urbanchampagne

[urbanchampagne]

Dear Diary... (August 17th 2014)

The page is covered in scribbles. It's just at the bottom that has one simple word.

FUCK

[urbanchampagne]

"Volcano? What are you even-" he started walking away before she could even finish that sentence. She rolled her eyes, resting her head in her hand as you counted down the seconds until she knew it would process. 3...2...1...

"That I am. Now you need to sit down and answer my questions first." Alice spoke with an eerie calmness. "What volcano? It honestly couldn't be that bad. It wouldn't affect here. Also, why do you want to be more 'alive'?" she added.

How Am I Gonna Be an Optimist? || Life & Alice

"I was created by Dr. Hope so that I could become alive mostly. But I must also stop the oncoming volcano eruption by any means. I asked you to help me learn social cues, so that I can become more alive." Life said simply. He then proceeded to stand up and said, "But I must speak with the CEO of Funland first." Life then went to exit the top-floor office, that was uncommonly large. When something stopped. This office was where the CEO’s office might be.

Life turned around and walked straight up to the woman. “Are you the CEO?” Life asked with a serious face.

[urbanchampagne]

She was awfully curious. Alice wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that. She was taught that curiosity killed the cat-by the ones they were questioning-and that she should always keep her mouth shut about private matters. It made life a lot simpler, and easier for herself. In the end, isn't that all that really mattered?

"Oh, well that's definitely nice," she smiled with a nod. "Is it usually busy? Or do they mention that it's been really dead lately? Or even on certain days?" she asked, trying to keep the conversation light and away from any specifics. She wasn't entirely keen on the idea of letting the woman know what she was up to.

"Oh, this?" Alice asked, motioning to the notebook. She was grateful for the god-awful handwriting, or she could have been in trouble a few times more often than not. "I'm making a shopping list," she said brightly. "I thought while I was visiting I should pick up a few things for my sister back at home," she shrugged. "Though I guess this is useless if they change their stock so frequently. It's nice to see," she commented ,stashing the notepad away in her purse.

"Just a quick question, though," she suddenly piped up, "what is there for entertainment around here?"

Public Works || Illuminata + Alice

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"Apparently you don't because you fail me constantly! I know preschoolers  who could come up with a better working toy in less time than you could!" she spat.

Alice actually laughed at that, letting both hands rest on her hips. "You rely on others constantly. I bet you couldn't even put a tie on by yourself without whining about how 'difficult' it was and how you 'didn't have enough time' if there wasn't someone cleaning up after you every single time."

She scoffed, taking the paper and raising an eye brow. "What the hell is this? A pitiful letter of complaint?" Her expression dropped as she read over the paper. She squinted at the ink on the page before giving Charles a confused look. "You quit?" she asked, at least half of the anger now just replaced with genuine curiosity. "Uh-huh. Right. I suggest you withdraw that request before it's one of your many regrets."

Turning Gears || Charles + Alice

 "How am I selfish? I do everything that I can to reach your impossible expectations. You won’t be able to maintain your position for long if everyone beneath you is run ragged!"

His face flushed with anger, as only a redhead’s could. “How dare you! Every single accomplishment I have is entirely my own. My parents didn’t even cover a single cent of my university costs, and I got my doctorate by myself when I was 19 years old!”

The slap stung, but with a taste of victory. He had pushed her to that point, and he would win. His smirk was a blend of lazy and viciously sharp. “Do not threaten me, Alice. Renton and I are the ones who had to bury those bodies.”

He stepped back and dipped a hand into the folder she dropped into the trash, pulling out the letter tucked into the back. “You wanted to see something exciting, you tyrannical little ferret? Here!” he exclaimed, shoving the paper into her hands. 

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She crossed her arms, a glare as cold as ice fixated only on him as she spoke, "Actually, Mister Artois,they are not mine. I entrust you with a job, I expect it done. You failed to do that job and as such it is your failure. The only thing that looks bad upon me is the fact I have unreliable, selfish, impudent employees!" she snapped. 

Her eyes narrowed. "I am demanding. I am harsh. As a CEO I have to be. I wouldn't expect you to understand any of this, only relying on someone else's connections to get you through life and you still need to leech off of my company to feed yourself. I expect only the best of my employees and you always seem to fall short."

With a sharp intake of breath, Alice's hand came up fast and made contact with his cheek. The sound seemed to resonate throughout the room. "Remember, Charles, you are nothing more than a lowly employee. Understand? I am your boss. Your superior and I will be treated as such...and if I ever hear something like that come from your mouth ever again..." Her nails dug into her palms, holding back the urge to fully lunge, "I will ensure they do not find the body," she finished viciously. 

Turning Gears || Charles + Alice

"Beg?" he asked quietly, temper stewing in his gray eyes. "Alice, if you know me at all, you know that I beg for nothing.”

Charles inhaled deeply through his nose, his frown deepening. “They are not my failures. As a leader, they are your failures. You lack any understanding of the limits of your charges and then act so surprised when it doesn’t come through. If I were anyone else on this planet, I would have quit this job years ago, because there is nothing so horrendous as having to work with your bratty, ungrateful self every. Single. Day.”

He snickered and tilted his chin. “Oh? That’s not what I heard. And not even in my nightmares would I dream of you, Boss.”

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"Oh, don't worry, Charles, all is forgiven if you simply act as you should and beg for me to forgive you,"  she smirked just slightly.

A harsh bark of laughter came from the woman. "I don't think I was the one who build that piiece of scrap metal, was I? No, I don't recall. You really shouldn't blame others for your failures. It's not becoming on you. It doesn't matter how brilliant you are, though, if your failures hold you back."

Alice's face turned bright red at that comment as she slapped his hand away. "I will never sleep with an intern, or for that matter any employee!" she spat, "so sorry to burst your bubble, but your little fantasies will have to be put on hold!"

Turning Gears || Charles + Alice

"Modern art?!" he hissed. “Well, do forgive me, my lady, that I am not simply some vending machine that can churn out things you deem exciting simply by throwing money at me.”

He leaned a hip against his desk and crossed his arms. “I do recall a certain incident where you gave me a grand total of 72 hours to build a mech-horse that ended in disaster!”

Charles tossed his head. “Of course I’m brilliant, Alice. I’m more brilliant than you could even imagine. I have a grand total of 85 patents for my work, and you have the gall to insult me?”

Sneering, he tipped up her chin, “At least I, unlike one of those interns you compare me to, will not attempt to sleep with you for the sake of job security.” He paused and drew back. “Well, even then. I don’t think it’d be worth it.”

[urbanchampagne]

The new woman caught Alice's attention. She seemed very enthusiastic. Wonderful. That's just the kind of people she had hoped to avoid. They always wanted to get right into the action.

However, the woman seemed naive enough not to care too much about her business, so Alice flashed her a polite smile. "I suppose so. I haven't been here long and I've mostly been browsing the shops. It's very lovely," she said brightly. "It's close to everything as well, so it's a bonus. I'm mostly looking at each of the shops to see what they all have to offer...and location is definitely at the top," she said.

"I'm going to go ahead and guess you're really familiar with the place?" she asked warmly.

Public Works || Illuminata + Alice

[urbanchampagne]

Alice had to put a hand up about thirty seconds into that conversation. She didn't need that much detail, and quite frankly, she probably didn't care much either. She took a slow breath, trying to calm herself. She didn't need another one of his episodes in her office.

"Okay, let's start again. You're a robot. You have malfunctions...now what's your purpose? Why were you created and why did you ask me for help?" she asked, trying to prevent a migraine before it happened.

How Am I Gonna Be an Optimist? || Life & Alice

The woman had immediately ordered him to sit and start explaining So Life sat down in the small, rigid chair by the desk. He calculated that the left chair was .5 inches closer so that is the one he sat in.. Life decided to start from the beginning of it all.

"3 weeks, 1 day, 3 hours, 5 minutes, and 43 seconds ago, my creation was completed I was turned on. I then spent 2 days living with my creator, Dr. Hope, and his maid, Vita. I was then sent to live in the ruins approximately 3 miles away with Franco and Moonlight. I was to farm the ruins and possibly find the way to stop the upcoming volcano eruption. I then woke up the next day at 5 AM as I always did depending on the time I went to charge my battery or ‘went to bed’…." Life began to babble on about what has happened to him in the three weeks he’s been ‘alive’.

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"Less than satisfactory'?" she mimicked, curling up her lip, "I think you mean the majority of the time you provide me with an elaborate piece of modern 'art,' isn't that what you people like to call it?" the white-haired woman scoffed. "If you could actually hold up to your resume, you might be just a little more successful, but who am I to judge." Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she briefly flipped through the folder before she snapped it closed.

"Honestly, that's boring," Alice sighed heavily. Without thinking about it, she tossed the file into the trash. Normally she would wait until she closed the door, but his attitude was starting to get on her nerves. "It would be great if you could come up with something a bit more exiting. Something that would actually put pride into this company instead of your simple toys that looks like its been pulled up from the dump? Maybe even a little bit?"

Her left hand rested on her hip as she shifted her weight to her other foot. "You're brilliant-that's why you we hired you-so maybe you could start acting less like an unpaid intern?" she asked slowly, the condescending tone making it seem like she was much taller than she actually was.

Turning Gears || Charles + Alice

Charles rolled his eyes as his petite boss entered his office space. This is why he would prefer to be a freelancing inventor instead of her glorified secretary/bodyguard/personal robot builder. The pay might be less steady, but he would have his private space.

He sneered, “I never give you junk. The only times when my work has been less than satisfactory is when you give me unreasonable deadlines. Even genius has its limits.”

Standing, he handed her a folder with a blueprint inside. “Behold, The Handyman. It’s a multipurpose exo-suit that’s designed to increase both safety and efficiency in all of your construction and demolition endeavors.”

Maybe she would actually look at the whole folder this time. He’d been slipping a letter of resignation in the back of the folders he gave to her for two weeks and she still hadn’t noticed any of them.

[urbanchampagne]

Alice held her shoulders back as she walked through the building. Her head was always held high and she walked with a calm, cool confidence that had yet to be seen. She opened the doors to reveal a very large office lavishly decorated and against the back wall sat a desk littered with many kinds of papers and an office chair on one side, and two smaller chairs on the other.

She didn't seem to hesitate to make the transition from tile to carpet as she went over to her chair and sat down and crossed her legs. "Okay, so sit down and start explaining," she instructed.

How Am I Gonna Be an Optimist? || Life & Alice

"Affirmative." Life said following the woman as he knew it polite to do what other asked of him. As she lead him into the building the secretary seemed to stare at them. Life wondered why. Her office was at the very top of the tall building. It took them about 50 seconds in the elevator to reach the top floor. The elevator in the ruins was much faster than this one, but Life knew it was the lapse in technology. The woman lead him through the hall and to a two tall doors, which were the only doors closed. She opened the door and walked into the room, Life followed behind her.

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Turning Gears || Charles + Alice

Her heels clicked loudly against the floor of the building as she approached her worker's door. She knocked twice before entering, not waiting for an answer. She knew Charles would be there-well, it was mostly the gut feeling.

Alice had given both of her bodyguards their own space not too long after they were hired on. To her, it was simple really, the assistants to the best needed a place of their own, even if it was must smalled than her own work space.

Crossing her arms, the woman leaned against the open door frame, her gaze piercing and unforgiving as per usual. "So what have you come up with for me this time?" she asked, "and will it actually work or just be a useless pile of junk?" she added.

[urbanchampagne]

Public Works || Illuminata + Alice

Selphia, huh? Well, it definitely wasn't a bad place. It could use some sprucing up, but Alice definitely saw the potential in the city. It was busy, people seemed happy, and she could just feel the money in the air.

Holding her head high, she easily made her way through the crowds, careful to scope out where she might be able to place her next project. Sure, she'd definitely have to knock down a few buildings, but the end result is what would matter, right?

She paused just outside a quaint little flower shop and a smile slowly spread over her lips. She inspected the area around the shop before nodding. This seemed like the best place to consider the project. Just out of the way that people needed to fuel the economy to get there, but inside the city so the most wealthy residents could visit whenever they pleased. She paid no mind to anyone inside as she started to write down the details of the store.

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Shoot for the Stars || Dia + Alice

Why was she even out here again? Right. Because stupid HR decided they didn't want to do half of the work themselves and that left Alice to clean up the mess. Typical. She knew the reason they just pushed things onto her was because of her age...and also because they knew she would do it without too many complaints.

The woman knew and understood that Funland Company was hers and hers alone. As such, she had to do the dirty work once in a while, much to her dismay. She guessed that was why she was sent all the way out to Flowerbud-silly name-just to check the "working conditions" and "how it might affect the residents." Yeah right.

Jotting down a few notes, her sharp eyes scanned the area. The area around here looked fine to build upon. Why were there so many complaints? Because they want a better salary she thought with disdain, scrunching her nose like she swallowed something bitter.

She tucked the notepad away in her purse and turned sharply on her heel. She didn't notice the woman behind her and smacked right into her. "Ow...you need to watch where you're going," Alice hissed.

[urbanchampagne]

Alice watched him as he seemed to try to...fix himself? She waited for the explanation before letting out a slow sigh. This was definitely different. She hadn't seen this type of technology before, perhaps Charles would be interested the next time she worked, but for now, she would need to get the full spectrum of what was to come.

"Right, well, let's just go then," she said curtly, "it might be better if you explained this to me in a better setting. I might actually have some sort of clue as to what's really going on." As much as she  hated to admit it, Alice really wasn't sure what to do with the robot. She needed to work this out in her office and try to find a solution.

How Am I Gonna Be an Optimist? || Life & Alice

Life immediately stood up. He grabbed his ear pieces and took them out, he shook them a little bit and put them back in. He then turned his head to the left side and then to the right.

"I have been malfunctioning a lot lately, It is true, I am an android, model: Innocent Life. I have reset my system for now. No, person can fix me besides Dr. Hope. He is the only with the technology advanced enough. Especially since the technology her is low-grade." Life said calmly and in his usual monotone voice.

"I am sorry to have troubled you, Miss. This is very troublesome." Life said apologetically.

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He was just...full of surprises, huh? The woman shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She took a deep breath, her fingers rubbing her temples. He was babbling on like there was a real threat or something. Ugh. Why did she always have to deal with these kinds of hassles?

"Okay. You're obviously some sort of robot with a malfunction. No two ways about that...ugh!" she scowled, trying to sort through this. Yeah, so much for an afternoon off.

"Why don't you calm down and we talk about this in my office?" she said slowly. "I can probably find someone who knows how to fix you, or help you with...whatever you're trying to achieve exactly."

How Am I Gonna Be an Optimist? || Life & Alice

Life was now bawling his eyes out. “Please…I don’t want to be dismantled! I want to be a human. I want to be real.” Life said loudly in a hoarse voice.

"They’ll take me away, and dismantle me. They’ll use my parts for many things. I do not want to die!" Life looked up innocently at the woman, ignoring her question under the threat of being dismantled.

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Why was he shaking? this was definitely getting weird. Maybe it was one of Charles' prototypes? It was definitely advanced. That was something, but far from perfect.

"That couldn't be," she responded, no sympathy in her voice whatsoever. "You don't act like it. You're too rigid. Too awkward. I doubt you even know who I am and you asked me to teach you. What exactly did you expect me to teach you in?" Alice said sharply.

How Am I Gonna Be an Optimist? || Life & Alice

Sweat poured down Life’s face. How had she found out? He acted like an average human, in every way. Life’s whole body shook, he was barely able to form words. What was this feeling?

Life sank down further, “I….I don’t know what you mean, I’m afraid…” Water began to form in his eyes as he went through crisis after crisis in his mind. These malfunctions seem to be happening with more and more frequency. ”I am human just like….you.”’ Life said looking up at her from his kneeling position.

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Alice returned the smile with a polite one of her own, her eyes watching him carefully. As he went down her mouth actually fell open. She had experienced many things in her short life, but this was...something just...wow.

Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she could actually form a coherent sentence. "What are you?" was all she asked as she stared blankly at the man.

How Am I Gonna Be an Optimist? || Life & Alice

It was exciting for Life to meet new people. Meeting new people meant learning new things, which is a step closer to becoming human. He had gotten quite good at his introductory smile. He smiled an almost natural smile at the woman. Life pictured it to be very charming.

He then stepped forward and said, “I think you are quite knowledge. Please be my teacher.” He kneeled down and bowed before her, trying to be as polite and respectable as possible.