Birds chirping. The wind rustling through the trees. The sound of children playing in the courtyard. People shouting at one another down the road in the market square. Dorothy could hear it all and see none of it. Her bedroom window would normally have a great view of the world below, but from her bed all she could see was sky and a bit of a leaf from a close tree.

Her room was on the second floor of a town home overtop of her mother’s alterations shop. Lots of other shops lined the road with plenty of families with kids and grandparents and people from all over the empire. Dorothy’s family was mostly human, though there was some demon on her mother’s side thanks to great grandad. Other than a red tinge at the edges of Dorothy’s eyes and tiny bits of scale on her cheeks that looked more like freckles, you wouldn’t know it. Her mother had, more or less, the same traits but a bit more pronounced. Her scales would glint in the sunlight and the red sclera of her island born heritage was just a bit more noticeable. Papa, on the other hand, was pretty scruffy with his wild and untamed hair and patchy beard. Dorthy’s skin ended up being a pretty even mix of her father’s espresso and her mother’s chocolate cherry which left her looking like she was embarrassed most of the time.

It didn’t seem too long ago that Dorothy had been running around with the other kids, laughing and screaming. Then starting on the celebration day of her twelfth year, she had a bit of a cough and started feeling excessively tired all the time. Within a month’s time, Dorothy was unable to leave her bed and would be racked with intense coughing fits.

Her parents sought the local neighborhood healer when she first fell ill but none of their potions or spells seemed to do the trick. A doctor was also brought to see her from the upper district of Capital City but they couldn’t help her either. From the way that the healers and doctors would take her parents to the side to talk to them, she could tell that she probably didn’t have much time left. Her mother’s eyebrows would tense just a bit each time she came in to see Dorothy. She could feel herself getting weaker by the day. Just staying awake was getting harder.

On this particular morning, her mother gently opened the door with her backside as she backed into the room with a tray. Mama brought the tray over to a small table by the bed and set it down, on the tray was a bowl of broth and a syringe. She pursed her lips ever so slightly before smiling and taking the syringe and filling it with some of the broth and sat down on a chair by the bed that hadn’t moved in weeks.

“Mawnin’ my love, I have breakfaas right here fi you. Yuh Fada brought home some chickie Bone soup fi yuh last night before he headed out to the guild.”

Dorothy looked away from the window at her mother and tried to give her a weak smile. Mama took the syringe and put it to Dorothy’s lips and pushed the broth into her mouth. Most of it went down and what didn’t was wiped up with a ready cloth by Mama. As Mama fed Dorothy breakfast, she talked about silly things that her father might have done or clients that were annoying her. Dorothy didn’t have much focus to really understand everything that was being said but she loved hearing her mother talk conversationally to her. As she “ate”, Dorothy watched as the sunlight glinted off her mother’s scales as well as the occasional bits of bead and glass that were woven into her thick locs.

“So, my love. Yuh going to get a visitor. Don’t worry, wi finish with the doctors jookin’ yuh up. This will be a gentleman...at least I tink he’s a he, comin from di Primercy. Him comin’ to talk to you, okay? Just wants to see what yuh tink about sumtin.”

Mama wiped again at Dorothy’s mouth and brushed a wild strand of hair from her face. As she looked into Dorothy’s eyes, Dorothy could tell there was more there than what her mother was saying as mom’s eyes became glassy, and threatened to tear up. There was a distant knocking sound that broke her mother from her trance. She sat up straight and dabbed at her eyes with the cloth in her hand.

“Ah yes, that is him now. Mi soon come back, mi love” she said as she gathered up the tray and hurried out of the room.

Dorothy could hear her mother talking with something down below on the first floor but she couldn’t make out what was being said. Then she could hear the sound of her father’s voice, which was odd because he should have been at the Adventurer’s Guild for work. There was a gentle knock at the door and her mother poked her head back in.

“Dorothy, my love, this is Janos. He’s from di Primercy to see yuh.,” Mama gestured to a cloaked figure as she stepped into the room followed by the person and then her father.

Dorothy tried to smile in greeting but she couldn’t tell how much was conveyed. Seeing her father was a welcome surprise since he was working all the time to cover her medical bills and the loss of income from her mother cutting back on client work to take care of her. The person, Janos, stepped past her parents and gestured to the chair.

“May I?” they said in a rich yet effeminate voice that sounded like it was coming through a vocoder.

Dorothy gave a slight nod and Janos sat next to her bed before pulling back the cloak to reveal a person of metal. Their face was smooth and reflective with a human look, but it was difficult to tell if the face was meant to be male or female. Around the face, silver hair of thin wire strands were pulled back into a delicate braid. The metal person wore normal looking clothing like you might find adorning an important person from the upper district. They gently pulled off soft, leather gloves and Dorothy noticed that Janos had two fingers and two thumbs on each hand.

“Miss Dorothy,” Janos began, “my name is Janos and I work for the Primercy. Do you know what we do? No? Our mission is to search for people like yourself that are in trouble and to help them. I don’t know if your parents or doctors have told you but you probably know already, your condition, right? I thought as much. We do not make this offer lightly but when medical and magical means have failed you, we can offer a solution.”

Dorothy gave Janos a curious look.

“I am an Automata Miss Dorothy. I was once like you. I got sick and there was nothing that anyone could do for me. Thanks to the Primercy, though, I was able to have my soul transferred into an Automata body. I’ve been living as an Automata now for ten years and we’d like to offer the same chance to live to you— but only if you’re willing to continue on in a form such as mine. The choice is entirely yours. I know it might seem like short notice, but what do you think? Would you like to become an Automata and leave that bed and that sickness behind?”

For the first time since she became ill, Dorothy felt a spark of hope. Her smile came naturally and she gave Janos an encouraging nod of her head.

Janos gave Dorothy a warm smile, it was interesting to see their metal face distort and change shape to mimic a regular person’s facial expressions. Janos reached out and patted Dorothy’s hand.

“Okay, I’m going to work out the details with your parents to see how much we can do for you. This won’t be an easy choice but it will be one that lets you live with it.”

Janos got up from the chair and put their gloves back on before turning to follow Dorothy’s parents out. Her mother was tearing up as she left but her father gave her a big thumbs up. She looked again at the window, at that clear blue sky, and that bit of leaf from the branch of the nearby tree. Things would be different soon and she’d be able to see so much more of the world that that tiny slice. Dorothy fell asleep imagining what it might be like to have metal skin and what other changes might come with being an Automata.

Dorothy woke to her mother gently shaking her, she didn’t know how long she’d been asleep but the sky didn’t look too different out her window so probably not long. Her father was standing behind her mother but Janos didn’t seem to be with them.

“Well, mi love, Janos seh fi meet dem ova di AutoFoundry and we should bring yuh right aweh.,” her mother told her.

“He... She.. They? Were quite adamant about it,” her father interjected.

Dorothy couldn’t help but wonder if the time she had left was growing frightfully short indeed as her father scooped her up in his arms. He walked with a limp but refused to let anyone help him carry Dorothy. He was all smiles but he kept squeezing Dorothy to him a little tighter than he needed to. Over the course of her illness, Dorothy had lost a lot of weight and her father had no trouble at all carrying her all the way to the Upper district where the AutoFoundry was located.

When they arrived, Dorothy saw a bright building with lots of people of all types and shapes and sizes going in and out of the building. Many of them looked like they were made of metal like Janos but where Janos still looked very much like a regular person apart from their skin, most of these people looked more like giant clockwork toys or knights of some sort.

Janos was waiting for them at the large set of doors at the top of stairs that marked the main entrance. They gestured and the doors opened as if by magic, possibly exactly by magic. Inside the building was a grand hall with high ceilings and walls that seemed like they were made from solid window allowing the light and view from outside to flood inside without any of the noise. In the center of the hall was a metal statue of what looked like a toy robot. The robot seemed a bit on the short side given the size of its head as well as its large hands and feet. It was standing in a confident pose with a fist pointed to the sky. Dorothy wondered what or who it was.

They walked down hallways following after Janos, turning corners, through doors, more hallways. The place felt like a maze to Dorothy but everywhere she looked she saw interesting looking people either made of metal or partially metal. Finally they came to a comfortable looking room with soft chairs to sit in, dim lighting, and a table with some food and drinks. There also appeared to be a bed with wheels in the middle of the room and a large window to one side that looked down into another room that was well lit. Dorothy couldn’t get a good look at the window as she was gently laid onto the rolling bed. Beside the bed sat a cart with a dark red pillow on it. Sitting on the pillow was a strange looking ball. The ball was made of metal and was covered in grooves and lines but seemed to be empty to Dorothy.

Along with the bed and comfortable furniture, there was another Automata waiting. Dorothy could tell they were an Automata because they didn’t look the slightest bit like a person. Their head was rather box shaped and had a single eye in the middle with no other facial features. The eye was glowing a warm yellow color but the rest of the Automata’s appearance gave no sense of warmth. They had long skeletal arms and a body that was covered in ribs. Dorothy couldn’t see the lower half of this person’s body but their presence was making her feel very nervous. Was this creature the sort of thing she was going to become?

“Don’t worry,” Janos said, gently touching Dorothy’s hand. “This is Doctor Shack. He is very experienced and has performed this procedure countless times. You’re in good hands.”

Janos then took a step back to allow Dorothy’s parents to hug and kiss her. She was scared, and nervous, and excited, and all mixed up, but most of all she longed to be able to hug and kiss them back. Her mother was fully crying now and turned into her father’s chest as he squeezed Dorothy’s hand.

“You’re going to do great, my little Dot,” he said, giving her a bright smile. “We’ll be right here waiting for you when you’re all done and we’ll be able to see everything that’s going on from that window.

Dorothy gave her dad the best smile she could manage and squeezed his hand back.

“Door Oh Thee,” Doctor Shack said, sounding out the name. “Doro thee. Dorothy. I am Doctor Shack. I am a doctor for Automata, not for organics. I will be performing your conversion. This,” he said, gesturing to the metal ball, “will be your soul core. All of your memories, thoughts, hopes, dreams, everything that makes you, you, apart from your physical meat body will be contained here. Once you have been contained, we will install your core into a new Automata body based on what your parents could afford. Do you have any questions? No. good.”

He scuttled more than walked away from the bed before anyone could ask anything and returned with an empty syringe and 3 vials of different color liquids. One of red, one of white, and one of green.

“One question for you, Dorothy,” the doctor asked. “Which do you choose? Cherry, Vanilla, or Sour Apple? I understand you are dying and can’t speak. Merely stare longingly at the flavor of your choice. Very good, Vanilla it is. That was my choice as well. When you drink this liquid, you will fall asleep. You will feel no pain. When you wake up, you will be in your new body.”

Dorothy was sure she had been looking at the Sour Apple but there was no way to stop the doctor now. He filled the syringe with the white liquid and placed it to her lips. The liquid was warm and sweet, she thought of cookies, of holidays, of snuggling between her parents in front of a fire on cold winter nights. Before she realized it, her eyes had closed and she was thinking only of the feeling of her mother’s arms.

Before long, even that feeling began to fade and there was nothingness. Endless black extended all around her and she felt like she was floating in the water in the middle of the night. She looked around her but there was more nothing. Not even a body or self to view when she looked down and she felt no sensation of having form. The feeling didn’t last long though as she could feel... something urging her in a direction. She felt compelled to somehow move in this direction though there was only blackness and no body to move. In the far distance she could see a pin prick of light. As she started to head towards it, she heard... no wait, heard isn’t quite right. Felt? A sound from behind her. A buzzing sort of sound feeling, like an alarm or a warning.

She turned from the distant light towards the sound feeling and saw a blue square. The square had clearly not been there before. She drew closer to the square and could see writing on it.

Dorothy.

This is Doctor Shack.

Your Soul Core is ready and waiting for you.

Touch this square to begin the transfer process.

Dorothy moved close to the square. She looked back at the distant light and remembered her parents were waiting for her, that she wasn’t ready to move on just yet. Without form or shape, she touched the square and felt her sense of self get drawn into it. The square consumed her and she had the sensation of passing through a tunnel full of lights and sounds and feelings.

When she exited the tunnel she was back in an endless void of blackness though this time there was no distant light.

“Did... did it work?” Mama asked, looking to Janos.

The metal ball was now alight with a cool white light, emanating from within. Another Automata had stepped into the room and wheeled Dorothy’s body away. Mama reached out for it, but Janos gently placed their hand on her arm.

“That’s not her. She’s not there any more. Come, you can talk to her.” Janos held a hand out to the metal ball and said words of magic, “[Console && Terminal_Window({target:“visual lock”, public: true, keyboard:true})].”

A blue screen appeared in front of the ball with a second screen below it. The first screen showed a connection message while the second one, angled flat like a table, was covered in glyphs and letters.

“Simply type here, and Dorothy will be able to see and respond to your messages,” Janos said, gesturing to the screens.

Connected: Dorothy-1171285

:/hello dorothy are you there?

In front of Dorothy a huge screen appeared. She could see some sort of message about connecting and then her name followed by several letters.

“Um... Hello?” she called to the screen.

Mama burst into tears and covered her mouth as she saw Dorothy’s response appear on the screen below her message.

“It’s really her? It’s my baby?”

Connected: Dorothy-1171285

:/Dorothy my love this is mama.

>MAMA! Oh Mama, I don’t know where I am!

:/its okay love, youv been transfrrd to teh sould thing

>sold??

:/no baby! sorry! mamas not used to typing

>Oh phew. So now I’m in that ball?

:/Thats what janos says

>Oh, I see. What happens now?

:/the doctor has gone to get your body ready and is just waiting for us to finish talking to you

>Mama, I can’t wait to see you and dad again. I’m scared.

:/it will all be over soob im right here baby i love you

>I love you so sooo so much! Papa! I love you too!

:/they need to take yuo way and put you in you new body now we see you soon!!xoxoxoxoxo

Dorothy tried giving the screen a hug but without arms or a physical form it proved difficult. The screen she had seen with her mother’s words vanished and she was alone in the dark once again.

The doctor had returned and wheeled the little cart with the red pillow and the metal ball out of the room. Mama turned to Papa and let him hold her as Dorothy was taken away. Papa gently pulled her over to the window and looked inside. They were looking down from an upper level into a large room with a table in the middle and several strange instruments and panels all around. On the table was a rather plain looking Automata body, the size of a child. It had a proper face with eyes and a mouth, though it lacked a nose or any ears or hair. The new body was unadorned and its chest was open. Inside, there was a large cavity where assistants of the doctor were packing a fine gray powder in the shape of a heart.

“That heart that they are packing now,” Janos offered, “is the old Dorothy. It doesn’t offer anything in terms of function for her new body but we’ve found that the inclusion of the cremated remains helps to ground a new Automata in their new body. To help them feel like they are still the same person inside.”

“That’s... very thoughtful,” Papa remarked.

“We’ve been doing this for a while now. Our founder was a revolutionary in the field of Automata conversion to bring as high a quality of life for those that become converted as possible.”

When the ash heart was packed in, various tubes and wires ran through it and around it. Like it was an integrated part of the body. The assistant poured a liquid over the ash heart that hardened the powder into stone. When it was ready, the doctor carefully placed the soul core into the cavity and connected the various internals to it before closing up the chest plate.

A new white screen appeared before Dorothy and she could see numbers and words flashing by but she couldn’t make any sense of them. When the words finished flying past, they were replaced by an illustration of that toy robot looking statue from the lobby. The illustration waved at her and she looked around and thought “waving back thoughts.”

“Congratulations on making the big decision to become an Automata,” the illustration said. “I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision to make and we don’t take your trust in us lightly. We’ll make every effort to ensure that your conversion goes as smoothly as possible. Your original body has been changed into a stone heart that now cradles and protects your soul core. What makes you who you are will always be with you and no one can ever take that away.

“Before you wake up, there are a few questions for you to answer that will help the doctor to finish configuring your new body. First, what color would you like your eyes to be?”

Dorothy thought about it and the first color to come to mind was the blue of the sky out her window, but she was so very tired of looking at that color.

“Sky Blue it is, great choice!” the illustrated robot said.

“What? No! I didn’t want blue, it was just the first color to come to mind!” Dorothy shouted, but the illustration didn’t seem to hear her.

“Next, your current body is the mid-child model so it won’t be as specialized as the higher end body frames but you can always upgrade at a later time. The mid-child model has starting base stats of Health: 10, Strength: 5, Speed: 5, and Focus: 5. Based on your soul age, you have a starting Mana stat of... 80, congratulations.”

Dorothy had no idea what any of those numbers meant. She’d heard her dad talk about stats and abilities in regard to the Adventurers that came to the guild, maybe it was like that.

“You will be starting out with the Primary Operating System, or POS, version 1.0. As you upgrade your system, later versions will be released to you, unlocking new functions. This version has two plugin slots available. Which plugins would you like to install? Plugins can always be changed out later but will require a reboot to initialize them in your code base.”

Starter Plugins

Map 1 - this plugin allows the user to view a map of their immediate area. A minimap widget can be added to the user’s HUD. Dismantle 1 - this plugin allows the user the knowledge to process a dead creature enough to retrieve it’s mana crystal and collect raw materials. Basic Unarmed combat - this plugin allows the user the knowledge to attack with basic level martial arts at melee range. Hit accuracy is improved based on speed + focus. Damage dealt if successful is base strength stat. Does bludgeoning damage. Basic Blade combat - this plugin allows the user the knowledge to attack with edged weapons at melee range. Hit accuracy is improved based on speed + strength. Damage dealt is determined by the weapon. Basic Ranged combat - this plugin allows the user the knowledge to attack with ranged weapons. Hit accuracy is improved by the focus stat.

“Wait...” Dorothy wondered aloud. “So I pick something and then the knowledge is instantly in my head? That’s so cool! Okay, think now Dorothy with these skills you can become an Adventurer and help dad out. Map could be really cool to have when exploring dungeons... and Dismantle would mean that I wouldn’t have to always bring stuff back to the guild all the time... but I’d need some combat skills for sure... Oooo why only two?! It’s not fair! Okay, okay... thinking... I can always buy a map to new areas... and I can get kills processed at the guild any time... I’m going to go with... Blade combat... and Ranged combat... that way I’ve got both covered. And if I don’t have a weapon, it’s not like you have to know martial arts to smack somebody.”

“Basic Blade combat and Basic Ranged combat installing. Nice choices,” the illustration praised. “Now, let’s talk about add-ons. Your soul core has two add-on slots. Add-ons are permanent and will be bonded to your soul core. While you can’t change them out like plugins, they can be leveled up over time with higher POS versions. It is also possible to install add-ons into other body parts later, though keep in mind that the add-on will be permanently bound to the part. Which add-ons would you like to install?”

Starter Add-ons

Inspect 1 - Provides detailed information about Common level targets. Inv 1 - Inventory provides a “pocket dimension” that is keyed to the user and allows them to carry items in storage without concern for weight or physical space. Inv 1 provides 10 units of space. DevCon 1 - The Developer Console allows users to be able to inspect magiCode running on a given target. It is also a requirement for crafting magiCode and installing it into items. DevCon 1 only has permissions to view and modify code in the user’s possession and cannot access code that does not belong to them. Proxy 1 - Proxy allows the player to connect to an external body and manipulate it as if it were their own. Proxy 1 provides 1 proxy slot.

“Oh these are amazing! Ugh... and again I can only choose two! Who came up with this system? Okay, let’s see now... I have to go with Inv.. having a personal Inventory would be soooo useful... and... well Inspect would be useful in the field though it’s nothing I can’t just learn on my own at the library or by learning about stuff... and I don’t know what that Proxy thing even means... Being able to craft my own magic sounds really awesome though... Okay, I’ll go with the Inv 1 and the DevCon 1.”

“Fantastic choices! You can’t go wrong with those,” the illustration congratulated her, “Installing Inventory 1 and Developer Console 1. You’re all set now. I hope you have a very happy and long life as an Automata. I’ll see you again at your next POS update!”

With that, the illustration vanished and Dorothy could feel herself becoming... more real. The darkness gradually lightened until she realized that she was seeing the ceiling of a large room. Words and numbers hung in the air wherever she looked. With a glance she knew the current time, the ambient air temperature, how much health and mana she had available, what the status was of any of her systems... there were even settings to be able to change what wavelengths of light she could see in. Above her she could see a window with her mom and dad looking down on her. A smile broke across her face and she waved to them. Her mother was holding her hands over her mouth and jumping up and down while her father laughed and waved back.

“Mama! Papa! It’s me!” she called out to them. Her voice surprised her and she covered her mouth with a hand. Her voice reminded her of the chopped sound from when she was younger and would yell into a lightning crystal powered fan with a touch of yelling-into-a-well.

Her hand, against her face, felt strange. The sense of touch was there but then not there at the same time, like wearing a glove but then having someone explain in detail what you were feeling. She pulled her hand away and examined it. It was metal, the hand of a robot. Like Javos, she now had two fingers and two thumbs on her hand, though her hands didn’t look as elegant as Javos’ hands.

“Welcome to your second life,” the doctor said as he took her hand and helped her to sit up.