Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Raz’s internal alarm went off, signaling the end of her shift in one of the many repair bays that made up the DOLL maintenance facility she worked in. She had been reassigned to this facility along with many other combat engineers as soon as the war ended, with orders to work in shifts repairing the massive influx of DOLLs. All units were being retrieved, many of which needed extensive repairs.
Finishing the reattachment of the muscle cables in her current patient, she wiped herself down with some machine shop towels, taking care to meticulously clean her delicate suture equipment before retracting it back into her hands. Opening up recording software, she began the last step in her shift finishing routine, detailing what repairs had been completed on the DOLL as well as which ones still needed to be done. After ending the recording and sending it off, Raz let out a long sigh.
“Wow, you sound like you need a recharge,” A lighthearted voice spoke behind her. Turning around she saw a familiar repair DOLL, seeming to have just finished their shift as well. At a glance, he seemed to be sporting some new scratches on his silicone skin, and she could see one of his hyperspectral sensors twitching again. He would need to have it replaced soon. Standing, she joined him in walking towards the front door.
“Those muscle cables are always a bitch and a half to string back together, and I had four DOLLs today with extensive damage to several muscle groups. My suture kit is aching from it.”
“Hey, just be glad it isn’t reattaching a limb altogether, I had a DOLL with both her legs blown off. I spent over an hour figuring out which bits were her and which were just shrapnel. Ended up just detaching what was left of her thighs at her hip and giving her new legs.” The male DOLL grimaced at the thought of the mangled metal.
“Isn’t that your fourth and fifth complete limb replacement this week? The floor manager isn’t gonna be happy with you using so many parts.” Raz remarked. With the sudden influx of DOLLs in need of repair, parts were often rationed or restricted in some way to make the supply last until the next shipment came. Similarly, they were encouraged to prioritize leaving DOLLs in a “good enough” state rather than making them near mint condition.
The male DOLL shrugged. “Yeah, well they can kiss my metal ass. What am I supposed to do, leave her without legs? Nobody is going to hire a DOLL that isn’t useful, assuming they hire a DOLL at all.” While DOLLs were available to the general workforce now, there was an overall distrust amongst humans. Raz hadn’t heard of many DOLLs being hired by humans outside of private security or manual labor. “Well, do you have any plans tonight? I was thinking of checking out one of those DOLL friendly parks, letting my back panels soak up some sun. You could come with if you want.”
“I’ll pass, thanks.” Raz said with a shrug. “They recommended we decorate our pods to our liking, and I haven’t done that yet. Have you?”
“Kind of. I don’t really know what to decorate with. I mean, it’s not like decorating is part of our base programming. I’ve just been looking up human decor examples and imitating those.”
Raz nodded in agreement. She too had been struggling to think of how she wanted her pod to look. It wasn’t overly big, perhaps the size of a large human bedroom. Still, she felt like it would do her good to make it a bit more welcoming.
“Isn’t there a store with that kind of stuff around here? I remember the orientation mentioning a few locations.” The two had exited the building, leaving Raz to look around at the surrounding cityscape.
“Yeah, it’s down a couple blocks that way.” The male DOLL pointed down the street to their left. “Well, if you’re not joining me then I’ll see you around.” The DOLL waved goodbye and walked away towards his pod building, while Raz headed in the direction he had pointed. She hadn’t done any research on home decor, but she’d figure it out when she saw what the store had.
How hard could interior design be?