1381/Fundroids at the Mall

Fundroids at the Mall
Date of Scene:	21 January 2015
Location:	Urbania
Synopsis:	Annie and Ferham go shopping!
Cast of Characters:	437, 516

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Ferham (516) has posed:
     And so, as luck would have it, following Maxine's attempted repair and seeming... attitude adjustment on Ferham, she was given the idea of taking one of Maxine's 'children' out for a little mall spree. It was the least she could do, she might have thought. Thus, to Urbania it was. Silver city galleria was not that hard to locate, not a bad little mall, and just big enough to have a lot of the colorfulness like a children's area as well as some big name chain stores and various specialty shops.

     Ferham herself was dressed rather... demurely in comparison to her typical armor. In fact, she was in street clothes, or what would her new fashion sense had dictated. She was wearing a sleeveless red tunic dress, black tights and what looked like pink stiletto high heels, a small purse over one shoulder.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
     Anyone that Maxine had done repairs on couldn't be too bad, Annie thought. So she felt that it would be a good idea to go out shopping with Ferham, who had recently visited her mother's home. She kept a hold on Ferham's hand and looked around excitedly at the many shops as they walked about the mall. She'd been thinking she could use some new clothes- her existing styles were starting to get a bit stale- and this would be a great place to do so. Maybe there were other things she might want too.

    "Thanks for coming here with me, Miss Ferham," she said with a big smile. "We're going to have a lot of fun!"

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "So, your mom told me to take care of you for the day, which place do you wanna hit first?" Ferham was sounding a good bit less informal, in fact some of that valley girl-type accent she'd displayed to Maxine had crept into her speech, it made her seem... oddly a lot more normal of a woman, amusingly enough. "Sure, we can do that," she smiled back, all she needed was some bubblegum to complete the accent, it seemed. Her heels click clacked as she moved along, holding Annie's hand in the process. Fer's was much larger and warm, so there was that.

     "So like, when did your mom have you, or rather put you online?" she still seemed curious about this new AI she was getting to meet, as the two strode towards what looked like a JC Penny, a big chain department store.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
     "Let's go..." Annie began, letting her finger point around the various stores before stopping at the department store. "Over there! That looks good." And it was the direction they were heading anyway, so it seemed like a logical place to go first. She didn't mind Ferham's speech patterns, as surprised as she was by them. Ferham looked pretty serious, but didn't sound like it! But then, a certain level of quirkiness was good for an AI to seem more natural, she thought. Maybe she could try to come up with her own quirks sometime.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
     Annie responded immediately to Ferham's next question. "About six and a half years now. I'm pretty close to being as old as I look," she explained with a big grin. "But, she didn't put me together personally, just designed me. I came out of a factory like the other Annies. I didn't even meet Mommy until later, after I'd already been living with Daddy Magus for a while." Her family situation was... pretty complicated, honestly. But she was able to deal with it, most of the time.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Ohh, so you're close to the age your body is made for," Ferham kept her voice low, not just because the conversation would invite stares, but moreso thanks to her current demeanor. Maxine had apparently tried to make some little 'tweaks' here and there. What would be fun was seeing just how far she'd get with them before something happened. Indeed, the tall woman with the shoulder-length black hair seemed like she meant business, except for how she was speaking and the demure behavior.

     "A factory," it seemed to hit Ferham somewhere inside, that there was sentient bots made to look this young coming out of a factory maybe, though she didn't make her inner thoughts on the outside. "Magus? you had a caretaker?" click-clacking as she went, Fer lead Annie into the department store. "New clothes, I'm sure we can find something you like in here," she wasn't exactly sure if this place had a toy department, though.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
     "Yeah. I don't know if I really act that age all the time though," Annie answered. "I mean, I've changed a lot from how I was when I came out of the factory. I don't try to be too grown-up, especially around human kids, but I think there's probably a lot of stuff human kids do that I don't." It was pretty difficult to explain it, really, especially since she'd never actually been a human kid, though she had spent a lot of time around them.

    "Yeah. Originally I was just one of a series of AI toys, called 'Annie Intelligence'. But... a lot of stuff happened, and I met Daddy and Mommy, and now I'm different from all the other Annies. More self-aware and things like that. And I've had a bunch of upgrades too. Now, I stay with Daddy when Mommy's too busy, and I stay with Mommy when Daddy's too busy. But I can live on my own too, even though it gets lonely sometimes doing it."

    As they approached the clothes section, Annie started looking around at the various items on display, looking for something she might like.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Ah, sorry, I just can't like... get over that you came out of a factory, you know? It's sort of strange for me," Ferham tried to reassure Annie with a friendly smile, her lips red rouged. "Ohh, I see, so you've developed in that time..." she seemed to understand this, AI tended to develop a bit faster than humans seemed to, in her experience.

     "I hope you have a few friends to keep you company when you're alone, maybe a robo-cat or something?" there /were/ such things from where Fer came from, at least at one point. As they neared the clothing section, she looked down at Annie and raised a thin brow, wondering just what might look good on her. "You got a favorite color? pink, or blue?" she grinned a little, walking around a display of dresses, her purse dangling from one crooked elbow.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
     "I guess it is strange," Annie said. "A lot of what happened to make me... a person, I guess, happened by accident. If things had gone a bit differently I might be just a toy, not really having any life outside of playing with a couple kids, and I wouldn't even know what I was missing," she mused. "And a lot of people in my world... well, they aren't really comfortable with machines becoming people at all."

    "Well, there's Andyquil, the Cyndaquil," she explained with regard to companionship when she's alone. "He's not a robot... Though Fundroids does make robot pets too." She looked around at the outfits. "Let's go with pink, I have a lot of blue already." She wouldn't look too bad in pink, she thought- she knew there were a lot of pink outfits made specifically for her model, so the fashion designers at Fundroids must think so too.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "So... you didn't start sentient?" Ferham seemed to be intensely curious about that. "Maxine said she didn't always make sentient robots, so I guess you didn't start as one, huh?" she nodded a little, flipping through the various dresses... sundresses, formal... "Heh, yeah so I've noticed," Fer seemed amused, smiling as she turned her face back to the little girl-bot as she talked about humans not liking their kind becoming more... well, human. "Been dealing with that pretty much my whole life," she stood up.

     "Cyndaquil?" she seemed a little.. surprised at that. Fer smiled, nodding. "I was thinking you might with those blonde locks of yours," she picked out a stunningly pink dress for Annie, holding it up to her. It was short sleeved, but with enough skirt to come down to her ankles. "Haven't shopped for too many girls younger than me, I might be a little rusty," she winked.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
     "Nope," Annie answered. "But I'm glad it worked out that way!" She smiled again. If she hadn't gained sentience she probably wouldn't have been able to experience so much of the multiverse and made so many friends throughout it.

    So, Annie's world wasn't the only one debating AI. She hoped that with the vast diversity of the multiverse, people would start to see that artificial people were just as validly people as humans, elves, or merfolk.

    "He's a Pokemon, I got him in Johto. He's cute!" Annie explained regarding Andyquil. As Ferham picked out a dress, Annie looked it over with a smile. "I like it! It reminds me a lot of Princess Peach's dress. Just not quite as fancy," she notes. "It might be nice to wear in springtime." The color did make her think of a blooming flower, she thought.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Well, makes me feel a little better about that 'factory' thing," Ferham did seem to calm a little, thanks to that, or at least relieved. "I just hope nothing bad happens to you and the others at your mom's workshop, I wouldn't be too happy," she seemed just a bit more serious at that, but then seemed to relax out of it.

     "Huh... you're right, it does kind of look like that, doesn't it?" Fer hadn't actually made the comparison between that certain princess and the dress she'd lifted out. "Well, okay then... maybe you'd like something for winter, then? I take it you can sense temperature, right?" she tucked the peach dress under one arm, then walked around the rack. "Oh, so he's a pokemon? I see, I hope you take good care of him," she seemed pleased at that, she trusted the AI girl with such a thing, even if she did look super young.

     "So, you ever think about modifying your chassis? you know, if you wanted to look older," she asked idly, searching around.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
     Annie nods. "Yeah. Even if they're not sentient, the other Fundroids are still all my friends, so I want them to be safe too. They're meant to make people happy, so I hope they aren't used for anything bad." Fundroids should be friends, not foes!

    "Yep! Let's find something for winter," she said, eager to find something more in-season. She did look forward to trying out the pink dress though. It glittered in just the right places, and would definitely enhance her natural cuteness.

    "Oh yes, I make sure to give him the best Pokeblocks and Poffins we can get delivered," Annie explained. It was a responsibility Annie took on willingly, and worked hard to be worthy of.

    As for making herself older, Annie laughed a bit. "I tried that once. I actually had a system where I could switch age back and forth from kid to grownup and back. But, I got rid of it and decided to stay this size," she said. "I like being this way right now. Maybe I'll change my mind someday, but there's still a lot I can do just how I am."

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "I hope so too, that's what I hope for with most robots," Ferham nodded, circling around the racks of dresses to find something heavier, in a pastel pink hue. "Robots are always meant to improve human lives, I think," she brightened just then, taking out a heavier winter number and holding it out for the fundroid girl.

     "Wow, really? you could change your shape?" Ferham was surprised by that, but slowly nodded. Liquid metal could do that, or nanotech. "That's good, this way you can devleop naturally, well, close to a human, anyway," she held the heavier winter dress up to the girl's front, then nodded. "You might want to try those on before we leave, but I think we found some nice ones for you," she seemed pleased with herself, at least.

     "Anything else you wanna look for?" the taller femmebot asked, seeming to be concluding the main part of the clothing hop.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
     Annie took the winter dress appreciatively. "This one's good too. I like the designs on it," she said, handing it back to Ferham. "You're right. I know some robots want to overthrow humans or something, but I don't agree with that. We should live together and appreciate what makes us unique, don't you think?" Humans and AIs both had their own things to contribute to the world.

    As for the next place to go, Annie looked about once again. "We should definitely check out the toys!" With that, she headed off immediately for the toy section, letting Ferham follow. There was definitely more fun to come!