In the spirit of marketing, Nefarious ignores Elec Man’s concerns.
“Every last one!” he assures. “Why, if I wanted to, I could say I’m about to pull the trigger on this entire civilisation and CRUSH every last snivelling squishy within it under my feet!!”
There’s a pause, and he makes a sound that shouldn’t theoretically be possible without a tongue to click sharply off his teeth. He leans back, grins benignly, and angles his shoulders as if he’s made a joke.
In his deception, the drive is fiddled in his hands self-consciously. He’s giving himself a flaw, implying that Elec has a position of power over him and the situation – prompting him to come into the decision on his own. He forces worry into his voice, and sends the other robot a reproachful look under his furrowed brow.
“You see, the catch is, it’s… an experimental piece of software. I’ve long since installed it onto myself, but things could go wrong on your system. As a beta test, and in the spirit of revolution, I was hoping to make your acquaintance and offer it for free – if you’d be so kind as to accept it, of course.”
The DLN is no fool, but he is, however, a bleeding heart... So that feigned honesty and perceived meekness was just the ticket. Nefarious’ threat to prove his freedom would be concerning had it not been played off as a joke. As is, Elec just took it as more evidence that the doctor was telling the truth.
“I...” he hesitated still, all the repercussions of this looming over his head at once. Elec had to take a moment to pace, the restless energy swaying his cool, collected composure. The robot took a deep breath to steel his nerves further still as he thought things through carefully.
But will they ever make any progress by playing it safe?
“I’ll take it.” he concluded, turning to look Nefarious in the eye. He made no move to reach out and kept his distance from where he’d paced to, thinking the doctor to be anxious now and actively avoiding doing anything that might make him more nervous. “...With all due respect though, I’d prefer not to take my armour off. Do you need the drive back immediately?”
