A Day in the Life of Ruo (Raffle Event)

In a small room deep below the glamorous parts of Shibakuzoi, at the hour of midnight, was an underground basement, where several researchers and engineers of various backgrounds were located. Many were brought from either shady, or unknown origins and had all come together with the goal to emulate a proper Anti-Shadow-Suppression Weapon, and they had successfully created a working model that had not broken down. “Ruo_06” she was dubbed, or Ruo to some; a model female in look, her body was mostly metal plating around her limbs, the middle of her body under her chest was all sorts of uneven, odd contraptions in her, unmoving, indicating she was not activated at the moment. The equipment in her was cheap, and provided with the optimal use to the minds of the team creating her, but in some of the tests, the model has been proven to have small errors when speaking, as well as some acting. Recently they had conducted a test to gauge her ability to speak, and she barely spoke at all, at least not with all the researchers around. This would be a follow-up to that test, this time, the researchers would be observing as the engineers would fiddle with some of her equipment, in order to more or less force her response, and record the reactions. They had taken safety precautions before this easily. It was in a separate room connected to a much larger room leading to a staircase leading to the surface. It was a white room, looking as though it should have medical tools, but instead had small screwdrivers, wire-cutters, and other mechanical tools. In the middle of the moderately-sized room, was a table, with Ruo_06 on the table, her limbs strapped down via several cords, and metal cufflinks. Surrounding her was two engineers, holding a small prod used for poking at her metal framework, and other tools. Three small whitecoat researchers were around; a few steps back from them in case things went awry. There was still a nice view, but even one had to put a small scope over his eyes to get as close of a look as possible.

“She’s ready to go right? I want to see what happens,” one female researcher said rather eager to get on with the experiment. This woman was actually leading the experiment as given specific instructions to do so by several of the ones leading the entire project. One engineer merely waved her off and spoke in a weary tone, like he had heard her for the thousandth time already. “Yeah yeah it’s gonna be ready in a second…just testing some things…” he said. After a few short minutes, which felt like an eternity to some, the same engineer would stand upright from the table and dusted his hands off. “Alrighty Rachel, she is ready.” The female researcher, Rachel, nodded and turned to a stand near her with a sealed capsule on the top. She would pick it up and hand it to the engineer, who would open it to reveal a small, cracked orange ball. “Surprised you even got a hold of this. Papillon Hearts even cracked are goldmines…” the researcher said, practically growing money signs in his eyes. A second researcher coughed abruptly, in order to get him back on track. The engineer would nod and turn to Ruo, and grab a pair of what looked like a larger set of tweezers, and plucked the orb, and placing it into a small slot on Ruo_06’s side. While the android’s stomach of equipment remained open, this orb was the one thing that was covered up with a synthetic material that would later end up being her “skin”. It was a valuable piece of hardware and could not afford to be more damaged than it already was.

“Alrighty Sam, get to it,” one engineer said to the other. Sam would nod and place his two tools in a part of Ruo’s body, and twist them lightly, and seemingly all at once, some of the light squeaks, the slight movements and various other actions the machinery in her was performing. At that moment, the face of the female robot would move to the side lightly before opening her blue eyes. Recent work had been done on her head, so her black hair hanging from the table was there, and her “skin” on her face was less white, and practically grey in color. Rachel had moved a few paces near the android while the other two remained away to keep as safe as possible and still take notes. Rachel apparently was very eager in learning all she could. “Ruo dear….say something…” Rachel said. Ruo listlessly looked over to the voice, with vacant eyes, void of any particular expression. “Ah……I….see……” Ruo had said. Rachel practically squealed with excitement as the other two researchers took notes. “You can speak on your own! Do you know what color my hair is?” she asked. Ruo would close her eyes, and not do anything. “Hello…?” Rachel would say. After a few short seconds, she would nod to Sam the engineer, and he would tinker with a few wires around her ribs, which caused her arms to jolt and shake, and a very noticeable face of pain and discomfort could be seen on Ruo_06’s face, but her eyes remained as calm as before. “H-hair….it’s….brown…” Ruo had managed while feeling the pain as the engineer continued to mess with the wires, while the other would be looking over her body, monitoring any particular changes.

“Good good…..what is your name…?” she asked. Ruo_06 could not answer that question. She had no name per se, apart from her model name, but at the same time, she had many other names that they called her. She did not know which one to pick and simply did not say anything, save for muttering incoherent words. “Ruo_06 come on….tell us your name,” Rachel said, with a bit of frustration in her voice. Ruo would continue to mutter nonsensical things, until Rachel made a stomp on the floor which while not loud, made enough noise for all to hear and look at her. “Okay seriously Rache? Calm down,” Sam had said. “I want to see the progress we have made! So hurry up and see what she says!” Rachel retorted now a bit angry. Sam would sigh and go to another part of her body. Near her legs under some plating was a small group of gears that would be helping her move. It was an irrelevant place to go, but it was worth testing. He would lightly poke at the moving gears, stopping them from time to time, causing Ruo to let out an actual noise, only this time, it was a bit of a scream. “A-iiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” she shouted. Her voice at first was genuinely female, suggesting that the voice modulator they had added to her worked, but as they were prodding that area, the scream became more and more mechanical, as though her voice was breaking up and sounding more like…well, a robot making noises.

“Gah, this is ridiculous!” Rachel said. “I am trying to get a reaction without angering the damn thing!” Sam would shout back to her, a bit louder than she was. It was clear everyone, even the silent ones were getting a bit frustrated, and the tension could be cut with a knife in this room, as the research was moving very slowly, and the engineers were not getting entirely proper reactions like they should be from certain areas of the body. Rachel would turn to the other engineer; Ross was his name. “Can you do something else while he does this?” “Like what?” Ross asked. Rachel’s nostrils flared as she looked back at him. “I don’t know, activate her coolants or something idiot,” she would say. With a sigh, Ross would move up to her face with a small screwdriver. Ruo_06’s screams were still heard, albeit quieter as Sam continued to fiddle with other parts around her leg, as Ross would place the screwdriver betwixt her eye and eye socket, and move it side to side, pushing her eye inward to let air in and the heat from the struggling equipment in her get some air. Now it had gotten even worse, as the android was screaming once more, now fully robotic, with some semblances of a woman, making the unsettling sound of a female robot. Her fingers were digging into her hands so much, it was easy to see the tearing on the synthetic material placed there; they would have to replace it later. Her legs were shaking as much as possible, and nothing could be heard properly. Rachel in all this would remain calm, as this machine probably could not feel pain, and was just reacting poorly to the treatment, apparently unaware that the “Heart” she had could still have her feel pain, which spoke to the naivety of some of the people behind this project. “Just stop the procedure. She is not gonna do anything if you idiots keep repeating the same shit,” Rachel said rubbing the bridge of her nose with her finger and thumb. The engineers would cease and the android would stop shaking, her head laying heavily on the table. “Then why don’t you suggest something bet-“ “I have a better idea,” she interrupted. “Let’s leave her be for the night. If she has time to sort the information and data we have in her head, maybe she can teach herself. That would be an amazing breakthrough,” Rachel said. Sam would yawn, more than happy to get a break or nap from this, as the other researchers nodded and jotted down the rest of their notes. Soon, they would leave, along with the engineers leaving Rachel alone with her. She would walk to the table where Ruo_06 was lying and gave her a light sneer. “I put my money into you. You better not fuck this up for me,” she said before leaving the room, shutting the light off on her way out. Ruo_06 would be left there, every not and again looking at her torn hands and taking glances of the room in the night, particularly at the entrance, checking to see if people were returning. In the night, long after they had left, she would be closing her eyes, and reopening them, until something had hit her about herself. “….Ruo…” she would say. She had remembered what her name was.