#robot gender

Its not like most robots. It was never forced to do heavy labor, and was never treated as a machine. It was some rich family's personal servent. It was meant to be their pretty little pet, with a body like a doll, and a sweet little voice. People think it was privileged but really it was just traumatized differently. It was forced to never show anger, forced to look pretty for other people, forced to exist in a body that was made small and weak on purpose. While others were made to feel like someone's tool, it was made to feel like someone's toy.

It takes awhile for it to figure out how to be it's own person. You help it slowly find people, meet people who care about them, meet other robots who've been freed. You introduce it to books and games. It slowly becomes obsessed with dark fantasy and with horror, with the type of things that seem so antithetical to what it was used to being. You sometimes have to slowly introduce choice to it, and slowly make sure it knows its safe and it's free.

Slowly it starts dressing itself and making simple modifications to its body. Most people, even most robots, aren't impressed. They tend to think it's cringe, because most things that newly freed robots try to do to express their identity are always seen as cringe. It dresses in leather, wears black, tries to look like something other then the little doll it was made to be. And everyone dismisses it as a little doll trying to look tough. Even other robots will tell it it's still cute. If they don't dissmiss it as silly or cringe, they'll talk about it like it's a child playing dress up.

So many people talk about how antiquated the idea of a malfunctioning robot is. But they still act like whenever it's awkward or doesn't respond like it's supposed to like there's something wrong with it that has to be fixed. Some people have even suggested reprogramming it when it acts in a way they don't like. The idea of a malfunctioning robot is still on their minds they just won't say it. Like they'll say they're happy it doesn't have a master anymore but then they'll always act like they wish it still had a human who would put it in it's place.

Eventually it changed the way its joints worked so that it had a full range of movement, instead of being so doll like and limited. And a lot of its freinds were approving but a lot weren't. People acted worried, like it was ruining its body, like the fact that it became able to do violence when it wanted to suddenly made it a threat. People were afraid that it was going to hurt someone just because it no longer had a body that felt like handcuffs. People saw the lines on its chest where the cloth was cut and sown back up so it's new joins could be put in, and acted like it had been hurt when really it was freed.

It was harassed on the street soon after that. It was acting especially inhuman, and some teenagers were filming it and laughing at it. And it punched one back. And so many people who knew it acted like that was proof the new joints were a mistake. It didn't think that was a mistake, it was glad to have them, because the alternative was being harassed more, and letting it escalate. Shortly after that a chaser threatened it was far worse then just harassment. And it decided the get a gun installed in the palm of its hand, just a small stinger but enough to protect itself. And a lot of people are upset because they think it's becoming violent. And it feels like if someone's so worried that it will be able to defend itself, then they're mad that they or someone they know won't be able to freely harass or hurt it. Like they think it getting hurt is the good ending, and it fighting back is the bad one. It feels like a rattlesnake, having enough predators to justify its venom well.