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“The design is certainly unique.” The Tsaritsa mused, looking over the sketches and blueprints laid out on the desk before her. “The idea is interesting and something never before seen in this industry.”Dottore and Scara sat across from her, patiently waiting as their boss looked over their proposal. The two worked hard together to come up with a new toy idea, a human sized robot that kids could control from the inside or set to autopilot so that it would play with them on its own. The design was based on Inazuman culture and given the name ‘Shouki no Kami’. The sketches are mostly purple, black and gold with some red and white throughout.“I approve your proposal.” The Tsaritsa finally answered. She placed all the papers back into the folder and stamped her approval on the front before handing it back to Dottore and Scara.“Thank you, Ma’am.” The two nod their heads in thanks as they take the folder. Their boss dismisses them with a wave of her hand and they leave.Once outside of the Tsaritsa’s office they quickly return to Dottore’s office, eager to start working on their new project.Scara sat the folder down on the table and pulled the blueprints out while Dottore began gathering the needed materials. They started with the base, cutting and assembling its skeleton. As they work they quickly realized this project is way too much work for only two people.Fortunately for them, a coworker walks by and seems interested in the new project.Unfortunately for them, the coworker is Childe.“Whatcha doing?” Childe walked into the office without waiting for their response, hands already poking curiously at the robot’s base“Don’t touch that!” Scara snapped as he pushed Childe’s hands away.The ginger simply laughs and Dottore sighs at the two’s antics.“It's extremely fragile right now.” Dottore explains. “Meaning you might break it.”“Oops, sorry.” Childe apologized without a hint of remorse in his voice. “So what’s this?”“Our latest toy idea. A human sized toy robot that kids can control and play with.” Dottore explained, gesturing to various blueprints scattered across the desk. “Would you like to help?”Childe looked over the blueprints with a sparkle in his eyes.“This looks pretty cool! I’m in!”Childe grinned.“Great.” Scara said without any enthusiasm.“Wonderful. Let’s begin.” Dottore handed Childe a tool and he immediately dropped it. Scara rolled his eyes at the ginger’s stupidity.The three continued work though it wasn’t much faster due to Childe constantly dropping equipment and rambling about his ideas.“We should make this a fighting robot!” Childe smiled wide while his coworkers sighed in annoyance.“No.” Scara refused, not even entertaining his idea.“Why not?” Childe pouted, accidentally dropping a large sheet of metal. The sound is loud and Scara grits his teeth, resisting the urge to smack his coworker.“It's stupid.” Scara deadpanned.“It's a liability and lawsuit waiting to happen.” Dottore reasoned and that finally shut Childe up.The loud noise drew Signora’s attention and she came over to investigate, curiously peeking into the room.
“What are you breaking in here?” Signora questioned.“Nothing. Childe just can’t stop dropping everything.” Scara scoffed.Childe ignored the glare directed at him and smiled innocently at Signora.“We’re working on a new toy the Tsaritsa just approved.” Dottore explained, continuing his work as he ignored the tension in the room. “Would you like to join?”“Hmm.” Signora thought for a moment before nodding. “I’ll join. Someone needs to watch you idiots and make sure you don’t break anything.”Signora walked over, her heels clinking against the floor. She stopped at the table, looking over the blueprints. The three resumed their work while Signora directed them. When Childe messed up she scolded him for being reckless. That made Scara laugh until it was directed at him, the stern woman telling him to get back to work. The three quickly grew annoyed at her bossing them around.Scara is about to snap when a knock at the door interrupts them.They all turned to see Pantalone smiling at them, ignoring the tension in the room.“What are you doing here?” Signora questioned.“I heard the sound of animals stampeding and about to maul each other.” Pantalone laughed. “And Dottore messaged me so I’m here to help. I believe this project will make the company a large profit.”The group resumed their work, the robot’s outer shell slowly coming together.“I’m impressed, you chose a very cost efficient metal.” Pantalone rambled, though the others ignored him, not understanding business as well as he did. “Though you should’ve chosen different screws, the cost is going to add up in the end.”“Shut up.” Scara growled, tired of Pantalone’s boring business talk.“I’m just trying to help.” Pantalone sighed.“Then go take your stupid money hungry hands and do something useful instead of just criticizing everything we do.” Scara threw the “bad” screws at the businessman, fed up with his dumb words and dumb face.“It's a little late to change it now, but Pantalone could look into more cost efficient materials for the stuff we haven’t ordered yet.” Dottore suggested, but the two ignored him, too lost in trying to prove the other wrong. The others simply continued their work around them, ignoring their petty quarrel.Their argument drew the attention of Sandrone, curious to see what all the commotion was about. She peaked into the room, glancing at the large group of her coworkers before her eyes landed on the giant robot in the center of them. Her piercing shriek stopped everyone in their tracks, loud enough to get even Scara and Pantalone to stop arguing.“Why didn’t you tell me you were making a robot?!” Sandrone demanded, anger clear as she stormed into the room. “I’m literally the expert of mechanics in this company. Honestly, I’m insulted you invited Childe to help before me. No offense, but he’s a complete idiot on this subject. He has no knowledge about how intricate the workings of a robot this size are.”“Hey-” Childe began, taking offense to what she said.“She can continue.” Signora interrupted him, the corner of her lips turned up into a smirk. “I want to see what other wonderful things she has to say about you.”“Who put you in charge?” Childe huffed, his arms crossed in front of him.“Like I said earlier, which you would’ve heard if you were listening, I’m here to make sure you all don’t do anything stupid and ruin everything.” Signora reminded him, her tone sharp, leaving no room for argument. Though Childe never went down without a fight.“Well we never agreed to that. Besides everything is going fine, so we don’t need you here-” His words were cut off by him accidentally bumping into the robot as he angrily stomped towards the woman.Luckily the others caught it in time before it could hit the ground. Though now everyone was glaring at Childe and siding with Signora.“Case and point.” Signora pointed to the disaster he had nearly caused.“That was your fault!” Childe yelled, frustration clear in his voice. “If you hadn’t-”“Quiet.” A new voice snapped, silencing the argument. “You’re all making too much noise and disturbing my work.”Everyone turned to see Arlecchino standing in the doorway, annoyance written all over her face.“Calm down, I’m sure they didn’t mean to.” Columbina appeared beside her, placing a hand atop the woman’s shoulder to soothe her.Arlecchino immediately stopped scolding them but continued glaring daggers at the group. The group all returned the glare, some more so than others.“Why not put all this energy into working on the project?” Columbina suggested, her soft voice diffusing the tension in the room. “I’m sure then we’ll get done in no time.”Everyone agreed and resumed their work, now with the added two sets of hands. Though once again, the peace didn’t last long.
“We are not dressing up the robot.” Scara rolled his eyes. “That’s stupid.”“But it would look lovely in a dress.” Columbina frowned. “I have the perfect material in my office, let me go get it-”“No.” Scara snapped.“Stop being so mean to her.” Arlecchino ordered. “It's not a bad idea, you should hear her out.”“You’re right, it's not a bad idea.”Arlecchino grinned in triumph at Scara’s admission of defeat.“It's a terrible idea.”Arlecchino’s glare returned tenfold.“Should I inform the Tsaritsa that you’re all slacking off?” A deep voice filled through the room, silencing everyone. Pierro stood in the doorway with Pulcinella and Capitano behind him.“No, sir.” Signora smiled sweetly, her anger thinly veiled. “I’ll get them back in line.”No one spoke, not wanting to argue in front of their boss’ right hand man. The three men joined them and everyone resumed working. The peace lasted much longer this time, Pierro’s intimidating presence enough to deter them from causing trouble. Though even he could only stop his coworkers from being at each other's throats for so long.It began with a disagreement and then everything quickly descended into chaos. Arguments were everywhere, some louder than others. A few tried to stop the arguments only to get pulled into them or fail miserably. Somehow in the middle of the mayhem the prototype was accidentally damaged and activated. It began to stomp around the room, no control in its movements or care for its surroundings. It crashed the parts that were meant for it underneath its metal feet, damaging them beyond repair. It ran into furniture, knocking them over and breaking them.Everyone struggled to get it back under control, yet it was too strong for anyone to pin down and too fast for anyone to turn it off. It takes a long time but they finally manage to collectively hold it in place long enough for Dottore to deactivate it. They all sighed in relief, glad the disaster was finally over.Their moment of relief was quickly shattered when the door slammed open, revealing none other than the Tsaritsa herself. Her cold eyes took in the scene before her, from her workers staring at her like deers in a headlight to the office in ruins. Finally her eyes landed on the damaged prototype, its body slumped onto the floor after its rampage was brought to a halt.“This project is officially canceled. Return all usable parts to storage along with the prototype and clean up the mess you all made.” The Tsaritsa ordered, though her cold stare quickly melted into a much kinder expression. “But I’m relieved to see that no one got hurt in this incident.”Everyone was relieved that they weren’t in too much trouble and swiftly began cleaning up. The Tsaritsa turned to leave before speaking once more.“Oh and, Dottore and Scara?”“Yes Ma’am?” The two spoke at the same time.“Next time you two decide to collaborate on a project, make sure it's on a smaller scale.”Dottore and Scara nodded as she left, leaving them to deal with the mess they made. The two took in the ruins of Dottore’s office, dreading how much there was to do.This was going to take awhile.