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spookywhumping · 2 years ago

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Trix

(I wrote a prompt with a robot whumpee for Whumptober this year, and I decided to continue with the idea I had, in the form of a new character. This takes place before said prompt ^-^)

It was well past twilight when Terrance Gillespie returned home. He hesitated before going inside, hand resting on the doorknob with key in hand. If he leaned close to the doorway, he could hear the faint sound of voices inside. He took a long, tired breath, then unlocked the door and headed inside.

“—be careful while standing there!” A voice was saying. “If you need to reach, you could always ask me or Natty for help.”

The sight that greeted Gillespie was not an unusual one. Two of his three children, and an android. His five-year-old son, Jacob, was standing on a stepstool dragged out of the closet, trying to reach a book on a living room shelf. Natalie, his ten-year-old daughter, was kneeling on a floor. Sitting cross-legged in front of her was a humanoid robot, who looked up when Gillespie walked in. Their face shifted to a happy expression. “Hello, sir!” they said. “Natty, Jake, your dad is home.”

“Hi Dad!” Jacob waved from where he was standing on the stool.

“Hey, Dad,” Natalie said, more subdued.

Gillespie sighed, and walked over to the stepstool. “Jacob, if you need something from the top shelf, you need to ask me, Mom, or Trix to come get it.” He glanced over at the android. “Right?”

The android—Trix—shifted their expression again, into something more sad. “He was very insistent, sir. He wanted to prove he could reach it. Even if I got it from him, he would just try again when I was busy to show that he could do it.”

“Whaaat? No, I wouldn’t!” Jacob denied.

Gillespie put Jacob down on the floor. “You’re probably right. How is Cameron?”

“Fast asleep upstairs, sir. I connected to the baby monitor and haven’t heard or seen anything unusual.”

“Good, good.” Gillespie checked his watch, which displayed not only the current time on its lockscreen, but also the temperature, weather, and any events he had scheduled. “Alright. Bedtime.”

“What? But Mom isn’t back yet!” Natalie protested. “You said we could stay up until she came home!”

“Sorry, but it turns out she needs to stay a bit later than expected. And I have some...grown-up stuff to do.” Gillespie hoped the kids couldn’t pick up on the grim tone in his voice. “Trix, please put them to bed. Then come see me afterwards.”

“Of course, sir.” Trix made a happy expression, and stood up. “Come on, you heard your dad. You don’t want to bother his grown-up stuff. It’s probably boring, anyway.“

The kids grumbled, but followed Trix up the stairs to the second-story bedrooms. While they did that, Gillespie headed into his office and began preparations, making sure all the files were in the right place and everything that needed to be deleted was completely taken care of. It only took a few minutes, but he kept going through his folders afterwards. Just to be sure.

Trix knocked on the door thirty minutes later. “Sorry for the delay, sir,” they said. “Jake decided he wanted water and then Natty asked me to change the music a few times. Is everything alright? Is there an emergency at Dr. Gillespie’s workplace?”

“She’s just doing some overtime,” Gillespie said simply. He didn’t say anything else, taking a moment to look the android over. Trix was an older model, which Gillespie was always glad for. He found the newer droids somewhat uncanny. Most of Trix’s body was bare metal, which they covered up with soft, oversized clothing in bright warm colors. The most normal part of them was the head, with everything above the neck looking human, including synthetic hair. Well...almost human. “Can you reset to default colors, please?”

“Oh, of course, sir.” Trix’s hair, eyes, and skin were customizable, usually accessed through a panel on their back. But they could reset to default anytime they wanted, which they did now. Their hair lightened from bright blue to blonde, their eyes shifting from pink and purple to yellow, their skin changing from pale green to a peach color similar to Caucasian skin. They smiled. “Anything else?”

“Yes.” Gillespie turned around and shut down the computer. “You...recall the family’s financial troubles.”

The smile dropped to a frown. They looked sad, but that was probably due to the limited thirteen expressions their model was programmed with. “Yes, sir, I’ve heard about it from Dr. Gillespie,” they said, artificial voice filled with worry. “Has anything changed?”

“In a way,” Gillespie said carefully. “I have an opportunity to get us some...room to breathe. But...you will be relieved of your services.”

“Oh.” Their neutral expression took over for a moment. Then the smile returned. “That’s alright, sir. It’s been a joy to work with you! And the doctor, and of course the little ones! I’m happy to work in another household, if it will help you.”

“It’s not exactly—” Gillespie broke off, and sighed again. “Well. Unfortunately, the arrangement I’ve made is...effective as of tonight.”

“...oh.” Trix’s expression fell into sadness again. “Can I...Do I get to say goodbye to the little ones?”

“Do you want to wake them up to do that?”

Trix shook their head, but their expression remained sad. “O...kay, then, sir. Allow me to pack my belongings.”

“You shouldn’t—ah, fine.” Gillespie couldn’t bring himself to tell Trix their belongings wouldn’t be needed. “Go ahead. Make sure your carry-charger is ready. It might be a while before we get there. And don’t take more than ten minutes, please.”

Twelve minutes later, Trix headed out to the car, where Gillespie was waiting. “I couldn’t get everything,” they said. “Can I come back later for the rest?”

“Sure, Trix.” Gillespie sighed. “If you’re able to, you can come back. Now get in the car.”

Trix gave him a smile and climbed into the passenger seat. Gillespie tried not to look at them as he started the engine and pulled out onto the street.

At first, Trix tried to talk to Gillespie, asking questions about just where they were going, making small talk about the city around them, and going on and on about the children. Apparently, they wanted to be really sure that the parents would be prepared to look after the kids without them. But Gillespie didn’t respond much, so they eventually lapsed into silence, staring out the window. An hour passed, and they’d completely lost sight of any cities, stuck on a long stretch of highway. Another hour passed, and the car was still driving. The sun had long since set, but there were now the outlines of mountains looming in the distance. “Sir, do you mind if I go into sleep mode?” Trix asked.

“Go ahead,” Gillespie said, the first words he’d spoken in two hours.

Trix nodded. They set up his carry-charger, just in case they needed to be at full when they got to their destination, and slowly shut down, processes slowing...

Then woke up to Gillespie shaking their shoulder. “We’re here,” he said.

“Hmm? Oh!” Trix sat up straight, unplugging their charger. “Yay! That took a while, huh?” Their internal clock read that another ninety minutes had passed while they were in sleep mode. “Alright, I’m ready. Should I get my things from the trunk?”

“No, leave it. It’s fine. Just grab the charger.” Gillespie opened the driver’s side door and stepped out. Trix’s expression shifted to worry. Was he alright? He’d been acting strange this whole time. Maybe he was just sad. With that in mind, they also stepped out of the car.

They’d driven into some sort of massive garage, as big as a parking lot but completely encased in a building. The ceiling overhead was crisscrossed with beams and ropes, some sort of pulley system carrying platforms. The garage was mostly empty, except for some big trucks. Gillespie started walking to the only visible entrance—a large archway—and Trix followed.

The archway led into another big room, this one longer, more like a giant hallway. Small cars were driving around, some carrying carts with boxes. The pulley system continued overhead. Occasionally, the plain metal walls were broken by shelves with boxes and various metal parts and equipment. There were humans running around, being busy. Some wore blue jumpsuits, others wore black uniforms, and a few walked around in plain clothes. Trix didn’t see any other androids. Strange. This looked like a place that would have at least a few.

A woman walked up to Gillespie. She wore a white suit jacket and matching pencil skirt, and her eyes and hair were black. “Terrance, hello,” she said. “Good to see you on time. Is this the android?”

“Yes, this is Trix—TRX-01700,” Gillespie said.

“It’s nice to meet you!” Trix said, being polite even though they thought this woman was being rather rude. “What’s your name?”

The woman glanced at him. “Kamiyama,” she said simply, then turned back to Gillespie. “We’ll need to talk in my office to figure out the paperwork. I hope this will be enough to help with your family troubles. We’re always willing to offer more if you need it.”

“No, what you said was fine.” Gillespie glanced at Trix, some strange emotion on his face. Trix couldn’t quite identify it. Regret, maybe?

“Just let us know,” Kamiyama said. She turned around and gestured at one of the small cars driving around. It switched trajectory and pulled to a stop next to the group. “Please take this android down to the prepared room while I talk with Mr. Gillespie here.” The driver, wearing a blue jumpsuit, gave a little salute. “Thank you. Terrance, please follow me.” And with that, she walked off. Gillespie followed her, giving Trix one last backwards glance. They waved at him. He quickly looked away.

This whole thing was very unusual. This wasn’t the sort of place Trix was expecting to end up. They were designed as a caretaker model, and while it wasn’t unheard of for androids to do jobs other than the one their model was made for, they didn’t think they were qualified for any job working in a place like this. And Kamiyama had been very dismissive. It was kind of... uncomfortable. Yes, that was the word. They hadn’t used that feeling very often.

Before they could do anything more, someone grabbed their arm and started to pull. “Hey!” they shouted, twisting around to see one of the humans in black uniforms. “I can walk on my own, thank y—hey!” The black-uniformed human continued to pull, showing surprising strength. But Trix managed to stay their ground, yanking their arm back. “Just tell me where I’m supposed to go, please.”

The human sighed, and glanced at the small car. Other than the driver in blue, there were two other people there, both wearing black as well. They both sighed as well, and climbed out, standing on Trix’s other side.

“Um...” Trix glanced around at them. “What are you—”

All three of them moved at once, pushing Trix in one direction. Trix shouted in surprise, but was taken off guard. They hit some hip-high obstacle and toppled over, landing in a metal bin. One of the carts attached to the small cars. They quickly ran a self-diagnostic, but found nothing damaged, just lingering impacts from their fall.

They started to stand, grabbing the wall of the cart to pull themselves out. Instead, one of the black-wearing humans grabbed the back of their neck. “Whoa!” They spun around to look at them, head rotating beyond human capability, and gently slapped the hand away. “Don’t do that! Not without asking first.”

The human looked annoyed, but a second human put a hand on their shoulder. The second one, too, reached out, and Trix backed up, scooting along the floor of the cart until they hit the opposite wall. “I said don’t do that,” they repeated. “That’s a very sensitive spot for some droids—”

More hands grabbed their head. The third human in black had circled around the cart and was now standing behind them. Trix yelped, and started to spin again, but the human was a lot faster than expected. They flipped open the small panel on the back of Trix’s neck and pressed the button hidden underneath.

Trix froze. Instantly, their body slumped down, hitting the bottom of the cart with a clang. Their limbs stopped responding. They could feel things slowing. The human had actually pressed the manual shut down. You weren’t supposed to do that! It could cause damage to an android’s systems as processes suddenly halted. Most new models didn’t even have them.

So...why? Trix heard the humans talking, but the language part of their system had already stopped. And their audio input ceased shortly after that, followed by visual, and then tactile. The last thing to go were their thoughts, still wondering why, still wondering what would happen next.

#whump #whump writing #robot whump #robot whumpee #oc tag: trix17

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