When You Were Younger

Free Roam

June 23rd, 2010.

A few days later, now.
Back again, hands buried on the carpet, which-- Mephone now decided was his 'thinking carpet,' he thought. And he thought hard.
Today was a new day. Cobs always spoke about tomorrow being the future--present--.... Something something something, that Mephone didn't really understand. Mr. Cobs spoke in strange ways sometimes, a lot using really big words Mephone didn't exactly understand. He thought it was pretty dumb, but, Cobs always said not to be rude. Especially not to him. So the little robot just bit back his tongue and let the CEO babble on.
But one new recent thing Cobs was talking about was how they'd be going on a trip tomorrow. That Mephone would have to wake up even earlier than normal, and how he had to look his best and act his best, blah blah. He didn't really get the point of it.
Mr. Cobs had said that people want to see him. Which was weird to Mephone, because why would people want to see him? Was he important?
Surely he couldn't be. All he had done the past two and a half weeks he'd been operational was just walk around and do silly little tasks that weren't really any work at all.
Yeah, he got to explore and take everything in, but he figured if he stayed here just doing this over and over again it'd get real boring real soon. Like, really, what was the whole point?
Sighing, the robot flipped over, laying on his back. Staring up at the ceiling that had a couple of mini stars stuck on it. At least they were interesting.
And that girl he saw sometimes, with a star in her hair. She must be interesting if she liked them too.
Did that mean Mephone was interesting?
That thought unlocked an entirely new track for thoughts. Himself. What was he?
He knew he was a robot, Cobs had debriefed the entire thing in one of their classes.
Right. Those, too. Mr. Cobs had started making him sit down for a long time without moving just making him listen to Cobs speak. He said he was teaching him the important things, all the basics, everything he'd ever need to be taught. But Mephone always ended up just getting busy with his thoughts again. He never really took anything in from the lessons aside from the things that personally interested him. Like, how he was a robot. And how everybody else were humans, and apparently humans were better than robots and could tell them what to do and they'd have to listen, or else.
Mephone never really picked up on the, 'or else,' part. He didn't understand what could happen if a robot just didn't listen. Mr. Cobs said it would be bad, and bad behaviour could call for 'punishment' and stuff, but again, Mephone couldn't quite grasp the concept.
But so far, life was just-- his bed, his thinking carpet, classes, meetings, Mr. Cobs, workers and work. Work work work, task task task. It sounded kinda boring, but, Mephone tried to just look on the bright side. Surely other things would happen? It had only been such little time! There had to be something exciting that'd happen.
Mephone didn't really count the thing Cobs said was happening tomorrow. He talked about it with a very serious face, and a very serious voice. So it probably wasn't much different to what he was doing here.
But whatever. Mephone discarded it completely, making it laters problem. Tomorrow was tomorrow, not today.
Today.
And once again, his thoughts circled. It was kind of like a train track. Just weirder.
So, Mephone just blew his hair out of his face, making sounds with his mouth. Funny sounds, he thought.
His fun noises were quickly interrupted by a ping on his bracelet, and he saw the message was from Mr. Cobs.
'Will be busy today. Do not contact unless there is an emergency, you have free roam of all authorised areas. Tomorrow is an important day. Sleep mode at exactly 8pm, no later. Morning will be 5am sharp. Tasks will start again after tomorrow. Follow the rules & behave.'
At that, Mephone smiled. He didn't even have to do anything today? That was new. So, was he, supposed to just walk around?
As far as he was concerned, Cobs said no talking to anybody unless Cobs was there with him, and Cobs gave him permission. So his small hope for talking to the girl today was quickly dismissed.
However, that never included waving or smiling, right? He'd just said 'no talking,' which just meant no verbal interaction. He could say hi to the workers without using his voice.
He didn't understand why he couldn't use his voice, though. It seemed pretty pointless. A lot of the rules Mr. Cobs made up here seemed pretty silly.
Maybe it was like a game?
Mephone just puffed up his cheeks, drumming his fingers and wondering what to do today. He could do anything. That was new, and so so cool!

So Mephone decided to stand up, and walk out the door and down the hall. He was pretty familiar with this little section of hallways, since he spent almost all of his time walking around here, or his room.
So he went on, until he reached the place with all the workers at the long tables. This room was more friendly looking, to be honest. Compared to some of the other halls, like, the place where he would get brought for lessons.
Man, that sucked.
What was here though, anyway?
For some reason, he felt a lot more free being able to explore by himself.
He wandered to a counter, that had a large pot plant on the ground next to it. It was a funky looking plant. Awesome.
There were things like coffee machines and printers across the counter. All pretty.. uninteresting.
The plant was interesting, though. Mephone liked the plant.
Continuing on his way, he carried on. The worker room here-- on this floor, was actually very tiny compared to the downstairs and upstairs ones.
Mephone could see picture frames in the halls, a lot of Mr. Cobs holding trophies and stuff. But some of them,
Were of Mr. Cobs and another robot. Like Mephone, but different. The robot's head was a square. And they looked gray. And sad?
Mephone thought he could detect a frown, but looking at a picture it was even harder. Social programs only went so far.
It started to hurt Mephone's head, looking at the robot.
He continued on his way, but the image never left his mind. Sad robot. Were they still here? Maybe they just worked somewhere else, now. Mephone thought Cobs would tell him if there was another robot. Mephone wasn't sure how he felt about being the only one here. Surely he couldn't be, though. Maybe he just hadn't had the delight of meeting the other guys yet, because he was only new. Maybe he'd get to see all the other robots soon.
He liked to imagine more people like him.
It brought him a certain satisfaction.
However, he just continued.
Until he reached the more normal looking place. Normal in his eyes. A sign above one of the doors said, 'Meeple Care.' And Mephone knew caring was good, so he liked this place.
Wandering through the halls, he noticed how quiet it was. Barely any workers here. It seemed like a little space. Mephone figured, maybe, he should name different places. That'd help him get used to it, in an easier way.
Maybe, he should name the different floors the elevator brought him to by different colours.
If he did that, he wanted this to be the blue floor. Blue like him, because this was his favourite. And because his room was here. So it only made sense.

Mephone wanted to see more people. They were interesting to him. The way they walked and talked and laughed, and tapped their pens on the desks and did silly things sometimes. He wasn't allowed talk to them, that was a rule, but he liked to watch them. Cobs had said it was called being observational and that it was good for him to get his head working.
Mr. Cobs did mention a lot of things about him having 'advanced social features,' and his 'emotional emulator,' all the time. He talked about those things a lot, like he was really proud of it. Which made Mephone smile.
But, after another long stroll, Mephone made it to the large elevator. And he stood in place for a moment.
He's never used it himself. He was always with Cobs when he needed the elevator. So he was really at a loss.
It didn't help that it was so huge either. It drew a lot of attention to him. He sure hoped none of the workers would talk to him, because he couldn't talk back, and that made him feel odd. He felt like a bit of a goof just pacing back and forth in front of this elevator. Whatever the feeling was, he didn't like it.
He tried to go into his head, researching what emotion this was most likely to be.
Embarrassment? Shame?
Maybe?
After another round of pacing, he noticed that keypad thing Cobs would swipe his card thing on before he pressed the numbers. And just under it, there was a small little thing on the wall, that looked like a screen. A blue handprint?
Lifting his hand, Mephone took a look at his own hand, before looking back at the keypad thingy.
It looked the same size as his hand.
So Mephone extended a hand, resting the palm of his hand on the handprint.
He heard a beep, and a small green dot light show up beside the buttons.
He tried pressing the call button, and it worked.
Wow!! Had Cobs made that just for him? That was really caring.
Soon, the doors opened, and Mephone walked inside, a smile plastered across his face. Some of the workers watched him, but didn't really seem to care. No one said anything though, so he was thankful. They looked so so interested in him though. Wherever he walked, and there was workers, they'd always seem to whisper to each other and nudge each other whenever he went by, or did something simple. He thought it was really weird. But he remembered when he asked Mr. Cobs about it at a meeting, he said it was normal and Mephone shouldn't 'let anything like that interrupt his performance.'
Which was also weird because Mephone never said it was. He just wanted to know why they did that.
The doors opening back up startled him, but pulled him out of his train of thought.
And he was right where he wanted to be. The first floor. Cobs said, anyway. And the elevator keypad.
Stepping off of it, he instantly noticed how much cleaner and comfortable it seemed. The lights were slightly dimmer, there were posters on the walls that had cute friendly messages, all the sorts. It was nice.
He ended up reaching the regular place with the extra long desks, and all the workers going around, and click clacks and taps all around him. Not so quiet like upstairs.
He walked around a little, swerving out of the way of anybody else trying to get by. Like Mr. Cobs said--, he always had to make way for humans.
He didn't know how to feel about that.
The little robot ended up bypassing the entire room, getting to the cafeteria. A lot of people were sitting down. Eating.
Mephone watched them eat, and snack on things. He watched tasty treats get passed around and gobbled up.
Mephone kind of wished he was allowed to eat. He hadn't had anything to eat before, and Cobs told him he didn't need food. That taking away a human necessity for himself would be really selfish and bad.
But he couldn't help but stare, and tilt his head.
What kind of lives did humans have? Where did they come from?
And why wasn't he allowed to be like them, and have something yummy?
He's never eaten, but his code and program suggests that snacks and food would be 'tasty,' which would be very nice and fulfilling.
He wondered if there'd be a day where he could eat, too.
Mephone walked in another direction, down a different hall, to take his mind off of it. He traveled down a hall he didn't recognise all too well, but certainly he couldn't get lost that easily. He had that guide on his bracelet, didn't he? And Mr. Cobs. Was getting lost an emergency?

He wasn't sure when, but he ended up in a bigger area. Not as big as the cafeteria, but it was almost like a little station. There was a door to his left, and here, there was a water fountain, a vending machine and some stylish tiny bench. More posters.
And two workers. Two man workers, who were whispering to eachother. Mephone would have to go all away around them to continue down this hallway. Since for some reason, they decided to stand right in the center of it.
Mephone stood in place, completely still. He could just walk back and not risk them talking to him.
For some reason, that stuck out as the best decision. Even though that made barely any sense. Mephone did not know these men. Why did he feel distasteful already? He shouldn't judge humans like that. He had no reason to.
It was almost like something was warning him, even though he didn't have a reason to be warned.
Unable to come to a conclusion in time, one of the men turned, and noticed him just standing there and staring. The man had dirty blond hair and a little bit of hair on his chin.
The other man had greenish tints in his brown hair, with black glasses.
They were both now staring at him. Mephone merely blinked, trying to avoid looking into any eyes.
"What you looking at?" The blond man yelled at him, though it was a sort of whisper yell. Like he didn't want anyone but Mephone to hear.
Mephone didn't reply, only blinking a couple more times, before taking a small step back.
No talking unless authorised. Permission unauthorised. Don't speak.
"Aw, are you the new robot he's so excited about announcing tomorrow? MePhone4? A lot... Stranger looking than expected."
The man continued to talk, while the other guy behind him stayed quiet, until the blond man took a step toward Mephone.
"Hey man, let's just go somewhere else. I don't wanna mess with anything important--,"
The blond turned around quickly, hitting back the other guy's hand. Mephone knew at this point the smart decision would probably be just to walk back, or call Cobs, or just sprint away completely.
But for some reason, he was stuck in place, unmoving.
Don't speak.
"--Oh stop being so stuck up, Bunsen. It's a piece of plastic. Can it even talk?"
"And what if it has emergency--... calls or, some shit? What then? We get imprisoned for vandalism? What do you even want with it?"
Mephone's hand started to get a bit shaky for some reason. He grabbed his shirt in his fists and held tightly. He couldn't understand why he did that, and he couldn't understand the irrational physical effects of fear he was having, because he wasn't scared.
Was he scared? Why would he be? What could happen?
"-What if it picked up what we were just saying, B? You dumb or what? I just gotta make sure that little thing doesn't tattle, or we're fucked."
The man behind the blond one seemed to shy away altogether, gripping the sleeves of his long lab coat.
Don't speak.
It repeated in Mephone's head like someone was ordering him. However, he couldn't not listen. He couldn't speak. It was a rule. He couldn't break it.
Even no matter how much he wanted to, he really couldn't.
"Hey, you. Any basic manners programmed into you? You hear anything going on here?"
With all the power he had, Mephone stiffly shook his head no, biting his lip hard. His hands wouldn't stop shaking, it was getting annoying.
The man, however, looked displeased.
"Oh yeah? You're not lying are you?"
Mephone shook his head again, his feet still glued to the floor. He could almost hear alarm bells in his head as the interaction continued, and he started to wonder if this was an emergency.
"Look, Dex, let's just go, it's not even a--,"
The taller one, Bunsen? Tried to reason with.. Dex, apparently, and immediately got shut down once again. And Dex continued to step closer.
"Calm down, Bunsen, I'm having fun here. Nothing else to do in this hellscape besides shitty paperwork anyway. Hey, MePhone4. Jump."
Mephone tilted his head, puzzled. Jump? Why did he want him to jump?
Sure, it was an order, and he had to listen to humans, but who the heck was this guy anyway? Cobs clearly didn't authorise his commands. So Mephone didn't budge, his eyes darting from him to the wall, to the other guy.
"Hello? Is it deaf? I said jump, toaster. I thought these things were supposed to listen to y--,"
"Your command isn't authorised."
It slipped out of Mephone's mouth like a pre-programmed phrase. He didn't mean to say that.
But he spoke, which meant he broke a rule. But he still couldn't speak. Did it count as breaking the rule? Mephone was starting to get extremely confused.
His head hurt, and his stress levels started increasing. He did find himself quite distressed. Was this an emergency?
"Oh? You talk back?" Dex stammered, looking down at Mephone. No matter how hard he worked his social functions, he couldn't tell what emotion this man was trying to show.
"My command isn't authoriseddd? Aw shucks! What a shame!"
Mephone was beyond perplexed at this point. Bunsen seemed to completely silence himself, turning his back to the scene and facepalming.
Well, at least this guy seemed to finally understand he needed to leave Mephone alone--
And just when the robot looked away for a second, he was grabbed by the shoulders--
"Do I look like I give a fuck? You useless, weird little piece of plastic-- aren't you supposed to listen to human orders? If that bastard of a CEO didn't care so much, I would've had you scrap metal by now, I'm having a bad day and you're just making it worse you little sh--,"
"I think that is ENOUGH."
Like an answered prayer, Mr. Cobs came from behind the man, grabbing his collar and shoving him off.
Mephone gasped, flinching backwards, and instantly leaning into Cobs' side while he held an arm around him.
The two men looked absolutely petrified, giving each other looks. Mostly Bunsen giving Dex a bunch of angry looks.
"What on EARTH do you two think you're DOING? Do you think this is funny? Do you think I don't keep watch of my machines?"
It was dead silence between all four of the people present, until Cobs started yelling again. Loud yells. Mephone pressed the side of his face into Cobs harder, to try and muffle it.

"You realise this is BRAND NEW? The release date is TOMORROW, and you two know DAMN WELL the stress I'm under trying to get everything perfect and ready. For fucks sake, and you lack the common sense to just leave it alone?! It was behaving perfectly, didn't even break a single rule, and you have the audacity to almost HARM IT? The damage that could do to the company! To my reputation!"

There was another long pause of silence, and Mephone could hear his own ears ringing. This was new. And not fun.
"I want to see both of you inside of my goddamn office in five minutes. If you aren't there, don't think I won't lockdown this place just to find you. Catastrophic damage you've almost caused. Now GO."
Mephone watched the two men scramble away, almost panting for air.
It was another moment of dead silence, before he was pushed away by Cobs, which he didn't blame him for. He was holding really tight.
The man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Adjusting his glasses.
"Mephone, why didn't you try to contact me?"
Mephone gulped, fidgeting with his collar.
"I--... I- didn't know.. what-- an emergency was.. I didn't want to disturb you--.. like you said.."
Cobs opened his mouth to say something, but stopped.
"Ah. Right. We didn't go over that topic yet... Erm. My apologies. But, did you not even try to defend yourself?"
"You said I couldn't cause any 'harm' to any humans, sir.. I really didn't want to break any of the rules..."
Cobs blinked a couple times, scratching a chin. Most likely realising his own faults in the manner.
"Ah. Well. I should probably... be more precise, when giving you instructions. Either way, any time any person here lays a finger on you that isn't me, you contact me immediately. Are we clear?"
The small robot nodded, fidgeting with his thumbs, fidgeting with the hands that still shook.
"Clear. I'm sorry, sir..."
Cobs raised an eyebrow, before patting Mephone on the shoulder. "It's fine, Mephone. I'll go over everything that we.. now need to go over in our upcoming lessons. I suppose... It's good you know how to apologise, though."
Mephone gave a halfhearted nod, and saw Cobs' gesture to take his hand. The robot did so, and they continued on down the hall, back to the elevator, back all the way where Mephone had came.
They went by the posters that didn't seem as bright as when he'd last passed them, and even then, when he got to his room, even his stars didn't seem to shine as much.
".. Sir."
Cobs turned around, raising an eyebrow of acknowledgement.
"How did you know to help me?"
Cobs sighed, like he usually does, and he walked back over to the robot who was sat on his rug, and proceeded to kneel down to face him.
"I can see your activity on the cameras. I check them just to make sure--..." He stopped himself, for a reason he couldn't name.
"-Just to make sure you're safe. And you haven't gotten yourself into trouble. I noticed you standing still in the same spot for a while, and then I realised I couldn't see you on any camera footage."
Mephone listened, as he explained. It seemed pretty clear.
"So I went to check on you myself. I won't.. lecture you now, I'll save it for a class. I'm exhausted, Mephone. I've been doing very hard work all day. We have a big day, tomorrow."
The robot nodded again, now realizing Cobs does a lot of talking.
He didn't mind, though. He wanted to stay with Cobs for a while, but he knew he'd probably be too busy. And he said he was tired. Like Cobs said--, he shouldn't be selfish.
"Oh, and before I go,-"
Mephone looked up once more, at the now standing man.
He was a lot taller when Mephone was sitting on the ground. He was like a tower.
"See what just happened to you?"
Another nod.
"That is similar to what punishments are like. I'm going to punish those two, now. Because they've done something wrong.... Normally, I'd..- allow you to see what happens, but I don't think you're ready for that sort of lesson yet."
Mephone didn't reply, or move, he just sat in place, using his eyes to show that he was still listening.
Cobs eventually made it to the door, and turned around to say one last thing.

"For now on, I think you should stay roaming on this floor alone until I teach you those important lessons. Understood, Mephone?"

Mephone nodded.

"I understand."

Mephone stayed in his room for the rest of the day.