"A computer screen doesn't make for a good companion. Nor does a keypad, or even a mechanical ear.

All they can do is listen. Listen to your commands, for a screen, your fingers, for a keyboard, your voice of a mechanical ear. These things cannot reach out and touch you, hold you, comfort you, assure you that though you may have left society behind, you are not alone.

So I set about to build something that could be a good companion.

The first attempt, a self propelled cart, was not only a disaster because I lost three years worth of recovered equipment when it failed to roll over a cord in its way, but also a failure because all it did was remind me how insufficient these things were as companions by following me around and forcing me to remember that I was, for the nonce, alone, literally all of the time.

On my next Border Order company delivery form I added several bolts of fabric, sheers, needles, thread, buttons, and clay. I reacquainted myself with sewing and made a doll as big as I was.

Once it was finished I lifted its bulk off the table, narrating what I did to my KADE program, and seeing the words I spoke scroll across the screen from the corner of my eye.

I noted that the doll was absurdly heavy, that the beaded joints didn't work as I had wanted, that it had no ability to hold its own head up, and all its other flaws as I dragged its bulk off the worktable and into my arms. Once the list of negatives was complete I tentatively squeezed the doll in my arms. Quietly, I asked the KADE program to make a second list and glanced over to see the new paragraph it created.

Here I listed the positives. The fabric had a fresh, clean smell that none of my equipment, made of metals and alien materials I could not conceive the creation of called 'plastics'. The doll was the right size, a head shorter than me, and it fit against my body nicely when embraced. Resting my head on its, I gave the computer my final note.

The doll was warm.

I hung the doll up on the pegs that studded the walls and stood back from it, looking at it fully while it was upright. I terminated the notation program and then made a note in my notebook. I don't know why I felt the need to suspiciously hide this note away from the program, from all my other data, but I did scrawl the idea while I had it. Whatever I ended up using for the final construction of this project, it would need to retain warmth. I always forgot I missed it, living as I did so far North, until I experienced it.

And if I could hold warmth in my arms, if my companion that I sought could give me warmth and receive me own? Surly that would make it perfect."

World: Knights of Nodd.
Characters: Kaden.
Media: Easy Paint Tool SAI and Microsoft Paint.
Art, characters, designs, and ideas © me.

-Topknot