The Living condition

10

It was quiet in Uzi's room as you sat beside her desk. It was far too quiet, and you were stuck staring at the dial-like things Uzi had attached to her own head, as well as N and V's heads. Before she went under and went unresponsive as well, she told you to play lookout. Make sure her father didn't interrupt her. Make sure that nothing happens to the drones while she was working. When you'd asked what it was she was going to do, she just grinned.

"Easy work. Super cool hacking. I'll get thanked for it. You'll see it."

The moment she'd said it, your face slackened. Yeah, that figured. But not a moment later Uzi was unresponsive, laid back in her chair, leaving you in the quiet of fans whirring and the quiet creaking of adjusting metal.

At the least, it was warm in the room, what with two almost-overheating,broken disassembly drones and an unconscious worker drone.

You didn't like this feeling of concern. You don't understand it, though you try. They were familiar. You think that's why it bothered you to see them offline. You wondered if you could mimic your father's friend. Pop off a visor, hook a circuit board up with too many wires to a computer and do a hack job of fixing it. You doubt it.

Your mind wanders, and you frown at the thought. It bothered you to see them broken. They were too familiar, and now that you had the time to think about it, you had too much time to think about it. It had to be reused voices and names. You'd met about a million Amy's during your life, so you're sure it's a common name situation. Voices..well, of course the company would have to reuse what they could, do what they could with what they had.

You leaned your head back against the desk,folding your hands in your lap while you kept an eye on the three drones, a somber look on your face as your mind wandered.

—

Since you'd met her, you were at your friend's grand, beautiful house nearly everyday,as often as you could. It could easily be justified, what with your father and her father being business partners. It looked 'good' for reputations for you and her to be friends, but it was so much more than whatever your families wanted.

It was safe

It was quiet. It was familiar to you, and it was normal to you.

Your normal. Your normal that your family and their reputation could not control. An aspect of your life that was yours and only yours.

Your normal was an existence shared between two humans and four drones in coexistence.

That day, you'd spent time in the garden, unable to tear your eyes away from bald stems of posie flowers with a difficult expression. You kept thinking about what the girl had said then. Fragility. You don't know what she meant by it. The last time you'd caught her alone, she'd acted as though she could not recall ever saying it, let alone seeing you that evening. But you knew she knew. You don't know why she would lie, she'd never done that before– as far as you knew. It recontextualized things. Made you wonder. What else did she fib about, if anything? Maybe she was nervous about lying and that's what made it so obvious for you.

The girl with long hair catches your attention, stealing you away from the implications of a drone asking about the fragile state of humans.

"The missus has asked that you not be out here alone." She states,taking a seat on the bench beside you "Someone ripped up the flowers."

"Is she blaming me?"

"I don't pretend to know what corporate thinks." the drone taps her fingers against her dress, stretching them out and clenching them "That's a losing battle."