Ian Philpot

I recently shared the creation of LoveBot, a new character of mine. Then I shared a day-in-the-life story of LoveBot, and I’ve received a lot of good responses from that.

Better yet, there’s a new version of LoveBot. Presenting LoveBot 0.5:

LoveBot 0.5

In the conversations I’ve had following the first LoveBot story, I’ve come up with an idea for a follow-up. Here it is:

LoveBot powers up, unplugs, and leaves his apartment building. When he makes it to the street, he looks around. The coast is clear. He opens his body compartment, pulls out his teddy bear, and gives it a hug.

Suddenly, he is bumped from behind by another robot walking down the street. LoveBot drops the teddy bear and the other robot notices. LoveBot is embarrassed and picks up the teddy bear while the other robot is confused. LoveBot quickly puts the teddy bear back into his body compartment and continues on his route to work—down to the subway train, watching the robot eyes as they glow in the dark tunnels, and then onto the robot-only street.

As LoveBot approaches the factory where he works, he sees a grassy hill in the distance. LoveBot blinks and his eyes zoom in on the hill. It looks like fun. But LoveBot looks at the door of the factory and knows that he should go to work. Robots all around him are entering the factory. LoveBot looks to the hill and then at the door of the factory and then back to the hill.

LoveBot is at a full sprint when he reaches the end of the sidewalk and begins running on the grass that leads up to the hill. His heavy body leaves footprints in the grass. When he reaches the top of the hill, he can look beyond and see trees and flowers.

Lovebot opens his body compartment and pulls out the teddy bear. He holds out the teddy bear to see the trees and flowers, and then pulls the teddy bear close and squeezes it. He then grabs the teddy bear by the hands and starts to spin in a circle. He spins faster and faster until the pair is a swirling blur. Then something shoots out from the blur and LoveBot stops spinning. LoveBot is still holding the arms of the teddy bear, but the rest of it is gone.

LoveBot looks around from the top of the hill. He looks in all directions and finally finds the teddy bear at the bottom of the hill, lying under a tree. LoveBot runs over to it, pulls out a needle and some thread from his compartment, and begins to repair the bear.

When LoveBot is almost done with the repair, he sees a small boy running up the hill he had just been on. When the boy reaches the top, he trips on one of LoveBot’s footprints and skids his knee on the ground. His parents run up to him and his mother comforts him. His father looks at the place where the boy tripped and then looks over at LoveBot. The two lock eyes. The man is angry; LoveBot is scared.

The man pulls out his cell phone and makes a call. LoveBot stops sewing and swiftly puts the teddy bear into his compartment. He runs back to the sidewalk and hurriedly into the factory. He looks at a clock that shows the time in binary and looks panicked. He pushes into the time clock, rushes to his station, and the other robots in his assembly line are looking at him impatiently. He looks sorry and starts pressing buttons quickly.

At the end of his shift, LoveBot punches out and his boss—a large, angry robot—is standing next to the time puncher. The boss lets out a beep boop and then steam begins to shoot out of his ears. LoveBot looks defeated.

LoveBot looks very sad on his commute home. When he makes it to his apartment building, he stops and looks around. The coast is clear. He pulls out the teddy bear, but it is missing an arm. He checks his compartment, but it isn’t there. The arm must’ve fallen off when he rushed to put the teddy bear in the compartment.

LoveBot goes into the alley between his building and the next to look through a dumpster. After some searching, his head pops out of the dumpster and he holds up a can of Standard Robot Oil. He then climbs out of the dumpster, but instead of getting out smoothly, he falls. When he stands up, he pulls out the teddy bear and keeps his back turned. It’s clear he’s working on something.

Finally, when LoveBot turns around, the teddy bear now has a Standard Robot Oil can for an arm. He pulls the teddy bear close for a hug, and the oil can makes a small clang against LoveBot’s body. It surprised LoveBot and he holds the teddy bear out. He taps the arm, and it makes a clanging noise. LoveBot is happy and pulls the teddy bear in for another hug.

So, that’s LoveBot’s second story.

I think I’ve got some ideas for LoveBot’s next story. And possibly the three after that.