Err0r

Chapter 14: Efficient

     Something was wrong this morning. Something small but it was still noticeable. Pixal stood up and looked around. A sharp pain was felt in the back of her neck but she couldn't figure out why. It was an actual painful feeling. A feeling she had heard of and felt a different variation of but never felt a physical painful feeling like this before. It was a sort of discomfort. If she turned her head a certain way her vision would almost glitch and she would feel a stinging pain. Knowing this she just kept her head facing forward and walked outside the room anyway. She couldn't stop thinking about the pain that almost seemed to actually seep into the back of her mind like a spreading illness. She could feel it every now and then but it would dissipate in a while. She pushed those nagging thoughts away and thought for a moment. Though she did feel the stinging pain she also noticed her mind didn't pester her with thoughts and curiosity like it usually did. A small smile lit up her features as she sat herself at her desk and mentally waved goodbye to her unpleasant, nagging emotions and thoughts for once. She clenched her eyes closed and tipped her head down but her smile was still there. When she reopened her eyes everything was the same. She hadn't missed anything and thankfully in her mind she still didn't think about curious thoughts. The pain to Pixal was a much better feeling, even though it hurt. She didn't really mind or at least that's what she kept telling herself since she still didn't like the constant stinging.

"It is alright." She whispered to herself.

She started trying to distract her mind from the sharp stinging pain. She pulled out paperwork and digital files stretched around her originating from her arm. She looked through them and answered emails for Borg as well as submitting other information for projects. Pixal was typically a very "skilled" individual. Even though the normal human couldn't actually multitask she was able to do such with ease. As her mind was focused on the digital work another part of her mind was focused on the paperwork in front of her. She was able to get more work done this way. It was, as Borg put it, "efficient". Pixal liked this term if she was described in one word she would like it to be this one. Being known as such never got old to her.

A small scoff sounded in her brain 'Zane was never called efficient.'

And he wasn't so she had one thing over the "superior" nindroid's head. Or at least that's what Borg called him. She didn't like to think either of them was better but with how much he compared her to him it only came natural to her. She didn't mean to compare and sometimes she would accidentally make remarks that were a bit rude but she never took them back. She couldn't. After all, if she couldn't say she was the slightest bit better than Zane how would she be able to know her place? Her place was to help Borg and obviously Borg would choose the more efficient droid over someone like Zane to help him. She knew that wasn't true. Pixal knew that if Borg were to choose one of them over the other right now he would choose Zane every time. She was ninety-percent sure of that. Borg couldn't get enough of the white ninja. He was fascinated by the technology that wasn't created by him. That's what caused him to create her after all. Pixal clenched her eyes shut as she felt the stinging pain again. She was annoyed anyway; she hated knowing that she was always 'second'. Zane would always be first and there was nothing she could do to change this metaphorical leaderboard. No matter how hard she worked, no matter how new she was, she could never out compete with the droid that was first. He was always first even being created, he was the first.

The first droid, the first droid with human emotions, the first nindroid, he was always the first. A scowl painted her features as she tried to forget it. She was Pixal: the Primary Interactive X-ternal Assistant Life-form. Nothing more and nothing less. She couldn't help but wonder if anything would change if she was human. If she was a person she wondered if she would still be seen as second. If she was as smart as she was now but as a human she would probably be as famous as Borg. If she were a person she imagined being cheered for, talked to, she felt she would fit into the city of metal. Even though she liked her form now she wondered if she was born as a human things would be different. She couldn't help the longing that came with those thoughts. But she wasn't a human, she was a droid.