With the last of their formalities finished, Lucas, Miss Calculated, and Lorelei all head out of the office together, with Lorelei intending on escorting them back to the dining area.
Once they're collectively out in the hallway, Lucas can't help noticing 23 standing outside the room Miss Calculated was in earlier, staring at the door while slowly pulling it shut.
Two of 23's arms are jointly cradling a big silver-colored metal disc, roughly similar in dimensions to a large round serving tray. On its underside is a long thick coil of cord neatly hooked in place, ending in a high-voltage electrical plug.
Noticing the approaching humans, 23 finishes closing the door at a much more normal speed while rotating its head to face their direction.
While Lucas quietly nurses his wounded ego, Miss Calculated turns her attention to the gobsmacked Lorelei."Is 23 the only elite model employed here?" As Miss Calculated interrogates Lorelei, she bears the same crazed expression she had upon learning that Willy possesses a significant degree of intelligence."We-well, we have two other elites, but they admittedly aren't as… Attentive... As 23… That's why we would normally send it out first…" While Lorelei falteringly manages a cohesive answer, Miss Calculated crosses her arms and rapidly taps her index fingers against her forearms, directing her gaze downward."Hmm, so it's probably not only the fact it's elite… What made it progress in this way..? Aha! Four-armed units were
Once Lucas has finished choking back his urge to laugh at Miss Calculated's eagerness for quality sapient robot time, he finally starts heading back to the table as well.Lorelei continues staring in the direction of the kitchens for a few seconds longer before realizing the other two have already left, promptly following after them once she finally notices.Miss Calculated marches right back to their previous table without stopping, grabbing her water glass and downing half of it before setting it back in the exact same location it was previously. Jonathan, Willy, and Miss Masher were all just watching her actions quietly, their looks of curiosity clear on all three of their faces.Well, in Willy's case, as clear as it can be, for a dog. It's more the cute little head
After Lucas had spent a bit of time being amused by the thought that all of the discounts he just received were perhaps indirectly thanks to Lakshmi, he finally turns to head outside as well.'Is Chi already outside, or do I gotta be careful not to bump into her?'[She's already out there, watching you while tapping a foot impatiently.]'...Now that makes me wanna take even longer. Bah, but she wouldn't know that that's why I purposely dragged my feet, oh well. ...Who am I kidding? I'm too curious about what she has for me, anyway.'23 follows a few steps behind Lucas, but ends up stopping briefly before taking the final step through the outer doors. Its attention is down on the ground as it sl
Before Miss Chievous even has her laughter fully under control, she’s begun distributing boomerangs to everyone present. This includes a small boy nearby who is at the absolute most 8 years old, as well as a man who is most likely his father.The father had given Miss Chievous a wary look while she was initially approaching them, but it’s hard to feel threatened by a grinning, giggling, idiot carrying an armload of boomerangs. Doubly so when another equally grinning, giggling, idiot is eagerly snatching a few of them away from her and jamming them into the gap between his belt and his pants.Right after Lucas successfully claims his fifth boomerang from Miss Chievous’s collection, 427 abruptly starts laughing. Before Lucas even has a chance to ask why, he
Miss Masher, creeping around Miss Chievous’s left side in pursuit of additional yeeting paraphernalia, is blocked by Miss Chievous turning to face Lucas directly, right before she could manage to claim another boomerang.“Wait, seriously? While it’s out of your HQ network range like that, what if it gets lost, or something?” While Miss Chievous asks Lucas this with a confused expression, he gains an even more confused look than her.“Wouldn’t a robot be even less likely to get lost than a person? Oh, I guess it doesn’t have built-in GPS, since it was always in the same building. That should be easy to put in though? And I’ll just get ‘em a phone too, not like that’d be all that different from giving commands in pe
Lucas spends a few seconds staring down at the ringing phone in his hand, which is, unsurprisingly, displaying an incoming call from Unknown. Just when he finally finds the resolve to actually answer it, his problem solves itself, as the phone stops ringing.‘Oh, guess they gave up.’[...More like they probably got sent to voicemail. Ah, yep, see?]Before the missed call message even has a chance to fade from the screen, his phone has begun ringing once again.At this point, even Miss Calculated’s curiosity is piqued, raising an eyebrow when she sees the ‘Unknown’
Shortly after Miss Calculated began scolding her liaison, there was a quiet gasp followed by a stretch of silence from Ji Soo's side of the phone call.After a few rounds of Miss Calculated simultaneously being both mad and disappointed, she's finally calmed down sufficiently to shift from yelling loud enough for the entire block to hear her, down to a normal-volumed stern scolding."Look, I'm not saying full refunds, but you better make it mandatory that all licensed vendors offer an exchange program to trade in the existing model for the real one while only charging the price difference. Yes yes, with proof of purchase, of course, all eligible discounts applied y
Although Miss Calculated is amused by Lucas’s fuming, she decides to take the initiative to clear things up. Well, to some extent, at least.“Well, regardless of what titles you’d like to use, yes, I suppose it is fair to say we’re all more than mere acquaintances at this point. And, to further answer your questions, Ji Soo; thanks to you, we found out that the newly released model didn’t include my latest algorithm for call tracing for a more accurate caller ID.“That was the final data point I needed to determine that the numerous ways with which they cut corners all added together crossed the threshold of acceptable thriftiness. I will operate under the assumption that you heard what I said, and as I wasn’t given a prototype, I