The Tinker and the Nandroid Chapter 4

'Shopping with Ellery is certainly an experience,' Thomas though to himself, walking away from the third conversation from a neighbor who had previously been more than content to simply ignore his existence whenever he left his business to shop for his daily necessities.

Perhaps it was the status that having a Nandroid implied that drew people who had more often than not looked at him warily before moving to not be in his general vicinity at a polite pace, or maybe it was just that he was wearing clothes that weren't grease stained and that he didn't look like he'd only slept three hours in the past six days.

Either way, he'd already talked to way more people than he was used to talking with outside of a business setting, and his cart was filled with a bunch of fresh fruits and vegetables rather than the usual litany of canned foods that he'd persisted on.

"Do I have the money to be paying for all of this?" Thomas asked curiously. "Because I'd rather not look like a dope and have to put a bunch of things back, y'know?"

"Worry not Mr. West, I have calculated the exact amount of money we will be spending on both food and non-food items, and with the help of cutting all of the canned meats out of your diet I'm sure your bank account will be thankful," Ellery said in her usual deadpan, though you got the impression that she was subtly mocking you. "Also, a healthier diet with your already active life style should mean a cut down on doctor's office visits and less money spent on pills for chronic acid reflux."

"Yeesh, and here I was worried that you were just gonna say that I always look like a dope," Thomas replied with a playful roll of his eyes. "And I'll have you know that my doctor has said multiple times that my acid reflux is hereditary, so there's that."

"While it may be hereditary, a change in diet such as the one that I have planned out will still help lessen the severity of it," Ellery replied in a flat matter of fact tone, though she did nothing to dissuade the notion that she thought that he looked like a dope.

Walking to checkout Thomas looked over the foods that Ellery had placed in the cart with a critical eye, and not finding anything that he particularly disliked he simply sighed before placing them on the conveyor to the checkout droid that quickly scanned and bagged the groceries, though Thomas noticed some slight lags and glitches that slowed it down.

Once everything was paid for Thomas sent Ellery ahead to unload the groceries into the car while he found the manager.

The man who was apparently the head manager scowled at him, greasy limp hair hanging over his face. "You're saying my 'bots 're glitchin'?" he grumbled.

"At the moment it's just a few minor things. But if you just leave them alone they're probably going to get worse, and nobody wants to be the guy in charge when a bagging robot stuffs a baby in a plastic bag," Thomas replied casually before pulling out one of his business cards and handing it to the man. "I've got some pretty good rates if I do say so myself, and y'know what they say-"

"Yeah yeah, a pinch of prevention's worth a pounda cure," The man replied crossly, though he still took the card. "I'll drop you a line after I had a fewa me boys look the ruddy things over."

Walking out to the car Thomas couldn't help but whistle a happy tune to himself, since he knew that the manager's "boys" were going to find the same glitches he caught at a single glance, which meant he was probably going to have a nice little nest egg coming in the immediate future.

"You seem happy," Ellery commented neutrally, having already loaded up the car and sat inside of it. "What did you need to speak to the manager about?"

"Just noticed that the bagger bot was showing some of the early warning signs of rampancy, and since I'm the one who noticed it and pointed it out I was able to get my foot in the door before anyone else," the Tinker boasted. "Those things are usually expensive as hell to repair and even more expensive to legally replace, but I have a few proprietary tricks that makes them a snap to fix on the relative cheap."

"Is their suffering something to be happy about?" Ellery asked somewhat coldly. "I was not under that impression of you, Mr. West."

"The fact that they're glitching isn't something to be happy about, not at all," Thomas dissuades, frowning at the Nandroid's implication. "But the fact that I spotted them and was able to offer assistance before they hurt someone else or crashed themselves is."

Ellery was quiet for most of the ride home after that, and though her face was it's usually expressionless stone mask Thomas could tell that she was thinking about what he had said to her.

"Why do you repair machines, Mr. West?" Ellery asked as they were about home, drawing a considering noise from Thomas as he pulled the car into his parking space.

"Probably because I think that every machine is fascinating, the intricate details, variance of parts, and the multitudes of personalities they can all have are in their own way transfixing," Thomas replied as he opened his car door, continuing to explain once he was out of the vehicle. "No two machines are exactly alike, and something about that, finding all the little ways that they're special just feels right."

Ellery blinked at your explanation before looking away, "By the way, you forgot to stop and pick up a new vacuum cleaner, Mr. West," she reminded drawing a groan from the inventor.

"Ellery, you couldn't have mentioned that before we had already gotten home!" Thomas whinged. " now we're going to have to go all the way back across town!"