Before we begin, I feel it's necessary to elaborate on my theory that Astro's robot mom was based on Tobio's dead mom, a hybrid of my own wacky Tenma fandom and the Hoshie story. And then mr_skunk got me into slash, and you don't want more of that story. Here's a shot of Michi/Michiru that I coloured myself years ago...
"So, what do you claim to be planning?"
" I was thinking I'd build them a robotic mother. That way, Astro could be like a human child, like he wants."
Tenma hunched over, staring down at the blueprints on the table. "I think it's a bizarre idea, professor. I mean, how do you think Astro's going to react?"
Ochanimizu waved his hand towards the window of the R&D. "He's told me many times that he's wanted to be like a human boy. I thought giving him a parental robot would complete his wish."
I looked back at this and thought, "Well, this could be okay." And then I noticed that I'd misspelled Ochanomizu's name...it matches the pronounciation my brother and I gave it.
"Well, still, I--"
"I'll let you design her face!" Ochanimizu grinned.
Tenma sat up. "All right, then."
: YAY FACES!
In the R&D room, Ochanimizu lifted the corner of a sheet off a glass pod. Within it lay the muted form of a woman, silent and immobile. Tenma stared at her, his thoughts drifting back to something he locked away long ago. The robot's round face, her tall, thin form...she looked like Michiru.
What? No. She had been gone for years; he had no right to bring her back up now. He woke from his thoughts when Ochanimizu tapped him on the shoulder.
At the time, it made me feel bad to elaborate on any kind of spouse for Tenma, and I realize that's because it opens up a pocket of unnecessary emotional turmoil, which I personally avoid doing unless the circumstances in my story require it.
"Tenma? Well, what do you think?"
"What? Oh." Tenma glanced from Ochanimizu to the glass pod. "I'd say...green irises, and black hair about ye long." He held his hand up to his neck, designating the length. He tried to avoid letting the robot look like Michiru.
Ochanimizu wrote something down on a notepad. "Good, good. Her eyes and scalp may be finished by this evening." Ochanimizu pocketed the notepad and looked at his companion worriedly. "Although, there is one thing I'll have to trust you with..."
"Oh, what is it now?"
"I need to hide this robot for about one evening."
"Are you daft?"
And then Ochanomizu got offended and went to design his own robot face. The end.
"The storage room isn't available for one more day, Yuko nor I have enough room in our own houses to store her..."
"You're implying that I should look after the robot."
"W-well, yes, Tenma."
OCHANOMIZU, THAT IS THE WORST IDEA EVER. Do you not have assistants or police ties? And Little Fauna, I see where this story is going. And I don't like it.
He looked away with a mix of disgust and weariness. "How can I? You, like anyone else, trust me no more than a criminal like Skunk Kusai or Lamp."
There was silence.
There was also a tasty cake down in the lunch room.
"Well, we'll need someone to take care of her, otherwise she'll be found by--"
No sooner had Ochanimizu begun to talk, the doors flung open. Astro, Uran, Ken'ichi and Denkou ran and flew into the room, each of them yelling at the other.
Uran stopped running immediately. "Oh, sorry doctor! Did we interrupt again?"
"Sorry about that, guys," Ken'ichi added.
Denkou twirled over to the covered pod, his cape billowing around his stout body. "Hey, what's under that sheet?"
Denkou's a girl. ;A;
"STOP! NO!" Both men yelled in reflex. Denkou paused, then backed away.
Astro tilted his head to the side. "Professor? Tenma? What's going on?"
Ochanimizu laughed nervously and begun to herd the children out of the room. "Oh, nothing, nothing! Just a good thinking session..."
Ken'ichi squirmed as the other children were pushed against him. "I don't understand, why would--"
"Yes, yes..." Once the children were in the hall, Ochanimizu shut and leaned against the door. "See, Tenma, that's what I'm worried about. Astro can get into any area of the Ministry except the storage rooms."
You can always, like, tell him not to go into a room. I'm pretty sure Astro would go "Yeah, okay" and go off to read.
"I understand." He nodded towards the pod. "When do I pick up the robot?"
"As soon as we finish her face and clothes, I'll call you over."
"All right then, professor..." Without a further word, Tenma turned and left the ministry.
Right out the window.
The arrival home was, and would continue to be, depressing. He had gotten out of jail and was offered his old house. Tenma privately wished he hadn't accepted. The front door and windows seemed to form a face, as remarked by Tobio long ago.
"Father, look! The house has a face!"
"Really? How does it look?"
"It doesn't look very happy..."
How right the boy would be. The front room was dark, with fading photographs reflecting the light of the streetlamps outside. Tenma remembered that a fraction of the upper floor had to be replaced after one of Lamp's robots smashed the place in search of Astro. He let the memory leave him as he entered the house, went up the stairs and into the bedroom. He sat at his desk. What was there to do? He had only now adjusted to living completely alone, but what could he now with a female robot moving in for the evening? He put his head down and gazed out the window at the smoke-grey sky.
Okay, I admit I like this part... :d oh: Also, I'm just gonna cut out a paragraph where Tenma gets called in to pick up Michi.
"Here she is!" Ochanimizu opened the door of the R&D room, and the two men entered. At a desk sat the completed female robot. She looked up, her emerald eyes studying the visitor. "She's ready to leave, Tenma." The robot got up and walked towards the two. Ochanimizu set his hand on her shoulder as his face turned to solemnity. "Just remember, Mother here has an alarm that she can set off any time she's being attacked. I warn you, please don't hurt her."
"You'd accuse me of harming a woman, regardless of her being a robot?" Tenma asked, insulted.
Talking to this man is like fighting a war, Ochanimizu thought to himself.
"Don't worry, professor," Tenma said, sensing the awkwardness. "I'll take care of her as if she were a human."
Ochanomizu: "Hey, I'll just give this special robot to a guy who tried to blow up my lab. And since I clearly don't trust him, I'll install this little alarm thing here."
She could speak, but hardly did during the drive home. Tenma repeatedly looked over, checking if she were mad or afraid, but he couldn't tell. Finally, he stopped the car and let her out.
"Okay, this is your home for the night..." He had an overwhelming urge to call her 'Michiru'. He ignored it.
"All right," She said in a quiet, calm voice. She entered the house, looking around confusedly.
He set his hand on her arm. "Are you okay?" She felt softer than other robots. Through cloth, she almost felt human.
"Yes," she replied. "Where's the Overnight Containment Pod?"
The Pod was a thick, translucent container that robots would be locked in to recharge overnight. Of course, a domestic robot could survive on an outlet.
"Oh, I don't have one of those yet." He took her hand and hurriedly led her up the stairs. "There's an outlet upstairs!"
However, the only room with a convienient outlet happened to be the master bedroom.
OHHHHHH SNAP
"Er, you can stay here tonight," He said, waving his hand towards the bed. "Just lie here, and you can connect to the plug by the nightstand."
She glanced back and forth between the bed and Tenma. "But where could you sleep?"
: ON YOU.
[/SIZE][SIZE="1"]He felt his stomach tighten. "Oh, well, there's a spare cot in my lab downstairs."
"Really? Doctor, I could just stay there."
"Nonsense! You're a guest." He calmed down and tried to smile. "You'll be safe here. I promise."
She smiled. "Thank you, doctor."
He felt himself fluster. She looked like Michiru so much. "I, I'll be downstairs if you need any help." He escaped from the room and headed to the lab.
My story overlaps so much with Astronomical Girl's ideas that it bothers me. Maybe fangirls run in the same tracks. Also, Tenma is not a "fluster" kind of person. He'd be startled, more likely, if attracted to or hit-on by a woman, but otherwise completely stoic. And while we're talking, I picture Tenma with less a dainty little woman and more a outgoing, cute and sort-of geeky businesswoman/roboticist. But oh well...everybody's a perfected projection of themselves somewhere in these things.
(Continued in next post...)