Chapter Text
Grand Mother Silk does not sleep. She can- she is capable of it. She spent forever long sleeping in the dark and the quiet. It’s something she does not enjoy looking back upon too much further, and finding herself instead, laying on the couch, thinking, Grand Mother Silk doesn’t know if this is better.
Theoretically, she could sleep, but she’s finding it difficult tonight. It isn’t a thing she truly minds- as said she doesn’t want to, after so long being asleep. It is hard to think of her sleep, considering how much it stung when it happened, how much it took from her. Her mind, of course, drifts to her children, to her first children. Lace, her darling, was an improvement, but- the Weavers would always be her first.
The sting upon her soul at how they treated her would always remain. Grand Mother Silk trusted her children, as she had hoped they would do for her, trust her, but instead, they chose to trap her into her nigh eternal slumber. The Weavers had been her proudest achievement, that much she could say clearly, still now. They were her daughters, her beautiful children- and they had trapped her into a sleep that lasted eons, keeping her quiet and used her for her silk.
It ached, somewhere deep in her chest. She could not cry like this- there were no eyes to shed tears, no face to truly show these emotions. Grand Mother Silk did not think of it all that much though. She simply sat and let her bones ache in misery, the feeling of losing your children one that she felt no mother should have to endure, especially not losing your children to a betrayal.
Eventually, she had watched in her sleep as all her children either left her behind or passed. She had watched them all hate and wish to be free of her so badly that they would rather leave everything behind or die, than think of freeing her from her torment. Grand Mother Silk hated it, burning anger a lava that poisoned her body from inside out- and yet she could not help that she loved them.
If they had come back to her, freed her, asked of her her help- Grand Mother Silk would have given it, under very little question. They were her darlings, her beautiful children, and she couldn’t stop the feeling of care, no matter how much she may desire to.
But they had used her as a tool. A thing to be made use of, rather than their mother to be cared for and adored. She was nigh a god to them, and yet she was still treated so horribly.
A little noise brought her briefly out of her musings. She turned her head, looking towards the floor where sat... A small cloud?
Grand Mother Silk watched as it sat and stared at her with it’s beady little eyes and dopey smile, black tail wagging so hard behind it that she was surprised that it didn’t simply fly right off. It moved over as she held out a hand towards it. It sniffed at her hand, then made another similar noise to a little yip, hopping up onto the couch next to her. She slowly dragged a hand down it’s back, as the little creature circled a few times, kneading the spot next to her, before settling down and wagging it’s tail staring at her.
It was quite adorable. She could feel her mood lightening slightly, before she pet down it’s fluff carefully. She didn’t press too hard in fear of phasing right through it, as the little thing didn’t seem that solid, but it clearly didn’t mind, little eyes falling closed, falling asleep pressed up next to her. How sweet. It was quite adorable- she would have to try and ask Dave or Tristan the little thing’s name when they awoke.
With that, she settled again- she couldn’t find herself thinking too angrily towards her Weavers, with this ball of air on her side, but instead, it turned to pity. She pitied how they thought they could be free of her, turn her into a tool, become something more than she made them to be. Grand Mother Silk pitied her children deeply, She thought, for so long, that she could solve this, that they could be one mind, and they could lose their desires of the earth, become something better.
The Void stole that thought from her entirely. The Void made her into a fool, one she realized- and now she was here. Away from her Pharloom, from her children, from everything she had ever known. Alone of those who could understand her, that knew her past.
They acted as if she was not what she was.
In some ways, Grand Mother Silk found it almost refreshing. She was thrown here in her weakest possible state, empty of silk and lost of everything she had ever known. Everything in her body had burned, she hadn’t been able to communicate anything, she was at their mercy entirely- and yet they chose to be kind to her.
They chose to be kind, to pick her up and settle her on the couch, settle her, teach her the ways for her to be understood. Grand Mother Silk did not understand the level of kindness they were so willing and so easy to give to her- but they did. They treated her with dignity, as if she didn’t cause the fall of her own kingdom. As if she wasn’t almost something far too unusual, something they shouldn’t be able to understand. As if she were just another person in their world, not someone who was yoinked from everything and dragged into a place she did not understand.
Perhaps it was a chance.
She watched the light along the wall move slowly, as the sun outside began to rise, morning coming as quickly as an unbothered snail. The little cloud slept next to her, and Grand Mother Silk let herself settle, somewhere in her chest loosening slightly. Perhaps it was a chance to grow anew, become something more or new, or something better. Kinder, almost. Perhaps that would be worth it.
The little cloud gets up and crosses over onto her middle. She doesn’t have much for it lay on, but it does it’s best, settles once more, and falls back asleep on her. Grand Mother Silk doesn’t think too hard on it, content to simply watch the light as it slowly traced up the couch, bathing the cloud in it as she settles. She doesn’t quite think the little thing wakes, but it does stretch it’s tiny legs a bit, settling more flopped out rather than curled up as it had moments before.
She hears them awaken- Dave in his room is closer to her, she can hear his transfer to the chair, just because of how loud the process can be. She doesn’t hear the children yet, but there’s a little chime from PlayRobot’s room that makes her think perhaps the girl will roll out into the living room soon to see her.
Faintly, Grand Mother Silk wonders at how long it might be before she can start talking to them again. Words are not impossible for her, whatever her face may actually look like, but right now, lacking so much Silk as she is, it’s out of her control, out of her reach. Which, actually, reminds her. She should check that.
It’s a simple thing- two step part, the physical feeling in her body, where it aches, how it burns, and the attempt at summoning some. Her body does not hurt nearly as bad as it did yesterday, but she is still far far off from being completely alright again. Her attempt at summoning anything substantial just makes her head ache, leaving a few wisps in her hand, and it only confirms her suspicions. She doesn’t have enough to truly accomplish anything, but it is, if nothing, better than it had been before. She doesn’t try to push it- that will only cause her more harm.
What Grand Mother Silk is not prepared for is a loud noise from the door close by to her. It’s a loud chime, like a bell but louder, a tune- the cloud jumps free from her lap, running towards the door, and it all startles her so badly she falls from the couch with a loud thump- pushing her arm under herself and shoving up to see what’s going on. She knows the noise must be coming from the door- stationed to her left. She can’t see anything through it, and whatever is making that noise doesn’t again yet, so she endeavors instead to check herself.
It’s an embarrassing affair, having to drag herself across the floor towards the door. Perhaps it would be better to wait for Dave or one of the children to come around, but Grand Mother Silk wants to be helpful in some capacity. Her movement is stilted, like a fresh child from the cocoon, yet to form it’s limbs and movement capability- but she manages to move over towards the door slowly- it chimes again, and that only fuels her to move faster towards it.
Problem: She doesn’t know how to work the door. Grand Mother Silk realizes this, staring up towards the door. They had not taught her how to use it, nor did any of the books that PlayRobot had spread out before her have anything in them about it. If only she could float again- it would help her to bring herself up to the same height, to insepct it properly, for whatever she may be capable of doing with it. There is a knob, like a large button, on one side, and she figures it has something to do with it’s function, but the issue is she must need her hand to use it, and her one hand is focused on holding her weight so she doesn’t unbalance and collapse back to the floor.
Thankfully, she remembers that Dave is going to be helping to fix that particular problem soon enough- a wheelchair, she thinks? No- that was what it was called. Grand Mother Silk nods to herself, then glances down at her body, trying to figure how to work her body under herself enough so she can actually use her hand in order to figure out the function of this door- it chimes again and startles her once more.
“I’m coming!” Dave’s voice calls from his room, and he rolls into view, clearly tired and rather annoyed- he starts a little seeing her collpased in front of the door- his body does something odd that makes Grand Mother Silk’s head hurt slightly, like he can suddenly be seen in far too many dimensions, before it settles from the start.
He rushes over to her, clearly concerned. “You didn’t need to get up, Silk, I could- I was coming to get it.” He laughs nervously, and she lets her body rest down so she can use her hand to lift her thumb up at him. It is not quite what she means, but it is the most positive gesture she knows. It seems to help, making him relax slightly. “Okay, okay... Well, I need to introduce you to Muko anyways.” He sighs- Grand Mother Silk needs to scoot slightly out of the way of the door for him to reach it and open it.
Right- Muko. That name rings a bell for her. He had said it last night, when he was explaining the wheelchair to her. Much like his, but slightly more robotic powered, so she could use only one hand to move and steer without it becoming an issue, like it would be for the manual ones, as he had said.
“You might get stuck going in a circle, only using one wheel at a time, and the goal is to give you more independence, not just trade the kind of dependency.” He had said, a nervous smile on his face, and she had given him a thumbs up then as well- she wanted to be able to move on her own, not rely on the people around her, despite how kind they were being the whole time anyways. Hers would be more electronic, apparently, and he needed Muko’s help in order to accomplish this.
“Alright.” Dave’s voice pulls her from her musings, and Grand Mother Silk looks up at him as he grabs a hold of the knob- his hands turns and the door swings open. She files that away for later, when it may be needed, then looks to the apparent Muko.
He looks much like Dave, though standing with more Tristan like legs- Dave’s must be special to him, then, though she cannot figure out the reason as to why he would have legs like that. They seem deeply inconvenient. He’s tall, arms laden with bags, eyes hidden behind large glass circles. Ineffectively hidden, she might add, considering she could still see behind them. He had a few boxes in his hand, meaning that she was blocked from his view at first. Muko looked around them, focusing on Dave first.
“You didn’t leave me that much time to- AH WHAT IS THAT-“ Muko jumps back upon seeing Grand Mother Silk’s empty void like face staring up at him. He almost drops all his boxes, actually, but Dave manages to steady them before they all tumbled to the floor.
She stares up at them, watching the man’s panic spread the longer she stared up at him. It was silent for a long period of time, as Grand Mother Silk shifted slightly back, in an attempt to... Perhaps appear less threatening to the man? Maybe? She wasn’t too sure. Dave gave a little nervous laugh, taking one of the boxes onto his lap so that Muko could see where he was going properly.
“Sorry.” He moved back, allowing a very hesitant Muko to step into the house. Dave moved the boxes over to a spot towards his room, setting his down, which let Muko do the same- despite the fact that he had yet to take his eyes off of Grand Mother Silk. “This is Silk. She’s the one we’re making the chair for. Silk, this is Muko, he’s gonna be helping me out.”
Dave sends Muko a look that Grand Mother Silk can’t quite read, but it makes Muko shakily hold out his hand towards her. She stares down at it for a moment, tilting her head slightly. Dave makes a noise, almost like a scoff, but towards himself. “Oh my god- sorry, here, Silk, hold out your hand.”
She has to shift her weight, but manages to stay level and hold out her one arm towards Muko as well. Dave takes it, as Muko carefully grabs her hand, wrapping his fingers around her palm- Dave leads her to do the same, and they bounce their hands once before Muko moves away, eyes narrowed at her like her confusion wasn’t to be trusted. “That’s a handshake. It’s a polite way to introduce yourself, or say hello.”
Grand Mother Silk looks down at her hand for a moment, absorbing that information, before reaching her hand out towards Dave, who laughs and shakes her hand as well. “There you go, you got the hang of it. Sorry Muko- I forgot to mention. She doesn’t really know... How to talk? Or do most anything that we might.”
She holds her thumb up. Embarrassing, but correct.
“But she knows that?” He asks, eyes darting between Dave and Grand Mother Silk. Dave nods slightly.
“Yeah- Tristan and PlayRobot got excited in trying to teach her stuff. I think they might try more complicated stuff later, but right now she’s got a way to say yes or no and that’s about what we want, really.” Dave looks to her, still settled on the floor staring at them. If she looks closely, she can see a very similar hint of fear on Dave’s face, like was on Muko’s. The fear there passes very quickly though, almost an instinct before his logic takes over.
“Muko, you mind helping me get her back to the living room?” Muko sends Dave a look, but sighs, moving over to her. She allows herself to be moved by the two of them- not exactly an elegant process, but it must be done. They don’t settle her on the couch, though, letting her settle in an almost sitting position in front of it, leaning back against the couch cushions.
Muko seemed slightly more comfortable, but only if he didn’t look at Grand Mother Silk’s face. Dave settled back into his chair proper, letting out a breath. “Alright- measurements. We need to make sure the chair fits you, and you can sit comfortably to use it. I’ve had some uncomfortable wheelchairs before, it’s not great.”
That makes enough sense to her. The two of them move around her carefully, Muko muttering numbers to himself as Dave writes everything down in a little notepad he had produced for this. It’s rather relaxing- being worked around rather than with in this case. She moves what she can to let them get everything they need, and, when they finish, Dave helps her up onto the couch, smiling at her. Muko carefully doesn’t look at her as he goes to gather what he had brought and start down into the basement.
“We’re gonna be downstairs. You need anything?” Grand Mother Silk shakes her head, watching as he moves off into the basement entrance.
She’s alone again. Well- alone except for the little cloud, which had been running laps about the living room the whole time she was being measured, and was now on the cushion next to her, bouncing slightly. She dragged her hand down it’s back, watching as it flopped over so she could pet it’s... Belly? It was a cloud. It really didn’t have much form, but clearly it was excited for pets anywhere it could reach.
It was a cute. She looks down, then carefully takes one of it’s little paws in her hand and shakes it gently. The cloud seems rather happy about that, making a little yipping noise, and cuddling up to her side. Grand Mother Silk looks down at her hand, rolling her wrist carefully and almost examining her fingers, closing and opening her hand, holding it in the position that Dave had lead her to. It was rather odd, but if it was polite, then Grand Mother Silk would continue using it.
There was a brief moment of wonder as to why the kids had not shown her that one- but it passed quickly. Children are not often known for their manners, not until they’re a tad bit older than Tristan and PlayRobot seem to be.
Speaking of them- she hears a door open and looks towards the noise, through one room that she had yet to go through. She sees PlayRobot pass by the doorway, and a knock- she must be seeing if Tristan is up then. She doesn’t pay too much attention to them, until their voices get louder and they come in through the living room, Tristan looking around.
“Where’s Dad?” He asks, looking to her- and the only person he could be talking about is Dave, so she shifts, unfortunately having to stop petting the little cloud, and points towards the basement door. He deflates slightly, frowning. “Aww man, I wanted to see him...”
PlayRobot doesn’t say anything, instead moving over towards Grand Mother Silk in the silence. She looks down at her as she approaches, Tristan following behind her, then holds her hand out. PlayRobot looks down at it in confusion for a moment, before lighting up- literally, her screen flashes slightly brighter for a moment, and takes Grand Mother Silk’s hand to shake. That seems to cheer up Tristan well enough, as he grins and moves up to do the same.
It’s interesting. PlayRobot’s hand is cool, smooth except for the seams along her finger joints, where it seems as if skin could get caught, if Grand Mother Silk had skin to catch. Tristan is warm, his skin clearly a tad dry. Different even from Dave’s, who was also colder than she had expected, and Muko, whose hand shook in her grip. She looked down at her hand for a moment, before sinking it back into the cool fluff of the cloud.
“Oh! I see you met Pet Cloud.” Tristan moves over to pet Cloud as well, as Grand Mother Silk nods once, carefully petting along the idea of a spine she can feel somewhere under all the fluff. There’s a hint of a structure of a being, but she can’t even actually be sure of that, considering it feels like it’s made of water if it does exist.
“I’m gonna go make breakfast, since he’s downstairs.” PlayRobot says, and Tristan perks up, as does Grand Mother Silk. She doesn’t know that word. She tilts her head, leaning a bit closer to PlayRobot, who catches on quickly. “It’s food for the morning.”
Oh. Well that’s not nearly as excited as she expected it to be. Unfortunate. She shifts back slightly, and Tristan move to follow PlayRobot, frowning. “We have to explain everything.” He pouts. “Even the basic things!”
“Hey... It’s basic for us because we’ve lived with it forever.” It’s almost as if PlayRobot is scolding the boy, though she’s not really trying to do that. “Give her a break- clearly this world is completely unfamiliar.”
There’s a pause, and then both kids slowly look over at her. She lifts her hand at them, and they slowly look back at each other.
“We have an alien in the house.” Tristan whispers, as if Grand Mother Silk couldn’t hear him. PlayRobot nods slightly, before they both seem to just... Shake that off, whatever it was, whatever they both just experienced. Grand Mother Silk chose not to mention it, as Pet Cloud hopped off the couch and trotted into the kitchen.
Tristan followed behind him, laughing slightly. “Alright, I’ll feed you, okay!” Though Pet Cloud wasn’t exactly super hyper about it quite yet. PlayRobot looked over to Grand Mother Silk, who had resigned herself to once again being alone for a time.
“Do you wanna come with us into the kitchen? I can make you some breakfast too.”
She barely debates it- food is good, it will help her replace her silk faster, but more than that, it’s somewhere Grand Mother Silk has yet to be in, and a change to the monotony of what her life had been for the entire night. She nods, and PlayRobot smiles at her, moving over and very easily lifting her up into the air, despite Grand Mother Silk’s shock noise- a quiet screech that makes PlayRobot blink at her.
“Sorry- I should’ve asked.”
That’s fine- Grand Mother Silk pats her shoulder carefully, and that seems enough. She wasn’t shocked about being picked up- clearly she would need to be moved to be able to get into the kitchen, but rather at how easily PlayRobot seemed to move her, even if it had already been noted by almost all of them aloud that she was rather light.
The chair that PlayRobot sets her in is harder than the couch, and forces her to sit up straighter than she had, a position that’s slightly odd for the positioning of her legs, but manageable. Tristan, who had just fed Pet Cloud, hops up onto a chair next to her, ready to wait for breakfast.
The room has a large window, and looking through, she can see the grass tamped down where she must have been before they brought her inside. She shakes that off, looking instead towards PlayRobot, who moves over and starts digging through a large silver cabinet of sorts, with a light on in the inside. There’s several other cabinets, with tops with various things on top of it, many that she didn’t have the words to know or understand. PlayRobot sets everything on the counter next to another cabinet- different from the others, as it has a large black glass front, and the top is a similar thing, with a few circles on top, one which PlayRobot sets something a top of it, and leans over, turning a knob to start a small fire under it.
Oh there’s plenty in here for her to ask after. Tristan seems bored as well. Grand Mother Silk reaches over, tapping the boy on the shoulder, rousing him from where he was staring out the window as well. He looks towards her, head tilted slightly, and she points over towards PlayRobot. Tristan looks over as well for a moment.
“She’s cooking breakfast?” He seems confused for a half a second before he lights up. “Oh wait- you wanna know what she’s using!”
Grand Mother Silk nods once, and Tristan shifts to sit backwards in the chair to look over at PlayRobot as she moves around the kitchen. “Well the main thing is the oven and the stove- it gets hot so that the food can cook, and I’m not really supposed to be using it myself, but PlayRobot can because she can’t get hurt by it. You might be able to though, so you have to be careful.”
Clearly something that had been said before, she’s sure. There’s a small fire in it- that would of course cause some level of pain if touched, especially to someone younger, someone who wouldn’t know to be careful. She nods, so that he knows she understands, even if she had already assumed, and he nods back, satisfied.
“There’s plenty of pots and pans-“ He glances over to her, to see what exactly interests her, but for Grand Mother Silk, it is almost everything. She lifts her hand to gesture vaguely- holding her palm flat and dragging it out across a space in front of her, like what PlayRobot is placing the bacon on. Tristan is quick to pick up on her gesturing. “That one’s a sheet pan- she says it’s good for the bacon because you can make more quickly, and also because she doesn’t need to sit and bother with it while trying to make the eggs.”
PlayRobot makes a little humming noise- acknowledging herself being talked about, but not adding anything into the conversation, just making it known. She takes that brown container- “A carton of eggs- the carton is the easiest to put eggs in because they’re round, so they stay snug and not broken.”- takes several of the eggs and hits a few on the counter. Grand Mother Silk jumps slightly, but watches as she opens the shell of it, dropping the contents into another pan.
“That one’s a frying pan. You can do a lot of the cooking stuff in that one, but she’s scrambling them.” Tristan kicks his feet slightly, and Grand Mother Silk watches him quietly, before lifting her hand and pointing towards the large silver thing that PlayRobot had gotten the food from in the first place.
Tristan follows her hand, tilting his head slightly. “Oh! The fridge- it keeps all the food cold so it lasts longer. Things like eggs and meat don’t last all that long if it’s room temp.”
That much makes sense to her- from her own memory, any of her subjects on the colder areas would tuck things outside in snowed in areas, if they had extra. Not many had extra for quite awhile. Grand Mother Silk reaches over and pats Tristan on the head, a thanks that he seems to appreciate well enough. He’s grinning at her- and for a moment, her chest aches at the idea of Lace being able to look at her like that, at the fact that she missed seeing this happiness.
Oh well. Lace is alive. It aches that she cannot see her daughter, likely ever again, but she is alive, and Grand Mother Silk made it a sure thing with everything in her power to make it so. That will simply have to be enough for her.
——
Dave works a lot more on the physical things- he brought Muko in because this would require a lot more wiring and coding than he is usually comfortable with. His own chair was rather simple, all manual. Silk probably could manage- but it would be difficult. It’s easier if they do a powered one for her.
The plan is to have a joystick for her arm, and use that for steering. Her legs are a tad odd- they look almost like they connect back to each other, and Dave wants to make the chair comfortable for her too, with her odd body shape and limbs, and that is another little issue they’re needing to work through. He won’t be surprised if this one isn’t perfect and they need to re-do some things later, but right now, all he wants to do is get her mobile on her own, in a way that isn’t just dragging herself around on the floor.
“Muko, you uhh... You didn’t need to get everything for this, yknow?” He looks over at Muko, who is leaned way too close to some wires he’s actively working on connecting. The man sends him a look- a look he’s seen many times from him.
“It’s fine, Dave. At least this is far more simple than other things you’ve had me working on.” Dave blanches slightly, looking back down to the framework he’s trying to put together for the base of the chair, where it’ll connect to the wheels.
“Right, right...” Dave works on screwing in one of the wheels, looking over towards Muko again. “So uhhh-“
“Let’s cut the small talk here, Dave.” Muko looks over at him properly, turning. “What in the hell did you get into this time? I mean- do you even know what she is?”
Dave shakes his head. “I mean, it’s not like she can tell us that.”
“Right, of course.” Muko rolls his eyes, turning back to the wires. It’s not an unkind thing from him, and Dave knows that- just exasperation with him. Which is fair. He has an alien in his house, and his first thought is to build her a wheelchair. Is she even a she? Dave realizes he never actually asked. He assume, with the whole body shape and long hair thing she has going on, and she hasn’t exactly protested, but maybe she doesn’t understand those pronouns either, and her kind have different things- he’s overthinking it. She hasn’t protested, he’ll just. Keep on as he was.
“Look- There’s just something... Off about her, yknow? It’s- she has no face, dude.” Muko glances over at him, but he’s stuck in the wiring proper- trying to figure out the connection points between the little joystick and the power behind the wheels- so he can’t actually look over that long. “You can’t tell me that isn’t weird.”
“I mean... It takes some getting used to... But my son’s hair literally says ‘hair’ and we know a guy with no arms and floating hands- a missing face isn’t that far out of the norm here.”
Muko huffs- Dave does have a point, and he knows it. Still. “It’s something more than that. Like it feels like she’s... different? More different than just being an alien.”
Dave grabs his welding mask, flicking it down to start welding together some of the pieces of metal in the framework. It also has a nice second side of not having to answer Muko for a moment. He really really doesn’t know what to say here, or what to do about this. Muko has a point- there’s something about her that makes that deep seated feral instinct in him bristle, but she seems... Harmless? Or perhaps she’s just declawed right now, waiting for a moment.
No- she’s too good with Tristan and PlayRobot for it to be a trick, and if all else, PlayRobot is capable of defending them and protecting Tristan. God, she really is one of the best things he’s ever made.
He flipped the mask back up, looking over to Muko. “Look- she’s patient with the kids. How someone treats them shows a lot about how someone is, yknow?”
With another little sigh, Muko nods.
“So- I’m wary about it, but I don’t think she’s dangerous. Silk is... Clearly out of her depth and probably scared as hell about everything going on- and you would be too, if you were suddenly in a place where you don’t even know how to say yes or no to someone.” Dave shrugs a shoulder, shifting the metal to the side to let it cool before he would start working on it again, moving instead to the chair’s cushion for a moment. “If something happens, you reserve the right to say I told you so to me, but I don’t think it will.”
Muko jerks his hand back from the wires- must’ve shocked himself, the way he shakes his hand out, glancing down at it for a moment. “Fine... I just hope nothing does happen. Clearly you’ve attached yourself, if you realize it or not.”
He’s got Dave there. “You know me.” Dave laughs slightly, glancing over at him. “It seems like I just collect strays.”
——
Grand Mother Silk watches as PlayRobot transfers everything over to a few plates, carrying them over for the two of them. She seems rather proud of her work, and Grand Mother Silk can see why- she must practice at this a lot, to be this good at such a young age. Tristan grins, grabbing the little metal thing that PlayRobot gives him along with his plate. She gets one too, but she doesn’t know what it is, so she ignores it, reaching down instead and grabbing a small handful of the eggs, and a slice of the bacon, and simply pushing it against her face instead. It disappears in just as the chips had done the day before.
The two kids stare at her for a long moment, Tristan’s food half way to his mouth on the little metal thing. Oh. Perhaps this is a politeness thing. She looks down to her own, with it’s little prongs, and it reminds her of a weapon in some way. Multiple stabbing wounds from something like this, if it were only bigger. Neither of the kids seem to care after a moment though, both of them moving on very quickly from her impoliteness. Well, if they don’t care, then she isn’t going to be using the mini weapon for now. She takes another handful, then points towards the stove.
PlayRobot’s face flashes into confusion. “The stove?” She nods then shakes her head slightly. Yes and no- she turns her hand palm up and tries to move her fingers in the way the flame had moved, and PlayRobot stares in confusion, as Tristan chews slowly on his bacon, both of them trying to-
“Oh!” Tristan lights up, and PlayRobot looks to him. “The fire on the stove!”
Grand Mother Silk lifts her hand into a thumbs up.
“Well- we use fire and heat to cook things, because Tristan’s body doesn’t use raw meat well. He can’t digest it without getting sick.” PlayRobot tilts her head slightly, thinking. “So we utilize fire to make it safe for him and Dave- most humans actually, but those are the ones you know.” She laughs, and Grand Mother Silk fails to find the joke in it, but clearly it amuses her.
She makes a twisting motion with her hand- as if grabbing something mid air- and then points back to the stove.
“The knobs turn it on- it kind of controls how big the fire is, and thus how hot you can get it. There’s a little thing that makes sparks in the stove top- that’ll start the fire, but what actually makes it go is gas!” PlayRobot seems actually excited to talk about this. Tristan doesn’t seem to care much- he must know all this already. Grand Mother silk leans closer, showing her interest. Her people had utilized fire, but not this refined, not this well. “There’s a flammable gas called propane- it lights on fire really well, so when it comes into contact with the spark, it lights up and starts burning, so we can cook things with it.”
Interesting, honestly. To her, at least, someone who had barely seen her people use fire to cook anything at all. They didn’t truly need to, however, so it makes enough sense.
Just then, there’s a knock at the front door. Again? They truly seem to be having a lot of people coming over today. Grand Mother Silk looks over towards the door, through the doorway to the living room. Tristan frowns in confusion for a moment, before his entire face lights up in a grin. He shoves the last bit of his food into his mouth, chewing as quickly as possible, before sliding off his chair and running into the living room to fling open the door. Grand Mother Silk chooses to stop paying purposeful attention then, instead turning to PlayRobot, and pointing to the fridge instead. If she knows how the stove works, she must know how this cooling element works.
As much as she tries to listen and pay attention to it, the visitor has a very loud voice. It doesn’t drown out PlayRobot, but it’s enough to make her slightly more difficult to listen to. Tristan is also loud, stuttering over his words. He’s trying to explain her being here, it seems. Grand Mother Silk finds herself briefly annoyed, but assumes it must be another friend of Tristan’s for him to be this excited. She finishes her meal- PlayRobot whisking away the plates over to the sink, where she turns it on, and Grand Mother Silk makes a note to ask how they have harnessed this as well.
Tristan returns, looking back behind himself as he goes, still talking to the other person. “A-and now we have- she’s staying here for now! Say hi to Silk!”
Grand Mother Silk turns her eyes to the person following behind Tristan- and ice cold dread streaks down her spine. She’s screeching before she even realizes she is. This creature is small, nearly the size of Tristan, if she’s generous, but he is horrible- there is knowledge in her eyes that makes her feel, sick. He has no arms, but simply floating hands, disconnected from anything else.
Her chair tips back and she falls, shoving herself away from him, still screeching. Tristan is covering his ears as tightly as he can, and PlayRobot shoves herself between them, filling Grand Mother Silk’s vision so that she can’t see that- that thing, anymore.
“Woah! It’s okay, hey- Tristan take Bambi back into the living room for a second-“ Tristan turns, taking one of this Bambi’s floating hands, and dragging him back into the living room. Bambi’s eyes don’t leave her the whole time. “Silk- hey! It’s okay!”
She is silent, chest heaving. There is something about that thing that makes her body ache. She faced the void with more confidence than she felt facing him. Grand Mother Silk looks to PlayRobot, who seems confused, but still trying to keep herself between her and the doorway, just in case Bambi could be seen through it.
“It’s alright! He’s a friend!” PlayRobot asks no questions of her panic, and for that Grand Mother Silk is grateful. “Do you wanna meet him properly? I promise he’s not a threat or anything.”
She feels she has little choice. If she is going to stay here, then she needs to get used to the people that are around, that will be showing up at the house more often. This Bambi seems to be one of them, so Grand Mother Silk takes a breath, allowing herself to be lifted once more and brought back to the living room.
They’re sitting on the couch, Bambi holding a large... brick in his hand? Grand Mother Silk doesn’t question it, every part in her body still wishing to escape back to safety, where that thing wasn’t here. Bambi looked up at her, bored, lifting one disembodied hand to wave at her. Grand Mother Silk did not return the gesture, as PlayRobot settled her on the couch.
“Bambi, this is Silk! Silk, this is Bambi. He’s pretty cool!” Tristan is grinning, and Bambi reaches one of his hands out to her- why isn’t his limbs connected, she can’t get that out of her mind. Hesitantly she reaches out in return, taking his hand to shake. He’s cold. She doesn’t know why that makes her feel worse.
There’s something about him that reeks of divinity though. Grand Mother Silk can recognize it in anyone- and she is sure Bambi can feel it back from her. Perhaps that’s why his eyes haven’t moved from her for this time. Tristan watches them quietly, eyes darting between the two of them. “Soooo.... Do you wanna try Mario Kart?”
Bambi looks towards him, softening slightly. Well that’s a relief. “Sure.”
Grand Mother Silk nods. She doesn’t quite know what this game is, but perhaps it will be worth it try.
Tristan hops up to get everything ready, and with that, Grand Mother Silk is left watching Bambi, who has a smaller version of the big screen they were going to play on in his hand. He’s swiping the screen, flinging pictures and videos past it, and she leans closer, then points. Bambi looks towards her, then to Tristan “What’s her deal?”
PlayRobot is the one that looks up and answers. “Oh! She wants to know what you’re holding.”
“My phone.”
There’s a moment of silence, before PlayRobot sighs. “She doesn’t know what that is.”
Bambi’s look is skeptical, but then he gives Grand Mother Silk a once over and that seems to ease his worries. Maybe that isn’t a comfortable thought, that anyone can tell she is out of her depth just by looking at her, but at least Bambi does not ask her more questions, instead turning the screen to show her some video of an animal- it makes a noise then chases something that is thrown over his head, and dives directly into a contained pool of water. What in the world is she watching.
“It shows us things. On the internet. I guess you don’t know that either?” Bambi is half glaring at her, but she thinks it’s a genuine question? Grand Mother Silk really does not know how to take this thing, the idea of godhood hidden under a brash skin that seems ready to attack her if nothing else. She shakes her head.
While the two kids set up the game, Grand Mother Silk tries to understand the internet. It is something deeply confusing for her, something that she finds herself failing to understand. Bambi is not a good teacher, either, not like Tristan or PlayRobot would be, but they are distracted, arguing over who gets to be player one, and what players everyone else should be, so that leaves her with Bambi. In the end, he gives up trying to explain how electricity works to her, waving a hand towards the kids. “Ask one of them later.”
That she planned to. They would probably be better at it anyways.
Thankfully, they seem to have settled on the numbers- Tristan gets first, PlayRobot second, Bambi third, and herself fourth. She takes the controller handed to her, trying to hold it as they do and then realizing- oh. She needs a second hand for this.
PlayRobot realizes this as well, frowning slightly. “Oh uhm... I mean, you can still try!” She smiles at her, and Grand Mother Silk chooses to do so- it would be easy to drop out, but she has to give it a shot at least.
The game is bright and flashy- they’re weird little creatures riding on carts, though they look nothing like the carts she knows of her own world, and she herself ends up on a weird little human with a red hat. They say that she should be good with him, though Grand Mother Silk is unsure.
If nothing else, this passes the time. Tristan insists upon a tournament, which seems to mean there will be multiple races, and thus more time for Grand Mother Silk to get used to it. There’s several times where she catches Bambi with something that he could use on one of the kids in game- the power ups confuse her, so she avoids them, to their dismay- that he simply doesn’t. If nothing else, they can agree on that.
PlayRobot and Tristan are winning, neck and neck most times. Bambi keeps himself very middle of the road, seeming to just be on a casual drive rather than racing. Grand Mother Silk does her best with her one hand, trying to balance the controller along her legs in order to move properly.
Tristan squeaks out the win, by just a few points, with PlayRobot close behind. Bambi settles somewhere in fifth place, while as Grand Mother Silk is at eleventh.
“It’s not last!” Tristan says, grinning, like it’s a good thing, and she supposes he is right. She didn’t completely fail. Still, with that over, she passes the controller off, content to watch them for the time as the two kids keep fighting for first in other tournaments. Bambi bows out as well, content to scroll on his phone, and she splits her attention between that and the tv, trying to figure out how this all would work on her own. It all seems similar, so she thinks she can put it all together.
There’s a few hours of time, before there’s a soft noise somewhere behind them, and Dave emerges with a very similar but different chair, Muko pushing it behind him. Muko sees Bambi, and tenses slightly, lifting a hand towards them to wave. There’s very little goodbye before Muko ducks out, and Grand Mother Silk cannot blame him. He sends her an odd look as he goes, one she cannot place, and he keeps it on her as he leaves. Odd.
Still, she ignores it- turning her attention back to Dave, who seems rather proud of himself. It’s more cushioned then his, a higher back for her larger frame, to support the odd way she has to sit with the position of her legs. There’s an arm rest- technically two but that one seems more for the stability of the small hanging bag on one side then for the missing arm. Her arm rest ends in a little joystick, much like the one that she had been using on the controller when playing earlier.
“Okay, it’s- pretty simple? You push it forwards to go forwards, back to go back, you can turn and everything, it’s- it’ll be easier for you to play with it then me try and explain, heh-“ Dave looks to PlayRobot, who, for a third time, lifts Grand Mother Silk with surprising ease, settling her into the chair. She shifts, finding a comfortable spot to sit, and settles her hand onto the joystick, pushing it forwards slightly.
It doesn’t take much force for it to move under her- it is much quicker to move than crawling about the floor, which is something she is quite thankful for. Grand Mother Silk tilts it to the left still slightly forward, and she turns, the chair moving to look forwards at the others on the couch, as they watch her slowly learn how to move.
“Is it good?” Dave asks, leaning forwards slightly as Grand Mother Silk turns in the slow circle, until she ends up facing the way she had been in the first place. She looks up at him as he asks, then nods, holding her hand up in a thumbs up again. Dave grins. “Good. Hopefully it helps you move around better- so PlayRobot doesn’t have to carry you everywhere or anything.”
Grand Mother Silk nods again. It’s nice- comfortable. Them being so willing to help her in this way. She glances back at the kids again, and even Bambi’s presence does not dampen this for her in the moment.
It really does seem as if she will fit in rather nicely here.