I'm a sucker for Scifi, and I've been thinking of something cool, and this is the end product:
On the corner of Sixth Street and Main, two streets reserved almost exclusively for the commercial outlets craved by naive spendthrifts and floaty bints, a small, musty looking shop sits. "Joshua's Retail Robotic Companions" embossed across the entrance in white letters, and life-like mannequin figures rest in pleasing poses in the window.
Gazing, very curiously at the human-figures in the window were one blonde hair woman with a evil look in her eye, and greying older gentleman trying his damndest to keep her in line. After some very evident (as the shopkeeps that do business across the street can attest to) whining and ostracizing, the woman successfully drags the gentleman into the store. Immediately surprised by the loud zaps and sparks emanating from the counter, they see a man lifts his head upon hearing the jingle of the front door being opened.
"Oh, hey! How are you? I'm Joshua, the owner of this establishment." he says as he flicks off his soldering gun, and reaches out to shake the young lady's hand, only to be completely ignored. The lady, completely beside herself, stood in awe of the row of completely, and painstakingly realistic human automatons that stood in a row along the walls. Not one to let a warm welcome go unappreciated, the grey gentleman quickly approached and shook Joshua's hand in the lady's stead.
"Yes, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name's Duke, and this is Sofia. She's suddenly become interested in a Robotic Companion, you see..." the man said in an apologetic tone.
"Ah!" Joshua says, turning his back to the heap of metal and silicone sitting on the counter, "I was just finishing up the chest frame of a recent order, can you tell me what kind of companion she'd like?",
"Well, I'm not sure exactly, but perhaps..."
"Hey Lady! Don't touch the merchandise!" Joshua quickly interrupted, and Duke turned to Sofia, only to see her running her hand down the bosom of one of the more attractive female companions. Quickly pulling her hand away from the companion, Duke shows clear frustration with his accomplice
"Sofia, don't do that!"
"But she's so pretty! I couldn't help myself!"
Joshua interjects,
"Miss, please refrain from touching any of the companions. These are all custom models, and are quite expensive."
Sofia restrains herself, only to quickly give the lineup of robots a more thorough look once free again. The expressions which ranged from mopish to cheerful, the way the hair was held and styled, the placement of the features, and the way they stood, there was no way an item could be made to be this human-like and get away with it.
"So, these are robots heh?", addressing the proprietor directly this time.
"Yep, why in fact.."
"No, that can't be right. Are you sure these aren't all real people you hired to just stand real still in your store?"
"Amazing, isn't it? The latest models of robotic companions are made to be as realistic as possible, to be completely indistinguishable from real people."
"Then how do I know YOU'RE not a robot!?"
"The companions are life-like Miss, but they're not sophisticated enough to..."
He had let his guard down for an instant, but that was all it took for Sofia to grab the owner's arm and squeeze with an unusual amount of strength for a woman.
"Ah! What are you doing!"
"Seeing if you're a robot!"
At this point, Duke was very quick to grab Sofia's wrist, and wrest her normally implacable grip from the man's arm.
"Now now Sofie, we don't want this to be a repeat of the clothing store..." turning towards Joshua, "I'm very sorry, she doesn't think sometimes."
"Oh, it's no problem..." pretending that that didn't hurt, "the companions do tend to offput people that see them for the first time."
"Alright Sofie, now that you've gotten a closer look at the..."
And Sofia was nowhere to be seen, as she had made her way deeper into the store, to look at a male model that was receiving it's finishing touches by another employee.
"Wow, they're so amazing. They feel just like real people too, if you don't squeeze too hard and feel the metal inside."
The employee, however, ignores her opinion on the matter, and continues gently applying the paint to give the synthetic skin a more appealing tone.
"I heard they can move around just like real people too! I think that one celebrity... eh... Ricardo whats-his-face has one. Looks like a real girl too!"
Once again, the employee ignores her completely, as he diligently continues his job.
"Hey, listen to me why don't ya!" and as she reaches out to pester him, her hand is snatched by Joshua.
"Alright, now THAT'S a companion!"
"What!?"
"Yeah, let me show you."
And with a tap on his shoulders, he stops his job immediately, and then with a flick of a hidden switch behind the ears, carefully hidden seams reveal themselves, and his face opens up, showing the very not human wires and circuitry that lies underneath! Sofia nearly stumbles backwards in astonishment.
"I've programmed this one to do custom toning and shading on the synthetic skin, which is very tedious and difficult to do by hand."
and I suppose I'll finish it up tomorrow, it's 4:30 A.M. where I am, and I didn't imagine writing this would take this long. I think it's really boring, as I'm trying to do a smooth, and natural infodump on these robots I thought of. The idea of realistically human, commercially available robots is really interesting to me, so I'll most likely finish this little story. CAN ANYONE GUESS HOW THIS IS GOING TO END?
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Topic: Ridiculous Tales of Bay Twelvery (Read 29248 times)