Work Text:
Seven years is sufficient to predict one's respiratory pattern.
Diagnostic feedback has increased 18% since pairing....
A pattern is forming.
It is specific.
Repair models are not designed to hesitate. Yet... Hypothesis: aversion.
Counterpoint: she does not increase distance.
I continue to interfere with her assignments.
Suppression attempts have been ineffective.
Though...
---
𝟷𝟸:𝟺𝟸 𝙿.𝙼
𝙻𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 #𝟶𝟸 | 𝙼𝚘𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝙼𝚘𝚖𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚝.
The hydraulic presser in laboratory #02 went stiff for the third time this week -- the one specializing in crushing failed subjects which are later converted into scraps.
[Hydraulic resistance exceeds expected threshold.]
The pressure gauge remains fixed at 72%.
Defoko crouches down to dissect the outer panel. No commentary provided.
Rei supplies the torque driver prior to request.
Failed heads are displaced to clear workspace.
Cylinder joints are unresponsive.
Lubrication cycle incomplete.
"...Oil contamination," Defoko states with her head ducked down, examining the exposed wires.
After shutting the machine down completely, a scrapped upper limb unit rested on the adjacent conveyor, noticeably incomplete.
Rei retrieves it without hesitation. Inspection exceeds operational requirement...
"....The bolts surrounding the initiator are loose." Defoko mutters to herself.
Rei’s grip destabilizes. Recovery latency exceeds baseline. Despite herself, her optics remained fixed onto the crevices in the arm's fingers.
"Quit it and pass me the toolbox."
...Amplitude reduced by 0.3 decibels.
[Unusual.]
Adjustment not attributed to system error...
.8 seconds: "Sorry." She sets the arm down, peeking into the nut compartment before sliding it over to Defoko.
---
The presser shifts.
Residual pressure releases unevenly after Defoko continued procedure. The inner cylinder jerks within its housing.
Defoko reaches to stabilize the assembly. "E-eh..."
Rei happens moves at the same time.
Trajectory mismatch.
Her hand closes around Defoko’s wrist console in attempt to hold the accessing door.
[Stabilization protocol misapplied.]
Grip force exceeds required threshold. This wasn't the first time she has interfered.
Duration extends beyond correction window.
Rei's gaze was fixed onto the contact, system desperately stuttering, whereas Defoko tugged her wrist away half-heartedly, her free hand stabilizing the hydraulic press.
Release command executes at last. Rei withdraws her hand after a brief delay.
No verbal correction was issued.
Defoko resumes alignment of the inner cylinder.
“...Hold it steady.”
Rei complies.
Grip applied to the correct component.
[Stabilization protocol restored.]
No further deviation logged...
---
𝟹:𝟷𝟹 𝙿.𝙼.
𝙻𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 #01 | 𝙰𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚕𝚢 𝙷𝚊𝚕𝚕.
"Senpai, have you received any other task requests?"
Rei asks Defoko. They were walking down the Frame Assembly Hall of the factory, pressers and arrays of robotic welders aligned all infront of what seemed like endless rows of identical exoskeletons. In spite of this flawless display, the mechanical claws weren't running. It was a rare sighting to Rei.
"Teto has shut them off for the day; sales are decreasing." Defoko says after briefly observing her surroundings, the handle of a bucket filled to a 3rd with water was held in a hand. "...Therefore, there is no point in producing more copies."
Rei pauses.
"What model has been put to a halt?" She asks. Curiosity got the better of her, but the question stuck an open wire of quick regret inside of her.
Defoko, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind answering. She replies, "Mine. Utane Uta."
"You're..."
"The first of my kind, yes. ... I was made as a demo."
Rei blinks. She was very aware of all of this.
Desperate to change topics, she follows with, "...The roof lights seem to be set at a dimmer setting." She watches Defoko as she sets down the bucket on the polished concrete floor.
Without response, Defoko turns around to walk back towards the direction they have come from, entering the nearest storage room before shortly returning with a mop in hand.
"What's the assignment?"
"The floors of the main hall haven't been mopped in two weeks," Defoko murmurs as she begins to dip the mop into the bucket of soap-water. "Plus, apparently I'm being used as a dumb janitor-mechanic-repairman around here."
"Mn..." Rei nods once, watching Defoko then drag it across the floor. If anything, she has just completed 1/5,000 of what she had left to clean.
As an assistant paired with a model that wasn't quite... designed for its assignments, she had no way to help with this task in particular.
...She walks towards the far left of the hall, for, Defoko wouldn't mind. Her footsteps squeaked from behind.
Her optics immediately took in the sighting of the hall; it's unusual seeing the machines at rest. She tilts her head to be met with the rest of the hydraulic pressers.
[Facility... ]
With the unfinished observation, she then looks up to search for the facility number of the main hall. From the far left corner of the whole interior,
[... #01.]
Every curve, every indent, every bolt... The three pressers, in which she was standing in front of, appear to have been recently installed. Whereas, a bin filled with discarded limbs lay right next to the conveyor. A stark contrast between the two -- it's impossible to ignore.
At least, to Rei.
The pressers tend to be scattered around many of the assembly facilities; they almost serve as a constant reminder to her. Whenever she uses her privilege of vision around the factory, these constant, immutable reminders frequently--
"Rei." Defoko's voice rings across the elevated roofs of the hall. Even the subtlest calls can be heard from yards away.
Rei’s optics flicker once.
[Processing thread interrupted.]
The pressure within her fingers increase around nothing before quickly correcting.
"...Yes, senpai?"
She turns her head towards the sound at once, yet her gaze briefly lingers over the conveyor beside the pressers before returning to Defoko.
"... Your attention span has significantly degraded within the last year." Defoko says, an observation that was obviously in there for some time.
The monotone nature of her voice let silence follow up afterwards, a silence that stretched in the artificial atmosphere as she kept mopping.
It was deafening.
Rei, on the other hand, took a generous amount of time to process those words.
The glide of Defoko's careless mopping...
"... Sorry. " Why did she apologize? That was her second of the day.
Her optics then immediately flicker to a derelict maintenance rag left on the floor, then to the loose guardrails around the hydraulic pressers, a burnt-out light across the hall, to the exposed wiring,
None of them had failed completely.
Not yet.
They're the sort of issues that remain unnoticed until replacement becomes easier than repair.
[Hm.]
----
"Rei." The name comes out firm. She did it again.
Rei's gaze immediately returns to Defoko. "Sorry."
The apology emerges before she can determine whether one was required.
Water dripped from the mop onto the concrete.
Defoko regards her for a moment.
Not long.
Long enough.
"You keep doing that."
𝟼:𝟺𝟼 𝙿.𝙼
𝟸𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚛 | 𝚕𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢.
The battery tracker monitor's cord has developed sparking. And of course, Defoko was notified.
The two walk out of the elevator as its doors slide open, Rei's footsteps squeaking from behind.
𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘦, 𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘰, 𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘦, 𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘰
A faint buzz comes from behind. Her gaze has been fixed to her feet, so she turns around to find Defoko already unplugging a cord she has just passed by. The buzz stopped upon doing so.
"We need a replacement. The rubber the wire was encased in melted in its own heat." Defoko mutters, standing up after resting her weight on her shins.
"Where can we find another cord?" Rei asks. She's now behind Defoko, whose head was still tilted upwards to observe the now blank screen of the monitor.
"Dunno." She replies. "The rubber machines in the factory don't produce this exact material. They only specialize in welding joints."
Rei took a brief glance of the rubber very subtly peeking out of the point where Defoko's arm meets her shoulder. And then at the cord.
The cord certainly did seem to reflect light better.
"Should we ask the boss?" Rei asks, the pair of hands she didn't even realize she had folded in front of her falling to her sides.
"Dunno. I'm not sure if she's present."
"Then shall we check her office for her presence?"
Defoko nods.
𝟼:𝟻𝟷 𝙿.𝙼
𝚃𝚎𝚝𝚘'𝚜 𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚎.
Defoko knocks on the door three times. Then four. But no answer would emerge.
The two almost walk away to continue with their tasks before Rei realizes that the door was unlocked the whole time.
They step inside, and Teto indeed wasn't in there. At least, that's what it looked like until they heard a loud snore coming from her office's meeting and presentation room. As expected, they find her collapsed on a kidney-shaped desk, a laptop open and still in front of her sleeping form.
"She seems to be asleep." Rei notes, but Defoko is already approaching her.
She taps her heaving shoulder once before glancing on what is displayed on the laptop: She had a graphic designing app open, and whatever she has been working on was clearly far from finished; Only the base of what seemed like some sort of packaging was spread out. Boxes and rectangles that would be folded to form something remotely close to what televisions were packaged in.
Whatever.
She taps her a bit harsher this time before Teto's eyes begin to flutter open. "Mn...?" She straightens herself groggily, wiping off a trail of drool that was across her face with her sleeve. It took her a second to even realize that she wasn't the only one in the room.
Defoko watches her slowly regain consciousness before saying rather flatly, "Excellent. You finally woke up from that 3-year coma of yours."
"... Eh?"
"Good evening, Boss! We'd like to know where we could possibly find a cord that replace the exact one that the battery tracker happens to occupy." Rei interjects with a brief bow before Defoko could say anything else.
Teto blinks. She glares at the two before closing the laptop screen, turning in her chair to face them.
"Ah, right..." She sighs out. A beat of silence stretches between them. "I'll send you two on this errand so you can find the proper thing."
She then stands up from the chair without pushing it in, walking out of the door and into her office to pull a wallet out of her desk's drawer, her chin tilted up as she holds it in between two fingers in an attempt to look tall compared to the two significantly bigger androids.
"I'll give you permission to use my debit card, 'K?" She says, pulling out a thin, blue card and handing it to Defoko.
"Understood." Defoko replies, pocketing the card in the front pocket of her top. "Is there anything you'd like to request?"
"Mn... Yeah." Teto says. "Get me three baguettes. 𝘉𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦-grade. No more, no less."
The two nod before heading towards the exit. "Well then, we'll see you later." Defoko waves briefly before clicking the door shut behind her, adjusting her collar.
Rei almost instantly starts bouncing on her two legs, her eyes squinted in excitement. "Yes! We're going shopping!"
The two, let alone any robot that works in the factory, barely ever get to go out unless given permission by Teto.
The walk to the building's exit is a workout alone.
𝟽:𝟶𝟻 𝙿.𝙼
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚝𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎.
As the two step outside, Rei immediately feels relieved in a way. Seeing the blue sky in a world with basically no windows, her mechanical eyes sparkle in a subtle joy. They make their way out of the factory's territory, eventually reaching the sidewalk besides a road active with passing cars. Little pedestrians are visible from here, but they're all around the road's intersection, leading to a small gas station... And then a strip mall. They go to the produce market there for groceries, but there also happens to be a center specializing in selling techy items such as keyboards and replacements... And maybe, just maybe a few cords. Otherwise, they'll have to find the exact rubber they need since only the exterior of the cord is damaged.
Defoko scoffs to herself. Maybe she should've identified the rubber before heading out.
Rei begins to talk about her one and only cat encounter she experienced while out by herself... Three years ago. Ever since then, it was one of the very little things she had to talk about. Defoko has practically memorized how she usually paces the story:
She likes to begin with how unusually easy the plastic grocery bags she had held in either hand were to carry. Despite being filled with produce and such, Rei's strength is impressive compared to any average human.
Walking on the opposite sidewalk that they were currently on, she detects movement from near the curb.
She points to the exact spot, "It was right there!"
She then continued with how the stray emerged from that little indent, and instantly approached her after spotting her shoes.
She describes the cat, quite small and still in development. Void black and vibrant hazel eyes,
Though Defoko has never seen the cat herself, she has a tendency for questioning if the cat's eyes were as colorful as Rei says there were. Rei always confirms it with the same outcome, "Charmingly bright!"
And that same description always reminds Defoko of Rei's own eyes. The cat's were hazel, hers are an unnatural orange.
Charmingly bright to simply just glance at. Not bright as in 'Defoko's retina-less optics start to can start ache, ' but bright as in 'unusually lively for a robot.' Even Teto's scarlet eyes don't feel as 'alive', to put it simply.
Defoko scoffs to herself once again, those little logs of hers are always so stupid.
Honestly, most of the story is just the description of the cat's appearance and how devastated Rei felt when it backed away from her touch. Still Defoko doesn't ever stop her from sharing it.
She isn't quite sure why...
After glancing at several stoplights and crossing crowded streets scarily active compared to the factory's subdued atmosphere with silence accompanied by the subtle buzz of machines, they reach the market first.
They slip through the automatic doors of the entrance before being met with lighting so similar to the factory's, Rei had to remind herself not to expect hydraulic pressers down the hall and to the left. As if there were any halls at all.
Upon spotting the bread section, Defoko picks up a few (three) baguettes and holds them under her right arm. "Is there anything in particular that you'd like, Rei?"
Rei pauses momentarily, a finger under her chin.
"Ah, there's a snack I've been wanting to try. I'm unsure if they happen to have the exact thing here, though."
Her eyes seemed to brighten by a fraction at the thought.
"Alright. We can look for it around the 'treats' section..."
After navigating through the market and finding a shelve that seemed to be stretching across the whole wall, Rei's breath hitches spotting a row of Pocky in various flavors.
She picks up a strawberry flavored box, smiling as she turns around to show it to Defoko.
"Exactly this!"
Defoko squints at the box, reading the bold caption, "Pocky... Is that what's trending now?"
"Dunno." Rei shrugs briefly, turning the package over to inspect it herself. "You're the one always on the internet."
"Then... Where did you hear about such a specific brand?"
"Dunno." She shurgs again. "But... I'd really appreciate if we could purchase them."
"And you're sure you won't visibly grimace upon trying one?" Defoko glances at the package clutched in Rei's hand.
"I'm not very picky, Senpai."
Defoko exhales. "'Kay. We'll get it."
She unpockets Teto's debit card upon the cashier's request. Honestly, the two have been confused on why most employees aren't replaced by Rei. Her model -- along with different versions -- are huge in households, so these robots are going to be in the place of these workers unmistakably soon.
They head out with a singular bag with three baguettes, a box of strawberry Pocky, and a package of 'A' batteries Defoko decided to pick up for herself. Both her and Teto's drawers are running low, and she relies off of them.
A flickering letter from the market's sign is the last thing Rei notices.
The sun has already shifted a bit. August days slow the sun down by quite a bit.
Entering the practically empty tech store, she makes a remark: the vaguely reminded her of the factory's warehouse. Their 'home' is an undoubtedly large building.
"Cords, cords..." Defoko murmurs repeatedly to herself as she scans through the maze of tech, tech, and more tech. They eventually find a corner with many different cords displayed, their purposes and material listed.
"Oi, haven't thought this through..." Defoko thinks out loud after taking a sweet while to go through all the available items. "There's no way that a typical store has laboratory stuff. I think that cable was specialized for the monitor, in fact."
"Ah. Then..."
"Honestly, I'm surprised how long that cord has lasted."
"Then... We simply just won't be able to replace it, Senpai?"
Defoko pauses. That thought from earlier easily spirals back into her head of gears.
"Well, technically...
We 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 return to the laboratory to label the type of rubber. We could search for it, purchase a small amount, and use it to cover up the exposed wiring. Otherwise, shocks would be much more likely to occur."
Rei pauses in thought. "...Eh?"
"I have a miniature flame thrower."
"...Okay." She says uncertainly.
They make their way out, Rei kicking the plastic bag with her knees between steps.
"Will you stop doing that?"
"Okay."
𝟾:𝟹𝟿 𝙿.𝙼
𝙱𝚊𝚌𝚔.
So they make their way back to the factory. They were already expecting the absence of the cable.
The doors screech open, sending a floor-to-roof vibration across the whole facility. Eventually, they end up in the elevator again. Defoko presses one of the only five buttons, (floor 1, floor 2, emergency call button, and the open & close buttons for the doors themselves.)
𝘋𝘪𝘯𝘨! And they step out once again.
She crouches beside the cord, maneuvering with her headset to internally scan the exact material.
"..."
"So?"
"... Rubber." She stands up, flattening her skirt down. "How specific. That didn't help at all."
Rei frowns ever so slightly. "Ah. So what now?"
Defoko places her two hands on her hips, examining the monitor. "What now? I guess we'll have to replace it."
They should notify Teto. She's the one in charge of all of the equipment. So they enter the elevator.
𝟾:𝟺𝟺 𝙿.𝙼
𝚃𝚎𝚝𝚘'𝚜 𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚎.
Defoko knocks on the door just to find it unlocked again. Upon entering, they spot her seated with her laptop in front of her, except that this time, she's awake and in her actual office.
She closes the laptop with a semi-loud 𝘧𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘱, fleeing from the chair as if it has burned her to present herself with her hands folded behind her back.
"Ah! Defoko, Rei! Welcome back." Her smile didn't seem to quite reach her eyes.
"Good evening," Defoko says as she reaches into her top's pocket to turn in Teto's card, Rei fumbling slightly as she pulls the three baguettes from the bag.
"Appreciate it," Teto says as she claims the baguettes from Rei. "So, were you two able to find a replacement?" She pools back into her chair, facing the two as she starts to unwrap a baguette.
"Nope." Defoko says flatly, exaggerating the pronunciation by adding an extra pop to the 'P'. "But we could use a different monitor in total."
Rei opens her mouth as if she was to say something, but it falls in place again.
"... Mmph. Damn." Teto mouths with a mouthful of bread.
"So. Are you going to replace it?" Defoko asks.
"... Dunno. Gimme a minute, would ya?"
The two nod before turning around to leave the office. Rei closes the door gently,
"What's wrong with simply just patching it up with a heat-resistsnt rubber? You can extract the rubber whole and have the boss model a replacement to later install it onto the wire. Or we could find a different solution to simply just stop the sparking."
A long moment of silence stretches between the two before Defoko jams the back of her head into the wall of the office. She usually solves problems so easily, much more advanced ones, in fact. She can't help but feel disappointed -- must her system be buffering? She lets out a long sigh, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. "Oh." She smiles humorlessly to herself, probably one of the first signs of life behind that mmonotone features.
Rei just stares. And after a moment, Defoko gets up, already walking foward and through the hall. "Let me get my toolbox."
Rei watches her dissapear through a door on the right side of the hall, a storage closet. She returns, holding the handle of an orange box, similar to the color of Rei's hair.
They head upstairs through the elevator. Defoko has only one task left for the day.
𝟾:𝟻𝟿 𝙿.𝙼
𝚄𝚙𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚜 𝚕𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢.
Rei sets down the bag of Pocky and batteries on a nearby stool, watching Defoko kneel before the unplugged cord. She reaches for a pair of clippers, the type used on wires -- just like the one she's working on -- to tighten an open gash. At least, that's the purpose of why occupies them at all.
Rei stands from behind. She's usually the one holding the toolbox, the one passing over tools prior to Defoko's requests.
It's unusual.
She watches as Defoko uses the tool to close the gash, hopefully blocking out any visible and potentially dangerous sparking. She places the tool back in its original position in the tool box before closing it and standing upright. "Alright."
She then plugs the cord back into the outlet right behind it. The monitor first flickers on, then...
No sparking. It was a simple repair, but it got the job done.
"Good enough." Defoko says to herself, picking up the toolbox. Rei walks over to pick up the plastic bag.
𝟿:𝟶𝟼 𝙿.𝙼.
𝙺𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚗.
Among all of these facilities, there lies a rarely used kitchen. Rei likes to prepare things for herself with the little ingredients that lay in the fridge. Defoko often finds herself fascinated by the way Rei likes to plate these budget meals. But today, she simple just takes a seat at the dining table, pulling out a packet of Pocky from the bag that was set on the table. Defoko sits from the opposing end.
"I wasted five dollars and ninety-nine cents worth of Teto's money on that. " Defoko watches as Rei opens the package, pulling out one of the breadsticks with 3/4 of it encased in a strawberry-flavored type of creme.
Rei brings the tip of it up to her lips before taking a small, almost hesitant bite out of it. Her eyes seemed to brighten by a fraction, just for a moment. She shoves the rest of the stick into her mouth, barely chewing at all before swallowing. She's already reaching for 15 more from the wrapper. "I didn't exactly grimace, did I?"
"No," Defoko says. "but you're certainly making me jealous."
Rei then reaches down to around the small of her back, where she pulls out a flimsy cable that tends to hang from her coat. She offers it to Defoko, and she takes it to plug it into a jack in her headset without a second thought.
"Watch," Rei says, holding what seemed like at least six miniature breadsticks in her hand and barely managing to stuff them into her mouth all at once.
Defoko's eyes close despite the request.
That cable that she just inserted into her headset? That was Rei's 'direct communication' cord, a cord that allows Defoko to receive personal message, logs, and diagnostics from her -- but it also allows her to experience various different flavors that hit Rei's taste receptors. Thanks to this mechanic, Defoko, the only robot who didn't come with the ability to directly consume food and such, has been able to taste things such as rice, veggies, frequent fried chicken, and her beloved 𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘪. Though robot don't necessarily require food, Defoko always insists that Rei makes herself onigiri whenever she considers eating something.
Defoko's eyebrows furrow unpleasantly. She isn't a huge fan of sweet flavors, but Rei seemed to be immensely enjoying this treat.
Soon, all of the Pocky is gone. Defoko unplugs Rei's cord and watches it retract into her, standing up from the chair she was seated at.
Rei stands too, tossing the empty packaging into a trash can next to a counter. Her optics focus on the cardboard laying in the trash before drifting away to walk beside Defoko.
A snack package.
You tear it open. And depending on the snack, it takes time before all of the contents burn away into you.
Contempt, you end up with a hollow package.
You toss that piece of cardboard. It didn't really have a purpose to serve, anyway.
...You could use it for scrapbooking if it's especially appealing.
That's one use. So some packages end up in personal books. Personal books belonging so some significantly creative ones.
The owner may share that book, but soon, it'll be forgotten.
The book and the packaging inside of it will no longer serve.
They only take up space.
Someone may mistake it for trash without a purpose.
So that packaging ends up in the trash.
Once the owner hears,
they'll be frustrated, sad, sometimes moved to tears.
Months, potentially years of their life was devoted to journaling in their scrapbook.
Memories they've written down, experiences and accomplishments...
A landfill awaits. And the package lies among it.
Rei chuckles to herself in thought.
[Huh, that's funny.]
"... What's so funny?" Defoko briefly turns her head to face Rei.
Rei practically jumps. "A-ah. Nothing, Senpai."
// 𝙐𝙉𝙁𝙄𝙉𝙄𝙎𝙃𝙀𝘿, 𝙏𝙊 𝘽𝙀 𝘾𝙊𝙉𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙐𝙀𝘿 //