Parting Gift

Curie

"Log three hundred and seventy five. Day fifteen of my reconnaissance research into mating rituals of the indigenous fauna across ze Commonwealth. I have made a most exciting discovery as..." The auditorial recording drifted away as a rustling in the underbrush drew her attention. There was very little of the original flora to provide adequate habitat for animals, but some still attempted to camouflage themselves amongst desiccated trees and even the wreckage of automobiles. She gave a seminar on the preferences of bloatflies to swarm most around high noon due to their natural coloring blending in with the pigments of the grass. It was held in the Dugout Inn at Diamond City where three people attended, two of which seemed to suffer a catatonic state upon their table. Still, it was a rousing success compared to her other symposiums.

Curie decreased the height of her body, automating servos that...no, she was supposed to call them legs. Her legs bent until the knee suckered into the mud, adding to the stains blanketing her lab coat. She attempted to increase magnification upon whatever was rustling in the underbrush by shoving her head deeper into the weeds.

"'ello? If you are a species that is native to ze area I would very much like to speak with you."

"Um," a voice that wasn't hiding in the brush spoke behind her. "I'm probably going to regret asking this, but are you Curie?"

She tried to swivel her third eye stalk around but found it uncooperative. Oh right, humans only came with two placed upon the front of their face plate. A curious design flaw perhaps she could one day improve upon. Placing both hands upon the ground, Curie turned to look up at a human. He appeared to be in that stage between adolescence and adulthood that caused splotchy hair growth upon the lower jaw and an insistence upon not being referred to as a child any longer.

"We, I am Curie. Designation Contagions Vulnerability Robotic Infirmary Engineer."

"Uh, right, it had all that written down here too..." the not-adult human spoke, gesturing to a slip of paper in its pincher.

"You have need of me? A question? Have you brought me a piece of Mirelurk Queen liver?"

"Nooo..." he shook his head vigorously, "no, god I...no! I'm supposed to, um...Can I ask you something?"

Curie's lips perked up in what she considered a display of contentment to ease the subject. Humans preferred to call it a smile. "Naturally, it is how we learn, no?"

His right eye decreased in size by half while the left increased. Gesturing to her cranium, her asked, "Why is there a bucket on your head?"

"Oh," she touched her hat, "because it provides enough adequate protection against ze dangers of the Commonwealth and can also double as storage." To display her findings, she lifted up the bucket revealing a pile of stimpacks stuffed on the top of her head.

"That makes sense, I guess, sort of in a way I'll figure out later."

Curie slipped the bucket back in place and clapped her hands, "Wonderful. It has been a delight speaking with you. I am so glad we could come to an understanding for science." She dropped back down to her knees, trying to prod into the shuffling brush.

The young man reached out and snagged the edge of her lab coat, "No, wait, that's not why I'm here - to ask you about the bucket hat. I'm supposed to give you this." He released his grip to unearth a small package from out of a deflated bag upon his upper torso area.

"You are giving to me a box?" she picked it out of his hands and inspected the design, "Oh, how delightful! I can store some things in it, or -- if I grow weary -- use it as a seat!"

"It's a gift, not from me, I'm just delivering it. You're supposed to open it and see what's inside. You know, like a present." His eyes narrowed again, causing a prickling sensation to rise along the back of her neck.

"Of course, a gift - something given willingly to a person without anticipation of payment." Curie smiled up at him, and after a few beats he tried to return it. "So, I should be opening it then."

"It's what everyone else has done," the man said.

"Ah, yes. Let me see the best way to uncover the secret..." she spoke, twisting the box backwards and forwards, rattling whatever was inside.

The young man reached forward, as if to take it away from her, "There's this string on the outside you have to..." His words faltered as both string and wrapping unraveled. "How did you do that?"

"A simple matter, there was a weak point upon the fifth node where the braid failed to twist into..." Curie swallowed, that same feeling rising in her stomach. She warned her to listen to it, to trust it. 'Not everyone's accepting of synths, Curie. Best to try and blend in for now.' Blinking her orbital sensors rapidly, Curie smiled, "I untied it. And now I...open ze rest of the box to see what is inside?"

He nodded along with her uncertain words as she did just that. Her head cocked to the side, almost banging the bottom of the bucket into the courier's nose. Curie removed a bag full of holotapes and a sheet of repurposed paper. She began to read off the paper uncovering a series of instructions, "'Beneath my old workbench at Sanctuary you'll find a player for these. They contain every ounce of data my Pip-Boy recorded across the Commonwealth as well as the location where I stored all the lab equipment swiped from the Institute. Use it in good health.'"

A coolant line must have ruptured as water dribbled from her eye. An avalanche of emotion percolated inside of her, some grateful and happy, others darker that panged against her synth heart. "Oh, zis is so unexpected. How do I thank her? She gave me so much already, freedom from my vault, 'zis body."

"Your body?" the courier asked, trying to inch away.

But Curie grabbed onto him, her hands pressing the bag of holotapes into his arms as she shook it vigorously, "Thank you ever so much for bringing me this. It is more than I could have hoped for. Perhaps one day I can repay your kindness."

"That's, um, you know, you're welcome. Weird as a day I've had, this could have gone so much worse. At least you didn't try to shoot me."

Curie gasped, "I would never shoot you. The over abundance of violence in 'zis world is heartbreaking."

That drew a greater smile to the courier's face, the glow stirring something hormonal inside Curie's new body. Her own cheeks raised even higher, causing a light rash to break out across the young man's face. As she was about to reach out and take his temperature, the grass below her shook.

"Ah! Wonderful!" Curie wadded the holotapes into her own pack, and dropped to her knees.

"What was that?" the courier asked, rising up on his toes to look over her shoulder.

"It is the animal I have been tracking for three days. I wish to study it."

"Oh? Is it a radstag fawn, or a baby mole rat?"

"No," Curie twisted her head, and smiled back at him, "It is a full grown yao guai."

The feral roar ripped through the grass, revealing a glint of teeth.