notthatkindoforion

Good day, Tendi.

I have two questions when you are at liberty to discuss them: one professional, one personal.

Um, sure! Of course. What's up, Thrawn?

Thank you.

I am in the process of gathering a warden consensus on placing a fabrication lab in the Maintenance bay - primarily for the recycling of waste products and refurbishing them into other uses. Wood, plastics, and metals chiefly. We could construct a modeling and build screen that could be made easily accessible to the rest of the ship.

Would this be of any use to you as the head warden in Cybernetic Maintenance?

Sooo a replicator? It could be potentially useful. How complex are the things it can make? Are we talking prefabbed parts or raw materials? Something in between? I know Starfleet replicators can't handle complex materials like Dilithium crystals, but it can do most parts we need for starship repair and maintenance purposes.

Ship repair is precisely my aim for this replicator. The complexity would be up to the specifications on the Admiral request, but I anticipate nothing much larger than about the size of one of our garbage bins here, and nothing so complex that a 1/16th drill bit could not handle.

I am also asking because I do not know the rate at which your department and others are throwing away otherwise useful material that can be recycled and put back to work.

Mmmm, so no electronic parts then? [Takes a bit more than a screwdriver to put together a motor or motherboard.]

I make sure we strip everything we can use if we have to scrap a project or break down a prototype once it's outlived its usefulness. Unless it's something that needs to be disposed of as biomedical waste, of course. [Which happens sometimes, when you're dealing with machines and computers connected to living tissue.]

So our waste output isn't huge, but we still wind up with scrap and burnt-out components and the like. We'd contribute what we can?

Adding electronics may require more expertise than I am currently available to give. But if you wish to contribute, I am certain the Admiral can make it happen.

Would you have use for it as a tool as well?

If he's willing to consider technology from my world while building it, he could make it programmable. Then, theoretically, anyone with enough comprehensive knowledge on how an object is constructed could program it to produce that object. It would... have to be something that inmates wouldn't have easy, unsupervised access to for obvious reasons.

[Being an inmate doesn't preclude someone from knowing how to program a weapon, for example.]

But even if it's only able to make simpler objects, it could certainly be useful! I'm thinking structural elements, casings, synthetic skins for prosthetics, that kind of thing!

I was planning on placing it in the Maintenance bay and allowing it to be accessible via warden key.

All very good ideas.

Let me know if you need any details about replicators or anything like that? I'm sure I can dig up some technical documents.

You, um, said there was something personal, too?

Thank you. I will take whatever you can gather.

Yes.

[he hesitates. It's part of an assignment from Florian, but the whole idea of asking is frustratingly opaque and awful]

Do you find me odd?

Um [Tendi's not sure what she'd expected the question to be, but it wasn't that.]

I... guess that depends on what you mean by "odd"? Keeping my eye that I don't know any other- [that awkward moment when she remembers she doesn't even know what Thrawn's race is called] -people from your culture, so I can't judge by that metric.

So, um, I guess I'd have to ask in what context?

My warden believes my graduation hinges on making me likable, sociable, and politically astute. He regularly assigns me tasks: asking others what they find strange or off-putting about me so I can course-correct is one of them.

Thank you. That helps. [She's being genuine - knowing where this is coming from helps a lot in putting her thoughts in order in a way that might be useful.]

Well... let me start by saying all my favorite people are kind of odd, especially back home. I'm pretty odd. I don't think it's a bad thing to be different from what people expect? But when you don't experience the world the way the people around you do, it can make things... difficult.

[To say the least. She thinks for a moment longer.]

It worries and upsets me when you don't take care of yourself. I don't know whether you can't take care of yourself in those moments, or if you just don't think it's important, and don't understand that it's distressing for the people who care about you to see you sacrifice your health like that.

I... think sometimes you don't consider how other people think or feel at all. Which- I know that's not easy for everyone! It's okay to struggle with other people's perspectives. But I'd... I don't think it's a bad idea to try. Sometimes it feels like, um- [Please don't be mad?] Like you think your perspective is the correct one, simply because it's yours, and nothing will make you consider anything else in that moment.

Thank you. I was unaware that your feelings ran so deeply.

I have no wish to upset or worry you; I ask, in the future, that you are to refer back to this conversation when I do. I will not be angry.

Wanna know a secret?

My feelings are deep, and a lot, like... all the time. It's part of what makes me odd. [That's... not really a secret to anybody slightly less oblivious than Thrawn, honestly.]

I'll remember that. I didn't think you were trying to upset me, for the record, but it... it matters a lot to me that my friends are looked after, especially when things are bad. Otherwise I can't really help but worry.

That sounds exhausting.

[he says, with some sympathy. Thrawn has no interest in feeling things as deeply as Tendi, let alone constantly]

I endeavor to look after myself in most ways. This conversation could lead to graduation, for example.

I mean, I'm mostly used to it? But... sometimes, yeah. [Sometimes, like when it feels more like her emotions are driving and she's in the backseat. But that... almost never happens anymore. It's fine. She's fine.]

I'm glad you are. I don't actually like worrying, even if I do it a lot. [It's a joke, but only sort of.]

What are you going to do, once you graduate?

I will stay here, to procure a deal from the Admiral.

Then I will return and unite my fleets, as I had intended before all this.

Edited 2025-01-04 20:21 (UTC)

Mmm. So that's another good reason to try to learn how to understand people, and how they might think or feel differently than you. If you're going to be responsible for your own inmate some day, I mean.

And I will have their file, which will help set expectations and goals.

Oh, sure, I bet files do help, but you can't learn everything about a person through paperwork, you know?

[...you do know that, right Thrawn?]

No.

Sometimes you must also supplement what you know via their art.

You-

Sorry, what?

[Well that's completely derailed her. What the fuck are you talking about, Thrawn?]

I learn best by observing art..

If you wish for a demonstration, show me your cabin, please.

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