Experiment 001-A: Change of Scenery [Cadmus' Re-Intro] [OPEN]

The sun shone bright in a cloudless blue sky, above the gabled houses and brick roads of San Malarus. Through the streets weaved the crowd, tourists and residents and bureaucrats in loose clothing, umbrellas up against the heat. A dry flinty scent pervaded the place, mingling with the sweat of a thousand people and the salt of the ocean air.

And despite all the sensations and sights before Cadmus, his sole thought was that robots did not dream.

He had gleaned that from the data banks before the trip to Ueitawa. Dreams were a product of the time in a human's sleep cycle where certain neurotransmitters were suppressed and several parts of the brain experienced decreased functioning, resulting in the jumble of images and sensations that composed a typical dream. Robots like him lacked all of those things.

Yet in that period between now and Ueitawa-- how long he spent in that maintenance chamber was a mystery-- he had seen himself sitting in a room with wooden walls, glass portals revealing the endless sea and tall black cliffs. Bubbles streamed from the floor, leaving a low rumbling in his ears. His eyes had been drawn to the doors and oval portraits that ringed the walls... and to the short, well-dressed man at the back of the room.

He was a robot. And robots did not dream.

So what was it that he'd seen?

Was it some glitch, or a mistakenly uploaded file? Perhaps Miss Seito had the answer...

"...want to go next? Yamada? Mister Yamada?"

Someone grabbed Cadmus's shoulder, and he spun about to come face-to-face with a woman in her late thirties, wearing a plain white shirt, knee-length khaki shorts, and flip-flops. She looked worried, as if something bad was about to happen to him.

"Please," she said, "watch where you're going Katsu." She shook her head. The skin of her hand felt soft against his cheek as she patted it lightly.

"My apologies, Miss Seito." Cadmus bowed. A few pedestrians stared at him as they passed by. He paid them no heed. "I shall exercise more caution in the future."

"Right." Miss Seito sighed. "So, where do you want to go now?"

"Whereever you go," Cadmus said, "I shall accompany you." That was his role: Anti-Shadow Weapon to handler, follower to leader. He could not think of a situation where it could be otherwise.

"That's not what I meant," Miss Seito said. "What do you want to do today?"

Cadmus looked around him. The little villas that lined either side of the streets led on towards the sea, a long strip of blue on the horizon. Elsewhere, the brick buildings held up signs for a hundred little restaurants and stores.

"I... I am not sure myself," Cadmus said.