A/N: New story! This one will be a chapter story. Updates will be very slow due to school almost being over and my own laziness. Enjoy!
"It's alive," whispered a young man from beside his computer, having just activated his latest project.
Arthur Kirkland was an aspiring robotics major, graduating at the very young age of twenty five. Now nearing age twenty seven, he has finally finished a four year long project that he had begun as a final project for a class in college. The project had also been a collaboration with an old friend, who was majoring in plastic surgery, and had helped him design and shape the robot's face and figure. After years of receiving hair donations from a local salon, growing and dying artificial skin, shaping bone structure and cartilage, and programming all of the robots settings into him, Arthur was able to code and launch his project.
Arthur moved to the side of the operation table that held the mechanical human, carrying a tablet with a checklist on it with things to look for when the robot woke up. Said robot hummed to life as it's mechanics inside booted up. Unplugging some remaining chords from it's back, he gazes down at his creation, waiting for responses.
The humanoid looked as if it were a regular college student. Golden blonde hair upon it's head, leading down to it's square formed jaw. The robot opens it's eyes, it's irises clear, showing inside to it's mechanics. "Now downloading personality disc one," it informed in a robotic, monotone voice.
Arthur glanced over his tablet, reading the description for 'personality one'. Cheerful, sociable, intelligent, childish… his thoughts were interrupted by the voice again.
"Now downloading vocal disc one," it explained, before going silent again. The whirring of mechanics filled the atmosphere again, and the robot closed his eyes, again speaking. "Now downloading iris color 1E90FF," the voice informed.
Arthur smiled softly, rocking on his heels a bit as he waited. The eye color was the last to download, from what he could remember. After a few more seconds, the whirring sound stopped, bringing his attention back to the robot.
The robot shifted slightly, fingers and limbs twitching as all of its programs kicked in. It opened it's eyes, a deep dodger blue now glowing over where it's mechanics could previously be seen. It's eyes frantically searched the room, slowly sitting up as it did so. Once it made sense of where it was, it looked over to Arthur, giving broad smile, it's artificial skin seeming to stretch as if it were real. "Hello," it said, it's voice no longer robotic, but orotund and slightly annoying.
Arthur grimaced a bit at the voice, but smiled nonetheless. "Good evening," he replied back, "can you tell me who you are?" the man asked, giving the robot another look-over. His hair is far too long for my liking. I'll have to get Matthew to trim it later.
"A.K. project one, model one, A.L.," the robot paused, a look of confusion gracing it's face. "What does A.K. and A.L. stand for?" it asked.
Arthur, who was busy checking off his checklist, gave a hum of acknowledgement, "A.J. are my initials, they stand for Arthur Kirkland. A. L. stands for Artificial Lifeform," he simply said.
The robot took a second to process his words, a frown creeping to it's lips, "Artificial...so, I'm fake?" it asked in a small voice.
Taken back by the question, Arthur looked up from his tablet, staring for a second, "No...no, not exactly. Now, I know I gave you programs to mimic emotions, but you shouldn't take these terms to heart. Besides," Arthur looks back down at his tablet, "you're a robot, you should know these things. Now, I want you to stand up and walk around a bit."
Giving a curt nod, the robot swung it's legs off the table and hopped off to the floor, wobbling a bit before stabilizing itself. After balancing out, it takes a slow, experimental step forward. Satisfied, it takes a few more, and after a minute was walking around normally, "Ha! Easy," the robot exclaimed smugly, giving the other man a grin.
Arthur rolled his eyes, He hasn't even been alive for five minutes and he's already too cocky, he thinks, moving closer to the other. "Do you feel any abnormalities in your structure at all? Any ticks, nudges, hesitation, or creeks?"
The robotic man took the time to move around his joints, neck, and hips, as well as walk around a few more steps. "Hold on," it told Arthur, beginning to jog a lap around the room. Returning to him, it grins. "No, nothing that I can feel right now."
Arthur nods, looking down at his tablet to type his findings in. After a moment, he looks back up, "How about your system? Anything wrong in there?" He watched as the robot stopped all movement, its eyes staring blankly ahead as the whirring sound of his mechanics started up again. He's checking the system, probably. Or, I hope that's what it is. Soon enough the whirring sound died down, and the robot looked back over at the man.
It gave a small smile, "Everything seems to be fine, nothing wrong quite yet."
Raising an eyebrow, Arthur gave it a questioning look, "Yet? It's as if you know something wrong is going to happen with you."
The robot gave a mischievous smirk, rocking on it's heels like a bored child, "Well, it was you who made me, after all."
Arthur's mouth hung open slightly, and he gave a soft laugh as his mouth finally twitched up in a smile, "I'm glad to see you have some humor in you. It makes you seem more human," he explained, typing on his tablet again. "However, you can never be completely human, sadly."
The robot's smirk dropped at the other words. Never? But I thought… It closed it's eyes, trying to clear it's thoughts. No, I can be human. I am human. Fully human.
