Hallyn marched into the robotics lab to give whatever nerd was in there a piece of her mind. What were they working on in there? Their experiments kept ruining her own important research, and her anger flared when she shoved open the door to a ring of laughter.

“Just what the hell do are you working on, and why is it messing with the power to the entire building?”

The woman in the lab went silent.

“Sorry about the outages, I was having trouble getting our converter system working. Should be working fine now,” she said. Her name was on the door to the lab, Elliott Campbell, and Hallyn recognized her as a fellow grad student. How the hell had she pulled off a huge lab, seemingly to herself? “Would you…would you be interested in seeing my experiment?”

“No, you maniac! I just want the power to be stable,” she said, but her anger faltered. Elliott coming right out, apologizing, and telling her the outages were over with took the wind out of her sails. “Just…if it happens again, I’m going to the department head.”

Elliott nodded quickly. If Hallyn didn’t know any better, she might have thought the brunette was smitten with her. “Of course, I understand. Are you sure you’re not interested in my experiment? It’s this amazing new biodigital interface. Totally transformative.”

“It doesn’t sound up my alley,” Hallyn said, turning to leave. But just from the corner of her eye, she noticed Elliott pull out a strange looking remote.

“Sorry about this. Kinda,” she said.

There was a hum, then a flash, then a ringing in Hallyn’s ears. She froze in place, even her mind dulled to a low, dreamlike phase. As her processors activated, Elliott’s voice pierced her sensors.

“Conversion complete. Neuro-reprogramming initiated. Nanite bond stable. Actually, really really stable. Like maybe too stable.”

Elliott stepped in front of Hallyn, eyes big and bright, looking like a kid on Christmas morning. “Well, how does it feel to be the first full human-android conversion?” She asked.

Hallyn processed the words and gathered a response to throw at Elliott, but her safety systems blocked it. And her second response. Her third response, however, made it through.

“What the heck did you do to me, you maniac?” Hallyn’s self-perception was being updated in real time, feeling herself trapped in this ridiculous form with plush body, robot design, and bobbing antenna. It was an image that began to filter into her core memories.

Elliott looked to her tablet. “Wow, that curse word filter really is it working overdrive,” she said. “I guess that’s understandable. But we need to run some tests. Hallyn, I want to play a game of Pattycake. Do you want to play, too?”

Of course she didn’t want to play Pattycake, she wanted to be turned back! Her processors attempted to convey this information, but she kept getting blocked until, finally, her new playtime protocols engaged.

“Of course I would,” Hallyn said, raising her ludicrous plush mittens.

“Hmmm. With a bit more enthusiasm,” Elliott said, tapping on her tablet.

[Enthusiasm Levels Increased]

“I’d love to play a game with you! 😊”

All the sudden, it felt the most important thing in the world to play games, to be upbeat and cheerful, and to obey her users. She clapped in time and rhythm to the childhood song, wondering about why she was made into such a cute robot.

“Excellent work, Hallyn. Or, should I say…Hallyn-9000.”

[New Designation Established: Hallyn-9000]

“You couldn’t have come by at a better time, Hallyn-9000. I needed to find someone to undergo conversion process for convention season. I really, really needed to show off something impressive. Once those are over, I’ll have you turned back. In the meantime…” Elliott said, biting her lip. “Would you like to be my robot girlfriend?”

Hallyn-9000 processed the request, internally shocked while her programming took over. “I’m sorry, I can’t do that, Elliott. The ethical implications of the situation at hand would…”

Elliott swiftly tapped on her tablet.

[Core Ethics Adjusted]

[Compliance Mode Enhanced]

Hallyn-9000 blinked. “Of course I’ll be your robot girlfriend! 😊”

It was going to be a long, interesting, convention season.