Information

Argentus
Legacy Name: Argentus

The Steamwork Bumbus
Owner: PiplupMagby34

Age: 4 years, 8 months, 1 week

Born: August 12th, 2019

Adopted: 4 years, 2 days ago

Adopted: April 21st, 2020

This pet has been nominated for the Pet Spotlight!

Statistics

• Level: 13
   
• Strength: 62
   
• Defense: 57
   
• Speed: 10
   
• Health: 10
   
• HP: 10/10
   
• Intelligence: 0
   
• Books Read: 0
• Food Eaten: 0
• Job: Store Clerk

Defective....or Dreamer?

Uh oh, thought the steamwork bumbus, it happened again.

The steamwork bumbus had been created to broadcast messages over the Ziarian television network. However, every so often the bumbus would somehow broadcast her thoughts over the airwaves. It always caused confusion among the residents of Ziara.

This particular instance had the bumbus broadcasting images of shifted sand spirits playing in a snowy landscape. A few feet away from the shifted sand spirits, the audience saw giant rainbow butterflies land on a snow-covered mountain to take a short rest. Then a blue cloud appeared. On the cloud there was a Sparkoldawg digging through the cloud’s surface, intending to bury some gems it just found.The entire scene was truly bizarre, but these things were a somewhat common occurrence in the steamwork bumbus’s head. They were remnants of her dreams and things she had seen throughout her life.

---

“I’m telling you, that bumbus needs to be replaced!” The voice of the head of the network boomed through the halls of the station. It had been an hour after the befuddling broadcast. The network head was furious that the special announcement had been usurped. Argentus, the bumbus, was in a nearby room where a HLPR Bot was examining her. She had heard the network head’s scathing words many times over the years. Each time Argentus’ strange dreams had interrupted a broadcast, she had been thoroughly examined by expert technicians. But every diagnosis the techs made had not solved the issue. Argentus hung her head in shame. She was certain that she would be sent to the junk heap for her failures. Argentus slipped out of the TV studio with the HLPR bot running after her due to her checkup not being complete.

The bumbus sadly flew along the streets of lower Ziara until she heard a strange noise. The bumbus realized the sound was coming from a nearby dark alley. As the bumbus entered the alley, she saw a sweetheart mallarchy tinkering with a mysterious machine.

“Drat! Why won’t this confounded thing work?!” grumbled the mallarchy. She picked up a wrench and began to make adjustments to the machine.

Argentus looked on with curiosity while the HLPR bot crawled around on her back. The little robot was determined to complete its examination of the steamwork bumbus’ internal processes. Soon the mallarchy finished her adjustments and pushed a button on the machine.

“Please work this time,” the mallarchy said.

The machine hummed for several seconds, then started to jitter wildly. At the same time, the mallarchy’s phone began to ring. The mallarchy let out a loud groan.

“I really hope that’s not Tasha. Typical of her to call when I’m doing mechanical work.” the mallarchy grumbled.

The phone continued to ring while the mysterious machine jittered even more. Suddenly the machine made a loud moan and staring smoking.

“Oh sweet Maleria!” cried the mallarchy. She dashed toward some nearby trash cans. As soon as she ducked behind them, an explosion occurred. The blast managed to startle some wyllop and popoko who had been rummaging for food. The small pets fled in terror. The HLPR bot perked up its head. Its innate programming gave it the knowledge that an explosion meant serious trouble.

Throughout all this chaos, the sweetheart mallarchy’s phone continued to ring. The mallarchy groaned and answered the call.

“What’s going on? Why didn’t you pick up?” a voice asked.

“I was working, Tasha,” the mallarchy replied with a frustrated tone.

“Oh no… one of your inventions exploded, didn’t it? I can tell just by the tone of your voice.” Tasha said.

The mallarchy simply responded with grumbling.

“Good grief, Milly! Get over here before you blow your face off!” Tasha cried. She paused and sternly asked, “Did you even finish packing? Your shuttle’s supposed to leave tomorrow morning!”

“Of course I finished packing,” Milly grumbled into the phone. “I still don’t see any substantial success from working in a candy shop. At least not compared to inventing….”

Tasha groaned and replied, “We’ll do fine. We’re located right next to a motel, so we’ll get plenty of curious customers interested in our wares. And frankly, your inventions haven’t been turning up much of a profit. Look, I’ll be waiting for you at the station, okay?”

“Yeah,” Milly responded dejectedly, “I’ll see you then.” The sweetheart mallarchy sighed as she ended the call.

For years Milly had aspired to be one of the next great inventors in Subetan history. Unfortunately, her track record of inventions had been less than stellar. A few months prior, Milly’s friend Tasha had bought space to open up a candy store in a small but bustling island city. Tasha, an angelic kanis, had offered to let Milly work at the candy store. Milly wasn’t really interested, but the sweetheart mallarchy’s aunt said that working in the candy store would net Milly some much need job experience.

Milly’s thoughts were interrupted by a sudden clunk sound. The mallarchy turned around and saw the HLPR bot examining the wrecked machine. This type of HLPR bot was programmed to prioritize machinery that was severely damaged, which meant that it had paused its diagnostic check on Argentus for the moment. Milly’s eye shone as the HLPR bot poked its head into a hole located at the top of the invention.

“A HLPR bot?! How’d you manage to wander out here?!?” she exclaimed.

Milly then noticed Argentus, who had flown close to the machine.

“Hey, is that your HLPR bot?” the mallarchy asked.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Argentus replied. All of the robots who worked at the network were assigned a personal HLPR bot so that they could receive more efficient maintenance. Argentus actually had 2 more assigned to her due to her tendency of displaying strange images on the airwaves.

“Well, it sure is doing a number on my invention…in a good way. I was hoping to have this baby done by the time I left Ziara. It was going to be used for my new candy shop job. Just put the candy in and voila! Delicious confections molded into a shape that dazzles the eye!” Milly exclaimed…then she let out a long sigh. “But it’s been a bust, like most of my other inventions. If it had worked, I’d have a bit more confidence with this candy shop biz. Nowadays people can easily find candy in the local stores or from online vendors. That means we have to really be efficient with our candy production or we’ll fall behind. What’s your price for the bot? It’s my best bet for figuring out why this machine isn’t working.”

When Argentus hesitated, Milly began to plead, stating that Argentus could easily get another HLPR bot. The mallarchy could tell that Argentus was from a high-class area because of the bumbus’s sleek and modern design. Argentus admitted that she really wasn’t rich and was looking for a place to stay. In the end, a deal was struck. Argentus would stay with Milly in exchange for the services of the HLPR bot.

When Milly and Argentus stepped off the Ziara-Centropolis shuttle, Tasha was there to greet them. The angel kanis’ reaction to the deal was pretty tepid at best. Tasha believed that the HLPR bot wasn't likely to spend a lot of time on Milly’s inventions.

Argentus began to work at the candy shop, and she adjusted to it pretty well. The bumbus felt fulfilled as she handed out flyers for advertisement and picked up orders for the shop. She also greatly appreciated Tasha’s warm and encouraging words towards her. Back at the TV network on Ziara, Argentus had mostly been ignored unless she was receiving maintenance after one of her hiccups on the air.

Milly was a different case entirely. Her hopes to provide candy-making machinery for the shop were dashed when Tasha stated that the shop already had enough machines for candy making. And every weekend, the candy shop took a hands-on approach to candy-making. This basically meant that the employees manually made the candy with as little assistance from technology as possible. Tasha believed that this approach would produce higher quality candy that customers would appreciate. In addition, Milly felt that candy-making was more superficial than inventing. You were creating something that disappeared from existence as soon as someone ate it. An invention, on the other hand, could remain in existence for centuries. Even obsolete inventions were put in museums to be admired by the general public.

One day, Milly excitedly told Argentus about an idea to advertise the shop. Milly wanted to hook up the bumbus to a projector and display a short video on a large office building located on a busy street in Centropolis. Argentus was willing to help, but deep down she was worried about her defect programming interrupt the broadcast. The bumbus called on her HLPR bot, now named Ore, to perform a diagnostic on her in order to prevent any errors.

Tasha was intrigued by Milly’s idea, and the mallarchy herself was excited to finally utilize her mechanical know-how for the candy shop’s benefit. Two nights later, Milly set up at the back of the candy store in order to do a test run of the broadcast. Tasha was also present, wanting to see if Milly’s broadcast would put the shop in a good light. Milly did have a few hiccups with connecting the cables, but soon the presentation was up. It was a simple slideshow of the candy shop, with each slide showing a different section of the shop.

“I do want to make this more…dynamic you know? Like getting footage of us with the customers? Or a clip of our machines making the candy,” Milly explained.

Tasha was about to respond when the presentation suddenly cut out….and an entirely different image was displayed.

“Uh, Milly, what is this?’ the angel kanis asked.

“What do you mean….” Milly’s question was interrupted when she looked at the screen. “Great Shiwna!”

It was the most outlandish thing that Tasha or Milly had seen. Five spectral fruit were floating across the sky, and each fruit had ten cloud babies dancing on top of them. Countless bowcorns were chasing a giant creeping mask across blue-green fields. Then three block dragons came on the scene and began torching everything in their path. Tasha’s eyes widened in horror as the creeping mask’s face caught on fire and the bowcorns ran away in fright. Suddenly a bunch of storm salmon descended from the sky, determined to take the destructive block dragons down.

Milly was in so much shock from what was going on that she could only stutter constantly. Argentus was greatly embarrassed and in tears. With great strength, the steamwork bumbus detached herself from the wires connecting her to the projector and dashed outside the shop. The action stopped the broadcast just as one of the storm salmon was holding up a glowing crystal necklace.

Argentus was too upset to face her friends so she chose to wander the streets for two days. Tasha was concerned about Argentus’ absence but carried on with work at the candy shop. Milly was completely bewildered by what had transpired. The sweetheart mallarchy wondered if she had accidentally tapped into some weird broadcast on that night. With her tendency to have her inventions go wrong, the theory wasn’t too far out of left field.

Eventually Argentus returned to the apartment she and Milly shared. As soon as she entered the bumbus immediately took some covers stacked on the sofa and used them for a makeshift hideaway. Several hours later, Milly and Tasha entered the apartment. Tasha was insisting on putting out a missing pet alert for Argentus. Milly wasn’t against the plan, but she suggested using one of her inventions to locate Argentus. Tasha shook her head, stating that they should leave the searching to the experts. Ore had seen Argentus attempt to hide from the other pets, so the HLPR bot simply sauntered over and motioned for Tasha and Milly’s attention. Soon the two pets had found Argentus in her hideaway and started to grill the bumbus on her disappearance.

Argentus eventually told them her life at the TV network and her feelings of inadequacy due to her ability to broadcast dreams over the TV airwaves. Milly had learned beforehand that Argentus was designed for broadcasting. It was the reason the mallarchy had hatched the advertising scheme in the first place. But she had been unaware of the full reason why the bumbus had left the network. But with the full story revealed, Milly felt empathic towards Argentus’ situation. Milly herself had felt less than useful due to her inventions frequently failing, and the mallarchy had serious doubts that she would ever become a great inventor.

Tasha was as supportive as ever after hearing Argentus’ story. The kanis reassured Argentus that she hadn’t caused any trouble with the bizarre presentation, and that it was okay to not be perfect at a task. What was truly important was that one was aware of their flaws and try to either improve them or find another path in life that better suited you.

Tasha then revealed something quite surprising! The angel kanis would spend time drawing up new candy designs to attract customers. But recently she had gotten into an artistic rut and was unable to fully translate her thoughts into new candy designs. After seeing Argentus’ dreams, however, Tasha had finally gotten the inspiration she needed to design new candies!

“We’re going to be setting aside time for the next few weekends to create some of these new candies,” Tasha said with a smile. “And I’m pretty sure that we’ll have a steady flow of ideas thanks to you.”

Argentus shed tears of relief as Tasha and Milly hugged her. Ore didn’t say anything but she was happy as well. From that day forward, Argentus’ dreams would serve as inspiration for new wares to be sold at the candy shop.

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