Summary: In which Call finds out that she had an aunt, who then abducts her to go on an outing. Featuring lyrics to ‘Cornflake Girl’ by Tori Amos and ‘Coffee’ by Sylvan Esso. (Two years ago this story was a little over 300 words, in the last four days it's gone over 587% that word count. Besides, it’s never too late to add to a dead game/fandom that you’ve forgotten about!)
Rating: K+
Word count: 1,762 words
If you like the story, please consider donating through Ko-fi or Patreon!
“Cho, you can't just take Call without permission! She has work to do, and...”
“And I want to spend time with my niece. You'll get her back in the next hour or two; you can survive until then, can't you?”
Dr Sanda made several guttural sounds of disagreement mixed with a sense of defeat.
Up until a week ago, Call wasn't even aware that Sanda had an older sister. Her name was Sayacho, apparently, and a good three years older than the doctor. She was also a pretty heavy smoker- but that fact was only relative at the moment. What mattered now was what Call's apparent abduction was going to look like.
And it looked like Doctor Sanda was losing the fight.
“Three hours Soichiro, that's all I ask.” the older woman plead, her face breaking into fake pity. “You never told me I was an aunt, and after Trinity a year ago, I would like to meet her before the next robo-apocalypse strikes. Then it might be too late!”
“Cho, I...”
“William lets his robots have a little fun now and again, why can't yours?”
Now that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Dr Sanda shrunk in his spot. How could he say no to his oldest sister anyway? She was the oldest, and by extension the best negotiator between the Sanda siblings.
“Fine. Fine...” Dr Sanda relented. “Three hours. But nowhere too far in case there's an emergency!”
Sanda's sister just waved a hand at him as if it didn't matter. “I was only going to take her to the shopping plaza and then out for a warm coffee.” she told him. “It'll be quick.”
And yet, Dr Sanda still didn't look sure, and Call wondered for a moment if she should have been more worried than what she was feeling.
. . .
Away from Dr Sanda, Sayacho looked… dejected. The moment the two had piled into the woman's dark purple Mustang, Call immediately noticed a change in Sayacho's expression. A mask had been taken off, but for what reason? Did she not think Sanda would let her take Call? Did she not truly want Call by her side today? Was this just an excuse to talk to her brother again? Why did she seem so happy around Sanda, only to look so troubled away from him?
“You don't mind if I play a little music, do you?” Sayacho asked, snapping Call out of her train of thought.
“Oh… no, I don't mind.” she replied.
“Do you have a preference?”
“No. You can play whatever you want.”
The woman gave a nod before flicking on a knob on her car's stereo system. From there, the two sat in a silence as the radio played its song:
Never was a cornflake girl; thought it was a good solution. Hanging with the raisin girls… She's gone to the other side, givin' us the old heave ho…
The drive to the shopping outlet hadn't been that far, but it sure seemed to take awhile. Call figured it was because of the silence between her and Sayacho. When she figured she should say something, the human beat her to it:
“Callista.” Sayacho mumbled to herself before letting out a little snort. “Is that your model name?”
“Yes.” Call agreed with a small nod.
“Do you know why he gave you that name?” the woman asked, casting the robotess a curious -and rather hard- side glance.
“I… am not quite sure.” came the answer. “Was I not named after someone in the Sanda family? I do believe it was mentioned somewhere.”
The woman's body clenched. “Our mother.” she admitted in a low tone. “Our mother was named Callista. But she was never nicknamed Call, that was something Soichiro came up with for you- to make you slightly different than your namesake.”
“Did she have a nickname?” Call asked, looking over at Cho as curiously as she could. She feared she might have looked a bit uncanny, but the human wasn't paying much attention to the robotess's expression.
“We had a great-aunt that was a schizo,” Cho informed her, “Used to called Mama, Hollie. It wasn't until far later we realized that it was because she thought that, if you shorted Mama's name to spell C-A-L-L-I-E, it could sound similar to collie. Collie and Hollie rhyme, and Hollie's a real name, so Mama was sometimes called Hollie whenever we met that great-aunt. Coincidentally enough, Mama loved holly trees; maybe it was because our great-aunt called her Hollie, who knows?”
“Humans have very odd thought processes.”
“Tell me about it.” Cho playfully snorted. “Try being mentally handicapped or just not neurotypical at all. Then things get even more interesting.”
Call gave a small nod to show she understood- and she did, what with knowing about the complexities in humans and all the possible way those complexities would become even more complex.
“Do you have a nickname?” Call soon asked as Sayacho pulled into a parking space at the shopping outlet.
“It's Cho.” the human agreed. “It's mostly a family pet name, but you're part of the family too, aren't you?”
Call didn't answer this, instead the two of them got out of the car and walked toward the closest store that the shopping outlet had.
. . .
“I think you'd look good in red.” Cho insisted, holding up a short red dress- it even had a bib collar, decorated with two buttons on each side- but Call shook her head.
“I prefer #ff69b4.” she insisted. After a short pause she corrected herself with, “Hot pink. I'd prefer hot pink.”
“Soichiro made you such a girl.” Cho smirked. “Not that there's anything wrong with it. But you're so picky! But… there's nothing wrong with that either. Urg, what I'm trying to say is that Soichiro always wanted to have girls, and then he went and made one himself!”
Call lulled this thought over as she thumbed through the tunic dresses on the rack.
“Have you ever wanted children, Cho?” she asked, saying the human's name as more of an afterthought.
“Me?” Cho repeated with some disgust, looking at the black dress pants now. “Never. Kids are either disgusting germ breeders or are horrible little monsters. Worst of all, if one isn't exposed to the same mind rotting crap as the others, then they'll be ostracized just because their parents had some sense of good child rearing.”
“Then you do not like me?” Call inquired with a tilt of her head.
“Why would I not like you?” Cho snorted in amusement.
“Because I was designed in the body of a child.” the robotess claimed. “To be honest, I have been quite confused on why you wanted to spend the day with me. We have never met before. I did not even know you existed until you came through Dr Sanda's door.”
But Sayacho was silent. When she did finally speak, her tone was low and dark.
“My family hates me.” she admitted. “The boys were always better at everything; always got the 'good' attention while I drowned myself in the 'bad' attention. I was so mad at them (sometimes I wonder if I still am) because I was the older sister. I should be the one getting good grades and acing the robotics tests and started my own company. But no, 'it was all my fault' that I ended up this way. If it wasn't for our last name being the same, I doubt anyone would want to talk to me at all.”
Then Cho looked at Call.
“I found out you existed soon after the shit with Trinity,” the woman went on, “And I saw red knowing that Soichiro had kept you from me, yet Seijiro probably knew since the beginning. I can't read robotic blueprints, but I can be kept informed of new family members. Someone new to let down. Someone else who's just going to write me off as some hooker off the street that'll some day die from a meth overdose.”
“I don't think that about you.” said Call.
“You're Navigator class, you can't feel emotions or empathize.” came the response. After a short pause, a small “No offense” was offered as well.
“Understood.” the small robot agreed with a nod. “But I do not think you have a high outcome of dying through improper drug usage. I believe that you are tired. I believe that you wanted to see me to test how likely I am to turn on you. But I don't want to think bad things about you. I don't think you deserve them.”
Sayacho stared at Call- words completely failed the human and she only looked on in silence.
“I think it's time we got our coffee now,” Call then decided, “Don't you think?”
“Y-yeah...” Cho agreed. “Let's… let's go get some coffee.”
. . .
The trip to the coffee shop had been filled with silence too. But once Cho had ordered herself an espresso and Call was able to receive a bit of xel to process, a lively conversation between the two of them started. It was all about Dr Sanda of course; funny memories of him, dumb things he had said or had done after being warned of something bad happening. Cho even told Call more about the Sanda family and that a family reunion was coming up- maybe Dr Sanda would let her come with him.
When the two got back into Cho's Mustang to head back to Dr Sanda's lab, they were absolutely exhausted. The day had been long and winded, after all, and Call felt certain that it had been 'fun' as well once the emotion hurtle between the two of them had been passed. Feeling safe, the little robotess started to initiate a small sleep status, to keep herself from completely shutting down on Cho. She hadn't realized it before, but the song now softly playing through the car's stereo was almost urging Call to rest.
Wrap me in your arms; I can't feel it but...
Rock me in your arms; I can't feel it but…
Call smiled as her systems went on reserve. Yes, today was a good day. She'd have to convince Dr. Sanda to let her do it again sometime. All the while, the song continued to play;
Get up, get down; Get up, get down.
Feel the turn of rotation and stop; See the next one waiting.
Get up, get down; Get up, get down.
Get up; Sentiment's the same but the pair of feet change...
Some bust sketches of the main Xel guys from my MN9 universe. White, Sanda and Graham are all from the game but Lyonheart and Violet are mine. This was actually a really fun proportions challenge. Hopefully they all look different enough on first glance.
White and Sanda are currently stationed at the Battle Coliseum while Graham is still working for CherryDyn. Lyonheart is working in Canada, he no longer builds Xelbots and instead is working to improve worker class bots. Violet’s whereabouts are unknown but she was last seen working as the new lead designer for CherryDyn Europe.
