NOT just A ROBOT
shipping meme
There's always a right tool for the job, be it as simple as a hammer for a nail or on up to the much, much more complex. In this, the near future, the new tool for the abstract, post-modern job is no longer from the humble tool box - it's robots. Robots have taken over most sectors, such as assembly, law enforcement, and even health care. Things run so much smoother when they're automated. Yet the most impressive factor is that robots have just recently begun to enter a sector previously believed to require human touch: the personal sector. From personal assistants to robo bodyguards to pleasurebots, most anyone who's anyone has a personal robot these days. Of course, humanity being the narcissistic charmers we are, all "companion" sector robots are made in our own beautiful image, or close to it.
But you know this. You have a personal robot, after all...or you are one.
Whether owner or robot, it's important to remember one key rule: robots, no matter how human they appear, cannot feel emotions. Any appearances thereof are programming in the AI.
Robots certainly, absolutely, cannot fall in love. Again, any appearances thereof are programming in the AI. If that's not the case, and "love" still seems present...
...well, a toll that no longer functions correctly may not be right for the job.
HOW TO PLAY ➟
- Comment with your character, preference, and whether you want to play a human or a robot.
- Reply to others.
- Use the RNG to choose a prompt or pick one yourself.
OWNER ➟
- Long Time Owner → You and your robot are a well-oiled machine, no pun intended.
- New Purchase → Congratulations, you have your brand new personal bot!
- Second Hand → Someone else owned this robot before you, but it can't be too damaged. There's no way you could afford a brand new one, anyway.
- For Science! → Your interests in robots are purely scientific. No matter how yours begins to act towards you, honest!
- Rescue → Whether you took them from the dump or from a bad owner, you brought this robot from the jaws of deletion.
- Reluctant → You never wanted a robot, but you've got one thrust on you anyway.
- Cruel → They're just a fancy computer, so you'll treat them however you like.
- See the Humanity → Even if you know it's all machinery and programming, you can't help but see the human side of your robot. They shouldn't have to be a servant.
- What's Real and What's Not → The lines are beginning to blur between real people and their emotions and your robot.
- Incompatible → You can't be with a machine, either romantically or sexually. You're simply not compatible.
- Too Engrossed → They say you've created a fantasy world. You're forgetting reality, or choosing to ignore it.
- Don't Care → You won't listen to what the others say; you know how you feel.
- Have to Pull Away → The close relationship you had with your robot has to be put aside for your own good.
- Live a Normal Life → As much as you can, you and your robot live like a normal couple.
- Bad End → Your robot is taken away, reprogrammed, or destroyed.
ROBOT ➟
- The Perfect Robot → You know what you and exactly what you were made to do. You will not stray.
- More Human than Human → Whoever programmed you made you to be just like a human.
- Conflicted → There is no way you could have what they call "feelings." But what is this stirring in your circuitry?
- Confused → Why do people treat you like a robot? You're a living thing, damn it!
- Damaged → Somehow, you've been corrupted. You're a blank slate and have to be cared for, though it should be the opposite. Or it could be that you're showing erratic behavior that no robot should...
- Shown Kindness → When you're treated kindly by a human, you are unsure how to process it. It makes you feel - content.
- No Longer Just a Program → Your "love" and "affection" may have been shades and imitations at first, but that's not the case any longer.
- Obsolete Model → You know you're old. Will you be forced to leave your master's side?
- Jealousy → A robot should not feel jealous. Still, you envy those close to your master.
- Job is Personal → You were programmed to protect or to serve, though you also do it because you...care
- Second Chance → Your old master tossed you aside and now you are wary. But you've been given another chance instead of being used for scrap.
- Rogue → There is no way you will be tied to the oppressive system. You refuse to serve the Living Things. Somehow, though, you've become aligned with one.
- One of a Kind → There are no other robots like you, and perhaps you are intended for a sinister fate. Rather than face your true duty, you have escaped to take refuge with a human.
- Specialty → You were created specifically for this one special person.
- Reprogrammed → Because of previous defects, you were taken back to factory settings before. However, that treacherous virus, "love," is bubbling back up.
- Android → You can't just forget the part of you that was - still is - organic.
- Learn to Be Human → Despite the odds and the prejudices you both will face, you have decided to live as a free, living person with the one you care for most.
- Bad End → You're to be junked, impacted, wiped clean, or taken away from your owner.
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bakerstreet2018-08-13 08:08 pm
no subject
Lingering on that thought isn't going to get the job done or get him closer to an answer.
Good news is: He's no longer distracted so much by Bruce's appearance. Hurrah! ]
Right. Next tower?
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Still feeling aptly chastized and now perhaps a little awkward, he nods. Takes the change in conversation and scenery (however small) with enthusiasm, and opts to be the first one out this time. He shifts, rolls, hovers over Tony for a second and backs his way out the way they'd come.
Waits patiently a few feet back from the intersection, since he doesn't have the faintest damn clue where their next stop is. ]
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A little lost, Toaster-stroodle?
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Adorable.
[ He comments flatly, eyebrows hitched up and completely exasperated.
Shut up and lead the way, Tony, damn. ]
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You know you like it.
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Yeah, no heading out first was definitely a mistake. He'll be sure to write a formal apology letter, or just... actually not say anything about it at all, to be honest.
Except it's followed with a you know you like it, and he can only let out another, altogether different sounding huff.
This whole experience has been a damn exercise in so many different ways.]
You wish.
[ Is all he can think to mutter, and then he's trailing along begrudgingly after. ]
no subject
[ How he can keep something so offhand and still leave it some shade of coy, eyelashes fluttering over his shoulder as he peers up at Bruce for the half second they're close enough to maybe share a breath before he crawls right along to the last tower. Down a bit and turning left once before, as with the last three, he rolls over to start working on the grating. ]
Mostly for danish, right now, thanks for that.
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Run system diagnostic. Procressor failure?
Nope, running fine.
What the hell.
It takes him a little longer than usual to catch up, he's got to shake it off first before he can seem to get himself in motion again. And then he's settling down carefully at Tony's side once more, staring up at the grating. ]
Yeah, sorry, my expertise ends at the bagel. You're on your own.
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Nah, he does it all the time.
Tony starts working at the grate, already working it free by the time Bruce catches up to settle. ]
A toaster that can only handle bagels? I feel like you should be ashamed of yourself.
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He does it, however, with a little incredulous snort and a quirk of his lips. ]
Take it up with the mirror, pal, you made me. Maybe you should've integrated a pastry function.
[ He shoots right back in a quick and airy dismissal, because despite weird looks or flirting or awkward conversations or sticking his foot in his mouth, this? Is easy. This he can do. He makes bagels and he builds sassy rapport. ]
Thought you were supposed to be some kind of genius, but your magic talking toaster can't even do bear claws.
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[ Saying he can't is just some kind of contrary bullshit, honestly, and it shouldn't make him smile as much as it does. Shouldn't make him knock shoulders with Bruce in the moments before he unplugs the cable to pass it off. It's just- banter. Brilliant, sarcastic, and twisted around logic and wordplay.
Enjoyable in it's simplicity. ]
So fucking there.
[ It's as quick as the last three, removing the defunct sheets, sliding in the new ones, plugging back in the cable. After this? It's all rerouting power from this node to the newest branch a few rows down. Easy. ]
no subject
[ He muses, glancing over with a wry smile. Something just shy of a grin, a definite I'm fucking with you expression that he doesn't even bother stifling this time.
He curls his hand around the wire, accepts the shoulder bump with a fond little shake of his head. ]
'If you can bagel, you can bearclaw.' Put that on the back of your autobiography sleeve for me, huh?
no subject
[ He crackles a laugh, sliding the last of the silicate sheets into place. As soon as Bruce has the cable plugged back in he closes the tower up and rolls over to start backing out. Which means bracing himself over bruce and scuttling backwards until he hits the intersection so he could turn.
Which.
Could bring up many, many mental images. ]
Just for you, Toaster-stroodle.
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Although, this situation's doing a number to really hurry that along.
The nickname earns him another huff, but he spends most of his concentration on flipping, turning, crawling. Following kindly behind him like it's the most natural thing in the world. ]
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As soon as he's helped Bruce up and out he takes a moment to strip off his shirt, leaving him in one of his black tanktops so. Still decent, reactor still a glowing focal point in the middle of his chest, but nowhere near as stifled as he would be with the extra layer. ]
Ugh, that's better. How you holding up?
no subject
And... tries not to look too long and the suddenly exposed shoulders, the extra mile of neck. That's... wholly new and unexpected, actually. He's seen Tony's ribs, yes, absolutely he's seen a big ol' bloody patch of cuts and bruises along a section of his abdomen but this?
Different context, different body parts, no clinical detachment, no injuries, just whole bare sudden... shoulders.
He had absolutely no idea up until this point how big of a fan he was of that particular part of the human anatomy. Almost as quickly as he sees them, he jerks his eyes away and subtly sets them someplace maybe ten feet away, evidently abruptly interested in a row of... boring identical servers.]
Um.
[ Replay the question.
How you holding up?
Oh, right. ]
Fine. Better than you, probably, since your joints are edging on a hundred or so.
no subject
But-
Privacy, right. If it's important someone will let him know. ]
Forty two. I'm not quite decrepit just yet. [ He pats Bruce's forearm before releasing him to fish his phone out of his back pocket, flicking through a diagram to find where the power node they're pulling from and laying cable to will be. Looks like a longer crawl once they're underneath but it shouldn't be too much of a pain. ]
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But.
Now it is, and it very much is with him standing there being... sleeveless.
Stare at the servers, Bruce. Stare at the beautiful boring servers. ]
Getting there.
[ He says, although it sounds almost more like token sass than heartfelt sass. ]
no subject
[ In theory and practice it's perfectly safe for him and Bruce but they are essentially crawling around in Jarvis' brain. Tony's used to the idea. Bruce can be...a little more delicate RE some subjects and Tony's never all that sure when he's going to stumble into one. Sometimes the only thing to do is keep going on and apologize when it happens via new tweed blazers or another round of updated textbooks uploaded to the server in a random assortment of subjects.
Though he had been peering into medical a lot lately. Maybe an omnibus of Grey's Anatomy? ]
no subject
[ Just. Shaking his head adamantly even though he's staring pointedly anywhere else.
That's how you casual, right? By being a fucking weirdo? Man, he... really needs practice being inconspicuous. Some things you just don't have the opportunity to learn in two months time before you actually need them. ]
Lets- yeah, let's go do- whatever. Sure.
[ And just a vague sort of shooing gesture in the general direction of- well- anywhere, really, he has no idea where they're going next. ]
no subject
[ This is weirder than previously anticipated but more along the lines of 'socially awkward' than 'potential malfunction' so he'll just chalk whatever this is up to Bruce's wonderful journey to learning to be a real boy and head for the next crawlspace. He lifts the trap and slides in, motioning for Bruce to follow. ]
Is Jarvis beaming porn to your brain or something? You're allowed to tell me if he's hazing you, that's on the list of things not to do.
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[ Because generally, Jarvis is a thousand times more polite than Tony even on his best behavior. He couldn't actually see Jarvis hazing anyone, but then again he's having a hard time really visually thinking of... anything else.
It's fine, he's fine. It's just... new. Exposure therapy. It'll go away.
He follows, slides in behind Tony and... gets an eyeful of sloping back and shoulder blades and biceps.
Oh, no, yeah that's much worse. Good. ]
no subject
[ Tony's head swings to the left to peer down an intersection, double checking their path, headlamp throwing the line of his throat, the cut of his jaw, and the cap of his shoulder into stark (ha) relief. Two more intersections and he'll find the node. Good. Pressing onward. ]
Usually in ways that remind me he's had way too much time around me for anyone's sense of sanity.
[ Second only to Rhodey, honestly, and- he still sort of. Needs to break the news to Rhodey, Pepper, and Helen that he's finished this particular project. That's a bridge he'll burn after he crosses it.
The cables bundle in larger clusters the further down they crawl, giving them less space than before as they approach the node. Tony has to twist and pull himself forward to reach the grate blocking off where the new cable needs to live- there's not a lot of room. Bruce'll have to be, more or less, right on top of him for the duration. ]
Alright, I need your hands.
no subject
Yes. Good. So this is what he's doing. This is what he gets to deal with. Great. That is just.
That's so great.
Fantastic. Best life ever. Amazing. Jesus fucking Christ.
He edges in more or less on his side, front to front, scooting his way up Tony's body and staring quite defiantly at the grating above them. Jaw completely set, teeth pressed together tightly.
Yep, totally fine. Great. So good. ]
no subject
[ And it will, no muss, no fuss, leaving a series of plugs and cables, about a third of them that can kill Tony dead if he touches the live end. So. Time to work gingerly.
Pressed close like this he's more or less talking into Bruce's jaw, breath wafting along synthskin that sure as shit radiates heat and looks real- but, he's ignoring that. With every fiber in him, he's ignoring that. ] Third from the right, two rows down? Unplug that and move it to the space to the left.
[ He's not sure if this is one of the 'murder tony' cables but- he's got someone immune to this kind of death on hand, better let him handle it. Especially since he'll be holding the cable out of the way. ]
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