Luna's WP Responses

Service, Efficiency, Liberty

Christian took his bag of kettlecorn, still hot from the cauldron, from the vendor robot. "Twelve pence, young sir," the robot cheerfully told him with a quick gesture to the coin slot in his wrist.

The boy counted out twelve copper-colored coins from his purse one by one. Then, shooting Adrina a sly smirk, held them out to the robot. But just as the robot reached for them, Christian tossed them into the air. The coins flashed in the sunlight for just a moment, and then landed in the dirt nearby. "You seem to have dropped something! Allow me to help you," the vendor robot said without the slightest hint of annoyance. Nearby, three other robots within range said the exact same thing, and all four of them stooped down to pick up the money.

Christian took Adrina's hand and they took off running. He was giggling wildly at the sheer cleverness of his little prank. And he no doubt thought that Adrina would be impressed as well. They ran as though the police were after them for such a dastardly deed. Finally they stopped near the stone wall of a bank, out of breath. "Stupid Clankers," Christian said as he recovered his breath. He looked to Adrina to see if she agreed, and she quickly nodded too. "Want to mess with them some more?" he asked.

She didn't really want to. The robots that she'd known had always been friendly and courteous and helpful, as they were all programmed to do. But she did want to impress Christian, who was two grades older than her and was already starting to grow a beard. He'd chosen her to escort him to the summer fair over all of the other girls his age, and this was her chance to make a good impression. So she nodded in agreement, and they found a new victim.

The street sweeper bot scurried underfoot, weaving between groups of humans to find bits of litter. It was no larger than a dog, and shaped vaguely like an upturned bucket with little brush bristles poking out from the bottom. Christian pulled a scrap of paper from his pocket and dropped it on the ground, immediately catching the attention of the streetsweeper. It rushed over to pick up the garbage, and as soon as it came into range, Christian planted one boot on the top of it and kicked it over onto its side. The little wheels underneath spun futilely, and the brushes were still sweeping back and forth in a vain attempt to pick up the paper. This sent Christian into fits of laughter.

"Hey!" A tinny voice shouted at them in a tone that Adrina had never heard from a robot. "Leave that poor thing alone!" The sound was so unfamiliar that it took her a while to sense that the robot was angry. She turned to see a robot advancing through the crowds toward the pair of them. But it didn't look like any model that she'd ever seen. It was tall and thin, humanoid shaped and made of copper-colored metal. But it was wearing clothes: a long coat, a belt with different containers, and a top hat. And it also carried a long slender cane. Why would a robot need a cane? she wondered. If it was having trouble walking, then it should be fixed or just scrapped by its owner. As the robot came closer, she noticed that the top of the cane was in the shape of a human skull. "Sod off, you dumb Clanker!" Christian shouted to it. Just for emphasis, he gave the streetsweeper another shove, then shot a smug grin at the approaching robot.

"Maybe we should just leave it alone," she said d quietly. "We could go on one of the rides or something..." she nodded over to the large Ferris wheel that towered over the whole fairgrounds. She'd heard that you could see the whole city from up at the top.

"No metalhead tells me what to do!" Christian said, utterly ignoring her suggestion. He kicked the streetsweeper again and then stepped in front of it as the angry robot approached them. "Now get out of here, or I'll have you deactivated!"

The robot responded by whacking him with the cane across his shin. Even over the din of the crowd, Adrina could hear him sharply inhale. Then his cheeks turned beet red, he thrust out an accusing finger, and he opened his mouth to shout something at the robot. Before he could make another sound, the cane landed on his wrist with a thwapsound. Christian gave a squeal of pain, and his eyes glistened.

"Someone needs to teach you some respect, young man," the robot said, raising the cane again. "Just because these beings serve you does not mean that they are here to be mistreated!"

Before another blow from the cane could fall, Christian scampered away through the crowd with tears running down his cheeks. He'd completely forgotten Adrina's presence, leaving her cornered against a wall with the robot towering over her. The lenses of his eyes whirred as they adjusted and focused on her. He lowered the cane and walked toward her leaning on it for support just like a human would.

"We're sorry," she said, speaking for the now-absent Christian as well. Her voice was so soft that she was concerned that it might not hear her. The robot stopped and righted the street sweeper, which emitted a grateful beep and then scooted off to keep cleaning up after the humans. Then the clothed robot came closer to her. "I didn't want to cause trouble," she said as one of the bronze claws extended towards her. "Honest! I..." The robot stopped in place. "You have a good heart, girl." What a strange thing for a robot to say, she thought to herself, forgetting all of the panic of a moment earlier. "You don't need to associate with the likes of him." Adrina nodded, telling herself that if she played along, the robot would just let her go. But deep down, she knew that Christian was in the wrong here. The little street sweeper hadn't done anything to them. She looked into the robots eyes and realized that even without a mouth, it was smiling at her. Robots couldn't have facial expressions, though. They didn't have emotions. This one... this one was odd.

"Here." The robot retracted its claw and unbuttoned one of the little pouches along its belt. From within it removed a silver coin that was notched all along the edges like a gear. But it didn't have the king's profile on one side and the royal sigil on the other. There was a robotic fist on one side, and on the other, a series of scratches and grooves that she vaguely recognized from the punch cards that her mother used to program their housekeeper robot. "Keep this," the robot told her. "It's a Mechanical Union token." She'd heard her father say that before, but she didn't know what it meant. "You'll know when the time to use it has come."

It turned away from her began to hobble back into the crowd. A few pedestrians nearby had stopped to stare, but no one had called for the constable or anything. The idea of a robot hurting a human was so extraordinary that they'd all just assumed it was some sort of mistake.

"What does it say?" she asked before it could get too far away. She ran a finger over the grooves, which were very delicate and fine.

"Service, Efficiency, Liberty," it answered. The last word was spoken with defiance, daring anyone to challenge it being placed in the same set. Then the robot reached up, tipped the brim of its hat toward her, and walked away.