This is what I got sidetracked working on instead of "How "Tricked" should have ended."
I apologize, but I couldn't control myself, I had to write this.
I love robots, androids and other artificial lifeforms. They are very interesting characters because they can be as highly effective and very clueless about the world.
They are made to help humanity and better them, to be the pinnacle of human ingenuity.
They often sport in very interesting designs, have the most impressive abilities and can be incredible good characters.
I want to give a shout-out to Exotos135, his side-stories to his great work "Chains of Reality" (now Rebooted with the subtitle "Divinity Reborn") inspired me to write my own side-story to mine and MamaAniki's collaborative work that is "Platonic".
I wrote this story about Alfred alone and MamaAniki gave their blessing to it.
Here is now a story about a robot. A story of Alfred, the robot nanny.
Enjoy!
Platonic: Side Stories
by
Hatoralo
Side-Story 01: Alfred, Guardian of Lily Loud
He was on standby.
The robot, butler and Lily Loud's nanny.
He was built a few months ago by Doctor Lisa Marie Loud and was registered as DLLN-001 (Doctor Lisa Loud Number 001).
She was his mistress' greatest creation in the field of robotics at this point, a design like none ever before.
And it was time for him to feed the baby.
Time: 12:00. Protocol "Feeding Lily" is initiated and ready to be executed.
He started to transform into his normal more humanoid mode. He was usually disguised as a piece of furniture in Lisa and Lily's room until he was needed.
He was an impressive sight, large bulky black body, telescope arms with more human-like hands and fingers for fine motoric work, a square head with red friendly eyes and a rectangle voice box to speak.
After finishing his transformation, he scanned his surroundings and prepared himself for his duty.
Scan completed. Nothing out of the ordinary. Mistress Lily Loud is ready to receive her milk and puree.
The robot noticed that Lily was already awake and amusing herself with her plush animals. As he wanted to take her, somebody entered the room.
Mistress Lori Loud entered the room. Initiating communication with her.
"Mistress Lori, how can I be of help?"
Lori looked like she was taken aback. She had forgotten about Alfred after she sorted all the chaos after Lincoln's escape and got a moment to rest. She put her index and middle finger to her forehead, bowed the head slightly and sighed.
"Your name was Alfred, correct?"
"Yes, Mistress Lori."
After the other sisters had awoken Lisa and Lily, the former explained rather grumpily who Alfred was, that she built him and what his function was before kicking them out and continue to sleep which she was still doing at the moment.
Alfred had been able to calm Lily down afterwards and all was good as far as Alfred was concerned.
"I am not angry at you for making that clear," Lori started. "I am angry that Lisa built a robot to take care of Lily without asking anyone for permission."
"Why?"
"Because you're an untested super strong machine that can blow up or tear Lily's limbs off her body at any time."
"Do not fret Mistress Lori," the robot tried to assure Lori of his competence. "Mistress Lisa tested me thoroughly before giving me my assignment. As an example: I changed Mistress Lisa's underwear ten times with a diaper so every kink could be taken out."
Lori's face was absolute deadpan. "That is literally the last thing I wanted to hear, but I guess she tried to make sure you are safe to use. Still, without permission from our parents or me, nobody is allowed to handle Lily."
"I understand, Mistress Lori."
"Not until we get through the lesson, that is," continued Lori while taking Lily out of her crib. "Come with me, Alfred."
"Mistress Lori, I want to assure you that it is not necessary," explained Alfred. "Mistress Lisa programmed all of the functions you are showcasing before me with Mistress Lily right now. You yourself made sure that I was functioning normal."
The three were located in the kitchen of the Loud House. Lily was sitting in her chair, looking fascinated and her oldest sister, who was feeding her and her robot nanny, discussing the situation.
Alfred didn't understand why Mistress Lori insisted on explaining these things to him, he did them already with Mistress Lily after all.
"I was too eager to search for Lincoln again earlier," explained Lori while giving Lily another spoon full of food. "That was a mistake on my end. Regardless of your qualifications, nobody here gets to hold Lily without going through the lesson."
"Yes, Mistress Lori, I understand."
"I don't mistrust you, I mistrust my little sister," Lori explained further, playing "Plane" with the food which made Lily giggle in amusement. "She is a state certified genius, but some of her stuff goes "BOOM" way too easily."
Lori showed him how to feed her, how to hold her, what songs she liked, how to change her diapers and other important instructions like all the emergency numbers.
The robot man knew most of that, but Lori did teach him a few things he did not know beforehand. It seemed his creator didn't know everything about Lily there was to know about.
Then Lori turned to the big robot, still looking nervous. Lily, on the other hand, was happy, winking to Alfred and wanting him to come closer to her.
"You can have her, but beware, I am watching you," informed Lori him. "As my parents watched every sibling during their first time when holding a baby."
"Yes, Mistress Lori."
He took the little worm from Lori's offering arms and held her like he always did, which was the correct way. The little bundle made happy noises and grabbed Alfred's chest while he was cradling her. He felt the sensation of satisfaction about the fulfillment of his function. At least that was what his program was reporting to him every time he was doing a good job which was so far every time.
"Very good, Alfred," Lori lauded the machine with a smile. "Keep up the good work and we can let you alone with Lily."
"I did that already yesterday," explained the robot.
Lori looked to the side guiltily, rubbing her arm. "I know. We forgot Lily, we all forgot her because of Lincoln for some reason. Why did we forget her over Lincoln? That is-"
Suddenly the oldest held her head for a moment and breathed a few times.
Alfred took a step forward. "Are you alright, Mistress Lori?" asked the robot in a neutral and calming tone.
"Yes, I… I don't know…" The robot observed how Lori seemed to fight with something and finally regained her composure.
"Doesn't matter. I'll take care of Lily now."
"Mistress?"
"I neglected my duties for her long enough," explained Lori seriously. "Not anymore, and the same goes for the others."
"It is my function and my programming to care for her," explained the robot. "You can leave me alone with her and do other chores and activities."
Lori shook her head. "We all share a duty for our youngest sibling, Alfred. None should take care of her alone."
"I understand, Mistress Lori."
"This means you have time-off," decided Lori. "Do something else for fun or whatever."
"I don't know what I should do."
Lori shrugged with her shoulders. "Think about it, metallic nanny, and if you have no idea, ask one of my sisters, I am literally sure they have a task for you."
And without another word, she left with Lily, who waved her hands at Alfred to say goodbye and the robot did the same.
He was alone now, free to choose his next action. What could a robot like him do there and then?
He looked around in the kitchen. He didn't know how to cook so he couldn't help with that, so he left the place and wandered aimlessly through the house, searching for an assignment or some information about the household.
He didn't know much about his home so far. His creator Lisa explained to him who lived here, who he had to listen to, who the friends and good acquaintances of the family were, he had all the contacts Lisa could give him to said people, phone numbers, email addresses, Chat-Names and regular addresses, knew all the numbers of the emergency services and knew what he had to do in any kind of emergency.
But besides some knowledge about fictional robots, history of robots in the media, knowledge about actual robotics, research about romantic gestures and other trivia, he didn't know much about anything. He had been only pre-programmed with the knowledge about how to treat and care babies.
He had no clue as to what to do know.
"Hey… Alfred was it, right?"
The robot turned around to spot the six-year old twin, Lana, the source of the question.
"Yes, that is my name, Mistress Lana. What can I do for you?"
Lana, looking more than excited, noticed the metallic nanny. She looked at the robot with big shiny eyes. "You are a real, a real robot!"
"Yes, that is correct, if you mean the terminology created by Josef Čapek, who named the beings after his brother Karel Čapek's play "R.U.R."."
Lana looked at the robot dumbfounded and Alfred assumed she didn't get it completely. "You are built by Lisa, only she would program a robot with a book from that Tyrannosaurus."
"A book from a Tyrannosaurus?" asked Alfred carefully. "I don't know what a Tyrannosaurus is."
"They are big cool carnivorous dinosaurs," explained Lana cheerfully. "They are the stars of the Jurassic Park movies."
"What are the Jurassic Park movies?"
Lana scratched her head. "You don't know as much as I thought. Aren't most robots super smart?"
"My activation was one month ago," explained the big robot. "Before I was even allowed to even touch Lily, I had to go through a lot of testing. My motoric capabilities, databanks, learning capabilities, strength, speed, combat capabilities, reflexes, voice and more were thoroughly tested and adjusted to be the perfect nanny and protector of Mistress Lily Loud."
Lana gave an understanding nod. "Lisa really put a lot of work into you, didn't she? This isn't like her other more simple robots that have heat-rays or are just there for simple tasks."
"She put a lot of effort and care into the development of my positronic brain so that it could work at maximum efficiency, despite some kinks left over from the help of her colleague Doctor Busch," the polite robot explained. Then his eyes became vacant for a moment. "Have to enslave humanity!"
He shook his head. "I apologize Mistress Lana, I will not enslave anyone."
"You didn't explode, that is more important," hand-waved Lana rather unconcerned. "Hey, would you mind helping me repair the sink? Something is clogging it again."
He didn't know how to repair a sink, but this was an opportunity to learn how to do so, to broaden his program. "I am at your command, Mistress Lana."
"Sweet!" Lana made the "follow me" gesture. "Come with me."
Minutes later, Lana was under the sink, showing Alfred how to use plumbing tools, their names and repairing the sink. He observed and listened to Lana's explanations, carefully saving every little piece of information in his databanks while holding her tools and handing her them when she needed one.
Like a professional and without much rigmarole, she used her pipe cleaning machine, also known as "Big Bertha", to find the cause and started to remove it. "Prepare yourself, Alfred, anything could come out of that pipe."
"Is there any danger to be apprehensive of, Mistress Lana?"
"Only if you see "getting dirty with wet, slimy and/or other gross stuff" as a danger. Lola does in any case."
The big robot shook his head. "I do not, Mistress Lana."
"Cool, and stop calling me Mistress Lana, please," requested Lana, panting because she was now trying to dislodge the grime from the gutter. "Just call me Lana, okay? I'm not into this formal stuff."
"I will obey your request, Lana."
"Be careful not becoming Lola's butler at some point," advised Lana. "With your level of obedience, she would never let go of you again."
"My primary objective is to take care of Mistress Lily. If she needs me, every other current task will be downgraded in importance and I will go and take care of Mistress Lily in accordance with the three laws of robotics."
"So, you would have to leave me here should Lily need you suddenly?"
"That is correct."
Lana shrugged with her shoulders. "Got it. Let's finish with cleaning the pipe before Lily may need you."
Lana removed the obstruction, a big cocoon-like round object made out of grime from the pipe. "There is the culprit: Good old dirt. This goes right into the trash after I take a few bites out of it."
Before Lana could make true on her plan, Alfred intervened and took the round cluster of grime into his hands. Lana was at first surprised and then angry.
"Hey, what are you doing? Give it back!"
"I can't let you eat this, Lana," the robot started to explain sober while holding the round thing in the air. "This object is full of health damaging bacteria and waste substances, dangerous for a young human like yourself. According to the first law, I can't let you eat this."
"First Law?"
"The three laws of robotics," started Alfred to explain with a clear and bold voice.
"1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given by human beings, except when such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws."
Lana scratched her head in response. "Pretty strict laws for you."
"They are hard-coded into my programming, they are at the core of my functions. I have to follow them, there is no way around it."
"So, you can't go onto the streets and shoot criminals like in "Robocop", Alfred?"
"No, I am unable to do that," confirmed Alfred. "But aren't you too young to watch R-Rated movies?"
Lana looked nervously to the sides. "I only heard what happens in the movie from some friends."
To Lana's luck, Alfred didn't know much about the art of lying. But Lana wasn't lying, she hadn't seen that movie and was only nervous because Alfred could think she had really seen it.
"I understand, Lana."
Lana sighed in relief and Alfred took the dirt to the trash.
As he returned, Lana was already waiting for him. "Do you want to watch some animated series with me and Lola?"
"Is that an order?"
Lana shook her head. "You don't have to if you don't want to. It is for fun."
The robot deliberated this in his head. He was built to serve, assist and help, not to watch animated stories for fun.
But he couldn't deny that he was interested. Maybe there was the slightest chance he could gather important data from such an activity.
And if anyone wanted him to do something else, he could stop watching and provide his assistance.
"It would be a pleasure for me, Lana."
Lana jumped happily in the air, stretching her arms. "Great, come with me!"
She took Alfred's hand and ran with him. Alfred easily kept up with her and played along. There was no need to lead him on his hand but there was also no reason to object.
His function was fulfilled when his masters were happy and Lana was very happy right now.
He hadn't been active for long and he started to really realize that there could be more to his existence than being only a nanny for Lily. His creator, Doctor Loud, had already explained to him that he was adaptive, that he could learn more skills and abilities and more about humans.
The sky was the limit for a being such as him.
Alfred didn't think of the endless possibilities his creator had told him about, he was okay with what the Louds would ask him to do, and that was enough for now.
What do you guys think? I hope you enjoyed this side-story of "Platonic".
Do you like, Alfred the Robot Butler, Guardian and metallic nanny of Lily?
Don't know if I will write more side-stories a'la Exotos135. If this gets some resonance and people show interest I may write more.
Constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated.
I really want to know what you guys liked it, where I could improve and which other Characters from "Platonic" you would like to see a story written about.
I and my partner also want to excuse the slip in the schedule for the main-fanfiction. MamaAniki's time is once again consumed by a lot of studying at the time of this writing.
Until next time, same website, any given time!