Chapter Eight
Why Did I Do That?
Though Sun planned on taking the car out again and testing his new theories and questions, the poster door opened.
Sun bristled and scuttled back.
When he saw Briana walk in, he moved back further until he was in his place and sat down and hid behind his knees. The black-haired one approached the baskets. He stopped when Briana held up a hand. He watched her, waiting, and daring not to continue forward.
Briana looked over the boxes, her hands behind her back. "Hmm… well, they looked like they're organized. Is that all of them? Eyes up." Her voice sharpened in impatience.
Sun raised his head a little to look at her. Moon's indignance burned, but Sun's own fear put down any empathy for the emotion. "Yes."
Briana stated. "You always clean up. Keep the place as clean and organized as you can. You will be cleaning the Daycare every night after the kids leave, and at any moment you can while watching the kids so they don't hurt themselves or steal something. Now." She grabbed the closest basket, this one labeled "MACHINE", and yanked it to the side.
Toy machines tumbled across the floor, clacking against each other as they went.
Briana looked from the new mess to Sun.
Sun truly wanted to get up and clean the mess. However, he was not quite so fond of nearing her.
"Clean this up. I should not have to tell you this."
Sun jolted at an unexpected shock.
Briana stated, "Clean up, clean up."
Under her gaze, just as cold and unforgiving as a northern winter, he unfolded himself and grabbed the toys. The toy machines clanked into the basket. He had to get to his feet in order to fetch the furthest ones and put them away.
He sat back in his place.
Briana grabbed the basket and yanked it to the side. The toy machines cascaded out onto the soft, colorful floor.
Sun looked at the mess and then at her. Why would she–
Sun was shocked again.
"Clean up, clean up," she repeated.
He pulled himself up and snatched the toys on the floor and dropped them back in. He sat back in his place.
She threw over the basket again.
Sun immediately jumped to his feet and picked up the discarded toys.
Briana watched him for a heartbeat too long as he sat before stepping forward further. She knocked over the "MACHINE" basket as well as the "SIMPLE" one. A few balls bounced away, though, for the most part, the toys stayed in one general area.
Sun looked between the toy baskets and then at her and then the toy baskets.
Sun was shocked again.
"Clean up, clean up."
He got to his feet and plucked the toy machines off the floor first. They clinked as they hit the basket and each other.
Briana stated, "Careful. You could break something. Children break toys. You do not."
Sun didn't look back. His hands shook when he put away the last of the toys. He wanted nothing more than to curl into himself and cover his eyes and wait for her to leave.
Moon seethed.
Briana peered into the toy baskets and then the ones she had not touched. After a moment of thought, she knocked over both of the bins and stepped back.
Sun jumped to his feet and snatched the toys on the ground.
Once the toys were all put away, he sat back down.
Briana gestured to the bins. "Stack them three-high. Ignore the simple one. 'MACHINE' goes on the bottom. 'BLOCKS' goes on the top."
Sun got to his feet and quickly pulled the bins up to their proper position. Once he stacked up the bins, which now surpassed Briana and John's partner in height, he sat back down at his place.
Briana stalked around it, looking over the bins like a fox searching for a cowering mouse. Finally, she stopped. Hands behind her back, she kicked the bottom basket as hard as she could. John's partner winced at the ensuing, loud chaos.
All three bins toppled, crashing into the floor, and sending toys scattering across the whole room.
"Oh no, no, no!" Sun squealed and hopped to his feet. He righted each basket individually and then grabbed the toys. "What a mess, what a mess! Clean up! Clean up!"
"Sun, calm down. You are doing as you are told."
I'm perfectly calm! I'm fine!
"You are going to fry our wiring!"
Sun could barely hear Moon over the whirring of their cooling fans and the clacking of toys hitting each other and their bins.
Sun stacked the bins up and went back to his place.
Briana tipped her head as she looked over it. "Hmm." She kicked it over again and stepped back. Once the noise died down–including Sun's outburst–she stated, "Do not stack them again. Keep them on the ground in the order they were first in."
Sun put away the toys, moved the bins so they were in their respective places, and went back to his place. His shaking fingers interlocked tightly together.
Briana rolled her eyes, took out a flashlight, and stated, "Cut the lights."
The yellow animatronic turned blue.
Moon untangled his fingers and sat with his hands in his lap, staring at Briana with glittering blue eyes. Sun, no longer in control, calmed down just a little.
Briana knocked over one of the bins.
Moon pulled himself up to his feet and snatched the toys from the ground and put them into the basket. The toys, even the plastic ones, barely made a sound, if they made one at all. He finished putting away the toys and stared at Briana. As he was hunched over and crouched down just a little bit, they were almost at eye level. He could see the gleam from his eyes in hers.
Briana tipped over the basket again.
Moon cleaned up the toys.
Briana tipped over the basket again.
"Urgh! Clean up, clean up!" he growled to himself. Once all the toys were put away, he tried dragging the basket out of her reach.
Her eyes brightened.
Moon seized up as she finally gave him a shock. Moon managed to keep his balance.
[ALERT: AGGRESSIVE STAFF]
[POTENTIAL DAMAGE IMMINENT]
"Moon?"
[NO CHILD LOCATED. THREAT DETECTED]
"Moony, what's going on?"
[THREAT ENGAGED; NEUTRALIZE, ALERT]
"Moon?!"
Briana's eyes glinted purple in the change of lighting.
She backed away just as Moon stalked toward her.
John's partner bolted.
Briana looked down at her hand. "Wha–no! Stand down! Stay back! You are not allowed to threaten me!"
Moon had her against a corner, now. He blocked her only hope of exit with his body.
[THREAT REPORT UPDATED]
The door opened behind him.
Moon didn't move an inch.
Briana spat, a waver in her voice, "Put this thing down, John!"
John, panting, walked around to Briana. "You set off his security protocols, Briana! What did you expect? I told you not to use that taser on him!" He took a deep breath and stepped closer so that he was within sight of Moon. "We have the threat under control, Moon. Thank you for your assistance. Stand down."
Moon's glowing red eyes flickered back to blue.
He looked between John and Briana. Moon curled up into himself and hopped back so he found himself in the opposite corner of the room.
Briana hissed, "It just attacked me, John! Your stupid bots aren't supposed to do that!"
"You almost damaged his wiring. He was defending himself."
"You said this wouldn't damage it."
"I didn't know you'd go crazy with it!"
Briana stalked out. When John tried to linger, she snapped at him to follow.
The door slid shut behind them.
The light turned on.
Moon gladly gave control back to Sun. As if Moon had much control in the dark, it seemed.
Sun walked in slow, skippy circles. "I mean, you're still okay, right?"
"Sun, stop it! I almost hurt her!"
"But you didn't?"
"I am not supposed to hurt humans. I am not supposed to be violent. I almost hurt her."
"She hurt us. You heard what John said, right? You were defending yourself."
"She is a human. She can do that. She can control her own violence."
"You can, too."
"No. I cannot."
"Well, only when you need to, right? You wouldn't hurt anyone."
"I almost–"
"But you didn't! You wouldn't! You kept her there. You didn't actually attack her."
"Sunny, can you not understand what this means?!"
"I can. I know it. You're upset. It's okay to be upset."
"Not when I can get us disassembled."
Sun flinched at the notion. Still, he said, "That won't happen. It was an accident. You didn't want to. I know."
"This was not an–I did not break a toy! I attacked a human staff member!"
Sun stopped and crossed his arms. He tapped his foot on the multicolored ground. "Yeah, well, it's still not your fault. If I had attacked her, would you blame me?"
"Of course not, Sunny. But you would not have."
"That's beside the point. The point is, you did nothing wrong and you're blaming yourself for something you couldn't control. Now. I am going to stay in this spot until you decide to calm down."
"Sun."
"I will."
"Sun, we are fully functioning daycare robots. I am not a child."
"Well, you're still my younger brother."
"We were made at the same time!"
"I'm five minutes older than you."
"Urgh! You cannot be serious."
"Nope. I am very serious."
"You look ridiculous."
"I know."
"You are acting ridiculous."
"You think I am because you're upset over something ridiculous."
"It was not ridiculous!"
"Was so."
Sun could feel Moon's intense irritation. But Sun was right. Moon was upset over something out of his control.
An idea popped into his head.
"Moon?"
"What?"
So much venom. Sun asked, "What do you call Monty when he's looking for a missing golf ball?"
"What?"
That one was more confused than irritated.
"An investi-gator!"
"Oh my…"
"Why did Chica try to cross the racetrack?"
"…why?"
"To get to the other side!"
"Sun, you are terrible."
Sun giggled to himself. "What's the difference between Mr. Hippo and a Zippo?"
"I am not encouraging you."
"Mr. Hippo is pretty heavy, but a Zippo is just a little lighter!"
"Can we go back to the first one? That was awful."
Sun couldn't help a laugh. "Okay, okay. You want to hear something terrible?"
"Absolutely not."
"Paper!"
"That… what?"
"Get it? Because paper is tear-able?"
"Would you stop?!"
Oh, but Moon could not hide his emotions from Sun, just as Sun could not hide from Moon. Encouraged, Sun went on, "You know what my favorite time on the clock is?"
"…"
"6:30, hands down!"
"I am going to sleep."
"Really? Are you an egg?"
"No."
"That's funny. Because you sound eggs-hausted!"
"Nope."
"Have you heard of the new band they're thinking of making? '1023 Megabytes'? I heard it's good, but they don't have a gig just yet."
"Would you stop?" Moon's voice cracked at the end, and he made an incoherent grumbly noise.
"Why did the Powerpoint Presentation cross the road?"
"That is a computer program, it cannot cross roads."
"To get to the other slide!"
"You are the worst."
Sun went on for a few more jokes. As he did not want to use ones they had already heard, he had to make them up. Which was, for many reasons, fairly difficult.
Sun was able to start walking again.
Eventually, the door opened.
Sun, absolutely not paying attention as he was in the middle of informing Moon that planets like "comet books", jumped and spun around.
John and his partner came back.
"Hello!" Sun trilled.
"Hey, Sun," John greeted. "We'll need to check your wiring, alright? Is Moon feeling any better?"
Sun nodded and sat down in his spot. "He's okay, now. He's kind of upset at what happened, but he's feeling better, now."
John walked around behind Sun. "You certainly know how to calm each other down, huh?"
"Yep!"
"Ask him who is older, Sun."
Sun asked, "Who's older? Moon thinks we're the same age, but I think I'm five minutes older since that's how long it took between when we first booted up and when Moon was introduced?"
John and his partner laughed.
John, who had opened a plate on the back of Sun's head, said, "God, you do act like twins, now don't you? I'll tell you two the same thing I told my sons: you were made at the same time. But I think you were first."
"Who is 'you'?"
"That's the question, isn't it?"
Sun shut down.