Just A Small Delivery

Baba?

The story behind E's speaking. I hope you all enjoy reading about my favorite little drone and their father!

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It had only been a month since E was introduced to the team. The trio was having a difficult time getting the drone to speak. They simply thought something was wrong with their programming. When E was scanned it was discovered that they were programmed to act and be like a kid, specifically a child 5 years of age. The reason for this was up for debate but they narrowed it down to someone got lazy or they wanted E to learn from their mistakes and become better than themselves eventually.

N was trying to be incredibly patient which was a lot easier said than done. J and V were already getting frustrated. The highlights in the small drones hair seemed to slowly fade away to their confusion. They simply waved it off as not important. That was until a worker drone wondered into the spire and spooked the small drone. Their highlights grew a brighter yellow as their visor took on an 'X' as E growled at the drone. This was their first attempt at hunting. And without help they did a pretty good job of banging the drone up. V had to deliver the finishing blow but it definitely was interesting.

After this incident E seemed to have forgotten it and they became incredibly overheated. N quickly rushed them over to their reserves and helped them drink a lot of oil. J was interested and wanted to push E by mentoring them. However, N was strictly against it and wanted to teach them more slowly instead of pushing them into things they themselves were unsure of.

This was also the first time, N's seemingly new programming kicked in. N immediately got defensive and kept E away from J for the rest of the week. Due to N's usually compliant nature this was unusual for the girls. N even avoided V when she began to bring up E's possible future training or J becoming their mentor. N was fearful that J may push E too much in such little time or treat them how she treated him.

This was solved via V's idea of N training the small drone. They could barely get any work done if they fought with each other and V didn't want to hear J complain anymore. So in the end, J begrudgingly gave N the status of being E's mentor. This of course came with the duty of teaching them how to speak.

N tried doing flash cards, examples, and more but nothing seemed to work. N then had the idea of books. He doesn't remember a lot but he knew that he loved books, even if he doesn't remember why he did. So, N flew around the ruins of a flea market or as the toasters called it the shopping district. He soon spotted a child's store and entered. The toys were mainly damaged some more than others. He found two small books. One that was teaching the alphabet and the other one was a book about family.

N looked at the page where a mother is defined with a small child. The books were designed in a cartoon like fashion. For some reason he looked at the mother in the picture. Another memory of a woman shaded by shadows yelling at a small girl. The thing he remembered was fear not for himself but for the girl. As well as the child's large bow. He doesn't know where the memory came from but he knows he doesn't want to be like that with E.

He soon flew back to the spire. This began E's journey to learning how to speak and eventually read. But, that's a story for another time. E was having a hard time saying words. E was playing inside the drop pod with blocks that N had gotten them previously. N was currently getting lectured for not teaching E fast enough. J had many doubts on his abilities and didn't trust N not to mess up.

When E looked up from their blocks they made grabbing hands at N. N smiled before picking them up. "Yes little buddy do you wa-" N stopped. He thought he heard something but maybe his mind was tricking him. "Ba....Ba" E's said hesitantly while they slight slurred their speech.

N's eye lights hollowed out as he looked at the small drone. "Baba!" E squealed their hands above their hands. N started to twirl the small drone around the close quarters with a happy laugh. Small digital tears flowed down his visor. "Yes! I'm your Baba! J did you hear that I'm their Baba!" N said laughing excitedly as E squealed happily. "Well look at you seems you do have some usefulness" J said looking at the small drone but she was actually speaking to N.

Even if she didn't say it J was salty that she wasn't E's first word. When V heard about it she made it her mission to be E's second word. This of course led to a small war between the girls with a small drone being the middle ground. Said drone was with their 'Baba' playing with toys.

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