#LazyTownShipWeek

[lazy--stars]

Day 1 — Plants/Gardening

[lazytownshipweek]

LazyTown Ship Week 2019!

Day 1 - February 4th, Monday - Plants/Gardening 

Day 2 - February 5th, Tuesday - Memes/Jokes

Day 3 - February 6th, Wednesday - Sportscandy/Food

Day 4 - February 7th, Thursday - Robots/Technology 

Day 5 - February 8th, Friday - Dancing/Singing 

Day 6 - February 9th, Saturday - Social Media/Video Games 

Day 7 - February 10th, Sunday - Travel/Vacations 

Rules:

It must be tagged as #lazytownshipweek.

You can write, draw, cosplay, you can do whatever you want for it.

You can do any ship you want.

You can do more than one ship.

No ship hate.

You can do Áfram Latibær, Glanni Glæpur Í Latabæ, LazyTown and Not Active Town characters.

You can draw/write/etc. more than one ship in a post. 

No NSFW, it must be PG.

Late work will get reblogged, so don’t worry about it being late.

Follow this blog to see everything

Free to ask me any questions you have!

Have fun!

[sportablog]

Day one - Plants/gardening

I’m a day late, but still wanted to join in! I’m away atm and only have a HB to draw with, so hopefully this little doodle will be okay! Hope flowers count ☺️❤️

@lazytownshipweek

[indigowallbreaker]

LT Ship Week Day 1: Plants

Plants/Gardening and Sportarobbie!

All of these fics will be cross-posted to AO3 [username indigorose50]. Link on my blog!

It was a mark of how desperate Sportacus was that he sought out Robbie for help. He and Robbie had enjoyed a semi-truce lately: Sportacus had steered the kids away from Robbie’s favorite napping spots and Robbie hadn’t tried to kick Sportacus out of town. Even so, asking Robbie for help was a last ditch effort.

Robbie answered the knocking on his hatch with a glare ready in place. “What?” He snapped.

Sportacus held up his potted plant. “It’s dying.”

He thought it would take more than that but Robbie beckoned him inside immediately. With a quick twist, Robbie was dressed in a white doctor’s coat, complete with stethoscope around his neck.

���So!” He began after gesturing for Sportacus to put the plant on the kitchen table. “How are you torturing this poor creature?”

“I do not know!” Sportacus said honestly. The lavender plant was slowly turning brown. Most of the leaves near the end of their branches were dry and fell off at the slightest touch. “I water it, give it plenty of sun, but it’s just getting worse!”

Robbie hummed and circled the plant. Occasionally he poked at a branch or rubbed a leaf. Sportacus waited quietly, trying not to break Robbie’s concentration. Fruit plants and vegetable gardens he could do— but this lavender plant was frustrating.

“Got it!”

At Robbie’s shout, Sportacus jumped. “What?”

“I know the problem. Of course I do; I’m a genius!”

“That’s wonderful, Robbie!” Sportacus clapped. “How can I fix it?”

Robbie took off the stethoscope. “Oh, you can’t.”

The elation that had flared up in Sportacus went out. “I… can’t?”

“You can’t,” Robbie repeated. “I can.” He picked up the pot and rested it on his hip like it was a child. “Come back in two days and I’ll have it fixed.”

“You will fix it for me?”

“After seeing the condition of this plant, I don’t want to risk you trying so, yes. I’ll do it for you.”

With a bright smile, Sportacus reached out to hug Robbie. “Thank you!”

“Don’t do that!” Robbie took gigantic steps back to escape Sportacus’ outstretched arm. “None of your touchy-feely Elf stuff.”

Sportacus put up his hands. “Sorry. I will be back in two days then.” Robbie waved a hand dismissively and Sportacus climbed back out of the lair, a little embarrassed by his actions.

He was halfway to his ship when he realized Robbie hadn’t asked for anything in exchange.

Two days later, Sportacus knocked on the hatch again. It opened right away and he slid down, ending with a perfect flip into the lair. Robbie, standing by his chair, rolled his eyes. “Do you have to?”

Sportacus chuckled. Beside Robbie were two plants: one in the pot Sportacus had left here and the second one in a bright orange pot. “What’s that?” Sportacus asked, pointing.

Grinning triumphantly, Robbie held out the orange potted plant. “Congratulations, it’s a lavender.”

“It— what?”

“The problem was that your plant was getting too big for its pot,” Robbie explained, still smiling. “Its roots were all tangled and tight. Basically, I took it out and separated it into two lavender plants. Now they both can grow. In short,” Robbie waved one of the lavender branches, “your plant had a baby.”

Sportacus stared at the two lavenders before letting out a ‘woop’ and grabbing the orange pot from Robbie. “That’s amazing, Robbie! You really separated all the roots? That must have taken forever!”

Robbie’s smile went from gloating to sheepish and he rubbed the back of his neck. “It was— well, I won’t pretend it didn’t take hours. You had that poor thing cramped! I’m surprised it hadn’t packed up and walked away itself!”

With a snort, Sportacus shook his head. “I never would have figured this out without you, Robbie. Thank you so much.”

“It takes a unique mind to come up with these things,” Robbie said, tapping his temple. His smugness was returning. Deservedly so, in Sportacus’ opinion.

“So, what would you like?”

“What would I like?”

“In exchange for helping me,” Sportacus explained. “What would you like in return?”

Robbie’s mouth hung open loosely as he stared at Sportacus. That he hadn’t just yelled “I would like you to leave town forever” immediately was indicative of how far their tense friendship had come.

“I… I would like ice cream,” Robbie finally answered after a moment.

“Sure,” Sportacus put down the plant again, ready to take out a pen and paper. “What kind do you—”

“Ice cream,” Robbie interrupted. “with you.”

“With… me?”

“Yes. Come with me to get ice cream.”

Sportacus’ heart beat a little louder in his ear. “Why do you need me to be there?”

Robbie scowled even as his face turned pink and red. “Because it won’t be a d-date otherwise!”

“A date?”

“Yes!”

“You want to go on a date with me?”

Robbie waved his arms wordlessly and then dug his fingers into his gelled hair. “What part of this is confusing?!”

“S-Sorry!” Sportacus was sure he was turning interesting shades as well. It was a good thing he had put the plant down already; his hands were starting to sweat. “No one has asked me on a date before!”

Robbie’s eyes pointedly ran over Sportacus’ arms and chest and hair. “How?! Never mind,” he added flatly, putting up a hand as Sportacus opened his mouth. “Never mind just— are you okay with getting ice cream together or not?”

Trying to discreetly wipe his hands on his pants, Sportacus nodded rapidly. “Yes. Yes, let’s go.”

Robbie’s shoulders sagged in apparent relief. “Great.” He picked up both plants and handed them to Sportacus. “I know a great spot run by an incredibly handsome person.”

They turned to leave but Sportacus hesitated. Doubling back to the armchair, he placed the orange pot onto the cushion. Robbie raised an eyebrow at him. “I said the date was my payment.”

“I know. This is a gift. It’s traditional to give flowers when you start courting someone.”

The blush was back and it ran all the way to Robbie’s ears this time. Smiling, Sportacus took his hand and led Robbie up the pipe, revived lavender plant in his free arm.

[otterlydeerlightful]

LazyTown Ship Week #2

Day #2: Memes/Jokes ------------------------------

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” the girl whispered.

“Of course I’m sure! What do you take me for?” the man hissed back.

“I dunno. Some of your ideas are…well, you know…”

“My ideas are what, exactly?”

“Uh…perfect?”

“That’s what I thought you said,” he huffed.

The girl just sighed and shook her head while the man sitting by her side prepped the device between them. She shrugged and turned back to the pair of purple binoculars in her hands, leaning over to try and get a better view of the path. Robbie busied himself setting their ammunition in place.

Trixie resumed her watch with the comically large binoculars pressed closely to her face. Their previous victim, Ziggy, had absolutely loved the prank and both she and her partner in crime were ready to spring their fine-tuned trap on another unsuspecting pedestrian.

“See anyone?” Robbie whispered, rustling the leaves of their hide-away bush when he leaned over to do so.

“If I did, they��d know we were here already!” she snapped back with a hiss. “You’re too loud!”

“I’m too loud—?” The bush rattled again as the villain got his voice back under control, returning to a subdued whisper quickly. “I’m too loud? What about you? People in Siberia could hear your breathing!”

“As if!”

Robbie harrumphed and the pair went back to their stake-out. It was a little disappointing that there was so little foot traffic for such a nice day, but they could wait. It would be worth it. And at least it was warm out, and they had some sturdy branches to keep comfortable while they waited. It was so comfortable, in fact, that Robbie had started to doze off when he was suddenly smacked in the ribs by a small hand. He let out a yelp only to have that same hand immediately cover his mouth. Trixie glared at him. He licked her palm, daring to face the nasty child germs that resided there just to watch the look of silent horror on her face as he yanked her hand away and began wiping it furiously on her pants. Heh. Worth it.

“Gross!” she whined as quietly as she could manage.

“Serves you right,” Robbie whispered back.

“You were gonna start snoring and ruin everything!” Before her companion could give a retort, the girl pointed through the leaves. “See! Someone’s coming!”

Even without his binoculars, Robbie could see the shape of a humanoid figure approaching, and quickly! He gasped, flailing around and shaking their hiding place terribly as he got himself into position. Trixie huffed at him in annoyance, but held the binoculars up to her eyes and fell into the intense concentration that only a well-executed prank could bring to her.

“Steady,” she whispered.

Robbie’s fingers twitched in anticipation.

“Almost…”

His lip curled excitedly into a menacing grin.

“Get ready.”

The man’s hand was poised over the release switch, just waiting for the little girl’s signal.

“And…now!”

Robbie slapped the release with all his strength. A pair of arms parted the shrubbery to make way for the immense pie that was flung out by his ingeniously crafted slingshot. The pie whistled as it flew through the air, hitting its target with a thick, wet slorp that was just music to Robbie’s evil ears. A loud thud soon followed, and Robbie and Trixie alike jumped to their feet. Roaring in jubilant glee, they popped out from their bush to see who had be unlucky enough to walk into their delicious trap. The cheering and laughter soon stopped, however, when they recognized the victim.

“Sportacus!” Robbie yelped, hands flying up to grasp at his hair. He turned immediately to Trixie. “You didn’t tell me it was Sportaflop!”

The girl held up her hands as she shook her head, mouth agape in shock for a moment. “I couldn’t tell! I didn’t have a great view and…”

Robbie waved her away. There was no time for squabbling; Sportacus needed him! Robbie tumbled out of the suddenly obstructive bush to get to the boyfriend that was lifelessly sprawled on his back in the middle of the walkway. He only tripped twice on the way, shedding leaves and sticks as he went.

“Of all the times for me to have perfect aim!” he cried as he fell to his knees beside the town hero. “Oh no,” he moaned as he looked upon the unconscious hero. “Oh, I am in so much trouble…” With shaking hands, he pried away the pie tin that covered Sportacus’ face. Seeing the hero’s pie-covered image made Robbie cringe. “…I’m going to be in the doghouse forever.”

Trixie crept closer to the scene, trying to get a better look at the sugary carnage.

“Is he okay?” she asked hesitantly.

Robbie chewed nervously on his lower lip while desperately trying to wipe his boyfriend’s face clean of pie. “Does he look okay, Tricky?” His voice sounded much higher than usual.

The little girl was undeterred. “He didn’t….you know...did he?”

Robbie let out a squeak before answering. “If you’re asking if I gave my boyfriend a sugar meltdown by throwing a pie right at his stupid hero mouth, then yes! Yes I did!” Robbie cried. He clutched his temples, his pie-covered hands smearing the stuff through his hair. “Go get me some sportscandy or something! We have to wake him up!”

“I can’t.”

The villain’s head whipped toward the child so quickly that one might worry that Robbie had snapped his own neck. “What?”

“I can’t!” Trixie cried, throwing up her hands. “There isn’t any! We were picking all the apples and all that stuff yesterday! There’s nothing left!”

“Nothing left?” Robbie shrieked.

“That’s what I said!”

“How in the name of villainy can there be an apple shortage in the apple capital of the world?”

Trixie made a face. “In the what…?”

Robbie ignored her, already having moved on to Plan B. It wasn’t the best idea he’d ever had, but he was desperate. He grabbed a fistful of nearby turf and patted Sportacus’ cheek, hoping the sensation might help bring some sense back to the town hero. Oh, he hoped this worked.

“Okay, Sportaconcious, you’ve gotta work with me here. You, uh…you like salad, right?” He looked dubiously at his handful of grass. “It’s, uh…all natural.”

Someone snorted.

Robbie growled, looking over his shoulder at the little girl standing there. She was smiling, but shrugged. “Wasn’t me,” she said, sinking a bit into her own shoulders as she spoke, as though she was trying to hold in laughter.

There was another amused snort nearby and, for lack of anywhere else to look, Robbie looked back down at his boyfriend. Sportacus was smiling. Another snort and the hero fell into outright laughter, finally opening his eyes. Robbie’s jaw dropped at the sight of it.

“You’re…but the pie…how…what?”

Sportacus giggled, eyes giving his boyfriend’s hand a quick glance. “Were…were you going to try and feed me grass?” the hero laughed.

Robbie continued to stare, frozen in place at the revelation that the elf was still conscious after taking a pie to the face. “You’re—?”

“Surprise!” Sportacus chucked, sitting up and delivering a cream-covered kiss to Robbie’s cheek.

“But how!”

Now it was Trixie’s turn to giggle. “It’s easy when the pie doesn’t have any sugar in it!” she said, proudly setting her hands on her hips. “Sportacus and I planned everything.”

Robbie gaped at the two of them, looking back and forth in amazement. “You—you tricked me? You? But you’re the hero! And You—!” He pointed back at Trixie. “—We were supposed to be partners!”

“Playing the long con!” the little girl said with a confident grin.

Sportacus wiped some of the pie remnants from around his eyes. “It was a good joke, wasn’t it, Robbie? When Trixie told me about it I just couldn’t resist.”

Robbie looked back at his pie-covered boyfriend in amazement. “I…” He shook his head, shoulders relaxing slightly now that he finally began to realize Sportacus was okay, despite looking like some kind of whipped cream monster. “I am a terrible influence on you!”

Sportacus snickered for a moment before bursting into laughter again. Robbie couldn’t help himself. Slowly, he felt himself smile and begin to laugh, too. Trixie beamed, watching the pair as Sportacus playfully smushed some of the leftover pie into Robbie’s face to make the villain laugh even harder. She only looked away when the pair began to kiss. Even without pie everywhere, kissing was just gross.

[bugmeeku]

I want to clean this up more but my internet keeps being annoying so I’m just gonna post it like this

[thesecandlessuck]

day 1 of lazytown ship week: plants/gardening!

i hope flowers count! i just really wanted to draw my boy robbie getting some flowers from his elf bf 🌹❤️

[virfujiwara]

I guess it’s a rarepair for Day 1 - Plants/Gardening!

[breakfastandfurious]

@lazytownshipweek day 2: Presents/ D̶e̶c̶o̶r̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g̶

idk

whats in the box (but its nice) 

any guesses?

[friendly-neighborhood-bastard]

For Day 6 of Lazytown Ship Week.

[kailuabunny-art]

Some very late Stephingy for the last day of @lazytownshipweek.

[someoneplsloverobbierotten]

Fic 6 for @lazytownshipweek is finally up! Day 6 - Favourite Colours/Drawing with Stephanie/Stingy :) Uploaded a day late because i had to work all day yesterday and today, apologies! 

Summary: Stingy and Stephanie colour together to de-stress sometimes.

This time, Stephanie finds what Stingy's drawn particularly interesting.

[lazytownshipweek]

Ship Week for 2018?

So, I have plans for drawing starting February or March to the end of May. I know in 2017 the ship week happen in March but it looks like it's going to be a different month this year. The question is: is January a good month for it? I was planning to have it then in 2018. Please send in an ask, message, or reply to this post about what you think.

[sportablog]

Day 3 - Sportscandy

Today’s lil HB doodle. Robbie still won’t try sportscandy

@lazytownshipweek

[indigowallbreaker]

LT Ship Week Day 7:Vacation

Travel/Vacation and Sportarobbie!

Gotta hit up this ship twice. Glad I could make it to the end of the week! Hope you all have enjoyed this Ship Week! <3

[all fics can be read via ao3. Username indigorose50. I also have a ko-fi on my profile!]

Robbie sat on the beach. The sky was clear and beautiful. A slight breeze tickled the sand around him, including the thick layer piled over his legs to give him the appearance of a mermaid tail. Beside him sat Sportacus, nursing a water bottle and looking out at the ocean.

“I, for one,” Robbie began, voice soaked in malice, “am so glad that the kids decided to visit us during our honeymoon because they ‘thought we might get bored’.”

Sportacus chuckled and dropped a kiss to the top of his head. “I think it’s sweet.”

“Have you been bored?”

“Never when I’m with you.”

“Good.” Robbie jerked his chin towards the shore. “Then make them leave.”

The kids were playing by the ocean. Ziggy and Pixel were constructing a sandcastle, Stingy was making his own ‘Stingy Castle’, and Stephanie and Trixie were splashing each other in the waves.

“I already gave Milford a call,” Sportacus explained. “He’s going to tell everyone about the kids stowing away on the ship. They should all be picked up by the morning. We will still have the rest of the week to ourselves.”

Robbie grumbled, kicking his legs free of his sandy mer-tail. “We’ll have to babysit until then, won’t we?”

“You love them. Stop pretending.”

“It’s not unreasonable to want to spend your honeymoon alone with your husband!”

“It’s just one day, Robbie.” Sportacus stood up, capping his water bottle and tossing it to the blanket. He reached out a hand to Robbie. “Let’s go play!”

Every fiber of Robbie’s being rejected the idea of being active while on vacation but he really was no match for those pleading eyes and heartwarming smile. He let himself be guided to the shoreline. All the kids’ heads turned at their arrival. With sandy hands and sunburnt noses they smiled and waved Robbie over.

“Robbie! Can you help us decorate?” Ziggy called. Pixel had an armload of shells and looked hopeful.

“No! Let’s have a splash fight!” Trixie cried over the waves. “You can be on my team!”

Hours later, Robbie lay back on a chaise lounge beach chair. Cuddle into his sides were a worn out Stingy and Pixel. Sportacus lay next to him, asleep with Stephanie curled in his lap. Ziggy and Trixie slept on the pile of beach blankets beside them, their heads pillowed by water wings.

Robbie couldn’t hold in a smile as the dying sun tinted Sportacus’ blond hair all sorts of colors. Maybe spending the first day of your honeymoon with children was unconventional, but Robbie had enjoyed every minute of it. Not that he would ever admit that out loud.

But, as Sportacus’ opened sleep-heavy eyes and smiled up at him, Robbie figured he didn’t have to.

[otterlydeerlightful]

LazyTown Ship Week #4

I admit, I gave myself the Feels writing this. --------------------------------------------------------

The pounding at his window jolted the boy from his video game. He looked up in surprised confusion, startled to see the long, familiar face of Robbie Rotten, the laziest man in all of LazyTown, looking at him with almost comically large eyes. They stared at one another in silence for a few long seconds before Robbie rapped loudly on the window once again.

“Prickle!” he whined, his voice muffled by the glass. “I need your help!”

The boy, whose actual name was Pixel, lifted himself from his computer chair and crossed the room. He opened his window and watched the tall man carefully. It wasn’t every day that the town’s biggest ne’er-do-well came to a child’s window begging for help. The entire thing was highly suspicious, but Pixel couldn’t quite ignore the uncomfortable feeling that the adult’s panic-stricken eyes ignited in him. Whatever was wrong, Robbie seemed to be genuine in his desperation.

“I really need your help, Pimple. If you can’t help me, no one in this God-forsaken town can. Will you help me? Please?”

He hesitated. This was Robbie Rotten, after all. What good ever came from talking with him?

“What’s the problem, exactly?” the boy heard himself asking.

Robbie’s hiked shoulders relaxed a bit. Only slightly, but the relief from Pixel’s words was obvious.

“I—I need your help. I have this robot, you see, and…and something’s wrong! I can’t figure out where the problem is and you’re the only other person in town smart enough to help! Please, I don’t know what to do!”

Pixel blinked. Robot? What would Robbie Rotten need with a robot? And were those…tears in his eyes? Okay, maybe the guy wasn’t pulling a prank on him. Pixel would feel terrible if he turned Robbie away when he really needed help.

“Okay, fine. Let me get my tools.”

Robbie wet his lips nervously. “And…and a computer, too! A good one! M-meet me at the billboard outside of town. And be quick about it!”

With that, the tall, lanky figure raced off. Pixel leaned out his window, watching the man all but run down the street. He shook his head and blinked in disbelief, watching the fellow LazyTowner disappear down the road.

“Robbie Rotten…running?” he asked aloud to no one before closing his bedroom window again. Pixel shook his head once again. “Now I’ve seen everything.”

*****

“Took you long enough!” Robbie snapped upon seeing the boy walk up the lane to the billboard. “Er…I mean…thanks for coming.” He swallowed, running a hand through his unusually unkept hair. “Really. I mean it.”

Pixel offered an awkward smile at the mixed greeting. “So, uh…where’s the robot?”

“Inside. Come on,” Robbie said, waving for Pixel to follow him as he hurried through a door in the billboard that the boy had never known was there before.

He blinked and shook his head before following the man. Might as well go with the already-weird flow, after all. Pixel closed the door behind him, figuring it would be impolite to just leave it swinging open, and looked around for Robbie. The man shouted something to him before jumping down the opening to what looked like…an underground silo? A land submarine? Pixel rubbed his eyes, yet still the strange purple tube with its lifted lid remained.

“Man, how do I get myself into these things?” he mumbled to himself, walking over, climbing the short ladder and, with a gulp, sliding down into the darkness.

The boy landed on his feet, though he nearly lost his balance once the weight of his backpack hit him. He caught himself, readjusted the straps, and took a look around at…wherever they were. His mouth fell open at the sight of the expansive room he beheld. Did Robbie actually live here? The boy looked around at his surroundings in awe. There was a weird shaggy-looking orange chair in the center of it, a matching lamp beside it. Along the back wall was a series of tubes, all filled with colorful costumes, and some sort of pipe organ attached to them. Probably a control panel, he decided, but what did it do? Before his curiosity could be satisfied, though, his attention was drawn to a series of work tables and benches on the opposite side of the room.

“Oh, wow,” he whispered, approaching one of the tables.

This had to be it. The lumps and parts strewn across it definitely looked like a half-assembled robot, even if it was partially covered by a sheet. A ballerina, maybe? At least, parts of one. Not all the limbs were attached yet, most of the circuitry was exposed, and half of it wasn’t even painted. A partially finished head sat on a pedestal nearby, the expressionless face not yet complete, though a dark wig sat nearby waiting.

“Is this it?” he asked.

“Is what…? No, not her! Don’t touch, she’s not finished yet!” Robbie hollered, though his voice sounded abnormally shaky. “This one, over here!”

Pixel turned toward Robbie’s voice to see the man hunched over something on the floor near the corner of the room. The mass, he quickly realized, looked human. Definitely the robot. Still marveling over the fact that the town outcast was apparently making such amazing, advanced-looking mechanical creations in a secret underground bunker, Pixel trotted over to see what he could do to help.

This robot was much bigger than the first, the size of a grown man, in fact. It...looked like it could be a real man, actually, if not for a few lines at the joints and other minor details. The craftsmanship was amazingly impressive. The face was so detailed, complete with a messy mop of blond hair and one of the weirdest mustaches Pixel had ever seen. Some kind of camouflaged antenna, maybe. It looked real, like it was just a regular guy who happened to be asleep on the floor. What gave it away, though, was the gaping torso. It looked like Robbie had already taken off the robot’s vest and pulled up their shirt to open a few panels to take a look inside.

“Wow…this is amazing, Robbie!”

“It’s not amazing!” the man snapped. “He’s hurt! W-we were running tests on the waterproof casings and…and everything looked fine, but then…” Robbie’s voice fell the longer he spoke. “We overdid it, and…I tried to get him back to the table but he…” He sniffled. “He’s too heavy for me to move him and…I really need your help, Pencil. I don’t know where else I can go. I don’t…I don’t even know if he’s still in there or if he’s…if he’s…”

The boy looked back and forth between man and machine. Robbie was really attached to this thing, wasn’t he? Well, he was here to help, so he would do his best to manage just that. Pixel slipped off his backpack and began pulling out his equipment: a toolbox, laptop, and a bunch of different wires.

“Don’t worry, Robbie. I’ll take a look and I’ll have this thing up and running in no time, I know it!”

Well, he had though he knew it, anyway.

Robbie and Pixel worked together for over two hours before they mutually decided that Robbie needed a mental break from the stress. The man sat in his orange chair, fidgeting with worry and asking the occasional question as Pixel worked. They replaced a few parts and burned out circuits, even taking a look inside the robot’s—“Sportacus! Stop calling him an it. His name is Sportacus. It’s a stupid name, but it’s his!”—head to see what intricacies there might need to be fixed or replaced.

The entire process took the entire day, and the robot Sportacus still wasn’t responding.

Robbie slumped to the floor nearby, unable to stay in his chair any longer. He watched quietly as Pixel tried and failed again to get Sportacus up and running. He sighed and wiped at his eye when it seemed he thought Pixel was busy staring at the readouts on his laptop screen.

“This whole thing was an accident,” he said quietly.

Pixel nodded as he worked. “Yeah, I know. You said you were testing—”

“No, not that.” He swallowed and nodded down at the robot. “Him. I tried to make something that might be able to hold a conversation, that’s all, just a simple one so there’d be someone to talk to now and then, maybe clean up the place so I didn’t have to. I went through nine failures before I finally got one to start up properly without exploding something in the first five minutes.” Robbie gave a weak smile at the memory. “He jumped up right away…wouldn’t stop jumping. I don’t know how, or what I did different, but…he’s not just a robot with a list of responses. He thinks. He has a personality. And I…” The man let out a loud, shaky breath. “I’ve killed him.”

Pixel swallowed, picking his words carefully after hearing the story. “You didn’t kill him, Robbie. It—he’ll be okay.”

“Even if he turns back on, he’ll probably be gone,” Robbie sighed. “Spontaneous intelligence like that wasn’t something I planned for. A wire must’ve gotten crossed or something and...oh, he was alive, Pixel. And we’ve been playing with his brain all day. If he wakes up, the perfect circumstances that made Sportacus Sportacus won’t…” He swallowed. “He may not be there anymore.”

The boy shifted where he sat, unsure what to think about all of this, much less what the best thing to say might be. All he could offer was “I replaced a couple of relays, and the diagnostic test looked okay so…maybe it’ll work this time. Maybe it’ll be okay.”

The man nodded, but didn’t look convinced. If anything, he looked like he may fall apart at any moment himself. Pixel carefully connected a few wires and moved a small switch, sitting back to watch the circuit complete itself. The sound of a fan started up. A few little lights blinked to life inside the robot’s chest cavities and Pixel could hear Robbie gasp with hope as a couple of gears began to turn. And then, all at once, it stopped.

“Wh-what happened?” Robbie demanded, jumping to his feet. “He was working! He was working!”

Pixel’s eyes were wide and frantic as he searched the Sportacus robot’s chest for answers. “I don’t know! It looked like it was—Robbie, where are you going?”

Pixel scrambled to his feet, chasing after the man. He jumped back when Robbie grabbed some tools from a nearby table and, with a mighty grunt, threw them across the room. He kicked over a bucket of nuts, another filled with bolts, and threw a screwdriver straight into the tubes of costumes, causing a small crack in one. Robbie let out a roar of frustration and stomped over to the far table, causing Pixel to gasp, panicked as he realized where the man was headed.

“Robbie, no, don’t—”

Instead of throwing or hitting the pieces of ballerina, though, Robbie collapsed onto the stool beside her, his arms limp and back hunched. Something in the boy’s stomach twisted at the sight of the mechanical genius crumbling in front of him.

“I was going to try again,” he mumbled, reaching out to stroke the half-finished cheek before of him.

Pixel wasn’t sure if Robbie was talking to him anymore or not.

“I wanted to try again. Sp-Sportacus was so excited when I told him. You...” Robbie shuddered, holding in a sob as tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. “You were going to be our daughter if I could figure out how to…to…”

Pixel almost didn’t hear the soft click. He did, however, distinctly hear two others immediately after the first. He turned slowly, the sound of a soft hiss filling his ears as the sight of something sitting up filled his vision. The robot, after plucking some of the wiring out of his chest, closed the panels on his chest and pulled down his white shirt. He sat up, looking down at himself with a look of confusion. The boy began to wave his hand in his host’s direction.

“Robbie!” he whispered. “Robbie! There was a startup delay! It was just a delay, look!”

As if hearing his words, the robot, Sportacus, looked up. He paid the newcomer little mind, though, as his attention was drawn almost immediately to his creator. Sportacus’ glowing blue eyes widened at the sight of the man crying over the pieces of the little ballerina. The robot jumped to his feet, the movement so sudden that Pixel jumped.

“Robbie, what’s wrong?”

The inventor froze for a second before looking up in disbelief. “Sp…Sportacus?”

The robot smiled and quickly closed the distance between them, wrapping the man in a grand hug that was readily returned. Pixel stared, slackjawed, at the sight of the usually grumpy man squealing with joy and hugging the robot so tightly that the boy wouldn’t be surprised to see dents in Sportacus’ casing. Robbie covered Sportacus’ face with relieved kisses and let out a heavy sigh as he all but collapsed in the mechanical being’s embrace.

“I thought you were gone for good. I thought your memory would be wiped and…and I’d be alone again. I never installed a failsafe for that. I never expected…oh, I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Sportacus kissed his creator’s cheek. “I learned how to make backups myself,” he reassured the man. “Just in case. Now I’m glad I did! I only lost a little bit since the last one, I think. Did something go wrong with the tests?”

“I’ll say!” Robbie laughed. “You genius, idiot robot, you!”

Pixel smiled while the two of them laughed. While he made a mental list of questions to ask Robbie about the amazing fluidity of Sportacus’ movements and his clearly sophisticated AI basis, he decided that now wasn’t really the time for them. He was just glad that everything was okay. It seemed Robbie was a little more than just attached to his robot, and the man’s earlier terror suddenly began to make more sense.

Robbie, looking over Sportacus’ shoulder, finally seemed to realize that the child was still standing there watching the two of them. He gestured for his mechanical companion to turn and look.

“This...this is Pretzel. I mean, er, Pixel. He’s…without him, we’d…we’d both be lost.”

The boy gave an awkward wave. “H-hi.”

The robot practically beamed. “Is he our new son?”

Robbie snorted. Pixel smiled.

“Not exactly,” Robbie said with a fondness in his eyes.

The robot nodded, leaving his creator’s side to greet the new human. He held out a hand. “Halló. My name is Sportacus Ten! It’s a pleasure to meet you, Pixel!”

The boy smiled, offering a hand of his own. “It’s nice to meet you, Sportacus.”