A guitarist cyborg sits next to Chlorophi, who is fascinated by their music. Enevelen is holding Chlorophi's hand, but is turned away, holding her face in pain. [https://i.vgy.me/Yzh5x1.png]

The hot sun of the early morning beat down on the ramshackle village, metal roofs and crumbled concrete boiling in the inescapable heat. It was over fifty degrees Celsius in the desert today, which was thankfully much colder than it had been during the rest of the week. Still, even for the sparse cyborg population of the area who had all been outfitted with heat-resistant internal cooling systems during their earliest augmentations, finding shade was ideal. Enny was not as worried about this, being used to wandering the desert for weeks in the sweltering heat, but the minority of organic components within her body had decided to dry up today. Finding water and nutrition quickly was essential, and luckily Chlorophi knew of a place nearby, on the outskirts of town. It had a functioning drinking fountain and supposed "vending machine" that they could use for free, like the kind she had used on occasion in the early twenty-first century to purchase bagged snacks and canned drinks.

"They say it spits out whatever kind of liquids you want. It's almost like magic," Chlo informed her, excitedly. "I've never seen it myself but I'm really curious to check out if it's real."

Enny wiped liquid off of her visor. She had tried to combat the dryness in the organic portions of her face by pouring mechanical coolant onto the skin, which had had the unfortunate side effect of damaging her eyesight. If her pain receptors had been turned on, her eyes would've stung like hell. An easy fix once she had an opportunity to visit an engineer, but at the moment everything was incredibly blurry, and Chlo had to lead her by the hand.

"It should be around here... They said it was nearby... oh!"

Enny heard the sharp twang of a musical instrument. She recognized the sound immediately.

"Hello! Sorry to bother you, but I wanted to know if you had any idea if there was a drinking fountain somewhere around here..."

The plucking of the instrument's strings stopped. The blob-like shape of another cyborg appeared in the distance, a grey, angular being that reflected a lot of sun from its mirror-like plating. This was an individual Enevelen had met before, and struggling to ignore the confusing information from her visual receptors, she tried to tug at Chlo's hand. Unfortunately, they seemed enraptured by the being and pulled the both of them closer to the reflective blur.

"Oh wow," Chlo cooed, "I love your armor, it's gorgeous."

The guitarist did not reply, and instead, the sound of the guitar began to start up yet again. The figure played a bar and a half of music, the instrument manifesting a very pretty, intimate tone. The notes sounded incredibly natural and rang out with great clarity and the occasional slight buzz. The sound was organic, with the same cadence as if played by the soft hands of human flesh. Enny knew that he had practiced for years following his augmentations to get that perfectly authentic sound. However, she was reminded of the bleaker side of his story as the figure continued to play the same bar and a half of the song over, and over again, pausing briefly in between as he attempted to remember the rest.

"Hello there," the guitarist spoke, in a charming, surly voice. "My, you're a beautiful specimen. Plants probably love this weather, huh?"

Chlorophi giggled. Enny felt them drop her hand in a moment of distraction, and Enny grasped aimlessly at thin air. It was impossible to tell with her lack of eyesight where Chlo was standing. While attempting to stumble towards her friend, she fell to her knees and kicked a mess of hot dirt into her rebreather. She coughed violently, trying to clear her throat.

"Oh, I'm sorry Enny! I forgot..."

Chlo rushed over to pick up their friend, who continued to choke back a cough, clutching at the plant's outstretched fingers. She did not enjoy feeling this weak. Her friend turned back to the guitarist. The plant introduced themselves and gave a further compliment to the figure's charm and impressive guitar skills.

"I've never even seen a wooden guitar in real life, let alone one of that age, in such good quality... Have you had it for like, centuries? It looks old..."

The figure continued to play the same bar and a half of music over, and over again, expressing slight grunts of frustration and mumbling to themselves. They did not reply immediately to Chlo's question, proceeding to flash the sun back at them as his reflective body turned and struggled with the instrument. Enevelen mentally grimaced thinking about the figure. He had prioritized aesthetic appeal over functionality, his whole body a mixture of milk-white plastic casing and reflective armor, painted with a mirror-like grease to create the image of a fantastic robot disco ball. He was always stunning to look at when Enny had encountered him in the past, but an absolute downer to talk to, on account of his misfortune with The Spiral.

"Uh, what?" mumbled the guitarist, looking up from his guitar. The tone of his synthesized speech was light and playful, but there was an attitude of frustration that permeated his reaction.

"This is um..." Enny coughed, trying to force the words out of her throat. "This is Xy..."

"OH! Hello Xy! You're a musician?" Chlorophi exclaimed. "What a cool name, you definitely look the part. You've got the vibes, the cool name, some very good guitar skills... are you like a rock star?"

The musician was silent, and stared at the two of them, before returning to his guitar. He continued to attempt the same song as before, swearing and gripping his instrument in frustration. After some time of ignoring them, he switched to another song entirely. This one he was able to play a lengthier portion of than the other, until again he would pause, only halfway through the song, before beginning it again. Occasionally he would pause after three notes, mumbling singsongy words to himself before proclaiming quietly, "No, that's not it...damn..."

Enevelen felt Chlo clutch her hand tightly, before turning to her. Their voice was tense and confused.

"Is... is he ignoring me? What's his deal?"

Enny shook her head, but her throat and mouth were incredibly dry, unable to choke out a response. She grabbed at her neck in exhaustion, and Chlo patted at their clutched handshake.

"Don't strain yourself. I'll see if I can get some information out of him."

Chlo led the two of them closer to the guitarist, with Enny trying to tug them back. Chlorophi didn't register this as anything other than exhaustion, so the plant sat them both down on the bench next to the guitarist and leaned in close.

"What kind of guitar is that?" they asked, a feigned interest in their voice.

The guitarist looked up from the instrument, and at this distance Enny could see his face more clearly now. It was as if he was wearing a mask, a reflective structure of metal polygons that had been scratched by dirt and sandstorms. It resembled a human face, but in such a way that was heavily stylized. He looked nothing like any other cyborg Enny had seen, as much more care and effort had been put into sculpting their exoskeletal features than was necessary. Their whole get-up didn't seem remotely practical, but it looked fantastic.

Two glowing blue neon eyes peered through slits in the cyborg's face, totally non-expressive but just mysterious enough that it was difficult to look away from. Enny knew that a lot of this was for performance reasons, and even their flowing white cowl that hung over their head, and floated out behind them, it was all to attract attention. They had an angelic look to them, such that being in this person's company filled you with an inescapable feeling of warmth and comfort. Unfortunately, there wasn't much left behind this beautiful gaze to appreciate.

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"Hello there," he cooed in his usual, soothing electronic voice. "My, you're a beautiful specimen. Plants probably love this weather, huh?"

Chlorophi stared in confusion. Yes, he had just repeated himself. He often did. Yes, it had been the same observation and conversation opener that he had used minutes before. Yes, he had forgotten that they had already said hello to him.

"Uh... Yeah, heh, Yeah plants really like the sunlight, but we're not so good without water... Um..."

Chlo seemed to be detecting that something was wrong with Xy, that his behavior seemed strange and stilted. As natural and beautiful as both he and his playing were, his whole demeanor seemed extremely mechanical.

"Ah!" He exclaimed, his eyes lighting up in a strange expression of joy. "Yes, there's a fountain over by the market there, just down the street. I go there often."

His voice was incredibly soothing to listen to. His body had been engineered that way, she supposed, to be a total spectacle. Xy was the whole package, and he had an obvious effect on people. She had downloaded a good chunk of his music through what had remained of the early century internet very recently, just out of curiosity, and it had honestly been some of the best she'd heard. She had never been a huge listener of music by any means, but she could appreciate his wonderful singing voice, and his unique mix of playing that combined electronic studio stuttering effects, echo, distortion... all interwoven with his elegant fingerpicking style. He really was something.

Chlo nodded and lifted themselves away from the individual, leading Enny along by the hand. They waved back at the glowing, mirror-armored icon, with his cowl flying behind him like a big, beautiful white sail, but as he watched them leave, he said nothing and returned to his guitar. He continued to pick at it, the music stopping and repeating each time he reached the portion he could not remember. It sounded like a skipping record.

...

After Chlorophi and Enevelen had wandered for some time, they came upon what looked to be a large stone fountain. Water drizzled out of a large artistic structure in the middle into a larger pool below. It appeared very old, but still well-maintained by those in the town nearby. Several other cyborgs had grouped up around the fountain, drinking in the water from its base with old plastic cups. The water reflected the sun's harsh rays and the sound itself was also somewhat intimidating to Enevelen. She only knew the sound of rushing water from the nightmarish cliffs of the western coast and distant memories of now-abandoned temples.

Old corroded coins of various metals and eras, now totally worthless, decorated the floor of the fountain. Groups of them fluttered about as some of the cyborgs reached a hand into the water to inspect them. Electronic credits had made physical currency a useless novelty, though Chlo picked one out with fascination.

"Oh wow, a year two-thousand Sacajawea quarter. This is a relic."

Enny scoffed at the observation. "It's a whole dollar, Chlo," she replied, reaching blindly toward the sound of the water. "Isn't there an inscription on the back?"

Chlo was silent for a moment.

"No, it's rusted over. Not to sound like I'm a total expert on your era or anything, Enny, but wasn't a 'Dollar' a piece of green paper? I think this was supposed to be a quarter. I find them all the time lying around."

"They had coin dollars too, Sergeant know-it-all."

"Oh, maybe," Chlo replied, sounding a bit disappointed by her unfamiliarity with the topic. "I suppose credits don't have different forms like that, it's all foreign to me."

Enny removed her visor, exposing her shriveled skin to the unrelenting heat of the sun. She splashed some water from the fountain onto her pinkish-grey, skull-like face of organic flesh, directing it away from the nearby cyborgs to avoid enticing them. She didn't want them attempting to peel it off and pawn it. Enny cupped some of the water in her silicon, bony hands, and attempted to drink from it. The water did not stay, falling through her metal fingers, which did not allow for a sealed shape to form when she tried to put them together. Instead, she grabbed her visor, scooped some of the water into its dusty interior, then brought it up to her mouth. She felt the liquid slide between her open skeletal teeth, cascading down her dry throat and into her stomach. It was wonderfully satisfying. She drizzled what remained into her open, dried-up eyes, blinking repeatedly until the world around her slowly came into view.

Glancing to the side, she caught Chlo staring silently at this strange process and her frightening visage. Enny did not react immediately, simply brushing off the inside of her visor with her dusty shawl. Lifting it back onto her face, she looked back over to her blurry friend as it clicked into place.

"I know," she replied. "It's alright. I know."

Chlo quickly turned away, retrieving their drinking straw from the mechanism below their scarf. Leaning over, they began to sip from the rushing water of the fountain.

"So, I should probably ask, uhm..." they continued to speak as they did this. "What was with that guy? He seemed so charming, and yet he was... I don't know how to describe it."

"Well uh," she replied with hesitance. "Xy fell down the Spiral, or, I guess, that's what we call it."

Chlo turned to her in confusion, their body still sipping up the water.

"I probably mentioned it to you before um... It's a thing where... uh... how do I explain...." Enny struggled to organize her thoughts, still distracted by the satisfaction of having drank the cool water in the blazing heat of the sun.

"What's the Spiral?" asked Chlo.

Enny looked around at the other cyborgs, she couldn't make out their expressions but no one seemed to be staring yet.

"I um... people with augmentations require a lot of maintenance to... keep moving... you know. Humans were like that too. They had to go to doctors. Maybe not as often as we do, but... you know how it's like, expensive..."

"Yeah," Chlo replied, lifting themselves from the fountain, their thirst quenched. The straw disappeared back into their body. "It's really tedious too. Your stuff gets broken so easily, huh."

Enny nodded.

"It's like... so... if we don't do that... if we can't afford it, you know, we can't work as hard, and we have to make... compromises..." Enny continued to look around, keeping an eye on the reactions of those around them. Some had begun to stare. Chlo stood leisurely, unaware of Enevelen's tension.

"Uhm, yeah so, um... cyborgs don't do so well at their jobs if they can't afford repairs right? If you have a job like mine, that's especially important... I can't compromise all that much. I'll likely get killed, or damaged, which means more repair bills, more maintenance... um... and then that means I have to work harder to pay off that debt... you know, it's complicated... but basically like... If you screw up, you won't make as much money, and you'll have to work harder 'cus your body won't be able to function properly... and then that makes it harder to make money, because your body can't do what it used to... and then that means you make less and less money... and you can't afford the price of routine maintenance... and eventually, you know, it snowballs... um..."

Enny cluttered her words. She didn't usually have to explain this to people. A lot of cyborgs used the concept more as an insult than anything, it felt like trying to explain a slur. Those who used it regularly were standing around them within earshot, now listening intently.

"Basically you just eventually stop being able to... afford to be alive. That's what happened to him."

Chlo nodded. It was unclear if they understood or if they just wanted her to continue, and so she rambled further.

"Xy didn't make any money, y'know, there wasn't anyone willing to pay for his music or performances, exactly, even though you know he's like, really good..."

"So he like, couldn't afford to fix himself? Did someone hurt him?" Chlo interjected.

"No, no, he hurt himself," Enny struggled to explain. "Not like, physically, but like, he didn't have any money to keep up with routine maintenance. So his body just failed him. You know? At some point a few years ago I gave him some credits so he could look into getting his memory processors fixed I guess, but like, he couldn't remember what credits like... were... or what they were for."

"Oh, so he was like, too far gone, you're saying...?"

"Well, cyborgs," Enny replied, "We need constant maintenance. If we don't work, we can't afford the maintenance. If we don't do that, we can't work."

Chlo put a hand under their non-existent chin.

"Xy didn't work, and he didn't earn enough. So now he's a walking corpse. He's been like that for years, just playing parts of the same songs over and over. He can't remember the rest, and he probably never will. He's just like, gone, yeah."

"He didn't look like a corpse to me," Chlo replied. "He seemed lively, if a bit forgetful."

"That's what the Spiral does though, y'know, it kills you, but more than that, you're killing yourself. You can't afford to fix yourself, if you don't work... and if you don't fix yourself, you just make it harder for yourself to work... and y'know, eventually..."

At that moment, one of the other cyborgs that had been drinking from the fountain along with them stormed up to Enny as if to scream to her, but stopped in place before taking any action. Enny had reacted instinctively, reaching a hand down to their gun holster, and the cyborg had seen this. Turning around without saying a word, he returned to his companions, glaring at Enny and Chlo as he walked away.

"Great way to get head blown off, guy," mumbled Enny, relaxing her grip on her gun. "Chlo, it's an iffy thing to chat about in public. A lot of cyborgs have some strong opinions on that, so, if we want to avoid a scene..."

"It's fine, sorry I brought it up," Chlo said, looking startled by the interaction. "I'm still not sure I totally understand but that's okay... Do you maybe want to check out the, like, market that Xy was talking about...? that sounded like fun... Maybe that's where the vending machine is."

Enny shook her head.

"The market he was talking about was from the Peacemaker era. It was destroyed in a bombing thirty years ago. He doesn't remember."

"Oh, hmm."