oSprockets

  "Were you listening to me Nat?"

  I lift my gaze up from the bck pip and look at Amber's fay phone. She is pouting and staring at me.

  "Sorry I said I was doing the final pip. They're bust to hell you know, I don't know how exactly it happened but I 't restore them to service without work capabilities. The Kimmy needs w antennae."

  "She is so endlessly fasating, isn't she? But I was asking you where you wao go on a date hursday."

  I still hadn't gotteo the cept of having a girlfriend. Amber had clearly had boyfriends before me, and I know from our time together in school she shared at least some of my sexual orientation. It all seemingly came naturally to her while I'm stu where people go for dates apparently.

  My mind fshes back to the dream from a few nights ago: where Amber and the partially dissassembled Kimmy were fug each other and I was trapped oable. I couldn't speak or move and hot oily tears were rushing down my fato my throat and choking me. I felt guilty waking up from it rock hard.

  "What is there even to do for a date in this town? There's not like a romantic spot under a tower or an abandoned try house to shack up in."

  "You are so weird Nat, we just go somewhere for a coffee and kiss and then head back to yours for more of what we did st time. I know you liked it." I blush and try to stifle myself, I'm w on delicate android parts. I 't afford to get in a tizzy and damage them more than they already have been.

  "I haven't been home properly for one and half years Amber? How am I meant to knoot to get a det coffee?"

  "Well I'll have you know I haven't been back for longer but I have actually had the time to scout the main street while you've been fixing up Kimmy. There's a half-det coffee pce you take me to and pretend like it was your idea okay?" I'm not sure how an act like that is meant to go, but I nod.

  I know very little about why Amber is really here, but I know she's staying at her friend's very small apartment while she's here and probably doesn't want to be cooped up all day. She wouldn't have e here just to look for me, I'm not that remarkable or pretty or anything really. I would call the mostly repaired Kimmy prettier than me, Amber would probably admonish me for that.

  "That sounds great then. Sorry I'm kind of o this whole retionship thing still."

  "I tell Nat. It's okay, I'm just happy I have something else to do here besides bemoaning my misfortune in the hospitality sector. Drew would have kicked me out by now if I hadn't gotten id."

  "Drew's the friend you're staying with?"

  "Had I not told you her name already?"

  "I don't think so."

  "Well you know now. Anyway I think she's trying t me into helping her make lunch. Have a ernooing Kimmy up and going. Kisses." She blows me a few kisses, I awkwardly catch them.

  "Have a nice day Amber, I'll send you a video of them going ter." She smiles and the video chat cuts off. I turn my phone over and pce it elsewhere oable, my focus is seriously o make the antenna funal.

  -----

  I've already done one so I knew what to dhly to get it into a more workable state. Kimmys are meant to have self-repair protocols but maybe whatever happeo this Kimmy was too severe for self-repair. If she could have thoughts she would probably want to thank me for doing this for her.

  The front of it needs a deep , to wipe away the dust and refuge that's collected over the past eighteen months on it. The wires on the back of it are burnt and shocked to a state of ruin, I pn to do the same thing I did for the first; which was to solder them so they weren't split and stantly smelling of fumes. Of course I didn't oersonal s iron before this whole repair job but that's what the local hardware store in town is for.

  I had sidered suggesting it for the formal first date but it's probably for the best I didn't.

  If I had to estimate I'd probably say I'd visited it three times since I started this project. My student loan money would hopefully be put into something more useful than pots of noodles or a stant supply of streaming subscriptions.

  After that my pn was to just aach it to the temple properly. It had gone well enough with the first pip but I'm beira careful with this, it's the final piece to put on before I boot them up.

  I hear the TV faintly on in the living room. I told my Mum I'm dating Amber and she was very happy to hear it but she's still... not present. There's still something she's missing that maybe her soing a girlfriend doesn't fix. I don't know what it is. We make food together and try our best to keep the pce though, we're not that successful.

  As I work on the pip, I occasionally g the pile of unsalvageable muscle and sponge from within. I have had to scrape a lot out of the Kimmy, the meical pos have proved at least very repairable or just in need of maintenand then to be put ba. It's a good thing because stuff like the heavy set batteries are not easy to get a hold of and I doubt I would have a slither of a ce to get Kimmy back up and running without them.

  The muscle and sponge is either too decayed or damaged though. It felt cruel to peel it out: to reduce their movement and take away the Kimmy's neural funs. I'm irely sure of the effect it will have on the up and running Kimmy but I hope my professor won't be able to tell the difference.

  I've been meaning to pce it all in a bin bag but it feels too undignified for them. They were a stant preseo me in sedary school for nearly three years. I don't want to be the same man as my father and treat their cut offs like waste. I'm allowed to want a little dignity for the android.

  My musing about my father stops before it turns ugly and I've done what I for the pip. If it doesn't work, hopefully the Kimmy's self-repair systems will finish what I started.

  I hold it gently and walk over to where they stand on their charging stand. It's plugged into the wall now and the Kimmy just barely hold a shape enough to stand on it without assistahe charging cord is unceremoniously plugged near anatomy... I have only really had some level of experieh due to Amber. It feels dirty to look at it charging there, like I'm staring at a moo the objectification of women. Not that the Kimmy is a woman.

  With a small glue gun in my right hand I carefully reattach the pip to their left temple. I'm fully aware that I could have pletely broken them more through my rushed meddling but at least they would be broken with dignity then. Maybe then I could get my Mum to take them to be recycled, I didn't want to though. I've put too much effort into this Kimmy to not at least get it somewhat workable.

  Their yellow eyes glow at me, which tells me that there's power in their systems at least. I grab the tablet from the ter and boot up the Kimmy app, it tells me they're at eighty pert.

  Getting the app w wasn't that difficult but my main frustration with it is the jankiness of the version of it. I've found it impossible tister a new owner (me) or remove previous owners (my parents), and a few settings seem scrambled and hardlocked. It's probably due to the damage to the hardware they've sustaihat or the version of the app is way too outdated.

  At least the tablet itself isn't damaged, the bck bag has space for it and its charging cable and that's all I need for my purposes. I just have to keep it on me so I'm solely in trol of their settings. I pce it ba the side and unclick the charging cable from downstairs.

  My hands feel gross after doing that again so I quickly put some anti-bacterial on them aurn to the tablet. Maybe if I boot them up they'll allow me to sort out the owner issue.

  Ohing I did get rid of guilt-free was their previous tattered uniform and apron. It was filthy and ruined beyond repair, luckily there were some spares at the back of the closet along with a ical looking box that probably tains important things to the Kimmy. The new uniform almost makes them look normal, if I block out the pips and glowing yellow eyes they'd just be a womao my parents' house.

  I ighe myriad of options oablet, most of which might not even do anything, and press the power button. Their eyes brighten a bit more and they stand up straight, then their posture sags. The Kimmy looks on but in every other way there is no indication of responsiveness.

  I wait for them to say something to me but ten minutes pass with no such luck. I fiddle around with manual movement of the Kimmy but nothing happens.

  "Kimmy. I want you to say something." No response. I'm not even a registered owhough, it's not like my words would have power over them.

  It's as if someone had caved their sponge in and then scooped out all the parts that made them work as a Kimmy. They're hollow despite everything meically w okay acc to my tablet.

  I push dow feeling that used to give rise to tears when I was younger.

  Maybe this was meant to be, maybe I wasn't meant t back the dead. And they're only a Kimmy. I could still show this to my professor as an attempted restoration of a Kimmy unit. This brief period of my life could be over and I could focus on figuring out how to baniversity and a girlfriend for the first time.

  But then I remember what one of my particurly boisterous cssmates pulled off at the end of my first year with ay Nicci chassis. I power them off.

  It all clicks into pce, I know how to actually fix Kimmy.

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