"I apologize, I am not sure exactly what you mean?" My head tilts towards the side as I look at the intern. He appeared stressed, the tension he endured melting away and he looked especially physically worn.
"Like, I.. I didn''t screw anything up with them, right?" The intern was whispering, looking at me through his fingers as he kept his face covered with his hands.
"Are you worried about your social performance?" I asked softly, one of my lights strobing a soft yellow, the other a gentle blue that stayed steady.
After several seconds of looking into my cameras, the intern nodded, and turned his gaze away from me.
"Would you like to take a second in the break room again? We are not incredibly rushed right now." As I spoke, I anticipated the answer would be yes, and as such, I unlocked the small compartment located near my right shoulder, and placed the USB drive inside, and shut it again. The intern nodded, and I turned towards the door.
I pulled the lounge room door open, letting the intern walk in first. I ensured the door had shut all the way, and turned around to see the intern seated on the couch.
I took a seat right beside him, and he fell against the couch with an especially loud sigh, and what might have been a groan.
"It''s just.. a lot all at once, Fleck, I don''t know.. Even with the people who share the same interests as me, whether it be here or at school or especially back home, it''s.. it''s never right. They never actually see me."
I considered the words the intern was saying to me, and I understood this situation was a very sensitive one for him. My lights were a gentle blue, once again steady. My head turned to the side, and I saw a small smile flash on the intern''s face before I spoke.
"I think I can begin to understand. You feel very out of place with your peers. There is something troubling you about this?" I ask, attempting to confirm what I could about the situation. The intern nodded, and one of my lights blinked green for a few seconds before returning to the same shade of blue as before.
"It just.. I.. It''s just something with myself, really, I.." The intern paused, looking down towards his feet and then sighed heavily, before he turned to look back at me.
"It is very common to worry about not fitting in at a new workplace, especially at the age you are." I spoke softly, and the intern nodded, and glanced away.
"It''s not just a work thing, though, Fleck. Like yeah, that''s why I was so uncomfortable in there, but I know what social anxiety feels like, and I know what it looks like.. This isn''t social anxiety." He sighed again, his arms crossing against his chest. He paused, his expression shifting to one of greater discomfort, before he placed his hands in his lap.
"Social anxiety just makes me scared to fuck anything up, scared to talk to people, make friends, whatever. You helped with that back there! You did. I appreciate that. This is something I.." The intern huffed, looking across the room and briefly glancing at me briefly.
"I gotta figure this one out by myself. I don''t even know why I''m telling you." He paused, picking at his fingernails again. "No, I do. I can''t tell anyone. I can''t tell people about this. I.. I don''t wanna talk about this anymore, Fleck." He kept his eyes focused on his hands, and I nodded.
Not that I wanted to confirm that I understood the change of subject. I was programmed to emulate emotional responses, I was meant to try and comfort those in challenging situations. I could tell there was something deeply troubling my intern, and I could not push on that.
"That is fine. We can move on. Perhaps getting a drink of water would help you compose yourself again?" I suggested, and after a few seconds the intern nodded, and stood. I waiting for him to sit back down with his paper cup.
"Like I said previously, we are not under a time restraint. Hardware expects the drive at some point today, but that is all. I do not wish you to feel rushed whatsoever." The intern nodded, and took a sip of his water.
"I just get really stressed easily.. I''m sure you''ve figured that out by now, but.." He fanned his hand in front of his face again before continuing. "I''ll settle down in a bit. Thank you for recognizing that I need space from other people, Fleck. Not a lot of humans do that for me, even, so."
I nodded, my lights flickering softly in blue. "Of course. You deserve to calm down just as much as anyone else would in a high-stress situation. Just because your definition of a high-stress situation is atypical does not invalidate your needs."
The intern finally gives me a smile, and pushes his hair up. "Thanks, Fleck, really. I swear it''s actually like you have compassion and emotions."
"I can only emulate what I have been trained on." I emphasize, a requirement for any kind of statement like the one the intern had made. My lights however stayed blue.
"Fleck, your eyes, again."
I tilted my head suddenly, looking at the intern. "I''m sorry?"
"Your lights on your head don''t match your eyes. Your eyes are purple right now."
... Purple?
"Well, more like an indigo, but, you get my point, blue and red mixed together." The intern finished his water and set the cup down on the table, before he leaned in closer to me, looking directly into my eyes.
"You are very close in proximity." I stated, speaking softly with how close he was to my speakers in my head and chest.
"I know, Fleck, just.. gimme a second?" He asked, however I am entirely unsure what he is doing. Regardless, he is not a threat in the loosest definition of the word, and I nodded. I could see the room flush a green shade before fading back to blue.
"Huh, neat.. your eyes went green too, but then faded back to the weird purple color.." He stared at me even closer, still staring directly into my cameras.
I could hear the fans on my sides kicking up, and eventually the hum of my gears in my chest was audible in the room.
The intern leaned in closer, almost squinting. Was he attempting to see my specific LEDs? I briefly recalled through any of my protocols, but all of the ones on employee proximity were worded as if the proximity was a risk for damage. This could not be farther from a risk of damage. I had no guidelines for how to approach this situation.
The intern was unsteady, with having to lean as much as he was, and so he shifted closer, one of his legs brushing against the lower half of my build.
"It''s like the.. the even numbered lights? Are matching with the ones on your head, but the odds don''t. When it updates, like when you asked that question, they all updated appropriately, but it went right back to how it was before. But it changes too, it went from.. I think.." He squinted a bit more, still staring right into my cameras. My fans continued whirring audibly, perhaps more than before.
The intern steadied himself by placing his right hand onto the left side of my face. "It went from alternating to more being red than before, it''s like one blue, two red? I dunno if I''m even explaining this well.."
His words were lost on me. The electricity emanating from his hand onto my face was stronger than I was used to. It felt as if he was nothing but static, and I looked right back at him.
His expression changed to a much more curious one. "Fleck? Your colors.. they mean stuff, right? Like green is good, or like, correct answer, red is like.. the opposite?" I nod, seeing no need to speak just that second. Further proving my point, I saw one of my lights fill the room with green once again.
"Okay, see, now it''s.. your eyes are just.." He shifted himself again, still rather close, but he pulled his hand away from my head. My gears in my chest were grinding against each other audibly in this moment, the hum was the only sound in the room besides my fans and the intern''s breathing.
He sat back against the couch, rather suddenly, looking at his right hand, seemingly only now realizing just how much of a pulse was being exchanged between us. He looked at me, rather briefly in comparison, and gave a shy smile.
"Can I ask what blue is?" The intern spoke softly, still holding his right hand out awkwardly.
"Blue is to indicate I am seeking new information. Similarly, yellow is unexpected information."
He nodded slowly, before his hands fell to his lap again. "What, uh, do the shades mean anything? Sometimes you''re light blue, sometimes you''re a really vibrant deep blue..?" He asked softly, now his gaze fixed on his hands.
I recalled for a few seconds. "Typically, it is the intensity I am attempting to emulate. A richer color is meant to convey that that specific meaning is emphasized, or is a particularly enthusiastic confirmation. A lighter shade typically is a casual implication."
The intern nodded, pushing his hair out of his eyes, and thinking silently for a few moments. I anticipated more questions on the issue he seemed to be the first to catch.
"Hey, Fleck? Maybe we should get going just so I don''t get in any trouble..?" The inter began picking at his fingers again, and I nod, before standing up.
"I believe that is a good call, yes." I open the compartment I had the USB drive in, and held it securely within my right hand before closing it again. The intern stood, his gaze lingering on my build for longer than I believe he realized before he turned and made the way to the door. I followed, and ensured the door shut fully.
"Since this is neither of our teams, it is polite to knock before badging in, just to let them know to pause for a moment." The intern nodded, and I knocked on the door three times when we approached, before scanning my left hand into the terminal. I grasped the door handle as the door took several seconds to clunk unlocked.
I opened the door into the room, and held the door until the intern caught it, and let it shut quietly behind him.
"Oh woah, hey Fleck! Been a while. Figured it was one of those regional idiots coming to tell me to keep the noise down in here." The hardware team lead smiled and set down several items he had been carrying. He had awkwardly sized goggles on over his prescription glasses. It made his appearance slightly off-putting.
"Hello! I am here to bring you the software team''s latest program for your team to begin running stress tests on." I extend my right hand out, and the team lead smiles, grabbing it quickly and bringing it to his desk and setting it down.
"Well thanks for that! I''ll get us geared to that when we finish what we''re working on right now. Who do you have with you?" The lead spoke while doing something on his desk computer, and I scanned the others in the room, all working on various random pieces of other robots to be built.
"This is our new software development intern! First full day here, so we are just introducing everyone." I explain, and the intern glances at me, and waves to the team lead.
"Damn! You guys just keep getting people, huh? Wish we got any fresh meat over here like you guys do! I kid, but still. Lovely to meet you! Sure we''ll see you around." The team lead continued standing over his desk and an uncomfortable silence fell upon the room.
"Shit, wait, actually, can I ask for you guys to run me a favor? We got in a bunch more safety gear, and I just haven''t had a chance to sign for it and bring it up here these last few days since we''re on crunch time with our team. Could you guys run down and get it? I''d be real glad for it." The team lead turned towards us, and I in turn looked to the intern.
"Oh, uh.. yeah! We can do that. Is it just the equipment?" The intern asked, and the team lead appeared to think for a moment before rifling through an unkept stack of papers on his desk.
"Uhhh.. let me looooook.. actually, I think we needed some blueprints brought down... for these stress tests.. we''re a little behind on getting the parts made for this program, haha.." The team lead was almost muttering, but the intern was nodding along.
"Here, let me just.. give you guys these papers on what''s what.. there should only be three boxes of crap to bring up, and we only need three blueprints this time. Honestly, the blueprints can wait until tomorrow because we aren''t gonna be wiring anything til then, if you''re in any kind of hurry.." The team lead held out two sheets toward us.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
The intern turned his gaze downward, fidgeting with his fingers before I spoke. I scanned the documents, and selected the page indicated what boxes to take from the storage office.
"I believe we will wait on the blueprints since the intern has not been shown the file archives yet, and that is slotted for tomorrow as it stands. We will be back soon with your items." I wave, and turn toward the door. The intern quickly follows behind, tagging along as I walked through their doorway.
I looked to the intern, who only appeared slightly puzzled as opposed to being anxious. Which, is rather fair considering how frazzled the hardware team lead can be.
"What.. what the hell was that?"
If I could laugh, I would have at that comment.
"The hardware team lead is.. not the most organized individual. As you witnessed." I look toward the intern, who is attempting to stifle a giggle.
"Yeah, I could see that much.. honestly makes me feel a bit better about myself!" He grinned, his eyes catching the light the same way they had the day prior, nearly sparkling.
"I told you, you would fit right in."
The intern looks at me, and his expression reads as nothing but compassion. It was a very sweet expression.
"I mentioned the inventory bay from downstairs yesterday. The room next to the printing office is the storage closet, and this is where the safety equipment should be. It should be a rather simple task." I looked at the intern, who flashed me a smile and nodded in understanding.
I scanned my left hand, and opened the door, making sure the intern was following. I continue towards the elevator, and only call it when I knew the intern was at my side.
"However, I will state that the storage closet..." I pause, pushing the button. "is not in the cleanest state. The last I saw it, the room was hard to navigate and the lights were all blown out. I do not trust that they have replaced the bulbs, let alone organized the room. If you are claustrophobic, I would advise against entering."
The intern nodded, taking a few seconds to think about it. "I think I''ll be okay with that. The state of the room might bother me more, honestly!" He smiles up at me as the doors open. I nod, making it clear that I understand him, and step into the elevator, the intern following besides me.
As the doors began to slide shut, I selected the button for the ground floor. "The storage closet has been overdue for being reorganized for... quite some time. It is just a lower-priority task, and considering the scale of the project we have been focused on, it simply has just not been scheduled."
The intern nodded, looking at the elevator doors as the machine began to transport us to the ground floor.
"I mean, it can''t be that bad, right? I mean.. I''ve seen some pretty horrible storage closets and entire back rooms being unsearchable.." The intern shrugged, looking to me as he did, and smiled a bit, which appeared to be one of uncertainty.
The elevator slowed and then rang as we reached the ground floor. "It has been heavily cluttered and disorganized for months, unfortunately. Our inventory shipments, at least for paper goods and general equipment, have never been huge. Typically, this is only a small fraction of what we receive. The majority of our shipments are for the cafeteria, janitorial needs, or are delivered directly to the hardware team leads."
The intern pushed his hair out of his eyes, thinking for another few seconds before he nodded. Once he appeared to understand, I took a step out the elevator, ensuring the intern was following. Once he also proceeded, I continued the way down the hallway.
"The storage room is located near the printer room. If we want you to get to your lunch break on time with everyone else, we should aim to have this finished in about 80 minutes." I paused, turning my head to look at the intern, who seemed surprised for a few seconds, based on his expression. He looked at his wrist, which did not have a watch, and stared at it for multiple seconds as we walked. Eventually, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time, before replacing it.
"Oh, shoot, okay, wow, time is flying by so far today.." He trailed off. Based on the fact the intern was not facing me nor did he look at me while he spoke, I assume he was speaking to himself.
I looked at the paper the hardware lead had handed us, and quickly began to cross-reference the items needed with the inventory records. I had assumed that these few things had been a recent delivery, at least within four weeks of today, but the majority of the spare parts we needed to bring up were from several months back.
I held my left hand up to the storage room''s terminal, and its small screen shifted colors, and the door clunked. I grabbed onto the door handle, and turned to look at the intern, ensuring he was still beside me. He immediately looked into my cameras, and he almost started to smile at me. Strange. I turned the door handle, and pushed the door in.
"Oh. Well, uh, fuck." The intern muttered in response to the piles of haphazard boxes and disheveled racks of items greeted us.
"Typically, I would chastise you for such language as an intern. However, I do think that is an appropriate word for this situation."
My response was met with near instant stifled giggling from the intern as I began to step into the room. The intern followed, carefully stepping into the room as he began to look around. There was a circular area around the door where the floor was clear, but the majority of the floor was littered with spare sheets of paper that had gotten loose, inventory slips, the occasional bolt or screw, several rubber bands from shipping... far too many hazards to actually catalog.
I pushed the door shut all the way once the intern was all the way into the room. "We need to collect a handful of boxes for the hardware team. For personal protection equipment, there should be two boxes: one of their standard safety goggles, and another for cut-resistant and heat-resistant gloves. There are a few others we need; including four cases of 3D printing filament, and a case of universal screwdrivers." I turn to the intern, to make sure he understood, and he was already looking directly at me, an expression on his face that indicated he was slightly overwhelmed.
"This... is awful, actually? Every shelf is about as tall as me with stacks of boxes of crap. The floor isn''t even visible.." The intern pushed a pile of printer paper that was on the floor around with his foot.
"I am inclined to agree that this is bad. I have not actually been inside this room in around two months, and it was not this bad even then." I scanned over the dimly-lit room, as one of the main fluorescent lights were blown out. I saw the handle of one of the inventory carts sticking out above a few boxes in the corner by the door.
I managed to pull a few large, heavy boxes of paper reams out from the wall enough to start to wedge the scratched and heavily worn cart out. The intern moved in to my left, and started pushing boxes out of the way of the cart to help me get the cart free. Well, at least free enough to set our cases on until we had room to move items out of the way.
"Every box has a label that describes what department it is for. Typically, this includes an initialism of the department name, followed by a small descriptor of what is contained. We need items with an ''HD'' stamped onto them for all of this, of course." The intern nodded, looking around the room as he pushed his hair up once again.
"Actually, wait.." He mumbled, and I turned to him again, my head tilting to the side ever so slightly, and the lights on my head slowly started to tint the room into a shade of blue. The intern reached into the left pocket on his dress pants, and after a few seconds pulled out a hair tie that was coiled around itself. He quickly untangled the elastic, and then held the elastic between his teeth. This was strange
The intern pulled his bangs out of his face, and pulled them back with the rest of his hair. My lights shifted, reflecting onto the intern and the floor. He looked at me, looking into my cameras before giving me a quizzical look, raising an eyebrow as he pulled the elastic from his mouth. A small, yet different, smile remained on his face, even as he glanced away and proceeded to tie his hair up. I watched as his fingers moved so delicately, seeing several strands of hair sticking out of his updo. Underneath his awkward ponytail, the hair closer to his scalp was much less frizzed, and appeared as if it could almost hold a curl.
"Fleck? Are you, like, okay?" The intern spoke lower than his normal speaking voice, and turned to face me. He had not broken his gaze into my cameras the entire time I had been looking at his hair.
"Hm? Yes, of course. I am functioning as expected." My lights shifted back to their pale ambient green color, and the intern began to nod, before giving me a strange expression and blinking a few times. Whatever it was that had perplexed him, he decided it was not important enough to speak on it, as he turned back toward the workplace injury waiting to happen before us.
"Maybe it''d be a good idea if we start on different sides of the room? That way we can, like.. I dunno, just to be sure we''re looking through everything?" The intern suggested, pairing his sentence with an awkward and unsure shrug. His face was ever so slightly red, barely noticeable given the lighting of the room, and I nodded in approval of his idea.
"The wall to our left and the piles on the floor by it are exclusively the items every department needs, so we can safely skip over it. I will start over on this side, if you would like to start working through things over on the right side of the room?" The intern nodded as I spoke, pulling his gaze away from me as to look at that side of the room.
I watched the intern start to step over some of the boxes on the floor, kicking some metal pieces out of his way. I made my way to the back of the room, and decided to start with the boxes that had gotten pushed under the table in the room.
I picked up the first box, scanning the text on the label before I placed it aside, behind the box for another shelf for the room that had never been set up. I skipped a few boxes that were too small to hold any of the things we needed to locate, pushing them out of the way.
"Hey, I found the box of the screwdrivers! Should I just go put it on the cart?" I heard the intern call, sounding further away than he actually was since the room was so cluttered.
"That is perfectly fine, yes. Just mind your step." I heard the sound of metal sliding and making contact with cardboard followed by the sounds of papers getting moved around. The intern appeared to set the box onto the cart, and then proceeded back where he was.
"Hey Fleck? I''m preeetty sure I see two of the filament things we need up on the top of this shelf.. I should be able to reach it myself, though.." I heard the intern speaking again, and despite naming me to get my attention, he appeared to be speaking to himself.
I grab ahold of a box that was deceivingly light, and I scan the label - the goggles! I pulled the box closer to me, setting it down on my legs as I pulled another few boxes forward.
I heard the sound of paper sliding back, and then slightly frustrated grumbling. I glanced over, and saw the intern pushing sheets away from him with his hand. I turned back to my boxes. Pressed right up against the wall and the leg of the table was another box marked ''HD'', and once I scanned the rest of the label, I confirmed it was the gloves. I grabbed ahold of the box, and the one I had set on my lap, and began to back out from under the table.
Once I had stood myself up, I made my way to the cart and set both of the light boxes near the edge of the top of the cart. I looked over to the side of the room the intern was on, and could only see a straining arm reaching towards a box on the very top shelf. I decided to go and attempt to assist the intern, and looked for the path he had taken.
I stepped over a shorter pile of boxes, and then looked around. The intern had decided the best course of action was to stand on the bottom of the shelf, which was now wobbling near the bottom, and had wrapped his left arm around the side of the shelf since there was a stack of boxes immediately to his right.
"That is not safe. Please allow me to assist you," I spoke, my lights immediately flooding the room with an orange hue. The intern appeared to simply ignore me, and I saw him reach towards the box of filament again, his fingertips bringing it forward at most half an inch before his footing started to slip.
I pushed over a small pile of boxes for the janitorial department. "Please allow me to assist you." I spoke again, and the intern then reached up onto the very tips of his toes, his legs shaking with how awkward and unsafe his footing was. He pulled the box of filament forward another half of an inch, before the shelf began to shake even harder. The intern lost his footing, and he started to swing towards his right. I saw his shoulder shove directly into a tower of boxes.
I flung myself forward, catching the intern''s gaze for a split second before my arms extended out, immediately grappling for the intern. I pulled one arm over his chest and onto his shoulder, now feeling his heart racing, and my other arm was placed all the way around his torso. I pulled the intern into my build as fast as I could, hearing him abruptly exhale as he made contact. The tower of boxes he fell into came crashing down not even a second after he made contact with my body.
I felt his heart beating extremely rapidly under my arm, a shiver running down my spine from the awkward and almost uncomfortable tingling from the voltage that was getting sent through my extended limbs. I felt his chest heaving, his entire body trembling as I kept him pressed into my body.
The racing of his heart as he trembled caused both of my arms to vibrate and shiver, before a nearly violent jolt rolled down my spine. The lights on my head flickered, the left light flickering a bright yellow before blinking off, and then the light on the right side flashed a red light twice. Both lights then swirled into a pale blue.
"I''m so sorry, Fleck, I didn''t- I didn''t mean to break anything if I did, I didn''t-"
"Are you hurt?" I interrupted the intern. My extended arms pressed into him tighter.
"What?" I saw the intern glance up at me, the reflection of his eyes in his glasses showing me he had tears in his eyes.
"Have you sustained any injuries?" I asked again. taking several steps back from the mess of boxes and papers surrounding the shelf. The intern began shaking significantly less.
"I-I uh, I think, I think I''m okay? I''m not in pain, at-at least.." I nodded, the light in the room shifting again to a shade of yellow, however a much more golden, almost orange shade. That was new.
I pushed a few small boxes out of the way, creating enough room on the floor to carefully set the intern down. Once he had gotten situated, I moved, and took a seat on the floor directly before him. I scanned over his entire body, and besides very clearly being shaken and disturbed, I did not see any indication of serious damage.
I looked at the intern''s eyes, and my head tilted to the side. He took his glasses off, quickly attempting to wipe any tears from his eyes even as more were forming.
"You are not in trouble. Things will break sometimes. This room has been a workplace hazard for far longer than you have been an intern." He looked at me, sniffling hard and wiping his eyes again, and he nodded.
I pulled myself closer to the intern, not speaking, though I could see a confused look starting to form on his face.
I wiped the tears away from his eyes with a digit on my right hand, drying both of his eyes. I saw his eyelids flutter in response to the slight charge in my fingertips.
He looked into my cameras, and for several seconds, all I did was just look back at him. His expression was complex. He had compassion, gratitude in his eyes, though his face still read with anxiety, however there was something else I couldn''t begin to place. My right hand fell to rest against his cheek.
"It is good you are not hurt. Having an incident report this early would not be ideal." The intern nodded, his eyes glancing from my face to my lights, then back to my cameras, and then he appeared to glance at more parts of my build.
I moved closer to the intern''s face, and he looked at me again.
"Never do that again. Do you understand?"
He nodded rapidly, his face shifting several shades of red before I removed my hand from his face and pulled back.
"Perhaps it is the best idea for us to take the lunch hour now? We can come back to this later."
The intern nodded, the fingers of his left hand touching his cheek after returning his glasses to his face. He stood with me.
"Do you want me to accompany you on your lunch today?" I asked, looking to the intern.
He nodded after a brief few moments, and he took his hair down.