"Gepetto, you need to stop treating it like that!"
Gepetto Polendina sighed as James Ironwood paced his study.
"Her, James!" he snapped. "Penny is a her, not an it!"
"It. Is. Not. Real!" James insisted, glaring at his former teammate.
This was not the first time the two had had this discussion, and the same points had been brought up repeatedly, but it didn't stop the two men from arguing about it.
"She's as real as you or I!" Gepetto told him firmly.
"No it's not, Gep! It's a robot!" James said exasperatedly.
"She's a synthetic person!" Gepetto snapped. He wouldn't stand for it. Penny Polendina was the daughter his wife had wanted. Penny was his daughter, his whole world. She was not a robot.
"It is not human! It's made of metal!" James cried, his hands flying into the air.
"So is your hand!" Gepetto retorted, glaring at James's gloved hand.
James held the metal hand to his chest protectively. The loss of his hand had always been a sensitive subject. "Gepetto, this is pointless. You and I both know it."
"This is not pointless, James," Gepetto said stubbornly. "She has a soul and emotions and aura and her own thoughts! How is she less real than I am? Than you are?"
"It is an artificially intelligent machine imbued with false aura," the General said in a low, irritated voice. "It is fake."
"She is not fake. She thinks and acts for herself."
"So do the Atlesian Knights we send into battle training each day! And they are fake!" James yelled.
"Those hunks of metal are nothing like my daughter!" the inventor snapped.
"It is not your daughter, Gepetto. It may be modeled after a fantasy your wife had of a little girl she could never have, but—"
Gepetto rose from his chair, and when he spoke, the rage in his voice was obvious. "Don't you dare speak about Marissa like that!"
"She is dead, Gepetto, as cold as the machine is," James said coldly.
"Shut up!" Gepetto shouted. "I could beat you in any fight in school, James, and I can do it again!"
"I am the General of the Atlesian Army and Headmaster of our old school," James countered. "You are a sad, tired man whose life is no longer worth living."
Gepetto hung his head, giving a cold smile. "Forgive me, General Ironwood," he started, a hint of scorn edging his voice, "but you're wrong. My life is worth living because my daughter, and not you or anyone else is going to take her from me, through any means."
"Gepetto, it is a weapon, a soldier!" James told him in a near-pleading voice. "It was designed to recognize and flush out faunus in hiding. It was not made as a replacement for a broken dream." James sighed, seeing his friend yet again refused to be swayed in the matter. "What happens when people realize it doesn't age?" he asked. "You want it to live a normal life, but how are you going to fix that problem? What if students find out she's not real—"
"She is real."
"She's not though, Gep. She is fake," James said quietly."
"She's synthetic."
"Fine. But what happens then? You think people are going to accept that?"
Gepetto looked down. James had a point.
"Humans don't accept the faunus. You think either species are going to accept a robot hiding among them?" James reasoned.
"No one will find out."
"Those girls from Vale. What if they do?" James asked. "They spent time with it."
"Her," Gepetto corrected softly.
"You think it's going to like keeping secrets?" James asked.
"She calls them her friends," Gepetto said quietly.
"And its data banks have information on what a friend is. Do you think it's going to want to keep secrets from them, considering the fact that it is an AI that does have programmed thoughts and emotions?"
"I know, James."
"And if it does make friends. How long do you think it'll take for them to realize Project: Titan—"
"Penny."
"—doesn't eat or sleep or use the bathroom?"
"I said I know, James," Gepetto snapped. Then he sighed. "Maybe she isn't ready to attend Kronos."
James looked sympathetically at his friend. "You could bring it to Kronos for a little bit. We could test out the scanner."
"And maybe see if she's ready for school?" Gepetto suggested hopefully.
James sighed. For a second there, the General had hoped Gepetto had abandoned the idea. "Perhaps."
"She wouldn't have a team, though," Gepetto pointed out thoughtfully.
"She could stay with one of our first years. WNGZ or ERTH or one of those."
Gepetto shot James an impressed look. "You remember the names?"
"I'm the Headmaster. I have to at least try."
Gepetto smiled. "She'll be pleased." He rose, making his way to the door.
"Are you off to tell it?"
"Her."
Penny stared into the mirror. Eavesdropping was wrong, she knew that, but her sensors couldn't help but overhear.
Her father had argued with Mister Ironwood for her. Mister Ironwood said she wasn't real. He called her an it. Was she an it? She didn't think she was an it. She thought, she walked, she talked, she felt. She wasn't an it she was a she, a her, a human girl. Yes, she was made of metal, but she was real. She wasn't an it.
But she was a synthetic person. That's still not an it though, right?
Synthetic, adjective, made by chemical synthesis, especially to imitate a natural product. Not genuine. Fake.
Penny Polendina.
A synthetic person.
Not real.
An it.