158 Investigating Figurines

Altair was playing with things she shouldn't be playing with. Although playing isn't quite the right word for exactly what she was doing though.

It had been a few days since she came into the overly decorated entertainment room. She had been drowning herself in various Mecha shows everyday to pass the time and keep herself away from her negative thoughts. It had been mostly effective, until she wanted to try something with her Magic.

As a result, she found herself lying on her stomach on the floor with a Mecha figure in her hands. She hadn't taken this one from the bedroom, but from one of the shelves in the main area instead. She didn't want to disturb the battlefield that had been setup in the bedroom. It just didn't feel right to her and she didn't think Marissa would appreciate her ruining the work of art. She also didn't know how much time it had taken to set it up in the first place, thus she grabbed a Mecha figure from the main room to investigate instead.

The Mecha figure in her hand was made of some smooth material that she couldn't identify. It was painted red and gold, with some hints of green in places as well. It was one of the Stelox Mechas from Infinite Glasteel that she had seen a few days ago. She had chosen it because it was one of those lithe Mechas and because it had moving parts as well.

Currently, she had her Thread Magic going with some of the smallest threads she could make that were coming out of one of her palms and moving into the insides of the figure. She was moving some of its limbs at the same time, trying to figure out what the inside was like. At this point, she just wanted any hints as to how Mechas worked. She didn't care if it was accurate at all. Her curiosity had just gotten the better of her and she could no longer satisfy herself with just watching shows.

She knew that the figure would probably not be accurate at all towards what a real Mecha was like. But that didn't matter to her much. She had other plans for doing this anyway and she wanted to know if the insides of these figures would better animate what she had planned.

That didn't mean it was all fun though. She had noticed that, ever since the first day in the room, she was getting attacked with loneliness the moment she let her guard down. Her thoughts would wander to those she felt close to and had known, along with people she didn't believe she was close to.

The most surprising person who continued to come to her mind was Sarah Marnithok, and that shocked her. Not even Maxwell came to her mind more than her and she didn't even blame him that much for his choice to curse her. Stacey also came to her mind several times, along with Donel and Allie. Those few didn't bother her though.

Sure, she felt guilty for not returning to the Marnithok family. After all, she felt that she owed them a lot for teaching her as much as they had so far. However, she was pretty sure she would die soon. Since that was the case, it was better to not continue to burden them as she wouldn't be able to repay her debt to their family before then. That was the main reason why she had even decided to gamble on the offer that was given to her anyway.

Still it was incredibly distracting and she really detested that feeling. She had found that it never bothered her when she was watching entertaining shows though. When she had first picked up the Mecha figure and started to investigate it a day ago, it had bothered her. However, since she found out how to play music on the Holodisplay, she was able to use the music in order to help her focus on her task.

At that moment, she was listening to the soundtrack to Centurian Pack, a Mecha show she had seen a couple days ago. Most of its music was a mixture of light and heavy beats that encouraged a person to move in some way. She found it far more interesting than the soft tunes she heard at the Lothan party.

Altair had chosen a figure that had moving parts that way her threads would be able to feel around the insides of the figure. The figures that couldn't be moved at all were mostly useless for her idea because she would need to damage them to check their insides. Thus, she picked that one.

She was singularly focused on her task when the door opened with a hiss and Din walked in carrying a box. Din frowned at her when she noticed what Altair was doing. She knew that her Lady's things weren't meant to be touched by anyone unless they were cleaning the room, which they hadn't had the option to do so in the last few days because Altair was here. They were, technically, not allowed to clean a room when someone was using it.

Altair looked up at Din while being completely unaware of those things. She wasn't damaging it as she was being extra careful with the figure. She had no idea it was a collector's figure or that it even had the kind of value that it had.

Din cleared her throat as Altair looked at her with a blank stare. "Dear Guest," Din said while holding the box out. "Some more clothes have arrived for you. Now you don't have to keep wearing just your pajama's that were prepared as last minute clothing for you."

Altair stood to her feet and gingerly placed the figure on the table next to her as she did so. She had worn the same clothing for several days now and it bugged her to wear them again after getting out of the bath in the morning. It made her feel like cleaning herself was pointless, even though she enjoyed the process very much.

Still, she hadn't expected this consideration from Din.

She had started to come too really like Din over the last several days. While the woman had a very no-nonsense attitude, she still managed to tell it like it was. She reminded Altair about Donel in a lot of ways. She even suspected that if the two ever met that they would make a good couple. She was even tempted to try and get them together. However she didn't think that would ever happen.

Altair took the box and looked inside it. The clothes that had been obtained for her were all very colorful from what she could tell at a glance. The top of the box had two dresses that were folded neatly next to each other and Altair found that she couldn't wait to change out of her clothes already.

She looked at Din with a thankful smile and said, "Thank you, Din."

Din was slightly taken aback by the sudden word of thanks. She was just doing her job and she didn't need thanks. It was just to be expected of her to do these kinds of things. Thus, she said, "Dear Guest, you need not thank the help. It is our job and we would do our job with or without any thanks."

Altair's smile didn't fade one bit as she stubbornly said, "If I want to thank you, then I will. It doesn't matter if it's your job or not. So, thank you, Din."

Din closed her eyes for a brief moment before she opened them again. A warm light passed through them as she said, "You are very welcome, Dear Guest." She then bowed respectfully before she turned to walk out of the room as her work never ended when there were people staying at the vacation home.

"Din," Altair said with a slightly more serious expression, "when will Marissa return?" She was curious as she hadn't heard anything about it in a few days and she hadn't seen her either. She figured that she would show up soon to take her to… wherever she was supposed to go next. She mostly wanted to know so she could carefully pick the shows she wanted to watch until the time for her to go.

After all, the last thing she wanted was to be forced to stop watching one of them in the middle of it and never being able to see the whole show.

Din paused in her tracks and turned back towards Altair as her training dictated. She then calmly stated, "The Lady is currently receiving punishment from her father. She will be busy for at least two more months so we shouldn't expect her at any point before then."

Altair's eyes widened slightly at hearing that. She didn't expect to be left alone for so long. Then again, Marissa was part of the royal family so her being so busy wasn't that much of a surprise to her. In fact, it was kind of expected now that Altair considered it.

She had no idea what the royal family did exactly, so she could only assume it was something important. So she replied with a simple, "Oh" and didn't stop Din again as she left the room.

Instead, she went to the bedroom to change out of her multiple day-old clothing that she had been wearing. Even though she had worn them for a few days, she still felt a bit disgusting at wearing them for so long.

She left the music on, which seemed to echo through the bedroom and bathroom, and went to clean herself while taking out a simple light blue dress from the box to wear.