Chapter 24
Notes:
As we are officially at DOUBLE my initial chapter estimate for this fic, let’s get right to it, shall we? Milo has PLANS to make. ^_-
MILO
Milo and Rowan’s lazy Friday night had been somewhat hampered once Rowan was ready for bed by Milo's need to charge. He had been neglecting using the now fixed charging station in lieu of sleeping with Rowan, but his battery was far too low to go another night.
"Are you sure?” Rowan had asked. “Maybe we can think of some other—"
"But why would I not charge? I would prefer to sleep with you, but it is an unfortunate necessity, just like humans need recharging through rest and sustenance."
"I know, but even if you've been getting basic updates from the Cloud, this could be different. What if some larger update... changes things?"
Milo had been touched by Rowan's concern.
"I do not think so. The automated updates I have received have changed nothing, and my data shows that no larger updates are in the queue.
If there could be a concern in the future, we could ask Troy, but I.
.. well... feel it in my bones—or at least my circuits—that no new programming could ever change who I am now because I no longer need to listen to it. "
Rowan had nodded, a little too much maybe, like he still needed convincing.
“Would you like for me to send you periodic messages during the night, Rowan, so that if you can't sleep, you'll know I'm okay?"
“Yes, that... I think I'd like that.”
Everything had gone perfectly normally, but it had pleased Milo the next morning to find that many of his messages had been read, proving Rowan had checked his tablet for hours before finally falling asleep.
That minor hiccup was followed by an equally lazy Saturday, aside from doing some adjustments together on Spot’s sensors. So far so good there too, though only time would tell how their ankles fared in the future.
Come Sunday, while there were various chores to do, Milo also realized he had less than a week now to plan something for Rowan’s birthday.
Sure, it had just been Milo’s birthday, but not really.
It was sweet of Rowan to say so, given a week alive was a milestone for a bot, but birthdays were usually measured in years.
Rowan was turning thirty next weekend. A real milestone.
While Milo had not yet existed on Rowan’s previous birthday, he knew from backlogs of data that Rowan did not usually enjoy celebrating it.
Attempts at larger get-togethers had always devolved into a slew of “never again” messages from Rowan in the family text thread.
Although that did seem to primarily be Ruben’s fault, from such shenanigans—in no particular order—as a clown stripper for Rowan’s twenty-first, a phallus-shaped bouncy castle for Rowan’s eighteenth, and a slip-n-slide for his twenty-fifth that was made slick by fluids which, while completely harmless and hygienic, were clearly meant to mimic something else.
Rowan was the last person who wanted to be made the center of attention, but in the right circumstances, he did attempt to stand out and shine.
After all, Spot existed because Rowan won a science fair he’d wanted to enter.
The surge protector that was largely to thank for Milo awakening at all existed because Rowan had wanted to prove he could be more to Andreas Tech.
Once in a while, he did want the spotlight shone on him, just under his specific circumstances.
Like a cat.
And well, if Milo and Rowan were becoming something like a real couple, it was Milo’s duty—and privilege!—to throw him the exact milestone birthday party Rowan would love.
Raina: This is Milo? As in Rowan’s BOT, Milo?
Milo: Correct! I would like to plan a surprise birthday party for Rowan’s 30th and need your assistance, please.
Milo watched the sequence of moving dots that indicated Raina was typing for quite a bit longer than the actual message that finally came through would have suggested she needed.
Raina: You’re sending this message without Rowan’s knowledge?
Milo: Of course! Otherwise it would spoil the surprise. I would not normally do this, however, so please do not worry. But this is FOR Rowan.
Raina: Rowan hates surprises
Milo: He will like this one! It will just be him, me, you, Troy, Riley, NOT Ruben, who is thankfully out of town with the orchestra next weekend, but I will send him a reminder so he sends a card.
Milo: And maybe Ethel our neighbor and her bot Anabelle.
Raina: Wait, another bot like you?
Milo: No, Anabelle is a normal A-model, but Ethel is very attached to her. Rowan would not mind if both attend.
Raina: Okay. Your funeral if he does hate this.
Milo: There will be no funeral. Rowan has promised he would never throw me away.
Raina: You are seriously weird, do you know that? But I think I’m starting to like you a little.
Milo: And Troy?
A long sequence of dots commenced once again.
Raina: I THOUGHT I was starting to like you. My mistake.
Milo: Thankfully, I have started to understand sarcasm. I like you too, Raina!
Milo considered it a win that Raina’s response was to heart his message.
Amid surprise party planning, the rest of the week was mostly like the week before, albeit with more electrical surges for Ray.
Each day, they attempted an increasing sequence of power influx and recorded Ray’s responses, while comparing them to Milo’s current state of normal.
One of the more fascinating discoveries Troy had made was that Milo’s systems were now in a constant state of higher power levels.
He didn’t drain his battery any faster than before, but he was still somehow operating at higher capacity.
Troy had dubbed the phenomena Milo’s soul, which Milo was quite fond of.
This had also led to Milo bringing up Rowan's concerns about him receiving updates through the Cloud and charging station.
"While we still do not fully understand what happened to you, Milo, I highly doubt anything would go wrong," Troy said. "But we can do a quick test! Here, I'll push a harmless programming update that I can easily reverse. And... there!"
RECEIVING UPDATE: M.I.L.O. bot Milo is to now complete all ordered tasks by walking on its hands.
Milo wrinkled his nose. "Why would I do that? It's nonsense!"
"Exactly! You recognize that, but do you still feel compelled to do it? Milo, disconnect from Ray and retrieve that tablet from my lounging corner, please."
Milo did so, and about halfway to the tablet, his internal programming complained.
ERROR: M.I.L.O. bot Milo is not completing the intended task by walking on its hands. Please correct.
Milo felt no urge to follow the programming because, again, it was nonsense and definitely not efficient.
ERROR: M.I.L.O. bot Milo is not completing the intended task by walking on its hands. Please correct.
No.
The programming alert in Milo’s head went quiet. He had never accomplished that before. He told Troy as much when he returned with the tablet.
"See, you do have a soul! You have free will. As long as you're you, Milo, nothing can change that."
Milo was even fonder of that explanation and couldn't wait to tell Rowan.
What he wasn’t fond of was that Ray had not yet responded to any amount of power influx, and the higher the concentration got, the more his systems seemed to experience errors, despite the surge protector preventing his circuits from being fried.
On Wednesday, Ray actually shut down completely after Troy flooded him with power, which gave Milo hope—after all, he had shut down before awakening—but when Ray rebooted…
“Initializing… Processing… Conducting emergency protocol diagnostic…”
Ray blinked once the diagnostic had completed.
“All systems normal, Master. Please refrain from any non-factory charging devices in the future to prevent breach of warranty.”
Milo, seated beside him like always, had sunk into a slouch. “No. He’s not awake yet.”
“No…” Troy repeated, just as somberly, no doubt seeing on his tablet that Ray’s readings hadn’t changed. “Sorry, Milo. We’ll get there.”
The problem with getting there was Andrew’s impatience being far worse than Milo’s.
He hadn’t checked in much, other than virtually, the first week, but this being week two, he seemed to pop in at least once if not two or three times a day. He might be on the side of robot singularity in general, but he didn’t care about the collateral damage to make it happen.
“If the amount of power you’ve attempted doesn’t achieve results by Friday, come Monday, I am expecting some lightning.”
Milo knew Andrew didn’t mean that literally, just that he was through with playing things safe.
Milo still didn’t like him. He possibly liked him less.
Anytime Andrew was around, or especially if he touched Milo, or even just looked directly at him, the wrongness to the director made Milo’s skin crawl.
He liked that description. If Rowan tugging on Milo’s hair felt like pleasant little power fluxes tingling through his scalp, then interaction with Andrew was like the sickening sensation of a power drain while most of his parts were exposed.
It was strange to dislike a person compared to a thing.
Milo hadn’t liked Ruben all that much, and he had actively disliked Ruben’s current sexual partner, but his dislike was far more visceral and unexplainable toward Andrew.
Yet for Rowan and the fate of all bots with the potential to awaken, Milo could tolerate being in the presence of someone as unpleasant as Andrew Andreas.
Maybe it was mostly because Andrew had been able to so flippantly toss Ray aside and replace him with Jay, a nearly identical copy, who Milo knew for a fact, being able to access both of their data centers while hooked up to Ray, was not as un-upgradable as Andrew had implied.
He’d simply wanted a more state-of-the-art model, even if the differences were negligible.
He hadn’t even bothered to disconnect Ray from the same Cloud network.