Tourist Hunter

What if your little cleaning robot started thinking for itself?
What if it just didn't feel like following orders anymore?
Who would you call?

Tourist
A robot that has suffered a higher computational malfunction. Tourists can be proven to be sentient and self-aware. Tourism is the act of a robot disobeying direct orders or otherwise behaving in ways contrary to programming. Tourists frequently modify themselves and have been known to harm people.

Tourist Hunter
Customer service field representative responsible for the capture and disposal of disobedient robots.

Genre . . .
Cyberpunk Slice-of-Life Comedy with Technothriller elements
Dystopian Science Fiction Comedy

Story . . .
Computer and robotics technicians Aiden and Lynn Charles navigate a world of malfunctioning robots, bureaucratic absurdities, corporate rivalries, and the ethical implications of dealing with "tourist" machines, all while juggling their personal lives and a growing fascination with underground robot competitions.

Setting . . .
Tourist Hunter takes place in a near-future, technologically advanced urban environment characterized by ubiquitous AI in everyday appliances, advanced robotics, and integrated network systems. Life unfurls in mixed-use city blocks with residential apartments towering over street-level shops, high-tech universities with specialized robotics and AI departments, and sprawling corporate offices. Society grapples with the implications of AI sentience, overseen by bureaucratic institutions, alongside a thriving underground culture of robot competitions held in forgotten industrial warehouses and disused basements.

Tease . . .
"Fire in the hole," Heather shouted.

Tom dropped. Aiden hit the ground. The tourist exploded.

"Hey," Heather said. "You guys survive? I want to hear voices or at least groans of pain."

"Yeah, I think I can manage one of those," Tom said, climbing to his knees.

"Aiden?" Kicking him experimentally. "Don't make me remind you that you're my favorite."

"Yeah, maybe," Aiden said. "Stop kicking me!"

"Okay, good then."

"Seriously, you really have to kick a body when he's down?" Climbing, sitting. "You just see a person lying there, and you have an irresistible impulse to run up and start kicking?"

"It's a sickness, I know."

Author, composer, reformed web comic creator