Morning. The first day of November. Darius woke up as usual, and after waking up Ida and carefully brushing her hair out, he went to start on breakfast preparations.
Yesterday had been Halloween. Nobody came to the Underwing for candy, but apparently it was a big thing on the upper levels of the ship. Cleo, Courtney, Sawyer and Ned had dressed up in goofy outfits and eaten candy in their own little party. Joey - he didn't like being called Joseph - had gone to the Legion's party, where he'd broken up with them for good.
As for Ida, she'd buried herself in work same as ever. When Courtney had tried to convince her to dress up, Ida had snapped at her with several choice words that Darius wasn't allowed to repeat. He'd tried once, and Courtney had told him to never do so again.
Eventually, Ida had grabbed a splat of ketchup and smeared in on her face, screaming "See? Now I'm a person who's shot herself in the head! Happy?"
The others hadn't thought it was very funny, so Darius had no idea how to respond. Without knowing what else to do, he'd grabbed a damp cloth and carefully cleaned Ida's face so the ketchup wouldn't make a bigger mess.
After Ida had left, Courtney chuckled and commented on how cute it was that Ida, despite trying to act so grown-up, still let Darius clean her face for her.
"Is that abnormal?" he asked, frowning slightly.
"Usually people clean their own faces," Courtney had replied with a giggle. "Sorry. I still forget you're less than a month old."
Darius didn't know what to think of that. Yes, it had been scarcely a week since he got his Miracle and gained a sort of 'soul' but if he dug through his memories, he could remember things from last year, and the year before that. He remembered the colourful string of swear words Ida had said when Achilles first came on the scene. He remembered the last election, and how she'd been annoyed at the results.
So how old was Darius in truth? He wasn't quite sure. Deciphering what had once been mere bits and converting them into proper memories was harder than he'd thought it would be. Maybe he was overwhelmed at all the extra functions he had now. Emotions were strange.
The only thing he could say for sure was that he liked it when Ida smiled. A real smile, not one of her sarcastic smirks.
In pursuit of seeing another smile, he thought about what she'd like for breakfast. Bacon perhaps? No, HUNT3R hadn't brought any back for some time. In fact, they were out of Ida's favourite perishables. Then...he'd have to come up with something else. Use flour to thicken the plant milk and make a porridge perhaps? Yes, that sounded good.
Joey and Courtney were awake when Darius got to the kitchen, so he figured he'd just make a big pot for everyone. Even when the others woke up later, reheating it would be a simple endeavor.
Now where were the oats?
As he worked, Darius overheard Joey and Courtney talking behind him.
"So how did Achilles take it?" she asked, pouring herself a glass of orange juice.
"Not well," Joey replied with a sigh. "He's still convinced you're evil."
Courtney snorted.
"I did get to see Louise, though. I kind of left early, so I didn't get to see other people as much as I would have liked, but I don't think I could have stayed much longer."
"Fair."
"Oh, you might be interested in knowing that I met Ben." Joey looked at Courtney as he grabbed his own glass of juice.
"Ben? Ben who?"
"The Legion's benefactor."
"Oh. That scam artist. So he actually exists?"
"Well, he showed up in a cowboy costume."
"Wow. Wish I'd been there to see it. Did you get any hints as to his identity or motives?"
"Not really. I got kicked out pretty quickly."
"Darn. Part of me wonders if Ben's fanning the flames of Achilles' paranoia."
"I couldn't say either way."
"Who is this?" Darius asked, leaving the porridge to cook on its own for a bit.
"Ben Farley. He finances the Legion," Courtney answered. "No idea who he is or what his motives are, though."
"I could try tracing him," Darius replied. "If there's one thing I'm good at, it'd be tracking online activity."
"Okay, but we're not even sure Ben's his real name," Courtney said with a sigh. "All we know is he sends money to the Legion."
"Where's the Legion?"
"I don't actually know anymore. I think they moved their HQ after they booted me?"
"No, like, can I find an online connection to the Legion? I could use that as a baseline to track Ben. It might take a bit, though."
"Oh. That's relatively simple then," Courtney replied. "You probably have access to my banking info anyway. I got paid by Ben a few times, so there'd be a connection there."
"Understood." Darius grinned as he started stirring the porridge again. He ignored the rest of the world to start digging through the web.
Sure enough, Ben was fake. But the money was real. Where had that come from? Whoever had moved it had hid their tracks very well. Darius found it fun to try chasing it down. Maybe he could do more of that in the future.
"Darius!" A slap to his posterior brought Darius back to reality. Or, the physical reality at least. When he glanced down, Ida was glaring up at him.
"Hello, Ida. Sorry, I was trying to track down the Legion's benefactor."
"Who gives a shit? If you're gonna do that kind of stuff, at least respond when someone calls you. Those two thought you'd broken or something." Ida jammed a thumb towards Courtney and Joey, who looked relieved to see Darius back.
"Oh. Sorry. I didn't have enough processing power to chase leads, make porridge and listen to you at the same time. I'll have to figure out this whole parallel processes thing."
"Stupid bot," Ida growled as she rolled her eyes.
"Sorry, Ida. Were you worried?"
"No shit moron!"
"Okay, Ida," Courtney said calmly, "you don't have to insult him so much. He made a mistake, and he's apologized. Let's apologize to him and move on."
Ida glared at Courtney.
"Hey, Ida, what fruit do you want with your porridge?" Darius asked, glancing at the counter. He didn't really mind if Ida yelled at him. She didn't mean anything bad by it. The way Courtney had talked though, it seemed like their relationship wasn't the norm.
"Wait, Darius," Courtney said. "She needs to apologize."
"For what?"
"Insulting you. Didn't that bother you, being called a moron like that?"
"Not really. That's just how Ida is."
"That doesn't make it right. Come on, Ida. Apologize to Darius."
Ida glared at Courtney one more time before stomping off to her private wing.
"Porridge should be ready in ten minutes," Darius called. "If you have no other preferences, I'm putting strawberries and blueberries in it."
Ida held a thumbs-up over her head as she slammed the door.
"Look, I know she's a kid, but you can't let her get away with that," Courtney said softly.
"Get away with what?"
"Insulting you and refusing to apologize?" Joey said, raising an eyebrow.
"But she meant nothing bad by it."
"She could also stand to clean up her language," Courtney added with a sigh. "With Odin as a parent figure, though, I guess we should be glad she hasn't turned out worse."
Odin. That was the mastermind of the Underwing. Darius had no memory of him, but everyone else talked about him so he must be working behind the scenes somewhere.
"Do you know how old Ida is, Darius?" Joey asked. "She looks like she can't be more than six I think."
"I have no idea," Darius said with a shrug. "Ida is Ida. She's been here for as long as I can remember."
"So a week?" Courtney asked with a laugh.
"More than that. I'm currently working on deciphering the old data in the server and converting it to memories. It's taking longer than I thought, though I do remember events from about two years ago."
"Well, if you ever feel like she's bothering you, say so. You're allowed to speak up and have your own feelings," Courtney said with a gentle smile.
Darius frowned slightly. How could he have his own feelings when the concept was still so new to him?
He turned back to his porridge, carefully replaying the conversation in his mind in the hopes that he'd find some new insight into himself.
