{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/murder-drones/artificial-instinct",
  "description": "|",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/murder-drones/artificial-instinct",
  "publishedAt": "2024-10-01T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "Embellishing all the droneskull masonry and oil-mortar, the corpse\nspire was also adorned with architectural anatomy stripped from the\ncrumbling corpses of vacated buildings.  Rebar-scaffolding among\nfaçades-turned-partitions twisted labyrinthine --- to a human,\nsenseless verging on collapse; to a disassembly drone, instinct.\n\nOne landmark adjoined the main chamber, in a state once uncommon, now\nas familiar as the trips to industrial ruins picked clean of prey but\nnot salvage.\n\nThe door to the captain's office stood closed.\n\n'Do not disturb,' read a sign in elegant cursive.  Written black, and\nnot in ink.  A head, its visor all shattered glass, hung from the door\nas if in example.\n\n(Once, N had waited patiently outside to ask the captain something.\nHe had heard screams that twisted his face in worry --- but the rules\non the wall were clear.  And then, when the two finally emerged, he\nsaw the expressions lingering on their faces.  He forgot his question,\nbut remembered to never again stand in hearshot of the shut door,\nsparing himself the mental images.)\n\nIt was quiet in there today, though.\n\nDark, too.  Candles glowed faint in the corners of the room, lavender\nand honey.  Votive candles melted down, runes carved into the wax;\nthis gave J a nostalgic smile.\n\nBut those candles weren't brighter than the furious glow on two\nscreens, and their sugar-floral aroma couldn't overpower the\nbenzene-sweet pungency of hardware damage.\n\nA worker drone lay against a towel thrown over the back of an office\nchair.  Eyes artifact-blurry and unfocused, she stared at the wall.\nAs long she didn't look at the wet lips curled into that ravishing\ngrin, her blush had a chance to fade.\n\nA murder drone suction-kissed her shoulder.  The wound upon it was\nsimple, elegant.  Twin holes punctured the plastic, modest in breadth\nand depth.  Oil beaded out of them in small pearls that would wobble\ninto tear-tracks if left alone long enough.\n\nSuch a small incision let her morsel take it so quietly, no proper\nscreams --- but this made it happen so intimately slow.  Hours in this\ncandlelit room, ritual-dark, an oil-drained girl drifting in and out\nof consciousness as all the weight of a frame twice her size\ncrush-pressed her into the cushion, purring and drooling.  The little\ngoth wiggled --- the captain enjoyed her squirming --- but she\ncouldn't escape\n\nThat tongue had visited the worker's mouth, neck, transducer\nplate... but it always returned to that shoulder wound.  Because this\nwas a transaction, an extraction.\n\nThe alternative would be that they were simply cuddling.\n\nAnd the goth did not just want to cuddle with the ravenous deathbot.\n\n...She just didn't mind if they took their time with this.\n\n\"Mm, Uzi?\"  J rose from her snack, her mouth drifting upward near the\ntransducers, purple hair waterfalling over her visor.\n\nA slow blink of those eyes, pupils sharpening as if surfacing from\nwithin a deep, immersive pool; but J was patient.\n\nWhen Uzi found herself, she said, \"Yeah, J?\"\n\n\"You're fond of warranty violations, right?\"  J smiled.  It was\nunseen, but perhaps audible in her voice.\n\n\"You mean sick as hell upgrades?\"  The worker's voice was still a\nmurmur, but energy trickled back to it in fit-starts.\n\nJ's grip tightened around the arm-tubing.  \"Aftermarket modifications,\nyes.\"\n\nUzi laughed.  She twisted around to look at J, one quarter-affronted\nand one quarter-incredulous.  (The last half was the traitorous\nblush-grin that was why she had made J put it down in writing that\noilsharing was not their scheduled cuddle-time.)\n\n\"Of course I like it!\" Uzi said.  \"You think stock worker drone\nhydraulics could keep up with you monsters?  Plus I replaced all my\nflimsy aluminum with steel!  Thanks for that, I guess.  You helped, a\nlittle.\"\n\nJ narrowed her eyes.  \"A little?  You couldn't have even attempted\nthose modifications without someone to do them.  Self-modification\nis a liability, in the narrow range of scenarios where it's even\nviable.\"\n\n\"Don't lecture me, we've already been over this.\"  The purple eyes\nwere all clear now, because they were rolling.  \"Now is not the time,\nnow's the time for, what was it, haptically-calibrated resource\ntransfer.\"\n\nThat delay in recall was all feigned, of course --- Uzi had insisted\nthat J craft this sequence of so-called buzzwords.  Not a direct\ninsistence: she had simply, repeatedly, demanded an explanation.  Much\nlike executives when asked about their business expenses, there were\nquestions which required tailor-made answers.  But this had been J's\nfirst skillset.\n\nJ had authored the worker's excuse, but that didn't mean the ex-PR\nconsultant didn't like testing it.  Releasing her grip on the\narm-tubing, she slid them along the chair's synthetic leather,\nslipping underneath the goth's abdomen.\n\nThe murder drone knelt in the chair, while Uzi leaned against its back\n--- emphasis on lean.  She'd be standing up if not for the angle.\nEven still, J's head rested on the worker's shoulder.\n\n\"Right, I know you're anxious to get back to this.\"  Conic arms\nsqueezed her tight.  Quite the haptic calibration.\n\n\"No, this is because you need it.  Not because I wouldn't rather\nbe...\"\n\nJ waited.  \"Well?  What would you rather be doing than being held\nsafely in the arms of a superior drone?\"\n\nUzi snapped forward to bite J's shoulder.  The fabric of her suit\nblunted the impact.  \"It doesn't matter.  So, miss circle-back, where\nyou going with the warranty violation thing?\"\n\n\"I was just thinking.  There are other 'upgrades' you could attempt.\nThere's one certain humans were fond of giving their personal\ndrones.  A tradition I've encountered several workers carrying forth\nfor their own enrichment purposes.\"\n\nUzi froze.  Arms, once enwrapping J, fell to her side.  \"Oh.  Tell me\nyou don't mean...\"\n\n\"Paired peripherals.\"  J licked her lips.  \"Suitable for... a\npartnership like ours.\"\n\n\"Gross gross gross!  We do not need to imitate weird monkey mating\nbehavior!  We're robots, J.\"\n\nJ raised an eyebrow, and then she tugged on her arms, snuggling\nherself closer.  Throughout, she stared flatly into Uzi's glare.  It\ndeepened, even as the captain's smirk blossomed.\n\n\"You're looking at me like you're proving a point right now.\"\n\n\"Am I not?  It's obvious what we're doing right now.  Making an\nactual argument of it would be beneath me.\"  J's tail curled behind\nher, pointing emphasis at Uzi.\n\n\"It's not the same!  We have haptic sensors and so it obviously\nfeels nice to have someone giving... gentle input or whatever.  Same\nreason things look pretty.  We have eyes and pattern recognition and\nthere's symmetry and junk.\"\n\n\"And?\"  J tongued up two pearls of oil from Uzi's shoulder.  Her\nmorsel shivered at the contact.\n\n\"And it makes sense!  But there's no reason for sex toy peripherals to\nfeel good!  It's pointless imitation.  It's so stupid.\"\n\nJ pulled one arm out, lifting it to stroke Uzi's cheek, but the worker\nflinched away.  J said, \"The feedback could be programmed to feel\ngood.\"\n\n\"That's just wireheading.\"  Uzi had fists balled up.  \"Why not just\nmax out your pleasure receptors directly?  It's not... functional.\nDon't you care about that?\"\n\nUnable to caress her cheek, J settled for patting Uzi's head, and the\nworker's rejoiner-glance could have plotted murder.\n\n\"Hmph.  Is it any less functional than those human games you're so\nenthusiastic about?\" J said, giving a haughty huff of a laugh.\n\n\"Those have actual stories and challenge!  It's not just.\nThrusting.  It's too easy.  It's boring!\"\n\nJ sighed, and pulled back from Uzi, arms retreating.  \"You're not\ninterested at all, then?\"\n\n\"Duh!  Could I make that any clearer?\"\n\n\"Very,\" J said with a smirk.  Her suit jacket, already hanging up,\nslid down as her arms snaked through.  \"I've seen the way you look at\nme when I change out of my work clothes.  Eyes running along my legs.\nThe glance at my hips you think you're averting too fast for me to\nnotice.\"  J began unbuttoning her shirt, peeling static-cling'd fabric\nfrom her carapace.  \"Is this boring to you?\"\n\nUzi folded a leg, the knee kicking J's hand, impeding if not stopping\nher.  \"Bite me!  It's... ugh.  Fine.  You're [really pretty]{.small}.\nAnd I maybe like looking at you.  But I think the clothes are just\nlike.  Symbolic?  I like that you can take off the mask and be\nyourself around me.  It's authentic.  It's.  You trust me, right?  You\nwouldn't let anyone else see this?\"\n\nAll buttons free, J plucked the shirt off her back.  Maybe, having\nbeen caught, Uzi didn't try to fight the allegations now --- or maybe\nshe didn't even realize she's doing it, but the goth's eyes flit\nmagnetically to the amber light pulsing with the core, and then traced\nthe subtle curves of her abdominal plates.\n\nDistracted, but she knew if she wasn't listening to J, the captain\nwould not look past the insult.\n\nJ was saying, \"Why shouldn't I, if we're just robots?  Would you stop\nstaring so hungrily at me, if I invited V to watch me change next\ntime?\"\n\nUzi scowled.  Her mouth worked, and her processor spun through some\nresponses.  \"Why are you so insistent in getting me to say I want to.\nDo stuff to you.\"\n\n\"Why are you so resistant to saying it?  Afraid of dropping your mask\naround me?\"  J levered herself up by inches, rising taller.  \"Tell me\nit wouldn't be more alluring if this ritual were functional.  If\npulling down my skirt was a prelude to something more.\"\n\nEyes on J's ascent, the goth didn't catch J's hands snapping out to\ngrab her own, then stuffing the purple-lit plastic into the waistband\nof her skirt.  J continued, \"We're robots, so it could be anything\nyou want.  It could be symmetrical.  I could be a gentle touch.  We\neven could make it a game.\"\n\nJ finally closed the distance, pressing her bare chestplate against\nthe worker, the positioning forcing Uzi's hands deeper into her skirt.\n\"You ask me why I'm so insistent?  Our contract has been... very\naccommodating.  Whenever I do the accounting... I take so much from\nyou.  Because you're so full of what I need.\"",
  "title": "Artificial Instinct and Simulated Passion"
}