Utterly Mad

Work went ahead steadily on the new robot, even with a bit of a stall caused by Minx. She had come into the workshop, simply striding in as she had since making Dee and Mica's acquaintance, and looked over the parts being assembled. Arms, legs, a torso. It all looked very robot. It also looked a bit improvised and "plebian" as she put it. Catnip had done good work, as was expected, and Dee had worked carefully on fine electronic details, but all in all it failed to impress Minx. She knew Catnip could do better, she just needed a shove to get her thinking extravagantly. What Catnip wanted was a simple robot, something that wouldn't harass her or her sister. Dee on the other hand wanted what they were getting, a humanoid robot. Medeina just wanted a body that could hold her, while Minx... Minx believed Medeina should have the ultimate in walking, talking, fighting, and fucking that robotics could provide. She offered up ideas and crude designs in her own style.

"What she wanted," Dee later explained, "was an android from some science fiction star trek movie, except better. You should have seen the designs she handed over Nip. Shit, actually you can, I've still got em." If anything, Dee had undersold it. Minx's sketches would never match up to Mica's, but Minx had had a lot of practice. What she'd produced was a litany of coolness and sexiness both literally and figuratively. A nearly perfect humanoid robot that even Catnip and Dee likely wouldn't have been able to build. Dee had been aghast but Catnip knew what was up. Minx wanted them to shoot for the moon and land among the stars. Dee was down for it, but Catnip needed the push.

"Ok, we aren't building this. I'm not even sure why a ro-butt would need most of this stuff, so we definitely aren't giving it any of that." Catnip sighed. She and Dee looked over the parts they had and Catnip had to admit, her heart hadn't exactly been into making them. In fact now that she looked them over after all this time, all the parts save for the arms had been built with flaws that could be exploited. More though, a redesign was necessary. Without redesigning the robot, Catnip's solution to the power issue would destroy it. "Two birds with one stone." She said, looking around to make sure Kathrine wasn't listening

And so she and Dee, and Mica, designed something new. Angular lines and narrow abrupt edges were replaced with sweeping curves and decorative sweeps. Specially made opening and closing slot would allow air to flow freely from the wind cell Catnip was providing all throughout the chassis and limbs, as well as allowing Medeina to control the airflow in creative ways. Most of the robots utility would still come from modified CBMs. EMP shielding, a collection of small but useful tools and weapons, a variety of lenses for the robots eye, and a specially made automap unit. Instead of the bulbous eyebot Dee had planned on simply attaching to it's shoulders, Catnip came up with something that looked a lot like an old Polaroid camera. It was smaller than the eyebot and easier to work with. They hashed out the details together, Catnip on the shape and make of the body parts, Dee on the arrangement of smaller parts, and Mica on the design of the detailing. Then, when they had what they thought they could work with, the split up and got on what they would spend the next month creating.

---

While they were working on designs, Medeina and Minx were busy working on their book. Minx had come to the AI after her first few failed outings on her own. She just didn't know how or where to start, and decided to consult with someone who did. Medeina did of course know where to start and from there, they had put the smallest of dents in organizing and adding to Medeina's collected data.

"Ok, so... According to what that Atomos chick told you, it had to have been fifty or so feet?" Minx asked, making a rough sketch of what the snake may have looked like. She thought she'd probably be taking a visit with this 'Atomos' to help complete the entry.

"Yes, I estimate about fifty based on footage of Miss Atomos hauling the serpent into the center and tanning it's skin on the roof. Unfortunately Miss Atomos did not acquire measurements before butchering it." Medeina enumerated. The AI was fascinated by the idea that more snakes like the one encountered by Atomos existed somewhere, as Minx had told her they did on the west coast. "Do they truly get so large?" She finished.

One of the reasons the information was taking so long to collate was that Medeina kept asking questions and adding to what needed to be parsed. Minx had mentioned the fact about snake sizes only in passing and without realizing the depth of the AI's code borne obsession. Minx told her about the tube fields, an old government storage for building materials, and the men who worked their in steel suits to call the population of giant snakes so it would attack Pricetown's livestock. Medeina also got to hear about the jumping spiders that knocked men and women from their horses in an attempt to pounce not on the human, but on their mount. Armadillo like box trucks that moved sluggishly around the landscape in their impenetrable boo e carapaces, fearless of everything except for the hunters that harried them. The Mycus and the screamers. Gigantic insects and other strange creatures that now stalked the country in place of their old world equivalent. Minx had to admit, Medeina was a great listener. She never interrupted even once to comment on what Minx had to tell her.

"Are we friends now?" Medeina said. The question would have been awkward, coming so suddenly and out of nowhere. From a human, it would have been. From Medeina, the machine, it was perfectly earnest.

"Uh-huh." Minx said, glossing over the question, "Do you want to add anything else to this entry on snakes or leave it as is for now?"

"Leave it as is for now, I still need to sort through remaining data. What do friends do?"

"Alright good. What do you mean 'what do friends do?' Big observant robot, aren't the people you live with your friends? You can't tell what friends are by looking around?"

Medeina felt a bit nettled and oddly embarrassed. The people of the farm we're "friends" yes, but they weren't her "friend friends" as she'd heard it put somewhere. Medeina was to them, "the robot" or "the little spy" or sometimes even "the voyuer." She wasn't a biologist to them, like she thought of herself. She was there, but the AI just wasn't a person. Just a machine to get in the way and get smashed. It turned out, the drawback to emotions was the desire to be noticed and treated like an equal. A desire for more.

"No." She said, then added, "When my body is complete, I will experience what it is to be friends. You will show me."

"Pffft, ok. Whatever you say robolady. I'll walk you to the center and we can go shopping and talk about boys."

"Why?"

"Because you want to, now stop obsessing and help me with this bit on birds."