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The first time Chasca took Ineffa on a flight around the Flower-Feather Clan’s territory, Ineffa had been quiet. She took her time appreciating the landscape; the view from up in the sky was truly wonderful. The sun shined against the mountains and the trees, and the lively atmosphere seemed even more lively when gazed from above. Chasca stayed silent as well, humming a song Ineffa’s data couldn’t find the origin of.
The second time Chasca took Ineffa on a flight, it was night. The starts shinned brightly on the sky, and the moon illuminated Chasca’s hair, making it seem like it could glow; it was a sight as pretty as the lights in Nasha Town. An explosion of colors, like Aino liked to call them.
“I wonder how Aino is doing back home” Ineffa breaks the silence for the first time. Chasca doesn’t look back, but she hums in response.
“Do you miss her?”
“Missing…” Ineffa searches for the word on her memories “Varka says missing someone or something is a bittersweet, nostalgic feeling. I don’t have to eat as humans do, so I don’t know what “bittersweet” intel. But as far as my knowledge about “nostalgia” goes, I guess I do miss Aino.”
“That’s a good way to describe it, yes” Chasca says, and something about her voice seems off. It feels quitter. But she doesn’t say anything else, and Ineffa’s emotional communication modules are not updated to include voice tones, so she doesn’t add anything else as well.
One day, Ineffa mentions wanting to update her knowledge about the world around her, to ensure it remains current. After hearing that, Chasca takes her to see the other areas of Natlan, and to meet her other friends. The first place they visit is the Nanatzcayan, where Xilonen welcomes them with energy supplements. She also asks if Ineffa could help her clean her workshop again.
She reminds Ineffa of Aino, even if just a little bit. Both of them have no discernible pattern on how they arrange things, and they have a natural talent when dealing with mechanics. When she mentions it, Chasca asks her to tell them more about home, and so Ineffa tells them everything about the Clink-Clank Krumkake Craftshop. Chasca hears everything, paying attention to every word Ineffa has to say.
It's nice. Chasca is nice.
Ineffa also meets Kinich, Mualani, Iansan and the Pyro Archon, Mavuika. They go to the Mictlan as well, to meet a man named Ororon, but he’s not home. They see Citlali instead, but she doesn’t stay for long. She turns around and runs away the moment she makes eye contact with Ineffa. Ineffa evaluates her body language and concludes she must be embarrassed because of her past opinions. She wishes Citlali knew she doesn’t resent her. Aino and Jahoda also discuss her modules all the time, and Varka and Nefer seem to find it “amusing”, so she doesn’t mind it.
By the end of the day, when the sun is setting behind the mountains, Chasca takes her on a flight around the Flower-Feather Clan’s territory once again. The sky’s painted purple and orange, a gentle breeze swaying Ineffa’s loose hair strands.
The qucusaurus flying around them remind Ineffa of Chasca, in a way. Loyal, fierce, and proud. And they both reminded Ineffa of Lianca. Kind, and free. Someone who felt like Ineffa could always count with and come back to. Someone like home.
As she looks at the woman’s red, bright hair, she can’t help but go back to the last time they flew together.
“Do you have someone you miss, Chasca?”
Chasca humors Ineffa with a soft laugh, but it seems duller, just like last time the topic “missing” was brought to light “Yes, I do” she hesitates to answer, but her voice is not unkind “Why do you ask?”
That’s a good question. Her cleaning, cooking emotional communication and combat modules didn’t have “curiosity” included in any of them. Ineffa tilts her head as she muses it over.
“I don’t know. Lianca once told me she missed her mother, and after some analyzes, my system recorded you two share some similarities. So I wondered… Apologies If I disrespected your boundaries.”
“It’s fine, don’t worry about that. I’m glad you feel safe with me to talk about more personal things.”
She says that, but she doesn’t talk about the person she misses. Does Chasca not feel safe with Ineffa to talk about more personal things? She doesn’t know why, but the idea of it makes her core hurt.
On the next morning, Ineffa goes to the Flower-Feather Clan’s market to buy some ingredients to bake sweets for Adieta and Chasca. As she looks around, she sees a man with tan skin and white hair walking towards her. He waves as he approaches her, and Ineffa’s cognition module activates her greetings-mode.
“Hello. Lovely day, isn’t it.”
“Hey there, bro. It’s nice seeing you up and in good health. My name’s Ifa.”
Ifa. Her data gathers all information she has heard about him: “saurian vet”, “easygoing” “Ororon”. Ororon… Insufficient data.
“Nice to meet you. I am Ineffa, a multifunctional robot for domestic application. Do you need help with your shopping?”
“Huh? No, thanks bro, I’m just here to buy some shrimp meat to bake tatacos for Ororon, and also some grainfruit for saurian crackers.”
Ineffa tilts her head “The name “Ororon” is often associated with people’s impressions of you. Why is that?”
“Oh” the saurian vet rubs his neck. Ineffa notices a blush on his face “He’s my boyfriend, and we also have been best friends since forever.”
“Boyfriends, I get it now” she nods “You have a funny hat, just like Chasca does. Are you two friends?”
“Erhm... She’s good friends with Ororon. And I guess the two of us also know each other for a good while now, being from the same tribe and all.”
“Data recored” Ineffa says. She looks down to the bag of grainfruits on his hand and scans it “Grainfruit can be added to a krumkake recipe to significantly boost dietary fiber. Where did you buy it? I’d like to take some as well to test on a new recipe.”
“I can take you there. Follow me, dude.”
The two of them hang around the market together. Saurian vet Ifa is very easygoing indeed, but Ineffa’s system cries for help with how much “bro” and “Ororon” he says. She wishes she was hanging out with Chasca instead. Chasca always makes Ineffa’s cognition module very pleased.
After twenty three minutes and forty five seconds, Ineffa finally spots Chasca, near one of the Flower Feather Clan’s notice boards, talking with some qucusaurus.
“Chasca, there you are” Ineffa says as she walks closer to give Chasca a hug, which makes her body go rigid against Ineffa’s. She checks if she’s using more strength than necessary, but it doesn’t seem the case.
“Who taught you this?” she asks after Ineffa pulls away, hiding most of her face under her hat “I’ve never seen you hugging anyone before.”
“Saurian vet Ifa seems to relish on physical contact as a bonding activity, so I added it to my cognition mode to reinforce my social module. “My bro likes it when I hug him”. His words, not mine.”
Chasca raises her head and makes a face, and Ineffa tilts her head to study her. That look on her is new. Ineffa doesn’t have a name for it. It’s… Cute, she thinks.
“You were talking with Ifa? Don’t tell me he was yapping about Ororon with you the whole time you two were together…”
“Data analyses. Number of times saurian vet Ifa mentioned the word “Ororon” in our conversation: twelve.”
“Yeah, seems in character for him” Chasca scoffs “Don’t take everything that guy says seriously. He’s kind of… Intense about his boyfriend. And Ororon’s the same about him. Ororon is nice, though. We’re good friends.”
“Do you not like it? I’m sorry, it won’t happen again. Erasing “physical contact” information from my data—”
“Hey” Chasca touches her shoulders, and everything on her system seems to stop, as if under the woman’s command “I don’t mind it. Not if it’s from you, at least.”
“Oh” Ineffa says. She feels her system glitching and her face warming, as if she just spent too much time under the sunlight. Which, again, is strange, because she’s sure she turned off her body-warming mode “Okay. I’ll keep that in mind. Gratitude.”
They sit together on a bench, and Ineffa takes her time to look around. A lot has changed in the Flower-Feather Clan, but many things remain the same. She remembers Lianca talking about the tribe being a place where every living being could live freely and without fear. She knows she would be proud if she could see what it became to be. And that she would love to meet Chasca.
Ineffa loved meeting Chasca.
Maybe that explains why her next words are hard to say.
“I’m leaving back to Nod-Krai in five days. The traveler is also going there, and we agreed it would be good to go together, so I could be their guide on Nasha Town.”
There were a few hypotheses on what Chasca could have said. None of them included Chasca being quiet, not even looking at Ineffa’s face. Ineffa looks down at her hands, at loss of what to think. Chasca always seems to know what to do and the right thing to say, so she was expecting that she could say something to ease the unknown feeling growing inside her.
She doesn’t see Chasca again for the next five days.
………
Chasca only knocks two times on the house’s door. She looks around as she waits, and she feels her chest warm when she notices the sharp tooth she gifted Ororon on his last birthday on his garden. He’s not there and he’s not talking with his aphids, however, so she fears he’s not home. Thus, she jumps a little where she stands when the door opens.
“Oh, hello” Ororon says. His hair looks tangled, and he’s wearing his pajamas. He opens the door wilder, and motions for Chasca to enter his home “Did you come for some vegetables?”
“No, I just wanted to talk to you. I’m sorry, did I come at a wrong time? Did I wake you up?”
“No, it’s fine, I was awake already. I was just gathering the energy to get up from my bed, so thanks for that. You’re a life saver.”
The fact that he says that with all the seriousness in the world makes Chasca smile in fondness. She sits on the couch, and notices the big amount of Flower-Feather Clan objects around with Night-Wind woven scrolls, incenses and talismans. It seems like his boyfriend stays around a lot.
“What do you want to talk about?” Ororon hands her a glass of water and sits right beside her.
“Did you hear about Ineffa? The robot from Nod-Krai that is staying around?”
“Yep, Ifa told me about her. She seems cool.”
“We have been hanging around quite a lot. More than a lot, actually. We see each other every day, and her presence becomes more and more pleasant every time I’m around her.”
And now she’s leaving and I don’t know how to deal with it.
Ororon blinks his big, mismatched eyes a few times “I’m sorry, I think I didn’t get where’s the problem.”
“Don’t you think it’s weird? Getting attached to a robot?”
“Hmm. Do you see her as an object?” Ororon asks.
“No, of course not. Not at all.”
“I don’t think it’s weird, then. Aphids liking phlogiston doesn’t mean they don’t like honey as well.”
“You don’t get it. She’s leaving for Nod-Krai tomorrow, and all those pleasant feelings are gone. I don’t know what to make about it.”
“Do you want to know what I think?”
“Of course, I do” Chasca nods “That’s why I came to you.”
“Well, I think you have the gift of understanding people’s emotions and actions, but your problem is that you don’t know your own feelings.”
Chasca pauses everything she’s doing, and she almost let her glass fall from her hands “What?”
“You like her romantically, but you don’t want to admit it to yourself. I guess you Flower-Feather Clan people are all like that” Ororon shrugs. He suddenly smiles eyes softening and little fangs poking out, as if his mind goes somewhere else “You’re a peacemaker who ignores your own feelings, just like Ifa is a doctor that doesn’t ask for help when he gets sick. He broke his wrist two months ago and he wanted to keep working, can you believe that?”
She can. And she doesn’t know why Ororon talks as if she wasn’t there, having to stop them for bickering near their tribe’s Wayob obsidian stone. She also doesn’t like that what he says is true. Her own feelings… It’s normal for her to keep them shut on the back of her head. It’s where they belong, after all.
And her true feelings for Ineffa…
“I made you upset, didn’t I?” Ororon asks. Chasca realizes she hasn’t said anything for a while “I’m truly sorry…”
“No, it’s fine” she places the glass on the table and leans in to ruffle Ororon’s hair “I guess you’re right. I don’t… Emotions are hard for me to deal with when they are my own. Studying other people doesn’t feel complicated at all.”
“But dealing with your own goes beyond that, right? When we project into other people, we can put on them whatever we want to. But when it’s about ourselves, things are not black and white. Like, Ifa doesn’t like to lose, but he’s also not against letting me win our games to make me happy when he thinks he’s not making it too obvious. And even when he doesn’t understand me, he never tells me off but instead always indulges whatever I have to say, even when he knows I’m just bullshiting him.”
Chasca takes in everything Ororon just said, taking her time to process his words. She loves to see this more deep, sensible side of his, and she’s also impressed by his ability to make everything he talks include either vegetables or Ifa, somehow. She truly doesn’t get what makes him so enamored with that guy out of all people, but to each of their own.
“I…” Chasca pauses, frowning as she muses over her next words. She remembers sitting on her living room with him and Chuychu a year ago, observing how Chuychu was so passionate about making the veterinarian confess his feelings to his best friend. She also remembers thinking he was pathetic for all that doubt and insecurity. Especially for his excuses.
Ugh, I can’t act the same way as him. But I…
“I’m afraid” she admits “That getting in touch with my feelings is going to hurt me. Especially when she’s going to another nation, with chances of never coming back again.”
“I get it. I was also afraid to confess my feelings for Ifa, and I’m sure you know he was afraid, too. And every time we’re away from each other, I keep wishing he was by my side again, because no one makes me happy like he does. But knowing that he’s out there, looking the at same sky that I am, and that he’s also thinking about me, makes every time we’re away from each other worth it.”
“So, you think I should go see Ineffa before she leaves?”
“I think that you only get to see what every seed grows up to be when you take some risks.”
………
Ineffa scans the area around the shore one last time, but she doesn’t hear or see any sights of Chasca anywhere. She frowns, and she sees herself unable to engage with the dialogue the traveler and Paimon are having as they step up on their boat to Nod-Krai. For some reason, her combat module feels very tempted to be activated.
Just as she’s about to go on board, however, she hears Chasca’s voice calling for her. Ineffa’s whole body tingles as if an electric shock roamed thought her entire system, and she automatically smiles as she turns around to face her.
“Chasca, you came.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long” Chasca says, voice kind as always, sounding just like home. If home was truly a place Ineffa could always come back to, she hopes she can come back to Chasca, too, one day “I couldn’t miss my last chance to say goodbye, could I?”
“I’m happy you didn’t. It would be… Sad, to leave without showing you my gratitude one last time. Natlan was the place I was used to call home in the past. Now, home is Nod-Krai. But, after all the time I spent here by the Flower-Feather Clan, my cognition module has started to see Natlan as home again. And that’s because of you, Chasca. I wouldn’t have regained my memories without your trust on me. And for that, I’ll be always grateful.”
“You’re being too modest” Chasca smiles “All I did was put my trust on you. You did everything else by yourself.”
Ineffa smiles back, and her memory bank takes her back to when saurian vet Ifa told her about wanting to be closer to his boyfriend all the time. She also remembers Varka’s description of missing someone. As she looks back to the boat waiting for her, and then to Chasca, she thinks her cognition can finally understand what “bittersweet” means.
“Opinion: you’re the one being too modest. I’ll never again forget the people and things that are important to me, and you’re one of them, now. Oh, I almost forgot” she says “Adieta taught me how to make flower-shaped machine components. I’m taking them as souvenirs back to Nod-Krai to the people waiting for my return, and I made one for you as well.”
Ineffa hands the mechanic flower to Chasca, making their hands touch. The flower itself enhances no attribute, nor possesses any function, but it’s cold, artificial metals contrasts well with Chasca’s warm, real skin. It feels nice, Ineffa thinks, and archives the information on her data.
“For the three people I made flower-shaped machine components, I think they suit you the most. My data research informed me about its resemblance to the vanilla planifolia, a crop once cultivated on the Flower-Feather Clan.”
According to Ineffa’s record details, humankind immortalizes cherished memories thought objects, and conveys unspoken gratitude thought the giving of gifts. And the one she made for Chasca has an extra meaning. It’s so she never…
“It’s a reminder that we met.”
Chasca walks closer until they’re a couple steps apart, and searches for something on Ineffa’s face. She seems content with what she sees, and walks a bit more closer to envelop Ineffa on a hug. Ineffa’s body warms up, but she’s sure she doesn’t activate her body-warming mode. Before she has time to think more about it, Chasca pulls away just a little bit to look at Ineffa’s face, and Ineffa finds it difficult to let her go, and do any other thing besides memorizing all of her features.
But the boat’s horn rings to announce it’s time to go, so Ineffa frows as she looks back again, to where traveler and Paimon wait for her. She looks through her entire data and memories to find something to say to the woman standing in front of her, but nothing comes to mind. When she left Natlan for the first time, Lianca was in a hurry to keep her safe. When she left Nod-Krai, she was the one in a hurry, to keep Aino and the others safe from herself. But now, it feels like neither of them are in a hurry at all.
“Thank you” Chasca says, being the first to take the necessary steps back “You have my word that I’ll never forget you.”
“I—”
“Ineffa!” Paimon cries from afar “We have to go! Nod-Krai is waiting for us!”
“You have my word, too.”
Chasca opens her mouth to say something, but she just smiles instead. Ineffa has recorded a high volume of data about her on the weeks they spent together, but its neither an analysis nor a memory that comes to mind; it’s that bittersweet feeling she felt on that late afternoon they flew together, the same hurt on her core.
Ineffa wishes she had the time to say more, but she knows she will return to Natlan again someday, and then maybe they’ll be able to talk about things they can’t right now. Ineffa’s sure of one thing: when the time comes and when her feelings get too bittersweet for her cognition to handle, she will come back to the place where she now has someone waiting for her, as well.