Song of the {{Heart}}

[Mousiemus Prime]

Carmen sat at a table in the middle of the floor. Three chairs lay empty around that very same circular table. A white mug rested on a small white saucer, filled with steaming and delicious coffee. She hummer to herself, not knowing what song it was she hummed, she just hummed it. Seh wore a pair of jeans with a white shirt with a v-neck and 3/4s sleeves. Her hat, a fidora that is black in color, sat on her head as it normally would. A colorful headscarf underneath it as well.

" Ms. Do you need more coffee?" Asked a woman who casually strolled up with a fresh pot. Carmen looked to her mug, seeing it half empty, and gave the woman a pleasent smile.

" Please." Slowly she watched with her dark eyes, as the coffee filled the mug graciously. " Thank You." Came her kind words, smiling as the Waitress walked away to continue her rounds.

[Tiff'blz]

The door bell jingled its merry little tune. One that it played often as people walked in. The girl that entered paused and looked up slowly, her movements slightly jerky, but unnoticable by others until further inspection would reveal her not so fluid movements. When one did not have muscles and tendons, but nuts and bolts.. you just didnt move as smoothly it seemed. All that aside. Long brown hair now dangled almost to her knees, each of her pigtails brushing lightly on the backs of her bare kneecaps. She registered the touch, but did not giggle because it tickled, nor did her lips curve into the slightest hint of a smile. She was not ticklish.

She looked down, her small hat flipping forward, and a dainty hand pushed it back. Her bright brown eyes scanned the crowd. Still no little girl.. Still no Project 7. Was she even in this town? Yes, that much Zodi knew. A foot stepped forward, no longer hesitating. Her tight little school girl outfit made a tug of discomfort form in the back of her head. Men sitting at a corner table stared at the seemingly young girl with a look that would have sent a chill down her spine if she was capable of such movement.

She quickly found a booth, smoothing her skirt down and sitting properly. Her back was straight to the seat, her eyes averted from the group of men that obviously had no morals. She had the apperance of a small girl. This was originally used to confuse the enemy into thinking she was harmless, now it was only an inconvenience.

"Please... Thank you." Wow.. at least someone in this place had manners. Zodi looked ahead, seeing that this woman was sitting directly in front of her. She smiled weakly and waved a hand in greeting. " Hello.." She said softly, not really knowing what to say. Her eyes wavered back to the men that were staring at her.

[Mousiemus Prime]

Carmen's eyes shifted to Zodi who had waved and greeted her softly. The older of the two smiled back and nodded her head, slowly adverting her eyes to the group of men that had a staring problem. " Hello to you, too. Would you mind if I joined you? Sitting alone in a Cafe tends to lead to you being stared out by a bunch of men who can't seem to control themselves. " Carmen spoke loud enough for the men to look at her in anger. She merely had her eyes focused on Zodi for the time being, and gave her a little smile before picking both her cup and it's saucer up.

Her walk was graceful as she came to the booth in which Zodi had settled herself in. With ease she placed the fresh coffee and the china mug gently on the table. Sliding herself at the other side of the booth she smiled to Zodi. With a gentle movement, the young woman held her hand out for the younger to take. " My name is Carmen Loris, Pleasure to meet you." She said, her words kind and welcoming.

[Tiff'blz]

Zodi let out a breath of air that she didnt know that she had been holding. She extended her hand and shook Carmen's hand softly, not squeezing for fear of hurting her. She tapped the table just as softly, watching the mug of coffee that the girl had brought with her. She turned her head slowly, looking out of the corner of her eye at the men who had thankfully, turned their heads after Carmen's reprimand. She turned thankful eyes to Carmen. She nodded slightly. "Thank you." She whispered.

"Of course I dont mind if you join.. I was actually hoping you would." She chuckled softly. " I can take care of them, but this human brain feels discomfort and embarrassment that I would rather do without." She said shrugging, still keeping her voice low. She didnt want the men to hear that she was a cyborg. She didnt want them thinking she was an oversized toy.. That thought made her close her eyes and place each hand at her temples. "I think too much." She said, wondering then, and not for the first time, who they had killed to get the brain.

" Pleasure to meet you Carmen. I am Zodi. Cyborg. Robot body, human brain.. And cursed with a body that never grows older than what.. fifteen? " She asked, plucking mockingly at her tiny skirt. " The clothes are built in.. Cant change.. I have thought about covering it up with different clothes, but then they are too bulky or dont fit because of the clothes underneath.. It is a big mess.." She said, hoping to explain her precarious position.

[. : ÷Cakey÷ : .]

Johnny walked into the store, having some trouble with the door due to leverage issues. Behind him followed a toy he had found in the street. Johnny picked it up and decided to control it for a while until it could get fixed or salvaged to help out his owner. It was the second time he was allowed to explore Dotado, and he had gone further in the same direction he had gone last time, now that he was slightly comfortable with the area. He wondered what this shop was, and now that he was in it, he knew he was required to buy something to rest the circuits in his legs. He jumped up to the counter, as the toy went to claim a few seats, near two other girls.

"I would like to purchase a...hm...small cappucino please." He opened up his front compartment, which contained a tool, a key, and some money. He immidiately sorted out the cost, including tax, and placed the amount on the table, with help from some of his movable parts inside his stomach. As soon as the cappucino came with a "That'll be a dollar eighty...huh?", he took the coffee and gingerly got off the counter.

The toy was waiting for him with a classic anime-style chatroom smile on him. "^_^," it said. Johnny laughed, and got up onto the seat. He pulled a tool out from his stomach and stood on the table, attempting to work away at the toy. Batteries and basic circuits. Memory device that probably had less than a byte on it. Oh well, it would help him out later. The toy had an annoyed face on, and muttered ">>" before it turned off. Johnny sat down and wistlessly stirred his cappucino. He couldn't drink it, could he?

[Mousiemus Prime]

Carmen looked to Johnny, the robot, and smiled softly at it before turning back to face Zodi. An interesting name, none the less. But, Carmen wasn't one to judge as it truly did drive her up the wall. Nodding her head as Zodi explain what she was Carmen chuckled softly. " I think whoever made you was slightly on the perverted side. Though it is the fashion for many, it isn't very nice to make it so you can't change. Well, if you give people a good talking to, they generally button up and leave you alone. It's not always the case however." Carmen explained, sipping at her mug of coffee casually.

" There are always those who are to arrogant, or ignorant for that matter, to understand that what you are telling them is the truth and they really are just being ridiculous." Explained Carmen, sighing after taking yet another sip of her coffee. " But, you are a first. Not once have I met a cyborg before." She said with a soft laugh at the idea.

[Tiff'blz]

Zodi nodded. "Yes, I am only one of very few. And I figured that. Perverted scientists. They were stuck in a basement somewhere in the middle of no where. I guess they needed some sort of entertainment." She said it logically, but shook her head with a sad look on her soft sculpted face. " They were cruel, and they paid for it dearly." She said softly, the image of the attack still fresh in her mind.

She turned hearing a whirring sound. Her eyes locked on a rather small and Japanese looking robot. Her head tilted to the side, listening to the workings inside of the machine. It was unlike anything that she had ever seen. It sat there, trying to fix a toy, while stirring a coffee that she was absolutely sure he wouldnt be able to drink. She cleared her throat, a completely unneccessary movement for her, but it was just to catch his attention. "Umm..Hello." She said slowly, as she just had to introduce herself to this intriguing artifact.

[. : ÷Cakey÷ : .]

Johnny's CPU chirped as he looked up. Someone had said that ther person they were talking to was a cyborg. He looked at the source, a striking girl dressed very differently and with black hair. She was talking to a girl with immense amounts of brown hair on her head and dressed in clothes that gave Johnny a "straight off the runway" feeling. She must be the robot. Johnny was a little pleased. At least he wasn't alone here.

"Hello," he said in response to her greeting. "I am Johnny." She looked extremely high-tech, considering it was a cyborg. "It is a pleasure to meet you." He bowed. He didn't know human customs very well, so he learned it from watching TV, especially a few animated series on from around 8 o clock PM to 12 on a specific channel. Although, she looked almost too realistic to be a cyborg. He couldn't really trust a snippet of conversation for that point. He sent out a radio wave forcing any machines that could talk to say "If I had peanut butter toenails, I would shave them." The radio and TV in the shop blurted out the phrase, and Johnny waited for the girl to.

[Mousiemus Prime]

Carmen looked at Johnny then to both the radio and the TV and smirked a little at their odd statement. Trying to work it over in her mind why it had happened, Carmen turned away and looked towards the windows absent mindedly. There were one of many reasons. Someone in the cafe had telepresscence(her word for technokenisis) abilities or some random hacker decided to make the tvs and radios in town say something completely stupid and off the wall.

Either way, she was leaning more towards her first option. However, the young woman said nothing as she casually sipped at the white mug with a calm look upon her face. Most would say she was made of stone. Some had said that if she were in the trenchs of WW2 she would still be sitting so calmly while drinking her coffee. Probably because she generally was swept away from reality by the warm liquid as it slid down her throat.

[Tiff'blz]

"If I had peanut butter toenails I would shave them."

Zodi paused. That was a completely ridiculous statement. Her confusion showed on her face. She looked around, hearing that she was hardly the only thing in the room that had blurted that out. Her head whipped around to look at Carmen, wondering if the girl had any idea what had made her do that, but she was sitting there drinking her coffee as if nothing had happened.

She saw the group of guys, a blank look on their faces, staring at her open mouthed and wide eyed. They all burst out laughing, slapping their hands on the table and stomping their feet, laughing until their faces turned red and tears streamed down their faces. Zodi sank down in her seat, covering her face. "What the-?" Zodi muttered. Way to make a fool of myself... And how did that happen? She asked herself, hardly considering that it could have been the fault of the robot that she had just encountered.

[. : ÷Cakey÷ : .]

"If I had peanut butter toenails I would shave them."

Johnny's head tilted to the side, and chuckled a bit at the phrase. The radio waves had to have bounced back off the walls and hit him, but sort of delayed. He could trust that she was a cyborg now, anyways. He would've apologized, but he didn't think it was necessary. They probably didn't think it was him, and so he wouldn't be in trouble if he didn't tell them. "Hm." He looked around the room, clearly aknowledging the odd occurence. "Well..."

Johnny pressed a button on the toy and it powered up. He couldn't have them suspecting him now. He made it sit down and smile. "Those men over there are clearly of low intelligence," said Johnny. "Immature, at least." Johnny realized they wouldn't be laughing if he hadn't tested it out in such a way. Hindsight always hurt him. He would have to learn to be more logical, so this wouldn't come up. It was his growing human IQ that interfered with his AIQ, ergo, his near-flawless logic.

[Mousiemus Prime]

" Well, that was certainly an unexpected event. It's clear that you didn't mean to say it. I wonder if this was an isolated incident. I'll have to ask about it later amongst some of my friends." Carmen said rather plainly. Her brown eyes fell on Johnny and his toy friend and she smirked at his comment towards the men that had been laughing at the strange occurance.

" You are quite right, my small friend. They are rather immature about things. It's a wonder you even refered to them as men. But, I do suppose my defination of a man and yours might be slightly different. As man to me, would be polite and kind to a lady no matter what she said. Some people I guess, such as those boys, lack any style, grace and prescence. It's a shame really. If they were more pleasent and personable, they could be considered intellectual people." Carmen said, looking over the rim of her mug as she sipped to see the group giving her a glare. She carefully lowered the cup and placed it delicately on the table before dabbing at the corners of her lips with a napkin.

" Boys, glaring is impolite. Many people find it simply annoying as well. Please stop." Sighed Carmen, shooting the mean a pleasent smile which suggested she really was trying to be nice about things and not merely point out who was being annoying and who was being truthful.

[Tiff'blz]

"I hate this brain. So illogical." She said slowly. "Give me one moment please?" She asked, not only Carmen, but Johnny as well. Her eyes closed and she shut down everything that did not partain to her brain. She worked at cutting off circuits that connected to her conscious. It was hard to do, since there were wires connected to every bit of available surface in that brain that was humanly possible. Consequently, the scientists were very capable, and there were over a thousand circuits to disable.

When her eyes opened and her body returned to its normal state, Zodi's eyes were a hard brown. " I will reassemble that pattern later to return to my normal self. Right now I need no such emotions." She looked up, her head jerking slightly. " Yes, that was completely involuntary. She said, her fingers tapping on the table at a faster pace than before, leaving small dents where the pads of her fingers hit. She made sure the men saw this, and knew that she was nothing to make fun of or pick on. "Low intellegence just doesnt fit, where intellegence refused to house itself. " She considered how different the men were acting and were not surprised. Angry at Carmen for her pointing out the obvious, in confused awe at Johnny, and now a little scared of Zodi. What a group they made. " So Johnny. When exactly were you manufactured?" She asked, giving Carmen a look of thanks yet again.

[. : ÷Cakey÷ : .]

"You are immature too," said Johnny to the "men", a second after Carmen did. "A man is an adult with an XY chromosome," he said. It was the truth. Hrmm...she was probably talking about a social meaning. He would have to ask Kamon. Kamon knew everything. Kamon added to Johnny's IQ every day, and Johnny was thankful for it. No one else could measure Johnny's IQ as opposed to his AIQ except Johnny, and it was definetly rising.

Zodi did an odd shutdown thing. As she was doing it, Johnny's CPU chirped, and he tilted his head to the right. When she came out of it, she asked him a question.

"3676 days ago, or 10.0712328767123287671233 years ago." Johnny did the calculations instantly, but it took him a while to recite the number. Maybe he could just do 10.071 next time. "I was made during the Gifted War, and they also..." You cannot say that, Johnny, or else they will know. However, maybe it's time to apologize. "...they also managed to put a power into me. Technokinesis, and I am afraid that I was the one that made you say that ridiculous phrase. I apologize. I merely did not believe you were a cyborg. Too realistic. Evidently, my database of general information needs to be updated. Again, I apologize." He bowed. "When were you manufactured?" He did not mention that he thought Zodi's creators were immature like the "men".

[Mousiemus Prime]

" My dear, robot friend. May I make a kind suggestion?" Carmen asked, turning her head to face him. She still held that pleasenly calm look upon her face, brown eyes never wavering from looking at Johnny's little cameras. " Don't force others to do something they wouldn't like to do. It is social incorrect, and doesn't settle well with others. Eavesdropping is also sociall unacceptable." Carmen said, her lips holding the very slightest of friendly smiles.

She meant no harm to the small robot, infact she found him fairly interesting. However, he had done a social no-no that Carmen herself found very unacceptable. So, she merely told him the truth, and in the kindest of ways. She would have also correct him on something else. That what she man by 'man' was that she meant mentality, socially, and most likely physical(*cough*hint*cough*). However, it wasn't in her to repremand him another time. She found the small plastic machine rather adorable in appearnce.

Turning her face forward she smiled a 'your welcome' to Zodi and sipped her coffee again, as if she were only half interested in the going-ons of the two who had taken her interest. Of course, Carmen was fully interesting in everything around her. Also very aware that the waitress was on her rounds of refilling coffee. When it came to Zodi and Carmen, the coffee drinking Carmen held her mug out pleasently. " Yes, a refill would be nice. Thank you." She said kindly and watched as the young waitress poured the coffee and strolled away.