The Teddy Emperor was resting in the tavern, drinking mead. Spending time with Lana was fun… usually. But spending time with 2 of them? Both fighting for his attention? For a lot of men, a dream, but those 2 are obnoxious.
The tavern was as lively as ever, but this was the first time it was filled with anything more than statues and robots. The original test subject had remodeled and reprogrammed all his robots. While he was—and still is—against her just changing stuff, he did appreciate the interactivity of the upgraded bots.
He took a gulp of his drink, almost emptying his jug. A sigh escaped his mouth and the alcohol finally hit him. "This is… this is some good stuff." He finished his sentence with a hiccup. He hit his jug onto the counter and the bartender threw a cork coaster just in time to stop him from breaking the glass.
"You know…" He said and stretched his body onto the counter, unable to hold up his body, "you're the only person I can truly talk to. You're giving me free drinks and are taking care of me when I am drunk." He smiled at the bartender.
"You're welcome." Said the bartender with a smile. Her tiny plushie hands, no finger or thumbs to hold onto objects, were cleaning a glass with a wet cotton towel.
Lukas glanced up at her smiling face. "You have a very cute smile, you know that?" He asked. The bartender nodded happily and put down both towel and glass, turning to him. "The closer you come, the smaller you appear. Funny…" He muttered as his eyes slowly closed.
"Sleep well." The bartender chuckled, giving Lukas a pat on the back of his head, ruffling his hair a bit. She cocked her head to the side, "It still feels weird to be alive, and even weirder, that you don't notice it." She looked down at her body and clothes, pulling at them, "Is it because I'm wearing the clothes you put on the robot bartender?"
Shrugging with her shoulders, she started serving other customers, leaving Lukas on the counter sleeping and drooling. "Coming right up." She told another robot customer as someone else entered loudly.
Her gaze shifted towards the 2 people arguing loudly while entering her tavern. It were Lana and the test subject. "Ah…" The bartender gasped, her 2 most hated customers just entered.
As they approached the bar, she sighed: "How can I help you two today?" They threw a group of customers at the bar out of their chairs before taking them for themselves. "You can't do that!" The bartender complained.
"You don't get to decide what we get to do." They said simultaneously.
The bartender growled: "You should be happy that Lukas is still asleep. You know, he killed himself a hundred-thousand times for me. And you believe you can do whatever you want in my tavern?" Her voice was low, as not to wake up Lukas, and threatening. A scowl covered her face.
The test subject stared into the bartender's eyes, angrily, for multiple seconds. It felt like hours, but she was the first to back down.
"Lana made you come alive, and I can turn you back into a plushie." The test subject threatened the bartender. She had a smug grin on her face, until she noticed that the bartender had a smug grin on her mouth as well and started to follow her gaze.
Lukas had woken up and Lana had removed the effects of the alcohol. His face was red with anger as he stared up at the test subject. "What do you mean 'turn you back into a plushie'?" He asked, standing up, "Are you threatening my bartender?" He still had not realised that the bartender was not the robot he built.
"No, I—"
"Spare me from your excuses. You are a guest, a lesser if I will it." He walked up to her and looked down at her sitting on the stool. Their eyes met and the test subject could read the anger in his coding. "Do you dare, lesser, to come into my kingdom and try to unmake my subjects?"
"I apologize." She told him.
"Leave!" He commanded her and she hurried away. He turned to the bartender to apologize for the test subject's behaviour, but before he could speak, the bartender spoke:
"Thank you. She always causes a ruckus here." She shook her head in disappointment. "She still has not adjusted to living with people, having been trapped in a box, alone, but given all she wanted. Give her some time, I'm sure she is going to change for the better if she just learns."
"Thank you for the understanding." Lukas told her before turning away, smiling, and leaving the tavern, Lana following behind him.
Outside, he stopped dead in his tracks and gazed over his shoulder directly at Lana. "Let me guess, you only woke me up, so my dislike for the test subject would grow?"
"Yes, your highness. I just think it is wrong for her to appear in your kingdom, assaulting you and then trying to force your people to see her as someone on your level of authority." She shook her head with a sarcastic expression of sadness.
Lukas sighed and turned his gaze back to the path he was walking along. The 2 of them went towards the citadel.
⟪⚪⟫
Outside the simulation, Max was sitting at his desk, feet on the table and leaning back far enough that he could use his stomach as a makeshift table for snacks. He was watching the inhabitants of the simulation with delight and interest.
"You're still up?" Lukas asked as he entered the dark room, rubbing his eyes. It was the middle of the night. "You know that we haven't yet enhanced our bodies and still require sleep, don't you?"
Max waved him away with his hand: "Yes, I will go to bed in a bit. I just want to see this situation play out."
Lukas walked up to Max and turned up the brightness of the monitor, so he could see it better. On the screen in front of him, he saw hundreds, probably over a thousand, Geddos copies sitting in what seemed like a colosseum cheering for something.
"The semi-finals are almost over." Max told Lukas, who, still half asleep, just shrugged and walked back out of the room.
In the corner of the screen a notification popped up. "What is this?" He asked in curiosity, knowing nobody would answer him, "High anger? Hm…" He squinted, "I don't know… Oh! It's the Teddy Emperor! But the semi-finals…"
He leaned further back into his chair and turned the brightness back down. "Gonna have to check up on him tomorrow, don't want to miss these fights." A loud yawn escaped him and he stretched his arms over his head, almost falling over the back of the chair, barely catching himself.