Five Minutes Older

Chapter Two: Who Is Me?

The bot scanned the room. The room had a solid ceiling and the walls from halfway up, all painted a light shade of blue with large puffs of green erupting from the bottom part of the half-wall. Deeper blue cushioning decorated with exaggerated hills speckled with flowers created the lower half of the walls. Beneath it, the soft floor alternated between different primary colors in a giant grid. A camera with a glowing red light sat in the corner, staring at it. On the wall opposite, a giant poster stretched from just above the half wall to the floor. Upon a white background with a thick, baby blue, curved line was an endoskeleton with three happy children around it.

The bot looked over itself. While no cords or wires of any type clung to it, its body looked... different. It did recognize itself. Reddish orange frills laced with a golden stripe at the brim wrapped around its waist. Long, puffy pants with red and yellow stripes stretched from its waist to his ankle, which was puffed out with frills. It had two, pointed orange shoes curled up at the tips and ending in a bell each. A crescent moon in a lighter shade printed on the sides of his shoes facing inward, while a star in a lighter shade decorated the other side. It held up its hands and looked over its yellow-gold arms and hands and chest. It could feel another set of frills wrapped around its throat with one of its hands.

Ting, ting!

Red ribbons wrapped around its wrist. A couple of bells tied to its wrists jingled. It shook its hand, jingling the bells again. Intrigued, it shook its foot. That bell sang, too.

Its face was round and relatively flat, save for the etched designs and its eyes. It could feel something else attached to his head. A triangular piece of metal, rounded at the outer edges, came out from the side of its head. It searched further, finding more spokes coming from its head. When it pressed down on one, it retreated into its head and then sprung back out when it let go. It shook its head. The spokes followed at a slight delay, shrinking inward and then going back outward as they moved on springs.

It made a trilling noise and then shook its head again. The bells on its hand jingled when it shook its hand. It looked back up at the camera. It got to its feet and walked up to the corner. The camera followed, tipping itself down until it pointed almost straight down at it. The camera was a little too high, but it may as well try. It started to reach its hand up to touch it.

An outside electric jolt ripped through it.

It yanked back its hand and took a few steps back.

The camera stared at it.

It looked at its hand and then the camera. It decided to go back to the place where it woke up and sat down. It shook its hand again. The bells jingled joyfully. Nothing felt out of place.

The bright light above shut off. Glowing stars spotted the blue of the walls and ceiling.

It looked around. Then, its spokes retracted into its head. The colors of its once vibrant, red-and-yellow pants faded into navy blue with gold stars. A floppy nightcap flipped onto the top of its head. A bell dangled on the triangular tip while white fur-lined the bottom of the navy-blue cap peppered with gold stars. Half of its torso and face turned white while the other half turned a dark navy blue. Its forearms started white and faded to blue so the lower part of its forearms and its hands were blue. While its fingers were white, the tips were blue. Its frills and shoes retained their red and gold coloring.

It ran its fingers over the cap, its fingers tinking over the ball at the tip. When it tipped its head back and forth, the lower half of its nightcap that folded over swung back and forth. It tipped its head to the side and then rolled it further so that its head was right-side-up again. It tipped its head in the opposite direction. When it brought its hand up, a baby blue glow from its eyes shed light over his palm and fingers.