Jester was so, so fucking quiet.
Stealth was not her strong suit, nor were surprises, but this was important.
She loomed over Medusa, fast asleep, and gently gently gently so so gently uncoupled her faceplate and backed away from the bed. She took it to her table and set it down, her workspace illuminated by her dim phone light as she picked up a tiny screwdriver and got to work.
By all accounts it was a simple procedure, just take out the old chip and put in the new chip. This didn't stop Jester from sweating through the entire thing, hands shaking as she delicately replaced the component and reassembled the faceplate. Carried it back to the bunk and slotted it into Medusa's head.
Her eyes flicked open.
"Jester? What're you-"
She blinked and sat up, placing her hand to her cold metal jaw.
"Jester. Jester Jester Jester Jester-"
She spent a moment cycling through vocal settings, exploring the capabilities of the new chip.
"Jester, what the fuck?"
The voice she settled on was still rather monotone. Jester found that curious, but whatever, wasn't her choice to make.
"Surprise!" She said, beaming.
"Jester you should have asked me before doing this."
"If I asked you would have insisted you were fine with the old chip, even though we both know you weren't." Jester said, arms crossed. "I kept it anyway, we can swap it right back."
Medusa settled back into her bunk, rolled to face the wall.
"...I don't want to swap it back. It's just- It's complicated. Okay? I like it, I do."
Jester sat beside her and placed a hand on her back.
"So why's it complicated?" She asked.
"I don't know. It's a step."
"Steps are good."
"Steps invite opinions." Medusa grumbled. "A robot being a robot is one thing, a robot taking steps to pretend to be human is another."
"But you are human."
"For years I haven't been. The robot voice is detached, it's safe. People assume the mask is on purpose if you don't act like you want to take it off."
"We can put the robot voice back, if you need it."
Medusa sniffled, which was new. Non-word vocalizations used to come out as unintelligible tones.
"I don't want the robot voice." She sobbed. "I want to take the mask off so bad. I want a face and a body and if I let myself want them I don't know if I can handle not having them."
"It's okay, we can figure it out together. I've got your back every step of the way."
Medusa reached behind her and took her hand, pulling it close.
"It's not going to be easy. Or fast. And you are not surprising me with more parts you bought yourself, that isn't- I don't want to put that on you, and I don't want that hanging over me. This is a one-time thing."
"Yeah, totally." Jester said, nodding. "No more gifts. But this one is good?"
"Yes, it's good. Come back to bed."
As far as Jester could tell, if most people cared that Medusa had a slightly less robotic affect they weren't drawing attention to it. Benefits of scaring the shit out of everyone, she guessed.
The only one she knew had an opinion on it was Scáthach, because she was Medusa's partner and also scary and thus had no issue bringing it up.
With her, not Dusa.
"Uh, is her voice different? I hadn't-"
"Don't play dumb, clown. I'm trying to be nice here." She said, not sounding at all nice. "I know you know her deal, I know you did this, somehow."
"...Swapped the new chip in while she was sleeping."
Scáthach grunted, whether approvingly or disapprovingly she couldn't really tell.
"It's close enough to her voice. And she can sing, she was singing along with the radio on our way back from the last mission. She couldn't do that before."
"Y-Yeah, I guess the old chip wouldn't-"
"No, before before. Tone deaf, sounded like dogshit. Now? Perfect. It's different. Better, but different."
"Oh." Jester said. What was she supposed to say to that?
Another ambiguous grunt.
"Yeah. She's happy. You did good."
"Tha-"
"But. If you fuck this up, if you get her out of her shell and she gets hurt because of it-"
Jester nodded solemnly. "You'll kill me with laser beams."
"I will strap you to the heatsink of my rifle and let you fry as I kill other people with laser beams."
"Christ."
Amused grunt.
"Good talk, kid. Don't fuck up."
