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The Jon often sat in front of the stove and just stared at it for hours. Peter Walter the First would stop by and ask questions like, "What are you doing? Who are you talking to? Why are you singing to a brass stove?"
One day, he replied, "This is going to be my big brother some day. I'm making sure he's ready."
Peter blinked, made a mental note of this, turned on his heel, and shuffled away. No one paid any mind to it. That was how it went, until Peter decided he needed another robot.
There was a rather heated argument between him and Iris about how metal doesn't grow on trees. Rabbit sat in the next room, looking back and forth between the two humans.
"Oh," A soft, chipper voice said from the hallway, "It's happening already?"
Rabbit turned, raising an eyebrow, "What's happening?"
"Hatchworth, he is about to be built," The Jon said as if it were common knowledge that the old stove in the kitchen was about to become another one of her younger siblings.
She blinked, not hearing of the name until now, "Who's th-th-th-that?"
The Jon shrugged, "I don't know. I can just... feel it." Without another word he turned and hopped away.
Many months later, it was true. Another robot was about to be powered on, named Hatchworth for lack of a better name. The five other robots gathered around, peering at the strange little automaton before them.
He had no upper lip, so before it happened, The Jon stood up and yelled, "Oh! Wait! I forgot something!" He opened up his shirt and reached in the void of his chest.
"Hang on, that's not it--- hi, Keith, I'll get you some fish food later--- A-ha!" He took out his hand and in it lay an orange moustache, which he proceeded to ceremoniously but on the robot, "There! Now we're ready!"
Taking his spot in the middle again, the five waited for Hatchworth's eyes to open. It took longer than expected, but they finally did. Except his eyes were rolling individually like little golf balls, unable to focus.
"Oh! I have just the thing!" It was Rabbit this time who stood. She ran out of the room, was gone for a minute or two, then ran back in with a pair of glasses. Perching them on her brother's nose, she said, "Don't ask me where I got these."
Finally, his eyes focused, and he looked around the room and to the robots in front of him. Eyes landing on The Jon, he smiled and said his first word.
"Fam-il-y!"
~~~
"Boat?"
"Boat."
"Like the brrbrbrbrbrbrb type of boat Ra-bbit talks about in her sailing stor-ies?"
"Yup."
The Jon and Hatchworth often walked around, talking about concepts. Sometimes they'd sit across from each other and imitate each others beeps and whirrs. It was rather calming in a way. One day, Hatchworth asked a different type of question.
"The Jon? Am I the youngest or are you?"
The Jon considered this, "Well, I suppose if we're going by age, you'd be older than me because you're older than me as a stove, but also younger than Upgrade cause she was technically adopted, but you powered on after me so, I suppose it's up to interpretation."
"Oh, okay," and that was just that.
~~~
When Hatchworth was vaulted, The Jon stayed by the vault door for quite a while. Weeks? Months? Years? No one was sure. Time was weird. When someone leaves, it gets slower, but when The Jon is around, everything was weirder. All the same the first robot to see Hatchworth when he got out had to be The Jon.
Hatchworth stepped out of Peter Walter VI's workshop, dazed by the sudden change of light. He was immediately leaped on by his younger older brother. Startled for a moment, he hugged back quickly enough.
"Family?"
"Family."