Story 1: Make Roomba Four
Friday, 1:00 pm
"Doesn't this thing look smashing, honey?"
"Yeah, I suppose."
In the Loud House, inside the living room interior, Lynn Sr. was real excited, discussing about an mid-expensive roomba that they have recently bought online. The design was sleek, shiny, and with an even chrome polish to it. The man of the house extracted the item from the styrofoam opening inside the box, setting it down on the slightly dirty carpet floors of the living room as Rita observed what her husband was doing.
"This was so worth saving up five hundred dollars!" Lynn Sr. confidently stated.
"Five hundred dollars?!" Rita said in surprise.
"Yeah! It'll be nice little surprise for the kids when they come back home from school! And it's controllable by smart phone! You get the instructions on how to set it up from the box while I download the app."
"I can't believe you were willing enough to spend five hundred dollars on a miniature vacuum cleaner like this one. I'm sure you could've gotten one that's cheaper than that."
Rita grabbed the paper instructions from inside the box, unfolding it open to read the contents it had before Lynn Sr. whipped out his phone, tapping the screen with his thumb to search for the application.
"Make roomba for the next robotic vacuum cleaner for your home! In just two simple steps, you can watch your miniature cleaner clean up those filthy floors of yours in a jiffy! When it's about to make contact with the concrete corners or the walls, it'll know when to turn, and avoid small oncoming collisions. It'll clean, marble, carpet and even wood floors, all under furniture. And, with no need for batteries, this machine comes with it's own charging station. When it's through cleaning, it heads straight for the charging station, waiting for you to set up it's next job."
She looked back into the box, wondering if there's anything else but styrofoam inside before looking directly at her husband, still tapping up a storm on his phone.
"Step one, hold down the power button, which is located on one side of the machine for three to five consecutive seconds."
She bent down on her knees, looking on the sides of the small vacuum cleaner, before looking on the other side, finding the button to operate the machine as she pushed it in for five seconds.
The machine turned on successfully, flashing a clear white color from the top before the wife returned to reading the instructions.
"Have you found that application yet?" she asked.
"Not yet, it's a bit more complicated than I thought..." Lynn Sr. replied.
Rita grabbed his phone as she handed him the instruction sheet for the machine.
"Oh, here. I'll find the app, you finish setting up that thing."
Lynn Sr. looked at the instructions, figuring out where she left off at until he realized that there was only two steps.
"There's only two steps? I thought it would've been more complicated than that."
"I thought the same thing too, but apparently we were wrong."
Lynn Sr. let out a small inaudible sigh.
"Well anyway, Step two says to study all of its functioning buttons and to see what they do."
He constantly switched his own sight to the top of the roomba where the buttons were located back to the instructions on the paper, understanding how the buttons work and what activates it to set it into full motion.
"The first button, triggers the standard cleaning mode, the middle two triggers which way the roomba should go, and the one on the right just makes it stop completely."
Rita looked on top of the machine, getting the functions of the buttons embedded into her memory.
"I can't believe it all looks so simple!"
"Technology sure has their perks nowadays."
"Anyway, I found that app."
"Oh, you did?"
"Yeah, I even booted it up for you."
She handed his phone back. Lynn Sr. looked at it, very satisfied with what it looked like.
"It's just like a remote control! Now let's see here..."
He touched the start button, activating the full motion effect for the roomba vacuum cleaner as it moved in a clean straight line.
"Wow! That's awesome."
"It sure is, isn't it?"
The vacuum cleaner noticed a few crumbs on the filthy carpet floor and motioned over on top of them, sucking them up in the process, leaving Lynn Sr. and Rita impressed.
"I can't believe we didn't think to invest in one of these babies years ago." she said.
"This is definitely worth saving up five hundred buckarinos." he said as Rita looked to his husband with redundant lips.
"Didn't you already say that?"
"I did and I'm proud of it. Boom!"
Five Minutes Later
The parents of the household were left satisfied with jaws open, as the two watched the miniature vacuum cleaner clean up the last speck of the floor, returning back to them slowly at their feet. The living room was completely clean, with no spots visible from every square inch of the living room interior.
"Whoa."
"It really looks like nobody's messed up our living room now!"
Lynn Sr. set his phone down on the couch before he lifted the roomba off the living room floor, placing it on it's chalßing station.
"Now that the living room's clean, let's say we head on out and get some massages, or pick up some groceries?"
Rita headed for the front door, opening it halfway and said "I'll be waiting in Vanzilla!" as she exited the house.
The man of the house went into his room for some seconds, grabbing his keys before emerging back out, accidentally leaving his cell phone behind before immediately heading to the halfway open front door and exited the house, closing the door from behind.
Vroom.
Vanzilla started up and omitted screeching sounds, leaving the house as the sounds started fading out as he drove the vehicle far, far away for a while.
It was completely quiet in the house, with no Loud family member present inside. There was nothing but dead silence that seemed like minutes, up until Cliff the cat emerged from the upstairs hallway, making his way downstairs to the very clean carpet floor of the living room interior. He looked around the place, looking for something to play with instead of just hopping on the surface of the living room couch, watching those boring reruns of classic shows.
"Wonder what I did with that ball of yarn I had this mornin'..?"
The black cat had shed on the carpet floor as he walked around the interior, before he came across the roomba, resting motionless on it's charging port. He had his eyes locked on the machine, slowly walking towards it to see if it would do something. A few seconds had passed with nothing happening before he tilted his head, lifting up one of his furry paws, poking at the machine a couple of times before his innocent mind thought it was a nice little stool for him to sit on as he boarded on top of it, soon accidentally activating the miniature vacuum cleaner with his right paw.
"Huh?" the cat said as he softly jumped before the machine started moving around in the process.
"Whoa! This is... pretty astonishin'!"
He smiled as he took a straight slow stroll across the living room on top of the roomba, meowing with absolute joy for several seconds before moving his long tail. Charles walked in from the dining room, with Geo on top of his head outside his ball before the two were real amazed with what they both observed in the living room, Cliff riding a moving vacuum cleaner.
The smiling cat looked at them, and said "Oh, hey guys!"
Charles walked over to Cliff, questioning about what he's doing.
"Um... where did that come from, cat?"
"I have no idea!" Cliff answered. "I just found this moving cushion lyin' around here in this here living room and, boy this thing is pretty fun to play with!"
"And it cleans carpets too? Nice."
"Huh?" The cat said as he looked from behind. "Wow. At least it's not like that scary vacuum cleaner that ate me that one time..."
Cliff's little flashback consisted of a wired rusty old vacuum cleaner chasing him all around the upstairs hallway. The chase lasted for a good amount of seconds before the vacuum cleaner somehow managed to catch Cliff's tail, prompting him to look back at it with widened eyes as he meowed in absolute fear before it sucked him up whole inside, shutting itself off soon after.
The cat later meowed in a sad tone in mere defeat.
"Hoo boy, that was one heck of a nightmare. Gettin' me all dusty and whatnot."
"Ooh, can I ride?" Geo asked.
"No way! I just found this just a minute prior and I'm gonna get this full experience of this thing!"
Charles rolled his eyes before he pushed the cat off the roomba, placing Geo on top of the moving vacuum cleaner.
"Hey! The heck was that for, dog?"
"You can't have that thing all to yerself now," Charles stated. "If anythin', we're gonna experience this machine together!"
"Oh, alright then," Cliff sadly responded with droopy ears, feeling bad as he looked down on the carpet floor. "What were you guys doin' earlier before you came in here by the way?"
"Me and the Ham were doin' some pretty interestin' things out in the backyard. Especially the part where we were diggin' for somethin'."
"It's a pretty cool item if you ask me!" Geo added.
"Eh, I wouldn't say 'cool' in my opinion."
"It was another bone, I bet." Cliff guessed.
Charles hesitated for a second, staring blankly into the eyes of the black cat. "Um, yeah..."
Walt flew his way into the living room, wondering what the commotion was all about.
"Hey! What goes on?" he asked before Cliff turned his attention to the canary.
"Hey bird, check this out!" he said as he pointed to the moving roomba that Geo was sitting on top of as he waved to him.
"What's that supposed to be?" the canary questioned.
"It's a mobile cushion that you sit on!" the cat answered with a smile.
Walt started to get a bit concerned. "Huh? Are you sure that it's safe to sit on one of those things?"
"Oh yeah! I mean it's not like it's gonna collapse into several pieces underneath ya."
Cliff lowered his voice as the canary flew down next to him. "Unless you're the 'K' and the 'nine', if ya know what I mean." Charles looked to the two pets in a rather confused state.
"What are you two talkin' about?" he asked.
"It's nothin', dog!" Cliff answered without any noticeable hesitation as Walt slightly grinned at him. "Nothing at all!"
Charles slightly squinted his eyes, thinking something suspicious is afoot with the two as they slowly started sweating.
The roomba headed straight towards a concrete wall, with no possible way for the hamster to change its direction. Geo gulped as the roomba approached closer and closer to the wall before calling out to the three communicating animals.
"Guys! Help!"
Charles, Cliff and Walt all turned their attention to the roomba heading for the wall as Geo still anxiously alarmed the three for some assistance. The dog and the canary looked to the cat, figuring that he knew something about the machine to rectify Geo's situation.
"Ham, you'll be fine! It only goes like less than five miles an hour!" Cliff said loud enough so the hamster can understand.
"Are you sure?" Geo quickly asked as he covered his eyes, quivering with a small bit of anxiety before the roomba finally reached the concrete wall in front of it.
The machine stopped for a small second before it oscillated to the right, moving in a clean straight line. The hamster opened his little eyes to notice that there was no head on collision with the wall as he said "Oh." before he sighed in relief.
"See? I told ya you'd be fine!" Cliff reassured.
"I'm getting curious now... I wanna try!" Walt eagerly said as he zipped over to the moving roomba, landing right next to the hamster as he smiled halfway across the living room. Charles looked around the interior for some second before his perspective became fixated on the dining room table, where there were scraps of breakfast food still on the surface of the table from this morning. The dog thought to himself for a moment before a bright little idea hatched inside his canine mind.
"Hey! What if we put that thing to the test?"
Cliff looked at the dog blankly before he asked him a question.
"Test it how?"
The canary and the hamster added "Yeah?"
"Well, I noticed that this so called 'cushion' can clean up even the smallest of messes from this room alone. So I say, let's have a little fun with it!"
Cliff, Walt and Geo looked blankly at the dog, hesitating on their answer for a couple of seconds before they all unanimously agreed with his little idea.
"Alright then." The cat answered.
"Why not?" The canary added.
Two Minutes Later
Charles walked all around the dinner table, sweeping off some of the crumbs of food from the cloth surface as they landed on the carpet floor without omitting a single noticeable sound as Cliff, Walt and Geo watched with the stationary roomba resting in front of them before he proceeded to plop down on his rump.
"Okay, ready?" The dog said.
"Whenever you're ready, dog." Cliff responded as he walked beside the roomba, lifting his paw up over the buttons as he set himself to activate the machine.
"Let's roll!"
The cat pushed one of the corresponding buttons on top of the roomba, activating it as he and the other three animals sat there, watching the lightweight machine takes it's sweet time maneuvering around the table as it sucked up the small speck of crumbs buried among the carpet floors. Walt and Geo reacted without uttering a single sound, with raised eyebrows all around for a brief period of time before they smiled with complete satisfaction.
"Wow, I don't know what to say." Walt said. "That's a pretty efficient machine "
"You're telling me!" Geo said to the canary as he giggled. The moving roomba arrived right back at the same exact position it was when it recently booted up, directly in front of the three spectating pets.
"Still better than that rusty ol' vacuum cleaner." The cat uttered.
"Agreed." Walt and Geo simultaneously added before the canary started flapping his wings, staying afloat as he dropped a feather or two on the carpet floors of the dining room. The machine oscillated to the direction of the canary's yellow feathers before motioning over them, sucking them up in almost an instant as the pets watched.
Two Hours Later
Cliff slowly started to get bored from watching the roomba clean up the now sparkling carpet floors, now making it's way back around the table, approaching the black cat.
"Alright, this is startin' ta get a little borin' now," Cliff said. "I'm gonna ride on it again, cause it's fun."
The cat mounted on top of the moving roomba in front of him before Charles got slightly mad at him, jumping down from the dining table onto the carpet.
"Hey! I never got to ride that thing. If anythin', it's my turn!"
The dog walked over to the machine, pushing Cliff over to the side as he also mounted on top of it.
"Hey, watch it dog!" The cat madly stated as he shoved the dog back. Geo started to grow more concerned as the two animals riding the roomba started verbally fighting each other.
"Stop pushin' me, cat!"
"You stop pushin' me, dog!"
"You ain't gonna hog this thing all day!"
"But I was the one who found it first!"
Charles gave the cat one more push that knocked him off the roomba, before the slightly hostile feral feline tackled the dog off the machine, pinning him down on the clean carpets as Geo grabbed their attention, temporarily breaking up the fight.
"Guys, stop it!" The hamster said, growing more concerned by the second while Walt flew down to his side, glaring the cat and the dog down.
"There's no need to fight over this! Violence is never an answer that you guys need to select from!"
The dog and the cat hesitated, looking deep into the hamster's sad soulful eyes before they both looked towards each other in shame.
"Cat, maybe you should be a little less selfish about the thingy-majig, and Dog, you should be a little less physical about handling a situation. "
Cliff got off of the dog as he sat down, extending his paw out to gladly help him up. Charles extended his and grabbed on, getting back up on all of his fours before the hamster stopped his soulful eyes and smiled.
"Now, isn't that better?"
"You bet." The cat answered.
"Uh-huh." The dog answered.
They both shook paws as their way of apologizing before they stated it shortly afterwards.
"Sorry." They said in unison.
The two animals continued making up as the canary uttered "Seriously, all this over riding on a small vacuum cleaner?"
"We're not perfect little angels y'know." Cliff replied.
"We're just animals, born to make mistakes and learn from 'em." Charles added.
"You've got a point there." Geo added as well. "Now come on, let's all take a ride down on this thing!"
"I call shotgun!" Charles said as the four pets mounted on top of the stationary roomba simultaneously. It started moving in straight lines under the dining table, speed slightly decreased due to the combined weight of the pets before it halted, almost making contact with the concrete wall in front of them as it oscillated at an angle of a hundred and eighty degrees, moving in another straight line. The four pets had a good time riding the machine as they made some noise with a bit of flair added to the mix, up until the sound of the doorknob turning emerged from the living room, prompting Charles, Walt and Geo to dismount from the machine and head for the front door.
The three stayed put in front of the door, watching the door creak open to reveal Lincoln and his sisters, returning home from school along with the parents of the household coming in from behind the ten kids, carrying few bags of groceries. The siblings chattered away as they showered the three with love as well as petting their heads before Rita and Lynn Sr. asked their kids for a bit of assistance.
"Hey kids, mind if we could get some help here?" The man of the house asked.
"I've got this." Lori said, grabbing a bag from the mother.
"Same here dude!" Luna said, grabbing hold of a couple bags from the father.
"Hey, where's Cliff?" Lynn asked as she looked to her left and right for the black cat. The sound of the roomba omitted from the dining room as it made its way into the living room where everyone else is at, playing with the other animals with the cat still riding on top of it. Lynn Sr. noticed him, understandably mad about it to the point where he could barely scold the misled animal as the siblings were dumbfounded about the new roomba the father figure had purchased, observing in awe with cuteness overloading while the three animals sat back and watched.
"Cliff, bad... cat?"
He stared blankly at the situation before he almost instantly inverted his frown, smirking at the cat.
"I do have to admit, that is pretty cute!"
"Agreed." Rita said.
Cliff looked up to them before he turned his attention to the audience, gladly meowing with a smile.
~End~
