There we are all nice and clean, I don’t know what’s up with her but the woman who runs this bookstore hasn’t been sweeping the last few days and it was upsetting me.
\Any chance you know why she hasn’t swept today\ I asked the security system, as always it was silent to anything but explicit commands, but I’ve been lonely enough to start talking at robots and computers. Sometimes they even respond when they recognize a word! Mostly to complain they don’t understand the others. Bleh.
\Well, it’s better now anyway - I corrected the order on the shelf in the back too = some customer totally reorganized one section\ I groused \I know it’s fine for people to have different orders for their own places but come on\
I spent a few minutes glancing through the history section for anything I hadn’t read that looked interesting. I ended up selecting one on North American cars and another on the effects of the soviet union’s collapse on Europe. They joined a random spy thriller novel and an urban fantasy book from a series I had enjoyed before in my stack on the counter, stuffing them under an arm I headed out the back door.
\Alright you can resume\ I told the camera after closing the door behind me, I must be using radio signals or something as walls mostly don’t seem matter when talking to machines.
\Returning to default path, turning right\ it answered.
After a few turns and hasty crossings of side streets, I had a flicker of amusement at how quickly this has become routine. Pretending to be a robot during the day then sneaking around in the dark, casually breaking into stores to stock my little bedroom by the taxis before sleeping in late into the morning.
Wait interrupt that thought, I think there’s some crime going on there and it isn’t me doing it this time.
A couple of thick-looking dudes and then some skinny guy with a backpack, the atmosphere didn’t seem great between them. I was guessing it was a teenager trying to buy some drugs and it not working out so well, but he might be just straight up getting mugged. Deciding to check out what was up, I approached them without even a glance at my clanking footsteps, now that’s an indicator of how little attention is paid to robots around here. Still not really sure what’s going on given both parties are speaking quietly but the skinny guy looks scared and one of the other two has a knife out at him.
I really, really should just walk by and pretend I hadn’t seen anything, there’s nothing I can gain from interacting with these people and everything to lose. It wasn’t particularly likely that they would actually stab the student, they are probably looking for money or something, not violence. On the other hand, I did have my face covered with a bandana and a hat on my head going with my full set of anonymous and uncomfortable sweats, so the most description someone could give of me was my height and being synthetic. Ok, that was a lot, but I had seen a decent number of synthetics roughly my height, including some that could have even been roughly ‘related’ to me so it’s not like that alone was enough. Plus, I would feel really shit if I read about someone getting shanked in this alley in the paper.
“Is there a problem?” I asked flatly shifting my voice to something a little deeper and cruder, having come to a stop behind them.
“No, return to your task.” The guy with a knife said not even looking over his shoulder. The response seemed rather well practiced, maybe other synthetics ask too.
“Didn’t ask you.” I commented, his head whipped around. His eyes widened further when he saw what I was wearing, I ignored him while I continued to look at the skinny guy.
“Yes?” He said a little hopefully.
I went for the guy with a knife, I was down a hand with the books clutched under my left arm but that wasn’t really a problem. Knife guy seemed to be holding it reasonably competently judging off what Molly had shown me, but he was also just a normal baseline human. My hand was on his arm before he could blink, then careful not to move too aggressively and break something but fast enough to hurt, I had him down on the ground one foot going on his back while his arm was held up behind him.
The other two were staring at me while the guy beneath me screamed.
Hmm, maybe a little harder than I intended, I must be out of practice.
“Now, we don’t want the police involved so shall we all go home?” I asked flatly in the fake voice, the other two nodded jerkily then I looked down at the guy with the knife and jiggled him a little. “How about you? Leave the knife though.”
Knife guy was sobbing but nodded and started to let go of the knife, I released his arm to grab the knife out of the air. I took my foot off him, letting him get up while gingerly touching his arm and staring at me wide-eyed.
“Which way are you going?” I asked the skinny guy and he shakily pointed up the alley where I had been going, nodding I looked at the other two and pointed over my shoulder with the knife. “On your way then.” They booked it.
I started back down the alley, the skinny guy loosely following. As I walked, I considered the knife in my hand for a moment. It’s not like I couldn’t use it for something, cutting up rags or opening packages, so I stuck it between my left hand and the stack of books.
“Uh thank you?” The student said uncertainly, shuffling to catch up while his voice broke a bit making me think he was younger than I initially thought.
“No problem.”
“What model are you? I haven’t seen a response tree like that before.”
“Not answering that, and you didn’t see me.” I responded as we reached the street beyond the alley.
“But-“
I sped up just enough to leave him and any further questions behind, I crossed the road before tooking a shortcut. Namely jumping up on a construction vehicle and over the fence into the construction site, I’ve done this a few times now because it cut a good couple of minutes of being out in the open off and they usually parked the telescoping forklift in the same place each night. After leaving the site from a hole in the fence on the other side, I spent an hour or two bouncing around on nonsensical routes just in case someone happened to be following me.
“Oh, look at the fuckin chuuni hero, ‘you didn’t see me’ fucking what the shit was that.” I mumbled to myself while turning a corner in an alley near the library. “I’ve spent waaaay too long by myself if I think acting like that isn’t going to draw attention.” I paused to angrily toss a stray garbage bag back into the dumpster it had fallen out of. “Fuckin will be lucky if that isn’t all across the news tomorrow.”
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I spent the next few days worriedly perusing the newspapers for any mention of weird synthetics and constantly expecting to be called out when I was out during the day. I couldn’t even look around to see if people were looking at me differently, at least at night I didn’t need to maintain the charade so I could nervously check for people tailing me. I eventually returned to my routine, having not encountered anything untoward or read anything.
I was at the bridge trying to pretend that I was doing fine when a familiar voice greeted me. “Hello weird robot.” I tried to ignore her, keeping my focus on the river and the lake beyond it. “I know you can understand me that much.” The girl declared after I hadn’t responded for a few moments, I turned my head to look at her.
“Where is your brother?” I asked when I realized she was alone.
“With grandma.” She then gave me a look. “How do you know he is my brother?”
“Should you be with her too?” I asked ignoring her question.
“Are you a smart robot?” Now it was her turn to ignore my question.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“Define.” I said pulling out one of the things I have heard when a robot doesn’t understand me.
“You inferred things, robots don’t do that.” She glanced around. “Are you a robot?”
“Yes.” That’s a simple answer at least.
“No, I mean are you a people or a robot?”
I stared at her for a bit, unsure how to respond. Any answer I gave was probably going to be pretty risky, particularly with how long I had delayed already. “You could use ‘person’ in that sentence, in addition, you are implying mutual exclusion between your presented options.” I responded trying to go for something excessively pedantic like some Goofy AI in a movie.
“I’m not stupid, I know when someone is trying to hide behind words people robot.” She declared.
I sighed, then I turned back to look at the water. “Do you really want me to answer.” I asked the flatness in my voice not forced.
“Ha, I’m right!” She declared. “People robot!”
I slumped against the railing of the bridge while letting another whistling sigh escape, then propped my head up on my hand to look back at her. “And what are you going to do with that little lady?”
“Mmm, is it a secret people robot?”
“Sure, and the name is Sam.” I answered giving her the eyeball.
“I keep many secrets, that’s fine.” She said proudly while standing up straight. “I’m Alexandria, I permit you to call me Ali.”
“Ha, nice to meet you Ali. I’m afraid I need to go back to badly pretending in case someone comes by.” I responded returning to my stiff upright pose from before. I wasn’t looking at her to see exactly what she was doing but she stood quietly with me for a surprisingly long time for a kid, particularly with how many questions she had been asking before.
“Are you ok with pretending to be stupid?” She asked suddenly, it came out in a rush that continued before I could respond. “Big sis pretends to be big bro for the family, and it’s painful for her.”
“Ah, is that a secret you are keeping?” I asked turning my head just enough to see her horrified expression in the peripheral of my vision, she started to say something then slapped both hands over her mouth. “Relax, I won’t say.”
I glanced around to see no one was by then crouched down a bit to put a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s not good Ali, but I kinda don’t expect it to work out that well for me if I don’t.” I admitted, she nodded uncertainly then I brought the subject around a bit. “Sorry I don’t really know how this society handles people like your big sis, is she worried about family rejection or more than that?” I asked gently.
“Moms said how much she hates ‘those people’” Ali admitted getting a grimace out of me.
“Well, I’m afraid I don’t really know the answer to that, my friends back home probably would say sever though.” I answered with a lopsided grin.
“You have friends?” She asked.
“Ouch” I answered with an exaggerated wince. “Yeah, I do but they are very very far away…” I explained trailing off while making an effort to hold back tears at the thoughts that were brought up.
“Dead?” She asked aghast.
“Not last when I saw them!” I denied with a wet chuckle. “It’s a different kind of far away.”
“Oh.” She said looking down for a moment, then back up to me. “What do you mean by sever?”
“Ah, as in cutting them off. Some of my friends are very big on letting people be who they are and that if family prevents that, just keeping them out of their lives.” I answered shrugging, she nodded seriously, I suspect her sister had talked about the idea. “I would offer help or something, but I’m afraid I don’t really have any resources to help her with.”
“It’s k.” She answered. “You couldn’t help anyway and I’m saving my allowance for a house so I can do it alone.”
I hesitated for a long moment, unsure if I should be breaking her fantasy of housing affordability or praising her attempt to help. Electing to change the subject before it became too awkward a silence, I pulled the watch I had stuffed in my pocket out. “It’s almost four-thirty, do you need to get home?”
“Yeah.” She responded while staring at the watch as I put it away, the shock of seeing it apparently letting her ignore the subject change. “You’re a strange robot Sam.”
“And you’re a rude one Ali,” I answered with a smile. “Now shall I escort you home?”
“I can get back alone!”
“Yes, I’m sure you can and it’s not like I know the way, but I would hate to hear if something were to happen.”
She reluctantly nodded, then pointed up the path. It was a bit of a convoluted route she led me on, including a few shortcuts through the greenery she seemed quite comfortable with. I mostly tried to move like a local synthetic but had to break out of it to prevent my pants or shirt from getting caught on twigs or the cap on my head being swiped by a branch.
We emerged out into a residential neighborhood at the curb of a minor road, she quickly checked for any cars before dashing across to the sidewalk beyond. Waving me over before starting down the road, there was something familiar about where we were, but I was far too disoriented to recognize it yet.
She chattered at me a bit about a cartoon that included lots of robot people as we walked.
“…and then he said that there was more than enough for everyone.“ I made a sound of acknowledgment to her pause in speech, having long since lost track of whatever there was enough of. She suddenly stopped and looked nervously up at me. “I’ll go, my parents might see you. I’m just there.” She said pointing up the street at a house that jangled my memories.
Glancing around it suddenly felt like I had been punched in the gut when I realized why everything felt familiar, Ali’s home was across the street from Anna’s bungalow. As I stared at it, I realized just how similar it looked to back home, it looked the same here in spite of everything else just like the park, the door was even painted the same color. The garden was different and the little tuk-tuk like vehicle in the lane was out of place from my memory, but it was clearly the same place.
“Sam, what’s wrong?” Ali asked tugging at my hand worriedly.
“Sorry, this looks like where my girlfriend lives.” I answered voice a bit rough as I realized there were tears in my eyes that I wiped away.
“Oh.” She twisted her head and squinted up at me. “You have a girlfriend?”
“Yes,” I said a little choked up. “Or at least while I was still back home.” I took a deep breath to pull myself together, which seemed to only make Ali more worried. “Now, get yourself home already, they will be waiting for you.” I said while gently pushing her towards the house with an attempt at a smile, she left with a small wave and an uncertain almost smile.
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Turns out human-on-robot romance novels are an entire sub-genre here and, surprise, surprise, they are absolute trash. This is my third one so far, honestly, I am still marveling at how inaccurate their descriptions of the sex were, this dude must have the most noodle-thin penis in the world to manage some of the things described. I chuckled and rearranged myself a bit, I was small enough that sitting on the platform and leaning against the wall let me almost stretch my legs out all the way without them reaching the railing. While I had a lot of platform to myself, it was a narrow area resulting in my makeshift room being arranged a bit awkwardly-
Clatter, click, eeeeeee
“-and I said there’s no way he could pay her back.” A masculine voice said.
I froze as still as I could, someone was in the taxi depot! Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Did she actually give it to him?” A feminine voice responded as boots stamped on the metal walkway mere meters below me, it sounded like they were headed towards the computer room.
“Fuck no, took me like another hour to convince her though.” A clunking sound like a heavy bag of tools being set down drifted up along with a chair scraping. “You mind checking the umbilical? That ladder is hell on my knee.”
“Sure.” I heard footsteps stamp back onto the walkway and then onto the ladder.
I stared at it from where I was sitting, there was literally nowhere I could go. No windows in the structure and it was a long fall off the side of the platform. It’s not like it wasn’t obvious I was here either, I had all my various belongings piled into the small space. Spare clothes hung from the cable for the light hanging overhead, I had a mound of books beside me, and then there was my makeshift bed. Boxes of spare materials I had stolen from a synthetics store at Lilly’s request lay in a little mound beside the tossed aside blanket along with cleaning rags. My map was spread across the casing where the umbilical arm was attached to the platform, a plate with a few pieces of coal and some woodchips holding it down. There were a few bins of assorted knickknacks I had picked up too, the knife, pens, notebooks, and little information brochures that I had picked up.
This was quite clearly an occupied space.
Blond hair in a ponytail appeared through the hole in the platform, followed by a set of grey locally styled coveralls emblazoned with the taxi companies’ logo on the back. She stepped off the ladder before turning around, halting part way as her eyes met mine. I stared at her while she returned it, then she started looking down at the book in my hands before glancing around at my stuff, her mouth dropping open as her eyebrows knitted together.
“How’s it look up there?” The other person called, and the woman pulled her eyes back to stare at me for a moment. “You need me up there Nat?”
“Uh, no, it’s fine John just give me a minute.” She called back without breaking her gaze.
Wait, was she covering for me?
“Will you be here in a couple of hours?” She whispered, and I hesitated for a second then nodded. “Um, let me just look at this for a second.” She lifted my map carefully and looked under the casing for maybe a couple of minutes.
“It looks fine up here. There’s no error codes, right?” She shouted down.
“Yeah, we’re good.”
“Back soon.” ‘Nat’ whispered before starting down the ladder as I watched her leave.
I sat frozen in place long after the door closed behind them, I had agreed to stay here but was that really wise? I have no way of knowing that she’s not going to rat me out, but if she intended to the jig was probably up for me regardless. My distinctive hair had been uncovered, and I couldn’t hide my alabaster skin, while there were a variety of colors of hair and skin on the assistant or bodyguard robots it was usually something close to human. I hadn’t seen any other robots that would match even my casual description.
I sighed and looked up at the bangs that were encroaching into my vision, I like my hair but maybe I should have dyed it or something at this point. There’s no way I can go and steal something right now and if I go on the run there’s more than enough time for her to report me before my usual hours of thievery.
There’s no way I could go unnoticed if someone was looking for me in the meantime, so I may as well gamble that she’s friendly.