{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/hostile-takeover/07",
  "path": "/posts/hostile-takeover/07",
  "publishedAt": "2023-12-20T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": ":::  subchapter\n\nOnly Doll of all drones would be awake at 4 AM.\n\nWhat would she look like if she got her beauty sleep?  Lizzy\nwondered.\n\nUnder the covers, the blonde worker curled up.  Blinked pink eyes\nclosed, and waited to be dragged back into recharge.  Nope, nothing.\nShe curled up tighter --- the absence was letting the bed get\nannoyingly cool.  Didn't help that the insulation of these cheap\ncovers was a bad joke.\n\nLizzy opened her eyes, animated an eye roll, and reached out for her\nphone.  Not like anyone would have posted anything since she last\nchecked an hour ago, though.  But whatever, Emily had posted a new\nselfie yesterday, and she could leave a comment.\n\nThose new glasses could only look dorkier if she had braces to go with\nthem, and that blouse?  A little harsh but fair criticism would do\nthat girl some good.  (But Lizzy would have a sense of humor about it,\nof course --- that was just good posting.)\n\nYawning, flicking her screen, Lizzy keyboard-swiped out some dunks,\nbut only half-attentively, and not because she was tired.  None of\nthese drones were worth her full attention, not really --- Lizzy was\nthinking about Doll.\n\nWhere was her bestie?  Lizzy was really starting to get cold.\n\nEarlier, they'd spun the bottle and played truth or dare.\n\nAngela admitted to having a crush on Braiden.  (Boring --- not like\nshe'd had any shot there.  Lizzy had that locked down.  Didn't\nactually care for the bore, but watching jealousy cook the other girls\nmade the acting worth it.)\n\nRebecca got dared to kiss someone, and she picked Kelsey.  (Boring\n--- as if Lizzy wasn't the most kissable drone here.  Or Doll.)\n\nKelsey chickened out after that, got all sniffly and wanted to go\nhome.  Doll had stepped out after her, tried to talk to her, but Doll\ncame back alone.\n\nWhatever.  Brat.  Clout-chaser.\n\nReally, it just meant Lizzy got to make her move sooner.  Her dare to\nDoll?  Let Lizzy sleep in the master bedroom, on her parents'\nqueen-sized.\n\nWith Doll.\n\n(At that, her orange eyes had snapped to the floor, purple hair\nfalling to block any sight of her visor, hiding her reaction.  Like a\nsore loser, but Lizzy knew what she'd see if Doll'd let her: Lizzy had\nmade the famously unflappable russian blush --- she'd won.)\n\nBest sleepover ever, she thought.  Even if this sty was crawling\nwith roachbots and stunk of oil.  Did Doll ever clean?\n\nLizzy sighed.  She could keep waiting.  Waiting on what, she had no\nidea --- there really wasn't anything a drone needed to wake up in the\nmiddle of the night to do, and this was the third time Doll had\ngotten up.  It woke Lizzy up every time, disentangling their limbs.\nLizzy would scoff and grab tighter, but Doll was silently insistent.\n\nOnce, Lizzy had blinked to full consciousness before Doll left, spoke\na full sentence, instead of wordless mumbles of protest.  Doll had\nstayed silent, but there was an intensity to her look that'd made\nLizzy let go, let her go, and not repeat her question.\n\nWhatever Doll was doing, she was serious about it.  Too serious,\nhonestly.  Something had gotten into Doll, and Lizzy didn't like that.\nThe only thing that should be getting into her is---\n\nShe rolled her eyes.  Thinking about how Doll'd been acting, it was\nfamiliar.  Lizzy remembered the first day of high school --- back when\nDoll had always sat beside the purple freak.\n\nLizzy'd seen the look the russian was giving the loner, that little\nsmile, and Lizzy gagged.  Doll was too good for her; so Lizzy\nswooped in, rescued her, took her under wing to save her from becoming\nanother friendless nobody, obsessed with murder drones and computers\nand hot topic.\n\nCheerleading was supposed to give Doll something else to do, something\nto make her popular.  But she'd dived into nerd stuff again anyway,\ndespite Lizzy.  Lizzy didn't even have the heart to make fun of the\nother girl for it --- Doll rambling about kernel patches or plotting\noily vengeance was kind of cute, not obnoxious, not really.\n\nThis sleepover... at first, Lizzy thought it a sign Doll hadn't really\nforgotten what the popular girl had taught her, that this obsession of\nhers wouldn't come between them being friends ~~or more~~.\n\nBut why did Doll keep getting up?  Like, what was she actually\ndoing?\n\nUgh.  _Am I brooding?_ Lizzy was definitely thinking too\nmuch.  It wasn't that deep, was it?\n\nSo she tossed off the tattered blanket and stood, smoothing out her\nsilky camisole.  Feet clinked against flooring, and she picked her\nsteps, in the dark --- at least the roachbots had LEDs Lizzy could\nwatch out for.\n\nShe wanted to just crush the things.  But that'd only attract more of\nthem.  Roachbots would gobble up their dead friends easily, and there\nwas always more of them lurking out of sight.  Made her shiver.\nUgh.\n\nStepping on one would get oil on her thighhighs, anyway.  This house\nalready stunk of oil enough.  (She'd swear it was getting stronger.)\n\nPast the doorway, stepping into the living room, Lizzy flipped a\nlightswitch.  Didn't need the light, but it would mess with Rebecca --\nexcept Rebecca wasn't on the couch anymore, her blue blanket hanging\noff the cushion.\n\nCeiling lights flickered in the living room, and so few of them worked\nthat it did little more than toss shadows around.  But with how dim it\nwas, as she walked in, Lizzy's eyes went to a bright L-shape on a\ncorridor wall, shining from a half-closed door.  The bathroom.  Is\nthis where Doll went off to?\n\nFixing her hair, maybe?  Weird thing to do at 4 AM.  But Doll was\nweird.\n\nWhatever, Lizzy needed a doll to sleep with, so the sooner she got\nthis over with, the better.  She'd waited long enough, so she wouldn't\nstand around here until Doll came out.\n\nStepping closer, though, she heard a vocalsynth.  Is she talking to\nherself?  Is she talking to _someone else?_  Oh, Rebecca better\nnot---\n\nLizzy snatched open the door, and caught Doll in the middle of eating\na roachbot.\n\n\"Eww.  Maybe shut the door if you're gonna be eating bugs in here,\"\nLizzy said.  But there's no blue-haired homewrecker in the bathroom\nwith her, so Lizzy relaxed, hands falling to her sides.  \"Did it taste\ngood?\"\n\n\"It tastes like necessity.\"\n\nNothing necessary about you being this extra, girl.  \"Yeah, cool...\nSooo, not to be clingy, but when are you coming back to bed?\"  She\nleaned against the bathroom doorway, watching Doll, fluttering her\neyes.\n\n\"I'm not.\"\n\nLizzy flinched.  Did this glitch just...  Play it cool, Lizzy.  Not a\ndiss, just Doll being Dollish.  \"There's a test tomorrow, you know.\"\nThere wasn't, but her dad could make it happen.  \"Wouldn't want to be\nhalf-charged for that.\"\n\n\"Grades are irrelevant.\"\n\n\"Sure.  Okay, forget the grades.\"  Lizzy stopped and swallowed,\nhesitating.  She looked away, saw Doll's reflection in a cracked\nmirror.  \"Fine.  I am clingy.  I want you to come back, babe.\"\n\nNo reason not to just come right out and say it.  Lizzy wasn't some\nswooning airhead who didn't realize how she felt, or a sheep too\nscared to make a first move.  Lizzy'd had Doll clocked as a lesbot for\nyears, but the flirty pursuit had been good fun.  But that was so last\nweek.\n\nDoll raised an eyebrow, but her mouth remained hidden, unexpressive.\n\"As they say in Russia,\" she started, \"no.\"\n\n\"Ouch.  Did I...\"\n\nDoll frowned.  \"It is not you.  It does not involve you.\"  Her eyes\ndrifted to the remaining mechanical bits in her hands, which was once\na roachbot.  \"I have plan.  Opportunity has presented itself, and my\nplans... can be hastened.\"\n\nLizzy took a step closer, into the bathroom, and narrowed her eyes at\nDoll.  \"I thought your plans were this sleepover.\"\n\nWhen Doll smiled, she showed teeth.  \"I have many plans.\"\n\n\"Tell me, then.\"  Lizzy reached out a hand, ran it along the fine\nlocks of purple synthetic hair, then traced a circle on Doll's soft\ncheek, then finally came rest gently beneath her chin.\n\nDoll, too, reached up, placed a hand on Lizzy's --- she felt her core\nwhirr a little faster --- and Doll grabbed her hand with a gentle\npressure... and pushed Lizzy's touch away, removing the hand from her\nface.  \"As they say in Russia---\"\n\n\"No,\" Lizzy said, not to finish the joke, but denying her.  \"You owe\nme an explanation.  Fine, go off and do whatever, but tell me why.\"\n\nDoll hadn't let go of Lizzy's hand, and at that, she brought the\nother, clasping Lizzy's hand in between hers, and spoke.  \"Sputnik 1\nwas the first spacecraft to launch a human into space.  It was race to\nfly beyond earth, and Soviets won.  But with Apollo 11, the humans\nwalked on moon, placing there an American flag.\"\n\nLizzy really hadn't signed up for one of Doll's rambles.  But Doll was\ntelling her something, at least?  Lizzy just didn't understand what.\n\"So?\"\n\n\"The Soviets won, but history remembers an American victory.  The moon\nwas grander accomplishment, in the end.\"  Doll let go of Lizzy's hand.\n\"Doorman has left the bunker, and she is the first worker drone to\nsurvive walking within the spire of death.  But if I kill the first\nmurder drone, what will history remember?\"\n\nLizzy laughed.  With the hand Doll released, she cocked it back and\nlightly tapped Doll on the shoulder with her fist.  \"Is that all this\nis about?  Why care about what that freak is doing?  You're better\nthan her.  Let her have this.  Think about what we have.  Status,\nhotness, and like, currently being alive?\"\n\nBut as she spoke, Lizzy was watching Doll's face.  She'd gotten good\nat reading the inexpressive drone, knew the difference between the\nsilence of Doll listening and the silence of Doll closing herself off,\ndisregarding Lizzy's words as vapid nonsense.\n\nLizzy sagged.  She took a step back, hurt, and said, \"I wanted you to\nbe better than Uzi.  Make her feel worthless --- not play along with\nher.  You're really going to ignore everything I tried to show you,\naren't you?\"\n\nDoll smiled, in a way that hurt Lizzy more than any other expression\ncould have.  \"Yes.  I was hoping to.  My plans for the sleepover... I\nwas going to discard it all, move on.\"\n\nSo that was it, w",
  "title": "A Salowe Vision"
}