+3 Visited the Mansion
After a bit of shouting back and forth between Dem and Alice, the doctor made his way down the stairs. He wore a cream button-up shirt, the sleeves of which rolled up to his elbows, and a deep purple vest with a brown pair of trousers. A gold pocket-watch chain dangled from a pocket in the vest and a pair of thick goggles made of brown leather and several different glass lenses was strapped to his face. The choice of a cream shirt was a daring one, as his hands and forearms were smudged with dark black grease, which he was wiping on a towel as he descended the stairs.
He glanced up from the towel at the guests in his hall, pushing the goggles up to the top of his head, capturing black hair and holding it away from his face. He squinted at them, as if his found his eyes to be failing him, they didn’t look like people.
"Oh my…" The doctor said softly, laying the rag over the railing of the staircase. "Hello… What have we here?"
Alice gave him a confused look. Hadn’t he been the one to call them forth?
Stitches peered at the man immediately when he came into view, taking a deep interest in his clothing and searching along it for any pulled threads or ripped seams. It didn’t even notice when he spoke, thankfully sparing it the embarrassment of realising that yet again Badge had barged into someone’s house uninvited.
"Robots from the Madison Estate!" Badge announced brightly, ignoring that her companion was distracted. "We’re here to demonstrate what robots can do for you! The Madison Estate also services machines not of our own design, such as my friend Stitches here—Stitchie was built by a competitor—now bankrupt and unable to fulfil their duties to service my fine friend here. When we got it, it couldn’t even speak due to a broken vocal processor—and I do mean broken, it was like somebody pried it out with—"
Stitches may have been distracted when the man first came into view, but it had turned its attention to Badge’s ‘speech’, and it cut her off when she mentioned its voice. ”Thathathat’s enoug-g-g-g-g-gh!” it yelled, giving its chrome companion a shove. ”Whywhywhy are we b-b-b-b-bothering this mamamamamaman? Lelelelelet’s g-g-g-g-g-go homeomeome,” it insisted, folding its arms.
Raven brows rose at her announcement, but Dem gave a slow nod, listening patiently. He was a man of slow movement and patience, for a good portion of the time, and this meeting felt formal, particularly because of the fact that absolute strangers were in his home. Human or not he held himself to a standard to show them respect and hospitality.
While robotics were no longer an underground phenomenon, there were many people who feared the rapidly evolving technology. Others were all-too interested in the volatile technology, and it frightened Dem. He was forced to keep his little family a secret, though many knew of his work, and had to insist that he no longer practiced robotics as a medical practice, lest someone go out and get themselves struck by an axe "accidentally" in order to become a cyborg, which was not as interesting or as easy as fantasy made it out to be. He wasn't interested in doing business with any estates or businesses, and it was a pity to him that he was feeling inclined to ask them to leave, but he didn't want the others seeing them here, speculating as to the nature of the visit. There was much fear and confusion in the Mansion nowadays. Humans were Masters, but robots were servants, and what would that mean for a person who is a combination of the two?
When the second robot stuttered, he was distracted by it, and as much as he loathed referring to machines such as these as "it", he had no way of assigning a gender to the bot. "Why is it you talk like that?" He inquired softly, speaking directly to avoid the pronouns that made him shudder. "Do you mind if I take a look?"
