03-28-2018, 08:44 PM
Several hours passed as the mechanic and robot went about their work. Barely a word was shared between them and when they did speak it was nothing more than the bare minimum. Outside, the artificial sun began to dim as the day stretched on to its eventual end. More than a few times Cori caught himself staring at the clock and daydreaming rather than doing actual work. Jill was right, this whole knight business was just silly. Heroism was the stuff of primes, not a secondary maintenance bot. If the robot could’ve sighed he would have, but he waved away the thought and turned back to the array of bolts he was in the process of torquing down. Eventually the artificial sun dimmed to a level that better suited the perpetual nightlife of Tier Four. Jill rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands and yawned.
“Alright,” she said, raising her voice just loud enough to carry across the shop, “I’m getting too tired to focus, you ready to pack it in?”
Cori set down a wrench and responded, “yeah, I need to recharge soon anyways.”
--
Not too far from Jill’s shop was what could affectionately be referred to as a shack. Four walls and a roof made from patched together pieces of corrugated iron and buried amongst a colony of similar structures was what Cori called home. Much like the piles of scrap at Jill’s shop everything here had a healthy veneer of rust and verdigris. Cori had long since removed the lock on his door; it was tiresome having to replace it every time a junkie or thief busted it down in hopes of a payday. Instead of hiding them behind a locked door the robot chose to keep his valuables on him. Cori swung open the door to his house and stepped inside. There was no need for a lamp for his artificial eyes could see just fine in the dark. He shut the door behind him and abandoned his backpack in the center of the room.
In the corner sat a large blocky object. It hummed softly and a display on the side read “READY TO CHARGE” in big neon letters. This was the only thing that Cori did not bother to take with him everyday. Not because it was worthless, but rather the fact that it was simply too heavy for anything short of a forklift to move and Cori had never heard of any junkie owning a forklift. The robot opened a compartment on the charging device and revealed a long cylindrical jack attached to a thick cable. With a practiced motion he plunged the jack into the base of his skull. Warmth, or an approximation, of warmth washed over him as the city’s power grid fed his starved electronics. Cori sighed and sat cross-legged in front of his backpack.
For a while Cori simply sat there and enjoyed the warm sensation. It was a shame, he figured, that he would never truly know how humans felt. The kiss of sun upon their skin or the comforting embrace of a soft blanket. It wasn’t that he had no idea of how those things felt, the receptors built into his exoskeleton were quite adept at approximating those sensations, but even then he knew that his experiences were nothing more than the result of millions of computations. These existential thoughts were brushed away as he reached into his bag and retrieved a tablet computer.
If he had lips he would’ve been smiling as Top Man’s intro played across the tablet’s screen. As the orange android ran through his over-exaggerated intro Cori found himself enthralled. To most Top Man was your run-of-the-mill Omnitube blogger, over-the-top and cringy at times, but to Cori he was practically a deity. A couple years ago the android had made history, and managed to actually meet with Omni himself. While the footage of his meeting with Omni was mysteriously MIA, Top Man’s body was proof enough of this feet. Originally a secondary like Cori, Top Man had transcended his mortal bonds and became a prime. This was evident in his series of videos titled “A Day in Life of a Prime” where the android performed pranks and other “social experiments” through the use of omnilium. Unfettered by any biological limitations such as sleep or hunger Cori would spend hours watching Top Man’s videos.
Cori adjusted the cable sticking out from the back of his head. Sure it was possible to have an internal charging system installed, but that kind of tech did not come cheap. Using the tablet he checked his bank account and performed some quick mental math. At this rate he’d be able to afford one in a year or two. Patience was a virtue, but Top Man’s videos lit a fire in his mechanical heart that screamed for adventure. A year or two might as well have been an eternity to the poor bot. His daydreaming was cut short as an internal alarm alerted him to the time. Work started soon. The artificial sun had not been reignited, but that was not unusual for the semi-permanent state of nightlife in Tier Four.
If he could have sighed he would’ve. The robot unplugged his charging cable and slid the tablet into his backpack. This cycle was one that he had repeated for the past year - work, recharge, and repeat. Monotony was only broken by his time spent playing make-believe with the neighborhood kids and watching the adventures of Top Man. It was with this heavy on his mind that he left his home and began the ten minute trek back to Jill’s workshop.
“Alright,” she said, raising her voice just loud enough to carry across the shop, “I’m getting too tired to focus, you ready to pack it in?”
Cori set down a wrench and responded, “yeah, I need to recharge soon anyways.”
--
Not too far from Jill’s shop was what could affectionately be referred to as a shack. Four walls and a roof made from patched together pieces of corrugated iron and buried amongst a colony of similar structures was what Cori called home. Much like the piles of scrap at Jill’s shop everything here had a healthy veneer of rust and verdigris. Cori had long since removed the lock on his door; it was tiresome having to replace it every time a junkie or thief busted it down in hopes of a payday. Instead of hiding them behind a locked door the robot chose to keep his valuables on him. Cori swung open the door to his house and stepped inside. There was no need for a lamp for his artificial eyes could see just fine in the dark. He shut the door behind him and abandoned his backpack in the center of the room.
In the corner sat a large blocky object. It hummed softly and a display on the side read “READY TO CHARGE” in big neon letters. This was the only thing that Cori did not bother to take with him everyday. Not because it was worthless, but rather the fact that it was simply too heavy for anything short of a forklift to move and Cori had never heard of any junkie owning a forklift. The robot opened a compartment on the charging device and revealed a long cylindrical jack attached to a thick cable. With a practiced motion he plunged the jack into the base of his skull. Warmth, or an approximation, of warmth washed over him as the city’s power grid fed his starved electronics. Cori sighed and sat cross-legged in front of his backpack.
For a while Cori simply sat there and enjoyed the warm sensation. It was a shame, he figured, that he would never truly know how humans felt. The kiss of sun upon their skin or the comforting embrace of a soft blanket. It wasn’t that he had no idea of how those things felt, the receptors built into his exoskeleton were quite adept at approximating those sensations, but even then he knew that his experiences were nothing more than the result of millions of computations. These existential thoughts were brushed away as he reached into his bag and retrieved a tablet computer.
If he had lips he would’ve been smiling as Top Man’s intro played across the tablet’s screen. As the orange android ran through his over-exaggerated intro Cori found himself enthralled. To most Top Man was your run-of-the-mill Omnitube blogger, over-the-top and cringy at times, but to Cori he was practically a deity. A couple years ago the android had made history, and managed to actually meet with Omni himself. While the footage of his meeting with Omni was mysteriously MIA, Top Man’s body was proof enough of this feet. Originally a secondary like Cori, Top Man had transcended his mortal bonds and became a prime. This was evident in his series of videos titled “A Day in Life of a Prime” where the android performed pranks and other “social experiments” through the use of omnilium. Unfettered by any biological limitations such as sleep or hunger Cori would spend hours watching Top Man’s videos.
Cori adjusted the cable sticking out from the back of his head. Sure it was possible to have an internal charging system installed, but that kind of tech did not come cheap. Using the tablet he checked his bank account and performed some quick mental math. At this rate he’d be able to afford one in a year or two. Patience was a virtue, but Top Man’s videos lit a fire in his mechanical heart that screamed for adventure. A year or two might as well have been an eternity to the poor bot. His daydreaming was cut short as an internal alarm alerted him to the time. Work started soon. The artificial sun had not been reignited, but that was not unusual for the semi-permanent state of nightlife in Tier Four.
If he could have sighed he would’ve. The robot unplugged his charging cable and slid the tablet into his backpack. This cycle was one that he had repeated for the past year - work, recharge, and repeat. Monotony was only broken by his time spent playing make-believe with the neighborhood kids and watching the adventures of Top Man. It was with this heavy on his mind that he left his home and began the ten minute trek back to Jill’s workshop.