Nathan split up from Ryland going into his assigned dorm room. To his surprise his roommate Danalar wasn’t there yet.
There were two beds, one of them was significantly longer, likely to accommodate a Tzari, so Nathan picked the other bed, finding an outlet by the bed’s head. He then dropped his other bags haphazardly around, pulling out a vibrating alarm clock, plugging it, and programming it for east coast time.
The door to the room soon opened and Danalar stepped through, it took Nathan a moment to notice, the Tzari had already put down his bag and approached him, his cat-like eyes were dilated and round.
Nathan turned around, and Danalar spoke, but he couldn’t understand. “I saw you but a moment downstairs, you escaped like a little kiswat, and we did not get acquainted.”
“Sorry, I’m deaf.” Nathan said, slipping the alarm clock under his pillow before turning to face Danalar fully with a bright smile on his face, “My name is Nathan!”
Danalar looked at him with a tilted head, cat-like ears folded.
The big staff on Danalar’s back lit up, sparks dancing within its orb, “English Definition: Adjective, lacking the power of hearing or having impaired hearing.”
“I am Danalar, son of Neetarin of Clan Vinek, do you understand?”
Nathan only seems to catch the tail end of that, shaking his head. “You got a phone? You could type it out?”
Normally, Nathan could understand almost half of what was said through lip reading and what his hearing aids could amplify loud enough for him but the Tzari tusks got in the way of seeing clear lip movements.He shook his head. “You got a phone? You could type it out?”
Bardiche buzzed with energy, “Seeking Solution… Solution: Holographic display activated. Try speaking now, Sir.” As Bardiche spoke this, holographic subtitles appeared in the air between them, angled so Nathan could read what was spoken.
This was definitely cooler than texting!
So Danalar repeated his introduction, his words appearing in a different color to the AI’s. “I am Danalar, son of Neetarin of Clan Vinek,” He gave a bow, “It is a pleasure to meet you, Nathan.”
“Nice to meet you too!” Nathan gave a bow back, “is your staff… talking? Also, holograms are cool. I’m supposed to get glasses that do that from the school but I’m not sure when!” Nathan winced internally, he knew he was probably rambling a bit too loud but it was hard to sense his own volume.
“Greetings Sir or Madam, this unit is Bardiche, I am indeed an artificial intelligence and a polearm.”
“Sir, please! And that’s so cool. And Da- wait… aren’t full names kinda intimate for tzari? Would your nickname be Nalar? Anyways, did you make Bardiche?” He hoped figuring out the nickname would balance out his likely atrocious pronunciation.
Nalar’s ears perked up in surprise. “Indeed, Nalar would be more appropriate, and yes I salvaged his core from a destroyed ship and programmed him, created his current platform,” He says, “You know of Tzari culture?”
Nathan’s cheeks heated up a little, “Not a whole lot but I think alien cultures are cool. I know more about Venusians because I have a really good Venusian friend.”
“I have had encounters with Venusians they were… Interesting characters.” Danalar answered, “It is a pleasure to meet someone with interest in other worlds, many humans can be closed to such due to my species’ actions.”
“Well, it’s not the fault of the culture and all the individual people what the government and armies did. Just like wars between countries on Earth.”
Danalar smiled, “Well, it is a pleasure to meet you,” he offered a hand, seemingly to shake.
Nathan shook his hand, still smiling brightly, “so how long have you been on Earth?”
To his surprise, Danalar bent and brought Nathan’s hand to his lips, kissing it softly. He then let it go, a smirk appearing on his lips. He said something but Nathan missed it, his brain overheating too much to try and read subtitles or lips.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Nathan asked.
“I have been on this planet for four of your years, I came as an apprentice armorer with my people,” Danalar repeated.
“Ah so since the war pretty much? Guess you like it here since you’re still here?” Nathan asked, still bright red with a tingly feeling on the back of his hand. Was that flirting? Was he being flirted with?? By a hot alien???
“Well, many of my people could not escape and were stranded, but I do love this chaotic little planet, the inhabitants are quite charming,” He said with a grin.
“Do you want to go home?” Nathan couldn’t imagine going to war and being trapped lightyears away from his family… How hard it must have been for them.
“I do not know,” Danalar said with a shrug, “I have family here, my sister you would call us fraternal twins in your language.”
“Oh cool! I have four sisters! Two older, two younger.” Nathan’s expression soured saying that. The ‘two younger’ being slightly hesitant. Had, not have. He reminded himself.
Danalar frowned. “Speaking of family made you sad, I can see that, but why?”
“Well I said two younger but one of them is… she’s gone.”
Danalar nodded, putting a hand on Nathan’s shoulder, “I am sorry, may she rest among your ancestors.”
Nathan smiled sadly, “Thanks.”
“So if you are here does this mean you wish to be a Hero?” Danalar asked.
“It would be cool but I’m actually here cause someone is hunting down those of us with these things” he tapped his meteor fragment, a red, mostly circular gem embedded in his forehead, “Ravenhold is a safe place for us.”
“I am sorry to hear, if any dare come to hurt you then Bardiche and I shall assist in your defense,” Danalar said.
“Thank you!”
“I cannot provide a threat assessment from lack of information, please be careful sir,” Bardiche answered.
Nathan laughed at Bardiche’s words, “No one knows a whole lot about the threat, just that they are probably a meteor child as well.”
“Bardiche?” Danalar asked.
“Researching… Meteor Children: A recent type of metahuman created from the exposure to exotic matter from the Asteroid Iapetus.”
“Thank you Bardiche.”
Nathan giggled at the interaction, “Ooo we’re on Wikipedia already?”
“Bardiche assists me when I do not know certain things about Earth,” Danalar explained, “So you are one of these children and this is why you have…” he scratched his forehead.
“Yep! My buddy Ryland is in this class as well!”
“Was this the one you were with?” He asked, “You came and took food and escaped like a little kiswat.”
“Yeah! Ryland’s not a huge fan of crowds and a big group of new people who don’t know ASL isn’t exactly the most fun for me either so we swiped some pizza and took his dog Callie out back to let her run around.”
“He has a dog?” Danalar asked, flinching a little, “They are not always friendly to my kind,”
“Aww, Callie’s a good girl, though. Very well behaved.”
“That is good to hear,” Danalar says with a smile. He opens his bag and starts unpacking.
Nathan smiles and begins unpacking as well, he doesn’t have a lot, just one suitcase that’s not even full size, and he haphazardly shoves everything away without folding, “I’m going to see how open the showers are.” He says, gathering up some toiletries and clothes.
“Noted,” Danalar answered, “I should finish things and see to bathing as well.”
Nathan dashed downstairs, he quickly checked his phone and saw Nathan’s message, seeing Svar and his new Naga-like friend made him laugh. He texted back, telling Svar about his Tzari roommate and the funky polearm that came with its own subtitles.
Thankfully for Nathan and other trans students, the bathrooms were mixed gender —so Nathan didn’t have to gauge people’s reaction if he went into the ‘wrong’ bathroom— but split into eight different small enclosed rooms for maximum privacy.
When he was done, Nathan put on an old bleach-stained t-shirt and sweatpants and went back upstairs. There he found Danalar sitting on his bed with a box of tools and Bardiche’s chassis open, Nalar tinkering with him. Being so late and his hair still damp, Nathan didn’t put his hearing aids back on.
“Welcome back, Sir” Bardiche called, “Careful Sir, it tickles!”
“You cannot be tickled, Bardiche, you are a machine,” Danalar reminded him.
“My sensors are picking a strange sensation which I ascribe as tickling from my research.”
Nathan laughed, “I don’t know Nalar, if Bardiche says it tickles I’d believe him!”
Danalar smirked, slightly shaking his head, “Well, I believe I am about done, would you keep Bardiche company while I see to matters of hygiene?”
“Sure thing!”
Danalar passed him the polearm before departing, and Nathan held it for a moment. It was so light, he’d expected it to be heavy and unbalanced, but a counterweight at the bottom of the shaft balanced out Bardiche’s baseball-sized-AI core.
“Can I swing you a little?” Nathan asked.
“Sir, do be careful.”
Nathan slowly moved Bardiche about, getting a feel for him. “You’re so cool!”
“Erroneous, my temperature is currently within operational range.”
Nathan laughed, “I mean awesome.”
“Cool, added as a synonym for awesome.”
Nathan sat down and propped Bardiche against his nightstand. “You okay like this?”
“I am.”
“So Bardiche, Danalar told me to keep you company…” Nathan tapped his lips, “Ooh, do you know how to play video games?”
“I cannot say I have had the opportunity,” Bardiche says, “Researching Video Games…” There was a brief pause, “Video games found and acquired by chronological order, further download will be necessary.”
“I bet we could run Pong on you… or Tetris… Or Doom, I bet you can run Doom, everything runs Doom!” Nathan joked.
Bardiche’s holographic display expanded to show the opening screen of Doom. “Doom, released April 1995, considered a seminal title in the first-person shooter category of games.”
Nathan applauded. “Amazing! Try playing it.”
“Play it? If you insist, Sir.”
Bardiche began playing, evidently controlling the game in some way Nathan couldn’t see, only to struggle with the first enemy.
Nathan laughed, “you’re an AI how are you so bad at this.”
“This function is not within my standard operating procedure,” Bardiche answered seriously.
“I wonder if you’d be better at something like Tetris, that’s just a thinking game or like online chess, you do get on the Internet right? The Earth Internet where you search things up?”
“This platform is equipped with what you call ‘Wifi'”
“Sweeeeet try those instead?” Nathan lounged on his bed, watching Bardiche play old-school arcade games like Tetris, Pac-man, or puzzle-bobble, doing much better. He cheered on the AI whenever he would win.
Sometime later Danalar came back wearing human boxer shorts and a tank top which exposed the bone structure of his chest armor plates. He gave a look to Bardiche and Nathan.
“What is happening here?”
“Introducing Bardiche to the glory of video games! He’s already beat my Tetris high score!” Nathan said, fake pouting, remembering old days spent at the arcade, his mother could only spare a few quarters at a time so he’d learned to get good and make them last as long as possible.
“Some of these are quite difficult, such as the Doom, this game however is simpler for me as it is a question of understanding and predicting patterns,” Bardiche explained.
“Well enjoy yourself then,” Danalar says, sitting down on the bed.
“Do you like video games?” Nathan asks Danalar
“I admit I did not spend much time playing them” Danalar answered, “I had other preoccupations and entertainment.”
“Like what?”
“Getting to know the locals, intimately,” he answered with a suggestive grin.
“Sir, please is this appropriate?” Bardiche protested, “You are to share a room for the foreseeable future.”
Nathan blushed bright red, turning away from Danalar. “I think it’s time for bed now good night.” He said hurriedly. He checked his vibrating alarm once more and stuck it under his pillow before plugging his phone in near the top end of his bed as well and laying down.
Danalar took Bardiche and set him up by the bed. “Let’s set you up for charging,” he takes out the cord, its smart head adapted itself to fit the local sockets. “Entering Sleep Mode, goodnight Sirs.”
Danalar gets ready for bed himself.
Nathan manages to look over in time to catch the subtitles and smiled, “Goodnight Bardiche”
“May your rest be peaceful,” Danalar wished.
“That’s a nice goodnight wish.”
“It is traditional among my kind,”
Nathan smiled, the light going off.
Ravenhold Academy 