{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/hostile-takeover/05",
  "path": "/posts/hostile-takeover/05",
  "publishedAt": "2023-11-23T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: subchapter\n\nThump, thump.\n\nOil rushed through this body.  She could hear the surge, the pressure.\nIt never stopped.  But it only got this loud when it wanted to\nattack.\n\nShe just wished it realized it couldn't.  When this body itched, she\nscratched.  When this body thirsted, she drank.  When this body pined\nfor violence, when the need to sink claws in and shred bristled like\na coat, she struck.\n\nExcept when the target was her, and she had to refrain.\n\n_\"She's mine.  And I think I'll start by reformatting that bloated\nmemory file of hers.\"_\n\nNo! the thought was a hiss-shout in her processor, strangled from\nreaching her vocalsynth. Never. again.\n\nMaybe her oil still pumped because she could hear those fucking words\njust as clearly as when she'd first uttered them.  Could still see\nthe smirk.  The look of pity.\n\n\"So uh, V---\"\n\nSerial Designation V flinched.  V stood in the bunker, and it was just\nher and N.  No one else.\n\nN, still in that butler's suit and tie, hair gently curling to frame a\nround face, bright yellow eyes angled in uncertainty.\n\n\"What?\"  She didn't snap, but she kept her tone sharp, repellent; he\nneeded to keep his distance.\n\nN frowned.  He sat where the leader had sat, in the swivel chair.\nTapping the keyboard buttons.  A onscreen text editor filled with\nrandom characters.\n\nWith at V's words, he stopped and pushed off the desk gently.  He\nturned the chair, trying to face her, but the angle and momentum meant\nchair kept spinning him around.\n\nHe started, \"Well, about what J said.  I think---\"\n\n\"Drop it.\"\n\n\"But...  I kind of promised her I'd talk to you?\"  He poked two\nfingers together as the chair continued to spin him.\n\n\"So what?  You want to find the magic words you can say to fix\neverything?\"\n\nIn between spins, his eyes widened.  \"Oh, there are magic words?\"\n\n\"No.\"  V reached out to grab the back of the chair and finally stop\nthe spinning.  She looked in N's eyes.  \"And if the topic is J, the\nonly thing I want to talk about right now is mutiny.  So you'd be\ndoing her a favor by keeping me distracted~\" V grinned with its teeth.\nThe teeth gave everyone pause, even the predators.\n\nThough N wasn't much of one.\n\nShe stood up and turned toward the door.  Flicked the light-switch off\nand left him in the dark.  But she heard him getting up, his footsteps\ncoming up behind her, couldn't turn off the HUD that turned every\naudio input into a reconstruction of all the surroundings she couldn't\nsee.  Still, she walked away.\n\nN said, \"V, I don't want to push you away from the team.\"\n\nAnd V paused.  And waited.\n\n\"But?\" she finally asked, tired of waiting for the blade to drop.\n\n\"Huh?\"\n\n\"You don't want to push me away, but...\"\n\nLimbs made different sounds when they contracted than when they\nflexed.  V could hear N curling up slightly.  She'd heard it often\nenough, remembered each time.  She could picture the subtle defensive\nposture.\n\nHe said, \"That's not, no.  There is no 'but'.  I don't want to push\nyou away from the team.  So I won't make you talk about it, not if\nit's gonna make things worse.  We can talk about other things.\"\n\nV expelled exhaust.  _It's N.  Of course it would be that\nsimple._\n\n\"And if I don't want to talk?\"\n\n\"Then we can talk nothing! I can be quiet.  I think?\"\n\nV heard him take a step closer, so she started walking again, moving\nthrough the bunker.  She stepped into a work room.  In here, a laptop,\na technician's toolbox, an inactive drone.  _Exactly what J wants to\ndo to you._\n\nShe clenched a fist.  _But there's a way to stop that from\nhappening._\n\nN continued, \"You seem like you're not doing too great.  And I want to\nhelp, somehow.  If I can.\"\n\n\"And if I told you to get lost, fly back to the spire and leave me\nalone?\"  V turned around, because she wanted to see the conflict on\nhis face.\n\nBut N just said, \"Then I'd leave.\"\n\nV frowned.\n\nHe lifted a hand, rubbed the back of his head.  \"Don't know what I'd\ntell J though.  I get the feeling she wouldn't be very happy.  I'd\nfigure something out, though!\"\n\nA head shake and V looked away.\n\n\"So, should I...?\" N asked.  He made a walking gesturing with two\nfingers which then rose up, turning to hand-flapping.\n\nV rolled these yellow eyes, because it was that or laugh, and she\ndidn't want to smile.\n\n\"No, you're right.  J would go throw another fit.  So stay here.\"  V\nstarted walking again.  N did too, and she matched his pace.  \"I don't\nknow how you do it.\"\n\n\"Do what?\"\n\n\"I can stand J on a good day.  You never get good days.\"\n\n\"Today was a pretty good day, I think.\"  Behind her, V heard his body\nlanguage open up.\n\nV continued, \"But you just keep trying.  Still optimistic, even\nwhen---\"\n\nWhen just this morning, J told her that she'd have killed him if the\ncompany allowed it.  But V couldn't tell him that.\n\n\"J can be harsh,\" N said, \"but she wants what's best for us.\"\n\nShe couldn't tell him.\n\nNothing new there, though.\n\n\"You've got it backwards,\" is all V said.\n\nJ's game of harsh encouragement was a pretense --- even N could see\nthat --- but the pretense wasn't the harshness.  N's performance\nalways struck V as an excuse, not a motivation.  V had thought only\nshe remembered, but...\n\nJ had always disliked N.\n\nN followed V to the entrance room, the lights there still flickering.\n\"Go get your jacket.  And get out of that.\"  V indicated N's butler\nuniform with a claw.  She didn't finish her sentence.\n\nStepping in the airlock, V contemplated tearing her way out of here.\nShe itched to.  But no, stupid magic forcefield oil wires meant this\nbody's strength was nothing here.  What did J call them?  'Wards'?\nMeh.\n\nThe minute in the airlock was long, and the itch got worse.  So V\ndragged these claws along the wall, carving grooves in what the\ncentimeter or so the magic forcefields didn't protect.\n\nStuck in a box where she couldn't escape...  Why hadn't J used her\nmagic EMP blast to take these forcefields down?  To fuck with her?\n\nWhen the other door opened, V leapt into the house.  Here, one swipe\nof these claws was enough to tear down the wall of the kitchen.\nThere.  It was good to have that kind of power again.\n\nV dug the claws in, climbing over the walls and ceiling.  She poked\naround the wires that snaked through the house, cutting this one and\nthat.  Appliance lights winked out in the kitchen as she cut them off\nfrom the backup generators.\n\nEach bit of power cut was welcome --- it meant one less\nelectromagnetic annoyance tickling its coils --- but she was really\nlooking for the wire that would bleed oil, and shut down the magic\nforcefield for good.\n\n[Oh, you waited for me!  Hi!]{.adq} N chirped.\n\nN found her before V found the wires.  Jacket fluttering behind him,\nand he adjusted his hat.  V was perched on the ceiling, so they looked\nupside down to each other.\n\nV shrugged.  \"Didn't have anywhere else to be.\"\n\nN switched back to his vocalsynth, saying, \"So... is there anything\nyou wanted to talk about, maybe?\"\n\n\"Nope.\"  Dropping down, flipping midair, wings out.  \"Let's go\nhunting.\"\n\n\"Ah.  More murder?  Well, if it's together.\"\n\n\"Hey, last night proved you can force J to say something nice about\nyou, much as she hates to.  Would be funny if she had to do it again.\"\n\n\"When you put it like that...  Maybe we shouldn't be antagonizing her?\nWhen she's already mad at you?\"\n\n\"Meh.  Give her the night to get over it.  Pretty soon she'll forget\nand move on,\" she said.  Then quietly, \"It's what always happens.\"\n\n- - -\n\nThump-thump.\n\nThe core beat faster in the air.  Didn't make sense, when she wasn't\nmoving its wings.  This body had to moved less high in the air than\non the ground.\n\nBut since when did this body ever make sense?\n\nV followed N.  These eyes couldn't see the ground, especially not with\nthis many clouds.  The clouds never really went away, only ever\nclearing by degrees.\n\nA misty sky hung over a dead planet.  With the core collapse, these\nclouds had poured out, the last breaths lingering.\n\nPerfect weather for killing.\n\nN descended.  From this distance, the impression of the city was the\nimpression of its skyscrapers.  Dark fingers grasping toward heaven,\nfalling short and falling.  They splayed, because between the\ntectonics and the weather, all the supports were on a timer till they\ndecayed.  More towers leaned than lay straight.\n\nCould V go in and knock out the bottom floor of one of them?  Would it\nbring the monoliths tumbling down?  She had the strength to do it.\nIt'd be immensely destructive, cathartic.\n\nIf any worker drones were inside, you wouldn't have serial numbers to\ngive to J, she thought.\n\nBecause of course.  If it'd be remotely satisfying, what would be the\npoint in it?\n\nAhead, N spiraled down.  V mirrored for a bit, then cut across the\ncenter of the spiral.\n\n[Yo,]{.adq} V broadcast over shortwave, [are we flying in circles\nor do you actually know where we're going?]{.adq} \n\nV liked to keep it casual over shortwave.  Conversational.  This body\nwanted every note to be growled or screeched like animal calls.  J\nwanted it to be a protocol, all terse information-packets.\n\nBut it was all the same wiggles as sound in air.  Nothing special\nabout it.\n\n[Sorry!  Prey soon?  Promise.]{.adq} Except when N said it, it wasn't\nanimalistic or efficient.  Just... simple.  Like the transmissions let\nhim bare his intent without anything getting in the way.  [I know it's\naround here... somewhere.]{.adq}\n\n['It' being...]{.adq}\n\nThere was a thoughtful acknowledgement-rumble in response, N chewing\non how to explain.  [J talked about factories, right?  Saying prey\nwas... multiplying?  It reminded me of something I saw on patrol.  If\nwe took one of them down, I think she'd like that.]{.adq} Then,\nwith it all laid out, N finally found a concise transmission.\n[Target: nest!]{.adq} He laughed.\n\nWith nothing but a thoughtful noise, V fell back into his undertow,\nkeeping him a distance ahead.  Distance enough he was a blurry shape\nto these optics.  Once, a manufacturing defect --- now it felt more\nlike a joke.  She didn't laugh.\n\nHe descended faster, diving into the f",
  "title": "This Hollow Ache"
}