenience.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Lucas's response is a bit strange.]

Strawberry ice cream malts.

. . .

Uh. Sorry.

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

...Alright, even I'll admit having a sense of taste is a bit enjoyable. But that's part of what I was going to say.

It's a learning experience. Learning what it's like to be human has been good.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

And omelets, of course.

A learning experience . . . I guess you learn well. You probably know more about growing up than I do.

[an-zero.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't know about that, but having a few hundred years on you probably helps.