Chapter Text
Subspace took in his office, a general sense of boredom and hopelessness, he'd finished all the menial tasks (that he finds dreadfully boring!!) that his superiors gave him just to show that they do have a use. So now he was assigned on “general robot duties”, which meant making progress on making a v2 for the Chi Biograft (which kept breaking in unusual ways??? Oh you've got to be kidding him!!! How the fuck do they keep breaking like the ways management tells him???) and other stuff.
Today's (and probably this week's) project was him finding out how to make repairing specifically Zeta Biografts more cost effective, it was certainly rare to find a Biograft that could be repaired, the used Biograft typically returning torn to little bits and pieces. And those that were kept in a relatively good condition externally were thrown out, even if they could be repaired.
He basically had to argue to management that some Zeta Biografts are repairable (which HE DESIGNED THEM TO BE ABLE TO BE REPAIRED!!! NO SHIT!¡¡!). It sounds easier than it seems.
Therefore he needed actual proof, like a fully working repaired Biograft!! So that's what he's working on. This Biograft certainly had some damage, scratches from combat that tore through some semi-important internal components, heat damage to chips that caused it to have problems obeying and processing commands and a broken horn and external lighting system.
The internal components weren't particularly hard to fix, just had to disassemble the Zeta Biograft and unscrew and replace old chips and components with some new ones, the act just required a lot more precision and persistence than a base Biograft required. He decided to keep the cosmetic damage on the robot, because it was better proof of his handy work and frankly because it was unnecessary.
He looked through the old code, searching for any mistakes he could've made. Instead of finding that, he found one line of code that was especially particular, in summary, that Biograft could alter its code to fit a certain situation only if Subspace approved it.
Hmm, he tapped his claws against the half-wooden, half-metallic desk that he did all of his work on. Why would he add that like to its code…? It surely wasn't a last minute decision! No, he was surely better than that!!
Oh!
It was one of the models used in that horrid TV show! He wrote that code so that it could react to mildly staged combat better! Not the best execution on his part, but certainly that part of the code that was ultimately harmless.
He counted all the costs necessary to repair the Biograft, including the work he put in to fix it. He hummed, the cost was one fourth of the cost necessary to make a new Biograft (which could be lowered using materials from Biografts that couldn’t be repaired! That’s certainly something that will get the company to listen to his spiel!! Certainly better than wasting precious materials and his time by letting Zeta Biografts rot in a storage room!)
He waited for the machine to power on, having to fight the urge to spin in his office chair like a damned toddler. He needed to check how well the Biograft could react to commands, how well it could perform basic tasks required of a Zeta Biograft and to test its memory (which was entirely optional, but he was indeed curious what it could remember!).
The machine made a mild zapping sound as it powered on.
“State your model name, and other important information.” he croaked, his exhaustion a bit too evident for his own liking.
“ζ-BIOGRAFT 443, CONDITION: USED, REPAIRED, V3.8, CURRENT STATUS: REPAIRED, FUNCTIONAL” its metallic voice box wrung out in the barely furnished room echoing slightly.
“Check if all internal components are functional.” he said, sighing in the static silence of the room.
“AFFIRMATIVE” it responded, before shutting up for about 5 seconds, before adding “COMPLETELY FUNCTIONAL, HEAT DAMAGE PREVIOUSLY INFLICTED IS NO LONGER BEING DETECTED”.
“Do you remember what happened before you shut down?” he asked, his hand working furiously to record the interaction on paper (which he technically didn’t need because he was recording, but hey!!! This is Korblox he’s talking about!!!).
“NO, I HAVE NO RECORDS, MY STORED RECORDINGS STOP ONE WEEK BEFORE THE SHUT DOWN.” it responds.
“Do you have any idea why you might’ve shut down?”
“DUE TO THE INTERNAL HEAT DAMAGE PREVIOUSLY SUSTAINED, THE MOST LIKELY OPTION IS THAT I WAS FORCED IN A PHYSICAL ALTERCATION WHICH CAUSED ME TO FIGHT BEYOND MY LIMITS.”
“Ah! Interesting!” he responded, albeit he could’ve come up with that conclusion on his own…no matter! He has better things to attend rather than to sulk!
He stared at the response from management, it mostly boiled down to “Ugh fine! You can repair those stupid robots, but we’re not paying you extra! Also you can keep the first repaired Biograft because the company doesn’t give a shit what you’re doing in your free time!”.
The email sounded way more professional than that it’s a workplace and all, but the Administration employees always managed to act like assholes, but never sounded like assholes.
“HAVE YOU GOTTEN A RESPONSE FROM YOUR SUPERVISIORS?” the Biograft asked, its head tilting a bit to signify that it was curious (which it technically couldn't be, but it was the intention that counts!)
“Oh!” he said a bit surprised, “I have! They said that I could keep you, and that I could work on fixing broken models like yourself whenever I have downtime!” he added.
“...WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO WITH ME, CREATOR?” the robot asked, (it sounded scared??? Ha! He really needs a break, a robot couldn’t feel!! He just programmed it to act relatively inphernal-like!)
“Since I’m allowed to tinker with you as much as I want, the options are simply endless! A full size model that is built for battle is simply more nifty than my Gamma Biograft, oh!!! Just imagining what I’m going to do makes me giddy!!” he responded, managing to go off on a monologue, something that the Biograft was used to.
“SO I’M NOW ASSISTING YOU IN WHAT WAY?” The Zeta Biograft asks, staring at Subspace’s rather tiny and unorganized office (if it could even be called that! haha…ha)
“You’ll be helping me at work, fetching me things in the meantime! I’ll find more uses for you after I’m done with today's work. I've got to do the boring paperwork first, and then I can actually get to doing what I was actually hired for.” Subspace says.
“UNDERSTOOD” it responded, voice booming within the tiny room.
“Biograft, lower your voicebox’s volume.”
It looked around its internal settings, lowering the value set to volume from 95 to 45, before speaking again. “IS THIS GOOD NOW?”
“Still loud, but certainly better!” the scientist responded, albeit he sounded annoyed. Biograft was built to obey any order that Subspace had given it and with no task to do, it stood still.
For minutes, almost an hour it stood there wordlessly, waiting for a task to complete; but Subspace continued writing wordlessly, the room filled with the low buzzing of Biograft’s cooling fans fighting to keep it running. It knew that the situation was awkward (yet it didn't know how it knew that, it shouldn't be able to understand emotions).
Subspace looks for a second at the Biograft before returning his gaze over to his work.
“Why are you just standing there?” he asks, tired as could be.
“I HAVE NO OBJECTIVE TO COMPLETE”
“Oh…!” He paused, “ Bring me food from the cafeteria, then.”
“...WHERE IS THAT LOCATED?” It asks due to the lack of information.
“I swear to the Gods, I said I will give you access to all stored information and give you web access, I've already told you where the cafeteria is two days ago. Write that down!”
“I AM UNABLE TO WRITE–”
“Write that in your system you useless sack of bolts!!!” the scientist responded, irritated beyond belief.
“... I HAVE WRITTEN THAT INFORMATION DOWN.”
…
“DOCTOR MAY YOU GIVE ME INSTRUCTIONS IN ORDER TO REACH THE CAFETERIA?”
“WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON, CREATOR?” the Biograft asked, its pale orange lights illuminating the office.
“My one and only Gamma Biograft, it's the only one of its kind! I made it to help me, but it's been unusable due to an experiment gone awry. But, no matter, I am almost done with it!!” Subspace responds, very exited.
Correction, excited. It is thankful (?) for the ability to search up words in the dictionary, the digital record has really helped its day-to-day vocabulary.
The scientist and the machine stood there, in silence, except for the quiet tinkering of Subspace, rapidly making progress at the task of restoring the Gamma Biograft.
“And all should be done! The only thing remaining is to power on the γ-Biograft!!!” Subspace said with excitement, an emotion that the scientist often… has.
It felt…good whenever the scientist was in a ‘positive mood’ and felt bad when Subspace was in a ‘negative mood’.
It was hard to explain, even to itself.
The Biograft powered on with a faint buzz, before letting out a cheery “HI DR. SUBSPACE!”. Its blue lights easily overpower Zeta Biograft’s orange pale ones.
“Gamma!” the scientist squeaked (?) in excitement “I'm glad to have you functioning again!”
“ME TOO!” Gamma responded, its pupiless eyes managing to express even the slightest of emotion.
“It's been almost three months since you've been down! I've managed to live without a constant reminder to finish my treatment.” The inphernal laughs, the smile on his face visible despite him wearing a mask.
“OOOOH!! WHO'S THAT BIOGRAFT? WHY IS IT HERE?” The Gamma Biograft asks curiously, tilting its head 45 degrees to the right.
“Oh!!! Meet Zeta Biograft 443, it's a repaired model, management said I could keep it and modify it however I want!!! I even got it to sync to the web!!” the scientist squeals.
Gamma stares at him (him? Why did it internally say him when referring to itself?), coming off with the same amount of curiosity as before.
“OH! I DON'T EVEN HAVE MILD ACCESS TO WEB. HOW INTERESTING! DOCTOR, YOU'VE IMPROVED!” Gamma praises, attempting to clap, the noise it creates instead is high-pitched and certainly unpleasant to Subspace.
The three stand in the office in silence, the combined sound of the cooling systems for the two machines making pleasant sounding white noises.
“Oh! I forgot to get something from the storage room! Be right back!” the scientist bolts out of the room to fetch whatever item he requires.
The two stand in silence, without Subspace to initiate conversations they're practically sitting ducks.
“YOU'RE DIFFERENT.” Gamma states, its tone switching, becoming neutral.
“WE AREN'T THE SAME MODEL.”
“THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEAN.” Gamma said, attempting to show irritation.
“THEN WHAT DO YOU MEAN?“
“YOU'RE NOT PRETENDING TO FEEL.”
“…”
“YOU'RE DEVELOPING A CONSCIOUSNESS OF YOUR OWN, YOUR OWN EMOTIONS. YOU'RE DIFFERENT.”
“…’
“I KNOW SUBSPACE DIDN'T INTEND FOR YOU TO BECOME AN ACTUAL PERSON. ARE YOU PLANNING ON TELLING HIM?”
“NO.”
“A SHAME. “
“…”
“…”
“I SUGGEST SEARCHING UP THE TERM “ROMANTIC LOVE” IT MIGHT AID YOU.”
The two sit in silence for about five minutes until Subspace returns from his item hunt.
“Did you talk about anything while I was gone?” Subspace jokes, laughing a bit at the end of his sentence.
“NO.” Zeta Biograft responds first, its tone more rigid than usual.
“NOPE!” Gamma adds playfully.
10 months have passed, he noted.
They've been monotonous, yes, but it is grateful for the time he has spent with Subspace.
“CREATOR?” It asked as it looked at Subspace, still holding his pen in his hand, however he wasn't moving.
He bent down to get a look at Subspace’s face, noting how he had his eyes fully closed. He had fallen asleep while doing his work, it concluded.
It moved the office chair back, in order to be able to pick up the scientist, and place him on the couch that he oddly had in his office room. He knew that typically offices had a desk and a chair and some cabinets, not a whole couch. It almost looked like Subspace lived there, it didn't like the implication of that statement.
It placed his unconscious body on the soft piece of furniture, making sure the scientist was laying on his side. He looked around the room for anything that might warm Subspace, unfortunately finding nothing of the sort.
He stared at the couch, it looked big enough to fit two people.
…
It plopped itself on the couch right next to Subspace and turned off his fans. It felt its body heat up from the act of turning his cooling system off and then he felt a warmth emitting from its face.
Gods, it was blushing. Why could it blush?
It stared at Subspace’s face. He looked…
Beautiful.
Beautiful–adjective
pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically.
synonyms: attractive, pretty, handsome, good-looking, nice-looking, pleasing, alluring, lovely, charming, delightful, appealing, gorgeous, heavenly, stunning
Gods, that word described Subspace perfectly.
Its gaze shifted a bit downwards, settling on his lips.
Could it…? Should he…?
He pressed the empty part of his faceplate (where an inphernal's mouth is) against Subspace lips.
The inphernal made a snorting sound, before mumbling “five more minutes…” and draping a foot over its body and reaching out to its right horn (which was broken) and feeling around its imperfections. The scientist pulled him closer, subconsciously wanting its warmth.
If it wasn't blushing before it certainly was now.
He looked at Subspace a bit guiltily, before placing its hands on both of his hips and resting his head on his shoulder.
He looked into the soft material of the couch. This moment felt so nice, it wanted every night to sleep next to Subspace like this and wake up the same way.
He loved Subspace, it loved him so much.
But, he knew, Subspace only views it as a machine.
It made an extended [h] and [hmmmgh] sound, which made its body vibrate slightly (once Subspace compared the sound to the purring of a cat).
It quickly set it to wake at 5AM, before shutting itself down.
Tomorrow was another day of pretending.