[Closed to [flightcapabilities]

[suga_sweet]

The package was delivered early on a Wednesday morning, in the middle of summer. The box was huge and heavy, fitted with metal edging. It doesn't look like a high-tech android transport container, but instead something a band would use to haul their equipment around in. It wasn't even printed with the company's logo: androids were a sensitive topic: they weren't banned in any fashion, but they were expensive and it was easier to ship them covertly.

The delivery man knocked loudly. Unfortunately, he couldn't just leave this here, somebody would have to answer and sign for it. After there was no immediate answer, he knocked again. He wasn't about to leave right away and have to haul the case all the way back down the steps.

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[flightcapabilities]

Ugh, and bright, were the very first things Daichi's sleep-addled mind registered upon his return to the waking world. It took a few more moments for Daichi to actually open his eyes, and realize that what woke him up in the first place was a soft pinging, localized at the strap on his wrist. He squinted down at it, where the screen had lit up with a small door symbol.

"Shit," he cursed, wrestled with the sheets that had wrapped themselves around his legs like snakes, and tripped out of bed in the intense effort to get to the door before the third knock.

When Daichi threw open the door, though, it was to no one he was expecting-- and not to anyone he wasn't expecting, either. A delivery man stood there, probably just as baffled as Daichi. Daichi found it in himself to feel embarrassed, because it was working up to 10 o'clock and he was still in boxers and a tank top.

Ten minutes later, after he had signed about three different things on the delivery man's tablet and dragged the package into his apartment, did Daichi finally stop to consider what he was getting into. He hadn't even been expecting a package. And yet, there one was, taking up a sizable chunk of his living room. He sighed. It had to be one of his friends, messing around with him. And they wondered why he was ignoring their calls.

Daichi started to work on opening the box, which was surprisingly more difficult than it seemed. The solution was found in a small button on the side, which made the crate spring open on previously-unseen hinges.

Daichi had to take a step back when he actually saw what was in the box.

It was a boy, perfectly folded up inside. And everyone knew what boys in boxes were. A slip of paper rested gently on top of him, which Daichi reached out to grab perhaps a little too hastily, because he accidentally bumped the boy. The simple bump somehow managed to activate him, it seemed, because the boy had begun to make a peculiar whirring sound. "No, uh-- wait--" Daichi dropped to his knees and started to pat the android, as if that would reverse whatever he had accidentally set into motion.

[suga_sweet]

While the boy in the box didn't immediately wake up, patting him did nothing to stop the process, either.

The whirring grew louder, like a fan running, though once he was activated he would be nearly silent. All androids make noise to some degree, but the quality and price of the android usually meant that noise level went down. Android used as labor, for difficult tasks too dangerous for a human, tended to hardly look human at all, with only the vaguest of human shapes.

While androids more in like with the model that was waking up then were almost completely indistungishable from humans. They boasted synthetic skin that was so close to human skin it even bled, and a highly advanced learning AI. The model in the box would be able to do anything from cleaning toilets to teaching college-level courses.

Not to mention the fact that androids were increasingly being used for sex. They could get neither pregnant nor contract infections, and could be sanitized between use. They also had interchangeable, fully working parts.

The boy in the box finally started to breathe after almost five minutes of the whirring. It looked like breathing, but also served to provide oxygen to important systems like the skin.

His eyes opened a few moments later and while he wasn't yet able to sit up, his sensors were running, scanning the environment and the only human in the nearby vicinity. Blinking, the android started checking its systems, making sure there had been no damage caused during transport: unlikely, but still possible. It sent a status report, affirming the address and identity of the human who had activated it, as well as its current health status.

Its brown eyes were synthetic, and on first glance looked human. But an android's eyes were the easiest way to tell it apart from a human: The iris was a bit too perfect, the color too even. And the pupil wasn't completely black. Instead, the outer edge of the pupil was rings, the faintest of slivery grey lines marking out the lens inside.

There was also, of course, the company logo stamped into its side just below the armpit, and under the skin was the model information, as well as access for service and a reset button.