The Tinker and the Nandroid Chapter 1

It started, as all life long ambitions do, oh so very innocently.
A small building kit for a mechanical tiger, with movement powered by a little motor with a double a battery.
Thomas West, age five, marveled at the toy tiger as it waddled across the floor and from that moment on he knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

This desire to build robots only grew with him, as he viewed the wonders of the various robotics companies around the world, the wonderful machines to both prevent the loss of human life and to give utility to anyone who could afford to own them.
He looked up to people like Sterling, forward thinkers and revolutionaries who singlehandedly advanced the realms of robotics by decades, and used the inspiration that they gave him to create machines of his own.

Years down the line Thomas, now a man in the middle of his thirties, lives a comfortable life as a robotics refurbishing specialist who tinkers with whatever crosses his fancy at the moment during his off hours.
Which leads into a meeting that unbeknownst to him will change his comfortable if lonely life for the better.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Thomas grumbled in response to the frantic pounding at his door, annoyed to be called away from the work on his latest project, a ridable flight capable Pegasus toy that he was hoping to pitch to a few local robotics companies.
The man at his door was disheveled and twitched nervously, this usually meant one of two things, either he was getting a personal entertainment android repaired or he was looking to hock an outmode.

"How can I help you today, Sir?" Thomas asked, trying his best to be professional and not let his annoyance show.

"You take buy offs, right?" The man asked, a nervous tick plain as day in his left eye, but his straight laced clothing and the lack of stink of illegal substances on his breath made Thomas assume that the man wasn't some junkie jonsing for a fix.

"If it has all it's proper paperwork and you sign some papers waiving liability should whatever you're selling me turns out to be stolen, yes" Thomas replied cordially, only to blink when the man pulled out a roll of documents and handed them to him.
"A Nandroid?" Thomas finally asked after giving the papers a quick once over to make sure they were the genuine article, even pulling out a pocket light and shining it through to paper to confirm that it had the proper watermark "Not that it's any of my business, but why are you selling it to me rather than just returning it to Sterling? you'd get a lot more of your money back, especially since these things cost about as much as new car"

"You're right, it isn't any of your business" The man snapped with unexpected hostility, "Now where are those liability papers you need me to sign"
Slightly perturbed by the unexpected shift in the man, Thomas decided to do the smart thing and keep his mouth shut as he went to a nearby desk and grabbed the required paperwork.
The man almost seemed to deflate as he signed the paperwork.

"So, I can't give you any payment until I have the trade in, would you like to set up a day to drop it off or-" Thomas began to explain only for the man to cut him off.

"I already have it in my truck, I can drop it off now" the man replied, almost sounding relieved "Will it take long for you to check it over?"

"Not at all, ten minutes tops if the scanner decides to be difficult" Thomas replied "You can look around while you wait, maybe see if there's anything here that catches your eye?"

"Sounds good, I'll be right back" The man replied before heading back towards the well maintained truck only a short distance away, giving Thomas just enough time to set up the scanner, which was mostly for making sure that the nandroid being sold to him had all it's parts and wasn't set up with a bomb or something.

And in ten minutes the man was driving away, check in hand, and Thomas was looking over his newly acquired Nandroid.
Basic blonde, hair straight and done up in a basic low ponytail, no signs of scuffing or damage, and a quick peek at the optics confirmed that they were the basic blue that most Nandroids had

"Hmmm, resale or keep?" The portly inventor asked out loud before taking a quick glance at the slightly messy waiting area to his lab/store hybrid, raking a hand thought his wild bushy hair as he debated with himself.
"It might be useful to have a extra pair of hands around here" Thomas muttered, eyes drawn to faintly forming cobwebs at the corners of the room "Certainly more useful than hiring people to do the cleaning too"

Finally Thomas made his decision and powered on the Nandroid.
It was rather unlike the videos he'd seen, where the Nandroid seemed to spring to life, with it slowly and almost lethargically opening it's eyes before taking a slow panning look around.

"Hello, I'm your new owner" Thomas introduced "My name is Thomas West, but you can call me Thomas, what's your name?" he asked curiously.

The Nandroid regarded him, expression neutral, and when she spoke there was little emotional inflection in her voice.

"Greetings, Mr. West, I am Ellery, and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance" Ellery replied stoically before doing a simple curtsy "Would you like me to begin cleaning now or would you be willing to show me around your home?"

"More of a home/business front/laboratory than just a home, Ellery, but I'll gladly show you around!" Thomas replied, smiling in spite of the deadpan, well just about everything, of the Nandroid in front of him.

With the two properly introduced Thomas would go on to give Ellery the full tour.

And before he knew it, Ellery had managed to make herself a part of his life.