As I was taking my phone out of its pouch on my holster I noticed it was blinking about something.
There were some normal notifications in the list, random messages from the others, initial news articles about the clash, the weather, and other similar low-importance things then I noticed one that had been pushed to the bottom.
Remind Anna to go to hospital
Fuck.
To think I had been the one lecturing her about forgetting!
Hurriedly I opened discord to check if she had said she had been already, a quick skim later I sighed in disappointment. No mention of anything from her besides in a debate as to the merits of the different on-campus dining options, which at least confirmed nothing dramatic had happened.
In vain hope, I opened a DM with Anna.
IndustrialCat: Hey did you swing by the hospital
IndustrialCat: ?
A long pause with her typing notification bouncing at the bottom of my screen.
AceW0mbat: Noooo?
AceW0mbat: Assignment is due at 10
AceW0mbat: I promise to go tomorrow
AceW0mbat: 😅
I sighed the kind of long low one only possible by someone who didn’t need to inhale to speak. Anna’s not particularly proactive at the self-care thing, I had almost been surprised at the effort she put into her appearance and staying vaguely fit. When Reiko confirmed that it was only after she had started into cosplay, I had been entirely unsurprised.
IndustrialCat: I really need you to stay safe, and that means getting checked out ok?
AceW0mbat: yes yes
IndustrialCat: how about this
IndustrialCat: I will grab some stuff from home and then drop by tonight and we can go together in the morning
AceW0mbat: OOoooo
AceW0mbat: Im down!
“Hey Molly?”
“blermph” she responded from her position face down on the table.
“Anna didn’t go to see Summers today, so I was going to head over with her in the morning if that’s OK with you.”
She gave a thumbs up without otherwise moving, at least I assumed it was a thumbs up given her arms were splayed across the desk.
“Uh, do you think you can get home?” I asked a little concerned.
“Peter.” She grunted in response.
Which I took to mean that he will drive her or something.
“Coooool?” I responded hesitantly. “Let me just send an email to Summers and then I will probably be on my way out.” I was already pulling my laptop out without getting any response from Molly.
I didn’t really write a long screed or anything, just a quick note that Anna had changed and that I would bring her down in the morning. I knew he was supposed to be available on short notice at the hospital for at least a few days after the clash in case something came up historically, but it was probably better to give him some warning. The thought occurred to me after I clicked send that with the increased responsibilities of the CRD it was probably unlikely he would be able to keep that side gig for long, he had said he would be around for this one in a meeting last week, so I didn’t have to find an alternative at least.
When I glanced up next, I realized that Molly had started snoring. She still lay face down on the desk next to the empty plate that had carried her dinner, I guess Anna wasn’t the only one who could sleep in rather uncomfortable locations. Not wanting to leave her there, I opened a DM to Peter.
IndustrialCat: You here still?
TooManyTeeth: Yep whats up
IndustrialCat: Molly kinda fell asleep lmao
IndustrialCat: Could you get her to a proper bed?
TooManyTeeth: Oh lol BRT
A few minutes later he turned up, quietly opening the door and peeking in.
“Busy day, eh?” He whispered with a grin, and I nodded. “Let’s see, sometimes she’s almost weightless when sleeping…”
He tucked an arm under her legs while steadying her with the other on her back before giving an experimental lift with a look of intense concentration, I almost giggled at the intensity of it, he even had his tongue sticking out at a jaunty angle. Once he was certain he was ready, he smoothly lifted her out of the chair before rotating her into something like a princess carry, all without interruption to Molly’s snores. When he flashed me a quick grin and a thumbs up with his hand just sticking out under her legs, I realized he had probably been hamming it up, to which I responded with a pantomime of clapping which only broadened his grin.
“Happened before?” I asked in a whisper as he negotiated around the desk, dodging the chairs pulled out with various pieces of gear heaped upon them.
“Yeah! Good number of times.” He confirmed approaching the door, I nipped over to open it for him getting a grateful nod in return. “Night!”
“G’night Peter, see you tomorrow probably.” I whispered back before the door softly closed behind him.
I looked back into the room, finding it if not exactly entirely cleaned up then probably good enough for tonight, stuff like the ready bags were still in the unoccupied sections of the massive desk but I didn’t see a point in neatly packing them away just to be hauled out again in the morning. I double-checked the weapons locker was secure then slung my bag and grabbed Molly’s dirty plate to bring back to the caf.
----------------------------------------
“Hi Reiko, how’s it going?” I asked when she met me at the door, I had let her know I was on the way over and had gotten a deluge of apologies a bit later after she had read back through the messages on the server.
“Not bad,” She answered guiltily. “Sorry I didn’t see your message about getting her to the hospital, I didn’t even think of looking when she said she had already responded.”
“It’s not just you,” I admitted with a slanted smile and a ‘what can you do’ shrug. “I completely forgot to check in on her too. Did anything happen otherwise?” in retrospect it kinda makes sense that Reiko had missed it, she never seemed to be super active on the server and I hadn’t at-ed her to prompt Anna to go.
“No, she has mostly been in the dungeon working. I have been down to check on her a few times, but she didn’t want me to break her concentration.” I nodded while taking my boots off, these were a heavier pair that I had picked up for work. They were surprisingly comfortable if not exactly fitting with my usual style. “I think she might be done though, I heard her watching videos when I poked my head in a bit ago. Um, is it going to be harder to get an appointment with the doctor because she didn’t go today?”
“Nope, we didn’t have any other changees that I know of, so there wouldn’t be a waitlist if that’s what you are worried about. Plus, I have a direct line on the doctor who will see her, and I will drag her to him myself.” I declared. “Not gonna leave her a chance to forget or get distracted if I can.”
Reiko chuckled. “Sounds good.” She looked uncomfortable and like she was going to say something further, so I paused in the hallway expectantly. “It’s been good to have you around again Sam,” She began eventually. “She’s always gotten in these slumps where she never sees anyone or does anything besides work away down there or go to class, and while I care for her, I also don’t seem to be able to motivate her like you do.”
“When you were gone I was reminded how bad it could get, I wasn’t able to get her to do anything really.” She had a deep frown. “I dragged your roommates over a few times to get her to talk to someone sometimes but…” She trailed off, before shaking herself a little. “Ah, go on and have fun with her. You’ve both had a busy day.” She said then clapped me on the shoulder with a clong sound.
I looked up at her for a moment then grabbed her in a hug that seemed to startle her. “Thanks for trying Reiko, I really appreciate it.”
“Ha. Well get going shorty, she’s waiting for you.” She patted my head clearly trying to distract from her voice starting to choke up.
As I reached the stairs, I looked back at her reluctant to leave with how vulnerable she looked, but a smile spread on her face as she started to make her favorite shooing motion.
“Hey Anna! Sorry I’m late.” I called out as I went down the stairs into her room, as I descended the stairs she turned around in her chair a grin plastered on her face. I will admit to having stopped a bit stunned at how strikingly green her hair was in person, the picture hadn’t really done it justice. While dying it had given a not-that-dissimilar color but it didn’t have quite the same body to it. Hair dye mostly tints the color underneath, so without bleaching the dye color will take on a bit of the natural color. Hers was straight-up healthy grass green now, like something that would be on a protagonist in an anime.
“Wow.” I breathed out, if she heard me it was forgotten in her own excitement.
“I was just watching you two on the news! You were everywhere today!” She said standing up all a buzz. “Did you notice them following you around? That cat was really cute!”
“Slow down!” I responded with a laugh as I continued down the steps. “I didn’t see them no, what was the coverage like?”
“Mostly they were just highlighting that the CRD was active,” She sounded a bit disappointed. “I think they were trying to remind people to contact your helpline if they saw something.”
“Makes sense,” I answered then paused as I approached, something jangled just a little as I looked at her. I glanced her over then realized what it was. “Are you taller Anna?” I asked curiously when I realized the faded shirt she was wearing seemed a little shorter than I was used to, instead of covering the top of her pockets it stopped just above the belt loop of her jeans instead.
“Am I? I didn’t notice anything.” She said confused and looking down at herself.
“It’s nothing major,” I answered still examining her closely “just like a few centimeters or something, it’s like when you wear those chunky boots.” I considered a moment longer then nodded. “I quite like how you’re taller than me, so that’s a bonus.” I declared seriously causing her to break out giggling and grab me in a hug.
“Do you have perfume on Sam?” She asked curiously while sniffing a bit near me a moment later.
“No?” I responded confused as she released me. I had the one bottle of lavender I have picked up months ago, but I hadn’t used it in a while. “Maybe I smell weird from grabbing critters all day?” I proposed while lifting an arm to smell it, there was that oily smell as I hadn’t gone back to wipe my joints and something vaguely earthy but that was it as far as my senses went.
“Nah, it doesn’t smell like animals.” She said distractedly while circling me. “There’s still that sweet smell from your hair…” It kinda felt weird how closely she was investigating me now. I was starting to wonder if maybe it was the oil she was smelling, and I was getting increasingly self-conscious.
“Fuck, you smell good.” She declared after a deep breath, which thoroughly derailed my chain of thought. She didn’t leave me any opportunity to recover either as I felt her hand slip in through the open sides of the tank top to rest beneath my breasts as she pulled herself against me, the lightly filled backpack compressing against me.
I was nearly entirely out of it from a combination of her embrace and the sequence of kisses she was trailing up my neck before I remembered what I had come over for.
“Annnnaa,” I mumbled. “I need to, ah! See you’re OK firrrrst” She paused, letting me get a properly formed sentence out. “At least let me get my backpack off.”
Wait, that wasn’t what I had intended to say, but it got her to release me. After a few seconds of swaying while attempting to get my mind back together again, I shucked the pack off and laid it against a nearby desk. I clapped my hands against my cheeks and shook my head a couple of times trying to get myself a bit more coherent. Once I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to lose myself, I turned to find a goofy grin plastered across her face.
After an eye roll, I stood at the tip of my toes putting my hands on her shoulders to stabilize myself then began to carefully study her face.
“Huh.”
“What?” Anna asked suddenly nervous.
“Your eyes are amber-colored now.”
“Wait really? Reiko didn’t say anything…”
“Well, there was a bit of a distraction!” I pointed out while drifting a hand through her hair. “What do you think of it?”
“It’s fine? I haven’t really thought about it.”
“Really,” I responded with a snort. “Well, that’s better than hating it that’s for sure.”
“How about you?”
“Hmm?” I was a bit distracted having been gently turning her head this way or that to look for something I might have missed.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes, of course,” I said dismissively. “I said before I don’t think there’s a color I don’t like on you- Hmm, that’s not quite accurate, some of the Mech-tech colors really didn’t suit you.“ She nodded a ghost of a smile returning.
Satisfied that her hair and eye color were the extent of what I could find, I switched tack a little. “I know you said you don’t feel any different…” I paused a moment, realizing that the next question was probably going to derail any further investigations. “But have you checked the rest of your body visually?”
She blinked and the flush started returning. “Not really I didn’t notice anything going to the washroom.”
I nodded thoughtfully then decided that I probably wasn’t going to figure anything else out without the help of Summers, an actual expert on susing out changee differences. “How would you feel about a round of… re-exploration?” I asked with a mischievous grin. “You gotta let me think during at least some of it though.”
She pulled me into her, knocking my hands off her shoulders. I had a moment of panic that I might have hit her too hard when I was slammed into her but the aggressive kiss that followed prevented me from asking.
----------------------------------------
I looked down at my one bare foot, then went back to surveying the room with my hands on my hips. I didn’t have a clue where the thing could have gone at this point, I’d spent maybe five or ten minutes looking so far. Deciding I probably didn’t need it that much given I used them more out of habit than comfort, I shucked its match off my foot to join the rest of Anna’s laundry then made my way up the stairs. While I could have looked for longer, it was probably best to get out to the hospital before anything else could distract us this morning.
“Find it?” Anna asked once I closed the door behind me.
“Nope.” I responded with a grin.
“Sorry.” She said apologetically with that vertical hand pose she does every once in a while.
“Don’t worry about it,” I answered with a chuckle, before stretching up to give her a peck on the cheek. “I enjoy your enthusiasm.”
Not giving her time to get flustered, I yanked my boots on and then pulled the door open. The moment the blast of hot air hit me I groaned with the realization that it was going to be a scorcher, yesterday’s low temperatures appearing to have been a transient thing. While I don’t really have immediate issues with heat, I would get heat soak if I get too active when training with Molly and that was down in the relative cool of the CRD facility. I could probably help offset build-up by pouring water into my limbs to yank some heat out of my radiators but today will probably suck if I need to spend too long outdoors.
“Ugh let’s get to the bus before I get too hot to touch,” I grumbled as I reluctantly went out into the heat, I stopped a few steps later when I noticed Anna had paused just out the door. “Something wrong?”
“Uh no, it’s fine. The light just feels odd for some reason.” She answered blinking a bit.
“Too bright?” I asked a bit worried.
“No no, it doesn’t feel bad just weird.” She answered rushing to catch up, I was still looking at her with concern but continued walking after wrapping my arm around hers. We were about halfway to the bus stop when she piped up again while glancing around. “Are there a lot of birds today?”
“No? It’s pretty quiet if anything. “I answered, increasingly worried about her reactions to being outside. “Why?”
“Huh, well it sounds like there are a bunch of really weird ones to me. You know like you would hear in some nature documentary.” She explained scanning around with a hand on her forehead. “Weird, can’t see anything.”
“How long have you heard them?”
“A bit after we left the house I guess.” She admitted with a shrug.
“Any idea what it’s coming from?”
“Not really no. It’s from all around me, so I can’t really place the source.”
“I’m sure I could ask you a million more questions but at this point, it would just be for curiosities sake,” I said with a sigh. “Let’s just get to Summers and see what he has to say.”
She confirmed not being able to hear the sounds on the bus, and I noted with amusement a lack of stares towards her from the occasional other passengers. Apparently, I was still enough of an unusual sight that something as ‘minor’ as having grass-colored hair was easily ignored in favor of me for those that weren’t ignoring our existence entirely.
“What’s up Anna?” She had an odd expression as we were walking from the bus to the hospital and kept glancing off to the right of the path.
“This might sound crazy, but I think I might know what the sound.”
“You know I won’t judge,” I answered, she let my arm slip out of hers and deviated off the path to stop next to one of the trees lining the path.
She placed her ear against it then after a moment she pulled back and gave me a bewildered look. “It’s the plants.” She glanced back at the tree she still had a hand on, confusion etched into her features. “I think I can hear the plants… talk? That’s weird isn’t it?”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Anna, I overhear machines in Mech-tech.” I pointed out while stepping up to her. “They sound nowhere near as nice as bird calls, and are mostly kinda depressing to talk to.”
“Oh, yeah.” She said sheepishly. “Wait, depressing?”
“Yeah. It’s more in retrospect than at the time but imagine being surrounded by voices that sound like people but aren’t. It’s easy to forget about when I am back here or with other people, but I spent most of the time I was gone with only the company of unthinking blathering machines.” I answered, then stared off at passing cars. “It’s a reminder that I am alone in a really odd way.” I shook myself a bit before trying to smile at her. “Back on topic , have you tried talking back to them?”
She had come closer while I had been rambling and grabbed me in a hug, the force of it surprising me. I am fairly certain she is notably stronger now, while I wasn’t trying to resist or anything, the idea of her being able to move me like that is new.
“You’ve got me, and Molly and your roommates,“ She started a little choked up. “We’re all here for you Sam.”
“Ah, yeah yeah, sorry I didn’t want to be upsetting-“ I started to respond but she pulled me tighter and interrupted.
“I love you Sam, I don want you to feel lonely.”
“I’m not really lonely,” I responded quietly patting her back to reassure her. “Just sometimes being unique is hard, I can talk about shared experiences about being a changee but there’s no one I can talk to about you, know being a robot.”
“Mum is sorta close, but that’s different. She can talk software and hardware but not experiences,” I admitted, muffled a bit as I was burying myself deeper into Anna. “I can deal with it though, it’s not something I really actively worry about, it’s just there as a thing.”
“Can we stay this way for a bit?” I asked uncertainly. “Being with you makes it easier to ignore.”
“As long as you need, you didn’t actually give Summers a specific time right?” I nodded against her. “Then we can stay here.”
It’s something I’ve noticed a lot, but there’s something deeply calming about just listening to Anna’s body. It sounds pretty much the same as far as I could tell, I still hear her breathing and slightly accelerated heartbeat. I let myself just slip into a not-quite-coherent state, letting the worries and confusion slip away.
“Thanks, Anna,” I mumbled once I was feeling better if still incoherent. “I love you so much, I always want to be with you.”
“Making a proposal this early are we Sam?” She chuckled, the realization of what I said causing me to steam up despite my proximity to her. “I’m not against it, but are you ok with just being together a bit longer first?”
“I uh yeah of course I um-“ I started squeaking out but didn’t get a chance to say anything coherent before she pushed my head back and leaned down into a kiss.
It was probably the best feeling kiss she had ever given me, maybe it was just my confusion and attraction to her heightening it but fuck was it nice.
“I don’t know what will happen in the future Sam,” She started having released me. “But for now, you’re mine.”
I don’t know what did it, but the feeling of her saying that was penetrating in a way I couldn’t possibly explain. Like a void was finally filled in, her confirmation of wanting to be with me relieved some unknown desire. Pretty sure it felt better than climaxing if I can guess off the surrounding elements of my memories, which is a fucking weird thing to think. I was past caring at this point though and I yanked her back into a
When I relented a bit later, I was all but panting despite my airflow never getting interrupted nor were my burners using more air than usual, I just needed to for some reason. I was still hugging her tightly and I buried my head in her chest while struggling to stay upright.
“You ok there Sam?” She asked a smile in her voice while a hand rubbed my back.
“Never… fsh… better… fsh…” I panted back just letting the afterglow go through me. “Maybe… fsh… literally.”
She laughed, then whispered quietly in my ear. “Is this the second time I’ve gotten you off in public?”
“Fsh… Apparently… Fsh…” At least my legs were more stable now. “Give fsh… me a bit. Fsh…”
----------------------------------------
“Er, I don’t know what I am supposed to be doing.” Anna looked back at me like a lost puppy, having returned to the tree out of curiosity.
“I dunno either, all I can tell you is that I just kinda responded when a synthetic first tried to talk to me without really thinking about it,” I answered with a shrug. “Maybe try listening to the sound and just say something, it felt natural to respond in the same way for me.”
She nodded, then stared at the small maple tree for a moment, it suddenly creaked as if a gale had blown by. “It responded when I said hi!” Anna said turning her head back to look at me incredulously.
“Sure, seems like it.” I agreed with a chuckle. “Any explicit words or anything?”
“Uh, no it’s… calls? Whatever they are changed but I have no idea what it meant.”
“Want to play around a bit more or shall we head on to Summers?” She glanced back at the tree for a moment, before making a hasty retreat towards the path and me.
“Summers please, this is weirding me out too much.” She answered hands on my shoulders standing with me between her and the tree.
“I thought you wanted superpowers?” I teased gently while looking back at her as we started moving again.
“Yes well, maybe I was wrong.” She answered with eyes narrowed at the offending plant.
The rest of the short walk wasn’t particularly dramatic, although she was giving the flowers in the beds around the hospital funny looks as we passed them. I had been to Summer’s office enough times to find it easily enough, like my previous experiences with the fellow he seemed pleased to see us as we entered, a wide smile on his face without any indication we had interrupted something.
“Hello Anna, it’s good to see you under less…” He paused the smile faltering just a bit. “Trying circumstances. While I can clearly see your hair has taken on a lovely shade, I am interested in hearing what else you have encountered so far before we get into anything formal.”
She started by relaying some mundane information like being a little taller, how I smelled different to her now, and then was about halfway into telling him about talking to plants when my phone rang with the tone I had set for Molly’s number.
Excusing myself to go out into the hall, I answered. “Hey Molly, what’s up?”
“Hi Sam, I know you were supposed to be taking Anna in, but we have more things to handle I’m afraid. Would you mind if I picked you up from the hospital? I already have your stuff packed up.”
“More critters?” I asked with a slightly mischievous tone, getting a groan in response. “Cool, let me say bye to Anna and Summers then.” I answered, a touch disappointed I wouldn’t get to hang around but I did have a job to do.
After exchanging byes with Molly and hanging up, I slipped back into the office and waited for a pause in the conversation. “Sorry, CRD stuff so I am going to have to take off.”
“Oh.” Anna said a bit disappointed but she stood up so I could give her a hug and a quick kiss before I departed to meet up with Molly.
----------------------------------------
Today had been way too fucking hot to spend the whole thing running around, the shade the big ass tree offered helps a bit but that’s mostly only helping against the sun.
I roughly placed the last magazine back into the locker and then shut the door, steam trailing from my arms. I then joined Molly in flopping myself over the desk, reaching over for the water jug I had left nearby to drizzle it in my arms and down my back, the sizzle of boiling water drifting out from my internals.
While I am built like military synthetic durability and output-wise, I wasn’t designed for extended operations since you know bodyguard and all. I never got close to melting anything, but I needed to let Molly do a bit more than I would have preferred. There was a ping from her phone, electing grumbling and a reluctant check. After a moment or two of reading whatever it was, she yawned and pulled herself back up in her seat before flipping open her laptop. She tapped away at it for a few moments while I lay there steaming, assuming she would tell me if there was anything relevant.
“Hey Sam, Wilson just sent along his report so far. Want to hear his summary?”
“Suuuuure.” I responded.
“Let’s see… Ok, yeah for our region we have no building changes, no artifacts so far, a few minor terrain changes, one changee in the region, then just an absolute fuck ton of random ass critters and plants. Basically, just what we’ve seen ourselves, the more interesting stuff looks to be in the global report. Although It being a hotspot clash makes it weird, looks like there were maybe fifteen sites spread across the planet.”
She paused to read before repeating the rest to me. “Seems like there’s a smaller version of the tree in China, no changees and it was out in the sticks. Oh, buildings in Belarus. A part of Gomel had a bunch of houses swapped out with more medieval-style buildings. I guess there are artifacts, just not here. Hmmm, no other major changees have been reported so far, just some minor ones. So I guess wherever we hit is mostly filled with normal humans.” She sat back stroking her chin. “I guess it’s not the weirdest clash, hey Sam remember that one which just like entirely swapped out Romania’s architecture and nothing else?”
“Oh yeah, that was an early one right?”
“Yep, not one changee that time you know?”
“Really?”
“Yeah, there were ones reported in the news but following up showed they were from the clash the week before mostly. Didn’t really get into the news, but there was chat about it here.”
“Huh, Neat.” I started reaching for the water pitcher again while a nagging warning at the back of my mind complained about operating temperatures, then stopped with a sigh. “You know what, I’ll be back in a bit. I’m just going to stand in a cold shower until I stop overheating.”
“Have fun.” Molly mumbled from where she had laid her head across her arms on the desk.
Not terribly water efficient what I am doing, but given how I don’t shower that much anyway I decided that it was acceptable. Showers are always a little tricky as while I have a water trap on my airway it does fill up and have limits, so I usually try to keep my head out of most of the flow.
I hadn’t completely dried out inside nor was I entirely cooled so there was still some steam drifting up from my insides when I got back. Peter was sitting in a free chair, leaning back with his feet up on the desk while Molly was only looking vaguely awake at this point.
“Hey Sam!” He greeted me. “Molly has been telling me it was another busy day.”
“You can say that again,” I answered settling into my seat. “How was it back here?”
“Eh ok, back to normal really. We had a big meeting on artifact engineering’s goals and current projects which went a little awkwardly.”
“Oh?” I prompted curiously while noting Molly had started to snore.
“Well, we are kinda getting torn in two directions, we still have an endless backlog of low-importance artifacts to work through, but we also have the projects that started since you arrived.” He answered apparently unconcerned about waking Molly. “We’ve freed up some labor since we don’t need to be devoting the same amount of work towards making parts for you with your mum around, but her little expedition does take up a lot of time with tech questions and the like.”
He pulled what looked like a particularly weird multitool from one of the pockets of his lab coat, like one of those folding pliers, and started flicking it open and closed.
“The most time-consuming of the big project is that we are still in the process of trying to back engineer the portal tech so we could make our own.” He continued with a shrug, his multitool was a little distracting as a different tool was revealed with each flicking motion. “It’s a months-long project and we are nowhere near even a prototype given we can’t break down our working portals. Which is getting Summers to be a bit antsy, he really wants to be proactive in going after those dicks at the FFIA.”
“Oh?” As I prompted him to continue, I glanced over at Molly, somewhat astounded she could sleep through her boyfriend’s loud voice.
“Well, the US here seems to be infiltrated by the FFIA to some degree if anything seem to be reluctant to be effective, but you know where is getting really really pissed off about attacks? The US over in Mech-tech.” He got a smug grin. “They don’t know shit yet about how to catch them, but between our home-ground experience and your research, we can predict them. This is all in progress so I wouldn’t expect to hear anything more substantial till next week, but last I checked Summers was hashing out our own ambush to happen in a few weeks.”
“Give them something juicy then nab them?” I guessed.
“You’re right there!” He confirmed with a chuckle. “We have all the relevant parties talking but getting it hashed out is another thing, General Synthetics is more than willing to work with us to prevent being hit themselves but they don’t want to do it for free.”
“Ah, corporations. “ I sighed. “What’s the goal of the ambush? We have some of their people already and they haven’t given up anything yet.”
“A few things, the obvious one is bloodying their noses to see if that puts them off. But we also wanted to see if we can seize more portals.” He saw my raised eyebrow and explained. “Ok so the best way to do that would be to have the bait and someone on this side go in when we know right? But we can’t trust the Americans, so we want to try going the other way.”
“How?”
“That was about half the meeting today, trying to figure out if we can somehow apply our work towards maintaining portals to prevent them from closing theirs so we can follow them back. We think we have something to try too!” He declared with a big grin. “Kat has suggested that we might be able to make use of a yeeter and modify it with one of the crude feeders we have gotten going, but we need to do some tests first.”
It took me a moment what he meant; I could only assume he was referring to the device that tossed me out into that space between dimensions. Molly had referred to it as an evictor once or twice, it wouldn’t surprise me if there wasn’t really a common name for it yet.
“Do we have any of those? They haven’t done anything locally since their failed ambush right?”
“Nope! But do you know who does?” He had a big grin, I shrugged not really having caught up with that sort of thing. “France! We’re getting a couple out of them as payment for helping with fixing their portal.“
“Neat. Who’s going to be involved in the ambush itself?”
“Molly for sure, she might be able to prevent them from closing the portal at all and I would be pretty surprised if you aren’t too.”
“Cool.” He tossed the multitool spinning up into the air, and I suddenly realized it was vanishing up into the mushy haze that was closing on the edges of my vision. I hadn’t noticed that I was already tired enough for it to affect my vision, without there being an accompanying error message or any other heads-up from my body it was easy for me to not notice.
“Er, would you mind if I asked for a favor?” I asked sheepishly as Peter expertly caught the falling tool.
“Sure, what’s up?”
“I think I’m too tired to get home on my own, is there any chance you could drop me off at home?”
“Of course!” He said getting up, presumably to pick Molly up. “If you don’t mind me asking, you aren’t really acting tired so how does it present itself to you?”
“There are a few ways and it’s not really all that consistent. “ I answered with a shrug while getting my backpack. “I have gotten emotionally tired or something where I kinda just act human tired, a little loopy and yawning for whatever purpose. That ones pretty rare, mum wasn’t quite sure what it is, it might just be something my mind makes up rather than like a physical phenomenon.”
“Another is when Lilly complains that she needs me to sleep for maintenance reasons,” I explained while he picked up Molly. “That one usually doesn’t happen though…” I opened the door for him before continuing. “The most common thing seems to be just that my senses start going funny, the most obvious being that my vision goes all murky from the edges in until I can’t see anymore.”
“Woah, that sounds scary.” He whistled out as we walked through the halls towards the parking garage, I glanced up at him from messaging Anna that I was on my way home.
“Yeah, it kinda is.” I agreed. “I had to be careful not to let myself get tired when I was alone over in Mech-tech, but I usually don’t have it come up on normal days. I don’t normally do anything that builds up the memory leaks enough for it to matter, mostly just when I’m really pushing it.“ My vision was really narrowing by this point. “Tch.”
“What’s up?”
“Warn me if you turn, I can’t really see much anymore and I can’t tell where we are in the facility.”
“Oh shit, it’s that bad?”
“Yeah.” My phone buzzed and I shuffled it around in front of my face to read Anna’s messages.
AceW0mbat: Mind if I come over?
AceW0mbat: Reiko took off with her parents and its weirdly lonely here now
IndustrialCat: You ar e always qelcome
IndustrialCat: Can’t really are anymore
IndustrialCat: See
IndustrialCat: Yirex
IndustrialCat: Tired
AceW0mbat: Oh
AceW0mbat: Can you get back ok?
IndustrialCat: Y
IndustrialCat: Outer drive
IndustrialCat: Peter
AceW0mbat: Ok see you soon
IndustrialCat: k
Fuck is typing hard like this.
Peter’s voice broke in “Left Sam…”
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“He- -an you h- -p -o her roo- --e -n’t seem t- - en hear a- -ng.“ Fuck is this annoying, not only am I completely blind but even my hearing is almost gone.
I am pretty sure we are at the front door to my place as the banister I am holding against feels like one on the porch, and I am getting a bit of the context from Peter’s voice.
“-am are yo- -k?” Ah, I could recognize River’s voice and enough of what they said to guess the question.
“Ju- t- -ed.” Wait I can’t even hear myself speak, that’s bullshit.
“-----”
Well, there goes my hearing.
Laaaame.
I felt a hand take my arm and I let River guide me into the house, after a few steps in I felt them move my hand onto the banister of the stairs. After awkwardly making my way up followed by more arm-holding and half-memorized movement into my room, a searching hand encountered my bed.
I tried to say thank you, but I have no idea what I got out without being able to hear. I paused for a long moment trying to figure out if they had left or closed the door as I wasn’t sure I wanted to flop into bed with the dirty clothes I had on. I had wrestled more than just one critter today, and those sure as fuck weren’t clean.
I tried to say what I was going to do while patting my shirt to indicate what I was going to do just in case someone was in the room still, again unsure what I actually said. Getting the tank top off was easy, I almost fell over getting the pants off though and I felt a hand on my shoulder then someone helping me.
Ah someone was still here, hopefully, it’s just River or Anna but I doubt she is here yet. Ah dang, I said she could come over, I didn’t think I was this tired hopefully she gets on ok. I tried to say something about her, but I was interrupted by a gentle push towards the bed and I took the hint.
I flopped down onto the mattress after almost tripping over it, then let myself drift off almost as soon as I was in a vaguely appropriate position.
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Oh hey, I am awake!
I hear breathing too, which means Anna must have joined me somehow. I couldn’t tell where I was on the too-small bed but hopefully she found it comfortable enough. I spent the time while my boiler got to temperature toying with the idea of moving the desktop down into the basement, I honestly didn’t use it much without much reason to play games and I could use the space for a bigger bed. Given how much time we spend together these days, one of us needs a bigger bed and I won’t ask her to disrupt her awesome setup.
It looked to be just starting to get light out once my vision came online from the hints of light around the curtains. Once I saw where Anna was sprawled over my barely padded metal frame, ordering a new bed frame and mattress jumped right to the top of my priority list. I itched to start researching what the best stuff to get would be but I wasn’t going to disrupt her sleep, so I just let myself slip away.
Eventually, she woke up mumbling about the washroom and nearly fell out of bed, I caught her and got a mumbled thanks. She still wasn’t used to being at my place as she nearly left the room for the washroom sans a lick of cloth, which I managed to correct with a bathrobe I had picked up after the last time this had almost happened. Once she stumbled into the hallway and I was pretty sure she was on the right path, I took the opportunity to start cleaning my joints but didn’t get very far before she came back and almost jumped onto me pushing me back into the bed.
“Whatever else changed, I love how you smell now.” She declared after inhaling deeply, a hand on my torso and the other on the bed over my shoulder.
“Gotta admit I find that a little odd still, but I am glad you like it.” I tossed the rag still in my hand off. “Did Summers have any revelations for you?”
“Mmm, not really no.” She admitted. “He is having a bunch of bloodwork checked out and did some random other stuff, but he is having me wait on doing physicals till I’m a bit more used to it. I guess I learned I’m not allergic to peanuts anymore, but most of the other tests will take time to process.”
“I feel like being able to eat peanuts now is pretty big as I remember liking them, even if I couldn’t say what they taste like,” I commented. “What about the talking to trees thing?”
“He mostly just suggested playing around with it with someone watching out for me, it’s not cataloged or anything.“ She said rolling off me before settling with her head next to mine and an arm over me.
“I am happy to hang out while you touch grass.” I got a chuckle. “Assuming I don’t have to go running around pretending to be animal control again.”
She rolled over onto her side to look at me worriedly. “River told me you came back really really tired last night like couldn’t even hear them tired. You aren’t pushing it are you?”
“Ah, yeah sorry,” I said a bit sheepishly. “That’s actually the most anything I have ever done in a day without breaks, the con was a longer day but didn’t have me working as hard. I find it difficult to tell when I am tired these days, sorry.”
She looked over me carefully then nodded. “Just be careful. Now-“ She got a mischievous grin and I felt a hand trail through my hip joints, prompting a sound from me. “I expect payment for a missed night.”
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Ex4ctPlac3: Looks like animal control finally have things under control, so no need to come in for that today
Ex4ctPlac3: debrief meeting at 3 tho
IndustrialCat: Cool, will be there
I looked up from my phone at the waving lilac bush in front of Anna, she was a little reluctant to go and talk to plants in public so she was experimenting with what we had in the backyard. This mostly limited her to the aforementioned lilac, a small maple right at the back fence, and River’s garden. The vegetables don’t seem too affected yet by the mottled light under the tree, but it would probably take a while to know for sure. Apparently, there was an international internet debate as to the best name for it, while Yggdrasil is a popular option, there were enough people trying to get away from the most obvious options that comedy options like BFT, Big Fucking Tree, or Bonsai were gaining popularity.
“Found anything interesting?” I asked.
“Mostly just that there are some words it definitely understands, grow, move, stuff like that. But they don’t really seem to do actually anything in response.”
“Yeah, talking to robots is a bit like that too, they cue off stuff but it took a while to figure out how that changed what they do beyond some simple ones.” I had spent one particularly lonely weekend night trying to make a couple of construction bots play catch, it hadn’t really worked and in retrospect probably made a bit much of a mess given their stomping feet.
“I think I might need to leave this bush alone; it’s making weird sounds now.” She said backing away from it warily. “Like it’s hyped up or something.” She looked around considering what to do next, then walked over to crouch next to one of River’s tomato plants. “Do you think this is pollinated? Maybe something will happen if I say grow at it.”
“No clue,” I answered crouching down next to the plant with its little flowers. “You could always just try and see what happens, but maybe check with River first just in case.”
She nodded and pulled her phone out, a few moments later she put it away. “They said it’s fine to give it a try.”
She then turned to the plant crouching down and got the look I was starting to associate with plant talk, somewhat concentrated with a slight frown and closed eyes. The plant shuddered for a moment than one of the flowers wilted and fell away. I watched on in amazement as a tiny sphere formed where the flower was before rapidly growing into a tomato a few centimeters across, starting out green and then flushing red in the moments that followed.
“Woah.” I commented breaking Anna’s concentration and the tomato stopped maturing.
“Wait, it worked?” She commented incredulously. “That’s so weird. “
“Well, you definitely have superpowers,” I said giving her a grin.
“I guess so.” She said poking the tomato, it looked like it probably needed to ripen for a bit more. “Not sure what I am going to be doing with it.”
“Eh, you’ve had them less than forty-eight hours. I’m still figuring out stuff about myself months later, and that’s with being able to just call mum up to ask random questions when I’m bored” I pointed out with a shrug. “At this point, I would probably just think of it as something neat that you almost certainly don’t know the full story of.”
“True...” She agreed standing up again, then wobbled a bit and I rushed to steady her with an arm around her waist. “Oh, that kind of made me feel tired.”
“Well, you did just make a plant grow a whole ass tomato, the energy must have come from somewhere.” She nodded while leaning on me.
“Hey Anna,” I started a few moments later. “Have you talked to either of your parents about this yet?” I knew they lived separately but that’s about it for them, she was always more interested in talking about me, cosplay, or pretty much anything else.
“Nooo?” She answered, prompting a sigh from me.
“It’s probably a good idea to at least let them know.” I suggested.
“Alright, alright.” She said holding her hands up. “I’ll do it when we are done here.”
“You don’t have to answer, but is there a reason you haven’t told them?”
She paused reaching out to fiddle with one of the leaves in front of us. “I know I haven’t talked about my parents much, but that’s because I don’t really get on that well with them. Dad is kind of an asshole, never even got over my coming out and I haven’t even seen him since I came here.” She admitted. “Mom is ok but she’s really overbearing, she sometimes tries to steer my life too much for me, but she is also paying for my rent so it’s kinda understandable I guess.”
“Out of curiosity does either of them know about me?” I asked with a raised eyebrow getting a flinch from her.
“Mom knows I am seeing someone, but I haven’t really told her much and I think she believes you dumped me as I didn’t want to tell her about you uh… getting stuck.”
“Oh.” Awkward. “Well, it’s kinda the worst kept secret that I was over there for a while so you can tell her if you want, or if you want me to meet her or something I am fine with that too.”
“Maybe.” She answered reluctantly, then cleared her throat. “Er, she doesn’t know my preferences either. There’s no way she knows you’re uh… you know, um…”
“A robot?” I giggled when she blushed and nodded. “Not too surprised, it’s not like I would ever tell my parents anything of the sort-”
“Hey, I was going to start on lunch, do you two want to join me?” River called out the back door.
“Yeah! Sure!” Anna answered eager for the distraction.