[center][h2]Fynn LaPlace[/h2][/center]
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Fynn's white sneakers came to a sudden and no less skidding stop on the office kitchen's ceramic floor tiles as he heard the unmistakable outcry of his colleague. Had they not been pretty white themselves and outfitted with a smooth surface on top of that, he might very well have left some mild rubber marks there that moment.

The IT specialist had started his search here, in one of areas most commonly used by everyone, for just finding Choppy there would have been the easiest imaginable fix for his quite acute issue. If his Arthropleura wasn't idling around here, or in the elevators, or just some random piece of corridor, then he'd have to bite into the very sour apple and invent some fake reason in order to get every single of the other rooms. Also he still was in need of some coffee that could just as well be consumed while on this top-priority job. Now however it seemed that Primrose had been quicker than him. Fynn was happy about the prospect of hours of frantic searching no longer looming over his head, but he was definitely not looking forward to the few moments of lambasting Primrose would happily unleash against him.

Fynn's facial expression therefore perhaps looked more like some shitty computer game's inept attempt to execute a smiling animation than the real thing as he approached the vertically mobile disaster zone called 'elevators'. How the hell had Chobby gotten in there ? The whole team had been out of office so nobody could have called the elevator to stop at this floor, and Choppy certainly wasn't tall enough to push any of those buttons itself... Even if just for debugging his robot pet he certainly had to have a look into the elevator's logs -- assuming that bloody thing had any.

"I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!" Fynn exclaimed and was quick to try and reanimate Choppy by waving his hands in front of its bug eyes. Well, at least these were not as fake as some other things for these technical marvels indeed had quite a few cameras facing into different directions to give more of an allround view! However even some gentle prodding against the polymer carapace did not instigate any movement to occur.

"Erm... do you know that there's a strong correlation between the speed at which the internal batteries drain and the amount of dirt on the floor it's moving over and has to suck in ? So, let's see it this way: at least our part of the building has become a bit more tidy now!"

Fynn reached into his pocket, but found nothing but emptyness. Damn! That second battery pack was still lying around in his office. Normally that would have been a far cry from a problem, but what if Primrose would turn her threat into action and indeed push the elevator button to get herself and Choppy to the rooftop while he was absent for half a minute ?

"I... I strongly suggest [i]not[/i] flinging it off the roof! There's absolutely no guarantee that Choppy won't remain functional after that fall and..." Suddenly, Fynn's so far anything but chesty voice turned into something much darker, and if one looked closely into his eyes just at the right moment, one could see how his pupils became narrow dots and his knuckles turned white due to inner tension in his hands. "...there's no guarantee for you to remain functional for long should I find Choppy's debris down there!"

Fynn shook is head. This was not an appropriate time for this! He had to suppress the urge for it was fairly obvious to his inner self that his alter ego would just stop apologizing and instead point out the woman's ignorance towards his work with pinpoint aggression.

"What I meant was... Choppy, if still in working condition, might subsequently continue on his quest and maybe end up in an open-topped car, for example ? Imagine somebody driving on the highway and suddenly this robot you complain about starts crawling from the back seats down along the center console and onto the driver's feet! The driver then might be eager to find the person responsible for putting Choppy into places he was never meant to go!"

Fynn reached for the robot's head and started dragging the thing out of the cabin and down the corridor towards his office. While having to bend down in order to stay in arm's reach of his creation, he apologized once more towards Primrose. That day was ruined for sure... and now he had all reason to look forward even less towards the meeting he still expected to come!