Short Story - Obsession (part 5)
Warning: The usual. (More picts than text! lol)
OBSESSION (Part 5)
Who are you???
What do you want???
NOO!! My bots!!
Don't take them away!!
DON'T!!!
Please, they don't work!! They are worthless...
NOOO!!
Ally woke up abruptly after the same nightmare that had been repeating for a couples of nights
The repo man! He's gonna take them away...
Still agitated she stoop and walked to the back.
All her bots were on their bases still.
She sighed relived, though it was hard to explain why the mental image of her four bots taken away, probably to be dismantle and sold for pieces, scared her so much. They were nothing but worthless toys that couldn't even do a single chore correctly.
All four of them.
Even Munchy. The first bot she ever did, was now bringing an inexplicable assortment of random dishes, instead of plain, all age appropriate plates like it was programmed to.
Another fail.
And they weren't even failing. Nothing was technically broken on them.
It didn't matter how hard Ally checked, tinkered and double check again, there was no excuse or reason for their random behavior.
Her bots were nothing but poorly made prototypes that never worked properly in the first place.
And she was the one who had failed at making.
But she wasn't ready to let them go either.
She still hoped to find the flows on her programs, and perhaps even a way to fix them. But even if they turned out to be totally hopeless, no one was taking them away from her.
I can't allow that!!
She needed to find a way to pay her bills quickly, and the only thing she seem to be able to do right were toys.
Literally.
Toy robots for little kids. In all sorts of colors and sizes. The kind she had been building since high school every time she needed some extra cash, like she needed desperately now.
And so, before even the morning rose, she sat down at the computer to contact the small store that used to sell her toys before, hoping they would still be interested, but instead she found several emails from GraabElectronics. The first one was dated soon after the exhibition and the last one, two days ago.
Of course she hadn't check on her mail for long, but never expected anyone trying to contact her. Most certainly not "Graab".
GraabElectronics was perhaps the biggest name in the electronic industry, but they had only gained that place by sacrificing quality for income, dedication for fast results and meticulousness for massive production. They lure the public with cheat and easy to use equipment for their homes, but then hide under the spiderweb of bureaucracy when the poor quality and low safety of their products caused dangerous, sometimes even fatal accidents, on their unsuspecting client's households.
And now, according to the most recent file, they were offering her a full time job at his electric department and all the resources she need (or ask for) to develop a full line of electro-domestics for their brand based on her prototypes.
They want my bots??
They surely did. Ally soon realized the job offer had been only the last resource after she had, seemingly, ignored the two previous attempt at formally buying her creations with all rights included.
Her stomach shrank painfully.
Her bots on Graab's hands, quite probably to be brutally downgraded to their standards and irresponsibly produced for the masses?
Never!
No matter how desperate she was or how tempting the proposed salary and benefits were, Ally wasn't about to tolerate none of that. No reckless company was turning her models into low quality household appliances and certainly no one, not even Curious Inc., was touching them now, not until they were flawless.
That much she was for sure.
Vidcund was right, she wasn't material for Curious and never again she would attempt to participate on the competition. Not until her creations were absolutely and undoubtedly perfect. Even if that meant forgetting everything she had learned and start from scratch again.
Quickly Ally wrote a polite rejection letter and without any regret she moved along to contact the old store hopeful.
TinkerShop was a small place indeed, but it was run by a man she knew to be honest, and someone who always put as much dedication on his toys, as she did on her bots. It wouldn't matter how much he was ready to pay, as long as it was enough to cover her expenses and bills.
Fortunately it didn't took long for the store's manager to reply.
By the morning she had an answer, and not only they were indeed very interested, but the owner himself had replied with an extensive email.
He enthusiastically thanked her for choosing his humble store to sell her exceptional products and asked if they were allowed to use her name to advertise the toys, adding an odd comment about her achievements twice at the exposition.
Whatever intended or not, it felt like a mock. And worse, that added to the previous offer made her wonder how much of her failures at the exhibits had hit the public light.
She hadn't read the news or the magazines since then, but at that moment she wasn't in condition to think about it anymore.
If she was destined to build only toys for kids, then so be it.
But her bots as witness,
they would be perfect.
It felt good to be working again.
After all building simple kids robots, instead of more sophisticated bots, wasn't as bad as she imagined.
At the contrary, it was better than expected.
Her economic situation was stable once again very quickly and more.
The store owner had been right. The fact that she had present on the famous exhibition helped enormously on the sells, but not because of the reasons she initially assumed.
It was in fact because of a post-exhibit article published on a science magazine, during the time she spent isolated from the world. Ally couldn't believe her eyes when she finally managed to get a copy of the issue. It included a long interview with Pascal Curious, in which he briefly, but very clearly, mentioned as his personal favorite.
For a moment the mixture of emotions almost drown her in despair, imagining how disappointed Pascal would feel knowing the reality of her situation, but at the same she also felt even more encouraged to find her flaws and repair her mistakes, so she could really deserve his approval and support.
And aside from her personal feeling, the bottom line was, that thanks to that article, the small colorful toys sold so well, not even their constantly increasing value was enough to slow down the level of demand.
But she easily coped with orders
enjoying how easy and satisfying the job was,
while using the rest of the time on her research.
Eagerly looking for the problem on the bots, going farther and deeper every time, searching though all her old files, sketches, and codes,
even questioning and rereading her old study books.
Until the day it hits her...
It was colder than ever that day and there was several inches of snow outside.
She had spend the whole morning checking her first drawing and estimations, still hoping to find perhaps a small mistake or bad calculation on the program that could be now interfering with her bots normal processing.
Her hand were freezing, but she hadn't notice until the flying-blue one started hovering around her and lightly heating the air as result,
but of course, at first she simply assumed it was just one more thing to add on list of random behavior.
Frustrated, she left her computer and sat at her tiny dining table, starting to feel completely hopeless and defeated once again.
Why they keep acting like that?? There is wrong with them.
.... Nothing!
And there she noticed.
Looking down to the floor
she could see her boots moving on the back, all of them,
and slowly coming toward her, quietly, almost hesitantly if that was possible.
She stood still and watched them carefully.
Only one of them moved closer, low and observant.
It was almost like it was starting at her direct in the eye,
and then, as all the others returned to their bases, it hovered away shortly
only to drop something on her table about a minute later.
Finally, only when Ally was certain the bot had left the room, she sat up and found the mug of hot cocoa by her side.
Hot Cocoa!
That wasn't random. It couldn't be it.
Can it be possible??
All the failures on the bots weren't random.
Clean would crush again the furniture where she laid, Sentry would only make noise when she locked herself on the room, somehow Munchy always seemed to bring exactly what she needed, no matter how bizarre its deliveries were.
She stood up excited and held the mug thankfully
taking a long warming sip.
There is nothing wrong with you... nothing at all!
It never was ...
Her four bots were perfect. They were exactly what they needed to be.
But now she could see clearly what had been her mistake from the beginning.
Each one of the bots seem to work even beyond her expectations, but they were still restricted by their own limitations.
Who would really want to have four different bots to cover for all the chores and needs of a household?
Small thinking
They were created with an specif chore in mind, but couldn't do anything else and on that aspect Ally still considered Vidcund to be right. It was a waste of time.
She should have done just one bot from start. It was probably not even hard to do.
Decided, Ally heavily moved the old train model to a side,
wishing the bots could in fact do something else beyond their programs,
like help her with the bulky table,
and quickly set up her drawing station to start sketching her new model.
She only needed to come up with a practical design able to fit all the chores,
and then find a way to make all the different programs complement each other, instead of running separately.
It took her all her free time
and big part of the season to finish,
but eventually it was done.
Now ...... Lets build it!
))"<
To be continued
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A/N: The magazine is only a photoshop, I'm too lazy to do a real recolor of it XD
and now ........
Who recognized the fake repoman!?? :P
ROFL!!!