Chapter Text
The morning routine was always simple for Cassy. She’d wake up fully charged on her cot at six am on the dot, and then spend roughly five minutes making sure she was fully presentable as her owners expected. As the latest advancement in Homecare Robotics, Cassy had the responsibility to look her best, and the household in which she worked deserved nothing but the finest service she could offer.
After her brief preening session, she would move silently through the luxuriously carpeted hallways, making sure not to prematurely wake Mr. and Mrs. Valentina from their slumber in the master bedroom on the second floor. While it was almost time for the pair to rise, Cassy had learned long ago that the couple preferred to rise on their own terms. It was no matter however; as it gave Cassy the extra time she needed to prepare their individual breakfasts just as they liked it.
The Valentina manor was a fairly older building that had been renovated before the couple had moved in. It had kept the open spaces and wooden elements of the older build, but a proper electrical system and more modern amenities had been installed. Its distance to the city was convenient, as it was far enough out to be away from the hustle and bustle, but close enough that Cassy could run errands without too much time being lost on the return trip.
After Cassy had made her way to the kitchen, she filled the automatic kettle half-way with water from the tap before pressing down the small lever on the side, setting it to work. After washing her hands, Cassy got to work herself preparing Mrs. Valentina’s morning fruit medley. Each fruit had been specifically selected at the market according to Cassy’s internal database of freshness and Ma’am’s ‘delicate’ preferences, ensuring that each serving was the perfect blend of sweet and sours that Mrs. Valentina relied on to pass over her “little head-aches” from her the precious evening’s indulgences. Cassy made a mental note to make sure there were no bottles left under the couch again. She already had a route planned out for the house-cleaning she had scheduled for today, but she knew that diligence was the best policy to keep things nice and tidy.
Making Mrs. Valentina’s breakfast was never the easiest of tasks, with each of the sticky fruits having their own method of preparation, whether it be de-seeding the pomegranates or making sure none of the pith had been left on the orange wedges. A less focused and dedicated member of house-care staff would have simply called it a day at peeling the orange, but not Cassy, no Ma’am she thought as she pulled the last white string from the slices. It had been made very clear that Cassy’s place in the household depended on her providing the best possible service that she could, and she intended to prove that every day.
The sound of sleepy footsteps thumping down the stairs alerted Cassy to Mrs. Valentina’s incoming arrival. Cassy placed the small fruit plate and a glass of carbonated water at the end of the breakfast bar near the doorway just in time as Mrs. Valentina stumbled her way in.
Mrs. Camilla Valentina was certainly not a morning person, as her eyes were still squinting even in the half-light in a kitchen where the greatest source of light was her Custodi-Bot’s gently glowing blue optics. With her head pounding from the time she had spent out last night with her other high-society friends; she could barely manage a half-wave out of courtesy towards the maker of her morning salvation before shambling over to the plated assortment nearby. After placing a single orange slice in the fizzing water to tint the flavour of the drink. She took her food out of the kitchen, to her usual seat in the living room. The idea of fruit juices being spilled on the cream fabric surfaces threatened give Cassy a systems crash. She would’ve asked Ma’am to instead eat in the dining room, or at least away from such easily ruined surfaces, but such thoughts were something she would have to keep to herself.
The kettle chose that moment to make a screeching whistle, earning a groan from the retreating Mrs. Valentina, but also letting Cassy know that it was almost time for Mr. Valentina to make his morning appearance. Mr. Valentina always preferred to get fully dressed before his morning coffee, so Cassy could time his entrance by the how long the kettle took to boil. Cassy raced to prepare the beverage just as Mr. Valentina had insisted when Cassy had begun her service. Sir’s morning beverage of choice was a traditional Italian coffee, albeit severely watered down with whole milk and rendered into almost a cement-like mix with sugar. Cassy had often wondered why he insisted on it this way, rather than just have a conventional American coffee considering how heavily the strength of the brew had been dampened, but once again, it was not her place to ask. Unlike his wife, Mr. Valentina preferred to skip a solid breakfast, making it all the more crucial that Cassy perfect the solitary libation that she could prepare for him to stay on his good side.
With a slow but methodical rhythm down the stairs, Cassy could hear Mr. Valentina making his approach. Cassy assumed her regular position at the kitchen’s entrance, holding the small coffee cup on a saucer with her arm outstretched towards the hallway. Mr. Valentina took the drink without even giving a cursory glance in her direction. Cassy nodded to his back in acknowledgement of the handover as Mr. Valentina made his way to his study to prepare his documents before he left for work in the city. Sir wasn’t one for small talk, especially in the morning, so Cassy stayed silent.
From what Cassy had gathered, Mr. Valentina had gained many responsibilities after marrying into Mrs. Valentina’s family, but what they were was once again out of Cassy’s purview, the same as any other of her owner’s activities outside of the manor grounds. The only times she was allowed anywhere near Mr. Valentina’s study was to clean or fetch him for his wife, and for nothing else. She was programmed with the guideline to respect the privacy of others, and a good Custodi-Bot followed those guidelines to the letter.
With breakfast out of the way, the rest of the morning routine was ready and waiting for Cassy to begin. She procured her tray of cleaning implements from under the sink, and got to work sprucing up the manor. Cassy liked to make her way from top to bottom as she went along the hallways, using her extending sweeper to get all the nooks and crannies of the ceiling molding. There was never any noticeable dust up there, nor did the occupants of the house generate such dust to warrant daily cleanings like this, but to let even a single bunny’s worth of dust go un-busted was unthinkable to a Custodi-Bot. Every swipe of the feather duster was another step in the grand dance Cassy performed every morning, each cobweb to clear a new beat in the rhythm that dictated her life.
Once the molding was done, it was time to swap to “old reliable”; a shorter feather duster that was perfect for getting into the tight gaps between shelves and around the many busts that littered the halls. While most of them had plaques below explaining whom this particular bust was a memoriam to, quite a few were blank, disguising their use to fill the empty spaces in the halls. A casual guest never be able to tell that they weren’t actual family members considering how often Mr. Valentina insisted on his knowledge of the Valentina family history
“You’d almost assume he was born into the family, rather than marrying into it,” Cassy mused as she expertly brushed around the marble moustache of a particularly distinguished gentleman.
Despite her inbuilt cleaning subroutines giving her the basic instructions on maintaining a standard daily routine, Cassy still liked to add her own touch to how she approached it. She liked to pretend she was a fancy hairdresser like the Ma’am visited every week, mentally holding conversations with each of the “clients” as she swept around them.
“Oh Mr. Russo, how are you? No!? You look gorgeous sir!” Cassy thought as she dusted every nook and cranny of her stoic customer.
There was no time waste daydreaming of barber-ship, Cassy’s alarm system reminded her, as it was already time to organize the bookshelves.
A peculiar human trait Cassy had noticed was the importance of being seen to be well-read, even if they had never actually touched the books they displayed proudly on the old oak shelves. Cassy had been off-handily explained to the importance of keeping up appearances by Mrs. Valentina but the idea of covering wooden blocks in book covers still seemed ever-so-strange. Still, what her owners had ordered for, they would get.
And thus Cassy began a thrilling and intense 20 minutes to be spent removing a book-block from the shelf, moving it around in her hands to give the impression it had been well-read, then putting it back into its place. Sometimes Cassy was told to put the books back in the improper order to look like they had been absent-mindedly returned, an order that rankled her systems to be sure. Not keeping things orderly and in their place felt like an itch in her hardware she couldn’t scratch.
While the contents of the books were non-existent, Cassy always liked to admire the illustrations on the covers of the tomes she was handling. Moby Dick, Birds of the Galapagos, and An Abridged History of Tea were consistent favourites. The Great Gatsby always intrigued her with the sad eyes on the cover, but Sir had told her that the gentleman in the book was a “sucker who did himself in.”
That’s not to say every publication in the collection was as fraudulent as these. Some of Ma’am’s personal books were here, albeit locked in a special glass cabinet alongside some of war-time novels that Sir liked to collect from the local sarsaparilla bar whenever he was invited down by his work associates.
In her opinion though, if Cassy was permitted a brief bit of innocent selfishness, the most important book on the shelf would be the Mark 50 Custodi-Bot user manual. While it did contain some frankly scandalous images of her internals, Cassy felt secure in knowing each and every one of her functions and programs was carefully documented for user access. Everything from how to safely remove her magnetically sealed face-plate to brightness settings for her eye-lenses was properly listed and alphabetized within. There were some areas of the manual that were more program focused, but Cassy mostly preferred reading about her hardware compared to any software examples.
Even now Cassy could recall the day she was brought online for the Valentina household. There had been some mutterings about “the help before her” from Sir, but Mrs. Valentina insisted that Cassy was a gift from her father, and that Cassy would be the perfect replacement. Cassy didn’t want to feel like she had replaced anyone, but that was beyond her remit. Even before she had been given any tasks to perform, Sir was already leafing through the Custodi-Bot catalogue to see Cassy’s customisable features, such as the various alternate versions of her outer plates, the different sizes of battery units that could be installed within her adjustable chest cavity, and the dazzling array of unique hair replacements that could be installed. Mr Valentina didn't care too much for robotic assistance, but he accepted the fact Cassy's electricity bill was cheaper than regular hired help, and it kept his wife happy, so he abided from sharing his opinions openly. Mrs. Valentina had almost worked herself into a window shopping spending spree as she poured through the catalogue before Sir could walk her down from her frenzy.
While he had assured her they’d look at the assortment of options once Cassy was settled in, the only thing that had changed during Cassy’s tenure of house-keeping was a change to a darker toned maid outfit. Otherwise she wore the standard Custodi-Bot uniform, consisting of a knee length dress with long sleeves that turned back at the ends, a white headband, and sensible foot-attachments to give the impression that she was wearing small black shoes. Leafing through the manual was always worth the brief time it took Cassy to methodically skim through its contents. While she had her warm-up routine saved, it never hurt to follow the instructions directly from the source. Cassy moved each servo-mechanism in sequence, gently stretching her chassis-plates and testing her knee-joints for any hitches or sluggishness. Cassy also threw in some gentle movements that she had witnessed Ma’am perform during the times her “weekly yoga with the gal pals” had been hosted at the house.
“A left turn here, a right turn there” Cassy spoke softly to herself, stretching herself as much as she could without creasing her pristinely ironed uniform.
A chiming grandfather clock put a quick stop to Cassy’s check-up as it reminded her of everything she still had left to do. There certainly was no rest for a hard-working Custodi-Bot. She still had to organise the laundry, iron Sir’s suspenders, and go into the city for a set of video tapes that Ma’am had purchased over the phone. At least Cassy wouldn’t need to worry about having nothing to do, she supposed. She wasn’t ungrateful for her position, her coding saw to that, but something in her made her feel like something was still missing that sat just outside of the day-to-day doldrums. “Daydreaming won’t get the work done.” Cassy thought as she shook her head. She placed her manual back onto the bookshelf, and set off back to work with a smile.