[02] CALL.net : VIDEO | UN: Hawkguy

[weekend_avenger]

[The feed starts with the view of a cloudy sky, with something zooming overhead that sounds like it's right out of a Jetsons cartoon. Clint's really bad at adjusting his CALL device, but he gets it upright soon enough.

Mostly.

He's sitting cross-legged on the pavement in front of what looks like a junkyard-- or 'recycling center' according the holographic sign blinking above one of the fenced buildings behind him. There's something of clunky, mangled looking toy robot draped across his knee and he gestures with a screw driver.]

So I don't have a good history with robots but-- This little guy started following me around about a week ago. [He holds up the toy, which looks a bit like the battered love child of Wall-E and a rock em sock em robot.] And today he just sorta... stopped. [A little shake rattles it's limbs about, and yeah... it's dead, Jim.]

And I can't so much as program a VCR, so if anyone knows anything about... this sort of thing, I'd appreciate the help.

Comments

[shootaro]

I didn't mean literally feed it like a living creature. [Why did you think that? Of course, a robot doesn't have to eat! That'd be such a messy, inconvenient design...]

If he doesn't get charged up or anything, maybe you should check for any... compartments or... like, those covered holes cars have that you put fuel in?

Or maybe leave him out in a sunny place. Maybe he's solar-powered, like one of those old-timey calculator.

[weekend_avenger]

He's kinda small, so I don't think he runs on fuel... probably a battery, but nothing seems to come open or apart-- at least not without some work. [Which is the reason he has the screwdriver] I just don't want to break him. Uh, more than he already is.

[Clint snorts out a laugh] Wow, solar power isn't that old-timey.

[shootaro]

Do you have any idea who made him? What model or make he is? Maybe you can find his manual somewhere...?

[Teasingly:] You sound old. Did I hit a nerve?

[weekend_avenger]

No idea, I kinda just started checking this place out and I found him discarded somewhere, he has some engraving, but it's all in binary and i'm not the guy that reads that kinda stuff.

[Scoff] I'm not that old.

[shootaro]

There's got to be someone here who reads the stuff! Maybe you should send a new message with the binary code, include a picture or two, maybe, and summon the techies and computer nerds. What do you think'll work as bait?

Yeah, that's what they all say. Careful, or you might start to wrinkle and have the marks of those sarcastic smiles carved into your face forever. [Very theatrically said, the verbal equivalent of shining a flashlight under his chin and fluttering fingers.]

... no, but seriously, are there robots where you're from?

[weekend_avenger]

"Hey I have a dead robot" seems to have worked well enough. If all else fails they gotta have a repair shop around here somewhere. I just didn't bring much more than coffee money this time around. [Trust Clint to use his CALL device to bring him here just for the diners.]

Well, yeah, but most of them are super advanced. And I'm really not the [finger quotes here] "technology guy".

[... why did that last comment get such an unfitting icon... sorry about that!]

[shootaro]

Oh. ... right, not that common.

[Technology is a biiit bit more advanced in his world, so a robot doesn't immediately register as super hi-tech or anything...]

You should stock up, then, just in case. You never know what might happen, right?

... oh, right! You're in the City of Tomorrow? Have you tried checking any, like... I don't know, have you tried seeing if maybe they have a... like, an antique shop or something?

[He doesn't know what to call these things, okay, he lived a very sheltered, ritzy life and poking around stores for things other than clothes is strange.]

... hand-me-downs? Where do people sell those? ... you sell hand-me-downs, right? Used things?

[He's got all his terms wrong and that "you" sounds a tad bit more condescending than necessary. You are dealing with a Grade A rich brat. Sorry, Clint. At least he's trying to be helpful and not intentionally rude?]

... hn, at any rate, someone who deals with old things might be able to clue you in— they might recognize what make it is, at least, and once you do that, you're on your way to finding a manual for it. Many have digital copies these days, so I'd imagine they'd all have them as a prerequisite there!