“That’s… probably my fault?” Nova said to this… human turned birddogfish. He could make assumptions about some possible inner turmoil and how such a piecemeal body represented that. But what good would that accomplish?
“Maybe it means you’re the adaptable type?” he offered instead. That was Matriarch’s intent behind building him in the first place.
"I am not sure! This body is clearly meaningful to you, and it is a body that is compatible with Forlas! Maybe you have a close relationship with an RKS Chimera in your own world? Or perhaps you identify with their qualities? It is definitely an outcome that relates specifically to your soul, and not to any other soul here, however! I am certain of that."
Gladion's thoughts spun. He'd let everything else distract him from the fact there was a Null here (or,
another Null now) which felt like a massive oversight in retrospect, but there had been a lot going on...
Okay. There were other worlds (what a concept, but hell it was the sort of unscientific that spiritual travel between them was at least) where things were more or less the same. That clearly included his given it probably couldn't be one of the three he'd seen directly before. This Null couldn't be "A Hazel" or it would recognize him. Probably. He had been lurking back before his 'configuration' rendered him unrecognizable but she'd still have probably had a good guess given everything, and he'd also like to think he'd be able to recognize her personality, which he didn't. They would be the first or second Null of their world, then. (Which also meant those two in his world would probably turn out fine
somehow, unlikely as it seemed, which was a weight of his back.) He'd seen them a couple of times, but they would never stand a chance of recognizing him. Unless he fucked up and said as much. They also shouldn't know the name Gladion, barring something happening with him, Hazel and the other Nulls in his future. (Which wasn't implausible, really, but... that thought was odd and uncomfortable. It would require someone to tie him back to his past, and meant someone
here would be tying him back too, a crack in what could've otherwise been a perfect chance to detatch himself from his past.) The old "Mohn is a common Seafolk surname" probably wouldn't fool them in light of the strong evidence in favour of him being part of one very particular group of Mohns, though. That was far too dangerous territory.
He dug his helmet into his own neck again trying to look at the other Null, before correcting himself and moving his body to face them. "I don't think... I... Maybe."
All three of those reasons could fit me, I guess. "I just didn't expect it to be... um, 'compatible with Forlas' or whatever. It's not like... It's just..." He sighed. "I don't know what I'm getting at," he lied.
He felt... exposed. This had turned from a chance to escape his past to being tied
dangerously closely to it very,
very fucking quickly.
"If nothing else, it's at least reasurring I won't be the only... err...
RKS Chimera."
That name was bitter on his tongue. That was the common name for them? That fucking sucked. Faba's shitty-ass fucking garbage idea wasn't part of the original plan and it certainly didn't deserve to be the name for them all. But using it conceded no information on his own connection to the species, at least. Type: Null was an internal codename.