"I must say, this is most unorthodox."

Ribbons voiced his discontent in a very restrained manner that did not fool Tieria. While Ribbons liked to model himself on figures such as 17th century absolutist kings and his attitude toward ruling was very much that of a tyrant, his soft spoken ways could be taken to a great extent even when he was at his angriest. Not that it was not possible to blow this cover to smithereens but it took a lot of effort. Presently, Tieria suspected that Ribbons was considerably miffed but not precisely mad.

So Tieria merely shrugged before reaching for a dainty cup of rose tea.

"Why did you even bother come up with a crazy religion in which I'm a god figure if you didn't expect me to have a say on how it's run?"

Regene hid a smile behind another dainty cup. He had quite a few, usually for himself and Tieria's use but Ribbons had seen fit to join them.

"Well, I guess there's that...but religions aren't supposed to change."

"Religions changed all the time, back when humans were coming up with them. How many branches of Christianity dropped the idea of hell over the millennia, for example?"

"But ours is meant to be a perfect religion."

Tieria rolled his eyes in a gesture Regene was very familiar with and that he had greatly missed.

"There's no such thing. Besides, what is even the point of this ban? I saw plenty of Innovator images in temples."

"But those are official images. Not designed by humans…"

"I don't see how that matters."

Regene decided it was time to chime in.

"Ribbons is afraid humans will draw porn of us if left to their own devices."

Tieria blinked. Then turned to Ribbons.

"Seriously?"

Ribbons jumped to his feet, the delicate china jingling most precariously.

"You know what depraved creatures they are! That's precisely what they'll do!"

Tieria had a moment of utter bafflement, so great he could not even speak. Ribbons was genuinely angry at this. Tieria was on the verge of chuckling but stopped himself on time, Regene, however, did not.

"Oh no, Rule 34 will be the end of us."

"It's not funny! I wish you'd take something seriously, for once."

Tieria took a deep breath.

"I don't care if humans do draw porn of me. As far as I know, they are still banned from drawing porn of you."

"It undermines my authority."

"Strip me naked and flog me while you stream it to the whole galaxy, then."

Ribbons sat down, apparently appeased.

"Now, now, let us not exaggerate."

Tieria narrowed his eyes slightly. He could tell that Ribbons had taken a bit of snark very much at face value and was even now contemplating a very naked Tieria being flogged. "You should have asked me about it but that announcement was something else. I love it when you get bossy."

"...thanks."

Regene had helped Tieria craft the announcement in which Tieria appeared in a glossier version of the outfit he wore to the human quarters, complete with golden accents and makeup to match, informing the whole world of this ever so important change. The speech was tighter than the improvised one he had had to come up on the spot and had plenty of 'we, Tieria Erde'. So it was not that surprising Ribbons found it so alluring. That was Ribbons for you.

"Which reminds me, if humans are now free to draw you then surely you will let me paint you?"

Tieria shrugged. It was somewhat amusing how Ribbons went out of his way to make it seem like Tieria could turn him down on this. Or in any other thing, for that matter.

"Sure, if you want."

Ribbons lit up.

"Great! I'll let you know when everything is ready."

What 'everything' might be, Tieria did not precisely know but his heart sank. Ribbons was very fond of painting. Over the years and years he had tried virtually every single style ever known, had accumulated more theoretical knowledge than any human could possibly mastered, as well as a firm hand at accurately depicting whatever took his fancy. None of them availed him any: whether he was experimenting with color combinations, perspective, lines, different materials, different subjects, the result was ever the same and ever depressing. A flatness pervaded it all. Tieria would be hard pressed to describe it otherwise but while art had never been at all a strong point of his, even he could tell that Ribbons's work was lacked in something fundamental.

It had the studious, belabored aspect of a product of extreme effort. In that respect, it was impressive but in all others, it was not. There were clever visual callbacks to famous and entirely obscure works of art that might have caused critics to nod along but no such critics actually existed anymore. About the only observers of Ribbons's painting were his fellow Innovators, none of which seemed to know what to make of them. Hiling professed to love them intensely but even she often could not find the right vocabulary to supply her effusive flattery.

Regene had developed the habit of pretending to puzzle over the canvas and to offer the following comment, "I get it now, it's a chicken", regardless of what it showed. Highly abstract paintings with slashes of color might, perhaps, if one were to force it, be interpreted as 'a chicken' but the rolling landscape/spacescapes and portraits could hardly ever be seen as such. That was the entire point. It annoyed Ribbons so greatly that as of late he had ceased to show the fruit of his labors to anyone. This, sadly, included Hiling who in her turn was devastated.

All this crossed Tieria's mind as he watched Ribbons walk away. Tieria made sure Ribbons was indeed gone before chiming in.

"One of these days he will draw an actual chicken. What will you say, then?"

Regene smirked most beautifully.

"'Why, Ribbons. It's a self-portrait.'"

Tieria walked into the spacious, light filled room that almost entirely empty. Only a stool standing under a skylight and a bundle of painting tools upset the emptiness.

"Take a seat, please."

Tieria did just that while Ribbons busied himself propping up a canvas and fiddling with paints. By the time and faced Tieria again, a slight frown marred his features. "Why are you dressed?"

"You didn't say this would be a nude."

"Drop the clothes."

Tieria sighed. Of course it would come to this. He just hoped Ribbons would not get distracted and then blame it on him if no actual painting was done.

But Ribbons seemed utterly absorbed. While his artistic endeavors ranged far and wide, Ribbons had a great fondness for long outdated styles. Oil painting had long ago passed away by the time Innovators came to be. It remained Ribbons's favorite, probably along the same lines as his infatuation with the 18th century.

Ribbons would stare intently at Tieria before turning back to the canvas with renewed vigor. Tieria figured he would do some research into educational methods to apply on Mileina when a clipped command brought him to a halt:

"No connecting to Veda. I want to capture your eyes' natural color."

"Ah...sorry."

No point in bringing to Ribbons's attention that 'natural color' was probably not that apt a description. Then again, what would be an apt description, Tieria was not entirely sure. He found himself focusing as closely on Ribbons as Ribbons was focusing on him.

It was Tieria's first time actually seeing Ribbons painting. Ribbons took it absurdly seriously, he even had one of those aprons Tieria had only seen in paintings and period movies, neatly arranged so as to protect his dainty clothes from splatters of paint.

But for all, Tieria was not very hopeful about the end result. It was his personal theory that Innovators simply could not produce any original art, literature, media of any kind. As for scientific development, even this did not seem something they were apt at doing. They processed information, drew inferences from apparently disparate points of data and from there extrapolated often scarily accurate predictive models. They lacked, however, the very human- perhaps exclusively human- extra factor of what could be called 'talent' but Tieria view more as creative ability.

Perhaps it was just Ribbons who lacked this and the rest were all amazing artists in the making; perhaps Ribbons actually was a great artist but his peers could not appreciate him. There was a subjective factor to all this, Tieria was very aware of it, but the lack seemed inbuilt into the existences known as 'Innovators'.

It had been a long, long time since Tieria had wondered whether there existed a manual explaining and detailing just what Innovators were, their functionalities, limitations, actual schematics that could shine a light on just what- if not who- they were. If it did exist and not been deleted somewhere along the way, it should be in Veda's deepest layers. Tieria would very much like to read it. Would it explain why their sexuality? Why it existed, at all; how precisely it operated, what its effects were on the psyche and mapped on the brain. Did they experience sexuality in roughly the same way humans did?

At first glance, one might be tempted to think so. As far as anatomy and the actual mechanics went, there was not much of a difference. Innovators had a greater endurance that was part and parcel of their overall physical fitness. Their delicate, fey looks were deceptive- deliberately so?- they were considerably smarter than humans, and that translated into greater endurance across all areas.

For all the superficial similarity, though, Tieria suspected that there were very stark differences. The most obvious being that they could not reproduce. Sex was purely pleasurable to them, sexually transmitted diseases not being a factor either. Then there was the fact that human categories of sexual identity, let alone sexual behavior, did not seem to at all apply. Homosexuality and the spectrum of queerness did, technically, exist but were not perceived as such. Perhaps because of an even more pronounced difference, their being outside of taboos such as incest.

In a very real sense, they were all siblings. Talk of 'Honorable Brother' was just part of the bizarre propaganda structure but for all practical purposes, Regene was very much Tieria's twin. This never factored in when it came to sex, Tieria himself, for all having been acclimated to human society, never felt incest to be an actual impediment of any kind.

Tieria understood human morals from the outside looking in and there were quite a few matters that he had never fully incorporated but merely comprehended, academically. Incest was one of the greatest points do departure. Tieria had tried to rationalize it as Innovators not being really related, as such, and so incest was another non-applicable category but in reality it never mattered much. Of course, his introduction to his own kind had been a cataclysm from which he had never quite recovered, it hardly afforded him the time to contemplate anything in a calm, rational manner.

Be it as it may, his Tieria had not then and never since been at all bothered by it. He knew that even if Ribbons turned out to be a most wonderful, gracious and kind Innovator, his human crew would never approve of Tieria having sex with him. And they would have been utterly freaked out at his having sex with Regene.

Ribbons, if asked, would default to his usual explanation that Innovators were just that superior to humans. It did not convince Tieria. It had more to do with their never having been socialized as humans- not entirely, at least- and not having absorbed much of what human beings ended up taking for granted.

But had Tieria and Regene been brought up as your average human twin couple, with a flair of undoubtedly unlikely purple hair, would they had ended up as they now were? Tieria suspected that they would. That no amount of human nurture could possibly fundamentally alter deeper aspects of their being.

At this point Tieria became acutely aware that Ribbons had stopped painting and was staring intently at him.

"A penny for your thoughts, Tieria."

Tieria hesitated very briefly before he sent a glimpse of what he was thinking straight into Ribbons's mind, in the form of himself and Ribbons in a human household. The image was embedded with the pertinent information so that Ribbons had context. Tieria snapped the connection almost immediately.

Ribbons's widened at this unexpected offer of intimacy. At length he spoke, having apparently forgotten all about the painting,

"Nature versus nurture, I see. I am going with 'nature' for this one."

"Yes, I thought you would."

"Or, to be more accurate, 'design'. We were designed, after all."

Tieria made sure to rivet his gaze on Ribbons.

"Designed by humans."

The answering grimace was so much like that of a kid confronted with veggies for dinner that Tieria found himself smiling.

"Well, the actual process was mostly handed by Veda."

"'All hail the grand Veda'. And I don't suppose we can surpass this design?"

"But of course! That is precisely why I decided to act in the first place. Why should we be treated as mere terminals when we are entirely self-aware?"

It was very rare for Ribbons to get so genuinely in earnest. So much so that Tieria was a bit at a loss as how to respond.

"Right. Well, you have a point there. Why do you think we were designed in such a humanlike fashion? In order to blend in better?"

Tieria was shifting the topic and hoping Ribbons would not mind. It might be a good thing to reel Ribbons into a more personal conversation- there was no avoiding using humanlike language either, 'personal' might not technically apply to them- but at the same time it made Tieria feel very wary.

"Very likely. But it has limited success as a strategy. It's true humans will not clock us as being anything else but they keep buzzing around, drawn by who they sense, at some level, are their betters."

Tieria very much doubted that was it. In fact, he was quite sure it was not.

"Or we were just designed to be 'sexy' and humans naturally gravitate toward that."

Ribbons had stepped from behind the propped canvas and now stood very close to Tieria. He still held the brush, though, it now snapped suddenly. Slivers of wood burst apart and a tendril of blood immediately formed. That, in itself, was disturbing enough but Ribbons's utter lack of reaction to it made it so much worse.

"Treating us like- like sex bots,"

A whole panorama of possibilities was suddenly revealed to Tieria. In the fraction of a second he reread much of the past. But much as this changed and whatever it actually mean and would mean in the future, Tieria had to act in the present.

He jumped from the stool and produced a band-aid from his neatly folded outfit. Tieria had picked up the habit of carrying this around lest Mileina fell.

"Hold still."

Tieria bandaged the bleeding hand. It was such a minor wound that it would heal itself with no intervention. Not much more serious than when Tieria had cut himself to show to Mileina just how fast they healed. But that was not the point. Tending to pain in such a manner was symbolic.

Tieria was still struggling for words, unsure of how to possibly weather this unexpected crisis. Normally he would simply make an overture into sex and trust that to tide them over. To do away with any need for actual emotional support. There were all sorts of reasons why Tieria was terrified of going in that particular direction. Maybe he should call for Hiling after all, let Hiling handle this- if this what Tieria thought it was- or even if it was not; surely it was not up to Tieria to help.

But Tieria knew it would never do. As to what would do, he had no idea.

Just as the silence was beginning to grind his nerves too much and he was afraid there was no getting out of it, Ribbons wrapped him in the thus far discarded uniform.

"Will you sit for me again tomorrow?"

"Sure."

"Thanks! I'll see you then."

Ribbons smiled gloriously at Tieria as he kindly escorted him to the door. Tieria nearly bolted out but Ribbons was not quite done yet and kissed him on the forehead before he finally let him go.

Tieria hurried away, the kiss like a brand, burning.

Mileina screwed her eyes tightly shut. The beam of light traveled up and down her body, a very slight humming and the ghost of a scent trailing on its wake.

"And done. See, I told you it didn't hurt."

Tieria granted her one of his most reassuring smiles before scanning a series of screens.

"Is this...like a doctor?"

"Basically, yes. It does a very basic but comprehensive checkup. Your growth parameters are well within the acceptable range, no abnormalities to register. Slight calcium deficiency, I'll have to tweak your nutrition a bit."

Mileina looked around at the impeccably white chamber that had nothing to do with what she associated with. Her notions of 'doctors' were connected to using herbs and infusions with the occasional biding of limbs when necessary. This place made her most uncomfortable and reminded her of the shots she had to take on occasion, while not exactly painful, they still made her very queasy. So she was very glad when Tieria led her away and into the lush garden.

Tieria had arranged two seats there and proceeded to place himself on one, going through the figures of the medical checkup. Mileina's vaccinations were up to date so that was a load off his mind, at any rate. Not that it was at all surprising. Ribbons was paranoid about potential infections, never mind that they could possibly touch him, so every single human in the compound had been properly vaccinated and was even on a schedule.

"Master Tieria- can I ask you a question?"

Tieria had almost forgotten Mileina was present. So caught up was him in conjuring up a detailed projection of the inner workings of her biochemistry that the actual Mileina slipped from his awareness. Her serious tone and preoccupied hesitation cut through his analysis. Tieria gestured her to sit on the other seat in order so that he could more easily establish direct eye contact.

"Do ask."

"Can you...read my mind?"

Tieria blinked. He was unsure what to expect but this was not it. But there this a good opportunity for a lesson.

"No. You are an unadulturated human and thus entirely biological. None of us can actually read your thoughts. But Mileina, there is something you must always be aware of."

She gasped, breathless.

"What-"

"Ribbons and the rest can sense your heartbeat rate, how much you are sweating, how your pupils behave, and a whole set of unintentional reactions that are almost as telling. So while they cannot read your actual thoughts, you are very transparent to them."

To us, Tieria almost said. Mileina nodded. Tieria decided to let her know that if they tried, they could even map out brain activity in real time which was as close to mind reading as an Innovator could get to a natural human. Ironically enough, the so called 'enhanced' humans like Allelujah could be interfered with at a neurological level with precious little effort. But Tieria did not want to think about that, at all, not now and preferably not ever again.

"But you can read their thoughts?"

Tieria folded his arms. How much should he let know and how would he even be able to get across?

"Somewhat. We can use what you'd call 'telepathy' but only if everyone involved wants it. I can't go rifling through Regene's thoughts at will but every now and then, without trying, I'll catch bits and pieces."

Of course, Ribbons, due to his high Veda clearance, could force this process if absolutely necessary. So could Regene. They refrained from doing so probably so as not to upset the very delicate and highly useful balance of power they had struck upon. There would no going back once this tactic was adopted. While Tieria had been afloat, entirely powerless, in a limbo of untold time- even now Tieria was very wary of checking out just how much time had been lost to him- they had had no such qualms.

They could drop barriers between their distinct emanations of selfhood but this was very rarely done. The threat of disintegration was something they all feared, to some extent, at least when extended to the Innovators as a group. Tieria had experienced it on rare instances and when linked in this manner with Regene, had been awash with a sensation of heightened euphoria that could become nothing short of addictive. All this tended to happen in the wake of intense sex sessions so that what was shared from mind to mind was both very intimate but limited in scope.

Were they to become a shared collective across all ranges of emotional report and including several layers of intellectual processes, there was no telling what would happen. Tieria supposed they would either cease to be actual individuals or end up killing one another. Or both, come to think of it.

Fortunately this was very much a hypothetical not likely to actually come to be. Unless, of course, it turned out Veda did have a sense of volition or some sort of long term programming, and deactivated and/or rebooted them. This particular fear was one that bothered Ribbons at least on occasion.

Tieria had used this function to channel that image straight into Ribbons's awareness, something he did not quite like doing but there were advantages to it. And one was a sense of heightened emotional connection that Tieria was bent on exploiting for all it was worth. A less than honest strategy but at this point, Tieria had to use whatever he could. With that said, Tieria did not want to consider, precisely, what had happened at the sitting session. Not yet, at any rate. He mused about it but he wanted to some distance from the event to properly analyze it.

"What about dreams?"

Mileina was so obviously enthralled that Tieria was vaguely amused. He always expected humans to be repulsed by Innovators in general despite the fact that his experience contradicted this. Even without the intense propaganda Mileina had received from the cradle, the human beings Tieria had interacted with had been curious, at most, about his nonhuman status. A certain fascination seemed to dominate, at first, before it settled into a tacit acceptance on its way to full integration. Then again, 'his' humans, as Tieria now thought of them, were hardly normal. The average human might be less than accepting of creatures with human DNA that were yet very much not human.

But because Innovators were so pretty- by design and according to specifications that made Tieria feel a bit queasy to even consider- humans lowered their guard around them. How to suspect such a sweet boy like Ribbons and his soft spoken manner? By the time the threat was apparent, it was far too late to do anything about it. As a certain Alejandro Corner had learned, the hard way. And on the subject of Alejandro, if Tieria were right in his suspicions, why build him a statue? Some kind of twisted hubris? A kind of elaborate joke?

"We dream as humans do, I think. Except we may share dreams if we choose and store them for further reference."

Not to mention, run programs to keep them from surfacing into actual awareness. Tieria did this regularly as he was all too prone to nightmares. His- their dreams- tended to be very clear and more like perfect recollection than the composite weirdness humans indulged in. Not to mention that Tieria's were very frequently sexual in nature which he was also not about to divulge.

Already he was considering what age appropriate approach to take in explaining sex to this child. The checkup informed him that she had years ahead before her menses started but Tieria would rather start a sexual education ahead of time. It was a matter of how to present the information in a way that would be easily understood without doing violence or causing undue stress.

This project would only cover human sexuality. Tieria had absolutely no inkling as to how to ever broach the subject of Innovator sexuality.

"Share dreams…!"

"I'm afraid it doesn't work with humans."

Innovators were, in a sense, a closed network. Within its confines information circulated freely but outside of these, it needed be doled out.

Just then a burst of green wings swooped through the air above, a cry on its wake.

"Fucking Ribbons! Fucking Ribbons! Fucking Ribbons!"

And just like it was gone. Tieria forgot all his misgivings and burst out laughing.

From the height of one of the many balconies that studded the main body of the compound, Ribbons and Regene watched Tieria entertaining Mileina in the garden.

"Ah, Tieria sure loves his human pets."

Regene nodded at this.

"He is kind. Cannot help being kind, despite everything."

It was not a dig at Ribbons but it still irked him a bit.

"I suppose he is the nicest of us all."

"Not 'nicest', 'best'. That's what Tieria is."

Ribbons folded his arms, almost defensively.

"Well, I fear he isn't entirely happy."

Implicit, not entirely happy despite all the trouble he, Ribbons Almark, went to. And right below that, this very imperfect unhappiness as a proof of Regene's failure.

"Tieria was not built to bask in happiness. But as long as he has someone weaker that he can protect, he will hang in there."

"And that is why no harm will ever come to the little human girl?"

"Yes."

Or, if Ribbons harmed her, Regene would forgo his endorsement of Pax Ribbons. Ribbons had something more to ask when the creaking voice fluttered their way.

"Fucking Ribbons! Fucking Ribbons! Fucking Ribbons!"

Regene chuckled even as Ribbons drew his brow into a frown.

"I really wish you hadn't taught that parrot to scream that."

"I told you already, that was all it would learn."

"Only because you kept repeating the line to it!"

As if aware it was being discussed, the parrot alighted on Regene's finger. Its plumage was the exact same shade of green as Ribbons's hair and for that reason was supposed to be a gift to Ribbons. Until Regene went full troll, that is.

"I supposed you guys really are thin skinned. Hiling threw a fit at poor 'Fucking Ribbons'."

As Regene predicted, Ribbons shrugged dismissively.

"I guess it's just a bird. No point in getting upset."

And on cue, the parrot turned to Ribbons and chimed,

"Fucking Ribbons!"