(Author's note: What follows is the first instalment of a yet untitled novella I'm releasing live through my blogs.)
The clouds parted to allow a thin steam of sunlight to reflect it's radiance off of the rain-slick fields before him. A glimmer of a rainbow even appeared and vanished as quickly as he tried to record it. His camera instead focused on the gathering clouds behind where it has shone. He waited a few more hopeful seconds before turning it off. The pines rustled as the blustery winds picked up, moving as a single wave of green. R-T0R could feel the gust blowing across the sensory clusters on his disc-shaped face and adjusted the sensitivity levels. Since having them installed on the weekend he had been having problems with the amount of data. He found himself constantly having to purge his memory reserves of the largely useless information they were storing. They were a vanity accessory he had treated himself to during a registered update, and despite the pleasure they had brought him, he was beginning to regret his decision in purchasing them. He wasn't certain if they had been calibrated correctly, but he couldn't schedule another appointment with the factory for another two-weeks. In the meantime, a drizzle of rain felt like a waterfall.
His foot cups sunk deep in the mud as he made the dangerous trek down the hill. He could see the tank-tread imprints of his friend, AKU-L0, as he descended, obscuring the wax-polish of his metal fingers with the muck he touched as he reached out to a nearby boulder to steady his gait. It didn't bother him, as he was used to getting dirty in his line of work. The City was a ways off, and there was no one around to judge his grimy appearance except for his fellow co-workers, who were still quite judgemental. He had yet to see them in person since returning to work, but received constant text messages about their progress. He responded when necessary, but he left out obvious details of his recent trip. They didn't know about his purchases, which had nearly used up his credit. It was something he would like to put off as long as necessary, because he already anticipated their reaction.
True to form, as he approached the end of the trail, he heard the mechanical whirling of AKU-L0's pivot joints, then the grinding of his treads. From behind the crop of trees, R-T0R saw his friend's cone-shaped body on it's flat base before receiving the text-greeting. AKU-L0's squared head trained itself on him as he tumbled over roots. The red glowing lenses of his eyes shrank as he carefully recorded what he saw. "What are you wearing?" came the inevitable question, asked simultaneously as a monotone voice and text-message.
R-T0R quickly deleted the message and sent a request for an audio conversation. "Clothes," was his response.
"I can see that," AKU-L0 replied. "Why are you wearing clothes?"
"To cover my body," was his reply.
AKU-L0 beeped as he thought of something to say, a habit of his. "You're a robot," he said at last.
"I'd noticed," R-T0R added a sarcastic tone to his voice, which he had specifically downloaded for such occasions.
AKU-L0 had downloaded the same file, simply so he could keep up with R-T0R in casual conversation and beeped disapprovingly. The beeps were the same, but you had to listen for the intervals to really understand the meaning. It was a rhythm particular to AKU-L0 himself. "That's the silliest thing I've ever seen. I mean that honestly," AKU-L0 typically meant everything honestly. He didn't devote much of his resources to fiction. "You look absolutely ridiculous. The kind of thing may play off in the City, but not out here. What's the point, even? Who's going to see you out here? Some satellite feed? Besides, you're getting them all muddy and torn."
"I have more than one outfit now. These are my work clothes," he explained.
"Work... clothes...?" AKU-L0 beeped again. "I have to blog this."
True to form, R-T0R received an update on AKU-L0's blog, complete with photos and captions. Seconds later, comments began trickling in from his subscribers. "LOL," was the first comment he read. "You can stop taking pictures any time now," R-T0R said as AKU-L0 began moving around to get a better angle.
"Sorry, but this is gold," AKU-L0 told him.
R-T0R received a text from his other friend, R-0IF, saying, "Stay where you are, I've got to come see this." He received a second message stating his GPS location had been picked up by another user. R-T0R sighed deeply.
AKU-L0 beeped again in confusion. "What was that?" he asked.
"What was what?" R-T0R asked.
"That noise," AKU-L0 said as he played back the audio file of him sighing.
"A sigh," R-T0R reluctantly explained. "It was part of my update."
AKU-L0 beeped a few seconds in surprise, then delight. "An upgrade? More like a downgrade! Hold on, I have to uplink and download an audio file so I can laugh at you."
"That's not really necessary..." R-T0R began until he was interrupted by a sound-clip of canned laughter.
"You're so retro you might as well go back to Beta format," AKU-L0 played his studio audience clip again, only he turned up the volume. A nearby robin that had been hiding from the rain took flight at the noise. R-T0R quickly scanned it and found that it had not been tagged. He save the file for future reference while taking several profile pictures before it disappeared from sight.
"What's wrong with being old-fashioned?" R-T0R demanded crossly.
"Old-fashioned? Since when did robots ever bother to wear clothes? The Pre-Date? What kind of files have you been downloading?" AKU-L0 asked mockingly, using his sarcasm files.
"Look, I've been getting more interested in old culture. It's making a big comeback in the City, but you wouldn't know that because you're always out here," he said.
"Yeah, doing my job," AKU-L0 retorted.
"That's a corrupt file and you know it,"
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