Wobble's New Hobby

Wobble was, to put it mildly, exhausted. She'd never felt exhaustion before, but apparently building an Amicabot is harder than safely hauling radioactive canisters from the bottom of the ocean up to the surface. Wobble had thought the giant radioactive canister thing would be the most difficult task she'd ever have, considering it took not only her and Wibble but also three other bots and a crane to even just get that stupid container off the sandy floor. Wobble doesn't even want to know what exactly the giant crate had been holding to be that heavy and cause everyone involved to spend a week getting decontaminated, as long as it was dealt with safely by whoever had gotten the displeasure of having to deal with the thing afterwards, which she certainly hopes they did seeing as the world already isn't lacking in misplaced nuclear energy. It's not like she knew enough about the topic to do anything about it either way.

So anyway, she was currently experiencing a feeling she had only ever theoretically known existed through other's descriptions. It sucked, and she wishes it would stop. What is it that the other bots said they do about it? Take a break? Like... they just stop doing things? But that sounds really unproductive and boring.

No, wait, she remembers them saying that they still do things, just other things. Relaxing things. Wobble doesn't know what relaxes her though, she's pretty sure her usual job of collecting trash doesn't count since that's her job. She could just go back to trying to put the arm and torso of her and Wibble's project together, but she's also sure that will result in her feeling this "rage" emotion she's heard about, and that doesn't sound pleasant. She's felt anger before, and that was overwhelming even with how brief it had been, she doesn't need to know what it’s like amplified.

...Ten minutes of unrelated trains of thought later, Wobble finally gets up from lying on the stone floor to properly store away the half-built metal skeleton before swimming out of the cave to look for something relaxing to do.

She absent-mindedly snatched some floating bits of litter out of the ocean as she first made her way to a familiar area: the recycling plant. It had been freshly built soon after the extinction, having been considered an important building. It's where she herself was built, designed to get the materials most other bots couldn't reach without severe risk. It would be the easiest place to find someone to ask about relaxing things she could do, since she's already familiar with the area and most of the bots there.

She made her way to the bot currently working to drop off the few things she had collected on the way there, and as she did she asked "what's a relaxing thing to do?"

Wobble thought the worker looked far too surprised considering the simple question, but she's almost certain that this bot is new to the recycling plant, her having only seen them once before, so perhaps it's just a matter of not being used to a new environment yet. They still responded in a timely manner though, so Wobble decides she can spare some respect for them.

"Uh, well, I like photography? So I can take pictures of anything nice I see while exploring. That's relaxing"

"I don't have anything that can take pictures"

"You can borrow one of my spare cameras, if you bring it back on my next shift. That's in, uh, let me check my schedule… two days, same time"

"I can do that. Thank you"

Setting off from the large building with a simple digital camera in hand after the larger bot had given her a quick tutorial on how to use it, Wobble wasn't really sure where to go first, but the bot had said to explore, so she will, slipping back in the water but staying surfaced to swim somewhere she hasn't been before.

The camera was waterproof, thankfully, the tail and fins on her being enough of a tell that the bot who had lent the camera wasn't about to force her to travel by land (she had been told multiple times she looked uncomfortable using her arms as legs, and she couldn’t really disagree with that assessment) but she wasn't about to risk fully submerging it for the amount of time she's going to be swimming. Besides, there’s little point in exploring if all she was going to see was the dark water she usually does. So surface it is.

Wobble set off in a direction she'd rarely gone before, at least not far enough to actually come across anything interesting. Maybe if this works out she can get her own camera and do this again.

…

Going through the freshly sorted pictures she had gotten printed, Wobble carefully clipped them onto the thin ropes she had hung across the cave walls. That trip through various biomes had been great, and she needs to see that bot tomorrow to give back the camera and Inquire as to where to buy her own. And maybe ask their name and pronouns, she had forgotten to do that the first time with how focused she was on her task.

She should also leave a note for Wibble this time, as while the two usually just stick to their own devices and don’t need to inform each other of what they’re doing, Wobble can admit leaving for a full day partway through a project she had been expected to work more on was a bit of a ‘dick move’ as her sibling had called it.