From Cassy's diary
Since Sirio's birthday, Toq took the habit to visit us a couple of times a week. He always spends a lot of time with Sirio, often helping him with his homework or playing a bit with him.
Sirio: Toq, but why did you finish working so late today?
Toq: Mr Henry, one of the shop's supplies, had a mishap which caused him to arrive late. It was quite an ironic mishap actually, he could not deliver spare parts to us due to a malfunction in his own teleport device.
Sirio: (laughing) Really? Couldn't he just fix it by himself?
The two of them seem to get along surprisingly well. I suppose it's related to their telepathy, somehow they just manage to spot the mood of the other the moment they sit next to the other and act consequently. They seem to be able to synchronize with each other, in a way I can't really understand.
Well, there isn't anything bad in it, I guess. Actually I guess I should consider it a good thing, I wasn't sure Toq and Sirio could bond so quickly, and Sirio is happier than ever before.
However, I have to admit that for me it's not so easy to see them chatting so friendly every other day. I can't see the thoughts in other people's minds the way Toq does, nor I can empathize with any emotion felt by the ones surrounding me as Sirio does, and so I always struggle to follow their conversations. Maybe I just feel excluded, and for sure this is very frustrating.
Sirio: (turning towards the sofa) Mom, do you want to talk with us too?
The other consequence of their telepathy is that I can't have a single doubt or hesitation without them noticing. Sirio in particular is really learning a lot, until not so long ago he would have struggled to recognise an emotion like: "feeling excluded from the group". And, when perceiving negative emotions in others, he always tries his best to cheer the ones around him up, he really can't stand sad people. So I put on a smile, and join their chat.
Cassy: So, what were you talking about?
Sirio: I was saying what we did today at school. We painted all afternoon, it was great!
Toq: Oh, so you drew your house.
Sirio: Yes, and also the spaceship mom uses at work!
Well, that's exactly the kind of situation where I get lost quite quickly. And, actually, Sirio was quickly at spotting my mood, as he jumped down his chair by saying:
Sirio: Wait, mom, I brought it at home, it's in my room! Wait a sec, I'm going to take it!
Cassy: Oh. Thank you, Sirio.
Sirio can really be lovely when behaving this way, he really cares so much about us. As for Toq instead... Well, very often I just have no idea about what he's thinking, and after reading his mind I won't make the mistake of thinking I can guess his thoughts anymore. He seems to be enjoying his time here with us at least, and for the moment the information seems sufficient to me.
Usually, Toq remains leaves about one hour before dinner time politely saying goodbye to everyone. After his first visits, then, Sirio would always sit next to me, asking:
Sirio: When is Toq returning back?
Cassy: Ehm, I don't know exactly...
This situation is very challenging for me, I hadn't any sure way for telling whether Toq would have returned to visit us or not. Sirio seemed to care so much, but I don't want to delude him either. The solution to all these questions seems so close, if just Toq had been a bit more clear with us...
But there was at least one question which was puzzling me quite a bit, and for which I could find an answer pretty easily.
Cassy: By the way, why don't you call him dad? It's a bit... uncommon, you know.
Sirio: Uhm...
Sirio focused really a lot to think of an answer, but eventually he just shrugged and then simply said:
Sirio: I don't know why, but he just understands better than I'm talking to him this way.
Cassy: I see...
This said, Sirio just hugged me very tightly. He still likes hugs just as much as when he was little, and for sure I won't be the one complaining about it.
This whole situation can be pretty, how to say... disorienting from time to time, but I wouldn't say that anything worrisome happened since when Toq reappeared in our lives. Above all, I find it so frustrating to be unable to understand what is going on half of the time...
Maybe I should just start to make many more questions, that's it.
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To Sirio's delight, Toq showed up again a few times the following week. And we were all particularly surprised when he decided to show up for also for Winterfest. Actually, he also brought a few presents for the kids. I still struggle at understanding what he's really thinking, back in the days he seemed to hate this kind of loud local celebrations.
I like to think that he could have decided to come because he understood how important it is for Sirio, he cares so much about this festivity he spent a whole week preparing the paper decorations himself. He would spend hours with his crayons and filling sheet after sheet, it's clear that he really enjoys drawing, and the more time passes the more he improves.
Venus: So, guys, what other decorations do we want to put on this tree?
Halley: Apples!
Sirio: No, apples are too heavy! Let's use popcorn instead!
Halley: Yeeeeeah!
While we were all intent on opening our presents and eating the roasted ham cooked by Venus we really looked like a big and weird family, don't you agree, my dear diary?
But we still didn't know that our family was about to become even weirder...
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From Venus' diary
Recently Steve is very busy with some project he is assembling in his workshop, now he spends almost all his free time at the robot construction station doing I don't know what. He says he wants it to be a surprise, and he seems eager to reveal to the rest of us what his big new project is the moment it is finished.
Venus: Dinner is ready, do you want to join us?
Steve: ... What? Oh, dinner... a minute and I'll join you, don't worry.
Cassy: Steve, it's three in the morning, and we can't sleep if you keep hammering like this!
Steve: Sorry, I'll try to hit with a bit less energy. Or I could just soundproof the room... In any case it's almost finished, don't worry!
Cassy: (yawning) Okay...
Halley: Dad, let's play!
Steve: Oh, hi honey! Dad is almost finished building a beautiful thing, wouldn't you prefer to play in here for a while?
Halley: Uh, dad boring.
Steve: Well, fingers crossed...
robot: Buzzzzzzzzzz.....
Steve: Ehm... can you hear me?
robot: Ignition complete, all parameters meet the expected ranges.
Steve: (excited) Wow, it really works!
And that's how the Miller family acquired its robotic member. Steve decided to call it Techna (actually, I'm quite unsure about what pronoun to use. Does it really make a difference for robots, by the way?)
At least Techna seems quite friendly, and also helps us a lot with the housework. Even the kids loved it right away, trying to play with it from the first moment.
Halley: Story, story!
Steve says it's a prototype of a robot coded with a machine learning AI he and his colleagues have been working on for a while, it will remain at our house to test its functionalities and whether it needs any upgrades. But, despite everything, no one can deny that they have grown fond of it rather quickly.
I mean, it's a real intelligent robot, isn't it cool?
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§HermioneSims§ corner
After so much talking about Toq the title probably looked a bit misleading, but instead the next addition to the family is indeed... a robot!
About it, at this moment I really am quite troubled in deciding what pronoun to use for it from now on, the translation really isn't straightforward in this case.
My mother tongue decline "genders in grammar" in a quite different way than English does and, in short, to this day the official rules only allow to choose between the pronouns equivalent to "he" and "she". The topic is actually larger and is currently being discussed a lot, but a shared solution seems very far from being achieved.
So that this robot was activated in game as female and was given a feminine name (Techna), in the original version of the legacy it was referred to as something equivalent to "she/her". World-building-wise, however, I didn't really characterise any robot in the story in terms of anything resembling a gender, and so I was wondering if a neutral option could have been more appropriate instead.
And this is where English comes in handy, as it has many more pronoun options to choose from. As I'm not proficient enough in English to really sense the difference, though, I wonder: which could be the most appropriate pronoun for robots? The options which come to my mind are "it/its", "they/them", or something else exclusively meant for robots (but this last option in particular scares me quite a lot, as I already need a lot of reasoning with standard English grammar, and it would be particularly challenging for me to introduce a whole new pronoun in my writing...), or I don't know what else.
I'm actually quite unsure about this whole matter, if any of you has some suggestions I would actually be quite interested in hearing them.
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