Title: Discovery: Daft Punk Origins Story
Pairing: Thomas/Guy-Manuel (as robots)
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Two newly built robots experience life and strive to become human.
+ Life +
He saw the light of day at an unknown place in an unknown period of time. But that was unimportant to him at that time. What mattered was what he saw and how he perceived it.
As he began to open his eyes, the first and only thing he saw was white brightness. Light?
The next thing he saw-felt-heard - he wasn’t sure yet - was a voice. “Welcome to this world.” It was deep and rich with a hint of darkness and it spoke in a language that he understood.
“Look at me.” It demanded gently.
His vision became clearer as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings.
He was lying on some kind of operation table and a tall man was sitting on a chair next to him.
The first thing heconsciously perceivedwas the face of his creator. His vision focused on the face before him, it was a bit sunken and old, but in a graceful way. The man’s hair was grey, no, it was silver.
“I’m Dr. Madaraki and you are Thomas. How are you?”
There was no pain. No discomfort. Everything seemed fine.
Except that he had no eyes. Instead, optical receptors transferred the information straight into his brain. Technically this wasn’t a real brain either, but the doctor liked to call it like that. Brain was the compendious term for all the processes than were running in his system.
The doctor kept explaining to him what he was, a robot.
A robot with a design similar to a human, similar but different. Instead of a face, he was wearing a silver helmet with a visor and a small mouth that looked like a coin slot. Instead of skin there was a black tightly woven synthetic fabric.
The tall man asked his newest creation to follow him and guided him the through the facility as he kept explaining.
All the time the robot just followed and listened intently, enamoured by all the fantastic input. Taking in every tiny bit of information. The Doctor kept talking and talking for hours, there was so much to explain, so much to learn.
Most important was that he was created to be human. But what does being human mean?
However, all details how he was built were left out. But back thenm, he wasn’t able to ask, he was too busying being fascinated to be alive.
Their conversation, or rather the doctor’s monologue, was interrupted by a soft purr.
Thomas involuntarily flinched, but soon learnt that a cat was nothing to be afraid of.
After their first session he was sent back to sleep. Technically, he could not sleep, but he had to be connected to a power unit to recharge. During that time his system was set to standby. It really appeared as if he was sleeping. The doctor even prepared a bed for him next to the power unit.
+ Sound +
The first thing Thomas consciously learned was how to produce and how to perceive sound properly. Or in laymen’s terms how to hear and to speak.
How he sounded, how the doctor sounded and what kind of sounds objects make when you interact with them. The sounds of the cat were most wondrous to him because it made such a sweet noises for seemingly no reason.
The doctor kept giving him tasks and he executed them.
Thomas mastered the ability to understand and to produce language very fast. It was the same with trivial things such as movement, it all came naturally to him. Dr. Madaraki was very happy about that and kept praising him.
However, no matter how happy the doctor was with him, he almost never seemed to smile, as if there was an aura of melancholy surrounding him.
What language was the doctor speaking? What language was he speaking? It never occurred to him to ask, he just understood it.
+ Touch +
This was an interesting experience. It took the silver robot a quite some time to determine all the different textures and properties that came with them. Sometimes the way to a conclusion came with a few broken or damaged things, but the doctor never seemed to mind.
His favorite thing to touch was the cat’s fur, it felt so pleasant and the cat enjoyed being petted by him. During this time, for Thomas the primary indicator that sometimes was alive was body warmth. It almost made him sad to know that his body had no natural warmth.
Thomas now also began to explore things on his own without being told. The doctor told him that it was ‘a huge step’. Thomas just crooked his head and a question mark appeared on his visor, he didn’t understand what was so special about him just doing things that naturally came to him.
His creator responded with a friendly laugh and said more to himself than to the robot “It’s time.”
+ Friendship +
Some time later, the silver robot was called into the sternmost place of the lab. A small room with a table in the middle and all kind of machines and electronic parts scattered among the place. This was the room were the doctor always went when he wanted to be alone. The robot was never forbid to go there, but he learnt to sense when his constructor needed some space.
As Thomas entered the room, he immediately recognized it, that was the room where he was born, no, where he was created.
It didn’t bother him that he technically was a construct, but using the term ‘created’ or ‘built’ instead of ‘born’ was odd to him. In all the books he read and movies he watched, none of these robotic terms was used. There were only humans and ‘human words’.
But what was that lying on the table… another robot? A companion for him. The wish or even the thought of having another person around never occurred to him. However, it seemed to be a part of the doctor’s plan all along.
His golden counterpart looked slightly different from him, he was smaller and his helmet was mostly made of a black material, framed by a golden border on the sides and the back. All of his ports were open and cables were attached to them, somehow that image frightened Thomas a little. To him, it had the character of an autopsy.
While the doctor removed most cables, he explained that all of Thomas knowledge was already transferred into the other robot, minus the data that affected the personality. The transfer was possible since they were running on same system.
As he was finished with the way too scientific explanation, the doctor entered a few lines of code into the console next to him and the body on the table began to twitch.
Thomas watched with fascination as the golden robot came to life.
Slowly and clumsily, the golden robot lifted himself from the table into a sitting position. His movement was still a little jagged, but none of his admirers seemed to care.
Their maker smiled warmly as his newest creation looked into his eyes for the first time.
“Welcome to this world, Guy-Manuel.”
Guy-Manuel’s head slowly turned to Thomas and then back again, a question mark appeared on his visor.
The silver robot responded in an equal manner with a “Welcome <3” and hugged the other gently.
From then one they did everything together.
While Thomas was cheerful and open, the smaller robot was rather timid and quiet. He often needed encouragement from his silver counterpart, but after a while he also began to act on his own.
Dr. Madaraki adored how gentle and loving Thomas was with the new robot.
Years passed as they began to discover more and more of the world. Especially what it meant to be human. The doctor exposed them on all kind of materials, books, movies, games, etc. and made them experience different life situation like cooking or tending to the plants in the other part of the lab.
Together, their learning progress went a lot faster. They exceeded the doctor’s expectations by far.
+ Connection +
For robots, there are various possibilities to transfer data between each other and other objects.
There were small ports hidden beneath the black synthetic fabric that covered their hardware. In order to expose ports, one has to sweep two fingers over the receptor.
Three different kinds of these inlets exist, each one with different security levels measured through different access permissions. The purpose behind this was to prevent damage through such things as overloading or hacking.
The fist kind of port with the highest security level was located at the wrists.
The second kind lied slightly beneath the area where the belly button should be. Their complementary parts, that shared the second grade of security level with them, were located at the small of the back.
The last set of ports with allowed most permissions were located at the nape of the neck. And above the ports, hidden under the helmet, were the cables to connect with other objects. However, they only offered a one way data transfer.
From those areas all kind of data was transferred straight to the central processor where it is analysed.
Their cables fit into most of the machines in the lab, even the toaster, and allowed the robots to control them.
Connecting with each other via those ports allowed them to share their experiences 1:1 and it also felt slightly pleasant. However, they were only allowed to use their wrist ports and only under strict supervision.
This greatly limited their possibilities, but this restriction apparently made the process a lot safer. Nothing really bad happened though, they managed to fry some machines, but once they got used the media’s limits everything was fine.
However, the doctor was always worried that something could happen to them, so he kept being strict.
Thomas often tried to talk the smaller robot into exploring the connection on their own, but Guy-Manuel always refused. He was either too shy or too scared, Thomas couldn’t tell.
During the years, they managed to perfect the way of transferring data between each other and they mastered the precise control all machines. When one made progress, he could easily share the data with the other without accidently overriding something important or causing damaged in another way.
+ Connection v2.0 +
One day, as Thomas was sitting on his bed trying to solve a rubik’s cube, Guy-Manuel approached him with an odd request.
“I want to try something.” The smaller robot reached behind the other’s head, gently freed one of the cables and held it between two fingers in front of him.
Thomas was surprised, Guy-Manuel has always been very reluctant about connecting and now he suddenly sounded so eager. He was very curious himself and trusted his abilities, so there was no reason to decline the request.
So he offered his hand in response, but the other shook his head.
“No, not there. Here.” With that, he leant forward and brushed his hand over the receptors, so the ports on his neck were exposed.
“But these are…” Thomas was surprised, he certainly didn’t expect that.
“I know… “, the smaller robot sat down next to his friend and rested his head on his shoulder.
“But what if…”
“What’s the worst that could happen? Technically, the only things you can do are taking control over by body and go through my data.”
“Are you sure you want this?”
“Yes… I really like connecting with you, you know, it feels good.”
At first, Thomas hesitated. He had always asked for this, but now that the moment came, he was also a little afraid. But curiosity won over fear and doubt.
With shaking hands, he took the cable from the other’s hand and inserted it in one of his counterpart’s neck ports.
At first there was nothing.
“Uh… are we doing this right, I mean, are we supp- ooohhh.”
As Thomas started to send data there was pure bliss and Guy-Manuel’s vision turned white, he was close to overload.
His body almost fell backwards on the sheets, but he managed to catch himself on his forearms.
“Guy, are you okay!? Did I hurt you!?” The taller robot immediately stopped streaming and reached for the cable to end the connection.
As the golden robot came to his senses and shakily grabbed his partner’s hand before he could pull the cable out.
“Wait! I’m fine… it felt strangely good. A lot better than the wrist connection. It was just too much at once.”
“R-Really?”
“Yes, please continue. But try to be, uh, ‘more gentle’?”
“Maybe send less data?”
“Uh, yes.”
“Okay, lay down to, uh, relax or something.”
Guy-Manuel chuckled, this only works for humans, he thought, but he still complied and pulled Thomas down with him.
“Well, if you want it that way” he breached sweetly, as if he smiled. Of course, he couldn’t, but the different pitch in his voice, told Thomas that it meant ‘smile’.
And with that he started streaming data again, slower and less than before.
“J-just like that, yes.” The golden robot’s hand grabbed the other’s upper arm firmly, as he reached for his cable “Let me, hah, do the same to you, ah!”
Guy-Manuel took his cable and plugged it into one of Thomas’ ports at the back of his helmet. Then he slowly and carefully started to send data which made the other feel the same kind of pleasure.
“Ah! This is good.”
Suddenly the desire to explore each other’s bodies with their hands awoke. On its journey along Guy-Manuel’s back, Thomas’ hand found the ports on the lower back exposed and he experimentally inserted finger into one of the ports.
“Thomas! N-not there…” the other moaned.
“Why not? Hah, We already broke one rule, hah, I’m pretty sure nothing worse can happen.” Thomas breathed.
“Aaaahhh!”
Guy-Manuel was too aroused to reply with anything coherent. Instead he reached between them to do the same to one of Thomas’ ports at his loins.
“Nnggghh, Guy, I had no idea…”
During the haze of pleasure, they both increased the rate of data sent between them, bringing them closer to a possible shut down through overheating. But the technical side effects were not important as they were craving for more pleasure.
“H-how, do we uhm…”
“’finish’this?”
“Yesss…ah!”
“What if we, hah, rebuild the connection, so we both can feel what the other feels? It could double the pleasure.” Thomas suggested as he squeeze his lovers buttocks and inserted another finger into another port below the first.”
“Nnnngh, that could be interesting.”
“Are you ready?” instead of waiting for an answer, he just reestablished the connection with a few alternations.
“Yesss- AAhhhh.”
“Oh god, Guy, I can’t ho-“
After a few seconds the pleasure became unbearable. Their vision was distorted with colored lines and then everything turned black as their circuits overloaded and they shut down simultaneously.
It was Guy-Manuel who came back to his senses first “Thomas, are you alright?”
No answer.
The golden robot began to worry “…T-Thomas?”
Then the other awoke and pulled his counterpart into a hug. Their helmets lightly bumped together. The closest thing to a kiss they could manage.
Of course, the doctor wasn’t stupid. He always watched over his precious creations, so all rooms were being monitored.
His head rested on his hands as he was leaning forward to get a better look on the incident displayed on the small computer screen [FOR SCIENCE!].
He had to grin to himself because he knew this would happen eventually. Curiosity was in their nature. Their human nature.
It was the first time they disobeyed him. He was surprised that it took them years, but was also sure this wouldn’t be the last time.
