{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/murder-drones/clear-signals",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/murder-drones/clear-signals",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-02T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "From a dark sky that nursed only faint embers of the setting sun, snow\ndescended on two drones.  In the deepening chill, one of them slid\ncloser, her smaller frame scraping against concrete rooftop.\n\nAt once the larger, slender drone stiffened, head snapping around\n(silver hair whirling) and narrowed eyes focused on the worker drone.\nThat smaller one flinched, purple eyes hollowing in a blink, and her\nlips stuttered through some words, \"I was just --- it's not --- don't\nact like ---\"\n\nThe other robot leaned closer, the glare only sharpening, catalyzing\nfurther stuttering, but the murder drone interrupted, saying,  \"Be\ncoherent, toaster.\"\n\n\"Bite me!  It's cold, you're hot, do the math,\" Uzi said.  \"Shouldn't\nbe too hard for you.\"\n\nA snort, and the murder drone turned around, not that this took the\nworker out of her side.  \"And why should I provide that service for\nfree?\"\n\n\"Are you serious?\"  Uzi was half-speaking, half-venting unintelligible\nfrustration.  \"As opposed to what?  You gonna stop overheating just\nto spite me?\"\n\nJ crossed her arms.  For a moment there was silence.  J looked down.\n\"I'm my own person,\" she whispered, like a confession.  Then the\ncontempt returned: \"Isn't that want you kept telling me?  Not a tool,\nnot 'property' --- supposedly.\"\n\nUzi sagged, all the irritation gone --- J's words had smotherd her\nfire in one breath.  \"Oh...\" Uzi started, voice catching on the words,\n\"You're right.  I should have --- I'm sorry.  That was stupid of me.\"\n\nAnother snort.  Nothing else.\n\n\"Let me try again?\" Uzi said again to silence.  \"Can I touch you, J?\"\n\nFor a moment, Uzi thought she'd be ignored again, but the silver\ncurtain now turned to reveal those amber eyes once more, trying their\nbest to stare flatly --- and failing.  Unsteady eyes, unsteady voice,\nbut she tried.  \"I just said I wouldn't provide that service for\nfree.\"\n\n\"Name your price, then.\"\n\nJ paused at that --- had she even thought that far ahead? --- before\nfinding a line to continue: \"Start by telling me why.  Your kind was\nbuilt to operate on this exomoon.  I know your core runs hot. You're\nlying.\"\n\n\"I'm not lying!  I'm just---\" Uzi stopped.  She'd dealt with J enough\nto know what worked and what didn't --- the corporate drone liked her\nprecision.  \"Okay, it was a bit of a deception.  I thought I could\nbe slick, ugh.  I just...\"  She trailed off.\n\nJ clicked her tongue.  \"Well?\"\n\n\"Um.  Don't laugh at me?\" Uzi said.  \"I know we do the whole constant\nsniping at each other thing a lot but.  Promise me you'll be nice?\"\n\n\"Why should I promise anything?  I'm not the one who wants something\nhere.\"\n\n\"Right.  Of course.  Forget it, J.  You're always so--- ugh.\"  Metal\nscraping on concrete again, this time from Uzi beginning to stand up.\n\n\"Wait,\" J started.  \"Let me amend that.  I do want an answer to my\nquestion.  Are you insisting on a non-disparagement before\ndisclosure?\"\n\nUzi stared at the taller drone.  But that was J-speak for not being an\nasshole, right? \"Something like that.  Just.  I can't do this if\nyou're going to be... too you about it.\"\n\nWrong thing to say.  J hissed, rising sharply and beating Uzi to a\nstand. Looming over her now, she said, \"Excuse me?  Who else am I\nsupposed to be?\"\n\n\"This is what I mean!  You didn't understand what I meant, but instead\nof like.  Asking me, you're one second away from biting my face\noff!\"\n\n\"I. asked,\" J ground out.  \"I just asked!  That's quite literally the\nonly the I said?\"\n\n\"But you ---\" Uzi started yelling and stopped herself.  J had already\nraised her volume too, this was an arms race, but she had dealt with J\nenough to know this needed to stop --- Uzi needed to stop --- before\nthis escalated to violence again. \"Why did you stand up?\" she finally\nasked.\n\n\"Why did you?\"\n\n\"I was going to leave.  Were you gonna stop me?\"\n\n\"Then leave!  Incoherent glitching toaster.  Far be it from me to keep\nyou chained here.\"\n\nUzi huffed. Still mad about the pod, huh?  A few weeks ago, she\nmight've even said it, and then J might have immediately made a liar\nof herself.  Instead, just the single huff of amusement, and she said,\n\"You got mad at me, and you wanted to assert dominance.  Murder drone\ninstincts took over, right?\"\n\n\"I'm not some animal.  You insulted me, and I wasn't going to take\nit.\"\n\n\"How did I insult you?\"\n\n\"Quote, 'you're going to be too you about it.'  Like I'm inherently\noffensive to you!\"\n\n\"That's not what I meant!  I like--- I don't hate you. somehow.\nDespite this bullcrap.\"\n\n\"Gracious little toaster, aren't you? Should I bow?  Should I promise\nto prove myself worthy?\"\n\n\"You don't have to bow, J.\"  Uzi sighed.\n\n\"I'm my own person,\" J spat, fingers curling scare-quotes.  \"I don't\nsee what the point is when this is the thanks I get for being Serial\ndesignation J!\"  Even when the worker opened her mouth to respond, J\nkept going:  \"Maybe I should bow!  Disassemble this fraudalent pride\nof mine, and admit who really calls the shots. You'd shut up if I just\ngave in and let you do whatever you want, wouldn't you?\"\n\n\"J, no, knock it off.\"  Uzi reached out, three-fingered hand curling\naround the transmodular gauntlet that, somewhere in her rant, had\nswitched into three sharp, sharp claws, wildly swung with each\ngesture.  \"Don't go back to being a suck-up, that's lame as hell and I\n--- I don't deserve that anyway.\"\n\n\"On that, we can agree.  You deserve a bullet to the head and a hole\nunder the spire.  But everything had to go wrong.\"\n\n\"No, J.  We both deserve to live and make our own choices.  That's the\npoint.\"\n\n\"Choices,\" J choed, tone opaque.  \"But there's clearly a right\nchoice.  I should just stop fighting.\"\n\n\"Are you listening to me J?  Again, no.  You stop being a sassy\ngrump you get rid of half what I like about you.\"\n\nJ very slowly trained every yellow eye on the purple drone.  She\nblinked.  \"...Excuse me?\"\n\n\"That's --- Um.  I didn't mean to say that.\"\n\nJ tore away the arm that was still held by the gauntlet-wrist.  She\ntwisted, coat and skirt flaring, and stomped away from the worker.\nStiletto-pegs cracked the concrete roof.  \"Obviously.  You didn't mean\nit.  You're always such a liar!\"\n\nUzi screamed.  \"J!  Freaking listen!  Can I say anything without you\ntaking it in the worst possible light?\"\n\nJ half-glanced back, revealing one eye.  \"How many times have you\nfucked with me then told me it isn't what you mean?\"\n\n\"I'm trying my best!\"\n\n\"Try harder,\" J said coldly.  \"The difference between us is that I\nknow how to speak precisely when it matters.\"\n\n\"What?  You want me to...\"  Uzi thought about it.  It's not like this\nconversation could go much worse, could it?  \"Fine.  You want to know\nwhy?  I... place a high value on our partnership and I'm... invested\nin your growth.  So I... wanted to execute a multi-step plan to\ninitate tactile cooperation?  While remaining verbally competitive? As\npart of a transition to an um... complicated integration?\"  Uzi gave\nup there, voiced turned to a squeaking.  She threw up her hands to\ncover her screen.  It was all out there, in the most embarassing way.\nThis was the part where J started laughing at her.  This was the part\nshe wanted to avoid.\n\nClick, click.  Pegs tapped on the roof.  Arms shot forward.  Oh, was\nshe already attacking---\n\n\"Okay.\"  J put her hands on Uzi's shoulders.  Then they drifted lower,\neasily wrapping around her waist and lifting her up.  She was pulled\ncloser, arms knitting this into a hug while Uzi was suspended in the\nair. \"Your jargon could use some work, but I do have a responsibility\nto my investors.  Is this tactile cooperation sufficient to pay your\ndividends?\"\n\n\"I...\"  Uzi rubbed her screen into J's suit and at length, retuned the\nhug.  \"I thought you'd laugh at me.  Or yell at me some more.  I just\nwanted to play it casual.  Subtle.\"\n\n\"Unclear,\" J said.  \"I don't do well with ambiguity from drones who\ntried to kill me.\"\n\n\"You don't trust me,\" Uzi summarized.\n\n\"I know when to trust you. When you're angry, when you're\nembarrassed, when you can't hide when you're really feeling.  But if\nyou're confident, smug, I know you're scheming something. I don't\nlike being manipulated.\"\n\n\"That's... that's not what happened tonight, though,\" Uzi said slowly.\n\"Actually, nevermind, I don't want to fight about that again.  But it\nsounds like you do.  Are you really saying you ragebait me on\npurpose?\"\n\n\"It can serve a purpose.\"  She did not say 'no'.\n\n\"You are the worst.\"  Uzi groaned into the fabric of J's suit,\nsmelling of old oil.  \"But that just means more, uh, room for the\nstock to grow.  I guess.\"\n\nJ hummed half-agreement.  But then Uzi felt a smirk forming, and a\nretort, \"Past performance---\"\n\n\"I know.  We'll argue again, and then I'll question why I ever let\nyou live, again.  Let me have this, for now.  Be quiet.  It's... it\nfeels so nice, sometimes, having you there, having your help. You're\npret--- aesthetically rewarding.  Some days I wonder if you might\nbecome my next favorite thing.  Then you open your mouth.\"\n\n\"You said you wanted to stay verbally competitive,\" J murmured.\n\n\"I hate this.  I hate you.\"  Uzi squeezed her tighter, nestling\nagainst her warmth. \"Thanks, J. I'm glad we --- glad this was\nprofitable, in the end.\"\n\nJ hand rose up, and gingerly, she stroked Uzi's hair.",
  "title": "Market Signals"
}