radio; chappie spoilers here s o r r y

[mrroboto]

[Deon's voice sounds a little different, like it's slightly...processed. The panic, however, is very real.]

Anyone with experience in robotics or engineering, come to the College labs immediately. Please. It's urgent.

Comments

[sadisticmoose]

...Deon? The hell's going on?

[mrroboto]

...I'm a Scout.

[sadisticmoose]

....What?

[mrroboto]

I DON'T KNOW, IT JUST HAPPENED!

[Deep breaths. Or. Not. Synthesized deep breaths because that's what he's trying to do.]

The prototype...I told you, about the Moose control system, and how Chappie...

I'm the prototype.

[sadisticmoose]

So you're actually... You're one of...?

[mrroboto]

Yes.

[sadisticmoose]

I... How? I mean... What? How did this...?

[mrroboto]

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know Idon'tknow.

[Can robots get anxiety attacks?]

[sadisticmoose]

Calm down!

[This is barked, because it's actually triggering him. His mind is reeling, but... There's a part of him that wants to help. And it's that fragment that surfaces.]

Where are you?

[mrroboto]

[And Deon...does. Or at least he shuts up.]

College. Robotics lab.

[sadisticmoose]

I... I'm coming over.

[mrroboto]

...thanks.

[sadisticmoose]

[About five minutes later, the door slams open, and there stands Vincent, crutchless, but still not 100%.

And he stares at the Scout standing in front of him.]

[mrroboto]

[Deon gives a bit of a start - no mere Scout this.]

...yeah, [he says after a minute.]

[sadisticmoose]

[Vincent takes a step back. He's not saying anything, but it's clear that he's freaking out.]

[mrroboto]

[Deon also takes a step back, hands raised in surrender, hoping to make Vincent more at ease. And he keeps talking, because he still sounds like himself. Mostly.]

I wouldn't have joked, Vincent. Not about this.

[sadisticmoose]

I... I know.

[He takes a deep breath before a step forward.]

So... It's the battery issue, right?

[mrroboto]

[Deon nods.] And I can't just take it out, even if we can find a way to reliably charge it.

[sadisticmoose]

Why not? Your brain is stored in the Scout's memory, right? It'll be like powering off any of them.

[mrroboto]

[A little defensively:] None of them have ever needed to store an entire human consciousness in the internal memory while unpowered. Not something I'm willing to test without being hooked up to some kind of backup energy source.

[sadisticmoose]

How long do these things last again?

[mrroboto]

Five days. Provided they're at full charge to start with. Luckily, this one is.

[sadisticmoose]

There any way we can conserve power? Shut off limbs or something? Just until we can sort this.

[mrroboto]

[Well, Deon's not the biggest fan of crippling himself, especially in front of Vincent, but...it's a show of trust. He sits down.]

Disabling the servomotors from my knees down, for now. We'll see how much that saves.

[sadisticmoose]

And five days... Is that five days operating as a Scout should? Raids and shit, or is that standby?

[He's already picking up a screwdriver.]

[mrroboto]

Five days standard. Up to seven while on and in storage.

[Still...]

Like I said, the system's dealing with some new parameters now. We may have to throw all the old statistics out the window for how much data it's processing. Chappie lasted about five days, and I don't think standby was an option for him.

[sadisticmoose]

[There's a pause as Deon mentions the robot's name, but he moves again, crouching and starting to work[

There no self-diagnostic program you can run?

[mrroboto]

There is, and I've tried it, and it's not telling me anything's wrong, [he says, sounding frustrated.] And, [there's a very brief pause] I shouldn't go on standby. Too much could go wrong and I'm enough of a guinea pig as it is.

[sadisticmoose]

No-one's going to take advantage of you.

[Left leg gone.]

If it's me you're worried about, we can get someone else?