“Since the only humans left here now are you and Axel,” Zelda said, standing up, “and I don’t want to change you while you’re still feeling bad about changing me. So Axel’s up next on the list.”
Jake pressed on his forehead. “...This is so weird to think about.”
“So, what sort of creature do you think he’d want to be?”
“Why are you asking me?” Jake waved in the direction of the basement door. “He’s right down there, you could ask him yourself.”
“Yeah, why don’t I? ‘Hey Axel, how are you doing? I was wondering, if I hypothetically had the power to remake you, body and mind, even changing your past to match, into anything, what would you want to be?’” Zelda chuckled. “I’m sure he’d give me a serious answer.”
“... I mean, I’ve heard weirder conversation starters.”
Zelda crossed her arms. “Name one.”
Jake frowned. “... Okay, I haven’t, but, I mean, if you worded it a little differently, it wouldn’t be that bad a reaction.”
“Look Jake, you’re his brother, I mostly know him through you. I don’t think he’d tell me about any personal issues he’d want fixed. But you can.”
He sighed. “This still feels really weird, but you’re probably gonna change him either way, aren’t you?”
Without waiting for an answer, he continued. “If I’m honest, Axel let all the praise he’d got in high school football get to his head. He felt like he didn’t really have to try to get anywhere, after having tons of guys trying anything to get on his good side, and dozens of girls begging him for a ride.
“Then he got out of high school, and wasn’t able to get into any of the colleges he wanted on a football scholarship, because his grades were too low. Out in the real world, nobody thought he was anything special, he was just another guy. A really fit guy, but still, just a guy.
“But he just kept going, expecting everything to work out for him, and Dad just let him stay. Said ‘he’s still figuring stuff out.’ He doesn’t put any work into his resumes on the rare occasion he even bothers sending them out, and he barely even helps out with chores around the house. And now Axel’s not only not trying to get a job, he’s not even trying to stay in shape, either.”
Zelda blinked. “Uh… wow… I uh… Really ended up opening the floodgates there, huh?”
Jake took a deep breath. “Yeah, uh, sorry about that. I’d been holding that in for a while. It’s just, I used to look up to him, you know? And I hate seeing what he’s let himself become. If you could change that about him, I’d be just fine with it, even as weird as him not being human anymore would be.”
Zelda nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think I get where you’re coming from.” She paused a moment, giving it some thought. “I think I’ve got an idea. Before I commit, though, do you know what his favorite animal is? I’d still want to let him have a tiny say in what happens to him.”
“He doesn’t really seem into any animals. But I guess he does like cats a little.”
Zelda smiled. “Alright, let's get Axel in gear, then!”
She marched back downstairs, Jake following close behind. Axel and Pablo were still absorbed in their game, barely even noticing when the two stepped in.
She held Jake’s hand in her left hand, and, for a little dramatic effect, pointed at Axel, and whispered. “Change him!”
Axel’s hunched-over posture suddenly stiffened straight up. The hair all over his body fell out, and seemed to dissolve into nothingness, while his skin smoothed over, taking a metallic sheen. His breathing seemed to slow, then stop altogether, but he kept on playing, regardless. In fact, on the screen in front of them, his character seemed to be putting up a slightly better fight against Pablo’s than when the change had started.
His skin began to stiffen and reshape, fat melting away from his waist, the mass redistributing to his chest and hips, giving him a feminine hourglass figure. Around each joint in her body, her metal skin began to part slightly, allowing for more freedom of movement, while Zelda imagined the internal shifts to Axel’s body, muscles becoming gears and pistons, veins becoming wires, and bone turning to metal frame.
Axel’s feet bent into a digitigrade stance, the toes becoming larger and rounder, looking like metal paws. And while Zelda couldn’t see them from this angle, she could guess that small thrusters were forming in her soles and palms, as well. As each joint in Alex’s fingers became mechanical, a new limb appeared behind her, a thin and surprisingly flexible, multi-segmented tail pressed out between her back and the couch.
Her head became rounder, and her nose and mouth joined into a solid, unmoving metal imitation of a cat’s snout, with a speaker inside. Her eyes shrank down into tiny, but highly-detailed cameras, just barely visible above her snout. Above them, two black screens formed, each displaying blue lights in patterns that resembled expressive eyes. Her ears, meanwhile, bulked up into large triangle shapes.
Finally, the robot cat’s clothing seemed to pixelate, then fade away, as a new coat of paint appeared on her outer shell. Deep purple appeared on her arms, legs, back, tail and most of the upper part of her head. Her snout was colored white, as was her belly, hands, feet, and tail-tips. On her right thigh, the letters “Model XL-T” were printed in big, bold, white text.
The house around them seemed to blur, as the effects of the past Zelda had imagined for Axel came into being, the whole room looking far cleaner and more neatly organized, while the smell of a zesty chili drifted down from upstairs.
Zelda remembered, a long while back, a conversation with the sorceress who had moved her soul to her new body. During one of her “magical check-ups,” the old woman had told Zelda she was sorry that the poor girl had kept her mind relatively unaltered during the transfer, believing that “only true golems could experience the ultimate joy” of “total devotion to another.” That, in following orders without question, they were free of their own worries or guilt. Though the sorceress also admitted that “total exploitation by another” was “the cruelest of evils,” and in an ideal world, any “master” would be worthy of their servants, and treat them with proper respect (a situation she confessed rarely happened in the real world).
Zelda didn’t really agree with that idea, herself. She enjoyed having free will just fine, thank you very much! But she could at least agree with the general idea that serving others was one of life’s greatest joys. So she made a point to introduce that to this new version of Axel Tanner, XL-T.
This time, when meeting with Zelda for the first time, a teenaged Axel found herself curious about what it would be like to have an artificial body. So, he sought out the same sorceress that had saved Zelda’s life, asking for “A cool body like Zelda’s.” The sorceress tried to dissuade him, but he kept coming back again and again. Eventually, she’d gotten fed up, and finally granted the request, but with a body Axel wouldn’t get to see until his soul was inside of it.
The sorceress kept the origins of that robotic body a secret, but when XL-T had woken up in it, she initially freaked out. Her dad and brother had been startled, too, when she came back home, but all gradually grew to accept it.
XL soon found that one of her central directives “ease the lives of other sapient beings,” brought her a spark of happiness in ways that her former popularity never had. She eagerly volunteered to do chores and run errands, leaving the house spotless and tidy. When she’d got out of high-school, she’d even started her own home-cleaning business.
“Oh, thank you for turning the oven off for me, Zelda,” XL said in a cheery, high-pitched robotic voice. “I’d have gotten it myself, but it’s rude to pause during a fighting game.” She focused back on the screen. “Jake, just remember not to ‘sample’ anything until everyone else is ready, okay?”
XL’s character landed the final blow, and the announcer’s voice declared her victory.
“Oh yeah!” She cheered.
Pablo looked up at her. “You’ve gotten a lot better at this in just a couple weeks. You didn’t download any scripts or input readers, did you?”
“Hah, hardly, I’m just in my natural element!”
Zelda smiled. Good, XL seemed to still have some goals and ambitions of her own besides service. Now with her taken care of, she could move on to other things.