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Thread: Reflections

  1. #1

    Reflections

    “You know the work day is over, right?” Boogy asked Shankari who was busily puttering around the lab. His assistant was apparently tidying up, but Boogy didn't think it could get much more tidy without making it hard to find anything. Shankari, named Shannon Kari at birth but who was determined to have a one word name like the famous sometimes do, blithely pretended not to notice.

    “Boogy, what new projects will we be working on?” Shankari asked, with a mischievous grin on her face.

    Watching her from his favorite desk chair, Boogy gave his assistant an odd look. “Umm, nothing more than we've already discussed at least twice today.”

    Shankari's grin faltered slightly and she adopted a lighter tone. “A bunch of us are going to Neuter's tonight, you should come!” She smiled down at him hopefully.

    Boogy's gaze had become distracted as he picked something up from his desk and turned it over in his hands. After a moment he said, without looking up, “Oh, go ahead, I think I'll work on the helmet... again.” He picked up another piece of the original helmet and grimaced, deep in thought.

    The young assistant frowned. She then slumped her shoulders and sighed dramatically. “Oh, well, I'm not sure I'm in the mood either.” She glanced down at him and quickly looked away, letting another small sigh escape. “Maybe I should just....” She let her voice trail away and turned away as if holding back tears. Had her boss seen her face right then he would have been shocked by the calculating look in her eyes and determined set of her mouth. She waited a moment, then cast a look over her shoulder at him. What she saw irritated her to no end.

    Boogy was still staring at the remains of that blasted helmet. He didn't even seem to notice her! Shannon stomped over to her bag and swung it up over her shoulder. Taking a deep breath and forcing down her anger she walked over to her boss and gently touched his arm.

    “I'll just leave you to it then, Rojer,” she said in as quiet and humble a tone as she could muster.

    Boogy set down the helmet pieces and looked up, the use of his first name startling him out of his reverie. Most people called him Boogy and he always found himself looking around for his mother when people called him Rojer. He shook his head to clear it and absently patted Shankari's hand.

    “Sure, see you in the morning then,” he said, his eyes straying back to the helmet. He activated his comm and began recording his plans for the recreation.

    Shankari glared at the top of Boogy's bent head. Spinning around, she allowed the noisy click clack of her very high heels to display her frustration. Not that he'd notice, and on that thought began mumbling about blind men and clumsy girls with stupid blue eyes.


    Alone, finally, Boogy looked around the lab. Timmie2000, his predator M-30 class droid, whom he affectionately called his dog, was prone on his “bed” quietly recharging in one corner of the room. In the other, his Slayerdroid, IM26E II, was performing his self diagnostics. The sound of his robotic tones were oddly comforting. Powered down, in a sitting position against the wall a few feet away, was IM26E I, warbot class, It was probably Boogy's imagination, but he'd always thought the Slayerdroid wore a haughty, self satisfied look when he turned his mechanical “gaze” on the lesser droid. He chuckled to himself. It was thoughts like this that caused his friends to give him the nickname Boogenstein, after the legendary Dr. Frankenstein from old earth lore. They teased that he thought his 'bots were alive, which, he supposed, they were in a way. They were more alive to him than most people. Well, until recently.

    Boogy's main engineering lab was in Newland City, and he spent more time there building his 'bots than he did in his luxury apartment in Jobe. Tables, desks, and drawers lined the walls, filled and covered with tools and parts of all types. Boogy stood and walked into the back room to retrieve some notes. The small room, in which he often slept, was full of shelves, stacked with everything from the modern data discs to old fashioned journals. He often preferred the hand written journals for his spur of the moment ideas and notes. As he reached for the item he wanted his eye was caught by his Mitaar on its stand in the corner.

    His hobby of tinkering around with the Mitaar and singing to himself when no one was around to listen had quickly become something more in the last few months. Boogy smiled to himself as he recalled the first complete song he'd ever written. Cajoled by his friend Tinker, he found himself singing in front of a group at one of the tables in the middle of Newland City. He blushed his way through it, but he enjoyed it a lot more than he thought he would. He had discovered music to be an effective way of unwinding from the incessant workings of his technical mind.

    Chuckling, Boogy remembered how it started when Tinker had been encouraging him to sing and play on his Mitaar, and goofing around had turned into an actual song. He'd written it as he sang it and surprised even himself as it turned into a love song. Tinker was thrilled and kept prompting him along. “And I bet she kisses you,” she'd said.


    I was just standing there when she walked in
    When I looked up and saw her there my face was all aglow
    I looked down 'cause I am mighty shy
    She just looked at me and smiled
    She walked over and I blushed more
    My insides screamed out "Just say 'Hi'"
    But my body just said “no” and smiled instead
    She took my chin and raised my head
    Oh how my ears burned
    She was the most gorgeous woman I had ever seen
    I looked in her eyes and saw her soul
    She was truly an angel
    She spoke and I was shocked
    It was the most tender voice I had ever heard
    It cut me clear through
    And it gave me courage
    As the the energy within me grew
    And as I was going to say "hello", she put a finger to my lips
    And she just said “I know” and smiled
    And with a wink she kissed me deeply



    As his friends applauded, Ana said, “There you have it, a kiss.”

    Tinker triumphantly announced, “See! I told you!”

    Boogy smiled at how encouraging his friends were. When his musician friend Shoni found out about it, she insisted on giving him free vocal and Mitaar lessons. When he tried to insist on paying her, she pulled weight as the boss' wife until he agreed. They'd had several sessions since, and Boogy found himself really enjoying it. Now Boogy blushed, recalling that it was Kizi he'd been thinking about at the time, that she was the reason his first completed and performed song was a love song..

    The day Boogy and Kizi met, Joe had added a bit of Jack to Boogy's tea, and he'd discovered what a lightweight he was. He recalled dancing with Bucke- “Who is this jive meatbag with the tea?”- and eventually passing out curled up on the floor of Reet's fireplace room while his friends were conversing around him. It was quite a source of amusement to those friends, since they took the opportunity to play a joke on him. Boogy grinned. He'd woken up and was trying to absorb reports that he'd apparently blushed in his sleep, when he noticed his feet felt weird. After removing his boots, he discovered he had two socks on one foot and none on the other. His friends whooped with laughter and it eventually came out that it had been Tinker. Whose idea it was originally remained unclear, although Avy was mentioned more than once, but he wouldn't put it past any of them. Apparently this was the milder of the ideas thrown about. Boogy, in turn, had later made a souvenir of the sock, turning it into a mask since it was a bit stretched already. Amidst jokes that they hoped he'd washed it, Boogy still pulled it out occasionally for either a laugh, to lighten the mood if things got serious, or.... Boogy blushed... as a shield of sorts if his blushing got too much out of control.

    Boogy had some great friends. He'd never been much of a people person, he was usually happy enough in his lab with his bots. But friends like Ana, Joe, Tinker, Foos, and Rusti- not to mention Tary and Ughers whose fault it was he'd met the rest- well, none of them let him hide in his lab anymore. He smiled fondly, not able to really mind much. They'd been there with him that day when he met Kizi, and were there when she'd broken up with him.

    Apparently Kizi had been the cause of the blushing during his sleep. The day of the spiked tea, she'd come right up to him asleep on the floor, sat down near him and stared at him till he awoke. That night he'd walked her home and suddenly found himself dating her. Boogy shook his head. She was a bit high handed for him. Their relationship was a bit of a blur, and given his personality he at first just floated along enjoying it. Then things began to rankle, like the fact that she never stopped calling him Rojer after he'd asked her to stop several times. She never really listened and treated him more like a toy to show off. When she marched into the fireside room in front of all his friends, ironically exactly the way they'd met, and handed him a box with his things and a letter ending it, he'd been profoundly relieved.

    However, he'd also felt a pang of disappointment. Suddenly the solace of his lab didn't seem to have the same appeal, and he'd recognized a deep feeling of loneliness he'd never identified before. Boogy smiled ruefully. But his friends were dealing with that before he had a chance to process it. Tinker, with the help of Ana and Kaylie, had made a list of questions to ask women in order to find Boogy a suitable mate. Boogy blushed again just thinking about it.

    Unbidden, her eyes suddenly filled his mind. He saw himself rushing through Borealis to meet an arrival shuttle for his boss, and suddenly colliding with someone intent on the datapad in her hands. Her sunglasses had flown off and she'd looked up at him and he'd stopped breathing. Her eyes were hypnotic. Sparkling blue, the color of notum. Boogy picked up her glasses and handed them to her trying to stammer a greeting and apology. She'd blinked, mumbled thanks, and hurried off, again staring more at her datapad than the people thronging about her.

    Boogy shook his head trying to clear it. Such a brief meeting, and yet he couldn't get her, or the picture of her eyes as they'd looked at him, out of his head. It was crazy! He was an semi-intelligent Engineer who calculated in his head exactly what his bots needed to function more efficiently, who thrived on his current challenge to broaden the possibilities of Artificial Intelligence and make his bots more life like... and here he was mooning of a girl he'd never even spoken to... Oh, what the hell. It is what it is, he thought, and rational or not, he could not change the effect bumping into this girl had had on him.

    His mind jumped forward to the day after bumping into her. Sitting in Reet's with a few of his friends, Boogy had been tinkering on his Mitaar, phrases about the mystery girl running through his head. He found himself telling his friends about her, and they were a willing audience as tried out phrases of a new song on them.

    Another couple days later, Boogy was excited to share the finished song with them. But when he walked into the fireplace room, he found Ana with a sly look on her face, and Eli and Dalonte with conspiratorial grins. Shortly after he arrived, an out of breath Kaylie rushed in, plopped down on a couch and announced that she'd been looking for Boogy everywhere! It took a bit of piecing together, but apparently they were sure they'd just met his mystery girl and had even used questions from Tinker's list to quiz her! Of course, they thought she'd suit Boogy perfectly. She'd only just left when Boogy himself arrived.

    Boogy had sat there trying to absorb events, and it took Kaylie and Ana explaining twice before it registered. His mystery girl was not only just here in Reets, but she'd moved recently to Newland. And they were pretty sure she lived in or near the same complex as his lab. Boogy shook his head in wonder. He felt deep down a bit of relief that he hadn't imagined her after all or spent all this time thinking, and even singing about, someone who didn't even exist. And she had a name! Her name was Mac. Mac. He tried the name out in his mind and then in a whisper. Mac. He smiled. It fit, he thought.

    His friends hadn't said too much more about Mac that day, because... why was that? Oh! Shankari had appeared and shaken things up a bit. Boogy shook his head. What was he going to do with his, errr..., eager assistant. Eli, now supported by Kaylie and Ana, insisted Shankari was on the make. Boogy hadn't seen it, of course. He couldn't really fathom it. He was just... Boogy... himself. Shankari was a young, wild, pretty gal, so why would she look at him? Boogy shrugged. It was quite a shock to discover not only was Eli right, but now that he knew, he suspected that her sweet nature was a mask for something else entirely. Eli had said she was worried that someone like Mac could be hurt by Shankari, and that, he would do anything to stop.

    After Shankari had arrived that evening, Ana and Kaylie wanted to know if he'd finished his latest song, reminding him that he'd come originally to play it for them. He played it, amidst his friends' silly grins and pride that they'd met her, not noticing at first his assistant's reaction. Shankari excused herself as soon as he finished singing; it was fairly obvious the song was about someone else.

    Prompted by Kaylie to make his lack of intentions clear, Boogy followed Shankari. He fumbled through an affirmation that the song was about someone else and that his feelings for her were not romantic. She'd acted sad but accepting, and he'd been so proud of himself for talking to her about it, since he was very embarrassed and rather mortified to do so. But he did it, and thought it resolved.

    But alerted now, he'd subtly watched her since then. She didn't think he noticed things, but he did. He let her think he was being his usual distracted self, absorbed in his work. She tried to get his attention in many different ways, even tried to manipulate him, and it was getting old. Boogy shrugged again. Shankari was very efficient in her work. He'd learned to count on her a lot. He'd hate to lose her. And yet... if she meant any of his friends harm... Well, he'd deal with that if he had to. Maybe one of his fellow engineers needed an assistant. Come to think of it, Foos' niece was just asking about a possible position at Boogy's lab after she finished school.

  2. #2
    -- Continued

    Boogy carefully mixed the components for the outside layer of the small helmet, and gladly let his thoughts drift back to Mac. He'd missed meeting her a second time just after his music lesson yesterday. Tinker, Kaylie and Foos listened in as he played Mac's song for his music mentor. Shortly afterwards, he'd gotten an emergency comm message that the Jobe lab was on fire. Boogy glanced at the burnt remains of the helmet damaged in the fire. He still wasn't sure what caused it, except perhaps the polymers used to make the helmet spilling and mixing with something not cleaned properly off the floor. He was stretching a bit, and he always insisted the lab was kept clinically spotless, but he had no reason to think it more than an accident. Hence why he was now working on a replacement.

    Apparently, while he was hurrying to the Jobe lab, Mac had appeared and met Tinker and company, during which time Tinker assured herself of Mac and Boogy's compatibility. Boogy was horribly embarrassed about that. He knew his friends meant well, but his imagination kept picturing a dramatic interrogation with bright lights and echoing voices being used on this young, sweet girl on his behalf. He cringed. But, he knew his friends better than that, and Tinker herself had to be one of the sweetest and gentlest people alive on Rubika.

    Boogy smirked to himself. The fact that he and Mac kept missing each other prompted a lot more response than Boogy would have expected, not being one to seek much attention. Foos just thought it rather funny while Kaylie was quite frustrated; Tinker invited them both to her slumber party hoping to get them in the same place at the same time. Boogy himself was... what was he? Eager? Anxious? Frustrated? Scared? Nervous? Ready to beat down the doors of the apartment complex, since it turned out to be the same one his lab was in?

    Boogy sighed, taking a deep relaxing breath. He carefully poured the solution into its tiny helmet shaped mold. He sang softly to himself as he completed the task and began cleaning up.


    You caught me by surprise
    With your electric blue eyes
    You caught my breath
    With your slow gentle smile
    You caught my heart
    With your deep concentration
    You caught me
    That was the beginning of a beautiful surprise
    When I was caught in the gaze of those electric blue eyes


    I can't get out of my mind
    Those electric blue eyes
    I want to be the one
    who makes you really smile
    I want to hear everything
    Your mind is busy thinking
    You consume me
    That was the beginning of a beautiful surprise
    When I was caught in the gaze of those electric blue eyes



    Boogy glanced through the plans for the helmet. Normally, in mid project he'd simply curl up in the back room and sleep here at the lab; it gave him freedom to work till he was tired and to begin work as soon as he awoke. But tonight his thoughts were too distracted. His mind would not shut up. He made a decision to go home instead to his luxury apartment in Jobe, hoping the walk would help clear his head and make him tired enough to sleep.

    Doing a last check of the lab, Boogy patted Timmie2000 on the head, said goodnight to his other bots, and turned off the light. Leaving the lab and entering the crisp evening air, he sang softly to himself. “Caught in the gaze of those electric blue eyes...”

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