Chapter 12 : Maintenance
October 9th Monday
Sweetie Belle groaned and shifted where she lay on the couch.
Staying home all day was the absolute worst, or so she told herself. Of course, it had to be mentioned that she had only ever stayed inside the house, and with few exceptions since her change.
Nevertheless… Sweetie felt bored.
On top of that, she felt very bored, incredibly bored, and so-bored-it-was-beyond-belief.
Injured as she still was—with sparse bandages on her head and leg to assist in keeping her held together—there wasn't a whole lot she could safely do.
"I want Steph to get home already..." Sweetie grumbled, continuing with the thought, Either that, or for something interesting to occur. After the incident from last week, she had told herself for the proceeding days that she wanted nothing interesting to ever happen to her again, and that she would stay inside and safe forever.
No more leaf piles, no more butterpillers, no more catterflies, and certainly no more roads or vehicular mobiles.
But as it turned out... her new stance on safety had only lasted until she ran out of things to do around her home.
Sweetie shifted slightly again, looking about the room at the various animals that kept her company. There were several cats laying in the sun by the windows, most of them staring outside; a cage with a few rabbits, each noisily nibbling on some lettuce; and another cage with small birds flitting about from perch to perch.
Sweetie felt like she and the animals all had quite a bit in common as far as being cooped up, or having very little to do. Given that she didn't need to eat as living things did, something she'd learned from Steph, she supposed she had even less to do. Worse, she was aware of it.
The TV was switched on and was showing Sweetie a series of predetermined TV programs, as Steph had explained it. They were okay, and Sweetie really had loved them at first, but they lost their allure a bit when watching interesting things from elsewhere was all she could do. In practice, it felt more like teasing than something to sufficiently distract her or efficiently use her time.
That, and in all honesty she really didn't understand most of the TV programs.
Why are these beavers fighting? Sweetie could but blink in confusion at the cartoon, as Steph had introduced the particular program style.
There was always a little enjoyment to be had from the shows, some of which even made her laugh, but for the most part she felt she was only slowly figuring out any of the context.
Sweetie hummed and leaned on her one good front leg. “Stephanie loves animals, maybe she would know why these beavers are riding on suction-cup bicycles around the circumference of that room…”
Stephanie had indeed proven capable of explaining most of the TV’s oddity’s in understandable terms. The trouble was that she was at work for ten hours out of most days, and then slept an additional ten hours of her time while away from those mandatory work periods. That left only four optimum hours for Stephanie time, and that was simply an unacceptable amount.
She gets to play with technology all day at her job! That makes me feel... jealous. Sweetie Belle groaned again, and flopped her head to look away from the television, and toward a maze-like pile of books in the corner of the room.
Every book the house contained had long since been read, in some cases multiple times for clarity, and most of them still lay in incredibly tall piles throughout the house. Well, the piles were tall for her, anyway. Being so short certainly had disadvantages, as she’d come to learn, that were an even larger hindrance while she remained injured as she was.
Sweetie Belle measured precisely one foot, six inches tall at the ears. She was perhaps a bit taller if her poofy, multi-colored mane was also taken into account. The fresh new mane and tail replacements from the stranger-girl 'Alice' had been a delight, and felt much nicer than the old burnt ones she'd had.
Sweetie even considered it almost enough to make up for the whole getting hit by a car thing.
It had been a week since her incident with the car belonging to Steph's friend, and Steph had explained that it had been an accident. Cars did not, in fact, explicitly wish her any harm. Apparently they were more unthinking machines that people—like Steph—used to simply traverse distances quickly. The world around Sweetie certainly seemed more and more mundane in comparison to much of the 'fiction' that Steph clarified for her.
Sweetie broke her stare with the book fort and began shifting about again, all while being careful of her damaged leg. It didn't hurt anymore, not exactly, since it was numb at the moment, but until she could replace it she didn't want to take chances when moving it. At least, she hoped a replacement would work. Her circumstances as a living and feeling machine were, as Steph put it, unique, after all.
For instance, the loose bandages Steph had put on her head supposedly kept dust out, which was probably important. They were itchy and kind of unbearable, but insisted upon.
Sweetie rubbed at the irritations while recalling how Stephanie fussed over her ceaselessly, and seemed concerned all the time with all kinds of possibilities about her well being. It made sense, but it was also really hard to put up with when her strangeness was all Stephanie would talk about. Sweetie Belle always sat with baited breath—figuratively—for Steph to get home, but she had actually begun dreading her friend's ability to become completely worried about any tiny thing, and ignore other stuff.
“Gladoooos.” Sweetie Belle sighed and rolled over onto her back, watching the other machine as it wheeled across the ceiling overhead.
“Yes, Sweetie Belle?” Glados looked down to face her once it took up a good position right overhead.
“You suck.” Sweetie frowned up at the other machine, then rolled back over to once again face the TV. She had actually learned that phrase from the TV, as well as Steph. According to her dictionary it apparently really did mean to be sub-par; which was interesting, considering its contrasting definitions.
Glados answering her was something new, relatively speaking. The wait for her replacement parts, as Steph explained, might take a while, and in the meantime Glados had gotten some adjustments to help out. Namely, she would now at least talk back, answer questions a little, and render assistance with things like a normal guest in the house.
Sweetie had been a bit disappointed to learn it wasn’t that big of an improvement in regards to conversations.
Glados’ singular eye blinked. “Acknowledged, Sweetie Belle. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
Sweetie Belle gave her head a lazy shake. "No... I'll let you know if I want down later, thanks."
"Of course." And with that, Glados turned again to wheel away once more, always cleaning.
Sweetie Belle bent and flexed her front leg—the broken one—feeling a dull grinding of inner workings in her joint.
The sound made her wince. That’s still so… scary to consider, she thought. Her leg looked fine on the outside, but apparently the servos were jammed and the stabilizing gears that guided her movement had snapped or gone out of alignment.
If nothing else, the circumstances of her injury had filled Sweetie with ideas for changes, upgrades and improvements. To her surprise, Stephanie, her own builder, had made so many obvious mistakes to her original design. Then again, she had learned from several books that nobody was perfect, and to err was to be human. Or, sapient, which also applied, as Stephanie had reassured her.
Still, it was a bit frustrating that Steph would argue with her about what was correct sometimes when she felt she was actually right. It was also disappointing that a lot of the improvements she thought of were apparently out of the 'budget'.
Apparently things like parts cost a lot of something called 'money', which was a whole other concept she was just barely grasping. Much of it seemed rather arbitrary, just based on what certain news and finance TV channels could tell her.
Sweetie Belle hummed and dangled her broken leg off the couch, patiently waiting for her friend to get home. A glance at the clock on the wall—she did have her own internal one, but it was hard to keep it accurate thanks to stray thoughts—told her just how long Steph had been gone.
“Five minutes!? Steph only left five minutes ago for work?” Sweetie Belle groaned and flopped onto her back in order to stare at the ceiling. “Great…”
She lay there a moment in silence, and then, she started singing to pass the time. The song Steph had taught her was definitely her favorite, though mostly just because it seemed like Steph enjoyed it a lot.
"One hundred thousand buckets of oats on the wall! One hundred thousand buckets of oooaats!"
Stephanie groaned and shifted in her desk chair where she sat. Working all day at a tech company, staring at a computer screen, and doing nothing else until getting home was the absolute worst. At least, that was how she felt.
Steph was bored, incredibly bored, as well as blindingly bored.
And she was barely into her shift.
And it didn't really help that once she got home, all she'd be doing was yet more tech related work, which still wasn't even the worst of it. Trying to take care of and teach Sweetie Belle about, well, life was by far the most heavy thing on her mind.
The fact Sweetie kept singing the song she had told her as a joke didn’t help, either.
Between boredom at work and stress at home from trying to fix the damage to... whatever Sweetie was, it was a lot on her mind.
For that matter, the parts to repair Sweetie Belle were due to come in the mail sometime that very day, which would either turn out to be a bit of relief or possibly even additional bad news.
Stephanie chewed the plastic end of a ballpoint pen incessantly; she had ditched the habit with some difficulty after graduation, but with everything going on lately, she was back at it worse than ever.
"Oh'kay, sho' Shweetie's leg should work again fine, because she can control other machines. At least, based on what happened to Hal. Sho that's good, but if her body doesn't, uh, adapt her new parts... then she'll lose her sensation of feeling in them. They'll be like a prosthetic." That was the part that worried Stephanie. She had learned a lot about Sweetie over the prior week, about her emotions and the strange qualities of her body, but there was so much she just couldn't guess at. Could she get sick, could the new parts get rejected like a transplant, and any number of other questions gnawed at her.
She was a machine, yes, but a machine that could distinguish sensations, feelings, and by all rights seemed to run on magic and rainbows. Indeed, whatever made her work was clearly… impossible.
"She is such a mystery." Steph buried her face in her hands and leaned over her work desk.
"A mystery huh?” a voice asked. “Well, you know what they say, mysteries are made to be solved."
Steph sighed. “Yeah, I guess that’sh true, but to sh’ay she’s enigmatic would be an understatement… 'Solving' anything is a matter of dangerous trial and error, and that'sh what has me worried.”
"Dangerous? What do you mean? By the way, you’re getting ink on your face from that pen."
"I am? Oh, thanks.” Steph took the pen out her mouth and grimaced at the stain she wiped onto her hand.
“Anyway, where was I? Ah right, well, it's complicated, but Sweetie is—" Stephanie gasped and looked up, suddenly aware she was no longer talking to just herself. "Jeff, the heck!? How many times do I have to tell you not to sneak up on me?"
Jeff let out a mirth-filled chuckle. “Sneaking?”
The man standing in Stephanie's cubicle was lanky, easily identifiable in his late twenties by his face, and had a full dark beard to match his amber complexion. The otherwise typical office clothes he had on, complete with a garish tie, made him look the perfect part of a typical wage-slave.
"It's not my fault you're so busy working that you hardly ever notice anyone else around the office." He chuckled again, then raised an eyebrow as he pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "I mean, you are working, right? Because… we have that deadline and—"
Steph frowned at her co-worker and gestured to her screen. "Yes, I'm already finished double-checking everything. Even if I wasn't, I'm perfectly capable of working while talking to myself. I mean— look, button it and shoo, would you? I’m very busy."
Jeff shrugged. “I thought you were done?”
Steph groaned fiercely, spinning her office chair fully around. “I am done! The work has been sent back already! I’m just busy with… other stuff.” She took her usual stern tone with him. Usually it was to keep him on task and stop goofing around, but for now she was legitimately stressed out.
“Hey, are you alright?” Jeff glanced around before leaning in a bit. “I don't want to sound nosy, but you've seemed on edge for a week now.”
I adopted a child this last weekend. Oh but she’s a magical pony robot, so she’s an even bigger handful. Steph kept the thought to herself, and forced herself to calm down. She was good at that, usually. “Yes, I’m fine, Jeff. Just focused on things.”
Jeff nodded along, sipping his coffee and peeking over Steph's shoulder at her screen while she spoke. "Mhhmm. Alright, well, I’ll get out of your hair in a second, but I didn’t just come over here to pester you."
Steph stopped short from facing her computer again.
“Oh, is it important?” She let a bit of sarcasm into her voice. Normally Jeff really did just swing by to simply pester her, like most of her other friends or co-workers did around the office, but Jeff also liked to act as the department’s own walking telegram service.
Jeff smirked. “You might say that…”
A long pause of silence passed between the two of them.
Steph sighed. “And?”
“Oh, of course.” Jeff gave another far too amused look. “The boss-lady has just handed out this month’s lucky picks for the partnered business programs. And just guess who got picked this time around.” He said the last bit with gusto.
Steph managed some laughter at how excited he seemed over his news. “Congratulations, Jeff, you deserve the responsibility.”
Jeff blinked, then shook his head. “Oh, uh, well I was actually referring to you, but now that you mention it I also got—”
“Me!?” Steph burst out, and brought a hand to her forehead.
Jeff nodded and gave another chuckle, albeit a nervous one. “You got it. But you know, most people are happy about opportunities like this. It might mean a raise or something is incoming.”
Steph’s breath caught, eyes widening a hair. “You’ve gotta be kidding me, Jeff. They’re sending me?” A moment later, and all sorts of realizations about her getting picked to travel around to different facilities, or maybe even different countries began pouring through her head.
“I’m not kidding, I promise!” Jeff tried to grin, but it wavered.
“But why me?” Stephanie groaned into her hands, already filled with dread and considering just how she could handle the situation. “Diana knows I have all of my animals to take care of!”
Jeff’s chipper look melted into a guilty one. “Weeell, I do know everyone else has marital priority or is on a project already…”
Stephanie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What? What about Penny?”
The gruff voice of a woman came from over an adjacent cubicle wall. “I’m still working on something until mid November, Steph!”
Steph tried again. “Uh, then how about Jeremy?”
Jeff paused before sipping his coffee. “Oh, he’s gone already. He’ll be back from his partnership in a few weeks. Hopefully he’ll be back in time to plan that big Halloween party he wants to throw.”
Steph felt a cold sweat forming on her brow, and her desperation building. “Well… what about you? You aren’t married. Why aren’t you going?” She jabbed an accusatory finger at Jeff for good measure.
It was at this moment that Jeff’s grin returned. “Ah! Yes, well, there’s a very good explanation for that question.” He then proceeded to stall.
Steph waited for the explanation for all of two seconds this time, a fire building in her eyes. “I swear to the Emperor of mankind, Jeff, I will pour that hot coffee down your pants if—”
Jeff took a step back and made a frantic steadying motion. “Alright alright! I’m just messing around.” He cleared his throat then, while also smartly straightening his tie with a hand. “The truth is, I’m going too.”
He gave her a broad, encouraging smile. “Isn’t that great?"
Steph blinked at him, not reciprocating his cheerful feelings on the matter. “What?” Her forehead wrinkled up. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why is Di sending two of us?”
Jeff let his grin fade, his feet shuffling slightly beneath him. “I think it’s just a big project or something. Buuut, at least it’ll go that much smoother with us as a team there.”
Steph held her head in her hands while somewhat tuning out Jeff, who continued to give her the details of the trip. Oh no, what am I going to do?
It was true, she usually got out of the tech contracts that required traveling on the virtue that she had animals to take care of. However, that was a large part of why she’d made Glados, who these days did most of the grunt work, and could take good care of them in her stead. So, on that front she was mostly taken care of.
But I don’t just have animals to worry about. Stephanie bit her lip, picturing in her head a certain child-minded robot that had literally exploded into her life. Sweetie can’t stay home on her own for that long! She can’t. Could she? No, so what can I do? A terrifying vision of her little robot's silhouette in the yard against the bright flames of her house burning down flickered in her mind's eye.
"Earth to Steph? Hello?" Jeff had leaned down, slightly in front of Steph. The look on her face seemed to transcend simply being a little inconvenienced, and into being upset. “Are you okay? You aren’t mad, are you?”
Steph flickered her gaze towards Jeff, while a small frown drew down one corner of her mouth. “Why does anyone ask that? ‘Are you mad?’” A thought about Sweetie Belle wandering around town to look for her entered her thoughts. That would raise questions.
Jeff adopted the look of a goldfish in a bowl.
Upon recognizing her friend’s legendary air-headedness, Steph sighed and fell back into her chair. “If someone is mad, don’t you think prodding them with questions would make it worse?” Another scene entered her mind—this time of poor Sweetie on a mechanic’s table in some government lab—and it further filled her with distress.
Jeff made a settling motion in front of himself. “Sorry, sorry. I just thought to maybe help you look on the brighter side of things.”
Stephanie rolled her eyes, and made a concerted effort to get a hold of herself. “Jeff, don’t apologize, you didn’t do anything wrong. I’m just... on edge. So I’m the one who's sorry. Anyway, I only meant that, to me, asking about something is the same as pointing it out.”
“Ah, noted.” Jeff stood there a moment, sipping his coffee, then hummed in understanding. “You know, I bet that’s why Penny always scowls at me when I’m not looking after I point out that her desk is a real mess...”
A voice shouted in answer over the near cubicle wall. “My area’s plenty clean, you cretin!”
This turn of events began an office wide ripple effect of others chiming in, laughing, and offering their own sage opinions.
Jeff chuckled mischievously at the calamity he’d sown, until he noticed that Steph was up and moving quickly. “Oh, where are you going?”
Steph had gotten up to head down the aisle during Jeff’s epiphany, and turned around mid-stride, but didn’t slow down. “To talk to Diana about this and request that I get out of it.” She saw Jeff raise a hand to interject, but didn’t slow as she rounded the corner.
I have a responsibility to Sweetie Belle. There’s no way I’m not getting out of this! Steph knocked on the door to her boss' office soundly.
I can’t believe I couldn’t get out of this.
Steph collapsed back into her desk chair, and muttered, “Great.” From the corner of her eye, she saw Jeff poke his head up and over her cubicle’s wall.
“How’d it go? Did you get off the hook?” He sounded a tad hesitant, or maybe despondent.
The firm ‘no’ from her supervisor echoed in Steph’s head.
More irritated than interested in talking, she flipped her hair over her face in an effort to hide her scowl. “No... I’m still stuck going. I guess it’s fine.” She let a groan slip. “I just need to make plans now.”
Stephanie poured over her options. Realistically they boiled down to two: leave Sweetie home alone, with just Glados to watch her, or take Sweetie half way across the country with her. There was a third option, to quit her job, but that wasn’t really an option.
“Pst, Steph, are you still awake under there?”
Stephanie pulled open a small window through her curtain of hair to peer out. “Huh?”
“I was just saying, since we’re stuck as partners for this… do you wanna get something to eat this week? Maybe? I mean, to plan things out, of course.” Jeff was wearing a fairly poor excuse of an expression that feigned innocence.
Waaait, did he just…? Steph lowered her hand from her hair and sat up in order to stare squarely at Jeff. Eventually, she asked, “Did you just ask me out?”
“Like on a date?” Jeff blurted. He must have been intimidated by Stephanie's stare, because he began shaking his head. “No! No no no… Yes.” He cleared his throat, and perhaps deepened his voice a bit purposefully. “Yes, I did,” he repeated.
Stephanie stared a moment more at him, a slight smile creeping up unbidden. “Wow.” A surprised laugh broke out of her. “I did not expect that.”
She looked up in time to see her friend’s look of mixed optimism and smoothness melt into one that was a bit more somber.
“Oh, no no no! I’m not saying no, Jeff I—” An image of Sweetie Belle barreling down her home’s hallway at a full run, galloped through her head.
Steph coughed and folded her hands neatly in her lap. “You just caught me off guard there, and I have a lot on my mind lately. So… well I don’t want to say no? And seem like I’m not interested? But... uh…”
I’m nervous? Why am I so nervous lately. Steph could feel her emotions and thoughts both floundering as the implications of everything caught up with her, resulting in a bit of stage fright.
“So it’s a bad time, is what you’re saying,” Jeff offered, along with a smile.
“Yes, I think it is.” Steph returned the smile.
“But it’s not a no?” Jeff tilted his head coyly, and his dark features adopted a wide grin.
Steph inhaled a deep breath, and turned her chair towards her computer deftly. “It’s an indefinite postponement,” she stated matter-of-factly, then added, “But not a no.” Should I say more? Maybe, I honestly had never even considered him as more than a… Actually, it’s probably a good thing I didn’t say that.
Steph cracked a smile, hoping it was reassuring and pleasant, and not as clumsy as it felt.
Jeff nodded back to her though. “I'll take that. Sounds good, Steph—” He barely finished before being interrupted.
The sound of an entire chorus of voices from around the large office room echoed through the air, coming from multiple co-workers.
“Boooo! Say yes to him!” and “So cold!” among other things filled the room for a brief, incredibly loud few seconds.
Steph sat there in shock as she realized the room had been uncharacteristically dead quiet a moment ago except for her and Jeff. A thick shade of crimson quickly climbed up her cheeks, hidden even quicker when she tried to hide her face behind both hands.
The sound of an engine rolling up the driveway made Sweetie’s ear motors twitch and swivel around for optimum efficiency.
“Steph? Steph’s home!” Sweetie cheered and nearly forgot to stop herself from leaping off the couch. Instead, she slowly rose, then carefully slid butt first off the too-tall and human-sized furniture. But she didn’t wait for Glados to help her like she’d been told.
Her trip to the door took far longer and was less efficient than normal thanks to her limp, but she arrived nonetheless.
“Steph! I saw a cinematic play about things called ‘muppets’ and—!” Sweetie halted as she came upon the front door to the home. She could see a person peering through the little window to the side of the door, but it wasn’t Steph.
A couple of loud knocks sounded on the door, next, and then the stranger returned to the window.
Sweetie head-tilted at the sight of the stranger. “That’s not Steph. Who is that?” She had expected her best friend, not whoever this was. Although, it did occur to her that others had sometimes been in the house before, in the past. Perhaps this was another of Steph’s friends, but one she had never met before, even before her change.
“Hello?” the stranger called out, and seemed to look around through the window as if searching. “Is someone in there?"
Sweetie called back without hesitation and waved her one good foreleg. “Hi! Who are you?” Ohhh yay, new person! Do I say something special? I’m so… excited!
The stranger at the door looked around, but when he saw no one at head level, he looked back at his clipboard. "I’ve got a delivery for a… Stephanie Speck.”
“Oh, Stephanie is not yet home! Depending on traffic she will be—” Sweetie Belle realized then that the stranger still hadn’t seen her. “Mister stranger-person, please direct your line of sight lower by thirty degrees! I’m down here.”
The man looked down. “Oh, whoa. You’re a robot.” He seemed either surprised or unsure of how to respond to such a discovery.
Sweetie grinned at the man, and proceeded to initiate her 'enthusiastic nodding' protocol.
The soft sound of machine gears turning crept up from behind.
“Sweetie Belle, please move back from the door.” It was Glados that had spoken.
Sweetie looked up to see Glados glide across the ceiling. She seemed poised to open the front door with one of the clawed grabby things she used to do stuff.
“Oh, affirmative.” Sweetie Belle did as she was asked and stepped back out of the way. Meanwhile, excitement continued to brim within her. After the door was opened, the stranger standing there seemed to look more and more enthused by the second, judging by the grin on his face.
“Wow, two of you. That’s so awesome. And I swear you guys look familiar. Are you from—”
A red beam shot out from Glados to scan a little badge adorning his front, and its barcode, then interrupted the man. “Delivery employee 415623, Dylan, acknowledged. My owner: Stephanie Speck, is not at home right now. This device is authorized to sign for her parcel. Produce necessary authentication paperwork, and pen, now.”
Sweetie Belle ceased staring at the stranger to frown at Glados. “Well that sure sounded rude, Glados! You didn’t even say please!” Sweetie felt like she was getting a good handle on voice inflections and the rudeness that could be taken from them in speech patterns. Humans were very perceptive to such things, and seemed to use them a lot, but Steph was teaching her all about it.
"O-oh." The stranger, Dylan, looked down at his tag, but answered Glados in stride. “Sure thing— Sorry, I'm new so I've never dropped off with a helper robot before.” He seemed to look around at all of the cats staring at him, then said, "Is she some old lady or something?"
"Stephanie's age is not pubic knowledge." Glados swiveled slightly to the left to look downward. “Sweetie, return to the couch, and do not interfere with my current directive.”
Sweetie frowned up at the other bot. Interfere? The couch? Still, she started to go and do as she was told. That was the right thing to do, she felt… but she stopped herself.
“I’m not ‘interfering.’ And he’s someone I’ve never met!” Rather than obey Glados, Sweetie stayed fast and stamped her good front hoof. “I just want to say hi, and talk to him, and ask him what his favorite food is, and color, and other stuff! I've never met anyone besides Steph before!”
Glados lowered herself further. “I won’t ask again, Sweetie. I have been instructed to tell Stephanie of any infractions on your part. As well as to impart punishment.”
Sweetie gasped. “Aw, come on!” She hadn’t considered that.
“Wow, maaan, this is awesome. I need some popcorn for this. Your owner must be a real basket-case to make you two say stuff like this.” The stranger began laughing hard, while also holding a clipboard with some odd paper on it out to Glados, who promptly took the offering and began to write upon the paper deftly.
Sweetie watched the exchange with interest, but head tilted toward the stranger. “Basket case?” She scanned her definitions quickly and what she found shocked her. “Steph isn’t crazy, she’s really brilliant! And smart! Why did you—”
In a very… bothersome fashion, the delivery man seemed to ignore her, instead speaking to Glados again.
“Hey, you look like a Star Wars robot, man. Are you like, one of the pilot robots? Wait, they were called droids, right?”
Sweetie Belle was about to ask why or how stars would have wars, but was beaten to the punch.
“I am Glados,” Glados replied plainly, and returned the clipboard. “You are instructed to leave the packages just inside the door. I will monitor them until… Oh, nevermind. Stephanie has arrived.”
The sound of a van’s engine and tire crunching on gravel turned the heads of the two machines and one thoroughly amused delivery man.
Sweetie Belle gasped and limped out past the new guy and onto the porch right away. “Steph! welcome home! We have a guest!”
Stephanie seemed to be taken by surprise, since she kind of jerked her head up from looking at the ground as she made her way to the front door. “Wha— Sweetie, you’re supposed to be inside! And— Oh, hello.”
Sweetie stopped at the top of the porch’s stairs and directed what she hoped was a disarming grin at Steph. “I-Inside? Oh... sorry, I was excited and just rushed out to—”
“Hello there. I set your delivery there by the door, and your machine in there signed everything.” Sweetie Belle frowned up toward the man in disbelief. She’d been so eager to meet new people, but this person kept interrupting her! Oddly, he seemed to be scanning Stephanie very thoroughly. Perhaps his sensors were broken? She wondered briefly how humans might get those fixed, but filed it away for later.
“Hey, I was still talking!” Sweetie Belle stepped in front of ‘Dylan’ the delivery guy. “I’ve studied that it’s polite to let others finish speaking before—! Huh?” She cut off, feeling herself be lifted from behind, and soon found that she was tucked under one of Steph’s arms.
“Sweetie Beeelle,” Steph whispered sweetly, “not now, please.” A quiet, unsettled sounding laugh made its way out of her.
“Lady, your robots are killer, I gotta say. My friend has this one that can do the macarena really good, but these two were hella interactive and sounded just like the real deal. What company, like, made them?” Dylan chuckled, and offered the clipboard again. “And did you wanna double check the signatures?”
“Oh no no, that won’t be necessary, it’s okay.” Steph waved off the clipboard. “If Glad— my helper handled everything then that’s fine, thank you.” She gave the man a quick wave while moving swiftly into the house. “And which company? I forget… It's been so long! There so old, you know? Old technology, yup. Hahaha. Well, have a great day now!”
“Oh, uhhh, okay. I guess you’re in a hurry, so, you too,” he answered back.
Sweetie caught the barest glimpse of the delivery man glower at her and Steph’s back, just as the door swung shut behind them both.
“Steph, wait, I still wanted to… well, I guess I don’t want to talk to him as much now.” Sweetie frowned while Steph set her down inside. “Hey Stephanie, are you okay? You’re acting strangely. Kind of like when you’re worried about something. What’s wrong?” She watched as Stephanie leaned against the door in apparent relief.
Glados wheeled past, welcoming her home as was usual.
“Steph?” Sweetie nudged her friend’s leg with a hoof.
Stephanie exhaled a deep breath, as if relieved, then knelt down and ruffled Sweetie’s mane.
“Steeeph, stahpit! It’s not easy for me to fix it right with these hooves! And I can only use one right now.” Sweetie shuffled backward from the mischievous hand, and frowned upward. “What’s wrong with you?”
Steph laughed. “Sorry, Sweetie. And yeah, I guess you could say I’ve got a lot on my mind right now. But I was nervous a moment ago because I could have sworn I told you not to speak to strangers. Let Glados handle that stuff.”
Sweetie Belle blinked dumbly at Steph a moment, trying to recall such a thing. “What? No you didn’t!” she protested. “I would remember something like that. I mean, I’ve been wanting to meet someone new all week!”
“Really? I… huh. I think I’ve just been thinking a lot lately and I keep losing track of things.” Steph scratched a hand behind her head, perhaps thinking hard. “I must have had that conversation in my head.”
Sweetie hummed. “So, your memory is still malfunctioning bad, huh?”
“It’s not…” Steph cleared her throat. “I’m not malfunctioning, you, I’m just not equipped with a five terabyte SSD that somehow no longer obeys the laws of physics and holds five times that in data. And furthermore, I seem to recall someone here forgetting about the rule about wiping your hooves off if they go outside.”
Sweetie felt her back go rigid at the mention of that. “Heh, right… I said I was sorry though.” She found it difficult to look Steph in the eye, and searched the room for… something distracting instead.
Steph laughed again. “There was no harm done. Now, about strangers, and this one is very important, if you don’t know a person, Sweetie, you need to be wary of them, no matter the case, but especially in your position.” As she spoke, she picked up the big box by the door, and carried it towards the kitchen, where she set it down.
Sweetie Belle listened carefully as Steph spoke to her, taking in the explanation fully. “Oh… But how would I know who and when I could trust them?” She sat beside the box on the kitchen’s tiles.
Steph sighed, pulling at the large cardboard box’s tape as she spoke. “Trust is something gained over time, Sweetie. There’s no definite answer to that question, but I’ll explain more about it later. It comes down to your own judgement but… well I don’t want to scare you or anything with that stuff. For now, let’s get—”
“Wait, scared? Why should I be scared?” Sweetie wore a look of wariness, trying to understand.
“It’s not necessarily—” Steph paused in her efforts to open the box, only to be cut off.
“Because now I’m scared that I’m not scared, but should be scared! Scary things hurt! What do strangers—”
“Sweetie!” Steph grabbed Sweetie gently, but firmly by her shoulders. “It’s okay. You don’t need to be scared of anything, because I’m going to be with you. Alright? Does that make sense?”
“Oh.” Sweetie felt a comforting warm feeling in her chest at hearing the reassurance. “Yes, Steph, it does. And sorry that I raised my voice again…”
Steph chuckled. “As long as you aren’t singing at three in the morning, I think it’s alright.”
Sweetie gasped in excitement. “Whoo! I—”
The sound of a machine rolling down the hallway approached, followed by Glados addressing Stephanie.
“Sweetie Belle incurred three infractions of your home policy today, Stephanie. Two counts of animal harassment and one count of disobedience. There was no damage incurred otherwise.”
“Tattle-tail!” Sweetie jabbed her hoof up at Glados, then turned to Steph. “I learned that one on the television today.” She gave a little bit of laughter, hoping that would distract Steph from delivering a punishment.
“Mmhmm,” Steph hummed, and while wearing a smirk, too. “Thank you Glados, that’ll be all.” She watched the larger machine wheel away, then knelt down to Sweetie again. “I’ll overlook it this time, alright? Today’s a good day, after all. Now, let's see just what we've got over here in these boxes, shall we?”
Sweetie Belle’s worried look disappeared and she gasped in relief. Just after, Steph pulled open the shipping box.
The box popped open, and was filled with strange white kernals. Hundreds of them.
Steph spoke up again while she dipped her arms into the strange boxes. “Alright... Now, first thing I think we’ll do is see to your leg, and then—”
Sweetie Belle’s relief over being forgiven was forgotten, and she felt her eyes unfocus slightly, widening to their utmost.
Steph, meanwhile, kept talking. “—After that’s sorted we can… Sweetie, are you listening? Hello?” After a few seconds of silence, she snapped her fingers in front of Sweetie. “Hey, we’re repairing you, silly, don’t you want the details?”
“What are those?” Sweetie Belle came out of her daze, having heard nothing else.
A handful of the stuff was held up by Stephanie. “Packing peanuts?” she asked.
“I very much desire to jump in them.” Sweetie Belle could barely keep her motors from revving right there, even with Steph still in the way of what she had already marked as the landing zone.
Steph raised an eyebrow. “Oooh-kay… Maaaybe you should do that later, after your expensive parts are laid out. What do you say about waiting until after we fix you, hm? How does that sound? Heck, we need to find out if we even can, first.” She closed the box again, chuckling. “And I won’t allow you hurting yourself more.”
“Awww,” Sweetie moaned, and rotated her ears back to their saddest longitudinal position. It only lasted a moment, though, as the realization that her fresh new parts had arrived finally dawned on her. “Oh my gosh! They’re here? They’re here! I didn’t even think to think about what was in these boxes!”
Sweetie dashed as fast as she could, which amounted to an unsteady three-legged walk, toward the basement door. “Steph, let’s hurry!” Her friend had her hands full carrying one of the boxes, but caught up with ease. “I had approximately fifty-three more ideas for upgrades I want to tell you about! I got most of them from the TV, but some came to me while I was sleeping.”
“Easy there, Sweetie. We’ll get you fixed in no time.” Balancing the box on one knee, Steph opened the door with a free hand, watching as Sweetie slipped inside ahead of her. “As for those ideas, I'll be happy to look at the new ones, but I really don’t think those schematics for a method of flight are practical. Let’s stay ground-bound, okay?”
Sweetie Belle groaned as she limped down the stairs ahead of Steph. “Aaw!” She felt she’d gotten much better with stairs and walking in general over the last week, even with her injury. “Fine. But I have others you gotta look at!”
“Alright, Sweetie, but later.” Steph dropped the box on the nearest counter with a thump, and began laying pieces out. “For now, let’s get to work.”
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HE LIVES!!!!!!!
6003116 LE GASP!
Well, while I think I'd have preferred a longer - or at least a more substantial - chapter after a longer period of time, a sign that you're alive and still working on this is still welcome.
IT'S ALIVE!
Thanks for the update!
6003165
Yeaaah, I wanted to actually sneak in a couple scenes more... but I've instead placed those into the next chapter, and I can promise that one will probably be one of the best chapters in this story, if not the best. At least, from my point of view.
I'm mostly basing that sentiment off of my own excitement for what's going to happen. ^^ Sooo, maybe it'll be awful, depending on how much you think you like what I like, hah.
Great!
Ah, just in time for my latest Sweetie Bot kick.
Sweetie Bot needs socialization... How long until she discovers the Internet?
yay
A wild Merlos update has appeared!
What will you do? Fight/ Item/ Fics/ Run?
Item! *scrolls down*
Shoot! I'm out of Ficballs!
Hmmm... Makes me wonder if one of stephs coworkers is working on their own pet project and is gonna bring it by her house to get some tips...
OMG Merlos updated!
AN UPDATE AT LAST!!
Clearly, stalking outside his house has worked!
OMG a new chapter yes oh dear lord yes thank YOU!
Was she watching Angry Beavers? I loved that show.
I very much desire a picture of this.
And also, presumably, with non-figuratively [a]bated breath.
A common impulse.
breakingcatnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/BREAKING-CAT-NEWS-46.png
MERLOS, YOU MAGNIFICENT MAD MANIAC, YOU!
You are ALIIIIVE and updated!
Please have the date happen, I want to see perspective of Steph on the date and Sweetie as she tries to figure out what that is, what it entails, overreacts, and nearly blows up the house over it (or causes mischief)!
I soooo wish i wasnt at work so i could read this right now...
6003563 Sweetie just went fishing and couldn't find an easier way of putting the bait on the hook.
This is sapience. Sentience is the ability to perceive the environment with the senses. Sapience is the ability to think and reason.
Well, this is a good day for me. I've found a whole bunch of things I've been looking for for months, I found an old coin, I got a shiny Pokemon through Wonder Trade last night, and now a story that's been in hiatus for a while has finally updated.
6003775
Oh it has not been. I updated... what? In February? That's recent for me these days. <.<
6003773
Ah, quite so, sir. Thanks for the catch.
6003165 Shock! Not-horror but something else!
Anyway, nice chapter. Looks like Steph's got a bit of a problem, here. And yes, Sweetie. Jump in the packing peanuts. :D
Forgot how amazing it was to see a Merlos update. Good to see you again.
So the sweetest of robots is still doing her shenanigans.
Still think Steph should tell her friend about Sweetie's sentience. Especially now that she will be going away for a while. Steph's buddy seemed a bit koocky but otherwards seemed fairly trustworthy.
You did the word count as it is on purpose. Didn't you?
6003977
Uh, no, I didn't. Haha
6003309 oh no! That one had a low encounter rate too! Dangit.
6003988 You truly are a mad genius.
6003778 It's been long enough either way.
She could also ask Alice to babysit.
Yes, a horrible idea that could have dreadful consequences, especially on one as impressionable as Sweetie, but it's an option!
woot, new chapter.
This is a really awesome story! The setting, characters and references are all cleverly done.
6003248 Hopefully never. I want her to stay innocent and cute for as long as possible.
You just got burned, Glados.
Please take her with you, Steph.
The rest of this sentence seems to be missing.
6005451
This is why you don't drink and write.
Buufff... I'm glad you are still there.
Thank you Merlos for this fantastic piece of art
Bringing her along would be a bad idea. One moment of inattention and then SweetieBot would be wandering the area conversing with strangers. On the other hand, leaving her with Alice... RIP Universe.
It's alive!!!!
I know what I'm reading on my breaks at work today!
Why does the realisation that I can remember that episode of Angry Beavers make me feel old?
I was half expecting Sweetie to try eating one of the packing peanuts, heh.
Mmm, I am so looking forward to the shenanigans when Steph and her co-worker go on that business trip with Sweetiebot. You know she'll have to come along, if only so "mom" can keep an eye on the inquisitive robotic pony.
About the "proposed upgrades", did she watch any Transformers?
6005472 I'm just sad that the word count is ruined.
6006180
xD
ah Angry Beavers a strange show for sure...but then again most shows from that time are strange. (If I had a pile of packing peanuts big enough I'd jump in them too)
OH SH*T NEW CHAPTER
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED!
6008740
Did she always sleep?
Edit: Nope, pay attention Stephanie.
great to see updates!
yay!! always nice to see another chapter!
