(Untitled)

[nevertrustcrows]

It's getting close to Halloween in Lichtenstein's world which means the days are closing up earlier and the nighttime freeze is working extra shifts. The colder it gets, the more tempting it is to move into the Nexus permanently. Like last time, he's sitting with a book in his lap. Except this time it has his own writing in it. He spins a worn down

Comments

[pogo_boy]

"Um, no, not really. Most of the misconceptions about my family aren't really that nice, and I'd rather people actually get to know me than think I'm evil just because of what I am and who made me."

Quint smiles then, a little sheepishly, and adds, "Besides, I never could get the 'dangerous Wilybot' misconception to really work for me. I look about as harmless as someone can get and still have all their limbs attached."

[nevertrustcrows]

Lichtenstein looks the child up and down with a light frown. "That's a fair enough reason. Do many people consider you dangerous?"

[pogo_boy]

"Well, a lot of humans on our world's Earth think Wilybots are dangerous. I guess it's justified, some of it, since we were designed as weapons. But... it isn't that they think we can be dangerous, it's that they think that's all there is to it. Like we'd just go and destroy anything we'd see." Quint rolls his eyes at that. "Most of us aren't that stupid."

[nevertrustcrows]

"So... you're a robot? A child robot?"

[pogo_boy]

Quint nods. "Well, a robot designed to look like a kid, anyway. I don't really know why Wily made most of us look like kids, even though Mega only looks like he's ten. I guess when you're crazy you don't really need a good reason for things."

[nevertrustcrows]

"You said you were designed as weapons. Wouldn't being a child... child sized, I mean, put you at a disadvantage?"

[pogo_boy]

Quint shrugs. "Not that much of one. I mean, my brothers... I'm one of the weaker ones in the family and my primary weapon can put dents in tanks."

[nevertrustcrows]

"Right." More frowning at this. The last time he heard of things denting tanks the topic was on trolls not little robot children. "How often do you have to fight?"

[pogo_boy]

"I don't any more, or at least not very often. Mostly I get called in as a field medic or I do a lot of the cooking at home. Things have changed a lot since Dr. Wily died."

[nevertrustcrows]

"How old are you really?"

[pogo_boy]

Quint winces very slightly as if that question is a lot more complicated than it should be. And it is.

"Um... well, if you don't count the time travel mess, and count any time spent shut down, just going by when I was made I'd be about nineteen now. I spent nine years of that in storage, though, so really I'm not that much older than I look. The time travel thing would add about twenty-one years to that, but I don't really count it because that wasn't me, even if I have some of the memories."

[nevertrustcrows]

He opens up his mouth to inquire further, but then stops himself. It's likely he wouldn't understand half of it without more background knowledge. He'll just make a comment instead. "You're very human for a robot."

[pogo_boy]

Quint shrugs. "We're designed that way. Not just in appearance, either. Robot Master AI was based on human psychological data. Sometimes, I think maybe that was the first mistake they made."

[nevertrustcrows]

"Oh?" He leans forward a little because that is the last thing he would have expected to hear from a robot. "Why was it a mistake?"

[pogo_boy]

"I don't mean really a mistake. I like existing. Just that, it was stupid of them to make us that much like real people and then expect they could treat us like we weren't and there wouldn't be any problems. I guess they thought as long as they put enough restrictions in our programming to force us to obey it would all be fine. Most of them weren't any better than Wily when it came to that."

[nevertrustcrows]

"You said he died. Have things changed much since?"