"So...that doesn't bother you at all?"
N turned his head to address the tall man watching him from the kitchen doorway, while his hands kept working on the comically huge stack of dirty dishes.
"Of course not, Sir!" the butler beamed. "All Worker-class drones and derivative models have been completely waterproof since Gen Two!"
"So the ones I've thrown in the lake..."
"Still down there!" N fought to keep the smile on his face. "They could probably use a good charge, though."
"Bunch of bloody slackers, eh?" the man grumbled to himself.
"Please, sir, it's not like that at all!" N said quickly, finally taking his hands out of the sink.
"Oh? Then what, pray tell, is it like?"
"Well, sir, you kinda put them there and...never told them they could leave?" N winced, knowing he was taking a big risk essentially telling the man that it was his own fault.
But to his surprise and relief, the human just blinked owlishly and stroked his pointy goatee.
"Hm. I didn't think of that. Damn, that's quite a few replacements we didn't have to buy," the man then gave an irritated grunt and leveled a hard glare on the butler before him. "You, forget this conversation happened."
N froze in place as his screen shut off for a couple seconds, then blinked when it came back on and looked at the human like he was startled.
"Good evening, sir! What can I do for you?"
The man merely looked at him, clearly trying to gauge if he had actually taken the request literally and erased his memory of the last couple minutes, or if he was just trying to be funny.
"Smart aleck," he muttered before walking off, but N saw the slightest twitch at the corner of his lips and smiled to himself before returning to the dishes.
"Big Brother?"
N's smile widened and he looked over his shoulder at a...silhouette of a Worker drone sitting on the kitchen floor. So dark that it looked more like a void in reality itself rather than anything real, save for its brilliant yellow eyelights that seemed to shine so much brighter surrounded by the darkness.
But even so, the sight sparked a warmth inside himself that felt so good, he couldn't NOT smile at it.
"Hey, &%#!" his audials glitched out at the moment he said its name, and he lost all feeling in his mouth so he couldn't even guess as to what he said, but his smile never faltered. "Everything okay upstairs?"
"*Eager Nod* Yes! Tessa said her legs were 'falling asleep', so we are taking a break and I wanted to ask you something."
The name "Tessa" brought even more warmth and his smile widened.
"Whatcha got for me?"
"I learned a new word. We were playing Quake Nexus and Tessa said they 'nerfed' her favorite character in the latest patch. Do you know what 'nerf' means?"
"I think so. It's like taking something dangerous or cool and making it less effective, right?"
"Yes," the eyelights bobbed up and down, indicating a nod. "Big Brother...why do you 'nerf' yourself?"
N felt his body lock up for a split second before he forced himself to relax.
"I, uh, don't really know what you mean," he chuckled a very unconvincing chuckle.
