temporary robot prison (t)
Sept 28, 2024 1:49:08 GMT -5
Post by florentine, d4b ❁ on Sept 28, 2024 1:49:08 GMT -5
florentine.
here, doors close on their own.
it seems to be a matter of dexterity; it's all sensor-driven. something - not something human, but something nonetheless, is watching all the time. it feels you without fingers, and watches without eyes, and tries to predict your movements so that passageways can open and close as needed. i do not like the feeling that the infrastructure of the building itself is trying to guess my next move. gives me the creeps. here, even the doors tell me i'm just like other girls.
i leave the training centre late, parting ways with andromache at the foot of the stairs. she likes me, i think. her mistrust has ripened, and it grows sweeter every day. i threw tsuiri beneath the metaphorical bus, a sacrifice, a baby lamb to be slaughtered by a wicked rich-kid tongue. i watched as the faith-tokens came pouring in, as the bitch from one enjoyed her meal.
i catch sight of her, dark curls slipping away through a gap in the ever-sliding metal, and i find myself following. my footsteps are too loud on the scrubbed tile floor. it is so shiny i can see my face in it, and it does not provide a flattering angle. eleven steps into the elevator; i was about to take the stairs, but my legs have decided on a change of plan, and they quicken to catch up. i slip an arm in front of the closing door. the laws of the universe say that it should continue on, closing in spite of my ulna and radius, crunching through both bones with its single-minded blindness, but it does not. as i knew it would, it stops immediately in response to the pale skin of my wrist, stops, and retreats into the wall as though i have cast a spell on it.
cornered, tsuiri looks at me from inside. she is cornered there, probably wishing she could spit on my shiny new capitol shoes. i take the spot beside her, the socially acceptable distance away, and press the button to indicate my floor. the doors slide closed. i calculate i have approximately fifty-four seconds alone with her, assuming nobody calls the lift from another floor.
"i'm florentine, by the way," i say, smiling at her."i think i forgot to introduce myself, before."
i didn't forget, but that's beside the point.