We build robots to reflect ourselves

[tadaishi]

Who: A robot and you, possibly Tadashi and you
What: Tadashi's first project since arriving has made a bid for freedom
Where: All around the city
When: 5/9-5/10
Warnings: Robot body horror? Idk

[It's not unusual to see animatronics around Progress City. But they're finished products, robots that look and act pretty much human.

One of them isn't an animatronic and certainly doesn't look very human, though much of it is covered in a brightly colored hawaiian shirt and board shorts that don't match the shirt at all. It doesn't seem to have very much of a purpose, taking it's time wandering wherever its metal feet may take it, whether it be into a random restaurant or into the Animal Kingdom--it's curious and needs to see things.

At least it's polite, and will greet whoever it happens to cross paths with with a somewhat distorted "h̛el͏lo̵!̡!" and wave.

Elsewhere, a panicked teenager is attempting to find the project that literally walked off while he was taking an unintended nap. Care to help him find his robot, or at least calm him down?]

Comments

[whatarenext]

[See Mike was just maybe considering this wasn't Westworld. But now he's run into this robot, instantly putting him on the defensive. He stumbles back, grossed out by this horrible skeletal machine.]

Oh my god. It's finally happening. The machines of this park are going berserk.

[Thankfully he's watched movies. He knows what to do. Assuming his most cowboy stance, Mike stands 20 paces away from the bot.]

Alright asshole, draw.

[tadaishi]

[Don't hate it because it has no skin, it's only a prototype.

And actually doesn't have much of a 'brain' at the moment, so it regards Mike silently for several seconds, then extends it's hand and tries greeting him again.]

H̶èl̷͡lo̸͞?͏ ͘ ̶D̸̢̕r̸a̸w.

[The second word is repeated in a distorted version of Mike's own voice.]

[whatarenext]

[Sorry he's seen Short Circuit 2, there can be no forgiveness after Short Circuit 2.]

No gun huh?

[But clearly it's trying to steal his voice. He needs to assert and dominate before this gets out of hand.

Mike puts up finger guns and loudly makes rapid machine gun sounds with his mouth.]

[tadaishi]

[Oh! It can do that too!

Watch as it makes finger guns to match Mike's and then imitates his gunfire noises.]

[whatarenext]

Oh no.

[Mike dramatically rolls to the ground.]

It's time to bring out the big guns.

[Mike takes off his shoe and...tosses it towards the robot.]

It's a grenade!

[It's not.]

[ilovepuppies]

[Star has a lot on her mind, what with a clear villain being elected mayor and Freddie gone missing, so she's not looking where she's going and runs right into the automaton aberration.

And then she screams.]

[tadaishi]

[Why scream? It's only a robot.

It's not sure how to process this, so it does the next best thing.

Screams back. Or rather, crackles loudly in response to her scream. Is this how you socialize?]

[ilovepuppies]

[Oh, it's going to scream back.

Okay, now she's going to summon her morning star and scream louder.]

[flowersonthewall]

M-Meep?!

[Beaker squawks in alarm and ducks his head into his shirt. He spends a few moments cowering away from the robot before realize it's... Not acting aggressive. He peers his head up tentatively, eyeing the animatronic.

It says "Hello". Beaker tilts his head.

The robot's not immediately attacking him, nor does it appear to have any weapons strapped to it. So it... hopefully isn't made by Bunsen? And hopefully, it won't try to kill him as soon as it's close enough to try.

Beaker waves back. Hi?]

[tadaishi]

[It's not aggressive. It actually even stops when it encounters Beaker, giving the closest approximation to peering curiously at him as it can. It's also unarmed, unless you consider bad fashion to be a weapon.]

M͏è̢e͟p͏͢?͟?

[It extends a hand for the muppet to shake, jerkily kneeling to be closer to Beaker's level.]

[flowersonthewall]

M... Mi-muh-meep mi?

[Your meepspeak accent is terrible Beaker looks enthused, now, gently shaking the bot's hand. Definitely not one of Bunsen's inventions, then, or it would've already blown him to smithereens. He examines the hand clasped in his own, marveling at the craftsmanship.]

Meep-mi? Mimimi muhmeemuhmi...

[tadaishi]

{It doesn't want to blow up the muppet, it wants to understand it.

...Not that it can, it doesn't have the processing power for that yet.]

Mimimi muhmeemuhmi Me͟e҉p̀mi?

[This is a distorted version of Beaker's voice! It's just repeating Beaker now, sorry buddy.]

[flowersonthewall]

[Well... Mimicry is the highest form of flattery?

Beaker's usually not a fan of others parroting him. It normally comes off as mocking or malicious, or just plain rude. But this is a robot, and robots are different.

So now Beaker's gonna talk up a storm, giving this bot plenty to try to learn.]

Meep! Mimuh-miee-muh meepmi-mimi-mi, muhmimi-muhmeep miip mi muh mii meep muhmi? Minimuh muh meep mii-ii, muhmimieepmini meep.

[kindaruledatit]

[.....Waves back.


Slowly reaches for her axe card.]

Hey there, buddy. You're sure, uh... missing a head there.

[tadaishi]

Mi̛s͡s̸in͘g͞ h̡e͘a̷d. ͝Head͢.

[It doesn't make any moves to pull anything out itself, but it does reach up to touch the box and wires that serve as its head currently.]

Ni͘c͘e ͘tǫ m̧eet ̶ỳo҉u.͜. Hello.

[kindaruledatit]

...Yeah, nice to meet you too.

[She watches it for a moment, turns to look out at the park, squinting to see if there's any hidden cameras around here. Had she walked onto a prank? Was that what this was?

She cups her hands over her mouth and calls out.]

Uhh, hey! Anyone lose a robot? [...] A polite, headless robot?

[tadaishi]

[Fortunately (?), she's not being filmed. Also fortunately, the robot's owner is relatively near instead of on the other side of the park or something, so he shows up relatively quickly.

And somewhat out-of-breath.]

Wendy! You found him, great...he hasn't been bothering you, has he?

[kindaruledatit]

Oh, Tadashi, hey.

[Fortunately, she's pretty glad to have another Human around, and it's Tadashi.]

Him? Oh yeah, totally talked my ear off. [With a shake of her head, she laughs.] Nah, dude, just barely met him.

[tadaishi]

[Phew.]

Great...he's not actually dangerous, but I haven't really beta-tested him outside yet...or with other people.

[kindaruledatit]

Soooo why's he out here?

[tadaishi]

Temporary lapse of consciousness.

[kindaruledatit]

So you dozed off and it slipped out.

[Huh. Hands on her hips, she regards the bot for a couple seconds before looking back at Tadashi.]

...Well hey! Looks like it passed a test drive. And look, it's not even dead yet.

[tadaishi]

...Yeah, basically. But I liked my version better.

[Said robot imitates her stance. This is helpful, right?]

'Yet'. I hope it stays that way for a while.

[kindaruledatit]

Hey, I won't tell if he doesn't.

[If it is a "he". She won't judge.]

...Yeah well, you might want to keep it away from like.... Marnie.

[hallotween]

[...

roughly shoves the robot.]

[tadaishi]

[Wow, rude. What has it ever done do you, Marnie?

It's fairly light for its size, so it goes stumbling backwards quite a bit, but stays upright.]

Nice to meet͢ y͞o̕u҉.͏.

[It's already traumatized.]

[hallotween]

Who sent you.

[shoves again]

[tadaishi]

[Why you shove, child? It does fall over this time, hitting the ground rather loudly. It's fine, it'll just sit here on the ground.]

I̶ ͟cóm̀e ̷i̵n peace.

[C'mon, you can trust the robot who may or may not be attempting to pass as a tourist.]

[hallotween]

[... okay she understands now she's seen movies.]

Tell your masters we have enough problems around this place without aliens coming in to stick their noses in our business, robot.

[beakie]

Oooh!

[Beaker waves enthusiastically back at the robot. Incredible! He carefully approaches, tilting his head to the side. Doesn't look particularly aggressive, but...well, you never know with prototypes.]

Meemiimeep meemoo?

[tadaishi]

[This prototype is fairly non-aggressive. Also didn't it just meet you a little bit ago?]

Meemoo?

[It'll kneel down once Beaker gets close enough and hold one (rather skeletal) hand out for a handshake.]

[beakie]

...Meep!

[Alright, that robot just said "candle", but he appreciates the effort nonetheless. Beaker shakes the robot's hand, utterly fascinated. It doesn't look quite as complex as the animatronics here, but it has similar functions--speech recognition, facial recognition...all the recognitions. Clearly built by someone who knows a thing or two about robots.]

Meemiimeep meemoo meep meemii?

[Does it happen to know who it was built by?]

[allknowledgegoodknowledge]

[Stares at monstrosity. Sip tea.]

....Good morning, dear, and how are you?

[tadaishi]

[Rude.

Not that said monstrosity cares what it looks like, but whatever.]

Hello a̧nd́ g͏o͘o̷d͘ morning. Nice to m̕e͞e̸t ͏y̷ou.

[It's a polite abomination.]

[allknowledgegoodknowledge]

[Hey, she has a fondness for most monstrosities, especially polite ones.]

What a pleasure to meet you as well! Enjoying a walk in the sun, I take it?

[lusito]

[Joshua's on his break right now drinking coffee, when he notices Tadashi run past, shrugs, and returns to his magazine. Only to then see Tadashi run past again in the other direction, and then after a little while, return back again, which gets Joshua to put his drink down now.]

Is there a reason why you're running around in a panic right now?

[tadaishi]

[Joshua is possibly sustained by regular consumption of coffee, so that's not entirely surprising. Honestly, Tadashi didn't really notice his presence until Joshua actually spoke up, so he stop abruptly just before going off in a completely different direction.]

My uh...I sort of lost the project I was working on and I have no clue where it could have gone...

[The city and parks are good-sized and he can't be everywhere at once.]

[lusito]

... How did you lose something like that? That robot of yours isn't exactly subtle on the eyes, dear.

[tadaishi]

It kinda walked off. Literally.

[At least Joshua isn't judging it for not having skin (yet).]

[lusito]

I'm not sure whether I should be impressed your project has already developed far enough along to do that, or shocked that you didn't notice it having left until it was too late.

[tadaishi]

You could be impressed.

[Validate his skills, Josh, he'll love you more.]

But I mean, it can't do much right now besides mimic speech and walk around.

[Let's just not mention the accidental nap that allowed said project to walk off.]

[lusito]

[well]

Given that it's you, it's very rare for me to not be impressed by what you do.

[seasonthree]

[these people and their weird technology. he's still not used to it at all and he hates it actually. fuckin scares him.

anyway hi tadashi have a question:]

What in the hell is a "robot"?

[tadaishi]

[That's probably bad. There's a lot of technology here.]

It uh...it's a kind of machine that's programmed to do certain tasks. Usually they're at least mostly human-shaped...why?