Chapter 5
Notes:
You all are the BEST. I think Milo’s panic is adorable too. He’ll be okay, don’t worry! Mostly. ^_-
But your name ideas for the Superhero/Villain AU are top tier. Will share my favorites in the ending notes!
ROWAN
“Will you stop tapping already?”
“Two minutes, twenty-five seconds.”
“Rowan, I will seriously punch you if you spout our ticking clock at me one more time.”
Rowan snorted, ceasing the drumming of his fingers on his desk. His and Raina’s stations weren’t running right now and wouldn’t start again until after their inspection, scheduled to happen in… two minutes, ten seconds now.
“Director Andreas is never late,” he said, leaning back in his chair to glance at Raina behind him, who sat in hers with her knees pulled up and feet on the seat while she fussed with her phone.
Raina, like all of their siblings, had naturally ginger hair, but while Rowan kept his short, and Riley preferred a pixie cut, Raina wore hers long. She twisted it into a bun while at work, though it was rare that they needed to halt assembly like this or even truly get their hands dirty.
Rowan liked getting his hands dirty and hated being idle, which was why he had been impatiently tapping his fingers beside his tablet with the data that proved the work he had been doing, well, worked.
He and Raina oversaw different production parts but were stationed together because of the sequence of assembly—and because Raina had requested it when Rowan first got the job so she could keep an eye on him.
She denied that part, but he knew it was true.
She was the eldest and couldn’t help being overprotective.
She programmed predictive models for behavior, which Rowan thought was far more interesting than what he did, but he also knew the importance of a failsafe to keep bots running.
Much of the production cycle was bots making bots, almost entirely automated, but a human element being part of the process was one of Andreas Tech's long-standing promises to its customers.
And thank god, because otherwise, Rowan and Raina would both be out of a job.
“If you need distraction? Work,” Raina said.
“On what?” Rowan complained. “I’ve done everything I can until our systems are running again. Besides, I have too much on my mind. Are you certain—”
“I will also punch you if you ask me one more time whether I think a full panel removal will let you replace your bot’s fried parts. It’ll be fine. Or you could just let insurance replace it like a normal person.”
Rowan spun in his chair to directly face his sister, mostly so he could properly glare at her before she once again said something like—
“But you could never do that to perfect, boyfriend-bot Milo, now could you?”
That. “Raina—”
“Do you know why the factory setting defaults to them calling us Master?”
Rowan stiffened, especially since she had spewed that at him without looking up from her phone. “So people don't get attached,” he droned. “Your point?”
“You named yours.”
“Everyone names their bots! And Milo is just the model’s acronym spoken without dots, like Riley’s Pal.”
“Pal isn’t even remotely the same thing.
It doesn’t look human, for one. And normal human names are also what get people attached.
Even if you basically named yours Spot.” Raina snorted, sock-clad feet on display as she wiggled her toes, since her shoes remained on the floor.
She was the poster child for spectrum-style sitting. And acting. And being.
“What are you so focused on over there anyway?” Rowan asked.
Raina’s eyes slid up from her phone screen with a very telling glint.
Oh crap.
Family chat.
As Rowan swiftly fished for his phone—he could have used his tablet, but he didn’t want to move his screen from his data points—Raina was already chuckling.
“Riley is pissed at you.”
A thread had been going this entire time between Raina, Riley, and Ruben, Rowan’s closest-in-age sibling and only brother.
Raina, as eldest, was usually the one to initiate family chat threads, since she considered it her duty to ensure they communicated somewhat regularly, even if Rowan and Riley predominantly responded with single words or emojis and Ruben’s contributions were largely memes.
Among the siblings, Raina was the only bubbly and outgoing one. Personable. But also a little much. That was basically how Rowan and the rest of them could be described too, just in their own unique ways—and somewhat similar ways where it pertained to Rowan and Riley.
Ruben was definitely the worst though. He had been the one to kick off this morning’s chat with one of his all too frequently used “recovering from last night’s bender” gifs. This one appeared to be a sleeping monkey holding a shot glass beside an empty bottle of Jack Daniels.
Raina: Rough night? Or is it week/month/year on your calendar by now?
Ruben: *gif of Rue McClanahan, aka Blanche from The Golden Girls, nervously laughing and saying, “Don’t judge me! I can’t help myself!”*
Raina: Oh Ruby Tuesday. How did I fail you?
Ruben: *gif of some redheaded woman saying, “I’m a hot mess, and I like it!”*
Riley: The rough night was Rowan’s. Now I get a rough morning.
Riley’s text was followed by a photograph of Rowan’s blackened carpeting from the lightning damage. Milo could be seen in the photo too, standing beside the window, not too close to the broken area, thankfully, but just staring out of it, which was… odd.
Ruben: Holy shit, bro! Pass out while smoking a joint? Been there.
Raina: At least something belonging to Rowan is getting rug burn.
Ew. Was that supposed to be a sex joke? Rowan shot her a glare.
When he looked back at his phone, while he didn’t know how it related, Ruben’s newest gif was of a man writhing on a hospital bed with his trouser-clad crotch on fire. Where did he even find these?
Rowan typed a response so fast, he fat-thumbed multiple typos before getting it right.
Rowan: My bot was hit by lightning last night!
Ruben replied with the now classic gif from The Brady Bunch parody: “Sure, Jan.”
Raina: Ha! If RoRo’s bot turns into The Flash, apartment lightning rods could become the next big thing.
Riley: No.
Rowan: No!
Ruben: No.
Raina: What are you saying ‘no’ for, Ruben?
Ruben: Just guessing what the other two would say.
Riley: ??
Rowan: I am at work!
After firing off that final retort, Rowan shoved his phone back into his pocket. He hadn’t even wanted to tell Raina about the lightning, but he’d had to in order to get her thoughts on fixing Milo’s back. Riley had been an inevitable confidant, but now Ruben knew too?
Maybe if Rowan got Riley a new toolbelt or something, she’d drop it.
Raina and Ruben were entirely different matters.
“Oh, wipe that scowl off your face,” Raina said, setting her phone aside finally too.
“You know what actually happened, and you still had to crack jokes?” Rowan groused.
“Of course I did. I’m your big sister.”
Rowan scowled deeper.
“And the humor helped me process that if that lightning had hit one room over, I might only have one hot mess of a brother.”
The reality of that hadn’t occurred to Rowan. Had it been a fluke, dumb luck, divine intervention that the lightning hit Milo instead of him, or had the lightning been drawn to Milo and the new surge protector? He would definitely need to dig into that as part of his research.
“Forgive me for being glad it only hit your bot,” Raina said a little softer. Then her tone immediately flipped back to teasing. “Just try to remember it’s more of a pet than an actual boyfriend.”
Rowan fired back on instinct, “And when was the last time you had a boyfriend, real or mechanical?”
Raina maturely stuck her tongue out at him. “As for Milo,” she said pointedly, “it would be easier if you powered the bot down first—”
“I am not powering Milo down after a surge like that and risking an accidental wipe. I just want to make sure it doesn’t feel any pain.”
“Pain?” Raina snickered. “It’s made of metal, plastic, synth-skin, and lube.”
Rowan resisted the urge to deny that claim—even though it was true. He was still concerned about Milo’s behavior that morning, especially considering the gasp after Rowan touched its lightning scars. And then just standing there by the window? Weird.
“But in that case,” Raina conceded, “tell it to disable its sensors for that specific area. Done and done. Think of it like…” She shifted her weight to spin her chair in a circle, lolling her head to the side as she came back around to meet eyes with Rowan like she didn’t have a care in the world. “A local anesthetic for a real person.”
Rowan cringed at the wording because it implied Milo wasn’t a real person.
He wasn’t.
It wasn’t.
“Head’s up.” Raina finally dropped her feet to the floor to slip back into her shoes, nodding over Rowan’s shoulder.
Rowan spun around to look too.
From where they sat, they could see above and below them through the slats of the metal grating that made up the floor and ceiling of the factory.
Other stations like theirs also had pairs, but spaced out around the perimeter of the different floors, with the center reserved for the production line as the parts moved through assembly.
Meaning that, aside from someone being in the hallway on the way to and from the bathrooms or elevators, they rarely saw anyone else on their floor.
Director Andreas was headed their way.
“Is he early?” Raina asked as they stood to greet him.
“Nope. Right on time.”
Andrew Andreas was young but an impressively shrewd businessman.
Tall, average in build but reasonably attractive, he had flawlessly styled brown hair and brown eyes to match.
He was almost always attired in a navy-blue suit, and equally as often accompanied by his personal assistant bot, another M.I.L.O.
unit but tailored to Andrew’s taste. In his case that was a distinguished and handsome man dressed pristinely in white, with dark green eyes and dark hair speckled with gray.