Chapter 7: The Engineer is, metaphorically, Engihere

I blinked twice at her sudden outburst. She, however, still had her eyes open — greenish pupils near literally sparkling at the proposition of knowing more about me. It was honestly a little bit concerning. And, uh, flattering, obviously, but I was worried about what she was gonna do with this info...

Regardless, I did need someone who was going to help me out with checkups. "I'm an android, uh... sort of a mechanical humanoid. A robot. I promise I'm sapient and sentient, I just. Well, it's hard to give myself serious medical or mechanical care on my own, and I don't exactly have a ton of supplies." 

Her staring made me feel things, and I was going to tentatively term the things I was feeling as "uncomfortable". I averted my eyes quickly, which apparently prompted her to actually talk and not just ogle me like a slab of, uh, techno-meat. "I'm not gonna doubt your sapience, silly!" she says, with a joviality to her voice. "I mean, even if you weren't cute as shit and mechanically more than advanced enough to be sentient, I'd still believe you at face value. I'd love to help you out with that if you let me inspect how you work! In fact, we can start now if you want..?"

I nodded with surprising eagerness. Could I really..?

Actually, that was a stupid question. Of course I could trust this mechanic, I had to. She was pretty much the only option for me to stay functional in the nearby area, and this'd give me more than enough time to seriously get used to living in this time period... world. Place. I'd be able to learn the lay of the land and find places to hide out.

A pang of loneliness preemptively sounded in my chest, but I pushed it down. Time to get a checkup.

Flurry led me to a mechanical laboratory room and quickly shoved parts off a table to make it usable as an operating slab, then motioned for me to lie down. I did so with trepidation and anxiety building in my gut, which she very easily noticed. For a few brief seconds I thought she was going to tell me to get my shit together or something, but she just looked away and started asking me questions about what I needed help with.

"So... you run on a combination of electricity, 'bio-chemical generators', and 'nuclear power cells'? I'm not sure this is really within the realm of my own tech, to be honest. I mean, I'll give it my best shot of course! But, like, the only place I've even heard of electricity from is the few things I've gleaned from my trips to the capital. And I don't even know what a nuclear power cell is."

"Oh, uh, shit." I hadn't considered that they wouldn't really know about electricity, nor the other forms of energy I ran on. In retrospect it was probably pretty obvious this would be an issue, but at least I had the ability to synthesize food into energy. "Well, yeah, I guess that's fair. It should be fine, I just... do need someone to check them physically once in a while. The more pressing issue is probably my mechanical joints. I need some way of keeping them dust-free and clear of dirt if I'm going to be walking around anywhere, and while my skin does a good job of that I can't guarantee I won't get cuts..."

Flurry laughs, a thoroughly chunky noise with lots of stop-starts. It's a nice sound. "Oh, that's an easy one! I mean, I could just check up on you every once in a while, but I figure an easier method would just be to enchant parts of your joints or something. Could convert the dirt into some kind of iron or steel parts, so even if you got a broken bone or something you'd have a splint ready-made by just shoving dirt in there! Hm, or you could install some mana greasers. Those are more standard and reliable, I guess. They basically just convert any particulates that the substance finds to be not good to mana grease, which keeps any joints or moving parts well-oiled and lubricated while powering up the mechanisms anyways."

Considering that thought, she tilts her head. "Though it'd be a tight fit in your joints specifically. You don't exactly have a lot of room, it looks like. Obviously I'm going off of purely conjecture here, but I could check if you gave me a look..?" Flurry looks almost hungry, in a weird not-physical way.

"N-No, that's fine! You're right. I could probably sketch out the joints if you gave me some paper? And. Magic is real?"

"Yeah, how'd you not know about that?" Flurry did a quick flick of the wrist and a small notebook and pencil appeared in her hands from literally out of nowhere. She gives them to me, apparently thoroughly unfazed by her use of objectively-impossible parlor tricks. "Sketch out your joints. I've got a few ideas, but... first, why do you not have this sort of thing down already? You have to have encountered dirt before."

"A-Ah, uh. I'm sort of a transplant from another universe." I started to sketch out the several kinds of joints I had in me, trying and failing to keep my eyes off her hands while I worked. "I lived in a place with no windows and no real threats beyond the threat of possible trashing and the experiments they had me running."

"Trashing of what?" she asked, taking my drawings and affixing them to the walls alongside hundreds of other ones when I had finished.

"Me."

Flurry whirled around like she was in a tornado and stared at me in disbelief. "What??? Why??? You're a goddamn marvel of science and engineering, and I can't even detect a lick of magic in you! What kind of self-respecting scientist would trash someone like you?"

"The kind who had a hundred million times more money than sense, I guess? I was really a dime a dozen there, though."

She groaned, seemingly more out of indignity than irritation. "I'm calling horseshit, but we'll talk about that later. Your joints getting dirt in them is the current problem. Do you have like... blood? Some kind of circulatory system?"

"Uh, yeah." I was confused. There were many, many more robots just like me back in the Towers, so... I wasn't anything special. In any case, my circulatory system was actually remarkably similar to a human's — just with a more pump-y heart. "Why do you ask? Er, it's similar-ish to a human's."

"Ah! I've got an idea." Flurry rushed over to a nearby table, rummaging in her boxes and drawers until she finally found a small vial of glowing-blue liquid. A devious grin grew on her face, and I really did start to worry about my own health. "So, this is an experimental substance I made which basically acts as directed infection, but like, the reverse of infection. It'd allow you to convert any smaller particulates into direct magical energy, without burning the rest of your body up! The only complicated thing is producing it, but I figure if you're anything like humans you probably have a organic fluid production center somewhere tucked away inside you, and I know you can make this out of only stuff humans have on hand. I've tried it myself!"

She was right. I probably could even program the fluid production centers that controlled my metaphorical bloodstream to produce the reverse-infection (antibodies?) along with my anti-infectious measures. "I do. If you let me drink it, I can probably start production myself. Uh, if you want to use that on me."

"Sure! I mean, it's a good thing to be able to help people out, and I already said it was fine." She tossed the vial over to me, rummaging a bit more. "If I can figure out a way to convert magical energy into electricity, I could even solve that other problem of yours. Though, uh, I guess it would probably involve eating sand or something, so maybe not. Anything else you need so far?"

"No, not really... er, mostly? I figure it may be a good idea to learn a bit about fighting and magic, but I honestly should be fine. Just, I guess, I'll let you know?" I caught the vial and uncorked it, subtly noticing the way my joints already softly ground against each other. Hopefully this'd help with that particular issue at some point in the future. On closer inspection, the blue liquid had flecks of gold and yellow lightning in it floating around like tiny impurities in water.

Oh well. Down the hatch it went. I started analysis and reproduction of the first batch as soon as it hit my stomach.

"Ah, okay!" said Flurry, finally finding what she had been looking for. It was just... a weird-looking rock. Huh? "Right, so, this is a sendgem. I've already bound it, so once you use it you'll be able to communicate with me magically via the Social Stats screen. Hit me up if you ever need anything, and also do tell me more about your world when you feel able! Also, feel free to just drop in."

I nodded once more, grabbing the gem as she tossed it over while corking and tossing the now-empty vial back to her. "How do I use this thing?" It was just an uncut red gem, and I had no idea how to activate it.

"Open up your stats screen and crush it when you're in the Social menu. Should be easy!"

Huh. I had guessed it was going to be harder. Following her instructions, I opened my Stats screens and navigated to the Social listing, not realizing how she had jumped backwards until I heard clatter on the floor.

"S-Shit!" she wheezed, getting up from her place where she had fallen. "Damn, it's been a long time since I've ever seen a stats screen that wasn't mine. You aren't a player, though..? Man, things really are getting weird. Er, you seem to have it, though. Right."

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I did have it. But... weird? That could be important.

"What do you mean by weird?"

"A-Ah..." The seemingly unflappable Flurry, flapped? This was probably bad. "Well, it's just... weird happenings as of late. Mostly that there's been a pretty big influx of both monsters and players, but then there's also the weird fog that's apparently taken over a lot of the northern and western regions... and the people who haven't come back from their expeditions... egh. It's a lot, is what it is. Still, you might just be weird because you're from another world. Not necessarily anything wrong!" 

She tried to end it on a chipper note, but... damn, this sounded like an MMO opening. Hell, it literally might be an MMO opening if I was really unlucky! "So..."

"So nothing. You're gonna be fine! We're pretty far away from all that anyways," she finished for me. Even so, a sharp glimmer of doubt seemed to fester in her eyes. 

Ah shit, I was staring at her eyes again. I quickly looked away, trying to pass it off as running diagnostics. Which... I really had to remember to do now...

I opened up a reminder and gave a distinctly feminine gasp as the window opened in physical space, as part of my stats screens rather than simply as a construct like the program normally rendered itself as. "...what the fuck?"

Flurry was suddenly very interested, and zipped over to my side. "What the fuck indeed! That's not a standard stats screen, little lady. What'd you do this time?"

"This time?" I pouted, unknowingly. "I just wanted to open a reminder to do self-diagnostics, and... well, this." Speaking of, I started navigating through to actually set up that reminder as Flurry stared.

"You know, I wonder what else you have that manifests as a screen instead of whatever it was normally." Her eyes were doing that flashy-hungry gaze thing again, and it was creeping me out. In the, uh, good way, I guess. "In fact, I wonder what'd occur if you just so happened to start learning magic..."

 "Ha... yeah. I, er, actually think that might be interesting." And I did! But I also didn't want to tick her off. She was reminding me more of the scientists back at the Towers with every passing second, all consumed by fervor for pure science and learning. "If, uh, if that's all?"

"Yeah, of course! You've given me so much to think about, but, uh, time grows short. And all that. I'd love to meet up with you again! Maybe in a few nights? I'll have some books on hand for you, and I can teach you some basics of magic."

I nodded one last time, and then let out a yelp as she picked me up and rushed through her workshop to get to the front door. "S-Sounds great!!! Why are you carrying me???"

"Faster this way! Also, it lets me gauge your weight and composition." God, this woman. She winked at me while setting me down, for crying out loud. Was this supposed to just make me flustered? "Also, it makes you go all red in the face. That's interesting both because it's cute and because I didn't realize you had that much emotive capability!"

"Huh." My embarrassment temporarily forgotten, I considered what she'd said. "I didn't know that either. Guess this new body is more able to express emotion? I wonder why that is, like... I wasn't like that before, and most of the other stuff was pretty much the same. Excepting, er, body shape. And... I'll have to look at my schematics sometime soon..."

Flurry swiped me out of my reverie by lightly tapping me on the shoulder, and she looked like she was going to half-laugh while doing it. "I'm just as excited as you, buddy! But, er, it's getting late. Cyl, right? See you in a few days? Sorry for the sudden touching and shit, I kinda forgot that you could, er, take offense. Happens with a lot of people."

Sigh. No harm done, right? "Yeah, it's fine! No problems here. I'll see you in a few days. It was nice to meet you."

Looking like she was just about ready to bounce off the walls, Flurry gave me a little wave and then shut the door on me. I could hear the sounds of scampering feet and metal echoing from inside, so I could only assume she had some kind of commission work or something.

I felt a little hollow. Weird, but not overall too surprising. A lot of weird shit was happening. I'd probably have to get some knowledge on this sort of thing somehow. Maybe I'd hang around a tavern or something while I was reading the book Nora checked out for me?

Oh shit, Nora. I'd need to get back quickly, I didn't want to worry possibly one of the two or three friends I had here. I quickly made way for the tavern-bar-inn-guildhouse thing that I had woken up in, deciding to make sure my cape and scarf were secure around my lower face and body. Didn't want to call any attention, and this garb was weird by the standards I had seen.

I guess Flurry hadn't really reacted, though, so it was probably fine? Maybe it just was rich person clothing.

Ew.

In any case, I didn't want to tempt the devil. Or, uh, Lady Luck? What deity would I be tempting by keeping myself in just my normal clothes? I wonder if there were any differences between my suit now and before, too. It wasn't like the suit I had at the Towers was tailored for combat, but this one felt slightly different (and not just because it covered my tits, too.) I'd need to check that out too, at some point.

As I passed through the tavern, still thinking about the next day, I noticed that the group I had travelled here with was bantering at one of the larger tables, Nora included. They looked so damn happy together, all familial and caring. I wonder how long the Sparrows had been an adventuring group?

No matter. I wasn't part of them and, more than likely, I never was going to be part of that sort of group anyways. I didn't have any combat training or magical skill. The only thing I had was really just some medical experience from downloaded databases, and that wasn't even very applicable here — not like I could source penicillin from anywhere but moldy bread, at least around these parts.

Why was I thinking about this? I'd never wanted to go out and be a hero before. The idea of doing anything like that was not approved of in my previous line of work for obvious reasons, and before then I couldn't really remember anything of my life. What prompted this?

More things to worry about tomorrow, I decided. I turned my gaze away from the Sparrows happily chirping at their table, and headed upstairs once more. This time, I made sure to grab the blankets Nora had gotten and bundle myself up on the floor before I went to sleep. I would worry about everything in the morning, but I knew it would probably be bad form for me to end up sleeping in her bed prior to her even getting back and giving me the go ahead.

As I drifted into a dreamless sleep, I swore I could see a blue and yellow spark fly through the night sky. A meteor shower speared its way across the stars, shining white lights contrasting the polygonal flecks and streaks I swore I saw just before. It was probably just a figment of my imagination, but I didn't have enough time to worry about it before I fell asleep for real.

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