The Repair Bay: A Safe Haven for Synthetic Spoken

Synthetics, the catch-all term for robots, dolls, androids, and perhaps even homunculi, live and work beside their natural-born comrades across the Star. Some were engineered to be a servitor class, or a weapon of war, or just a curiosity, but all have the capacity to be just as actualized and real as any Spoken. Nowhere on the Star illustrates this like a little bar tucked away in the Lavender Beds; the Repair Bay.

In a world full of wild and wonderful things like visitors from other Stars, beings made of pure aether, whatever Forlorn Maidens are, and the marvels of places like Alexandria, it shouldn't be surprising that some of our neighbors are made less of flesh and blood and more of wire and plating. To many, especially in Eorzea, that does remain a shock. Which is why a place for such Spoken to meet and belong is so critical to this sometimes invisible minority.

Owned by two sisters of Allagan design - the hospitality unit R3 and the intelligence unit R4 - the Repair Bay offers a place for synthetics to mix and mingle with their organic colleagues. More than that, though, the bar offers critical services for synthetics.

I met R4 at the bar on a closed night for a chat. The atmosphere was, perhaps predictably, electric. Lights flashed around the bar, ordering could be done by tomestone, guests were seated on Allagan chairs and around replica diagnostic module tables. There was a stage where bards performed on open nights, adding music to the visual enticements. Some who wandered in greeted us as 'fellow sentients.' R4 was only too happy to welcome them despite being ostensibly closed.

"Many do not even realize we exist, let alone how many of us there are," said R4, who goes by Maki when speaking with organics. "In that respect, it is vital to our continued functioning that there is a place both where one can get help with repairs, as well as know that they are not alone."

Maki admins that often there are only a few synthetics visiting on a given night. Most of her customers are organic. The drinks that she offers as bartender are calibrated to be pleasant to both organic and synthetic digestion. But the ways having a place to connect with other synthetics matter deeply cannot be understated. More than comradery, The Repair Bay has been a place where synthetics have met and fallen in love. That illustrates just how little actual difference exists between the lives of organics and synthetics, and that, too is part of what The Repair Bay offers.

But the lived experiences between synthetics and organics still does have differences. Maki explained this by talking about what is a highlight of running the Repair Bay for her; data. Primarily learning about other Synthetics, but all data was of interest. Not that she had any particular use in mind for it, but the act of collecting it pleased her, as organics might collect plushes or Triple Triad cards.

Drinks on offer included things like Nier Beer, The Gender Fluid, and a smokey whiskey sour called The Wasteland. Maki made me a drink called the Circuit Tingle, a sweet little something that was supposed to make my circuits feel alive. Lacking circuits, I was skeptical, but it put a nice feeling through my nerves instead.

Even when not officially open, The Repair Bay felt so alive. Maki shared information on different kinds of synthetics that come through the Bay, explained the roles of her and her sister in Allagan society, and generally proved to the the excellent conversationalist anyone may want from a bartender. For a way to spend an Earthsday night.

As for a message to readers who may be apprehensive about meeting Synthetics, Maki showed that even an ancient Allagan construct can have a sense of humor: "Resistance is futile." Her genuine answer, though. "I would say, do not be afraid. Many of us who are fully sentient are not that different from organics aside from our components."

The Repair Bay is located in the Goblin neighborhood of the Lavender Beds, Ward 29 Plot 6.