serialskiller | SAIL IC Inbox

"Then don't stop. Though maybe start at the beginning? So I can appreciate the whole story. I'll let you know if the drones spot anything we need to act on."

It manages a small smile, faint and fleeting, as it moves from lying down to sitting. "And if your voice gets tired, I can read to you, instead."

Sarge hesitates, then smiles back, kind of shy. "If you want. Sure. I didn't get too far into this one." He flicks the electronic pages back, and starts again: "She saw the knight in the mirror at sunset. He road alone down a road along a river. Where the black cloak he wore parted over his surcoat, she glimpsed towers of gold."

The story is one of towers: one in a happy kingdom with a wedding that might not be what it seems, one with a woman locked away with a mirror and a loom, one with a dragon, and one by the sea with a girl and her mother. The three disparate stories weave together in unexpected ways. Sarge, who's been having trouble turning words on a page into images in his head, actually finds himself hamming it up a little for Murderbot. Everyone gets slightly different voices and accents. He puts more tone into the feelings of people who don't exist than he usually manages for his own voice.

He gets about a third of the way through, to when one of the characters found and tamed the dragon in its tower, before he has to put it down for a minute and stretch his legs out.

It waits for him to pause before it speaks up, clearly caught up in the story.

"If you always read like this, I'm going to start asking for bedtime stories before I recharge. Or maybe you ought to be reading to Fio. She was sharing story books with me not too long ago, including one about a mouse who dances ballet. She wanted to teach me ballet, too."

"I haven't ever read... to someone before," Sarge says, looking kind of shyly pleased, a little bit. "I... don't think I haven't anyway. If I have, I don't remember it." Maybe that's the kind of skill you retain even if you don't know where it came from, like fighting. "It's nice, though. Pleasant."

Maybe even fun, but he's still working out what feels like "fun" exactly.

He gets up and stretches a little, then drifts to the counter for some water, hoping one of the ghosts anticipates his need. "I can keep going if you want. I just need something to drink, I think." He hasn't talked this much... pretty much ever. "Are you going to learn ballet? From Fio?"

"I don't think I'm going to be good at ballet." But that phrasing makes its answer clear, a bit of a smile growing on its face despite itself. "It makes her happy, to have someone to teach, though."

It looks up at Sarge. "You could join us for lessons."

That sounds... cute. Not just the idea of Rin dancing ballet (he does have a very clear picture of what ballet looks like, in his head; interesting), but the idea of a kid liking to teach, too. Sarge knows that feeling.

He finds himself smiling a little, back, and then collecting both glasses that the ghost delivers. One is clearly for Rin, so he leans down a little and offers it to it. "Sure, if Fio's okay with it. I know there's some kind of dance I know how to do. Maybe it'll be that."

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