Everday and Inciting

Jeanie: I was climbing up the ladder to the Christmas Tree. One of the nav lights was out. Again.

"Well here we go," I said. I hated climbing up the maintenance ladder. Even though I was on a safety line, I still couldn't help imagining how far down to the flight deck it was.

Finally at the top, I screwed in the new bulb. I shielded my eyes, why Garry wouldn't let us cut power was none of my business but having a bright light lance your pupils was never a good time.

When I reached the bottom, I saw my helper bot, Bother, waiting on the deck with a trampoline. I didn't know whether to laugh or be exasperated.

"You know that wouldn't help if I fell," I said.

Bother's eyes turned dark blue. "Bother" he said in a less than happy tone. He rolled forward and hugged my leg. Ugh! He could be so needy.

"Get off me!" I yelled. He let go and his eyes flashed yellow. "Bother!" He exclaimed as he scooted off as fast as his treads would let him.

Bother: My girl was mad at me again. Her job was so dangerous; I had brought the trampoline in case she had an accident. It had been a solution humans had used in the past and it was the best decelerator I could find on short notice.

I guess it would've been useless because her human male boss did provide safety harnesses. Still my logic circuits would've fried if I had just sat and worried about Jeanie.

She'd been so angry when I hugged her. I thought homo sapiens liked to have positive physical contact! Why did she react that way?

I decided to store the footage of the interaction in my memory circuits. I would analyze it later.

Lord McDuckin had looked like he needed some more companions. He was tired of it just being himself, Count Duckula and Bigduck. (At least in the fun game I was playing in my hard drive.)

I decided to patrol the waste disposal bins. Families often threw away old bath toys. It seemed silly to me. Just because they'd lost their squeak didn't make them useless.

My shape recognition program highlighted a likely shape. Sure enough, slightly melted, a little scorched was a blue rubber duck. My built in mass spec told me that it was giving off aromatic compounds that suggested it had been exposed to high temperatures.

I clutched it gently in my pincers. This new comrade needed to be included in the duck court.

On my way back, my input sensors were so pre-occupied by my find that I didn't see the large foot in my way.

The string my hard drive generated was 'I am sorry, I did not see you there.' it was no surprise when the output was my speaker blaring "bother!"

The human male smiled at me. He turned to another person and spoke. "Well this makes it easier to meet our quota," he told his companion.

I inferred that somehow collecting me was an objective in some task. I didn't like this. I generated a string 'leave me alone! I belong to someone. Taking me would be theft' output again, "Bother!"

The male I had ran into scooped me up before I was able to escape.

I panned my cameras around in desperation. I saw Simeon, the adolescent who emitted pheromones around Jeanie, hiding with his phone.

He was filming the whole thing! I programmed the input 'help I am being stolen!' and told my speakers to call the function three times. "Bother! Bother! Bother!" Not what I wanted! Maybe I should've given in and let Jeanie fix my language program.

The human who had grabbed me put me in a mylar bag. It was so dark my visual sensors couldn't detect anything. Any audio data didn't help. All I could tell was I was being carried somewhere.

Simeon: It was my day off. I wanted to go see if I could sneak up on the Bridge of the old oil tanker. Rumor had it that it was haunted by the ghost of its old captain, Amos Parker.

Nobody knew what had killed Amos. The official cause of death was heart attack. There were also some who thought it was poison. Either way,Captain Parker was said to appear up on the Bridge from time to time.

I didn't believe in all that ghost nonsense but my paranormal media channel had hit thirty million views. Users were nagging me in the comments section to do a video about Amos. Might as well give the people what they wanted.

I was on my way to the oil tanker when I saw Jeanie's new robot going down the promenade. I changed direction, I wanted to see what he was up to.

I had an idea! I knew Jeanie didn't like Bother, but maybe she'd change her mind if she saw a cute video of him. Then she'd have to notice me and maybe she'd like me for thinking of her.

Eliza would tease me relentlessly if she could see me right now. "Simmie loves Jeanie! Simmie loves Jeanie!" My sister would've chanted. Grr! I pushed the annoying thought away as I pulled out my phone.

I hit record and followed as discreetly as possible. Bother pulled a melted rubber duck out of a waste bin. He studied it for a bit and started rolling along still holding his find.

That was hilarious! An embodied consciousness with a duck collecting habit...I couldn't think of anything more endearing.

I gasped as I saw two of Garry's goons coming up the deck. I ducked into a space between two empty garbage containers. After a second I peeked around and kept filming.

Bother almost ran over one of the thug's boots. "Bother!" The tiny robot squeaked.

"Well this makes meeting out quota easier," one said to the other. The other goon, a thick necked gringo with a shaved head, chuckled and nodded.

The poor bot didn't even have a chance to reverse before being snatched. He looked at me and kept saying his name over and over again.

It was like Pikachu from that old late 20th thru early 21st century cartoon series. Hearing the pathetic cries for help really got me in the heart. I had to tell Jeanie what had happened.

I ran to find her. She had just clocked out from her shift on maintenance crew. "Jeanie! Jeanie!" I yelled.

"Simeon," she said. "What's so important that it can't wait till I get back to living quarters?"

I suddenly found myself struggling for words. "So, um, I was following Bother," I said.

She cocked one eyebrow. "That useless piece of scrap," she said. "What did you run out of places to sneak into?"

My jaw gaped for a moment. "No," I said. "Look, I don't got time to explain. Your little robot buddy is in trouble. You gotta believe me; I caught it on my phone."

I handed Jeanie my cell. As she watched the clip, her lips smashed into themselves. It made her look like a volcano about to explode.

"Come on," she said. "I don't know why you didn't stop them. You're going to help me get him back!"

Part of me hated that she was mad. The other half of me was excited to be on a quest with the hottest girl I knew.