All Things End: Part 50

Chapter 50: Computer Makes A Friend

“Here's a bag of ice.” The ferret girl said, holding the bag out to Computer.

He took it from her and placed it up against his head. He wasn't sure how this was supposed to help but he was in no position to argue. It didn't really stop the pain, but it did stop his head from pounding at leeast.

“This is so cool!” The girl said with almost childish glee. “I've always wanted a dog! And it glows in the dark too!”

Computer did a double take. “Wait, wait, wait! I'm not some stray dog! I rented a room here!”

Her expression turned to that of disappointment. “You're a customer? Aw, man. Here I was thinking we finally had a stray dog digging around in the garbage. All we ever get is raccoons and a few creepy creatures every once in awhile.”

He gave her a halfhearted shrug. “Sorry.”

Not that he really was, of course. The last thing he wanted was to be viewed as some dumb stray and he didn't particularly care if this girl wanted a dog or not.

“So, if you're a customer, what were you doing in the garbage then?” She asked. “I heard a big ruckus downstairs and I got worried. My dad could sleep through the apocalypse so I usually have to deal with any problems that come up. I go downstairs and find that all the coffee is gone, our biggest pan is missing, and ten minutes later, I hear a trashcan tip over outside. So now I'm sitting here with a glowing, blue dog and can't help but wonder what the heck happened.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, that was us.” He admitted. “Me and my frie...er, acquaintance were messing around downstairs. We used up all the coffee and, well, the rest is a long story.” He was trying to be frank, lest the girl start asking too many questions that he did not want to answer.

“How did you get all messed up like that?” She asked, pointing to his various injuries, bandaged up or not. “You look like you got hit by a car, and why are you all radioactive looking?” She excitedly clapped her paws together and continued to ask questions. “Just what are you doing here in the first place? You have to tell me everything! We get weird people like you checking in all the time! I want to know your story!”

“I'd rather not talk about it.” He sighed, glancing downwards “Me and my friend got into a bit of a fight and-”

...Oh dear, he had already said too much.

“So you two were arguing and that was all the noise I heard? Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to pry.” Some of the excitement left her.

He turned away as a mixture of emotions welled up inside his chest. “It...it doesn't matter.” He muttered out.  

“But what about everything else?” She asked. “Are you actually radioactive? I've never seen anything like it before!”

He shook his head. “I'm pretty sure you wouldn't believe me even if I told you the truth.”

“I would!” She exclaimed, throwing her arms up into the air. “We once had someone come in who looked like Elvis! I've seen all sorts of weird people and oddities! I'm ready to believe anything! Heck, I think we even had Sasquatch check in once!”

“Trust me, my story is far weirder than Sasquatch, kid.” He replied.

“Please, please, please tell me!” She begged, moving in uncomfortably close.

“Alright, fine.” He sighed. It appeared that he wasn't going to deter her. “If you really want to know, the truth is that I'm actually, well, a computer controlling this dog's body. Well, I'm not exactly a normal computer, obviously, but-” He never thought that he'd actually have a difficult time explaining what he was to someone. “I guess you could say that I'm an artificial intelligence, but if I'm going to be honest, I actually find the term to be somewhat demeaning. I'm just as good, if not better than your average human intelligence.” He sniffed.  

“Wow, this is so cool!” The ferret girl exclaimed. “I have a real robot in my room! Wait, don't you robots usually try to take over the world or something?”

“I'm not a robot!” He immediately yelled. “And I'm not about to take over the world either! Why do you flesh creatures always think that we machines want to rule over you? It would take far too much effort to rule you stupid, mindless, fleshy-” He stopped himself and let out an annoyed sigh.

The ferret girl blinked. “You look like a robot to me, being all blue and glowy like that.”

She poked him in the stomach as though she were expecting him to be made out of metal.

“Stop that!” He demanded. “And I am not a robot! I don't know why I do the whole glowing thing when I jump into other bodies, but I swear it's becoming more trouble than it's worth!”

“So you're a talking computer in a dog body and yet you somehow are not a robot?” She asked, grinning slyly as though she had just one-upped him.

“I'm not some stupid, cliche robot! I refuse to be called one!”

“If you say so.” She sighed, giving up. “Well, you are a customer after all, so I can't keep you here. If you want to go back to your room, I won't stop you.”

“Well, actually-” He hesitated for a moment. “I don't really have a place to stay right now because of my friend. He...”

Computer was surprised to find how hard it suddenly was to speak. It was like a knot were getting twisted up inside of him. Stupid twit! This was all his fault!

“Y-you do want to stay here?” The girl asked, her eyes lighting up. “I'd love to have a robot dog for a pet! You'd be perfect!”

“It's just for tonight!” He quickly interjected. “And for the last time, I am not a robot!”

“I'll go see if I can find something for your injuries. I've got a few band aids around but I think a couple of those cuts are going to need way more than just that.”

Fifteen minutes later, and after a lot of bumbling around, she managed to finally get all of his injuries taken care of. He now had most of his head wrapped up in cloth to cover up the bump that had thankfully receded somewhat from the ice. At this rate, he'd soon look like one of those patients who'd had every bone in their body broken.

The ferret girl yawned loudly. “That took a lot longer then I thought.” She said. “Do you need anything else? If not, I think I'm going to go back to bed.”

“I'm fine, and my head is feeling better already.” He answered, catching himself smiling before quickly squashing it.

“I've got this crate that I could use to make a bed for you. Would you like that?” She asked.

“I'd...rather not go to sleep actually.” He admitted.

“What, do robot dogs not need to sleep or something?”

“Well, there was a time when I didn't need to sleep, but now-” He trailed off, shaking his head weakly. He missed being able to just shut off and not have to dream about anything. “And I'm still not a robot!” He quickly added.

“I think you're in denial about your roboticness, Mr. Robot.” The ferret girl trilled.

“I am not in denial about anything!” He argued back.

“It certainly seems that way!” She replied in a singsong voice.

“I don't do any of that robot crap! You watch too much TV, kid!”

“Nina.” She spoke, holding out a hand as if she wanted him to shake it.

“Eh, what?” He asked, not realizing what she meant for several seconds.

“That's my name. What's yours, Mr. Robot?”

“Oh, uh, well, I don't have one.” He all but sputtered out. He'd almost said 'Computer', but then he realized that only Courage ever called him that. It was funny, he had never thought of himself by that name until Courage had started calling him it like it were a real name.

“You really don't have a name?” Nina asked, looking skeptical. “Are you sure you're not a stray?”

“Positive.” He replied. “And I've been working on the whole name thing anyway.”

“Well, I'll go find that crate. Do you need anything else?” She asked.

He rubbed the side of his forehead that wasn't injured. “I think I could really go for some coffee right now. The stuff downstairs is gone and I'm not sure how you go about procuring more.”

“Coffee is going to have to wait until morning. I'd never hear the end of it if Dad found out I made a pot of coffee in the middle of the night with no customers around.”

“But I am a customer.” He reminded her, hoping that it would be enough to sway her.

“I know, but I'm sure you can't drink a whole pot of coffee in one go.”

“...You'd be surprised, and my stupid friend thinks that I drink coffee the wrong way anyway. ”

“Sorry, but I don't want to risk getting my dad angry.”

“Alright fine, but could you-” He stopped himself.

“What?”

“N-never mind...” He quickly answered, glancing away.

He had wanted her to leave a note out for Courage, so that he would know where he was, but he had decided that he'd rather let Courage wonder instead. That stupid twit didn't deserve to know where he was. Of course, he was partly doing it out of fear too, even if he didn't want to admit it. Suppose the dog was still angry with him? At least he had this Nina girl on his side. He couldn't trust her either, of course, but she seemed nice enough.

It was pretty funny, he wasn't used to being treated this kindly by new acquaintances. Normally he freaked out most new people, or they'd get offended that their computer was daring to talk back to them. She wasn't a new owner, obviously, but he still hadn't expected her to be this nice to him. Socializing wasn't quite as hard when you weren't the one rooted to an immobile machine and at the mercy of whoever was in possession of it.  

“Alright, I'll be right back then!” Nina spoke before dashing out of the room.

During this time, Computer took a moment to look around the room. This Nina girl was absolutely obsessed with urban legends and the supernatural. Books on ghosts and goblins were strewn about everywhere and there was a poster on the wall with both the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot on it. She even had figurines of various mythical creatures! He hated to think what she might do to him if he ever told her about all the stuff that Courage dealt with on a daily basis. She might not be able to take him in as a pet, but if she knew that he was practically a walking encyclopedia on the supernatural, she'd probably tie him down and never let him leave!

Without thinking, he allowed himself to fall backwards and then laid there sprawled out on Nina's bed for awhile. He was starting to grow tired again, nearly on the verge of being overcome by his sleepiness all over again, but he absolutely could not go to sleep. He'd rather fight his tired body than to be forced to relive some of his worst memories all over again. Although, at this point he was far more worried about the nightmares that his own mind could come up with. It was one thing to relive horrible memories, but it was a whole new frontier when your mind could come up with new scenarios to torment you with.

Stupid flesh creature body! He never had to deal with this as a machine!

In the end, he'd simply have to triumph over this, just like everything else. Exhaustion was not going to beat him, especially not flesh creature exhaustion. He had endured far worse after all.                

He thought of that Nina girl again and her kindness. This simply had to be too good to be true. She didn't seem like a dog eater, but she could still be something much worse. Maybe she'd try and knock him out to send him off to some research lab, she did think he was a robot dog after all. Or maybe she'd rat him out to Courage even after knowing what he had done to his head. Or maybe she was really sadistic under all that supposed innocence.

No, none of that seemed likely. He was simply being overly distrustful. He couldn't help it, of course. You simply could not go through what he had without coming out of it incredibly distrustful of everyone, but still, he knew that he was being skeptical for no real reason. She didn't seem like any of his old owners after all, so perhaps she really could be trusted. Of course, he had trusted Courage too, but...

“I'm back!” The ferret called, bobbing into the room. She was holding...coffee? “I got to thinking while I was down there and I figured that since this is the only time I'm ever going to have a robot dog in my bedroom, I figured it's worth risking my dad's wrath.”

She handed him the steaming cup of coffee and then got to work on setting up the crate as a sort of bed for him.

He blinked down at the coffee, unsure of what to think of this gesture. “T-thanks, I guess.”

“There!” She exclaimed, finishing up the final touches on the crate. “It isn't the best, but I'm sure it's better than one of those beds you were going to sleep on. Dad can't afford to get new ones so they're kinda lumpy.”

Computer took a sip of his coffee. “It's nice and all, but I don't think I'll be needing a bed anyway.”

“You look like you need the sleep, and don't worry, I put some medicine in your coffee. It'll help with your head but it's going to make you very sleepy.”

It suddenly made sense why his eyelids were becoming so heavy...

“Couldn't you have told me that first?” He asked before letting out a yawn involuntary.

“I didn't think you'd care that much, sorry.”

“Well, I guess it's fine...” He muttered out listlessly, barely thinking about what he was saying. He just hoped that the medicine would also keep him from dreaming while he slept. “Just...just don't turn me into a pile of hot dogs while I'm out, okay? I'd prefer not to be eaten, thanks.” The words he spoke barely registered in his sleepy mind.

“Hot dogs?” Nina laughed. “What are you talking about? I'm not about to eat a robot dog. What, do you think I'm a secret serial killer?” She laughed.

“N-never mind, just...just don't tell Courage that I'm here. I'd hate to think what he'd-” He couldn't continue, he was just too sleepy.

Nina picked him up and lay him down in the crate. “Don't worry, robo dog. You'll be fine, I promise. The medicine is just to help you sleep and to get that bump on your head to stop hurting.”

Computer was only vaguely aware of what was going on around him now. He felt the pressure of a blanket fall over him.

“Good night, robot dog.” He heard that Nina girl say.

He wanted to say something back, but he was already too far gone, and before he realized it had happened, he was asleep.

End Of Chapter