The Inner Life of a Metronome Addict

io9 has a regular feature they call Concept Art Writing Prompts. They post a piece of art and invite readers to submit stories based upon the illustration. I've started writing short—often aiming for very, very short—stories as a warm-up to my real writing. 

This one is based on a piece by Martin Horspool.

The Inner Life of a Metronome Addict

Few things drove Rusty crazier than drum circles. The humans called it "feel," and claimed it was integral to the very best drumming, but the way so many of them lagged behind the beat by up to 0.01 seconds—the ones going for syncopation were invariably the worst offenders—nearly fried his circuits every time. Another otherwise pleasant day at the museum, where Rusty could normally glory in the sights of long-dead humans, ruined.