Private How I met your motherboard

[Blake Araxis]

Blake cursed as all the lights in the apartment went out and the lights on the emergency power units all winked on to indicate their systems were protected. "Well chit...". Blake had half expected it to happen, this old unit was thrown out for drawing inconsistent current, but if Blake could get it working, it was quite the find. Blake's room was typical of the sort of person they were, empty noodle pots accompanied several computers in varying states of undress and a stack of custom formatted memory banks held as much software as the arkanian could lay their hands on. With power the room would sparkle with different neons and two magnifying spotlights on arms, originally intended for dental work hung from the ceiling. But now all was dark, save for the dim light from the denon streets outside.

They stood up, grabbed a flashlight and headed for the door to reset the fuses. Blake's neighbour, an older nubian woman came to the door too, looking panicked. "Don't worry Mrs. Gantza, I'm gonna go hit up the super."

"Oh force bless you Blake for keeping an eye out for floor 502"

Blake took the compliment but was lucky for their darker complexion that hid the blush from knowing that they were the one who kept blowing the fuses up here. Blake quickly headed down the stairs towards the boxes, leaving their room to find the fuse box, it would hopefully be a nice quick job and they wouldn't be out for more than a few minutes. "Here we are..... floor 498, 500, 502, gotcha." Blake pulled out the fuse, still warm to the touch and looked at it, very blown indeed. The Arkanian pulled a new fuse out of a small box on top of the fuse box and slotted it in. "3....2....1.... we have power" grinned Blake. They had been away from their room about ten minutes so far, their caf was likely stone cold so the trip back up might be under the conditions of a sulk.
​

MA-F6R Clang & Bang

 

[MA-F6R]

​

Location: Denon, Apartments
Equipment: HT Sensor Suite, Small duffel with Solaria Glasteel Battery Charging Panel, Plastiray Internal Insulation
Tags: Clang & Bang Blake Araxis

There was always a decent spot to find a proper power receptacle when one knew where to look. And this planet seemed ripe for such a thing as the little droid scrambled across the strange overhangs the biological's liked protruding off of their dwellings.

It always viewed them as a hazard, but that had come from being summarily launched in some manner from them.

The power surge through the dwelling below had caught its attention. The cursing of a being inside not without some credit. It was readily apparent most biologicals enjoyed their power supplies to be operational. The single photoreceptor fixating on the dwelling where the power surge had begun.

Setting the being exit their dwelling with the lifeform scanner, F6R took the opportunity to set their possessions on to the adjoining protrusion and step inside.

The light from its eye highlighting the trouble as it pondered the mess. A single and hopeless request for assistance to its location across the DUM-droid network a pattern it had begun cycling with each visit to a new planet surface.

The silence to this ping being the equal pattern in response, F6R did not wait around.

A series of clicks, and troubled warbles were directed at the unit before a discovery was made.

The cranial dome poked around the internals of the hardware, sighting the source of the surge before making the mental checklist of what it needed. The little droid making short work of gathering the supplies to begin the process as several nearby dwellings suddenly lacked insulators and wiring from their dwelling units.

A rebuild of the regulator and several resistors in the process of being made when F6R paused. The lack of response until now causing it to sideboard the alerts to the network it was tied to. Finally noticing its request for assistance had been heard.

An almost hopeful cycle of beeps before a cautious trill pushed through as their manipulator set down the hot iron.

Moving to a computer that seemed to be operational, F6R began to slowly peck at the key. The methodical taps of manipulators against the working system bringing up local information as it scratched the bottom of its photoreceptor housing.

A short burst of whirs and chirps drawing the processing power of the droid in search of answers rather than finishing the task it had started. Failing to notice the lights had returned.

 

[Ragos Terrek]

woops

 

[Clang & Bang]

The one designated "Clang" was the clever one. Always had been. That was why the one designated "Clang" was one six-hundred-thousandth of a millisecond faster to process the call for aid that came across the DUM-droid network than the one designated "Bang", even though the one designated "Bang" was four hours-twenty-eight-minutes-42-seconds newer than the one designated "Clang".

The two DUM droids designations "Clang & Bang" left the security and familiarity of the VXC-100 light freighter designated "The Perseverance"–their home for the last one-hundred-eighty-two-days– and ventured further even than the space port out to the wide world.

The "wide world" was not so wide as the designation would imply. Streets were narrow and leading like an assembly line. Sensors indicated that the noise level of the world was at levels that would damage the hearing of most sentients by six-point-eight-percent annually. The lighting should be improved by twenty-two-point-four-percent for maximum efficiency. Most alamaring of all was sensory indicators that the air quality was at hazardous levels for nearly forty-billion different sentient and non-sentient species and those sentients who spent prolonged time on this "wide world" were likely to live lives eleven-point-nine-percent shorter than average.

The ponderings, wanderings, and calculations of the two droids designated "Clang" & "Bang" continued until they found the source of the call for assistance. With some angling and fanangling those designated "Clang" & "Bang" were in through an open viewport and in a dwelling containing many many parts of many many things and also a DUM droid such as they were.

The one that called for us

Calculated the one designated "Clang" for they were the clever one.

Blake Araxis MA-F6R

 

[Blake Araxis]

The return up the stairs didn't take long and Blake found themselves immediately confronted by a worried looking neighbour. "Blake, Blake, thank the force you are back, I think there is someone in your apartment, I heard some banging noises, do be careful dear."

"I'll take care of it Mrs. Gantza, you go and watch your shows yeah?" Blake was curious, but there was a lot of noises in these giant and poorly insulated blocks, it could just have easily been nothing. They reached down and felt for the knife they had in their pocket, pulling it out, just to be safe, before pushing the door open. "Hello? Anyone in there? I don't want any trouble, but I've gotta gun here." Blake lied, but it might just work.

No response yet, but Blake was sure they could hear something, buzzing, bleeping and whirring, and jotnthe kind they had expected to find, you got used to the ambient noises around you, this sounded more like droid speak. Blake shrugged and entered.

"Well chit? Who are you? Get off that!" Blake scolded the DUMs as they seemed to be playing in the room with the machine that Blake had been working on before leaving. "Can I help?" Blake asked, baffled by what these maintenance droids were looking for. "If you want to scavenge, go somewhere else, I think the rodian a couple of floors up to a slug to the head the other day, he won't be needing his chit."

Blake put the knife back in their pocket and crossed their arms looking at the little droids, that were kind of adorable in their own way.
​

MA-F6R Clang & Bang

 

[MA-F6R]

​

Location: Denon, Apartments
Equipment: HT Sensor Suite, Small duffel with Solaria Glasteel Battery Charging Panel, Plastiray Internal Insulation
Tags: Clang & Bang Blake Araxis

The process of slow pecking at the keys ended up a fruitless thing as F6R managed to misspell their query with every attempt.

Their processor struggling with the resulting need to reasses and process the removal of unnecessary inputs. Eventually wearing on their last circuit as the little arms rose above their domed head.

The raucous clambering of other droids not processing while the input errors dominated the computing system of F6R. At least not until the other two droids entered the room and a confirmation of further DUM droids chimed.

The unit sitting upright with limbs extended upwards before turning their photoreceptor to the new units. Three seconds spared to the fine adjustment of the lense to better discern the current state of their company.

An excited series of clicks and a final chirp emitting as F6R stood atop the chair and pointed a manipulator towards the damaged unit.

The additional manipulators would enable the process to progress at an expedited rate with a larger chance of success. F6R's processor once more set to the task it had designated as vital in the minutes before.

Until the sensor system sent an alarm across their visual zone.

The servos whined as it twisted at the torso to see a biological enter the dwelling. Holding a small object in its manipulators. A loud click and whir of their lense shutter visibly focusing their focal point to determine what the biological possessed.

The object revealed to be a simple implement with a slightly sharpened edge along the posterior of the blade.

Not entirely ineffective against their small frames, but at a severely disadvantaged projection.

The biological shouted at the units, a small tilt of F6R's cranial dome at the perceived irritation of their services. The small droid preparing to hop down and instead upsetting the chair it stood upon with their jump. The toppling of Droid and chair producing a large and offensive percussion to their audio receptor.

Prone and confused, F6R righted itself before examining the chair and finding a split along the reinforcing strut between the load bearing pieces.

Once more sidetracked, the droid paused when the biological posed their query. The shutter of their lense shutting for two seconds to process the inquiry before more information was provided.

The droid pointed to the broken computer before moving their manipulators in a fashion the biologicals seemed to appreciate with explanatory beeps and trills to better expound on the situation.

Their limbs crossing in front of them to express their unwillingness to leave.

F6R began to expound further with an emphasis on their continued presence through sharper chirps and trills while their limbs pointed to the unit once more.

Pointing a manipulator at Bang, only to delay for four seconds before pointing to Clang in an adjustment to their delegation of necessary tasks.

F6R instructed the droid with a series of hopeful chirps and whirs before pointing to Bang.

The tone of their blips and chirps seeming more flat with the instructions shared to the second droid before turning back to the biological.

A small tingle of electricity danced along their memory circuit, scrambled data beginning to defragment as the delegation of tasks forced a recall of information.

 

[Clang & Bang]

The one designated “Bang” trilled just as excitedly at the new undesignated DUM droid.

It was known that the one designated “Clang” was the clever one. It hardly took an extra micro-processor to calculate such things. The one designated “Bang” was the brave one. It was less beholden to precision and unlike the one designated “Clang” who would run its calculations at an average rate of fifty-four times before deciding a course of action, the one designated “Bang” would only calculate the factory standard thirty-five times.

The undesignated DUM droid gestured its manipulator toward a unit in need of repair. The droids designated “Clang & Bang” turned their optic receptor and began the required scans. It was in that moment another burst in on their work. An organic. Scans of the intruder–no designation– indicated they posed some immediate threat while in possesion of a cutting tool in their manipulator. The scans performed by the droids designated “Clang & Bang” indicated that the undesignated organic’s body language suggested they were prepared to use their cutting tool in an improper manner that had a forty-three…no…thirty-seven percent chance of causing damage to the droids–with designation or without.

The undesignated organic seemed to realize their incorrect implementation of their cutting tool and corrected their action by returning the tool to storage until such a time as was appropriate.

The two undesignated units–one organic and one droid–entered into conversation, the undesignated DUM droid explaining to the organic just how fortunate they were.

This other DUM droid designation unknown calibrated its needs, pointing a manipulator at the one designated “Bang” for a full four standard seconds before recalibrating and requesting the aid of the one designated “Clang”. It required simple deduction to know that the one designated “Clang” was clearly the cleverest amongst the three DUM droids.

The one designated “Clang” slapped its manipulator against its cranial processor housing similar to the way organics would to indicated its understanding and capability to perform the requested action.

Blake Araxis MA-F6R

The one designated “Bang” chirped seriously.

The droids designated “Clang & Bang” began their work.