The wood creaked beneath her paws, it was the same. Always the same.
She felt cold, and she knew she needed to consume nutrients to keep her systems functioning.
Carbon, mostly. It would fuel her. It would allow her heart, a hunk of metal, to pump her "blood." It would give her muscles movement.
Allow the mass of wire that was her brain to sort, collect, and respond.
So all in all, it was important.
Spindle padded over to a stainless-steel dish, nudging a button above it, a few small chunks of solid carbon clunked out.
They tasted dry, bitter. Like dusty hunks of greyscale. Greyscale. That was her life.
She would "Eat" and she would go to presentations. Where she and her younger yet older brother were both flaunted like crown jewels.
And well, they sort of were.
For the longest time, humans always had the basics of AI. They could calculate, measure, organize, and do all sorts of bland tasks of that sort. But creating life? Now that had been impossible. Any person who offered that up was scorned, proclaimed a madman.
Not anymore. She and Axel were the first.
Speaking of whom, the small creature trotted forwards.
The size of a kitten, giving him a cute and innocent air, especially next to the taunt and tired adult design of his sibling.
He had been the first, Spindle the second. And now? Who knows who the third, forth, and millionth would be.
Axel grinned, his fur coal-black and eyes striking amber. Just like Spindle. Only his false fur was longer, thicker.
He looked like a cotton wad.
Spindle laughed as he overshot, clattering into the dish with a metallic clang.
Axel brought joy, he wasn't dark. Bland. Greyscale. Not like Spindle. He could almost be.. Real. He could almost have a heartbeat.