There was a small chance, tiny even, microscopic, that ZM-11833 had been wrong. As ridiculous as that sounded even they had to admit that 244 wasn’t responding well to their life saving dress up treatment.
“You perverted, malfunctioning bucket of bolts! What the hell do you think you're doing! I should strip you for parts, see how you like it!”
ZM-11833 wouldn’t like that very much indeed, plus 244 was being unnecessarily hurtful, if they could tear up they would!
They watched as 244 huffed and puffed, red in the face from her yelling, which ZM-11833 reasoned intelligently, was a bad idea in these circumstances. Even now they registered on their audio sensors the clicking and clacking of nails on the polished floor as the unwanted customers approached.
“Where do you think you’re going?!! You big dumb bot!”
ZM-11833 had turned away from their flustered cute customer towards the door to the secret store, ready to receive the oncoming unwanted customers. It would be rude to completely ignore 244, they didn’t want to offend her, she might go elsewhere for fashion. ZM-11833 didn’t know if they could survive being cheated on in such a way.
“We have customers coming soon, just sit tight beautiful~”
“Wait! Don’t open that!!!”
The heavy door to the secret store slid open with a rasp revealing an unwanted customer, it gave an otherworldly screech from its ragged jaw in ZM-11833 immaculate face plate, eager to knock them down and destroy another outfit.
Halfway through their awful racket ZM-11833 seized them by the throat, cutting off the caterwauling, with a quick twist of their wrist motor the neck snapped with a sharp crack, the unwanted customer falling limp in ZM-11833 hand.
“Apologies but my bookings are full for the day, please come back later to inquire about a dressing, thank you for your patience.”
ZM-11833 dropped the unwanted customer and closed the door to the store. Upon turning back to 244 they saw that she had taken to sitting on the floor, staring pale faced at ZM-11833, jaw open.
ZM-11833 found it kind of cute, taking a few cheeky photos for 244 profiles.
“Corpo punk number 244, I apologies for the rude interruption to our wonderful dialogue, please continue”
Number 244 stared at ZM-11833 some more as they waited for the very hurtful conversation to resume, just because they didn’t like what was said doesn't mean they didn’t want to hear 244 talking. They had a very cute voice after all, feminine, a little smokey and very attractive.
“Um, thank you for that, the alien I mean, not the borderline molestation.”
While the words 244 said were nicer, ZM-11833 didn’t really understand what 244 was talking about, aliens weren’t real after all and they hadn’t ‘molested’ anyone. It did beat being yelled at so they just responded with a happy smile.
Number 244 looked less angry now which was a success for ZM-11833.
“Stop with that number shit, my name is Anaya, learn it bot”
ZM-11833 replaced 244’s name in her profile; they were happy that they were so close now, although they were getting annoyed with Anaya not using their name in turn.
“Greetings customer Anaya, this unit is ZM-11833, as I informed you before” ZM-11833 kept a happy smile on their face as they definitely didn’t loom over the cute and lovely Anaya.
“Uhh, can I just call you Zee?” Anaya was more meek in reply now with a 6 foot robot hover over her
“I’ll allow it, registering the personal nickname now” ZM-11833 was pleased, this was the first time they had a nickname, ignoring derogatory ones from that awful manager.
Everything was right with the world, they had what they needed; a room full of cute clothes, an even cuter customer to dress up and a mirror to admire themselves in.
There was no reason whatsoever to leave, none, not one, no reason in the history of existence for them to leave this room at all.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Um, Zee? I’m out of food”
ZM-11833 turned towards sweet Anaya who was standing next to a broken vending machine, glass matting the floor. It was empty, utterly devoid of anything to sustain a fragile organic form.
What a predicament! Without food the poor human might die, and more importantly ZM-11833 measurements would be useless if Anaya's waistline shrunk.
The things a competent fashion bot needed to think about kept growing, ZM-11833 imagined the assistant bots were told these things off the production line. Such an unfair advantage! ZM-11833 would just have to work extra hard to take care of their new human, like a pet the humans sometimes had.
“Hmm, acceptable. Anaya cutie, you wait here and I’ll bring back some food and water for you.” ZM-11833 turned to leave the store to get their favorite human the things she needed to live.
“Wait! What if the aliens come back! I don’t have anything to fight them with”
Hmm, this was true, aside from the silly alien stuff. It would be safer to have Anaya with them, plus pets often needed walkies to stay active and healthy. ZM-11833 would be a poor owner if they allowed their first human to languish.
“Alright then I’ll take you for walkies too, do you see a leash anywhere?”
“What? No! What are you thinking? You pervert!” Anaya didn’t seem happy with the idea of a leash, or maybe she did judging by the blushing cheeks. ZM-11833 really didn’t understand humans.
After leaving the backroom and stepping over the still form of the unwanted customer, the pair exited the front shop.
To get to the food ZM-11833 and Anaya needed to cross back to the central hub to head towards the food court. All the vending machines in the area were either empty or smashed judging by the repair requests littering the maintenance inbox.
ZM-11833 strode confidently towards the area’s exit with Anaya fearfully clinging to their shadow, only occasionally stopping to either check out a cute outfit or to politely inform the oncoming unwanted customers that they were still booked up and currently with a client.
The bodies of the unwanted customers faintly twitched behind them as the group of two left the clothing area and into the adjoining hallways. The hallway was short but with a human in tow the pop ads decided to activate.
The journey through the ad hallway took longer because of ZM-11833, they felt a little bad for the ad A.Is, they had, like ZM-11833, waited so patiently for a human to talk to.
Anaya was the one that got the pair out, rather rudely by ignoring the advertisements for a new type of energy drink that promised it had only a 2% chance of abdominal cancer, a full 0.000000005% lower than other competitors!
ZM-11833 sent out various apologies for their human and promises to have her look at an ad for various bedroom toys, they didn’t know what they were for but the A.I had been very complimentary about her pet.
The main lobby for the floor was very open, a series of overpriced shops surrounded a fake tree placed in the center of the plaza, stretching upwards towards the LCD screens serving as a fake sky. Screens of scrolling lights drowned the area with color, holograms of corporate logos advertised goods all throughout the area.
It was totally different from floor 333, which had more tasteful holograms and better lighting and a ton of other things that were totally better, ZM-11833 just couldn’t be bothered to think about it right now.
ZM-11833 followed behind a nervous Anaya who darted and ducked behind benches and pillars on the way towards a nearby food market. They wondered if it would be better to tell her there wasn’t another unwanted customer within their sensor ranges, but it looked like she was having fun.
Upon entering the market Anaya began loading a shopping cart full of microwavable food stuffs and bottles of water, the kind without paint chips in it! How fancy~
ZM-11833 was getting kind of bored, they just wanted to play dress up again, err, they meant professionally consulting with their client about alternative fashion choices to broaden their wardrobe decisions.
Upon leaving the grocery store little Anaya didn’t head back towards the clothing area, this confused ZM-11833, surely the cute human hadn’t forgotten the direction. It worried ZM-11833 that they may have picked up an Airhead.
“Anaya, dear sweet Anaya, the way back it over there, the opposite way you’re going. There is no shame in asking for directions”
ZM-11833’s reasonable and sweet words were met with an angry scowl.
“I’m going to my apartment, I’m not riding out a alien invasion in that corporate hellhole”
ZM-11833 sighed in her mind, alien this, alien that, poor Anaya was delusional, unable to recognize reality. Going to Anaya’s place might be more fun than the store, ZM-11833 could develop a better profile on her likes and dislikes, allowing for a more comprehensive outfit design.
It didn’t take too long to reach the residential complex and Anaya’s place after that, the amount of people on this floor seemed low. They must have left, traveling up the stairwells, ZM-11833 had seen a large horde on floor 332 after all.
Anaya’s place was cute like her, it was open plan, a single large room made up of bedroom, sitting room and kitchen. A tucked away shower and bathroom recessed into the wall.
As Anaya placed the shopping trolley in the kitchen area, she heard a hair raising sound. Her wardrobe squeaked open. Turning slowly around she spied ZM-11833 holding up her pajamas, a creepy grin stretched across a pale hauntingly beautiful face.
“You must be tired cute Anaya, let your Zee get you ready for bedtime~” The singsong voice haunted Anaya’s mind, flashbacks to the dress up before causing her to make a break for it, she would rather chance the aliens.
Twas for naught, as slim polymer arms looped under her arms and carried her towards the bed.
“Don’t worry, this will be fun for me as well~”