onepassingnight | [007 ☿] Dream a little dream

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[007 ☿] Dream a little dream

[It's been a rainy dream, as Mizuno Ami (aged seven) walks home. Her backpack looks quite plump and full, probably due to the extra books she brings to have something to focus on during lunch.

Some things distract even her.

Ami hops across a few small puddles then, after a quick thought to decide it's alright, she hops across a much larger one. She sails through the air- and clears her target! All dry. She giggles in satisfaction.

The rain has stopped by now and there's a playground nearby, where the ground and equipment are somehow dry enough to use. Ami has a long time before Mama will be home, and she knows the people who live around here and play at this spot.

She can finish her homework after dinner (and she really will). Right now, she really wants to play. She climbs carefully into the seat of one of the swings, which turns out to be a touch too high for her and she pumps her legs but barely gets up momentum.

She might need a little help. She could also use a friend to play with.]

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[He grins at you.] Let's see if you can keep up!

[He looks like a big kid; she probably can't. But!]

I'll try my best! [It'll be fun just to go as fast and high as she can, even if it doesn't match him.]

[He laughs. You're fun. He didn't play much with other kids even when he was one. It just usually ended badly for him.]

Thank you for playing with me. It's a lot more fun if someone else is there, too.

Heh. [His grin turns sheepish and his swinging slows.] Yeah, I guess... I never played much with others when I was a kid. It's one reason I built my bots...

[It's the type of thing Ami might do, too: build herself companions to ease the loneliness. It makes her ask the so-simple, too-simple question:]

Are you lonely?

[He fidgets uneasily.] N-not really. Not anymore, I mean. I probably was as a kid. I guess. I mean...

[Laughs nervously and shrugs.] I really don't like people all that much. I just... don't like them. Most of them are stupid, unreasonable, sappy... [And the ones that aren't don't like me.]

Then let's play together. Then neither of us will be lonely. [It seems the reasonable solution to her.]

...

Sure! [He isn't the same little snot he was when he was a kid; maybe this would actually work out ok?]

You're lonely too? [The 'too' slips out before he thinks about it.] I thought most kids had tons of friends.

[Ami smiles still, but it becomes quiet as she turns away as though she's focusing on swinging. It's a few more swings before she speaks again.]

I want to make some friends.

[He notices that silence. Great, no friends probably means you're as awkward as he was at your age. Funny, you seem normal...]

...

You ever thought about going into robotics? Bots make much better friends than people, I've found. And you can build as many as you want.

[Well, they tend to find her a little too serious to approach to have fun with. And she tends to be too shy to approach them. She won't have any friends until she's fourteen, really.

Except now, because dreams are wonderful.]

Robotics? I like robot shows, but I never tried building one. [It might be a bit beyond even her, at this age.]

[Jack, on the other hand, was just a problem child. A truly wonderful mix of spiteful little bully and utter wimp, with megalomaniacal aspirations since the second grade. He didn't really have any friends until ...ever.]

[Her age is a consideration--it took Jack a while to get the hang of building something that would function, and he was much older when he started.]

Well, it's not exactly a quick fix... It takes a few years of experimentation to get working models, but the end result is worth it. They're useful for other things too, like housework and stuff. [He laughs again.] My life would probably be a mess without my bots. [Because it's totally not now.]

I don't know if I could do it myself. [And Mama is usually busy at the hospital and Papa needs lots of time to paint.] But sometime, I can try to make one.

It'll take more than one try.

...Hey, maybe I could help! I already know how to build working bots, so it'd be a lot quicker than trying to figure out everything on your own.

[Oh, you read her mind; or the dream did. One of the two. Because she'd been trying to get up the nerve to ask for help.]

Would you?

[Oh, Mama will be so proud if Ami can show off a bot she made. Not to mention it'll be amazingly fun.]

Is it really alright?

Yeah, sure. I don't have anyone to talk robots with, it'd be neat to be able to show someone how they work.

We should probably start with one of the simpler models, so you can follow more of how they go together. Hm... I could probably alter the alarm-bot a bit, take out the alarm functionality and expand on the AI... [He's excited about this, can you tell he's excited about this?]

[Ami's looking pretty excited herself as she brings the swing to a stop. It might be good, or scary, to note she actually seems to understand what Jack means.

300 IQ, she has it.]

We could also use the alarm as a trigger for what we want it to do now.

[Jumps off the swing and lands neatly, before starting to pace in front of the swingset.]

What I was thinking--wait, no, that could work. What I was thinking was improving its ability to chat with you, and just generally be a little pal, but we could rework the alarm a bit and use it as a hibernate setting--so you don't have to turn it all the way off every time you need some time to yourself. Just have it hover in a corner, or a drawer, or something during school hours and stuff.

Mm. Then it won't bother Mama on her days off, either.

[Ami jumps down off the swing once it comes to a full stop.]

Maybe when I'm at school it can even do some housework!

Hm. We'll have to use a different model if you want it to do housework--the alarm-bot's too small and doesn't have arms or anything... We could still use its alarm function for what we want, but we should probably use my basic Jack-bot model for everything else.

Do you have a favorite animal or anything you'd want it to look like?

[Ami raises a finger as the idea hits her.]

A fish. I want a fish that swims in the air! [Jack has only himself to blame for mentioning making it hover.]

Oo, nifty! I'll finally get to reuse my koi-bot model! [He makes a little happy squeak. He never thought he'd use the koi-bot design again!]

Maybe it could have some kind of retractable arms, so it could help around the house better...

[Unfortunately, Ami is a purist.]

Fish don't have arms.

[But then he did say retractable. And fish can't talk, either, but she's planning on this bot talking.]

But I think it's OK this time.

Well yeah, obviously they'd be hidden away most of the time. Since you wanted it to do housework while you're at school... Yeah! We could tie that to the alarm functionality! So that it would only use its arms when you're at school. If that would make it better.

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Sorry, was having dinner

no worries!

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this thread... the cavities... XD

Hee XD

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