Synth

“I’m certain you can just message people, right?” TO asked as Tham leaned against the side of the ship. “You don’t have to wait around here.”

“I might as well.” Tham said, “I mean, some people may not have their communicators on them, right?”

“Who doesn’t carry a communicator with them at all times?” TO said, their ears going parallel to the ground. Tham frowned as they eyed their ears, began to say something, then stopped and chuckled.

“I was gonna say that you don’t have to take that tone with me, but you didn’t really take a ‘tone’ now, did you?” He shook his head, “You don’t gotta flatten your ears at me!”

TO blinked, stared at TO for a moment, then couldn’t help it as their ears perked up and their eyes widened. “You… you read my ears!”

Tham huffed and turned away, “Well, some shit is easy, you know.” He muttered, “Like when you’re angry, or you’re sad, or you’re happy.” They glanced at TO, “when they flatten out, when then go parallel to the ground, I feel like you’re irritated, or sarcastic, or just kinda done.”

With a low, clicking hum, TO considered this. They had never really thought about describing the movement of their ears, to offer an interpretation in words for what the movements meant. They were so reflexive to TO, and so inherently understood that even trying was difficult. “I suppose?” They said after a few moments, “I mean, It could be sarcasm, I suppose, or irritation, or maybe exasperation?”

“How do you tell the difference?” Tham asked, frowning.

“How do I tell the difference between you frowning because you’re angry, frowning because you’re sad, or frowning because you’re concerned?” TO asked. They paused, “Well, to be fair, there are certain tells that I’ve been made aware of in a general sense. The movement of eye ridges, along with the shape of the eyes, and tensing of the facial and lip muscles all apparently work together.” They glanced at Tham, “For example, I’m pretty sure your relaxed facial muscles, open mouth, raised brows and wide eyes are a clear sign of surprise.”

Tham’s colouring deepened as they schooled their expression into something more neutral. “So you can do that, but-“

“I’ve learned that.” TO said as they gestured to their bracelet, “The helmet I wear will analyze facial expressions of known species, and give me the meaning. It just so happens that the combination of mouth, brows, eyes, and facial muscles are very common. I got used to a few things.” They shrugged, “Of course, I have trouble picking up subtle expressions, as I’m sure you would have trouble picking up on subtle movements of my ears. I mean, If I was speaking… Synth speak, I doubt you’d be able to take my ear movements and link them to the words to give the needed meaning to what I was trying to say.”

“…. Your language does that?” Tham asked, “How?”

TO shrugged, “Again, I’m just used to it. I wouldn’t be able to teach it, I don’t think.” They gestured to their ears, “I can’t stop it either. This is all involuntary. Even thought I’m talking Common now, there’s subtle movements to my ears that would match with the similar sentiment in synth speak.

As they spoke Tham watched TO’s ears all the more closely, frowning, their brows knit in concentration. After a moment, their eyes widened once more in surprise.

“Fuck.” He said, “I never noticed that.” He blinked, then widened his eyes again, “Wait. That’s why you’re so certain about the lying thing!”

“Lying thing?”

“How you say that you can tell if someone is lying so long as you’re face to face with them.”

TO Nodded, “Yes, the ears make a specific movement if one of us is lying about something.”

Tham let out a low hiss, “No wonder you lot don’t say a lot when you’re here.” He said, “Even the few that came before you, they wouldn’t say a word for ages. Eventually they did though.”

“Right… the ones that came before me…” TO frowned, “they… all went to Apoikia, right?” Tham nodded, “I’m surprised they all agreed to it.”

“Well… I’m not.” Tham said, “I didn’t know the details back then, but back when Jason was around, he said he had a contact among the synths, and that some synths weren’t really… normal synths.” He shrugged, “They were synths who might not want to serve King Decon, ones who were different than the others, and who would appreciate the ability to get away and live free. Once Jason set up operations here more permenantly, that was one of the big things he wanted to do: to help synths that weren’t Norm-. I mean…” He frowned, trying to pick his words carefully.

“Not normal synths is fine.” TO said, “DH, GiDi, Avery and I always said we were strange.”

Tham shrugged, “Well, you’re more normal to me than ‘normal’ synths, but anyway, sure. ‘Strange’ synths who might not want to serve King Decon. So, his contact - who ended up being Flit- would make it so that these odd synths came here. Sometimes they came to the planet itself, sometimes they went to one of the local moons, but we’d do what we could to get them here, and get them off the planet and to Apoikia.” He shrugged, “After we convinced them to eat and drink, of course.”

“Well, that explains all the missing synths.” TO said.

“Yeah. They weren’t always strange though.” Tham said “We’d get a warning when a strange synth was coming. The ones who took Jason… they weren’t strange.” His eyes narrowed, “And I suppose the one that killed him wasn’t strange either.” He sighed, then shook his head, “Anyway… All I meant to say is that yeah, no wonder you lot don’t talk a lot when you’re ‘captured’. If we could pick up on the ear movement that tells us you’re lying, that could make things problematic.”

“It could.” TO said.

“… Hey, show me what it looks like when you lie”

TO frowned, “Why?” They asked,

“So I know in the future. You know, so I know when you’re lying to me, or when any other synth-“

“Chilacian.”

“-is lying to me.”

TO frowned, “You picked up on the ear movements so far, I think you can pick up on that.”

“Oh come on.” Tham said, “it would be good, right? Then I’d know for myself if you’re lying or not.”

TO’s eyes narrowed, “I think it’d be best if I could do that to you!” They snapped, “Though, I guess really I’d need to know when you’re hiding stuff; like that failsafe.”

Tham’s face darkened again, and they looked away, “Look…. I’m sorry.” He muttered, “We made what we thought was the best decision at the time, and for what it’s worth, Pearla already tore a strip outta me.”

“… I’m more angry at Vik.” TO said after a moment of silence.

“Because they programmed it?” Tham asked.

“Because they hurt DH.”

Tham sighed, “If it helps, Vik’s pretty upset too.” They said, “He was really starting to get along with DH, and he misses them.”

“And we’re both still angery at GiDi too.” TO said, “Probably… both of us are more hurt about that than we are about you and Vik.” They shrugged, “GiDi’s family, they shouldn’t have kept that from us.”

Of course, Tham was almost family too, more or less. GiDi was Family. Pearla was GiDi’s mate, and they all liked Pearla well enough, so she was family too. given that the blood relation between Pearla and THam was so important to her, it was hard to say that Tham was then not family. Still, they weren’t going to tell him that just yet.

“Look, I got nothing like that.” He said, “Not that I know if anyway. You can ask Pholi later if you want. Apparently, there’s certain tells that people have which can signal if they’re lying or not, but I have no idea if I do, or what it is. But If I did, or if there was some kind of universal ‘I’m lying’ flag for Nagarajins, then I’d tell you.”

TO sighed, then looked at Tham straight on so he could see both ears. “It’s absolutly vital that you stay here and talk to every single person whose been delivering stuff to the ship. It won’t do to just send a message to them.” They gave tham a look, their ears flattening once more, “Did you get the way my ears moved then?”

Tham sighed, “I don’t have much else to do.” They said, “I might as well make sure everyone knows they can take some time off and spend it with friends and family.”

*Shouldn’t you be spending time with your family?* The words were right on the tip of TO’s tongue, but they stopped them from tumbling out. Of course, Tham’s family was Pearla, and she was with GiDi. So, just like To couldn’t spend time with GiDI, Tham couldn’t spend time with Pearla. They let a sign fall from their lips as they looked over the Nagarajin. Family, yes, but TO still didn’t really want to tell him that.

“Look…” They said, trying to think of something to do, some way to make things easier for Tham. Their eyes landed on the sling that held their injured arm, “When’s the last time you had your arm checked?”

“Ah, a few days ago.” He admitted.

“Well… come on.” TO said as they headed towards the tunnel, “I’m going to go get DH, whose in the dorms with Goretta. You can get her, or them to check your arm and see if you still need that sling.” They frowned, “Besides, there’s someone in the dorms with a bad infection on their arm. they had to get a chunk removed today, and I dont’ think it’d be great if the same had to happen to you. So, best to get it checked.”

“It doesn’t hurt more than normal though.” Tham said. When He glanced at TO though, he saw how their ears were once more flat to the ground. He sighed, took out his communicator, and sent off a quick message before falling in line behind TO.

“Good.” To said, their ears perking up slightly, “Best to have to checked just to be sure. There’s a lot going on tomorrow, and if you can make good use of your arm, then that’ll help us a lot. More. If you can, of if it’s infected, then it’s best to get that checked now, before it gets worse.

“Yes *mom*.” Tham sighed.

“… Yonis.” TO said.

“What?”

“A Chilacian parent is a Yonis.” they said. They glanced back at Tham, “Words like ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ imply a gender. We don’t have one.”

“I know. It’s a joke.” Tham said. They chuckled And shook their head again, “Fine, whatever. IS there a word for a *yonis* that’s particularly overprotective?”

“Not that I know of.”

Tham gave an exaggerated sigh, and somehow TO knew that if his ears moved as TO’s did, they’d be perfectly parallel to the ground “Ah,” he said, “Shame.”