Before we left Urd for the capital, I needed to settle things with Jada. When I first arrived in this world, she was willing to give me a space in her old workshop and, sorta, took me in; even though I was a totally unknown and potentially dangerous thing to have around. She even tried to help my proxies escape the city when I inadvertently brought some trouble to her door. In the end, her actions were ultimately fruitless, but I appreciated the effort.

The lock-down on Automata from Baron Karza was still in effect, So I couldn’t go on my own; which was super annoying.

Princess Relena was busy legalizing the change in guild leadership with Carnivac, the Adventurers went off to wherever they go when they’re not at the Guild Hall, and Shea had taken Devin to register as an Adventurer. Other than Carn, I put my other proxies back into [Storage].

Inside my head-space, Rom spent some time crafting a replica of a table-top game that I’d developed in my old world. I guess, of all my proxies, she really focused on the game and toy designer aspects. MainFrame developed a program plugin that took the shape of a magnetic badge for the subRoutines in the common area. When they put the badge onto their foreheads, they lost the ability to be able to tell what each other were thinking.

The badge was only good for when in the common room, but because of it, the subRoutines were all able to play the boardgame without knowing each other’s moves. I wondered if the game would do well in this world, but then things like kaiju attacking the city and guardian super mecha didn’t exist here. At least, not to my knowledge.

It was really interesting to see my various proxies around a table playing a game together. I supposed that within the head-space they weren't limited to things like physics so they were all, more or less, the same size. The insecticons, who didn't have voices in their proxy bodies, still didn't speak at all; which could be staying true to their "personalities", I guessed. Unsurprisingly, Ratchet wasn't playing with the rest. It was content to stay in its room and work on a new transportation proxy idea that had been nibbling at my thoughts.

I was sitting on a bench in the main hall, across from the quest board when I saw Lily, with a mug of something, come out from behind the reception counter and look around. I had helped the feline single-mother of two on my first quest as Carnivac. She developed a little bit of hero worship for the proxy, but that flipped when she found out he was actually a robot. After that, she’d been rather cold and snobbish to me, though still seemed to have something lingering for the fake wolf guy.

When she spotted me, sitting alone on the bench, she made a complicated expression that I couldn’t quite discern before slightly nodding and coming over to me.

“May I?” she asked, gesturing to the empty spot next to me.

“Please do,” I replied as I shifted over to grant her more room than was needed. “On break?”

She nodded a bit and took a sip of whatever was in her mug.

“He’s even more impressive than I remember... but he also seems really different somehow. More natural, somehow... I can't put my claw on it... And that magic he was doing wasn’t something he seemed like he could do before. What did you do to him?”

I had to assume she was talking about Carnivac. I wondered if seeing him, was a bit heart breaking for her.

“That’s his second body. I had to build him a new one after the first one was destroyed infiltrating The Factory on orders from Prince Milliardo. Also, apparently, the first one would trigger an uncanny response from real wolf folk. Victoria Greywind said that he looked like a corpse puppet.”

“I didn’t notice... Look Prime,” she said, setting the mug in her lap and staring off at the quest wall. “I’m sorry about before. I shouldn’t have taken everything out on you like that. There was just—”

I held up a hand to cut her off. “Don’t worry about it. There was a lot going on and you got hit with a whole bunch of changes all at once. I’m just glad that you and your kittens didn’t make it to Trone. You’d all likely be pouring tea for some noble pantywaste, trapped in a metal body.” I tapped on my own chest for emphasis. Tin tin tin. “Or worse... shackled to a bunch of other souls and forced to live your life as a hydraulic press.”

She stared at me long enough for it to get awkward with a single ear occasionally twitching. Then she slowly nodded and went back to her mug, her tail swishing back and forth from beneath her skirt. Was she still agitated? Cats did that when they were agitated, right?

“How are Josh and Jake doing?” I asked, trying to change the subject. All moms can be easily coaxed into talking about their kids, from my experience.

“Joshua and Jacob are doing just fine, thank you. They still play with those toys you made them, though I guess they saw new ones in the school yard and only play with theirs at home now.”

“Ah, yeah I can see that. Who wants old and tired when they can see the new and shiny, right? Here—”

I pulled four prototype Battle Beast discs from my [Inventory] and handed them to her.

“These are some of my 3rd gen prototypes. They haven’t hit the market yet. They haven’t even gone to the manufacturer yet so I guess they’re still in the R&D phase. I’d love to get the kiddos’ feedback on them. I value them as important beta testers, after all.”

“Jen? Arrendee? Beta? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

I sighed inwardly, “yeah... I hear that more than you’d think.”

“I’d think you hear that a LOT.”

“More than that.”

“So what’s different? They look the same,” she said, turning one over in her hands.

“If you put a bit of mana into it, instead of seeing a warrior, you’ll see an egg. You need to keep putting mana into it periodically until it hits a certain point and will hatch. The thing that comes out will be a baby version of the warrior that you need to take care of. Instead of the fire, wood, water commands, you’ll send it play, feed, clean commands as needed.”

“Great... another kitten to take care of...”

“Well,” I chuckled, “sorta, yeah. Once it reaches another point it’ll grow up and become the warrior version and can fight like before. The better they take care of the egg and the baby, the stronger and more powerful the warrior will be.”

“That’s clever, I suppose. I’ve never heard of any toy like this before. It’ll be like they have pets without me needing to buy any food or clean up after it...”

“That’s partially the idea,” I winked. “Hey, if you’re not doing anything, mind taking a walk with me to the industrial district? I’d rather not stir more trouble by walking around by myself. Being an unclaimed Automata and all.”

“I guess it can’t be helped then, let me get my jacket,” she said, sounding resigned, and heading off towards the service counter.

It’s kinda funny. I became a robot some three months, two weeks, five days, twelve hours, and thirty six minutes ago; give or take; and completely forgot about things like jackets and the weather changing and getting cooler.

I met Lily near the entrance to the hall and headed out into the city with her. I used my fake slave collar in case anyone took a look and, just in case, I also updated its registration to name Lily as my owner and my name as Tomlin. Thankfully, the walk was uneventful, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious— something I’ve done a shocking lack of in my time here thus far.

When we got to the industrial district, I spotted a certain robot kitty watching us from a rooftop. Ravage just sat and stared until we got closer, without bothering to approach us. I wondered how long she’d been watching for, but decided not to devote too many cycles to it. When we were directly below her, she leapt off and landed across my shoulders and then into my arms.

Ravage rammed her head into my chest and made a purring sound that was less like a cat and more like the rumble feature of a video game controller or a ringing phone on silent. Of course, a vibrating metal cat against a metal chest creates a sound that isn’t easily hidden, but Ravage didn’t seem to care. I patted her, trying to get her to let up a bit.

“What is this thing?” Lily said, putting her face near Ravage’s. “Prime, is this another one of your proxy things?”

Ravage glared back at her. “Ravage not Meowster Prime proxy. Ravage is Ravage,” she hissed.

Lily narrowed her eyes and flattened her ears, then slowly inched her face closer to Ravage’s, her own tail, thrashing back and forth. I could imagine the fur on her back standing up, had she not been wearing clothes. In a flash, Ravage sat up in my arms and batted Lily on the nose, leaving her paw hanging in the air ready to bat again as needed. Lily hissed and backed up half a step, raising a hand, ready to strike. Her tail was ridged, like a pole with all the fur fluffed out.

“Now, now ladies,” I coaxed, gently scratching between Ravage’s ears until she lowered her paw and went back to vibrating against my chest.

Lily hadn’t relaxed though so I reached over and started scratching between her ears too. Her glare shifted from Ravage to me and I thought oh crap. I decided to gamble and lean into it, so I shifted my skitches from between the ears to just behind her jaw bone. As if I’d hit a switch, she started melting and her tail went limp. Her eyes started to half close, then she suddenly twisted her head to bite at my hand.

“You’ll break your teeth,” I warned, as I yanked my hand back before she could bite me.

The switch on Lily flipped again and she started walking away as if nothing had happened.

“This is as far as I go with you, Automata,” she said coldly, looking back over her shoulder. “Some of us have work to do.”

“Thanks Lily,” I called as she ignored me and walked off, back to the Guild. Ah well, hated again.