A/N: Thanks, Verdandi, for pointing out how annoying it was putting the names in ' '. It was actually beginning to annoy me, too. You guys won't see it done that way from now on, but just to tell you guys so you don't have to go back to Chapter 8 (I had to do this too because even I forgot who was who... heh), Keef = Dib and Gir = Zim.
Chapter 9: Lesson From A Robot, Answers In The Dirt
It was nighttime, and the two boys were relaxing, proud of themselves for figuring out how to light a fire. In front of them, their success crackled, and every so often burst into an obnoxious pop! startling both Keef and Gir, who both then laughed nervously, frantically pretending as though they weren't afraid. The fire would often blaze up into a larger entity, then die down again to a solemn glow that seemed both calm and entrancing. A soft, stringy smoke poured out into the air, becoming lost in the ever blackening sky. There was no moon tonight, but the stars were wildling glittering in the sky, like droplets of water reflecting off bits of sun.
Keef's eyes glanced over to Gir, who was busy tinkering away at the robot with those odd robot legs arching out of his backpack. He sighed, kicking the ground softly, the dirt carrying into the air and falling back down, some being engulfed by the fire and causing it to shy away momentarily, then violently snap back.
"Watch it," Gir sneered, not lifting his eyes off the robot. It sat upwards in his lap, the dim-witted eyes catching the reflection of the fire, the life of it drained and gone. It looked like a poor, hapless figure from where Keef stood, and he wondering what sort of technological capabilities, if any, such a thing could take on.
"Sorry," Keef mumbled, and crossed his arms, shuddering at the sudden chill from the mountain breeze. He was grateful for the fact that it wasn't winter, but by the way the leaves curled upwards in some of the trees, he was aware of it's imminent and eventual arrival. His stomach growled again, but there was no food- anywhere. He almost wished that he hadn't eaten all of the moss that they had collected earlier, but at least in the morning they could go searching for something edible. He just had to survive until then. So he sat back, bored with the eerie silence, and desperately wanting some conversation to pass the time. "So..." he began. "Do you have that thing fixed, yet?"
"Quiet! I would have, if a certain /someone/ would stop bothering me with trivial discussions," Gir said tersely, scrutinizing the tiny parts of the metal object before looking up at Keef, blinking, suddenly.
"Just... trying to make conversation," Keef mumbled, lowering his head and not noticing the strange gaze. He gazed back at the fire, a distorted perspective from his point of view because of his cracked glasses, and felt the hair-raising sensation at the back of his neck from being watched. His eyes immediately shot back up to Gir, who was still glaring thoughtfully at him. "What?!"
"Your glasses," he snarled simply. "Give them to me!"
Keef shot up and held the edges of his glasses protectively, shaking his head. "No... I'm blind without them."
"Just GIVE them to me. I only need them for a moment!" Gir hissed.
Keef glanced at him, wary now of Gir's cruel and demanding personality, yet still shook his head until Gir shot him a look of such distaste and boiling rage that, for his own safety, he finally complied. He slipped his glasses off with a shaking hand and walked slowly over, holding them out toward the blurred and brownish figure of Gir.
"Uh... Keef? I'm... over here," a voice said to his left, and Keef blinked his eyes, squinting at the figure in front of him, realizing that it was a tree. Blushing at his stupidity, he followed the sound of Gir's voice, and tried again, holding the glasses out a little more calmly this time.
Gir took them from him, grinning and trying to hold back a laugh. "You really are blind!"
"Be quiet," Keef grumbled, stuffing his hands into his pockets, yet standing his ground, knowing that if he dared to venture from his spot he might end up hitting a tree. He stood, stared blankly at the fuzzy view before him, and sighed as a long silence, filled only by the tinkering of metal against metal, ensued.
"See?" Gir said after a moment, handing the glasses back to Keef and waiting patiently as Keef reached out, searching blindly through the air for a few moments before finally getting a good hold on the glasses. "I just needed them for a moment."
Keef put them on and blinked, glad to have them back. "So... how soon will it be done?"
"Soon," Gir said simply. "Now stop talking. I'm trying to work here."
"Touchy, touchy," Keef mumbled, and then kneeled down and drew pictures in the dirt. Another silence followed; this time, if Keef listened intently, he could hear the faint running of water from the stream. He let this relaxing sound soothe him as he drew: first was a huge circle with an 'A' in the middle of it, and then a few incoherent lines that he pretended was his own alien alphabet. Lastly, he became was deeply engrossed in a picture of one of the hackneyed aliens he'd remembered from stores from long ago- big, round heads, huge black eyes, two small dots for a nose and a long, thin body- when suddenly he heard a shout of triumph from behind him.
"I... am done!" Gir said, leaping up and holding the dim-eyed robot in the air. He pressed a button in the back and shut the latch, holding the creation in his hands as the robot slowly slumped over, still as dull and expressionless as before. A few seconds followed as the two bores stared at the hapless, immobile robot.
Keef's eyebrow rose. "Um... is it supposed to do that?"
"No!" Gir growled, and then brought it down, his glory at success now crushed. "What's wrong with it? I fixed everything!" He shook it violently a few times, letting the internal components roll around a bit.
"Oh yeah. *That's* going to help," Keef smiled.
"Shut up," Gir sneered, and then opened the latch again. "I can't believe this isn't working. Everything's perfect!"
"Give it to me," Keef said, taking the robot from him.
"No way!" Gir protested, reaching back toward it. "You don't know how to handle that thing."
"Sure I do," Keef said, opening up the back hatch and pushing around a few wires.
"You tried to turn it into a thermos," he bluntly pointed out.
"That was different. I didn't know what it was, then."
"As compared to now?" Gir asked, uselessly, because in truth, he was too frustrated at his own failure to complain any further. He sat back staring at the fire, as this time /Keef/ worked away, and then, after a few seconds, asked impatiently, "Are you finished making a fool of yourself, yet?"
"Just about," Keef mumbled, apparently not really listening. He shut the latch and turned to robot over a few times, then tapped the top and opened up the cap to the head. "Here's the problem..." he took out a few objects, brushed then off, and turned the head upside down, letting a small amount of dirty brown water stream out. He took his shirt, dried the inside, and then put the various objects back in.
Gir could only stare as the head cap was set in place, and instantly, the robot's eyes flashed a deep, alarm-clock red. "S.I.R. unit intact! Beginning backup drive!" a deep-throated voice emitted from inside of it, and a mechanical whirring sound followed. Keef, looking haughtily proud of himself, set the little robot down.
"How did you..." Gir began, but he didn't have a chance to finish as the robot completed the reloading process, and its once red eyes flashed a bright, water-like cyan.
"MASTER!" it shouted, leaping at Gir and embracing his neck.
"Gah! Get if off! It's trying to kill me!" Gir yelled, flailing his arms around and falling on the ground.
"Um... I don't think so," Keef said, kneeling down and patting the robot on it's head as the metal creature sat up. "Hi!"
"Hi!" the unit chirped. "You're back! And so is master! Have any cupcakes?"
"I wish," Keef smiled, shaking his head.
"Awww..." the robot sniffled.
"It's nice to see that you've established a friendship with the robot," Gir said through clenched teeth, still on the ground and looking up at the unit that was sitting on top of him, "But can you get this thing OFF?"
"Sure thing, Gir," Keef said, leaning down to pick Gir up.
"What?" the unit asked.
He was ignored as Gir stood up, brushing himself off. "Still seems dysfunctional to me," Gir hissed, tapping the object on the head and angry that he was outwitted by Keef.
Keef noted his superiority complex, and shrugged. "I only fixed one thing. It was you who put the internal components back together."
Gir, still unsatisfied, poked it again. "What's your name, robot?" he asked.
The S.I.R. unit giggled. "You're funny, master!" And then he turned to Keef. "Why is the Dib-human here? I like youuuuuu, but master doesn't," he said, and then began to bounce around on his head.
"What?" Keef asked, confused. He turned to Gir. "Why does he keep calling you 'master'?"
Gir shrugged. "It must be mine."
The robot then bounded off, doing cartwheels in the ground and landing dangerously close to the fire. It sat there for a moment, and then for another moment, and then, just for the heck of it, a moment more.
"Um... robot... thing. You might want to... move," Keef began, before the robot leapt in the air, screaming.
"I burn! I BURN!" the S.I.R. unit screamed, in a half-panicked, half-enthusiastic tone, and hopped around, arms flailing, finally coming to a rest in the dirt. It laid there for a moment before giggling and squealing, "I'm like burnt cupcakes!"
"...he must still be defective," Gir said, staring.
Keef stared as well, nodding slowly.
"Well," Gir blinked, shaking his head. "That's enough. Robot!"
The unit lay there in the ground, looking up, as if intrigued, in the sky, and humming a tune under it's breath. Gir sighed and tried again. "Robot! I am your master! Come here!"
"Master!" the robot leapt up and jumped on Gir's head. "Where's the Scary Monkey?"
Gir sneered tersely, not enjoying the robot's defective qualities, and glared up at it. Keef laughed at the sight, thinking in his mind that it was like a Kodak moment: a strange metal robot sitting comfortably atop Gir's head as an unsmiling Gir glared up at it. Gir shook his head a few times in vain attempts to get it off "I don't know what you're talking about, robot, but I need some important information."
"Let me help, Gir," Keef offered.
"What?" the robot asked.
Again ignoring the unit, Keef grabbed it by the waist and begun to tug. "Let go, little robot, or else Gir might kill you."
"I might kill me?" the unit blinked, scratching his head. "Awww... but I LIVE for cupcakes! I can't kill me yet!"
Keef stopped pulling, an expression crossing his face as though he'd just had an epiphany. "Hey... I think we have this robot all wrong."
"Why'd you stop pulling?" Gir asked, swinging his head around with the robot still on it. "Of course we have it all wrong! It's too stupid to be mine- it must be yours."
The robot, in it's own world, leapt off Gir's head and began to dance.
Keef leaned over to Gir. "Call the robot again."
"What use would that be? Do you just want to see it attack me again?" Gir growled.
"Well, yeah, that'd be funny," Keef said thoughtfully, but then shook his head. "No, this time call it 'Gir'."
"Why would..." Gir trailed off, and then he understood. He turned to the robot and yelled, "Gir! Come here!"
The robot perked up and leapt over, its eyes flashing red, saluting with its tiny robot arm. "Yes, my master!"
"All this time we've had it all wrong..." Gir mumbled, amazed. "Gir, can you tell me who I am? And who he is?" he pointed toward Keef.
"You're master! And you're Dib-human!" Gir the robot, said cheerfully, its eyes returning to cyan as it slumped over. It sat in the dirt and drew a lumpy object in the ground, pointing. "And you're cupcake!"
"Dibuman?" Keef asked, crossing his arms. "That hardly sounds right."
"Not Dibuman. Dib-human!"
"Dib-human..." Gir said pensively. "Dib-human... Dib-human.... why does that sound SO familiar?"
The robot shrugged as it continued to create art. It drew a stick figure. "And you're a Happy Noodle!" Then it drew a dot. "And you're Mr. Dot!"
Gir tried to block out the robot's absurd outbursts. "Dib-human... Dib-human... Dib. Human. Dib!"
"Dib?" there came a blank stare. "That sounds..."
"Too familiar for comfort?" Gir asked.
"Yeah..." Keef smiled, elated that he had gotten his name back. "Dib. I like that."
"At least you have your name back," Gir growled at Dib.
"I'm sure there'll be some way we can get your name," Dib said, trying to hide that goofy smile that said all too clearly how happy he was to truly be satisfied, and sure, of a part of his past.
The unit, in his own little world, was now digging a hole in the ground, kicking up dirt as he did it. The dirt spurted out like water in a geyser, and then settled into the flames, followed by snapping- the fire's immediate distaste of the earth. Suddenly, an alarming darkness draped over them all. For a moment, no one said anything. And then,
"GIR?! What did you do?" an angry yell soon ensued.
Gir the robot, giggled, and Dib sighed, realizing that the fire had been put out. "It's probably for the best. We should rest."
"Rest?! At a time like this? I MUST find out my name," Gir pouted.
Dib couldn't see him in the darkness, but he knew that Gir had that trademarked stern look on his face, and a posture that demanded full attention. Dib could only shrug, even though he knew that Gir couldn't see him in the thick atmosphere of darkness. "There's nothing we can do. Let's sleep on it."
"And how is sleeping going to get me my name?!"
"I don't know," Dib said, impatient with having to be patient for Gir, but all the while trying to keep his voice down. "Listen, maybe the robot is malfunctioning. We'll let it sit for awhile and in the morning it can tell us what we need to know."
There was a silence, and Dib wondered if Gir had even listened to him in the first place. He didn't have to worry about that, because slowly, Gir heaved a sigh, and out of basic instinct, nodded. "I suppose we have complete the task for tonight..." he sneered, as much as he hated to admit that the human was correct.
"Finally," Dib said, rolling his eyes, genuinely more annoyed by Gir's complex than even the robot. He knelt down and felt along the ground for a smooth part on the ground. Pushing away a few stones, and nestled up against the ground. "Goodnight."
There was a silence, and Dib smiled to himself, knowing that Gir wouldn't answer to such an inane comment. He drifted off to sleep, wondering if tomorrow would bring more than just a name.
Chapter 9: Lesson From A Robot, Answers In The Dirt
It was nighttime, and the two boys were relaxing, proud of themselves for figuring out how to light a fire. In front of them, their success crackled, and every so often burst into an obnoxious pop! startling both Keef and Gir, who both then laughed nervously, frantically pretending as though they weren't afraid. The fire would often blaze up into a larger entity, then die down again to a solemn glow that seemed both calm and entrancing. A soft, stringy smoke poured out into the air, becoming lost in the ever blackening sky. There was no moon tonight, but the stars were wildling glittering in the sky, like droplets of water reflecting off bits of sun.
Keef's eyes glanced over to Gir, who was busy tinkering away at the robot with those odd robot legs arching out of his backpack. He sighed, kicking the ground softly, the dirt carrying into the air and falling back down, some being engulfed by the fire and causing it to shy away momentarily, then violently snap back.
"Watch it," Gir sneered, not lifting his eyes off the robot. It sat upwards in his lap, the dim-witted eyes catching the reflection of the fire, the life of it drained and gone. It looked like a poor, hapless figure from where Keef stood, and he wondering what sort of technological capabilities, if any, such a thing could take on.
"Sorry," Keef mumbled, and crossed his arms, shuddering at the sudden chill from the mountain breeze. He was grateful for the fact that it wasn't winter, but by the way the leaves curled upwards in some of the trees, he was aware of it's imminent and eventual arrival. His stomach growled again, but there was no food- anywhere. He almost wished that he hadn't eaten all of the moss that they had collected earlier, but at least in the morning they could go searching for something edible. He just had to survive until then. So he sat back, bored with the eerie silence, and desperately wanting some conversation to pass the time. "So..." he began. "Do you have that thing fixed, yet?"
"Quiet! I would have, if a certain /someone/ would stop bothering me with trivial discussions," Gir said tersely, scrutinizing the tiny parts of the metal object before looking up at Keef, blinking, suddenly.
"Just... trying to make conversation," Keef mumbled, lowering his head and not noticing the strange gaze. He gazed back at the fire, a distorted perspective from his point of view because of his cracked glasses, and felt the hair-raising sensation at the back of his neck from being watched. His eyes immediately shot back up to Gir, who was still glaring thoughtfully at him. "What?!"
"Your glasses," he snarled simply. "Give them to me!"
Keef shot up and held the edges of his glasses protectively, shaking his head. "No... I'm blind without them."
"Just GIVE them to me. I only need them for a moment!" Gir hissed.
Keef glanced at him, wary now of Gir's cruel and demanding personality, yet still shook his head until Gir shot him a look of such distaste and boiling rage that, for his own safety, he finally complied. He slipped his glasses off with a shaking hand and walked slowly over, holding them out toward the blurred and brownish figure of Gir.
"Uh... Keef? I'm... over here," a voice said to his left, and Keef blinked his eyes, squinting at the figure in front of him, realizing that it was a tree. Blushing at his stupidity, he followed the sound of Gir's voice, and tried again, holding the glasses out a little more calmly this time.
Gir took them from him, grinning and trying to hold back a laugh. "You really are blind!"
"Be quiet," Keef grumbled, stuffing his hands into his pockets, yet standing his ground, knowing that if he dared to venture from his spot he might end up hitting a tree. He stood, stared blankly at the fuzzy view before him, and sighed as a long silence, filled only by the tinkering of metal against metal, ensued.
"See?" Gir said after a moment, handing the glasses back to Keef and waiting patiently as Keef reached out, searching blindly through the air for a few moments before finally getting a good hold on the glasses. "I just needed them for a moment."
Keef put them on and blinked, glad to have them back. "So... how soon will it be done?"
"Soon," Gir said simply. "Now stop talking. I'm trying to work here."
"Touchy, touchy," Keef mumbled, and then kneeled down and drew pictures in the dirt. Another silence followed; this time, if Keef listened intently, he could hear the faint running of water from the stream. He let this relaxing sound soothe him as he drew: first was a huge circle with an 'A' in the middle of it, and then a few incoherent lines that he pretended was his own alien alphabet. Lastly, he became was deeply engrossed in a picture of one of the hackneyed aliens he'd remembered from stores from long ago- big, round heads, huge black eyes, two small dots for a nose and a long, thin body- when suddenly he heard a shout of triumph from behind him.
"I... am done!" Gir said, leaping up and holding the dim-eyed robot in the air. He pressed a button in the back and shut the latch, holding the creation in his hands as the robot slowly slumped over, still as dull and expressionless as before. A few seconds followed as the two bores stared at the hapless, immobile robot.
Keef's eyebrow rose. "Um... is it supposed to do that?"
"No!" Gir growled, and then brought it down, his glory at success now crushed. "What's wrong with it? I fixed everything!" He shook it violently a few times, letting the internal components roll around a bit.
"Oh yeah. *That's* going to help," Keef smiled.
"Shut up," Gir sneered, and then opened the latch again. "I can't believe this isn't working. Everything's perfect!"
"Give it to me," Keef said, taking the robot from him.
"No way!" Gir protested, reaching back toward it. "You don't know how to handle that thing."
"Sure I do," Keef said, opening up the back hatch and pushing around a few wires.
"You tried to turn it into a thermos," he bluntly pointed out.
"That was different. I didn't know what it was, then."
"As compared to now?" Gir asked, uselessly, because in truth, he was too frustrated at his own failure to complain any further. He sat back staring at the fire, as this time /Keef/ worked away, and then, after a few seconds, asked impatiently, "Are you finished making a fool of yourself, yet?"
"Just about," Keef mumbled, apparently not really listening. He shut the latch and turned to robot over a few times, then tapped the top and opened up the cap to the head. "Here's the problem..." he took out a few objects, brushed then off, and turned the head upside down, letting a small amount of dirty brown water stream out. He took his shirt, dried the inside, and then put the various objects back in.
Gir could only stare as the head cap was set in place, and instantly, the robot's eyes flashed a deep, alarm-clock red. "S.I.R. unit intact! Beginning backup drive!" a deep-throated voice emitted from inside of it, and a mechanical whirring sound followed. Keef, looking haughtily proud of himself, set the little robot down.
"How did you..." Gir began, but he didn't have a chance to finish as the robot completed the reloading process, and its once red eyes flashed a bright, water-like cyan.
"MASTER!" it shouted, leaping at Gir and embracing his neck.
"Gah! Get if off! It's trying to kill me!" Gir yelled, flailing his arms around and falling on the ground.
"Um... I don't think so," Keef said, kneeling down and patting the robot on it's head as the metal creature sat up. "Hi!"
"Hi!" the unit chirped. "You're back! And so is master! Have any cupcakes?"
"I wish," Keef smiled, shaking his head.
"Awww..." the robot sniffled.
"It's nice to see that you've established a friendship with the robot," Gir said through clenched teeth, still on the ground and looking up at the unit that was sitting on top of him, "But can you get this thing OFF?"
"Sure thing, Gir," Keef said, leaning down to pick Gir up.
"What?" the unit asked.
He was ignored as Gir stood up, brushing himself off. "Still seems dysfunctional to me," Gir hissed, tapping the object on the head and angry that he was outwitted by Keef.
Keef noted his superiority complex, and shrugged. "I only fixed one thing. It was you who put the internal components back together."
Gir, still unsatisfied, poked it again. "What's your name, robot?" he asked.
The S.I.R. unit giggled. "You're funny, master!" And then he turned to Keef. "Why is the Dib-human here? I like youuuuuu, but master doesn't," he said, and then began to bounce around on his head.
"What?" Keef asked, confused. He turned to Gir. "Why does he keep calling you 'master'?"
Gir shrugged. "It must be mine."
The robot then bounded off, doing cartwheels in the ground and landing dangerously close to the fire. It sat there for a moment, and then for another moment, and then, just for the heck of it, a moment more.
"Um... robot... thing. You might want to... move," Keef began, before the robot leapt in the air, screaming.
"I burn! I BURN!" the S.I.R. unit screamed, in a half-panicked, half-enthusiastic tone, and hopped around, arms flailing, finally coming to a rest in the dirt. It laid there for a moment before giggling and squealing, "I'm like burnt cupcakes!"
"...he must still be defective," Gir said, staring.
Keef stared as well, nodding slowly.
"Well," Gir blinked, shaking his head. "That's enough. Robot!"
The unit lay there in the ground, looking up, as if intrigued, in the sky, and humming a tune under it's breath. Gir sighed and tried again. "Robot! I am your master! Come here!"
"Master!" the robot leapt up and jumped on Gir's head. "Where's the Scary Monkey?"
Gir sneered tersely, not enjoying the robot's defective qualities, and glared up at it. Keef laughed at the sight, thinking in his mind that it was like a Kodak moment: a strange metal robot sitting comfortably atop Gir's head as an unsmiling Gir glared up at it. Gir shook his head a few times in vain attempts to get it off "I don't know what you're talking about, robot, but I need some important information."
"Let me help, Gir," Keef offered.
"What?" the robot asked.
Again ignoring the unit, Keef grabbed it by the waist and begun to tug. "Let go, little robot, or else Gir might kill you."
"I might kill me?" the unit blinked, scratching his head. "Awww... but I LIVE for cupcakes! I can't kill me yet!"
Keef stopped pulling, an expression crossing his face as though he'd just had an epiphany. "Hey... I think we have this robot all wrong."
"Why'd you stop pulling?" Gir asked, swinging his head around with the robot still on it. "Of course we have it all wrong! It's too stupid to be mine- it must be yours."
The robot, in it's own world, leapt off Gir's head and began to dance.
Keef leaned over to Gir. "Call the robot again."
"What use would that be? Do you just want to see it attack me again?" Gir growled.
"Well, yeah, that'd be funny," Keef said thoughtfully, but then shook his head. "No, this time call it 'Gir'."
"Why would..." Gir trailed off, and then he understood. He turned to the robot and yelled, "Gir! Come here!"
The robot perked up and leapt over, its eyes flashing red, saluting with its tiny robot arm. "Yes, my master!"
"All this time we've had it all wrong..." Gir mumbled, amazed. "Gir, can you tell me who I am? And who he is?" he pointed toward Keef.
"You're master! And you're Dib-human!" Gir the robot, said cheerfully, its eyes returning to cyan as it slumped over. It sat in the dirt and drew a lumpy object in the ground, pointing. "And you're cupcake!"
"Dibuman?" Keef asked, crossing his arms. "That hardly sounds right."
"Not Dibuman. Dib-human!"
"Dib-human..." Gir said pensively. "Dib-human... Dib-human.... why does that sound SO familiar?"
The robot shrugged as it continued to create art. It drew a stick figure. "And you're a Happy Noodle!" Then it drew a dot. "And you're Mr. Dot!"
Gir tried to block out the robot's absurd outbursts. "Dib-human... Dib-human... Dib. Human. Dib!"
"Dib?" there came a blank stare. "That sounds..."
"Too familiar for comfort?" Gir asked.
"Yeah..." Keef smiled, elated that he had gotten his name back. "Dib. I like that."
"At least you have your name back," Gir growled at Dib.
"I'm sure there'll be some way we can get your name," Dib said, trying to hide that goofy smile that said all too clearly how happy he was to truly be satisfied, and sure, of a part of his past.
The unit, in his own little world, was now digging a hole in the ground, kicking up dirt as he did it. The dirt spurted out like water in a geyser, and then settled into the flames, followed by snapping- the fire's immediate distaste of the earth. Suddenly, an alarming darkness draped over them all. For a moment, no one said anything. And then,
"GIR?! What did you do?" an angry yell soon ensued.
Gir the robot, giggled, and Dib sighed, realizing that the fire had been put out. "It's probably for the best. We should rest."
"Rest?! At a time like this? I MUST find out my name," Gir pouted.
Dib couldn't see him in the darkness, but he knew that Gir had that trademarked stern look on his face, and a posture that demanded full attention. Dib could only shrug, even though he knew that Gir couldn't see him in the thick atmosphere of darkness. "There's nothing we can do. Let's sleep on it."
"And how is sleeping going to get me my name?!"
"I don't know," Dib said, impatient with having to be patient for Gir, but all the while trying to keep his voice down. "Listen, maybe the robot is malfunctioning. We'll let it sit for awhile and in the morning it can tell us what we need to know."
There was a silence, and Dib wondered if Gir had even listened to him in the first place. He didn't have to worry about that, because slowly, Gir heaved a sigh, and out of basic instinct, nodded. "I suppose we have complete the task for tonight..." he sneered, as much as he hated to admit that the human was correct.
"Finally," Dib said, rolling his eyes, genuinely more annoyed by Gir's complex than even the robot. He knelt down and felt along the ground for a smooth part on the ground. Pushing away a few stones, and nestled up against the ground. "Goodnight."
There was a silence, and Dib smiled to himself, knowing that Gir wouldn't answer to such an inane comment. He drifted off to sleep, wondering if tomorrow would bring more than just a name.
