Meet Rin, a tiny, agile mechanical droid. The only one of its kind that roamed this world. He never knew where he came from. Legends speak of a great creator experimenting with technology. The legend portrayed a being who lived a normal life by day sweeping the apocalyptic dusty roads. Filling cracks and holes formed by the harsh conditions of the world. At night behind closed doors, the creator was a genius. His mind overflowed with ideas as if there wasn’t enough ink left to jot it down.
One day while cleaning the streets, children were playing hide and seek nearby. He had an Eureka moment. One of his past projects popped up like a popcorn kernel on the verge of explosion. He thought, why not a robot that can play hide and seek with the kids?
A week later after fixing and repurposing the old idea. The creator switched on the robot and played a bit of hide and seek. He felt that the robot needed a name to be called upon. Rin! It was perfect and sometimes too perfect where Rin was almost impossible to find, like a shadow in the dark.
The creator introduced Rin to the kids and there were no regrets to the idea. The kids would get frustrated, Rin won most of the games played but the challenge made them not give up. It seemed a bit unfair for the kids, always having to find Rin last.
Some kids had the idea, asking the creator to readjust Rin’s ability to hide but the creator was nowhere to be found. Approaching the door the kids found a paper scrap of instructions nailed onto it. Unwilling to read, one of the kids crumpled the paper and threw it away. They then returned hopefully to find Rin.
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Time moved twice as fast for Rin. The kids who he used to play hide and seek with changed in appearance and length. Some got married and some were never to be seen again. The married couples ended up having children of their own. The new generation of children had the upper hand. Their parents knew the tricks for beating Rin. So they taught their kids the ways of hiding, like Rin, and being better seekers
It was Rin’s turn to be the seeker, unaware of what was happening, a bright highlighter-yellow light flashed across the horizon.
Knowing a day like this would come, the creator added features that would protect Rin from these dangers.
Rin went on as if nothing happened, aimlessly looking around, unable to find a single kid.
He never stopped seeking one bit. Rin traveled the whole surface of the world. Not able to find the kids who he was looking for.
After traveling for days, he came across an oasis. As Rin got closer he was stopped in his tracks by a human-like being.
The being stared at Rin in confusion and got closer with curiosity filled eyes. On Rin’s interface, there was a timer that kept climbing. The being read it with an astonished face of disbelief and said to themself: “What has this robot been doing for 2000 days?”
Inspecting Rin up and down, the being saw a weird latch that seemed a bit loose. The being tried to pry it open with little effort. On the inside of the latch, there was a small chamber with a glass tube within. The human opened it and read it.
“Be nice to Rin. He does not know how this world works. He was created for the purpose of being found as a hider.
To my best efforts and understanding
Creator”