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The period of silence stretched on. Xiphoid's sorting and reworking slowed to a stop, simply looking down at the careful arrangement. Then, finally, they began the process of putting the bot on the table back together, reversing their work as carefully as they’d done it. Viroid is quick to take note. “Are you done?” Vi asked. Their eye followed the movements of each piece, returning into their chest. This process was moderately faster, and apparently required less of the doctor's focus now that xe was properly familiar with the layout. Xe wobbled one hand in an unsure motion at the question. “Yyyes and no. I’m done looking at your main mechanics, that's the important part, but. There’s one other spot I wanted to check.” Xiphoid looked back up to their face. “… Oh.” “It won’t take that much longer! I just want a quick peek under the faceplate. So much of it is covered with your hair- And your eye! That little screen is an interesting design choice for expressions, but that isn’t where your actual camera is, right?” The doctor leaned in closer. Xe was very obviously excited about the prospect. Vi was not. They hesitated. "… I'll still be able to. Talk and see and all that?" "Yep! It's the same set-up as your torso, I'll just be up at your face this time. And I won't go taking everything out either. The head tends to be much more tightly organized, not worth the risk of re-hooking up a sensor wrong. Like I said, just a peek!" They'd lost some of their compassionate tone in the middle, but the general thought was still somewhat reassuring. Viroid's torso also probably had a lot less incriminating tech. Not that Vi knew much about their own internal mechanics, but they did know their head is where their radio was hooked up. Wasn't it? At this point, they had little else to lose. It'd probably be fine. Vi would've shrugged if they weren't still locked up. "Sure- Uh. Go right ahead, Doc." Xiphoid smiled at the added nickname. A particularly sweet-looking one for Xiph, with no teeth. Then they jumped into action. The doctor moved closer, standing right next to their head to where Vi's camera couldn't even turn to see. Not that they needed to turn to see Xiph, as xer face loomed over, scanning over every inch of Vi's own face. Taking it all in. Vi only realized the doctor was touching their face when they heard the quiet tapping of metal on metal, perfectly audible so close to their mic. Even here, their touch sensors were disabled. The faceplate came off slower than their chest place had, precise, maybe even unsure, but it was swept away by Xiph's hair all the same as soon as it was disconnected. Vi assumed there was still touching happening, but this close to their face and with their sensors off, they had no way of tracking where exactly. Only the soft tapping of metal fingers doing meticulous work. Viroid's camera twisted to try and look inside itself, but it only served to catch Xiphoid's attention. Viroid only had the one camera, hidden just at the edge of their "bangs," a little above the level of their screen eye. The movements it could make were small and entirely disconnected from their expressive display. This camera was intended to stay in its spot and give a full 360 degree dome of vision, excluding the blind spot where the bangs were too close to see around. And Xiph was very close to it. Staring directly into it. Vi was suddenly very aware of their screen, so close to Xiphoid's cameras. Their display eye shifted back and forth uncomfortably, surely making it even more distracting. Not that Vi had much else they could do to alleviate their discomfort. They tried to focus on something else, look at something around the room. This also had few options: Xiphoid was taking up their whole feed, still hovering over their camera. Vi had only briefly skimmed Xiphoid's actual blueprint details. Most of it was just your basic, boring model designs. Two flexible sections around the mouth for expressiveness, two cameras for proper three-dimensional environment mapping, perfectly symmetrical, all accounted for. The camera design itself was less common. More interlocking parts for expression as well as higher quality vision, more susceptible to damage or something. Vi could see the parts in action right above them, shifting and turning, as they had seen so many times before. Only at this distance did Vi hear the gentle whirring accompanying each movement behind xer lenses. Focusing and unfocusing on them. No, not them. Xiphoid was looking at the camera. The camera and all the bits and pieces around it. When Xiphoid looked at Vi, it was with warmth, an almost uncomfortable cheeriness. Vi had seen it just a few minutes ago, when Xiph had so happily how xe was going to take their face off. This was different. This was Xiphoid focused in on a machine to take apart. None of the excitement that Xiph had expressed when proposing the idea was there. Just an intense stare. Then Xiphoid grabbed hold of something inside and pulled. Even with the "pain" turned off, Viroid gave a sound of alarm as their vision cut out with a snap. "... Oops." "Did you break my camera?!" "Just disconnected it, I think. Sorry, I thought it'd have more reach than that." Down two senses now, Viroid had to rely on their hearing. Shuffling and clicking, hands moving quickly, but nothing Vi could really identify. Their mics always were pretty shit. Vi resorted to teasing to express their annoyance. "Aren't you supposed to be some. Supercomputer engineer? Best maintenance bot ever?" "I am! Even computers make mistakes." The response sounded more like a kid's book directly stating its moral than an actual excuse. Like they were quoting something. Another click and a snap, and Xiphoid's face was back, smiling over them. "There you go." There was a faint static still, but their camera was back in place. Vi tested their movement, shifting it until the static went away. When they focused back on the doctor, xe had a look of concern. "It didn't hurt, did it? I didn't mean to do that." Vi considered the noise they'd made. "No, just. Surprising." The doctor hummed in response, thinking. "I should've anticipated something would end up disconnected. Then again, that's not technically a pain response, even if it's unpleasant. I suppose there's no good way of stopping that besides just powering you down completely. That, or-" Xiphoid cut the sentence off abruptly. "Nevermind," xe spoke quietly and quickly went back to sorting through Vi's face. This time, they were entirely ignoring Vi's camera. Avoiding eye contact. "What?" "Hm?" "Don't 'hum' me, you had some. Alternative thing you were gonna talk about." Xiph was pretending (poorly) to have no idea or interest in what Vi was asking. Xe tried to busy xerself with xer work, which was difficult when your work was the thing bothering you. Vi didn't let up. "You never censor yourself like that. You love saying weird. Stuff. What was that?" Xiphoid drummed their fingers nervously on Viroid's torso. "It's just a part of a side project I'm working on, an extra mode of sorts. I'm really not supposed to talk about it, though. The project is to be kept on a need-to-know basis." The bot's words didn't quite line up with their body. They'd given up on working to stare across the room, trying to find something else to look at. Their mouth twisted, their eyelids furrowed, their foot taptaptapped on the tile below. File details, repair methods, so much Xiphoid had happily rambled away about without an ounce of regret. And yet, whatever this was, it had them thinking for once. Something even Doctor Xiphoid wouldn't go rambling about, as much as they wanted to. Something upper management actually cared about. Vi tried to maintain their usual half-interested tone. "I mean. Sounds relevant to me. You already started bringing it up." Vi gave the doctor one last look over. "And you seem like you really want to talk about it." "Hm... I suppose I could explain a bit about the extra mode." Xiphoid finally relented and looked back at Vi's camera. "And it wouldn't bore you, to hear me talk about my experimental tech nonsense?" That's what xe cared about? "I don't mind. Go right ahead." Xiphoid responded with a smile, and took a moment to process where to start. Viroid took the moment to quietly tap into their radio, so they would be ready to start sending this information to... Their antenna was disconnected. "Well," Xiphoid began, the moment of preparation over. No time to consider that. Vi tried to focus on the explanaition. "It started as an alternative to the actual maintenance mode, this one you're in now. In addition to locking your movements, maintenance mode also turns off your 'pain receptors,' as we've thoroughly tested already." Xiph tapped on Vi's chest again. "Normally, without the mode, your sensors for physical touch have set thresholds, and when those are met, or the sensors get disconnected, negative signals get sent out, comparable to the human sensation of 'pain.' This is in place to discourage damaging your body- but, of course, if they were active during maintenance procedures, you'd be screaming right now!" Xiphoid grinned like they'd made some sort of joke, but Vi didn't respond. "Of course, currently, the solution to this is maintenance mode, which just turns the sensors off completely, rendering you 'numb.' But what if, instead, we solved the problem in the opposite direction? What if instead of turning negative into nothing, we made the negative signals... positive ones!" Xiphoid checked back in on their singular audience member. "Does that make sense?" "You mean like..." Vi considered the word choice carefully. The human equivalent of positive signals. "Pleasure?" "Yes, exactly!" Xiph clasped their metal hands together, proud of their impromptu student. "And it'd be a very simple process to program, just changing around some numbers. I could have it set to something I can switch on or off, just like this maintenance mode, or have it only affect certain areas of receptors, or have different levels of strength. I mean, I'm surprised this sort of thing isn't already in use. Imagine, I do something like, well. Like ripping your camera out! And instead of feeling nothing, or pain, you felt… pleasure." "... Why would you want to do that?" Xiph stared blankly back down at Vi. Then they were avoiding eye contact again, busying their hands. "'It makes more sense in the context of the project, I suppose. Don't worry about it." Xiphoid didn't share anything else about their project. The doctor went back to Viroid's face and putting it all back together. At some point in the process, Viroid's antenna got reconnected, but they weren't paying attention. They were thoroughly distracted trying to disect just what exactly they'd learned about, and how they were going to relay any of this information back to HQ. If they were going to relay any of it. Xiphoid gave some idle chitchat as they finished up, released their patient, and sent them back into the hall with a smile. Vi didn't catch any of it. Vi was going to be thinking about this for a while. |