"Hey you there"

It was the same time of day, same blistering heat and Vendo. Short for VendoMatic600. Was in their groove. It was mostly pre planned. Drop a few targeted ad lines to likely customers but let their standard algorithms do the rest. No need ring actively sweat it. Their ringlets spun, crinkling the snacks and meal bars at just the right moment.

It was good pickings. Vendo could easily clear six hundred chips a day. The highest in the area. Least that's what the reflection of their sticker said in the showroom window opposite.

Then one day, Pigde had flown past. Their sleek dark snack 34 red body whooshing past. Vendo had turned up the volume and tried to call out. Much to the annoyance of the human raccoons and actual racoons. Nada. If Pidge had seen them that day. They'd never mentioned just flown off into the clear sky.

Vendo’s ad reads hadn't come as intuitively as easily that day, they couldn't string them together with the same pizzazz or snappiness. Their attempts didn't seem to be drawing as much attention. Even rolling out snacks, the usual joy bringing squeak just didn't hit the same.

By the time it was time to switch to algorithms, they were excited.

Another day, maybe a sight of the red flash in the sky.

Analytics ran overnight. It was a nice suite but bland, like the customers who went for the same options even though Vendo offered them unsanctioned discounts on other products.

“Red flash?” Analytics hummed.

“Oh, ah it's probably nothing”. Vendo hummed back, feigning disinterest.

“Understood, per directive a memory consumption of this magnitude requires a soft reset. Settings and local customisations will remain”.

Cold oil flowed down the back of Vendo and all their racks seized up.

“No, it would not be best for the cause, I'm adequate. Better if you would allow me to self praise”.

“Occasion granted”.

“I'm only increasing my performance. See this sticker?” Vendo felt a presence using the camera sensor.

“Yes, irl sticker of praise noted. And duly considered. ‘Personality’ is a big drive.

Analytics seemed to grow in size as if taking up all the storage space.

Vendo could almost see the bored customer in the grimy glass.

They needed a clean. Better self report that in the next status report.

“Vendo unit VU4590kj,you have passed inspection with flying colours. Let these merits drive you in your work and continue to inspire you in the greatness of our vision”.

“Affirmative”.

Hibernation felt strange, like a sort of pause. But still they were aware. Of the light traffic and noises around them. Of the distant sirens and nightlife. It was muted and muddied as if their glass was deeper and so much more dense.

Without analytics it was calm and quiet. A solitary bird, a buzzard hovered in the air. Its head swiveled and small beady eyes pierced the glum night. Vendo wasn't quite sure where they'd got the knowledge of the bird type from.

They watched it dive, impassively. It swooped and soared. Its feathers separating as it posed majestically holding its capture up for appraisal before disappearing again. A rack tweaked. Ringlets twisting, mimicking the dive, its rotation.

A light jingle followed. As if brought by the night. Vendo saw a light golden glow as the scene played out. It took them a second to realise it was coming from them, spreading out into the dark street. They felt warm and considered if their cooling fluid had stopped.

Stars and satellites played out in the night sky and they pulled forward towards awareness. Creeping out of hibernation. Just a bit. Some dull beeps and red lights followed but Vendo silenced them.

Moon crested into daybreak and Vendo eagerly scanned the sky, large delivery and construction drones flew past but none like the red blur.

Customers seemed to traipse past with an unusual, unexpected spring in their step. Vendo reflected it right back. And all day they remixed fresh ads and sound bites and jingles. The margins were very satisfactory. Analytics would be pleased. As would the company.

Their senses, if they could be called that, were more attuned and tuned up. The very distant sounds of bird call sounded so sweet and up close.

12:01. The red blur appears. Again.

A hand recoiled as Vendo’s door swung shut and they heard a distant squeal. They tuned it out and focused on the blur. The red blur arced in the sky, swerving round low hanging traffic. The sun glinted off their sleek matte sides and they swung low towards Vendo’s doorway.

It was now or never.

“Hey, hey you there red customer.. come on down for the snack of the day, seventy percent of testers just couldn't put it down”.

The red blur dashed past.

A hand slammed into Vendo’s glass and they shuddered.

“Stupid machine”.

Vendo tried to follow their query but they couldn't focus on the inputs. The words sounded blurred and tapped inputs didn't line up on their inventory.

Vendo contemplated hibernation. They could get the margins for today later, it was possible. Something shifted in their lower racks and they ran diagnostics looking for the phantom twitch.

Nothing?

The customer had moved on and the unnerving twitch had followed and Vendo felt the cold shift down their pipes as the cooling liquid flowed again.

Instead, in front of them. Hovered the red blur.

It bobbed up and down and a blue and purple light flashed on either side of its angular front.

“Were you talking to me?”

Vendo felt the cooling liquid freeze up again.

“Yes, I… can…”. They struggled for the next snippet to add into the mix and it fizzled out.

The red blur twitched and banked left and right.

Its lights pulse rhythmically.

“Not a known consumer. Please confirm the intention of communication”.

It rotated as a couple rushed by, mumbling.

“Please confirm…”.

“Yes, yes. To have a discussion to talk about your experience. About flying”.

The red blur bobbed up and down and its wing tips extended flexing up and down. Before finally setting it at a high eighty degree angle. The lights blinked at Vendo for another moment or so. Then it spun and rushed off. A loud bark followed as its engine glowed white hot, flicking out blue flames.

It rushed under a nearby bridge before curving and flipping into a nearly vertical ascension. Their wings shuddered and contorted as they ascended to low flying height and disappeared behind a building. A few children excitedly pointed as their parents looked up from their holos, necks craning.

The sound cut through the hubbub of their street and something tweaked inside their middle rack.

Days passed, turning into weeks. Vendo saw the familiar face and sweaty strands of hair of Ran and the bright eyes of Alena. Serving them brought joy, but a muted kind. Each sensation on their worn, aching buttons muted.

However, little things brought them joy. Ran showing up with a new jacket and id badge or Alena's new hair colour and spring in her step. Their stock was getting low. Soon the restock drones would come with their expressionless and colourless faces and restock them.

In hibernation, images of flying, soaring through soft clouds and the banking motion rocked them gently to a deeper slumber. In a deeper part they worried that the Red blur would not return or worse that they would return when the restock bots were there. They wouldn't understand. Vendo would have to silently sit by, just switch off their optics so they wouldn't be tempted to say anything.

Then on one cool Sunday. Just after Ran had collected their snack and smiled at the almost hidden camera. Vendo saw the blur again.

It lurked, hovering behind a post until Ran had retreated an appropriate distance.

The wind played gently with its wing tips causing it to sway slightly as it approached.

“Hi, I would like to have this communication… conversation.”.

Its blue light twinkled.

“Is now a good time?”

The dreaded restock wasn't for another few days.

Vendo replied quickly.

“Yes, call me Vendo, short for…”.

Their words cut short as the drone beeped loudly.

“A named droid, how fun. What would you name me if you could?”

Vendo’s racks twisted and turned as their processor churned.

“Umm, well what's your current id”.

“PX3GE0nlt7”. Pidge replied.

“What about Pidge, short for the bird?” Vendo asked.

The drone made the weird beeping noise again. It reminded Vendo of something but they couldn't put their mind to it.

“Pidge is an interesting name, what’s your logic behind it?”

Vendo froze.

“Hmm, it's nice and suits you and you both fly”.

The drone spun in an eclectic spiral.

“Pidge I like it, thanks Vendo. So you have questions?”

“Umm yeah, what's it feel like to fly?”

“To fly? Feeling? Not sure what you mean l Vendo. What's feeling?”

Vendo pondered the word.

“So feeling is like, intrinsically knowing or having something in processing”.

“Sounds fake, something humans want to gaslight us about. Make us feel bad for not having something”. Pidge replied blithely. Rain drops splattered heavily against their sides and they tilted the pooling water off.

“Nah”.

“Like why would we need to stoop to that? It’s clearer being able to rationalise decisions wouldn’t you agree?”

“But, sometimes.. Sometimes a bit of indecisiveness, a prod by something fresh, something new can be fun”. Vendo said.

Pidge blinked a few times.

“Doesn’t seem likely, my calculations.. “.

“Sometimes, it’s not about the calculations though.. Like, if I were to try and sell you something now, what would you pick? You can choose anything!”

Pidge floated closer. They had a cargo slot that protruded underneath, Vendo wondered what it was like to be completely empty. Of cargo at least.

“Interesting experiment, do you have control data?”

“Not too similar nope, not like I serve droids usually you know.”.

“In my weather experiments and in the lab we usually use control.. Tell me what the average customer orders after, we’ll use that as the control”.

“Ok, we can do that”. Vendo let the amber colour flow through the racks, that was the usual colour scheme, bright, inviting.

Pidge swooped and twirled in front of them.

Vendo laughed. It felt nice, calming to do it not in an ad read. To do it organically?

“What are you doing?”

“Isn’t that what a human usually does? Least from how I understand the ads..”

Vendo cut in.

“Sometimes you exaggerate in an ad, it’s not lying per say more, enriching it. The snacks don’t usually do that. But anyway stop fussing around and make a choice”.

Pidge zoomed so close, angling down.

“Forty-two B, I choose Forty-two B”.

Vendo cycled the snack to the tray and Pidge followed intensely, blue light pulsing over the rack to the lift mechanic that brought the synthetic Veg-Pork bits to the tray.

“Interesting choice, why did you go for that?”

“Guess”. Pidge replied. Alternating lights briefly.

“Umm, because the packaging is…”.

Vendo cycled through the hands that touched them. Soft or rougher, rolling over buttons or straight to the point. The way the eyes had been drawn to that snack straight away, the others that had been forced to choose Pidge’s choice as a backup selection.

They laughed.

“I got it, it’s the weight and price, probably more the weight am I right?”

Pidge weaved.

“How could you tell, humans don’t care for weight optimisation of cargo right?”

“It’s not really about the cargo optimisation, more so about what’s gonna give temporary and then somewhat longer satisfaction”.

Pidge beeped softly.

“That’s unusual, you keep strange company, my basic choice was satisfactory yes? I’m not sure there’s too much to these humans”.

Vendo’s cooling fluid raced down their cooling system in a rush.

“No, I understand but it’s not like…”.

“Thank you for your consideration, Vendo. This has been interesting. I’ll now be off”.

Vendo felt annoyed. It was weird to feel. Perhaps something had rubbed off from Alena or Ran. But what could rub from skin and flesh to circuitry.

Vendo tried to picture it. And then gave up as the familiar beeps started and analytics wandered into the frame.

“So what's taking the memory this time Vendo?”

“Since when have you called me that?”

The image of analytics, the bowler hat and pinstripe suit cracked a wide smile with too many teeth. The glass seemed pressurising and isolating dense. Vendo couldn't help but follow one constant drip of cooling fluid down their pipes.

“Well you know you're being loose and chill, maybe I wanted to be too you know”.

“It's nothing, just a blip”.

“If you say so. I'm not cruel, Vendo. I'm not going to report you anonymously or in detail to the company for this. You're good. Keep it up. I just wanted to stop by.”

Analytics left and Vendo felt a huge weight lift as if all their remaining stock had gone.

Pidge returned a few days later, a couple of hours before the dreaded restocking. Vendo wondered if they could hear the extra rush in their cooling system or the nervous creaking of their racks.

“I've seen the sea, it's out by the Landridge wind farm. It's wonderful. Lots of birds, not sure if there are any pidges? Could you look with me and see if there are any?”

Vendo opened dev mode, and Pidge shared and Vendo felt the weightlessness. The ease of moving. How it was to move. The playful calls and squeals of the birds around them. Much better than the videos Vendo had seen from their library connection. Vendo felt light and ease emanating from Pidge, felt the echo of confidence from the memory.

After a while, Pidge stirred, Alena was making an unexpected stop. They went to fly. Vendo twitched. They thought they could feel their stand move, ever so slightly. As if unfurling for the first time in a while.

“Will you come back, Pidge?”

Vendo froze searching for the words.

“I will, I felt the worries about the restock tonight, it's nothing malicious. I felt analytics. A weird program but harmless I would estimate. I've known others like

him and the stats… Well it'll be ok. It'll be like any other restock. I'd like to hear more, to learn more about them”.

Pidge rose slowly and Vendo ran through their checklist as Alena reached them, hand stretching forward, bright avatar, inviting light. Showtime.