“You will let me meet Raina?” Technically, Milo had met her before, but not as this new version of him.
Rowan’s brow furrowing was not an encouraging answer, but he said, “Eventually. Right now, why don’t you take these. I should have thought of it sooner.” He pulled a pair of dark sunglasses from his pocket and handed them to Milo.
Of course. Since it was only Milo’s eyes that gave him away, covering them would help avoid such altercations. Milo didn’t look like other bots in circulation. He was entirely custom made, designed specifically by Rowan. Being reminded of that cooled some of the angry heat in Milo’s chest. Or maybe the heat simply adjusted to the type of warmth and happiness that Milo was becoming accustomed to feeling around Rowan.
He took the sunglasses and slipped them over his eyes.
Impaired ocular input—
Milo ignored the alert. Bots did not require sunglasses, so his sensors thought there was an error, but the world around him was simply a little dimmer. A little less glaring, honestly, which he didn’t mind. He could still see Rowan clearly.
“Thank you, Rowan,” Milo said. “How do I look?”
Rowan’s brow smoothed, like he too was seeing Milo differently without seeing the cycling lights and gears in his eyes. It made Milo feel a little sad but glad at the same time. The glad overtook the sad when Rowan smiled and grasped Milo’s hand to lead him back out of the alley instead of taking him by the arm again. “You look great. Now stay close to me, but go ahead and enjoy the city view as much as you want. We still have shopping to do, right?”
“Yes.” Milo was even gladder when Rowan didn’t release his hand once they returned to the busy sidewalk, keeping Milo beside him like they were a couple out for a stroll.
In this case, thecoupleneeded a few parts for Milo’s work on Anabelle later, along with replacement parts to finish repairing the charging station, and a few specific groceries for Rowan. Maybe even a few extra groceries so Milo could continue to experiment with recipes. He promised Rowan he would not make as much of a mess next time.
He did not promisenomess. He wanted to be practical.
After all, beings with hearts made mistakes.
Notes:
Milo is such a sweet baby boyyyyyyyy!
Okay, so, meanwhile, other Milo, The Ivory Bandit, is after his rival thief Umbra, who he totally now knows is Rowan in disguise after seeing video footage of him from behind. He COULD find some way of letting his nemesis know the jig is up, right? But what would be the fun in that? ^_^
Even not knowing where a bug might be, Milo is a smart boy and knows there has to be one for Rowan to keep thwarting him, but instead of trying to find it, he sets a trap. He LETS Rowan overhear his next heist plans with all intents and purposes of being there first, lying in wait. Naturally, Rowan takes the bait. ^_-
13
Notes:
More superhero shenanigans in the end notes! But first, a little poking fun at AI, aka artificial (non)intelligence, because I am a real writer, folks, and while I might write ABOUT AI, like adorable Milo bot, I 100% will NEVER use it for creative endeavors.
Just say NO to AI slop. This has been an Amanda Meuwissen PSA (crap, I mean Crimson1! Auntie Crimson is also acceptable. Definitely not a published author over here ^_-).
ROWAN
After picking up the needed repair parts for Anabelle, the charging station, and Rowan’s work on yet another prototype surge protector—or five—their trip to the grocery store proved to be about what Rowan should have expected.
Now that Milo’s eyes were covered, which had been the only thing outwardly showing that he wasn’t human, he had leave to act human. A human who apparently had zero sense of spatial relations or the complete bedlam left in his wake.
Clearly, the kitchen fiasco had only been a dry run, because if chaos had a face…
It’d be that face.
Rowan couldn’t even be all that bothered by it. He really liked Milo’s face.
He liked Milo’s everything, including his long legs and wayward feet that somehow kept managing to crash him into things. And people. Lots of people. Rowan honestly wondered if Milo was doing it on purpose just to experience the human connection of a polite “Excuse me,” or “Pardon me,” or even “Careful now,” when someone didn’t want to be too rude despite the collision being a hundred percent Milo’s fault. It made sense. People didn’t treat bots like, well, people. Milo had seemed so distraught by that too, so in his own head, so boiling over withnew emotions that he hadn’t heard Rowan calling his name until at least the fourth shout.
For the briefest of moments, Rowan had imagined all those cautionary tales of robots achieving singularity and going haywire. Like inThe Terminator.The Matrix.Resident Evil.Age of Ultron.M3GAN. Other more cerebral examples were probably greater in number than Rowan could list.
Thankfully, Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, first mentioned in his short storyRunaround, were still paramount to real-life robotics. First Law: A robot may not injure a human or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm. Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by humans except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
The problem was that in most of those movie examples, along with TV shows, books, and video games, it didn't matter if the laws existed in a robot's programming. In fiction, once they became aware, all bets were off, or the laws could be interpreted differently simply because emotion almost always overrode logic.
