Polendina's Parenting Problem
Chapter 3:
Inquiries
Atlas, 9 years prior to Salem's attack (3 months after activation)
It just failed to make sense to Penny.
Why would two people who care a lot about each other smash their mouths together? Most humans weren't cannibalistic in nature, unlike some species of animals, so if this was not an attempt at eating each other, what was the purpose of this gesture?
Flicking through a Psychology & Science magazine she 'borrowed' from an Atlesian Military worker who fell asleep on the job, she was quickly discovering new and fascinating things about human behavior, much of which was completely foreign to the redheaded android. That only served to pique her interest, however, and although she was unable to comprehend the meaning behind some actions, she was insatiably inquisitive and curious about humans.
Kissing was one of these actions, for example. To her, it only seemed unsanitary and uncomfortable, yet humans seemed to derive extreme pleasure from it. Fortunately, she was learning a huge amount about many of these strange interactions, and Penny definitely preferred reading these colorful and interesting books full of illustrations over the mundane and boring hardback books doctor Braun provided her with, filled only with lines and lines of text.
After all, 'Why do humans Fart?' was a MUCH more interesting article title than 'History of the Atlesian Aristocrats'.
With her father out of the compound on very important business, consulting with several of Atlas' highest ranking officers, Penny couldn't help but feel sort of.. bored. Wandering around the compound was a possibility but the majority of it was off limits to the young android, and the areas she was capable of visiting, she'd seen countless times before. On top of that she didn't want to bother any of the staff within the area that might be busy on their shifts.
It seemed like voluntary isolation would be how she'd spend most of today, reading and learning, even if the information she was receiving was frivolous and nonsensical and provided no knowledge that doctor Braun would call "useful" or be beneficial to her future role as a savior. 'Any piece of information is a valuable one.' Her father had taught her, a lesson she took to heart now that she discovered just how interesting the pursuit of knowledge could be.
Flipping another page, her eyes were drawn to a question that was written in bold, red letters at the top of the page, instantly catching her attention and she eagerly began to read the contents of the page.
'What is the cause of most Heating Grid outages in the City of Mantle?' It read, a topic that was of special interest to the girl, as she knew very little about the city at the base of the crater. She had only heard stories of how wildly different it was compared to Atlas from her father, but hopefully, one day she would be able to see the city for herself.
A brief scan of the page revealed that the answer to this unusual question was apparently 'Grimm squirrels'. Tiny, grimmified rodents that would crawl their way through these grids, and continue to chew on the cables that allowed these machines to work, thus disabling them.
'I should tell father about this later. He might have a solution for this problem.' Penny thought happily, making a mental note to consult her father about the squirrel-problem.
The redhead quickly came to the conclusion that this magazine was possibly the best thing she had read, ever since the day she was activated. Everything was interesting to her, from articles about people who paid ridiculous amounts of Lien for luxury food shaped like a famous person's head, to articles about how long it would take to reach the outer atmosphere above Remnant, if you were to go straight up, with a bicycle.
Apparently, 'about 9 days and 6 hours if you were to go a constant speed of 20 miles per hour.' was the answer to that specific question.
"How do they know this?" Penny queried internally with childish wonder. "Did someone try this? But bicycles can't fly, can they?"
The young girl allowed herself to slump slightly into the chair she was sitting, even though the etiquette she was encoded with was strictly against slumping and bad posture. Apparently a continued bad posture would lead to her components becoming rusty and faulty earlier than usual, and she certainly didn't want that! But just this one time couldn't hurt, right?
In her new, more comfortable position, Penny happily continued to read the magazine, eagerly taking in all this new information. She was so focused and engaged that she lost track of the world around her, and her movement sensors completely failed to detect the mechanical door of the lounge sliding open and her father's chair marching in.
With a deep sigh, Pietro took off his hat and hung it on a nearby coat rack, running his hands through his dark hair to smooth it backwards as he did so.
"Hello darling." He said with a smile, standing near the counter to brew himself some fresh coffee after the long business meeting. "How was your day?"
There was no immediate response, causing Pietro to worry slightly as he turned around, noticing Penny slumped in a chair, holding and reading a strange magazine, one he did not recognise. He shuffled closer, hoping to catch the young girl's attention.
He cleared his throat to alert her to his presence, as he was standing right in front of her. The magazine was held between them, forming a barrier. "Penny?"
This time, the redhead noticed the sudden sound and she lowered the magazine, peering up at Pietro with curious eyes. However that was quickly replaced with a startled expression as she hurriedly quickly shot up, hoping her father hadn't seen her slouched in such a poor posture, although he most definitely had.
"Father.." she began, a little nervous. "Salutations! How was your meeting?" She hoped that changing the subject would distract him from the matter of her posture. 'Distracting someone from something by starting conversation about something else to avoid conflict.' Penny had read about it just hours before, hoping that this opportune moment to put it into practice would turn out successfully.
"It was certainly something." He sighed, allowing himself to relax and ease out of that working mindset, since he was now home. "Doctor Watts basically insisted that the General agreed to his new Paladin Project and I just.." He paused mid-sentence, looking past the red haired girl, focusing his gaze on the magazine that lay sprawled on the chair.
"Where did you get that?" He looked at Penny, raising an eyebrow. "That isn't one of Doctor Braun's books."
Despite being incapable of experiencing anxiety in the same way humans do, Penny felt somewhat nervous, the inner workings of her systems starting to heat up in a way that was unfamiliar to her. She couldn't confess to him that she stole it off a sleeping colleague, could she?
"I uh.. I found it!" Penny quickly exclaimed, immediately followed by a hiccup. This was something else she hadn't experienced before, and she tried to give him her most convincing smile.
"Penny." He shook his head, a slight hint of disappointment in his voice. "You shouldn't lie to me. I won't get mad at you for telling the truth. Now, where did you 'find' that?"
Feeling more than a little guilty about having just told her first lie, especially because it was to her father, she rambled in an apologetic tone.
"Well, I finished all of Doctor Braun's inquiries, and you were gone so I went for a walk. And then there was this sleeping guard near the Central Command room, and when I wanted to wake him up I found this magazine on his desk. But I would have brought it back after I finished it!" She finished abruptly, aware that there might now be some consequences for her actions. "I'm sorry, father."
For a moment she saw her father pondering over something, followed by an unusually stern expression that made her guilt a little bit worse.
"Darling, it's okay for you to borrow something from someone, but you need to ask for their permission first." He raised a hand and gently placed it on her shoulder, his stern eyes looking into hers. "Also, you shouldn't lie to me, or anyone. It isn't right. You wouldn't want me to lie to you either, right?"
"No, sir." Penny looked down with apologetic eyes. "I won't do it again."
She understood now that not everything the magazine had taught her was morally correct, and some things could result in hurting the people around her. Understanding what was 'wrong' and 'right' was proving more complex than Penny had anticipated, and she made a mental note to not take magazines too literally.
"Now," he patted her on her shoulder affectionately. "Show me what you were reading."
Penny's feeling of guilt was quickly swept away by a wave of enthusiasm. Excited that her father seemed to be interested in what she had found, and that he wanted her to share more about the subject, she hurriedly grabbed the magazine.
"It's a really great book, filled with all sorts of knowledge, father!" She stated joyfully, handing him the magazine with a smile. "You should read it."
Opening the magazine to a random page, Pietro scanned the paper intensely. However, his focus quickly turned into a chuckle as he read.
"In some parts of Vacuo, it is illegal to wrestle with bears." The old man read aloud with a chuckle. "Also, in the upper district of Mistral you can be prosecuted for wearing a hat while walking a donkey." With this, he burst out laughing.
"This is ridiculous, who comes up with these laws?" He said between fits of laughter, clearly unfamiliar with the different customs of these other places, but still able to derive humor from the differences in cultures. "Don't worry darling, I'll return this to its rightful owner." He looked at her with a mischievous grin. "Tomorrow."
Penny smiled brightly at him as her father sat down on the chair next to her, flipping through the magazine at random and opening up on a page full of more unbelievable and mind boggling but factual articles. As they read together, the girl secretly hoped these moments would become more regular, as learning was a fun activity for her, but learning together with her father was even better. She wouldn't mind spending time together every evening, talking with her father about these strange discoveries.
A few days later, when Penny 'awoke' from her recharging stand-by mode, she noticed something was ever so slightly different from the usual mornings in the compound's upper residential ring.
All mornings typically started by waking up with a fully recharged battery to start the day brightly as soon as the sun had risen over the icy tundra outside, followed by preparing a cup of freshly brewed coffee for her father who always seemed to wake up mere minutes after the young android. Then, they would schedule their plans for the day before taking the walk from the residential area towards the rest of the compound.
However, this morning, when Penny woke up, she was greeted by the sight of a small table standing in front of her charging station.
Giving her currently blurry and unfocused vision a brief moment to calibrate, Penny noticed a stack of papers liberally strewn across the table. Magazines, in fact.
Psychology & Science magazines, to be more precise. Perhaps a dozen or so at first glance, maybe even a couple dozen.
And across the room was her father, sitting in his usual walking chair holding a fresh cup of coffee, the morning light highlighting his smile, as he looked at her with a knowing expression.
Quickly making her way out of her charging station and past the table, she hurried to her father's side, wrapping her arms around his rough figure, hugging him tightly.
"Thank you."
A/N: A happy early Merry Christmas!
For future chapters, I had an inquiry myself: Would you (the reader) prefer chronological chapters (posted in the correct time order from creation to present time), or would you like to see some variation between the timelines of the chapters? Be sure to let me know how you'd like to see the setup of this story, because I still have a lot more ideas for future chapters but need your opinion on the order in which I should post them.
See you guys in the next chapter!