#shipment day

[reallyradrecs]

ANYONE WHO PLACED AN ONLINE MERCH ORDER!

We haven't forgotten about you, we've been figuring out how to set up our Paypal account so we can pay to ship everything out! (We're n00bz) It's a one time process and everything is in complete. Thanks for being so patient, your orders will go out tomorrow morning. We're really stoked to get you in our threads! <3

[your-vocaloids]

Big Brother in a Box?

"Is that the one? Hey, over there... yeah, looks like- Hey, we just passed- damnit."

After their unplanned break following the attack on the plant, the delivery workers for the Vocaloid Robotics Division had to get back into practice. The two men used to be able to deliver their cargo truly incredible distances, but a local Japanese order was now giving them a bit of trouble. Eventually, though, they found the right residence, pulling up their truck alongside it and unloading a single nearly-featureless white box.

The box itself was longer than it was wide, and shaped in such a manner that one might be able to put an adult human in it and close the lid, plus a bit of room for accessories, spare clothing,  and lots of packing peanuts. It was sealed and insulated, and both men handled the box with more care than an average delivery as they hauled it by either end up to the doorstep of a particular residence and rang the bell a few times.

One of the delivery workers had a clipboard full of papers and a few notebooks under one arm; documentation, receipts, all sorts of important things to be signed and looked over, plus some instruction booklets. A lot of the people who ordered their product weren't really tech-savvy, after all.

[your-vocaloids]

In defiance of how reality should work, it seemed like there was literally no place that these white human-sized boxes couldn't get to, if they were ordered. Even in the most odd or impossible places, they arrived, promptly, with neat paperwork piled on top of their white, nearly featureless, insulated containers.

This was another instance of that in action; the Company had shipped a pair of boxes, as they sometimes did when more than one Vocaloid was ordered, and they now sat dormant in the chilled, contained environment inside their boxes, packed in tight for safety.

They were more asleep than unborn, existing in a world of their own programmed thoughts and emotions while they waited to be activated by certain triggers.

[your-vocaloids]

The Shirogane Estate got shipments sometimes, but they had never received a package like this before; something so large would normally be moved like common cargo, loaded into and out of things roughly and tossed about.

However, this was a sensitive cargo, and quite expensive, and so the two men from the company had to physically hand it off, and get it signed for, rather than just abandoning it at the front door.

After ring the bell a few tiimes, the delivery workers stood around, waiting somewhat patiently and making small-talk as though they didn't know what was inside the featureless, sealed, and insulated box.

[your-vocaloids]

"Alright, keep an eye out, I think it's on the left... ah, look. Over there. Alright, pull over here, we'll drag it the rest of the way..." The big moving truck ground to a halt and its engines sighed in relief, even though it wasn't moving a fraction of its total weight capacity. Just some nice, white, human-sized boxes.

This was definitely less creepy than that sounded at first, though. It wasn't like there were real people in these boxes, after all. "Aright, one, two..." At least they were getting good at this; at first, both of the men had been worried they would drop and break the contents of half the boxes they moved. Now, they were like professionals at this work.

Knocking a few times, one of the movers had the paperwork all ready to go on a clipboard; notes and little manuals and pamphlets and all sorts of things that would be useful for the proud new owner.

[your-vocaloids]

"... So did you hear what this one was customized for?"

One of the men let out a sigh. "Yes, despite my best efforts. Look, it's not our job to care what people want; we just haul the thing from the truck to the living room or whatever, get a few signatures, and then we're off to give somebody else a box."

"Well, yeah." In fact, their employers rather strongly advised them not to do anything which might offend a customer, including peeking at the specs and making offhand commentary about it, but... it was hard to resist the temptation. "... I guess in our business 'normal's too much to hope for? Everybody's got weird things about them, I suppose."

That got a bit of a laugh as they waited beside their distinctive, and featureless, white human-sized box, outside the door. One of the guys rang the bell again just to make sure. This place looked interesting, but compared to some of the other places they'd been recently, well. He'd seen weirder, by far.

[your-vocaloids]

The last few orders the movers had delivered were all combo packages and large shipments, so it was a relief when this job just required moving one of the boxes down the large truck's ramp and bringing it, slowly and carefully, to a particular door, ringing the bell a few times.

It didn't look special at all, which was part of the point; the box didn't give any indications that an extremely expensive robot was packed inside, for safety reasons. That was the reason they had to physically make sure the owner was there to take possession, as well, rather than just abandoning it on the doorstep like other packages might be.

Well, that, and there was some paperwork to sign, and some documentation to hand over. The company had already e-mailed a lot of the information to the customers already, but it never hurt to make sure; there were a few things that would be very useful to know for anybody hoping to keep a Vocaloid around.

[your-vocaloids]

The money cleared, the order was received, and within days of it being placed, the company's very special service was being shipped out to the customer. Such processes seemed impossibly fast, given the advanced robotics and AI systems, but they had ways of getting things done. It tended to give them a high reputation, too, custom-building these machines and getting them out quickly.

This particular box didn't look any different from any of the others; featureless, for the most part, and white, with simple instructions on the side demonstrating which side was up and which side was down. It didn't give any indication that one Vocaloid unit was different from the other, at least on the outside.

A few knocks at the door, and the workmen waited patiently; they weren't being paid by the hour or anything, so there was no benefit to them for waiting around, but sometimes the client just wasn't there or something...