It was late in the evening. Most teachers had gone to bed, but one dorm room was still dimly lit faint, flickering blue light spilling through the cracks in the door.
Inside sat Celeste or rather, Simni in disguise. Her head rested lazily on her desk while her body moved independently, adjusting glowing lines across her arm.
Her disguise shimmered and glitched slightly amber eyes flickering to bright blue, cyan hair giving off faint static before fading back to normal.
"Body… initiate debug protocol… three…" Simni mumbled with a tired, robotic slur.
Her body straightened and saluted, even though her detached, sleepy voice came from the desk. "Affirmative. Debugging disguise unit. Error: hair color mismatch. True form hue, cornflower plus blue leaking through."
Simni groaned. "I know that, body… just fix it before someone walks in…"
The body tilted its neck joint, then replied flatly, "Recommendation: reboot in two minutes."
"Reboot your motherboard," Simni muttered. "I'm reporting to Basei, not restarting."
The body's hand moved to her communicator crystal, activating it. Basei's voice came through almost immediately, sounding both worried and serious.
"Simni? Status report. You've been offline for thirty-two hours."
Her head lifted slightly, blue eyes flickering like low batteries. "R-reporting, Commander Basei… uhh… Celeste's disguise… minor bugs. Nothing fatal. I think."
Basei sighed audibly. "Define 'nothing fatal,' Simni."
Her body shrugged while her head gave a sheepish smile. "It's fine! Just… sometimes my hair glows cornflower-blue when I sneeze, and my eyes auto-switch to diagnostic mode when I blink too fast."
"Simni…"
"...Sir?"
"Don't sneeze in public."
She giggled softly, head plopping back down on the table. "Affirmative, Commander… Simni out…"
The body politely waved goodbye to the communicator — then accidentally saluted too hard, slamming its metal hand into the desk with a loud CLANG!
Simni groaned again, muffled against the wood.
"...I hate my auto-systems."