Reprogram

Medinathearena: I hear something in the background

Fynn glanced behind them, noticing Kalem had continued cleaning while they were starting the live stream. "Oh, yeah. I recently got a household android." They said casually while grabbing a camera they had gotten to vlog with their friends. It had slowly been gathering dust. They cleaned off the lens with a cloth and switched over the stream. "Kalem, say hello," The android looked over emotionlessly.

"Hello," the android responded, and Fynn continued to talk.

"I didn't expect it to be so robotic. I mean, I thought androids were supposed to be more human." Fynn said honestly. Fynn didn't reveal their face to the camera, hiding behind the camera instead and looking through it at Kalem.

Medinathearena: Household androids cannot come from the factory with high intelligence AI due to concerns about bugs and stuff coming in through the factory or the android trying to cause problems when it connected to the home network

Fynn paused, reading the comment out loud. "Looks like we have a robot expert here!" Fynn said with a laugh as they looked at Kalem. "Would I get in trouble if I edited the programming?"

Medinathearena: I don't think so. I think it depends on the contract and whether you'll take full responsibility should your alterations cause unknown malfunctions or other things

Fynn hummed as they considered it for a second. "I guess I could do that." They said, reaching around to the back of Kalem's neck and ignoring the goosebumps forming as their skin brushed against the artificial skin of the android. Fynn pulled back from Kalem and stepped back. They watched as Kalem collapsed with a thud.

Medinathearena: Ruthless.

Fynn looked over Kalem, searching for the port. Finding the port near the button, they plugged Kalem into their computer. After a second, they began to type. "I'll show you guys some of the programming, but I will censor a lot of it because of possibly leaking personal information," Fynn said, glancing over at the comments as they connected everything back to their computer.

Fynn sighed as they began looking through the coding. Most of it was way above what they were familiar with, and their eyes narrowed as they began to search for what they wanted. They were sure to do the double duty of censoring everything while they searched. Eventually, Fynn found what they wanted. Fynn uncensored the parts they knew were safe uncensored and began to show off their work as they slowly worked out what they wanted for a personality, occasionally taking suggestions.

Janielikesart: Make it love you unconditionally. <3 ;P

Fynn didn't pay attention at first and focused on the programming. They were excited about the challenge compared to the amateur work they had done before. Fynn looked over when their stream notified them they had received a reward. They frowned as they noticed Janielikesart's comments.

Janielikesart: Make it love you unconditionally! Please, please, please!!!

Fynn frowned at that comment. What did unconditional love even mean for them? What did they want from someone that unconditionally loved them? They looked at their coding. Could someone even love unconditionally? They tapped on their keyboard, thinking about their family. That wasn't unconditional love. They looked away, considering what unconditional love was. The closest they had gotten was their friends. Fynn sighed before deciding to add it. Whatever happened, they'd deal with it when it came. They spent a while messing around with different pieces of code, trying to add more personality to the android.

Medinathearena: Be careful

Medinathearena: I think you deleted something important-

Medinathearena: Maybe it's time to stop messing with the code-

Medinathearena: I'm sure it'll work by now.

It took Fynn a few minutes to recognize the seemingly desperate messages. "I'm sure it'll be fine," Fynn said despite exiting their work after making sure everything would run. They were about 80% sure it would work. They quickly disconnected Kalem and pressed the button on the back of Kalem's neck. They backed up and watched Kalem slowly go through the boot-up process. Breathing, then moving slowly.

Finally, Kalem sat up, blinking and looking at itself, and Fynn. Fynn watched for a while and stared into its eyes. Its eyes were a different color, from the black they had chosen. Fynn noted this with a bit of concern. "Fynn?" Kalem spoke up, its voice still held the tinny tones of robotics, but they felt it expressed more emotion than previously. Fynn nodded slightly, before looking to the side at the live stream that had continued to ring away in the background with both rewards and royalty-free music playing as background noise.

"Go ahead and do what you want, I'll finish up my work," Fynn said swallowing as their heart raced. They returned to their seat. They quickly ended the live stream, but flinched slightly when they heard a knock on the door. They looked over, glancing at their calendar. Oh.

They pursed their lips. The arrival of the android had taken them off guard. They had almost forgotten about today. 'How could you forget?' They quickly stood and answered the door. Ches stood there, grinning at Fynn. He wore a jean jacket covered with different patches and a black beanie with a pentagram on it. He had a lot of piercings, and Fynn smiled at the familiar look. Nowadays Ches kept his piercings off most of the time, especially when he wasn't at home. Ches also wore some dark-colored pants, chains hanging from them, decorated with pins. "Yo," Ches greeted, and Fynn smiled slightly.

"Hey!" They said happily as they grabbed Ches' arm and pulled him inside. Suddenly a sound interrupted them, the sound of metal crumpling and hitting against metal, and Fynn jumped, releasing Ches as they looked over where the crash came from. Kalem had knocked something over, and Fynn rushed over to check what happened. Luckily it had just been some soda cans that had been laying around. Ches closed the door to the house and looked around.

"Looking better already," He said casually as Fynn tried to gather the cans together.

"I'm sorry," Kalem said, and Fynn shook their head as they finished gathering everything together.

"It's fine, this place is a mess anyways." Fynn said honestly as they looked to Ches, "Glad it's up to your standards, your highness." Ches rolled his eyes, a lopsided smile appearing.

"That is why you got me, isn't it?" Kalem said, bringing Fynn's attention back to the android. Kalem reached forward as if to put its hand on Fynn's shoulder and Fynn flinched back.

"Oh, yeah, I guess," Fynn said with a small smile before they quickly stood up and moved away. Ches watched the android for a long second, before looking back at Fynn.

"I came to invite you to hang out. Also to visit Rani's grave, since I don't know where I'll find you if I let you go alone." Kalem watched the duo silently for a few minutes, before looking away and continuing to clean the living room. Fynn frowned and walked over to the coffee table they had in the middle of the living room.

"We can hang out. I just completed my live stream, though it'll be a while before I head to Rani's grave." Fynn said as they brushed some things aside and sat down. Kalem walked over and cleaned around Fynn. They tried to ignore the feeling of another person around them as Ches walked over and sat across from them. Silence fell between them and Fynn swallowed, looking away from Ches. Finding something to distract them.

"You doing well?" Ches asked after a second of watching Fynn messing with an empty can on the table. Fynn tried to recall how long it had been there, but only the gods may know.

"I've been well enough. You know, the usual." Fynn said, shifting so their legs were crossed under the table, laying their upper body against the table.

"So, horribly," Ches said, looking unimpressed. "How long has it been since you last went out?" Ches stood and walked into the kitchen, and the sound of him rummaging through the kitchen could be heard.

"Not too long. A few months? Uh…" Fynn sighed, looking at the calendar they had next to their door. They didn't recall the last time they went outside. Though they did have vague memories of it, as usual, Ches had accompanied them.

"Exactly, you can't continue living like this. The only thing I see left in here is packaged meals. You can order food online, so I really don't see why you're living like this." Ches' voice echoed from the kitchen and Fynn groaned, rolling their eyes. "You're fortunate enough to make a good living off of your streams, but you're not living, you're just surviving."

"Bah, ordering online still causes issues. You know." Fynn said, looking at Ches as he emerged from the kitchen with various packaged meals in his arms. The two bickered, with varying levels of playfulness, neither paying attention to the silent onlooker, Kalem.

"I know. Which is why we're donating these, then we can pick up some groceries to drop off here and we'll hang out, visit Rani's grave, do some fun shit like maybe summon the devil, and then we'll drink our sorrows away." Ches declared with a lopsided smile. Fynn looked at Ches, before shaking their head with a small laugh.

"You know the devil is too much of a risk," Fynn responded as they stood. They knew they couldn't escape this outing anyways. Ches reached out to pat Fynn's back but paused, and withdrew. Ches frowned as he looked at Fynn.

"Almost forgot. By the way, that has gotten worse," Ches said, looking at Fynn. Fynn sighed, groaning slightly. Ches lifted an eyebrow, shifting the items in his arms.

"I'll figure it out," Fynn responded instead as Ches balanced the packaged meals in his arms to open the door.

"Sure," Ches said, though his voice held obvious disbelief. Fynn frowned as they followed Ches out the door, glancing back at Kalem. Kalem didn't seem different, aside from being slightly more clumsy. Fynn sighed 'If all their changes had simply added up to clumsiness and more human emotions and movements'- Fynn thought they might have to brush up their programming and AI experience before they tried again.

Fynn looked around, this city hadn't changed since they were young. Tall buildings surrounded them, lit up with neon lights and billboards. The white street lights kept the darkness away. Fynn had always felt this part of the city gave them a sense of freedom. It reminded them of when they were children and spent their time looking for the most backward places, places where children should not be, just to find out about the newest ritual. Even if everything felt huge, it made them feel like their problems were so much smaller. They took a deep breath of the evening air.

"See? Getting outside always does you some good when you get in a rut." Ches said, laughing as he looked at Fynn. He walked over to his dark green van, something a bit more traditional than some of the more advanced options on the market now. Though, if Fynn recalled they expected most of these cars to be completely obsolete soon, made unusable by changing what is still considered roads into sidewalks. Roads were replaced with highways in the air, above people's walking space. However, there were debates about how they'd protect citizens from randomly falling debris if hover vehicles crashed.

Fynn wasn't the most well-informed on this topic, so they didn't care most of the time, but Ches complained about it on occasion, as he loved his older model car, and the idea of it one day being useless upset him. "Aegis, open the back door," Ches commanded the van's AI, which complied once it had verified Ches' identity. The back of Ches' van had been converted into a living space, but it also held a bunch of empty boxes and a cooler. One of the boxes had been folded shut, creases on the top showed how often Ches opened it. Scrawled on top of the box the word 'Work' sat, and the side of it labeled it as 'Ghost-hunting'. Ches dropped all the packaged meals into the empty boxes and sighed.

Ches looked at Fynn, "We'll donate these first, and then get your groceries and drop them off. After that, we can check the time to see whether it's appropriate to head to Rani's grave." Fynn nodded, getting in after Ches.