Tord awoke laying on the cold stone floor of his dingy workshop. The horn-haired Norwegian yawned and got to his feet rubbing the back of his head with an oil smeared hand. A faint beam of sunlight had fought it's way through the small grimy window and onto the dust encrusted stone floor. The room had almost nothing in it other than a large cupboard in one corner and a large stone table on which a selection of robotic hands were scattered. The short man yawned and walked toward the stone table and pushed aside most of the assorted hands leaving two pale ones. Tord nodded and put the hands in a box labelled "Tomas New robot" in a rather messy scrawl. Tord then walked to the cupboard stirring up a small amount of dust. He sighed as he pulled open the cupboard and took out a unusually round human-like head and put it on the table as he began to plug in thick strands of wire brunette ''hair'' making the ''hair'' stand up straight. Tord nodded in satisfaction enjoying the look of his, now spiky haired, creation.

He put the head in the box and walked from the dingy workshop. As he left he placed the midnight black eye patch over his empty eye socket,so not to scare off any potential customers, and took his place behind his desk.

The sun rose higher in the sky. Tord flexed the red robotic left arm checking if it needed oiling. The man gazed off into space as he remembered the day, the day he was forsaken, the day he lost his arm and eye. Unbidden the memories returned to him as he sat there.

"I've got what I came for! Good bye Edd, world's not going to take over it's self!" A maniacal grin crossed his face as he rose higher into the sky. "Good bye old friend!"

A loud roar came from where the tall green hooded man gazed up at the giant red robot rising higher into the sky. "I am not your Friend!"He roared as he shot the gigantic harpoon gun strait at Tord. Fortunately for the Norwegian the harpoon missed him but made the robot explode. Tord fell for what felt like forever before he landed with a loud thump on the top of a hill. Two men rushed to his aid,bandaging him and taking him back to Norway where-.

Ting

The obnoxious bell brought Tord back to reality. A tall, gangly man stood in the shop his deep set dark blue eyes fixed disdainfully on the short man who sat behind the till.

"Hei-"Tord began his normal greeting to all his customers.

"Shut up, robot." The man snapped, crossly.

"Sir,I do not happen to be a robot" Tord said rather stiffly wishing for a reason to kick this man from the small shop.

"Ok then take me to Tord Lund" he said still slightly irritated.

"Sir,I am Tord Lund" Tord responded, still wishing for the man to leave.

"Huh,smaller than I expected, but anyway. Mr Lund, I am Leif Larkson and I have a business proposition for you to conceder-"

"Not interested Mr Larkson. As I have told countless before you, I am not interested in working for anyone else. I am content in the state of my shop, good day to you, sir" Tord interrupted not really caring if he was rude, he just wanted this man out of his shop.

"B-but"Leif stammered seeming at a loss for words.

"Mr Larkson," Tord started reasonably. "I insist that unless you intend on purchasing some of my items on sale, I suggest you leave my shop so that no other customers feel intermediated by your presence."Tord gazed at the blue circle in the back of his robotic left arm,seemingly disinterested.

Leif nodded. "Farewell Mr Lund." Leif turned and left the small shop.

"Faen"Tord cursed. "Can't stand those kiss-asses. Make me positively sick" Tord then flipped off the man who was walking away from the door on the bright street outside. It was with this gesture of contempt that the red robotic arm got stuck. "Damn it!" Tord yelled as he walked to the sign by the door and changed it to read closed.

Tord walked down the stairs into his dingy workshop. He flicked on the light and walked to the slowly dripping oil can on the table. He tore off the robotic arm with a hiss of pain before dripping oil onto each joint with surprising difficulty. After about five minutes the arm fell limp and Tord sighed with relief. The short man picked up the red arm and shoved the spikes into the already existing holes in his remaining stump of arm, again hissing with pain. He clenched the hand into a fist and nodded as it did exactly as he intended. Tord jogged up the stairs to subject himself to several hours of boring work before he could continue to create his robot, Tomas was what he was going to call him.

The hours passed uneventfully a few customers entered asking about prosthetic limbs for a pet and Tord agreed to make them after seeing and taking the pets measurements, but it was a normal day. Tord sat gazing at his robotic arm with slight disdain "Oh gods I need to make a new one" He muttered poking at a chipping bit of metal."After I've assembled Tomas that is". Tord stood up and walked toward the door to change the sign so it read closed when two men sprinted toward it. One of the men, the shorter of the two was slightly faster and he stretched out a hand before yelling "Gud,damn det Tord! Vente!"

"Paul?"Tord called back stunned.

"Ja,hvem annet, idiot" Paul retorted crossly as he sprinted across the ground throwing the smouldering cigarette to the floor for the taller to stand on, extinguishing it.

"Wow,pappa veldig smart, nå får du rumpa inn i butikken min." Tord retorted hotly, he really didn't want to see Paul and Pat today, he just wanted to finish Tomas.

"Tord, språk" Scolded the taller of the two his long-ish hair fanning out behind him.

"Beklager, pappa" Tord apologised, looking at his feet.

The two men ran past him and into the small shop where they stopped just short of the counter. Tord ran in behind them, changing the sign to read closed before sprinting past them and vaulting the counter. He sat in his red chair and gazed at them.

"So what do you want?" Tord asked gazing at the two men.

" Sønn, vi er her for å spørre, er det veldig klokt å skape Tomas når altkommer til alt gjør du hovedsakelig proteser." Pat said simply.

"Damn it Dad! Speak English and it's fine! I made that giant robot those years ago didn't I? It'll be fine" Tord snapped, crossly.

"We also heard that Leif Larkson had been in your shop, apparently proposing a new endeavour for your shop here" Paul said in a concerned voice.

Tord laughed. "Yeah he was, thought I was a robot at first! So I told him that I'm not, so he asked to me taken to see me and I said: I am Tord Lund. So he muttered about me being short" Tord's fists clenched. "And then introduced himself and said he had a business proposition, so I responded with not interested and then told him to leave so no customers would be intermediated by him. And then I flipped him off as he left" Tord shrugged. "And this god damned robotic arm got stuck flipping off so I had to close for half an hour to fix it"

Paul was clenching his stomach from laughing so hard while Pat only scowled disapprovingly.

"Tord,I am honestly so disappointed in you right now" Pat said still scowling.

"Pat"Paul gasped for air "Lighten up, our son is handling himself well."

"Yes he is, I still don't agree with cursing though" Pat responded turning to face Paul.

"True,but Tord is an adult he can swear if he likes" Paul responded reasonably.

"Too fucking right!" Shouted Tord throwing his arms up into the air in mock outrage. Pat just scowled more.

"Well are you two just going to stand here bickering in my shop like an old married couple or are we going to go up into my house?" Tord asked getting to his feet and walking to open up the small gate that led behind the counter.

"Yes,let's go up Patty" Paul responded playfully punching Pat in the ribs, causing Pat to chuckle and return the playful punch. The two men walked behind the counter with Tord, who opened a side door and led the way into a slightly cramped apartment.

The red walls of the apartment were peeling and the black carpet was dusty. In the living room there was a small two seater sofa, that was also red. One of the sofa cushions were slouching slightly, evidently where Tord sat most of the time. A small red laptop lay closed on the small and dusty coffee table. The red and black curtains were closed so little light could shine through it. On the dusty black carpet there lay a lot of small miscellaneous items such as; nuts and bolts,some books on mechanics and other related subjects, a few of Tord's unusable robotic arms that he planned to scrap for parts at some later date, scraps of metal and several scrapped blueprints for Tomas.

Tord's fathers gazed about the worn-out looking living room with concerned looks on their faces. "Tord" They said in quiet unison. "Why don't you take better care of this house?" They finished still talking quietly. Tord rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly with his oil smeared right hand. As he fought for a reason not to answer.

"Well,I've been spending most of my time creating Tomas, I rarely come up here any more" Tord said fiddling with his black leather coat.

Pat walked forwards and ruffled the shorter man's horn-like caramel coloured hair in an affectionate way. "Workaholic" He muttered a slight chuckle in his voice.

The two men sat down on the red sofa. "So," Tord started awkwardly."Do you want anything to drink?" Tord finished, rubbing the back of his head with his oil smeared right hand an awkward smile on his face.

"Just water" The two men said kicking off their shoes.

Tord nodded and walked into the dusty kitchen muttering as he poured water from the tap into two chipped glasses. "Why did they just have to be here, I was so close to finishing Tomas!" Tord shook his head and picked up the chipped glasses of water before carrying them to his dads a sulky expression on his face.

"Tord what's wrong?" Paul asked tilting his head while he took the offered cup.

"Why today, why did you have to come today?" Tord asked sighing. "I was so close to finishing Tomas!" He looked at the ground. "Oh so close" Tord lamented his head low.

"So you didn't die Tord, we do care about you, you workaholic moron"Teased Pat

"Yeah,I'm not sure if you noticed but you're getting awfully thin and what would we do without you, you create the best different types of robot" Paul joked.

Tord just sighed and kicked a useless red arm aside before sitting on the floor and turning it over to inspect it quite carefully. "I need stronger metals" He muttered, quietly to himself. "But I used up the last of the material I made my best arm from on Tomas" Tord sighed, miserably.

"Tord,you need to get that dumb robot out of your head." Scolded Paul,who was lighting another cigarette.

"Look,if you just came here to tell me how to live my god damned life and not to finish a project I suggest that you leave both my house and shop." Tord's fists were clenched with fury. Paul's thick dark brown eyebrows raised "OK Tord we'll go just remember to call"The two men stood up and left the building looking slightly offended. Tord sighed and picked up the half empty glasses placing them in the sink. The short Norwegian almost sprinted down into his workshop and turned on the light running to the box filled with parts for Tomas.

He laid out all of the pieces of the robot and nodded liking how it looked. Tord pulled his goggles over his eyes and began to work.

*Two hour timeskip brought to you by Edd's cola addiction

Tord stepped back and wiped the sweat from his creased brow. On the stone bench in front of him was a surprisingly humanoid robot. The man-like robot had pale ''skin'', small hands and feet, spiky brunette hair and pure black eyes all in all the robot-man was about five foot one inch tall.

Tord smiled and sat down on the floor pulling off his thick leather glove sand awaited the opening of the robot's eyes.

After about five minuets the eyes opened and a groggy groan escaped the robot's mouth.

So, Hope y'all enjoyed this little crap-fest story. Feedback is appreciated.

~Astell