Chapter Text
“Hi, everyone! M14 here. We're going to be patrolling your city today to help keep those Sangvis Ferri troops away. So if you were worried about them, you can be calm now, 'cause there's no way they'd ever dare attack this place with us around! We're here to help, so let us know if you need anything, okay?”
When the giant M14 finished speaking, the few people who had stayed to listen to her went on their way, dispersing into the rest of the city and leaving her alone in the middle of the street.
“Oh. Okay,” she sighed. It was the third time she'd tried introducing herself to a group and the third time they'd all left without a word. She had told herself not to make too much of it the first time, but having it happen thrice was more disheartening that she cared to admit.
When Griffin & Kryuger had offered to upgrade her to this larger, 80-foot model, M14 had readily agreed, thinking only of how much better she'd be at keeping people safe. But now that she was this big, it seemed no one felt safe around her. There had always been people who were uneasy about her being an android, even back when she'd been a more normal size, but at least back then there had also been people who trusted her and treated her almost like a human. Now the only ones who did were other T-Dolls and the people at G&K.
Maybe people just needed more time to adjust to giant T-Dolls like her. She only hoped it wouldn't take too long.
“Wonder how FNC is doing...”
-----
“Hey! Do any of you guys have some chocolates you could spare?” the giant FNC said, leaning over a group of people she had suddenly accosted. They shuffled around, giving each other awkward glances and digging around in their pockets before finally looking back at her and shaking their heads. “Aw, nuts! How come no one's got any chocolate around here?”
FNC straightened back up to her full height of seventy feet and left the group without another word, going out to look for someone else who might have chocolate for her.
If she had known how hungry she would get in this new giant body of hers, there's no way FNC would have let G&K make the upgrade. She had thought being so big would mean that she could eat whole boxes of sweets without growing full, but it turned out that even those boxes couldn't satisfy like even just one chocolate bar had before.
Of course, she knew that she'd have a lunch break in just a couple hours and then G&K personnel would bring her food, but she was too hungry to wait that long! “Ohhh, if only someone could give me some snacks,” she groaned, having found no one yet.
The city streets were mostly empty, partly because the recent attacks carried out by Sangvis Ferri troops against nearby settlements had left people on edge, but also because everyone was trying to avoid her after seeing how she was acting, so it took her a minute to find someone else she could ask for chocolate from.
“Hey, you!” she said once she finally found a man walking alone. She hurried over to him, never noticing how plainly scared he was to see her coming over. At her approach he took some steps back before losing his balance and falling back from looking up at her face. “You got any chocolate you could give me? Please say yes; I'm sooo hungry!” FNC said, crouching over the poor guy.
“Ch-chocolate? No, I don't have any, s-sorry. B-but, maybe you could try asking at the candy store?”
FNC perked up at those last words. “Candy store? Where is it?”
“It's somewhere downtown. I'm sure you'll find it in no time if you just go look around.”
“Oh, but I really don't want to waste any time looking for it. How about you help me find it?” FNC said, already reaching to pick the man up without waiting for his answer.
“Whoa!” the man gasped as she set her hand down beside him and quickly moved him so he was resting on her hand, her fingers curled firmly around him from the chest down, leaving only his head and arms free. Immediately he was lifted into the air, being held in front of the giant T-Doll's face.
“Alright, which way do I go first?” FNC asked.
“W-well, uh, downtown is that way,” the man said, pointing to her right.
“Okay!” FNC started heading down the street to where the man had directed her. “Candy store, here I come!”
-----
After a couple more fruitless introductions, M14 thought maybe she'd find more success with a different strategy. Instead of going around and walking up to people, she decided to try standing in one spot and letting people come to her instead. So she stood at the corner of what looked like a fairly busy intersection and started waiting.
“Hope we're not obstructing traffic too much,” she thought once she got there, noticing that her feet took up most of the sidewalk, but it turned out to be a pointless worry as once she planted herself on that intersection, pedestrians simply stopped coming. The sidewalks remained empty for one block in each direction, the only people passing through being those who were going to or from one of the surrounding buildings, and always hurrying along and avoiding looking at her. M14 wasn't sure, but she thought there were also less cars passing through than there had been at first.
After fifteen minutes, M14 started to think she should leave, but ultimately decided to stay put until lunch break at least, just in case this strategy did eventually work.
Standing there with nothing to do, her mind began to wander, and she got so distracted that she didn't notice the woman walking down the street until she heard her voice.
“Morning, M14!”
Looking down, the giant T-Doll smiled as she recognized Kalina, the Commander's main adjutant. “Good morning, Miss Kalina!” she said, happy to finally have someone to talk to. “What brings you to the city? Are you here to check up on us?”
“Nope! It's my day off so I'm not doing any work today. I was just heading downtown to do some shopping when I saw you and decided to come say hi. So tell me, how's the job been so far?”
“Oh, it's been alright, we guess. A bit, boring, though. Would be nice if there was someone we could talk to, but no one wants to get close to us. You're the first human who's spoken to us since we started work.”
“Well, don't feel too down about it. I'm sure people just need some time to adjust to your new body. Heck, it even took me a while before I was comfortable around the giant models, and I'm as comfortable around regular T-Dolls as you can get! But if you just want someone to talk to, what about the other T-Doll? Wasn't there supposed to be another model with you?”
“You mean FNC? We haven't seen her since this morning. She's supposed to patrol the other side of town, so we don't have much opportunity to talk to her.”
“Makes sense. Well, listen, if you want to do something a bit less boring, how about you come downtown with me? We can chat on the way there, and maybe we'll find someone else who's not as scared of you.”
“Oh, we'd love to go with you! But... wouldn't that go against our job? We're supposed to be guarding the city from Sangvis troops, not going shopping.”
“Part of your job is to make people feel safe, isn't it? If people see the two of us together, having a friendly conversation, they'll see that you're no danger to them and then they'll feel safer around you. So you see, you'd still be doing your job; and if anyone says otherwise, I'll tell them you were only following my orders, okay?”
M14 smiled. “If you put it like that, sure, we'd be glad to accompany you! Do you want a ride, or would you rather walk there by yourself?”
“A ride sounds great! Um... You have been trained on how to handle humans, right?”
“Sure have! We passed with flying colors!” M14 boasted as she crouched beside Kalina, holding her hand flat on the ground for her. After stepping onto the T-Doll's open palm, Kalina was lifted to her shoulder where she got off, perching by her neck. “Alright, just tell us where you want to go!”
Kalina briefly gave her some directions, then held on to M14's hair and shirt for balance as the giant android started walking. Despite her gigantic size, they only went about twice as fast as Kalina would have gone by herself, as M14 had to pace herself to avoid jostling Kalina. Even after Kalina told her she could go a bit faster, she still refused—she just couldn't handle the thought of accidentally hurting someone.
Ever since she'd gotten this bigger body, M14 had felt a heightened responsibility to everyone around her. To see a regular-sized person, whether human or T-Doll, safe and happy next to her, to hold them in her hands and now that she would do anything to protect them, was the most magical feeling in the world bar none.
Normal people just seemed so weak and frail to her at her new size, like little porcelain dolls that might break if they so much as fell over. Even if she knew they could handle themselves, sometimes she just wanted to stay with them forever and make sure nothing would ever hurt them. All that only made it more painful to know that they saw her as something just shy of a monster.
But chatting with Kalina, she could forget all that and almost believe, at least for a little bit, that she was back to her previous size, just a regular T-Doll walking around the city. Even the pedestrians they passed on their way didn't seem as scared of her as they were before, with more people now standing aside and giving them a curious look, wondering at the brave woman who dared to ride this giantess and at the unexpectedly normal conversation they were having. Even those who moved out of the way at her approach didn't seem in as much of a hurry.
Once they were downtown, Kalina pointed out a store and M14 set her down at the entrance. She waited outside for her where she wouldn't get in the way of pedestrians, of which there were more here than in any other part of the city she'd seen today. They still generally avoided her, but not so much as to go too far out of their way, and some would even pass by on her side of the street. She would greet them as they passed, then they would offer up an embarrassed-sounding greeting of their own before scurrying along. It still wasn't the best, but it was an improvement, at least, and it made M14 very happy. She wondered if FNC had any such luck in making friends today.
-----
“This is the place?” FNC asked as she stopped before a building with a big candy cane-patterned logo in front.
“Y-yes, this is it. Now, can you please let me go?”
“Sure thing. Thanks for the help, mister!” FNC knelt down, lowering the man to the ground, where he quickly stood and joined the throng of people trying to get far away from the giant android. She leaned over with her hands on the ground, lowering her face to peer in through the storefront. “Hello?” she called, pushing the doors open with a finger. “Do you guys have any boxes of chocolate in there?”
“Y-yes?” one of the clerks replied.
“Oh, good! Give me ten of them. No, make it twenty!”
“What? No! I'm not giving you anything!”
“Huh? How come?”
“Does it matter? We're not going to give you our chocolates, now please leave; you're scaring our customers.”
“In a second; I'll just grab the chocolates myself,” FNC said, carefully sliding her hand through the open door and reaching for the chocolates at the back. “I'll pay for them once I grab them, okay?”
“H-hey, stop!” the clerks said, rushing over to her hand and trying to hold it back, fighting valiantly against her snatching fingers but finding themselves quickly pushed back all the same. While the customers inside ran to the back corners to get as far from the giant T-Doll as they could.
-----
After Kalina finished her shopping and M14 picked her up, the two of them noticed a bunch of people all going the same way a couple blocks away. They went over and tried to ask then what was going on, but most of them turned around and hurried away at the sight of M14. After asking her to be put down and pulling one of the people aside, Kalina learned that there was a giant T-Doll causing trouble and told M14.
“You think it's FNC?” M14 asked.
“Who else could it be? I'll go see what's going on. You stay put for now until all these people are gone; we don't need them getting any more spooked than they already are. Once the street's clear, then you can come over in case I need your help, got it?” M14 nodded and Kalina set out, weaving between all the people who were coming the opposite way until she finally rounded a corner and saw FNC on the ground, her arm almost shoulder-deep inside a store. “FNC? What on Earth are you doing?”
“Oh, hi, Miss Kalina!” FNC said, giving her a quick glance while Kalina sprinted over to her. “I got hungry while I was on the job so I came to get some chocolates, but they wouldn't sell me any so I'm grabbing them myself, only now the clerks won't even let me get them! It's just a little snack, I don't see what the big deal is.”
“Were you going to take them without paying?”
“No; I told them I'd give them the money once I got the chocolates.”
“Okay, FNC, leave them alone; I want to talk to them.” FNC pulled her hand out of the building, allowing Kalina to step inside. “Is she telling the truth?” she asked the clerks.
“Yes, she is.”
“And why wouldn't you sell her the chocolates?”
“Are you kidding? Why would an android have any spending money, especially a big one like her? They're not even real people. What would they even need it for? Besides, even if she's got the money, you think people would feel safe coming here if they knew we had a giant android as one of our customers?”
“Oh, good grief,” Kalina sighed, shaking her head.
“FNC? So it really was you,” M14 said outside, having finally arrived at the street.
“Hi, M14!” FNC said, standing to greet the other T-Doll.
“What were you doing scaring all those people?”
“Scaring people? What do you mean?”
“There were a bunch of people running away from this place, talking about a giant T-Doll causing trouble. You really didn't notice that?”
FNC shook her head. “I guess I was too busy with other stuff.”
“Is that all you have to say for yourself? Don't you see that you're making it harder to win peoples' trust? They were already scared of us as it was, and now they have good reason to be. You have to be more responsible and stop acting like you're still the same size as before, or else you could really hurt someone.”
“I never really thought about that before, but... I guess you're right.” FNC said, crouching next to the building again and peering inside. “Sorry about the trouble. I promise I won't cause any trouble again.”
“Well?” Kalina said to the clerks.
“... Sure, I guess we can forgive you.”
“Oh, good! And can I buy the chocolate from you now?”
“Fine, fine, you can have the chocolate. Just give us the money first.”
After they made the sale, Kalina left the store and said some things to FNC, basically reiterating what M14 had told her. FNC promised she'd work on being more careful with people, then M14 picked Kalina up to take her back, both of them bidding FNC good-bye as they left.
“Looks like you did a good job setting FNC straight,” Kalina said.
“You think so? We just hope people won't hold what she did against us forever.”
“Oh, I'm sure people will forgive her if she really tries to be better. But, you know, I think you already did a lot to patch things up back there. I can tell you all the customers inside looked really grateful to you for saying what you did to her.”
“Really? It doesn't feel like we did much of anything, though.”
“Maybe not, but those people felt like you did. I'm sure you'll see some people being more comfortable with you tomorrow, even if some others are more wary,” Kalina said as they arrived at her destination and M14 set her back down. “Anyways, I'll see you tomorrow. Oh, and I'll make sure the commander learns what a good job you did today. Bye!”
“Bye,” M14 said. After Kalina went into her apartment building, the T-Doll left, wondering if Kalina was right. Even if she wasn't, though, M14 could at least be happy knowing she'd helped people out today. She would gladly accept a bit of distrust from the people she was protecting, as long as she could keep them safe.