It had been a very long time since Pylo had entertained passengers.

In fact it had been a very long time since anyone but port workers and Pylo herself had been inside Tunie.

But she tried to be polite and act as an impromptu guide to the passages and hulls of her best friend. It was kind of awkward really.

“So uh, that’s a ossiplast colony. Tunie uses them to repair, reinforce and grow the hull supports of her skeleton.”

"So basically like the osteoblasts we have. Only bigger?"

[https://i.imgur.com/Rztwph5.png]

Pylo peered a bit harder at Aleph to try and determine, then shrugged and nodded, it looked vaguely like it was adjacent to the right meaning.

Aleph was wide eyed and staring at the little growths with their grasping maws along one length of Tunie’s support beams. Apparently the rapid blood flow to the cheeks was going to be a consistent thing whenever she heard pylo talk. Weird kid.

Omega tilted her head then paused as a group of motiles flip-climbed along the bulkhead towards the little encrusted ossiplasts.

Plump and full of feedstock and fresh cells the small crowd of them rolled over with one end settling over the open apertures of the ossiplasts and then began feeding them.

“As you can see Ossiplast colonies are dependent on regularly scheduled deliveries of nutrients and catalysts from the motile swarms- Excuse me?”

Aleph had started laughing and pointing at one.

Omega had quickly started to as well.

Quarti just seemed bemused by the reaction and shook her head.

Pylo faced them for a while.

Aleph finally was able to get control of herself.

“S-sorry, just the way you describe it all and the way they look like... like it’s just... whew oh terra... It’s like” she just shook her head and could not manage to control the giggles and wheezing.

Pylo actually was growing a bit worried and checked in privately with Quarti.

“Are they going to be alright? I thought we checked the air mix, and even brought one of your ‘scrubbers’ as a backup”

Quarti smirked out at her from the clear membraned and nodded reassuringly.

“They are just young and amused by a coincidental similarity. Best to move on...”

Pylo shrugged and continued her regular duties, apparently what was routine for her was so fascinating for Aleph and Omega that they insisted on coming every ‘shift’ after they woke up and finished their own weird canner duties.

But if Pylo had only had to explain what they were looking at then it was less work for her. She nodded to Quarti who shoved off of the interior of the membrane to reach one of the control sticks and guide the walker along with her.

Omega and Aleph seemed to be slowly calming down now that whatever they found so funny about Tunie’s skeletal repair system was passing out of view.

Although as they moved along pressed against the inside of the membrane from its motion they still occasionally burst into laughter just from looking at each other. Or facial expressions one would make to the other.

Pylo did not really get it but apparently if she started talking/describing anything it would just make it worse so she quietly waited for them to calm down while they made their way to one of the water reservoirs.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Oh hey! Is that a pipe?! Like an actual tube for conveying fluid and air? Not some weird snake or worm or gut bit?! Normal machinery?!”

Aleph was pressed against the membrane again to peer out at pylo as she started spooling up cabling.

“Yeah? I’m not going to have you three dying because all your stupid boxes break down randomly for no good reason. Tunie’s got plenty of water. So I’ll just run this to one of our water splitters scrub it through a air filter and give you a easy line to as much oxygen as you could ever want.”

Omega shivered but seemed to be at least getting used to Pylo’s accent after five ‘shifts’ of her giving guided tours.

“That’s really quite thoughtful of you... However I’ve been meaning to ask, don’t you breath? Like at all? How does that even work?”

Pylo looked at them then nodded a bit, but slowly.

“I drink a little oxygen here and there, It’s good for my connective tissues and I take some supplements to keep my cellular respiration going strong. But I don’t have to guzzle it every moment like you three do”

Apparently the way she said that was very funny indeed because aleph could not stop laughing and soon both Omega and Aleph were flushed with blood running through their faces and gasping for breath.

Quarti had failed to explain the idea behind the face blood thing to Pylo last time she asked. It was something almost like debt of trade honor? But not as serious/catastrophic.

Very confusing.

Whatever she would let them laugh it out (and gasp distressingly for air while doing it) as Pylo continued in silence on the tour/tag along. Just a ship’s crew dragging pipelines all along tunie’s hallways to set up a more secure supply of ‘air’ for her passengers.

And getting laughed at because apparently her accent was really really funny to them.

Pylo was feeling a little hurt actually.

“You know what, I’m tired of this, you three are very mean about my pronunciation being so ‘lewd’ ! So I’m going to fix it.”

That seemed to get their attention but apparently the cascade of humor was just not quite ending. Although Quarti looked and tasted a bit worried.

“Pylo... what are you going to do-”

She did not get a chance to respond because pylo spoke first, she locked down on all the bits that would have normally lit up when she spoke, flipping and inverting nuances while preserving the factual abstracts.

“THERE IS THIS LESS FUNNY FOR YOU?!”

Quarti flinched.

Aleph seized up and her eyes rolled back in her head, limbs and back spasming.

Omega made a face and doubled over before acid and globs of slime spewed out of her mouth and into the orb.

Oh drat, maybe that was the wrong thing to have done.

Quarti looked out at Pylo with a weak smile and a lot of nausea coursing through her, Omega was wheezing and trying to get a hold of her stomach’s desire to leap up her throat even while scooping up the goblets of ejecta in a bag. Aleph was once again passed out.

“My dear pylo, please never do that again... it made all that was beautiful in your speech most... foul”

She sighed and nodded.

Apparently she would just have to deal with the Passengers finding everything she said erotic.