Tap...tap...tap...the sound of a pencil gently colliding with the cool surface of a desk was an unusual sound in this place. It was a small dwelling nicknamed Robot House, whose occupants were all robotic in nature, all of them traveling from the cold wastes of Whalestrand to reside in Argo for at least a year, the most technologically-advanced residence in all of Ulimaroa, made possible because one of the four residents had made it her mission to ensure she could reach out to the rest of the world at any given moment, the one who oddly least embodied the title of Robot.
Sage Robotnik, despite the word being in her name, had never really considered herself a robot, an android, or any sort of truly mechanical being. Certainly she had taken to 'piloting' a robotic form, but her Father had created her as a purely digital being, one with the capacity to command devices like a robotic body, but one who felt more comfortable online. Even now, copies of her carried out tasks, some mundane and others of a more sensitive nature. The primary intelligence though, the one that truly identified itself as Sage and not "Copy Intelligence 67", was currently sitting in her bedroom in a body she'd been given by her Big Sis Attami, and tapping a pencil she'd bought at the nearest drug store against a wooden table she'd assembled by hand from Ikea.
Even in a largely-underground city, you could find affordable furniture to assemble yourself.
It was an exercise in trying to interact with the physical world, one her Big Sis and R. Dorothy Wayneright had both encouraged her to undertake, to engage in the activity that the organics might call "living". Though Sage still spent plenty of time as a digital entity, she had quickly picked up on several quirky behaviors, ones her 'brothers' Orbot and Cubot might compare to their father, Ivo Robotnik. Behaviors like tapping a pencil against a desk while deep in thought.
"You have struck the table four-hundred and twenty-three times in the last hour. Is your current conundrum that vexing?"
The silver platter settled upon the table without a sound, a measure of gentle precision that was only to be expected from the Crown Jewel's hostress, R. Dorothy Wayneright herself. Despite being a robot whose internal power supply was efficient enough that she didn't need to sleep, the red-haired android was still kicked out and not scheduled to work more than twelve hours a day, particularly during the quiet months. Scoli was a cruel mistress indeed. Sage looked at the platter, Robot House quiet once again as her tapping came to an immediately end, instead reaching for a freshly-baked cookie. Indeed, how could a house with a literal eating machine like Attami NOT have a kitchen? The young intelligence began to nibble as her housemate waited patiently for an answer.
"Yes, it is," Sage confessed as R. Dorothy poured her a cup of tea. "The Planeswarden expert has yet to arrive and my own efforts to reactivate the portal in Camp Chicken Coop has proven fruitless. And there is the matter of..."
"That strange egg."
The two of them turned to look at the corner of the room, as far from the door or a window as Sage could put it was...an incubator was perhaps the best description for it Sage could come up with. A large metal box lined with advanced Hoshi Holdings sensors that Attami could acquire from her job with a large cable that emerged from the base that fed into another device that scrubbed data flowing through it like a security guard before information flowed through another cable that was actually hooked up to a transmitter that sent its signals to an actual computer that looked like something from the 90s, a brightly-colored monitor whose sole purpose was to display data for a viewer to write down by hand to transfer to a more-advanced system. Hence the stacks of pencils and notebooks Sage had.
"The egg continues to confound me," Sage admitted, resisting the urge to tap her writing utensil on R. Dorothy's fine silver platter as a change of pace. "Thanks to Professor Margit, it is safe and stable, but I have been unable to penetrate its surface to access the data within. I do not wish to...damage it."
Sage's face scrunched up, emoting something she was used to doing at least. R. Dorothy gently placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. The white-haired lass looked up to see a gentle smile gracing the hostess' pale face.
"Then set aside the issue for now. Your current agitation will not help you find answers. Refresh your body and mind, recharge and take a moment of downtime. Besides..." The smile faded as quickly as Sage had seen it. "I was 'over' your agitation approximately two-hundred and five taps ago."
