{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/hostile-takeover/11",
  "path": "/posts/hostile-takeover/11",
  "publishedAt": "2024-01-22T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: subchapter\n\nAll winds carried a sense of loss.  Air would flow into any free space\nit could --- so every gust that moved did so to fill an emptiness.\n\nAbove Serial Designation N, the spire swayed.\n\nLittle drafts sometimes snuck in through long, winding cracks.\nCompressed plastic and sludged semi-liquid filled the walls, but not\ncompletely.  Between those walls, their lair yawned vast enough that\nsome spots could get perceptibly hotter or colder, and so the\nair circulated.\n\nWeather on Copper-9 could get extreme, but the corpse spire kept them\nsheltered.  So sure, N was used to the occasional breeze, gust, or\neven a zephyr.  When N listened --- audials still tuned to a high\nsensitivity --- he was used to hearing air outside at times whistling,\nwhooshing, even wuthering.\n\nRight now, the spire swayed, and the winds howled.\n\nStorms put N on edge, so he snuggled closer to V.  This close, he\nheard the sound of her exhaust cycling in and out, almost as loud as\nthe air battering their walls.  Vents still a bit rough, even now.\nShe was hurt, damaged enough her vents wheezed faintly.  But at\nleast she breathed.\n\nHer oil levels left her temperature feverish, and N slipped off his\njacket, letting exposed metal radiate heat.  A reminder of his own\nreserves --- not the highest, unfortunately! He hadn't drunk from any\nof the WDF drones himself, instead feeding one whole body and head's\nworth of another to V.  The rest went into their poor, ransacked mess\npit.  But one look at V --- even J, earlier --- and he'd known he'd\ngotten off easy tonight.\n\nThump...  Clack.  Crash! The spire's movements grew more intense\nhigh above them.  Fragments came dislodged.  Like this, the windstorm\nyielded rain: dust and debris fell upon them.\n\nA whole severed hand plunged down, aimed right for V's visor, but N\nreached out to catch it before it hit her.\n\nV smirked.  \"Heh.  Up already, N?\"\n\n\"Hard to sleep when everything's falling apart,\" he said.  \"Err, that\nsounds dramatic.  Things'll be okay.  It's just...\"\n\n\"Nah, you've got it right.  Pile's bending like crazy.  It better\nnot fall.\"\n\nN scratched the back of his head.  \"I'm sure the corpse wall thingy\nwill hold.  J built it, and she's good at what she does.\"\n\n\"No, we built this spire.\"  The roughness in her voice wasn't just\nfrom injury.  \"All J did is push around some numbers and take credit.\"\n\nN frowned.  \"...Come to think of it, where is J?\"\n\n\"How am I suppose to know?  Last I saw she was running of to fight\nsome Doll.\"\n\n\"Yeah, that kinda spooky worker drone attacked us.  We murdered her,\nand then she kind of came back to life?  So J and her worker chased\nafter her.  I'm still a bit sad about it,\" he said.  \"But Doll seemed\nto really have it out for you specifically.  Do you know why?\"\n\n\"I killed her parents or something.\"  V shrugged underneath him.\n\"She'll have to get in line.\"\n\nN nodded slowly.  \"That explains it.  And... I get it.  I kinda wanted\nto fight workers for the same reason,\" he said, leveling a significant\nlook at V before glancing away.\n\n\"What?  Am I your mommy, then?\" V smirked.\n\nN reeled back.  \"Not what I meant!\"\n\nShe just wheeze-laughed at him.\n\nThat lasted until the spire groaned, and a whole body dropped from\nabove, landing not far from them.\n\nN sat up, looking around.  \"The timing of this is... worrisome,\nisn't it?\"\n\n\"What's got you so worried about it?  Did the toaster cult figure out\nweather control while I was out?\"\n\n\"No, but... it's gotta be tricky to fly in weather like this, and J\nstill isn't back.\"\n\n\"If she was as smart as she thinks she is, she wouldn't be cutting a\nmission this close two nights in a row.  Now lay back down, I need a\nbody shield.\"\n\nGolden eyes looked back unamused, but N shrugged and complied.\nV didn't put her arms around him, but he felt her body shifting to\ncradle him.  Her core beat with steadier thumps than it had earlier,\nand his exhaust continued to cycle.\n\nDrones didn't need to breathe, and might go hours without cycling air\n--- especially once they winded down to recharge.  Of course, V needed\nall the cooling she could get at the moment.\n\nBut N couldn't focus on her breathing, not anymore.  He listened to\nthe winds howl.  Storms put him on edge, and he'd rather take his mind\noff it --- but what about J?  Where was she?  Was she okay?  Was there\nanything he could do?\n\nHe listened to the wind.  Vocalsynths could use air exhaust for\namplification (that was how humans talked, right?), so it sometimes\nfelt like every wind carried some vague tease of meaning.\n\nN had denoising algorithms, capable of speech recognition even at\nabominable bitrates.  There was fun to be had in denoising even\nmeaningless sounds.  Not unlike tracing shapes in clouds.  Like with\ncloudwatching, the meaning that came out of it mostly amounted to the\nthoughts already priming your neural network.\n\nIf N listened to the wind and heard a voice, it's because words were\nalready on his mind --- and had been ever since he woke up.  And they\nweren't the words he'd exchanged with V.\n\nThings were falling down, and that troubled him.\n\nAll winds carried a sense of loss.  These were powerful winds, and\nsomething important was missing.\n\nN stood up.  V hadn't put her arms around N, so there was no\nresistance.  Well, not physical resistance.\n\nV frowned beneath locks of white hair.  \"N?  Where are you going?\"\n\n\"I have to... I don't know.\"  They had won, yet it felt like things\nwere falling apart.  What could he do?  \"I don't know where J is, and\nI'm worried.  So I guess I want to...\"\n\n\"The sun's already rising.  Nothing you can do now.\"\n\n\"I know but... what if she needs help?\" What if she's falling?\n\n\"You have no idea where she went.  Nearest toaster colony is a mile\naway.  Nothing you can do, just... just let it go.\"\n\nN turned around, took a step forward.  \"I won't go far.  I just want\nto...\" fulfill a promise \"...check.  See if I can spot her flying\nback?\"\n\nV narrowed her eyes.  \"You're risking your life.  For J.  She's not\nworth it.\"\n\n\"She's our leader!\"  N was shooting a glance backward, arms thrown out\nin exasperation.\n\n\"And she's a shitty leader.  Did you forget that just yesterday she\nleft you to die?  She would straight up kill you herself if she\nthought the company would let her.  That's a quote.  She hates you,\nN.  Not worth it.\"\n\n\"She told me I did a good job today.  Maybe she's been kinda mean to\nme in the past, but it doesn't have to always be that way.\"\n\nN took another step, then looked down and saw his bare torso.  He\nforgot his jacket! So he turned around to see the other disassembler's\ngaze prickling with those familiar shades of is your name even worth\nremembering irritation.\n\nRolling her eyes, V said, \"Do you think one day is going to change\nwhat she's been like for years?  She'll be riding your ass next week\nlike nothing's changed.  Bet on it.\"\n\n\"Don't you care that she might be in danger?\"  If his expression so\nfar had been imploring and considerate, now he frowned, now he\nnarrowed his eyes.\n\nV blew a lock of hair out from her eyelights, and said nothing.\nIt was an answer.  His face fell as he crossed the distance.\n\nReaching down to grab his jacket, N bounced with a realization.\n\"Actually, wait, you're wrong! Yesterday you were offline---\"\n\n\"Her fault, by the way.\"  V stabbed a claw-blade into his jacket,\nimpatience still written on her face.  Now if he pulled, it'd be\nripped.\n\n\"---the sun was going to kill you, but she did everything she could to\ncarry you back safely.  If you were right, why wouldn't she leave you\nto die?\"\n\n\"'Cause I'm better than you.\"  Then V froze and eyes emptied.  She\nremoved her claw from the jacket.  \"That's not what I meant to say.  I\ndon't---\"\n\nGrimacing, N broke eye contact.  \"No, J probably agrees.  But still.\nShe saved you.  And you can't repay the favor, not right now, but\nmaybe I can, for you.  Shouldn't I?\" Finally, N pulled his jacket\nback to him, slipping arms through it.\n\n\"If you're going to do... whatever this is, you aren't doing it for\nme.  I still want a mutiny.\"  V crossed her arms.  She leaned back\non the pile of scrap, staring at the ceiling.\n\nN turned around and walked away.\n\nBehind, V wheezed a sigh.  \"What's this really about, N?  You're\nconvinced this is going to make a difference, somehow.  Why?\"  Her\nvoice sounded strained.  And not just from strenuous amplification.\n\nPausing his stride, N thought about it.  What imagined voice had he\ncaught on the wind?  What had primed his neural network?  \"Because....\nI made a promise.  A long time ago.  I remember that.\"\n\n\"You... remember.\"  V took a deep breath.  Long enough N thought it\nwas sarcasm, but she continued.  \"It was before, wasn't it?  It's\nher, isn't it?  Don't trust it, N.  Please.  You don't know what\nI've--- You don't know.\"  V sat up halfway, peering into his golden\neyelights.\n\n\"V, If you know more than me, can't you just tell me?  Maybe we each\nonly have pieces, but we could figure it out together.\"\n\n\"I...\"  Then a guilty cringe, and now V broke eye contact.\n\nN stood, waiting for more, but only heard the wind.  He charted his\npath through the vast space of the spire, stepping over new bits of\ndebris.  Halfway to the archway, he heard a creaking, amplified voice.\n\n\"All that thing tells you is what you want to hear.  Whatever'll\nmake you go along with it.  You're being manipulated.  And you don't\ncare, do you?\"\n\n\"I do care, V.  About all of us.  Not... not just you.\"\n\nAnd then a shuddering sound.  A sigh made rhythmic from blocked vents,\nor a laugh.  Or more wind.  But either way, air only flowed where\nthere was something missing.\n\nHe'd make it up to V soon.  He wasn't mad --- frustrated,\ndisappointed, maybe, but the only thing to blame here was whatever has\nV so scared, not her.\n\nN didn't know if she really liked hugs, or tolerated them for his\nsake, but he'd do something to make her smile again.\n\n:::\n\n::: subchapter\n\nWere the winds louder here?  Well, he was getting closer to the\nexit, so the signal in his audials had greater amplitude, but did the\nspire s",
  "title": "Arcane Rain Fell"
}