The Ballad of ACX-23
By Kedbreak136 on November 6, 2022 1:08 pm
In a brutalist industrial world, the robot ACX-23 has been busy at his work at the large factory, where the hundred tons press bend metal into molds for objects it does not understand. It has been going for years, decades, maybe centuries and, sometimes, when it's on the way home, it looks at the stars and wonders if there is more to life than this.
One evening, it could hear strange sounds coming from a room adjacent to his room. Drawn by curiosity, it knocked at the door and befriend the inhabitant of the adjacent room. An old biological being, who loved to make sounds with an old piece of organic wood and metal strings. ACX-23 discovered the joys of music, humming along, and the beauty in its everyday world.
Unfortunately, its biological friend was already at the end of its limited life and one day ACX-23 discovered that he had been decommissioned. ACX-23's friend left him the old instrument and ACX-23 decided to teach itself to play, looking at the stars, playing songs its old friends would play and daring to dream of another time.
Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works (BY-NC-ND)
