Zero," Daddy says.
Zero, who had been inspecting one of the corners of their new Lair, hoping to find a mouse, instantly abandons her fun when she hears the inflection in his voice. Usually she would make him wait, and call her again, before going to him, just to make sure they both knew that she didn't have to come when he called.
But this is his things-are-very-serious tone, the tone he uses when things are dangerous, or when he really needs her for something important. So she goes to him immediately.
"Bowg?"
[ /inquiry ] [ ? ]
Daddy is sitting cross-legged on the couch that he and Minion found in an alley and dragged into the Lair. His hands are in his lap, his head bowed. Zero blinks her eyepiece at him, but he continues to stare at his hands.
"Bowg?"
[ /inquiry ] [ ? ]
Daddy sighs and Zero, confused concern sparking in her braincase, settles down on the couch beside him, tucking her metal arms neatly beneath her body. She watches Daddy, waiting.
He closes his eyes for a long moment, gives a shuddery sigh, and finally looks up at her. He smiles, lips moving in the way that indicates happiness in an organic, but his shoulders are drawn inwards in a way that does not compute as happy in Zero's informational matrix.
"I need—to discuss something important with you," Daddy says. "Do you feel up to using the communication screen?"
He bends down and picks up something from the floor, holds it out to Zero—her communication screen, the one she and Daddy use when she has to relay complex information for him.
"Bowg."
[ /affirmation ]
Zero lifts herself into the air again and lets Daddy plug the communication screen into her data port. There's a tingle as the screen connects, and then—the screen is part of her.
[ discussion subject ] [ ? ] [ inquiry ]
Daddy's mouth does that happy-not-happy thing again as he reads her words on the screen. There's a long moment before he answers.
"We've talked," he says, "about how you don't have to let me update or alter your programming."
[ /affirmation ] [ zero is self ] [ zero is own ]
Zero settles proudly on the couch again, and Daddy reaches out a hand. She deigns to rub her braincase against it.
"I promised," Daddy says, "that I'd never alter your programming without your permission unless your code got so damaged that you were a danger to yourself."
[ /affirmation ]
"I've got a piece of code I'd like to add to your programming," he says. "It's—it's got some instructions on it about me. About what to do if I ever—start doing certain things."
Zero tilts her eyepiece in curiosity. This sounds perfectly ordinary, but Daddy's behavior indicates otherwise.
"I'm not always—" Daddy swallows. "There's a—a glitch. In my programming."
[ /concern ] [ ! ] [ maintenance / repair ] [ ! ]
Daddy laughs, but it doesn't sound happy like Zero knows laughter should. Like his smile, earlier, didn't indicate happiness properly.
[ glitch in emotional matrix ] Zero says, narrowing the shutter of her eyepiece in sudden understanding.
Daddy's breath catches.
"That's—yes," he says, sounding surprised, "Yes, it is. How could you—?"
[ zero is cleverest ] [ zero is best ]
Daddy laughs, a correct, happy sounding laugh this time.
"Yes; yes you are, aren't you? Daddy's brilliant little cyborg!"
Zero preens briefly, before calling his attention back to the matter at hand.
[ maintenance / repair ] [ optimum function restore ] she says [ /reassurance ]
Daddy shakes his head.
"I can't," he says. "I was coded wrong in the first place. There isn't an optimum function for me to restore to. And people like—organics can't alter our code like that anyway."
Zero makes a noise indicative of her distress.
[ zero organic before ] [ zero broken before ]
Daddy frowns and tilts his head.
[ (designation: daddy) maintenance / repair zero ] she says [ no organic zero ] [ carapace braincase eyepiece zero ] [ new optimum function zero ] [ ! ]
Daddy blinks at her.
[ carapace braincase eyepiece (designation : daddy) ] Zero suggests persuasively [ new optimum function (designation : daddy) ]
Daddy laughs.
"An extremely tempting proposition! And don't think I haven't considered it before! But I'm pretty sure Minion would kill me if I ditched the organic body. Which is—really the entire issue, here."
[ /inquiry ] [ ? ]
Daddy sighs and runs a hand along her braincase.
"My coding is damaged in a way that sometimes I'm a danger to myself," he says. "I've—got the coding glitch under control right now, but I can't—I can't delete it completely. It might resurface later. So I'd—I want to give you this new protocol, in case it does. Is that all right with you?"
Zero blinks the shutter of her eyepiece reassuringly.
[ /affirmation ] [ consent programming update ]
"Thank you."
Daddy's computer is on the low, rickety table in front of the couch. He reaches for it now, and pulls it into his lap. Zero opens her update channel obligingly, and, with a few deft keystrokes, Daddy sends the update streaming through her informational matrix.
/protocol : bridge
catch (designation: daddy) if falling / jumping from height over dangerous levels
not allow (designation: daddy) to ingest poisonous substance
stop dangerous blood loss (designation: daddy)
not allow (designation: daddy) aim de-gun on (de-gun setting: destroy) at (designation: daddy)
protocol : bridge is a primary protocol.
disregard any commands from (designation: daddy) which conflict with protocol: bridge
disregard any commands from (designation: daddy) to cancel or terminate protocol : bridge
disregard any commands to leave (designation: daddy) by himself if there is reason to believe that it may be necessary to activate protocol : bridge
disregard any…
Zero sits on the couch with Daddy as the update streams.
notes: I headcanon that the brainbots used to be stray dogs and cats. Megamind found them sick or injured, and dying, and turned them into cyborgs.
Zero is based on my own, very beloved cat.