Suppose one day you wake up and a sentient doll suddenly said to you it wanted to go to school. How would you respond knowing well enough it's no different from an ostrich saying it wanted to fly?
It was the third Saturday of May, year 1760 at the City of Pyesa. And it had been ten years since the making of Cog and during that whole time, she had never been outside. She stayed inside the house of her maker, Blunt, as he tweaked her everyday, running a test and tweaking her again if he saw the slightest imperfection. All that to make her closer to the perfect doll he had in mind.
And for the first time in ten years, he was taking her outside.
"Choose a color," Blunt told Cog.
"For what?"
"I'm changing your eyes. Silver isn't… well, not very humanly I suppose."
"But I love my eyes. You created them for me." Said Cog as she admired herself in the mirror. Orange hair, silver eyes, and she probably has the most well-proportioned face on the planet. Obviously, her maker wanted everything perfect.
"I'm glad you like them but other people might not." Blunt tried to explain to her. "Also, I am the one who made them and I can remake them whenever and however I like so tell me the color you want or I'm choosing myself. And if you were to ask me, I am making it purple. I know how much you despise that color."
"Orange!" Cog decided faster than she'd ever had. She hated purple with a passion and she didn't even know why.
"I see. Orange it is. Why that color?"
"It's the color of my hair. You made my hair orange so I thought orange would look great for my eyes too. Won't it?"
"Of course it would. Anything would look good with a face like yours." Said Blunt as he nibbled on his toast. It was eight and they were having breakfast.
And yes, Cog also ate with him though she just had to remove her "stomach" to throw out the food by the end of the day. Although very human-like, she didn't have a digestive system. Just a compartment inside her body that stored all the things she put in her mouth. It passes through a tube and into the oval compartment in her abdomen.
"Really? You think I'm pretty, Blunt?"
"I made you so of course you are pretty. I've known women who would kill to have your face. You should be proud. You are something they will never be. Something they could only dream of becoming." He downed his black coffee that had already gone cold and folded the newspaper and put it aside. He prepared to stand.
"Really, Blunt? I think it goes both ways though."
"And why is that?" Blunt asked.
"Because they're something I will never become too. I am a doll you painstakingly created. I know how much effort you spend every single day just to make me more human-like but both of us know I will never be human. So it goes both ways."
"Ugh! Please don't say that. You are better." He said with a tone of finality. "I'll be in the basement and while I make you a new pair of eyes, you clean the table, wash the dishes, and try the new clothes I bought for you. I am taking you out." And with that, he finally left and headed to his basement. Leaving the surprised Cog behind.
***
"D'you like them?" Asked Blunt. He just finished making her orange eyes and she had been staring at the mirror for a while now. It didn't need a genius to tell she liked them.
"I looooove them! They're pretty."
"Really? Then what about the clothes? Is it comfortable? Not hard to move?"
"They're pretty," Cog told him.
Something Blunt liked to do for Cog was to buy her new clothes every month. And this time, it was a yellow hoodie and matching yellow high cut shoes, black tank top and a pair of shorts, and teal over the knee socks.
"But why so sudden, Blunt? You never allowed me outside."
"Nuthin'. I just thought you must be getting bored. You did nothing but make robots for the last ten years." He said as he closed the door behind him.
"Well, I suppose so. But robots are fun."
"Really? Put it on." He tossed her a matte black helmet. "I'm taking you somewhere fun."
And exactly at that moment, an airship passed over them with a large screen dangling at the bottom. Projecting a hologram of a woman with dark, bob cut hair and a slightly crooked nose.
"Greetings, citizens of Pyesa." Said the Hologram. "With the rapid rise of technological needs, we believe our country is in dire need of more talented individuals but why wait when we can make them? I, Katherine Duds, the founder of K.D. High, is happy to announce to you all that on May 19th starting from eight to five, the school will be accepting applications free of charge from everyone, aging fourteen to twenty one, who is eager to learn. In which you have to prove yourselves worthy for the limited spots. Don't miss this opportunity if you think you have potential. Now watch this."
After that, the screen blinked and the hologram disappeared. It was replaced by the panoramic shot of K.D. High. From the tall buildings with steep roofs and tall windows. A slow motion shot of a room filled with brass-colored robots of varying size and shape.
And seeing this, Cog suddenly felt something inside her. A welling emotion she couldn't describe. "I wanna go," she said. "I wanna go there, Blunt. I wanna go to school."
Blunt wasn't happy.