The Starchild

“Our last companion has long been a part of AnaChronicles for a long time, but thanks to her reclusive nature she successfully avoided the spotlight outside a few focus episodes. I am talking of course, about the secretive custodian of the time crystal nestled deep withing the underbelly of castle Halrock. Tirelessly tinkering away down below to make sure the castle glides smoothly across the sea of time to deliver our latest group of heroes safely to their next adventure. Most of those intrepid heroes never even realized the castle does not in fact have a will of it’s own or is managed by an AI.”

The picture of a robed figure appeared, standing in front of a glowing crystal surrounded by conduits and cables. Most of her face was hidden in the shadow of her hood and a single slender hand was the only part of her body not hidden by the voluminous silver robe.

“ The ancestors of this noble recluse have long dwelled among the stars as living proof that any sufficiently analysed magic is indistinguishable from science. And they have long since overcome such antiquated notions like loneliness.

But this one was always a bit peculiar. Why else would she decide to leave the Arcology between the stars in a fit of youthful folly to explore some backwater planet in person instead of observing the primitive civilisation from orbit? But maybe it was a blessing in disguise that her initial naiveite and the resulting theft of her ship left the girl stranded there.

Back home nobody really needed a pitful girl who flunked her quantum physics in grade school, but here she found friends that counted on her. Even if some of those friends only knew her as a voice on the PA system, she had genuine companions. And now, after decades studying human bonding behaviour she is finally ready to venture out for a ..field test. ”

“Please welcome: the Starchild”

The alien hefted a glass cylinder in her hand, testing it’s weight before pulling back her arm to hurl it into a large screen.

She watched the resulting shower of sparks and glass, but like the three times she had done this before she could not find any irregularities. If this was a computer simulation it was certainly a good one. Explosions like that were messy business with lots of physics happening very fast. And she couldn’t find any of the shortcuts a programmer might use to simplify the necessary calculations. There was no preset break pattern for the glass. No pieces of glass tumbling through the air to fast or too slow or in weird directions.

That wasn’t conclusive evidence of course, but it was a date point. The box hanging around her neck was ample proof that the showrunners had some kind of brain-to-circuit-interface. If this was a virtual environment and her real body was floating in a tank somewhere the starchild had a few theories on how it might be done. So she was going with that theory for now. If this WASN’T a virtual environment, then the showrunners had access to technology even Star Trek fans would consider as “too advanced”.

On second thought. Star Trek had it’s share of godlike entities.

And those also often had nothing better to do than squander their vast power on silly games.

Ok, so this was basically a bad Star Trek episode.

Being **** into a harem wasn’t great. But it was a step up from some kind of Deathmatch.

And CrowsDagger ( real name: Jeff Sherwood ) didn’t strike her as the type to **** the position of master. He did mention that he worked out that one time, so hopefully he was easy on the eyes too.

And was she actually considering this?

Was she really THAT **** for a date?

When would her subconcious get the frigging hint, that she and relationships didn’t mix?! Or at least that romance wasn’t a priority right now!?

The door appeared.

After a moments consideration the Starchild pulled her hood back up. It would make for a more dramatic introduction probably.

The robed figure stepped out of the fog and made her way slowly down the stairs, before pulling her hood back to reveal ..an elf. Well she was probably meant o be an alien but her delicate features wouldn’t have looked out of place on the cover of a fantasy novel. Her skin was very fair, not the pasty white of someone who spends to much time in the dark, but a smooth ivory. Her eyes were defintiely the Starchilds most striking feature, they were almost unnaturally large and the same pale green as her hair. And they were green from corner to corner. She had an iris of sorts but that was just a circle of slightly paler green around her pupil.

And - Jeff belatedly realized, he had to look up a bit to meet her eyes. In fact the Starchild looked as if she had been stretched ever so slightly, with that long neck, narrow face and high forehead of hers. Not enough to look bizarre but it certainly added to the mild inhuman air she gave off.

While Jeff was taking in his newest companion, she was studying him in return her head cocked slighty to the side. And he evidently passed muster, because her hands came up to draw him into a hug. The gesture was very slow and deliberate, giving Jeff plenty of time to shy away if he had been so inclined.

The body beneath the robe felt very skinny as he returned the hug – almost alarmingly so. The embrace lasted only a few moments before she gently extricated herself. “It is nice to see you, too.” Jeff ventured, but only got a wink and a gentle punch to the forearm in return before the last companion walked away to take a seat beside the Soldier.