That she doesn't react to him starting to reach for an injury is a testimony to the power of conditioning. The hand on her shoulder gets a flicker of her gaze towards it, but only for a split second. She does not move away from the touch. Humans and aliens alike come out of conditioning like this. The difference is that humans usually break outright during the conditioning process, either dying or killing themselves. That negligible one sixty-fourth makes a slight difference somewhere internally that's at least kept that thought from crossing her mind.
She hears the question but does not correctly parse it. Status update? "No major injuries to report." Is that what he was asking about? That's what would make sense, for a handler to inquire about the status of something so as to know how to properly utilize it. Her voice is flat and toneless, devoid of emotion.
And then he says her name.
It takes her a moment to come out of it. She squints. Xiaohu. 小虎. Little tiger. Somewhere in the depths of memories that were supposed to be trained out of her remains the memory of someone talking to her, holding her in his arms so she could be up high enough to see the altar to Guanyin clearly. The memory has enough sensory information attached to it to haul her back out of this - the warmth of the person (her father?) holding her, the scent of incense, the rich colors of the statue and light reflecting off of the porcelain - and like someone waking up, she blinks, shakes her head, and looks around. She turns her head from side to side, taking everything in, before returning her gaze to Donatello.
"I'm okay, Donatello. I, ah. I'm sorry, if I worried you." This time, there's an actual expression on her face, that of mild unease, and actual emotion in her voice. It's equal parts uncertainty and anxiety that she's about to have to explain this. She blinks again, and then reaches for her left shoulder with her right hand to start trying to brush gravel out of it. Abruptly, she stops mid-motion, alarm crossing over her face not for that shift in and out of Creature mode, but for something else. "The civilians - we need to get back to them, they don't know what's going on and they've just seen smoke and explosions from our direction."
Because clearly their confusion is the confusion to prioritize, here.
no subject
She hears the question but does not correctly parse it. Status update? "No major injuries to report." Is that what he was asking about? That's what would make sense, for a handler to inquire about the status of something so as to know how to properly utilize it. Her voice is flat and toneless, devoid of emotion.
And then he says her name.
It takes her a moment to come out of it. She squints. Xiaohu. 小虎. Little tiger. Somewhere in the depths of memories that were supposed to be trained out of her remains the memory of someone talking to her, holding her in his arms so she could be up high enough to see the altar to Guanyin clearly. The memory has enough sensory information attached to it to haul her back out of this - the warmth of the person (her father?) holding her, the scent of incense, the rich colors of the statue and light reflecting off of the porcelain - and like someone waking up, she blinks, shakes her head, and looks around. She turns her head from side to side, taking everything in, before returning her gaze to Donatello.
"I'm okay, Donatello. I, ah. I'm sorry, if I worried you." This time, there's an actual expression on her face, that of mild unease, and actual emotion in her voice. It's equal parts uncertainty and anxiety that she's about to have to explain this. She blinks again, and then reaches for her left shoulder with her right hand to start trying to brush gravel out of it. Abruptly, she stops mid-motion, alarm crossing over her face not for that shift in and out of Creature mode, but for something else. "The civilians - we need to get back to them, they don't know what's going on and they've just seen smoke and explosions from our direction."
Because clearly their confusion is the confusion to prioritize, here.