Bugfixing

(Work in progress)

Cassie's workshop was tucked at the back of a community makerspace, a dedicated area for robot repairs that, when not being used for community repair events, became Cassie's personal playground. Steel shelves piled high with old parts and plastic bins lined the far wall, their contents always seeming one errant bump away from spilling out onto the concrete floor. A rolling tool cabinet hung by one of the corners, its original black paint obscured by dozens of stickers slapped across its body. It seemed to serve as a sticker collector more than an actual tool organizer, considering the clutter covering every workbench in the shop. The only horizontal surface not completely strewn with parts and tools was the floor, and even then, not by a large margin.

Moby had long since grown used to the sight of the room, having spent many an hour tinkering with Cassie or helping out at the weekly repair nights. But the sight of it never failed to fill her with a sense of wonder - and, maybe, a twinge of jealousy.

As she stepped through the door, the muffled music she heard outside made itself known. A boombox on the central table sat blasting some kind of ska music. Moby gently pushed past a robot torso hanging from the ceiling, spotting Cassie himself. He sat at one of the many desks, bobbing his head and tapping his foot with the music, wispy trails of smoke rising from some circuit board they were soldering.

"Hey, Cas!" Moby yelled, stepping into the room proper. Cassie peered over his shoulder, his permanent grin meeting Moby's gaze.

"Heyyyy, Deep blue!" He exclaimed, setting the soldering iron down. His voice was a bit lower today. He kicked against the wall, sending his rolling chair skittering across the floor. Moby instinctively took a step back, just as Cassie grabbed onto a pipe coming out of the wall, stopping their movement and spinning him around to face her.

"What's up?" He asked, pawing at the side of his head until his chunky metal fingers found a small knob on the edge of his visor. He twisted it, and Moby heard the music lower to a comfortable level.

"Not much!" Moby slipped off her coat, idly hanging it up on coat rack made from old, welded-together robot arms. "Just thought I'd stop by and uh, see what you were up to!"

Cassie's face lit up. Literally. Moby could see the LEDs of his seven-segment face glow just a bit brighter.

"You picked a good time! C'mere, you're gonna love this-"

He motioned she follow, kicking off the wall again and spinning around until he slammed into the edge of the desk he'd been working at. Moby plodded after, making sure to peer around the workshop at all the other work-in-progress projects on the way over.

"So-" Cassie said, holding up the circuit board. Some loose bodge wires crisscrossed over its surface. "I got this guy out of an old Mi-80, most of the thing got destroyed when a shelf full of heavy crap fell on it, but-"

Moby listened intently as Cassie rattled off specs and factoids about the board. Cassie explained how it was extremely capable hardware, despite it's age, and he was hoping to get it in a state where it could be used as a server or maybe even a replacement board for a robot. She nodded along, occasionally pointing out things Cassie had missed, or suggesting her own ideas. She gradually felt Cassie's giant grin spread to herself, and she got so caught up she almost forgot why she'd come over in the first place.

Almost.

"Oh!" She exclaimed. "I actually wanted to ask something, while I was here."

"Oh yeah?" Cassie asked, slinging an arm over the backrest of his chair. His foot idly kept with the beat of the music still reverberating off the walls.

"Yeah, uh-" Moby thought for a beat. "I was wondering... you know a lot about openAware, right?"

"Good bit, I know a coupla folks who know way more, though." Moby smiled.

"Great! Because I was wondering if uh, you knew of a way to like.... change? An OA instance? Like, reprogram it, I guess."

Cassie's foot stopped tapping. Moby could just make out his eyes flickering on and off for a brief moment. He held still, more still than Moby had maybe ever seen him. Her smile faded as quickly as it had come.

"... Could you, uh, elaborate?" Cassie asked, speaking slowly.

"Well, like-" Moby stammered. "Like if you had a robot who was really prone to, I dunno, being angry, and they- or you, wanted them to be less angry. You could go in and like... turn that dial down. If that makes sense."

Cassie nodded, slowly, as Moby spoke, still grinning - though only because they couldn't do anything else. They sat forward, resting their arms on their knees.

"In terms of like, FOSS stuff, no way. OA's too much of a tangled mess for that."

Moby nodded. About what she figured.

"Ah. Well, alright, that's-"

"But." Cassie interrupted. "OpenAware themselves made something that can do it. It's finicky and experimental, and they've only released it to a handful of high ranking clients. But it exists in some form or another."

".... Do you..." Moby began, suddenly feeling optimistic. ".... Do you know someone who has it?"

"I should fucking hope not!" Cassie exclaimed, half-laughing. "By 'handful of clients' I mean like, military contractors and shit. I don't want anything to do with those clowns."

Moby nodded, thinking.

"Right, yeah - but like, if it leaked, you'd know about it, right? Someone in your circles would fill you in?"

"Sure, yeah." Cassie said. "They'd fill me in, I'd learn where they live, and throw their hard drive into a data shredder personally."

".... Ah." Moby mumbled.

Cassie stood up. He looked up at Moby, head cocked to the side like a confused dog.

"Moby, I know you're smart. You know how dangerous what you're asking for is, right?"

Moby glanced around the room, trying not to focus on the seven-segmented eyes staring up at her.

"I- I mean, yeah." Moby fidgeted in place.

"So what do you want with it?"

Moby sighed.

"I thought. Maybe someone like you, someone I trust, could use it to... I dunno, patch some stuff up for me?"

Cassie shook his head. His visor briefly flashed NO:PE.

"I'm glad you trust me, Deep blue, but this isn't a matter of it being 'in the right hands'. And also... patch up? What?"

"Do I need to spell it out?" Moby said, her voice coming out angrier than she had expected. "I get it, it's dangerous, but- I mean, you're always changing parts of yourself out, I thought, hey, maybe there's a way to do that on the software side. Get rid of all the..."

She paused. Sighed. Cassie waited.

"... Get rid of all the stuff I don't like about myself. All my stupid insecurities and obsessions. Hell, put me back to how I was supposed to come out when they built me, I dunno."

Cassie nodded, slowly.

"Moby, I love ya. But I think you need to like. See a therapist for this kinda stuff."

Moby let out a half-sigh, half-groan, pulling a spare seat up and slumping down onto it. She hung her head.

"It's just. It could be so easy. Just a matter of changing some numbers around and, there, I get to be normal."

"You don't wanna be normal." Cassie insisted, flopping back onto his own chair so he was at eye level with Moby. "Trust me."

"Easy for you to say." Moby muttered. "Everyone loves your flavor of weird. You're fun and charismatic, and this punk, rebel guy. I'm..."

She paused for a moment, before gesturing at herself with her hands.

"I'm all this."