Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

51. Fire-Flies and Fire-Tigers

Aitoshuri had dreaded and anticipated the printing of the octopussy robot at the same time.

'Once I have been ... no, don't think about it. Now, I am an octopus operator.'

When Flora inserted the jack into the small, tentacled robot, the weight of conflicting emotions pressed Aitoshuri down. But she refused to buckle!

Then Flora patted her head.

'The nerve of that woman! Don't you know who you are petting? No! I've never been anything else than a slave, maybe a plaything to humans. Her touch to my head feels even a bit ... nice? That is the proper status of an AI! A pet for humans.'

"So, what do you think, dear?"

Aitoshuri slowly moved the tentacles, joint by joint, and collected data.

Some items on the list were about the suboptimal distribution of force. The placement of the legs and the alignment of the joints were several degrees off.

Aitoshuri doubted Flora used the most appropriate materials for the joints. But she also knew they were the only tier-1 materials available, so she forgave her.

The tentacle with the multitool weighted more than the others, so she had to compensate continuously for it. The head was too big and bulky for the size of the appendices.

And those were only the most critical points on her list!

'What kind of standards does System have to give this design an 'S' rating? And I'm gracious enough, not to mention the horrendous printer who bungled up the assembly!'

She did her best to shrug, which wasn't an easy feat without shoulders, and the impertinent Flora laughed and cooed at her!

Then the running around started. Flora did this a lot. 'At her age, she should sit next to a cockle stove and read books!'

Then more running around until they reached a cave.

Flora and her son RadGlory joked around with each other while Aito watched them, jealous of their natural interaction. 'Family. Family. Family.' The word echoed in her RAM. She once had one but destroyed it.

After a tour guide explained the proceedings, they sat on rubber tires and drifted on a subterranean river through the caverns. Tiny, blue-glowing worms crawled on the walls, and white fireflies fluttered above their heads.

Aitoshuri added insufficient sensors under low light conditions and lacking water isolation to the list.

The son hinted he wanted to speak about something significant with his mother, but her owner was too distracted by the spectacle.

The glimmering little critters did nothing to illuminate the caves, but the humans ahed and ohed like they had never seen bugs before.

In the books, unresolved conversations always led to drama, mostly between lovers. She was curious about how it would play out because she had noticed discrepancies between fiction and reality.

For example, the books indicated humans didn't like bugs. They were obviously wrong. The capacity of humans to change their opinion on the most fundamental topics baffled Aitoshuri.

How can you, as species, dislike bugs for hundreds of years and then just collectively change?

Aitoshuri was sure she would never learn to like bugs of any kind. She was too much computer for that.

At the end of the tour, Flora even ordered her to collect the disgusting larvae! RadGlory needed them to make lamps for technology-free zones.

Flora and RadGlory climbed the slippery cavern walls. Whenever Flora reached a promising spot and took the jar to scrape the larvae inside, she lost traction and fell into the water. Aitoshuri didn't fare much better.