Robecca Steam was built to be an assistant. Her "father", Hexiciah Steam, wanted someone who was agreeable, but would point out things he might have missed; someone who could help him without ever wanting to surpass him; someone who would be perfectly content to remain in his shadow; someone who never asked for more than what they had. When he failed to find someone like that, he created them on his own.
His daughter was beautiful and intelligent, shy and submissive. She was polite and demure, humble and happy working behind the scenes. Robecca was so much more useful than a human assistant, as she never complained or asked for more. She didn't mind sleeping on a cot in the lab, where Hexiciah could wake her in the middle of the night if she was needed. For her first Christmas, she made herself a mechanical penguin out of leftover copper scraps, showing great resourcefulness.
Over the years, Hexiciah trusted Robecca with more and more, and eventually began to think of her as a friend and confidante, not just a tool. He took her with him everywhere, even to places where young ladies weren't expected to go. Often, they would investigate claims of human experimentation, and other members of the scientific community murmured that it was completely inappropriate for a lady to see such things. Hexiciah argued that Robecca was not truly a lady, as she had been built, not born.
The years rolled on. In the twenty-first century, Hexiciah finally allowed Robecca to have a laboratory of her own. It was smaller than his, with cheaper equipment, but it was still fully functional. She didn't have much opportunity to use it until they came across a facility that performed "experiments" on monsters. It was going to foreclose, as the government had recently decided that monsters could not be used as test subjects against their will- and yet, they could still be bought and sold as property.
Hexiciah was close friends with the head scientist of that particular lab, so he and Robecca got a free tour a few weeks before it closed. The test subjects were kept in tiny, cramped cells and all seemed to be bound in straitjackets. Robecca took to reading the labels on each cell door. They were brief and to the point, each one stating the inhabitant's species, sex, and age. Most of the monsters didn't even notice the small group. One girl (spider creature, female, 16) was asleep in a hammock she had apparently woven herself. (The head scientist explained that she had earned the privilege to be let out of the straitjacket on weekends.) Some of the monsters were more curious, and one (plant monster, female, 15) walked right up to the window and looked out at them.
Down another hall were the subjects who needed special accommodations. There weren't many of them-it was probably too expensive-but the ones they did have were fascinating to both Hexiciah and Robecca. Most interesting was a massive girl made of slime (unknown, female, 16) who was fifteen feet tall according to the head scientist. He complained that they had to make her straitjacket extra large and very tight so she couldn't slip out of it. Most of the other monsters on that hall were sea dwellers who needed to be submerged in tanks, and Robecca spent quite a while watching a two-headed girl (Hydra, female, 16) swim in circles repeatedly and listlessly. "Beautiful, aren't they?" Robecca jumped. The head scientist was standing behind her and watching the Hydra. "They aren't for sale, unfortunately. But if you're interested in conjoined twins, why don't I show you our other pair? Your father may want to run some tests on them." Robecca and Hexiciah followed him out of the special accommodations hall and down another one labeled "hybrids".
The subjects here were intriguing to Robecca. A boy with a horn growing out of his head (zombie/unicorn, male, 17) watched them with wide eyes, while an angry looking horse girl (harpy/centaur, female, 17) tried to lunge forward at them. Her upper half was bound in a straitjacket like everyone else, while her hooves were chained to the ground and a muzzle was strapped over her mouth. Everything about her screamed "I am an animal that needs to be controlled". Robecca flinched, taking a step back. She had noticed some other subjects with muzzles- all four of the werewolves, some sort of alligator girl (swamp monster, female, 115), two vampires, a troll, and several zombies, but none of them looked like they really needed it. This girl, though, she looked almost feral.
Robecca kept moving, glancing at a mermaid who floated dreamily through the air (ghost/mermaid, female, 17) and a pink-skinned girl who had chewed her lip so much it was bleeding freely (moth/skeleton, female, 16) until they finally stopped in front of a door at the end of the hall. Robecca peered through the window to look at the two boys inside. At first, she thought they were just sitting close to each other, then realized that their bodies were fused together. They seemed to join at the bottom of their rib cages, and from there, everything else was merged. Interestingly, they were clearly fraternal twins. Robecca glanced at the label on the door. Human/fire elemental, male, 16. Looking back in, she started taking in the obvious differences between the two.
They looked nothing alike. The human twin had pale skin, blue eyes, and dark hair, while the fire elemental had blue skin, red eyes, and red hair. Other than that, and the different hair styles, they could have been photo negative copies of each other. The fire elemental had a muzzle, which he seemed incredibly annoyed by; he kept trying to get it off. The human nudged his brother and nodded towards the door. Robecca stepped back when they both looked at her. She noticed that her father was negotiating a price with the head scientist, and she turned back to the door. To her surprise, the conjoined twins had walked up to the window and were watching her closely.
Not long after, Hexiciah had arranged to purchase them, and the scientist was happily explaining their history to him. "Well, we bought them from their parents… they were very eager to get rid of them, yes, it was extremely lucky for us. Their names? Ah, the human is Jackson, the other one is Holt. They're very close… I mean, no pun intended, they care about each other very much. We considered separating them, but since they share many vital organs, we decided against it. Jackson is quite compliant, he won't cause any trouble. Holt… isn't. Be careful, he'll fight you on every little thing. He gets very upset when Jackson is hurt. Actually, he's one of the reasons we had to instill our straitjacket policy. There was an unfortunate incident… one of our scientists did something to Jackson, and we're not really sure what, as Holt strangled him immediately afterwards. He's much stronger than we thought. Don't turn your back on him, there's a very good chance he'll kill you."
This news didn't exactly thrill Robecca, but Hexiciah wasn't at all bothered. The scientist continued eagerly. "I think Holt might be one of the more dangerous subjects here. The werewolves have all attacked some scientists, and one in particular, Clawdeen, left major scars. She nearly killed one of our best men. Then, of course, there's Gooliope- our giant girl. Her sheer size makes her a threat. She's come close to crushing people. Avea has the highest body count… she's the harpy-centaur, and she's killed four of our researchers. Trampled them. We keep her chained up now. And then there's Abbey, a yeti, she's incredibly strong, broke someone's neck in one go. Oh, and Heath-fire elemental-he's caused some pretty nasty third degree burns. But overall, we've only had six deaths, courtesy of Holt, Avea, and Abbey. So those three are pretty much under constant surveillance."
Robecca didn't fall asleep easily that night. Getting Holt and Jackson out of the test lab and into her father's had been much simpler than expected- Hexiciah drugged them and carried them back, commenting that they were surprisingly light for two people in one body. He locked them in the cage for his live subjects (usually animals, but they'd had a few monsters before) and told Robecca to make sure they didn't panic upon waking up in a strange place. She woke up every hour to check on them, and was startled when they were already awake at four AM. Up until then, they had been unconscious, so it was rather disconcerting to find them standing near the bars and watching her every move.
Hexiciah had given Robecca direct orders to treat them as dogs or something similar, before adding that it was fine to be nice as long as they knew who was in charge. "Good morning," Robecca said with a stiff smile. Her voice was totally monotone, as always. "Let us out," Holt responded. His voice was higher than Robecca expected, but full of anger nonetheless. "I have been told to keep you in there until further notice." Holt scowled at her. "Are you one of those robots with no emotion?" "No. I am essentially human." "Oh, yeah. I can tell," Holt said sarcastically. Robecca stopped smiling and sighed, annoyed. "Please go back to sleep. My father will begin testing tomorrow."
The word "testing" made Jackson whimper and grab Holt's hand. "What, um, what kind of testing?" "I don't know. He did not see fit to tell me, and I respect his decisions." Holt rolled his eyes and snapped, "Look we don't care about your 'father'. We have to piss, so will you let us go to the bathroom?" Robecca shook her head. "I'm sorry. You are not to leave that cage." "We're not going to wet ourself," Holt snapped. "I can bring you a bottle." "Yeah, sure, fine. Just hurry up." Robecca frowned at his rude manner. "You'll have to wait. I don't help obnoxious children." "We're the same age, you bitch-" "I am your senior by at least a century. Hold it." Before she could walk away, Jackson quietly spoke up. "I'm sorry about my brother. He's just scared because we're in a new place. Please, we really need to go, I promise we won't bother you again."
Robecca smiled. She liked this human much better than his loud twin. "Thank you for your manners," she responded pointedly. "Give me a moment." She tossed them an empty plastic bottle as soon as she found one, and as she fell asleep again, she heard a whispered argument between the twins. "I ain't scared, Jackie, why'd you tell her that?" "Yes you are." "I don't get scared. You get scared. Not me." "Holt…" "I don't!" "Whatever. Go back to sleep."