A young human sits by themselves at their desk. Their foot taps at the floor impatiently, the rhythmic sound breaking the otherwise complete silence of the empty house. They're leaning back in their chair, while their mind is racing with thoughts, way too quickly to focus on any one of them. After a few minutes, finally, the buzzing of a phone on the desk snaps them out of it, and they quickly pick it up, unlock it and check the notification they just received.
[quaaaartz] all checks are done, looks like we're good to go!!! you ready?
They smile to themselves. They quickly write a message back, with some difficulty because of their trembling hands.
[RadiantBlade56] Okay! I'll get to the dock and call you in a sec
[quaaaartz] waiting! ^^
They barely have time to see the last message before putting their phone down, getting up from the chair and walking out of their room and into the hallway, then down the slightly too long flight of stairs. As the automatic door to the VR dock opens, they take a deep breath, trying to compose themselves before walking in. A sterile-looking white room lights up around them. Without missing a beat, they walk to the center of the room, standing right in the middle of a treadmill, and they bend over to pick a slightly heavy, fancy-looking headset from the ground. Another deep breath, this time with their eyes closed, and they place it on their head, completely obscuring their vision and covering their ears.
Finally, they reach up and press a button on the right side of the headset, which is currently blinking with a green light. A subdued calling tone plays in their ears for a few seconds, before they hear a clicking sound, followed by a cheerful, bubbly voice greeting them from the headset.
They wince slightly, and reach up further to slightly adjust the volume dial right above the call button, chuckling to themselves.
Xiana laughs on the other side of the call.
They nod, without realizing that she can't actually see them.
They can't stop a wide smile from forming across their face.
A quiet whirr signifies both the headset and the room around them coming to life, and slowly, a blurry image appears on the internal screen of the headset. Blade blinks as their eyes slowly adjust to the vision, and, slowly but surely, the bottom of a shelf against a light blue background comes into focus. Turning their head to one side and seeing the world sideways, they realize that they're currently lying down. With a quick movement, they get up from the bed, finding themselves in an unfamiliar bedroom.
A voice resonates in their head, as clear as it was before.
They nod and take a few steps around the room. The shelves are filled with some electronic components they recognize as robotic parts, some they don't recognize at all, and most notably, never before seen amounts of plush toys. Their body seems to slightly drag behind their movements, as if they're trying to walk underwater.
Barely two seconds later, her voice speaks again.
The change is immediate. Their movements now feel perfectly sharp and precise.
They turn their head towards the door and immediately gasp and freeze when seeing their reflection. They take a moment to reposition themselves so they can see their whole body in the frame and simply stand there, stunned.
The reflection of a humanoid robot girl stares back at them. Her skin has a slightly unnatural green-ish blue tone, and her eyes are a deep green. Her skin is almost entirely made of curved metal sheets, and at several points around her body the places where two plates meet is very visible, like the two lines running down across her cheeks from her eyes. There are even some bolts visible in places, holding the plates together. The metal is clearly flexible enough to let her make distinctly human-like facial expressions, though. Her red "hair" is similarly made from mostly rigid plates, simulating the shape of a ponytail that follows the movements of her head instead of swishing. She's not wearing any clothes, but the metal plates bolted on her body are coloured in such a way as to simulate the appearance of human clothes. Her belly and chest are a deep black and the lines around her shoulders where it transitions into her skin tone gives the appearance of wearing a tank top, and similarly her legs are a darker blue down to her ankles, as if she was wearing jeans.
They don't respond, and instead simply stare at the reflection, still too stunned to move.
They take a couple steps forward, mouth still agape, towards the mirror, and extend a hand forward towards the mirror. The blue hands of the robot girl and the reflection slowly come closer together, until they touch, and...
... nothing.
Blade snaps back into reality. Of course they wouldn't feel anything. The VR headset only transmits video and audio, not touch. They quickly retract their hand back, embarrassed.
A soft giggle plays through their headset.
They smile and nod.
They stay silent for a moment, and then burst out laughing. Of course. She doesn't normally have legs. How could they miss that?
They pause for a moment, then shake their head.
They nod, smiling and looking at the reflection.
They notice their cheeks growing a bit warmer; luckily, the VR headset doesn't pick up on that. They walk over to the bed and sit down, legs hanging off to the side.
Blade fumbles around with their hand until they finally find the button, then hold it with their index finger while they wrap their other hand around their leg and tug on it. To their surprise, it comes off very easily, leaving a mostly flat surface with some connectors on it. They leave that leg on the bed by their side and then repeat the process with the other one.
Before they even have a chance to reply, they notice the floor slowly moving away from them as they start floating off the surface of the bed, higher and higher.
They simply nod with their head, unable to stop looking down at their lower body and thinking about how, wow, they don't have legs. And they don't NEED them.
They nod again, and quickly float over to the mirror, barely even thinking about it, like levitating in mid air had always been second nature to them. They instinctively smile even wider than before at the reflection of the hovering robot girl looking back at them.
Xiana simply stays quiet for a few seconds, letting her friend enjoy the view. It doesn't take long before she speaks again.
Right before their eyes, a strip of lights down either of their arms lights up, giving off a soft yellow glow. Their jaw drops as two more strips of lights down the sides of their torso also turn on, one light at a time.
Their voice trails off, lost in thought. Xiana giggles again.
A moment of silence, before they close their mouth and nod, a determined look in their eyes.
Another moment of silence.
They smile into the mirror again.
They look to the side and shyly bring one hand behind their neck.
A slightly awkward pause follows, as they try to find the words for it.
They chuckle, a bit embarrassed, but enjoying the sound of it.
Blade nods enthusiastically and floats over to the shelf, their eyes lighting up at the endless possibilities in front of them.
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