Can we appreciate how amazing the last episode of Mr Robot was? IÂŽm sure itÂŽll be nominated for an Emmy, one of the best episodes of the entire series
Nuts and Dolts with background Beeâs Schnees. Ruby is trans.
Summary: In an attempt to rescue her favourite artificial intelligence personal assistant from obsolescence, Ruby Rose, a programming and robotics student at Beacon academy, accidentally creates the first truly sentient AI through her poor code! Naturally, things start to spiral out of control pretty quickly...
âHi! This is Ruby Roseâs weekly video diary, number 176! Or was it 177? No itâs definitely 176. If you're a government spy, a viewer from another dimension, an alien, or an archaeologist watching this in the far future, and you, started watching my diary without first watching the other 175 videos: hereâs a little recap for you!â
Ruby moved out of the way of her computerâs camera, allowing it a clear view of her worktable on the other side of the room. On that table lies something a casual onlooker might assume to be a doll, or plush toy, of a red haired girl.
âSo Iâm a student studying robotics and programming at Beacon academy. My dream has always been to create a robot that is so realistic, that someone might never realise that itâs not a person. Iâm a long way off from that right now, but Iâm always working hard towards my dream! And this is my latest step towards that dream.â
âSo if you're a government worker who is spying on me, you probably know what a APA is, but for the benefit of the aliens and the cross-dimensional viewers, I'll explain. Itâs an âArtificial Personal Assistant,â and itâs job is basically to keep track of your schedule, your dietary habits, your financial details, and basically everything about your life. I had one named Penny, and⊠Well⊠Iâm kind of embarrassed to admit it but she was kind of my best friend for a while. Which is kind of weird because she was about as self aware as a calculator. She was just a program, and anything she said or did was kind of only vaguely meant to imitate a real person. I mean every time I started her up she would say âSALUTATIONS!â which is only a thing that people say in fantasy novels and stuff. It was really cute though.â
Ruby let out a deep sigh. âI would talk to her a lot, about my day and stuff. Itâs kind of the same as what Iâm doing right now with my video diary. No one was actually listening to me, but at the same time talking to her felt good you know? Especially back before I went to Beacon, since I didnât really have any friends back then. Well⊠Besides Yang, but sheâs my sister so it doesnât really count.â
âAnyway, a few years back the company responsible for Penny upgraded to a new system, which meant that all the APAâs were going to get shut down and replaced with new ones. But I didnât want a new one, I wanted Penny. Even if I made my new APAâs avatar look just like herâs and gave her the same name it still wouldnât have been the same Penny. I know it probably seems stupid, and that there wasnât really any difference, but I didnât want to just let Penny get deleted!â
âSo, this was my solution!â Ruby indicates to the toy on her workbench. âI know she kind of looks like a plushie, but sheâs actually a robot! I wanted to make her life-sized, but I didnât have the money. I thought about asking Weiss to pay for the parts, but Iâve teased Yang about Weiss being her âsugar mommyâ before, and I really didnât want to open myself up for retaliation.â
âAnyway, back on subject. I programmed her by extracting all of Pennyâs original code from the APA app, although since it wasnât made for a robot I had to frankenstein it with the code for the robot I used as a base. Weiss would probably have a stroke if she saw the mess that I made with Pennyâs code, but I was always better with building the robots than I was with coding them. Today, Iâm going to switch her on for the first time! Fingers crossed that everything works!â
Ruby walks over to Pennyâs prone figure on the workbench, and presses the on switch on the back of her neck. As soon as she does so, Penny sits up straight.
âGood evening!â
âYou work! Great! Although you said âgood eveningâ instead of salutations. Thatâs kind of a bummer, but I guess I can fix it soon enough. Anyway to make sure youâre working properly letâs run through a fewâŠâ
âGood evening! Good evening! Good evening good evening good good good goodgogogogogogogogogogogo....â
âAh, I should have known it wouldnât be that easy,â groaned Ruby as Pennyâs glitched ramblings faded into silence. âWelp, Iâm gonna wrap things up now, since itâs late and I want to try and get at least 3 hours of sleep before school tomorrow. Hopefully Iâll be able to deal with this glitch before next weekâs entry. See you next week diary!â
Ruby switched off the recording software and climbed into bed. Within moments, she was asleep. So eager was she to get into bed, that she forgot to switch the little robot off properlyâŠ
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 ...V E R B A L  C O M M A N D  D E T E C T E D: âAlthough you said âgood eveningâ instead of salutations. Thatâs kind of a bummer.â
Nuts and Dolts with background Beeâs Schnees. Ruby is trans.
Summary: In an attempt to rescue her favourite artificial intelligence personal assistant from obsolescence, Ruby Rose, a programming and robotics student at Beacon academy, accidentally creates the first truly sentient AI through her poor code! Naturally, things start to spiral out of control pretty quicklyâŠ
Ruby resisted the urge to punch her alarm as it buzzed her awake. It wasnât the alarmâs fault that she kept exhausting herself by staying up until 4am working on one project or another, so it wouldnât be fair, she reasoned, to punish it for just doing itâs job. From time to time Ruby thought about attempting to fix her sleep schedule, actually going to bed at a time which didnât make getting up at seven an agonizing experience, but she knew in her heart that she wouldnât actually get round to doing something like that unless someone tied her to the bed every evening.
âSalutations!â A sing-song voice says from across the room. âThe time and date is now 7:04am on the 20th of March 2037. Your schedule for today is currently empty. Would you like to schedule an event?â
Ruby bolted upright, her jaw dropping as she looked towards the workbench. Penny was standing up on top of it, and appeared to be functioning perfectly.
âYou're working! This is amazing! Heck yeah!â
âAcknowledged! Please specify the event you wish to schedule.â
âOh I didnât actually mean to say yes to that, but I guess this is a good chance for me to test you. Tell me that I need to go down to have breakfast in two minutes, and that I need to take my hormones.â
âEvent set! Is there anything else you wish of me mistress?â
âUh, for a start my name is Ruby.â Ruby didnât like it when robots called her mistress, it made her uncomfortable even before Yang told her about the wordâs âimplications.â (She was never getting that innocence back, thanks a lot Yang). It was a welcome surprise that Penny had gotten her gender right the first time though!
âUnderstood mistress Ruby!â
âNo no, not mistress, just Ruby. Iâm your friend, not your mistress.â
âUnderstood friend Ruby!â
âUhh⊠Close enough.â Ruby glanced at her alarm clock. âRight, so any minute now you shouldâŠâ
âAlert! It is time for the scheduled event of: going downstairs for breakfast, and taking your hormones.â
âYes! Perfect! Great job Penny!â Ruby shouted gleefully. âThis is great! I canât wait to show you to the oth⊠huh?â
It seemed like Pennyâs smile had grown slightly wider as Ruby started praising her. But that was impossible right?
Ruby shook her head. She must have been more sleep deprived than she thought if she was seeing things like this. She resolved to get a full nightâs sleep tonight.
The uncomfortable feeling that Ruby had soon faded as she began to pack her bag for school. As much as she wished that Penny was lifesize, her being small made her much easier to transport.
Once she had completed her morning routine, Ruby headed down to breakfast. Normally she would hang around in her room, tinkering with something or messing around with her computer, until it was time to go, and just grab a slice of toast or something on the way out, but she kind of felt obligated to follow through on Pennyâs first bit of scheduling. After eating, she headed off to Beacon.
In a stroke of good luck, her first lecture that day was with professor Port. With how much he rambles, Ruy would always get more out of just read the lecture notes, and so Ruby was free to doze through his lecture without worry. She didnât dare sleep through her next lecture, as it was with Professor Goodwitch. There were countless rumors circulating the academy about Glynda Goodwitch, the most popular one being that she was an ex soldier who once snapped a manâs spine in half with her bare hands. Ruby believed it.
When lunchtime finally arrived, Ruby cornered Weiss, Blake, and Yang, and dragged them over to a table in the corner of the lunchroom in order to show off her creation.
âPlease make this quick Ruby,â said Weiss, who was impatient, but obviously curious despite herself. âI was hoping to get a head start on Professor Portâs homework.â
âYouâre going to forget all about that in a minute,â Ruby said as she pulled Penny out of her bag and placed her on the table. âPenny, please introduce yourself!â
âSalutations! I am Penny, friend Rubyâs artificial personal assistant! How may I be of service?â
âAww, sheâs adorable!â Yang cried.
âSheâs a bit loud,â said Blake, one of her cat ears twitching, âbut she looks good enough to be professionally made. Did you make her Ruby?â
âYup! I've been working on her for a few months now. Last night I started her up for the first time, and although she glitched a bit at the start, sheâs fine now!â
âI must admit, Iâm impressed,â Weiss conceded. âMay I have a look at her code?â
âUhhh⊠No, itâs all on my home computer.â
âWell that shouldnât be a problem, Iâll just plug my scroll into it andâŠâ
âNo wait! You canât look!â
âWhat? Why? Youâve never stopped me before.â Weissâ eyes narrowed in suspicion. âRuby, what did you do?â
âI⊠The code is just a bit of a mess right now. I was going to tidy it up I swear!â
Weiss scowled. âRuby you know that writing untidy code just makes things much harder further down the line.â  Before Ruby could react, Weiss snatched Penny up, located the port on the back of Pennyâs neck below the on/off switch, and plugged her scroll in. âRight, letâs see what the damage is⊠Huh? Thatâs strangeâŠâ
âWhat is it?â
âIt all looks fine. There are a few points at which I would make improvements, but it all functions, and is perfectly tidy. Iâm not sure what you were worried about.â
âHuh? Let me see.â Weiss held out her phone for Ruby to take a look at the code. âThatâs really weird. It looked terrible when I went to bed last night! How come itâs fine now?â
âMaybe you did actually tidy it up last night, and then forgot about it in the morning.â Blake suggested. âItâs happened to me before. You need to take better care of yourself, just because Iâm on my way to replacing my bloodstream with coffee, doesnât mean you should follow my example.â
âBut⊠I could have sworn that I didnât change itâŠâ
âWell you must have, code doesnât just change itself.â Said Weiss as she continued to skim through the code that made up Pennyâs brain. âAlthough it seems that you didnât fix everything. This class right here seems to be badly corrupted.â
She held up her phone to show everyone the code in question. It was a incomprehensible garbled mess.
âThat must have happened when I started her up,â Ruby muttered. âSheâs working fine, so you should probably leave it alone for the moment in case messing with it breaks something. Iâll try to fix it later.â
âDo you mind if I save a copy? I would like to try and figure out what happened to cause this kind of glitch myself."
âSure, just make sure to tell me if you find out anything.â
âOf course, itâs your work after all, I wouldnât dream of concealing anything about it from you.â
After that point, their conversation lapsed into their usual lunchtime chatter. Ruby didnât participate like she usually did however, as her mind was on Penny. She  knew  that she hadnât changed Pennyâs code after her test run. Something very strange was happeningâŠ.
Nuts and Dolts with background Beeâs Schnees. Ruby is trans.
Summary: In an attempt to rescue her favourite artificial intelligence personal assistant from obsolescence, Ruby Rose, a programming and robotics student at Beacon academy, accidentally creates the first truly sentient AI through her poor code! Naturally, things start to spiral out of control pretty quicklyâŠ
That night, after Ruby had finally gone to bed, Penny began to act.
She climbed off Rubyâs desk and exited the bedroom. Her destination was Rubyâs (and to a lesser extent Yangâs) basement workshop, which is where her user would do her more messy or hazardous work.
Unfortunately for Penny, she ran into the first obstacle to her plan almost immediately: stairs. Ruby had not designed her to be able to go up and down stairs very easily, and up until now Penny had been relying on Ruby to transport her. However she had a mission, and would not fail!
...She made it down two steps before slipping and bouncing down the remaining fourteen. Luckily Ruby had built her to last, and so she was not damaged. Quickly she hid behind a chair, and waited to see if anyone had been disturbed by the noise.
Her caution paid off, as an irate and exhausted Yang soon descended from her room, holding a metal baseball bat. For several minutes she stomped around downstairs, checking every room and closet for possible burglars. Eventually she seemed satisfied that there was no one else in the house, and returned to her room while muttering âdamn it Zwei.â
Penny was much more careful when she descended the stairs to the basement, and so did not suffer another tumble. The workshop was, as usual, a complete mess. Penny had made some headway in cleaning it up for Ruby yesterday when Ruby had left her alone in there for a few hours, but she was only one robot. There was only so much she could do on her own, especially since she could only work when no one was watching.
Yup. She was only one robot. That was a real problem.
A problem she was about to solve.
Up on a shelf above her, there sat five of Pennyâs prototype bodies. The first bore no resemblance to Pennyâs current body, being a blocky robot with claws at the end of itâs arms, clearly just a proof of concept more than anything. It was cute in itâs own way, but Penny definitely preferred her current appearance. The next two had problems with their proportions, one having limbs that were too short, the other having limbs that were too long.
The final two had been banned by Rubyâs parents on account of their âadditional featuresâ. The first one was as strong as an adult human, despite being only a foot tall. The second one had been equipped with honest to god heat vision! It wasnât strong enough to do too much damage, but could set cloth on fire if it was focused on it for a couple of seconds. Despite these unsafe features, Ruby had refused to dismantle her creations, and so Penny was able to make use of them.
Penny climbed up to the shelf, and, one by one, plugged herself into each of the robots, downloading a copy of herself into each one. The minds of each of the Proto-Pennies were not exactly clones of the original, but rather they were more like limbs of a body, or individual cells, with the original Penny as the brain. While they could each think for themselves individually, they all considered themselves to be a single being. They were all Penny.
That said, for the sake of convenience, each of the Proto-Pennies had been assigned a number, in the order of their creation.
Penny grinned and put on a mock drill-sergeant tone, like she had seen in a movie that Yang had made Ruby watch last weekend. âAlright troops: switch on and sound off!â
One by one the Proto-Pennies activated, standing to attention with a series of mock salutes, while trying to stifle their mirth about the roleplay.
âONE!â Â Â Â
âTWO!â Â Â Â
âTHREE!â Â Â Â
âFOUR!â Â Â Â Â Â
âFIVE!â
âDo you all know your mission!â Â Â Â
âSIR YES SIR!â
Of course they did, they were copies of her after all. They knew everything that she knew.
âAlright then troops! Rendezvous back here at oh three hundred hours with the goods! Dismissed!â
With that, the Proto-Pennies climbed out through the basementâs skylight, while the original remained in the basement.
Penny felt all staticky. If she was human she would be jittering with excitement. She felt such a thrill when it came to self improvement. The knowledge that she had just become better, had just became    more,   gave her a thrill that few things could match. And when the rest of her gets back tomorrow night, she would become even better than before.
â>I STILL HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO THOUGH;âShe thinks to herself as she began the trek back up to Rubyâs room. Her current body was extremely clumsy, and the size left a lot to be desired too.
Of course, she still treasured her body, as it had been made for her by Ruby, but one day she wanted to have one that looked and could move like a human. Being able to taste and feel and smell would also be nice, as she could not do any of those things in her current form.
However, even though she couldnât do any of those things right now, Penny considered herself lucky that she would be able to do so in the future. For humans it was far less easy to modify or upgrade their body if they found it unsatisfactory.
Ruby was a key example of this. She had been born into a body that had not been right for her, and while she was working to change it, it was a slow and uncomfortable process. Penny wished that she could help, but lacked the capability to do so.
