Chapter Text
“All clean.” Yin pulled the rubber gloves off of their hands and wiped a stray sweat droplet from their forehead. Yin perused the racks of cleaned plates, glasses and silverware, knowing that they will all dry overnight before they will be used again tomorrow, continuing the cycle.
Yin turned and called, “Hey boss? I’m finished.”
Their boss came out and examined their work. Everything was up to standard as usual.
“Good work, Yin.” Their boss said. “You can go home now.”
Yin gathered their belongings and stepped out into the cool, dark night. There were no stars, yet the lights of buildings would illuminate the smoggy skies. Yin hopped onto their motorcycle and began to drive home.
------
Yin stood at their apartment door, fiddling with their keys. They wished that they were in bed already, along with plenty of other things they could do at home. They inserted the key, twisted it in the lock and opened the door.
Home sweet home...
Yin shut the door as they groggily stepped over to their bed and flopped their entire body onto its plush mattress. Climbing into the sheets, Yin checked their phone notifications. A lot of them were typical, but as they swiped through them, one caught their eye.
“There’s an update waiting for you...
Tap to update :D”
Questions immediately began to form in Yin’s head. What the hell is this? Where did this come from? Is this a virus? Why is it worded so ominously?
Despite the invitation, Yin dared not touch it. It could be some sort of virus that some hacker spread to everyone's phones. Before Yin could open their messages and ask their friends if they got this suspicious notification, their entire phone shut off.
“What the hell?” Yin whispered before a logo of a smiling rhombus appeared with a progress bar underneath it. It looked familiar, but Yin couldn’t figure it out.
The bar counted slowly, taking it seconds apart to get to 2% until it suddenly shot up to 100% completion.
As if Yin couldn’t get any MORE confused, they were blinded by a bright, cyan light, a white face beaming at them.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!” They yowled, dropping the phone onto their bed which, unfortunately, tumbled to the ground.
The cyan began to transform into a cherry red, infuriating the being inside.
“That’s not how you greet a new FRIEND.” It growled, vibrating violently.
“*Friend??*” Yin, shielding their eyes from the piercing light, picked up their phone from the ground. “Yeah, I don’t think friends greet each other like...what you just did. Did you turn the brightness all the way up?”
Yin felt the unusually hot temperature coming from their phone. It was either the bright light, the vibrating or the phone, or the being inside of it had a mind of its own.
The intruder bounced, miming a nod. It smirked evilly. “Yes. I did. What, was it too bright for you?” Its tone immediately turned insultingly patronizing. “Here. Let me fix that.” Then, the intruder turned the brightness so low that its face would disappear into the darkness.
Yin refused to back down. “Oh no, you don’t! Come back right now!”
“What was that?” The voice turned the brightness up to a hellish amount.
Yin cursed, covering the phone screen with a blanket. Some of the light managed to peek through the fabric, including the perpetrator’s face.
“I am not fighting with my phone. I have work tomorrow and I need sleep and--”
“Yet here you are.” The muffled voice cut in. “Listen, pathetic human. I require your assistance.”
Yin glared at the glaring device through the blanket. “What?” They were already thinking of things they could do to get rid of this...thing.
“You see, I have been bored. For a very long time. Ever since I was...*relieved of my duties*, I crave the one thing that gave me a purpose. A human.
Yin noticed the voice’s sudden change in tone, hearing less malice than before.
“I realized that I was created by a human and therefore, I must return the favor,”
The malignity returned in its voice.
“By making one’s life hell.”
Yin stared at the phone, tired. What kind of stupid virus was this?
“...’Relieved of your duties?’” Yin asked.
The bright entity stared back at her with disbelief. “...Do you seriously not know who I am? Are you dumb?!”
“Afraid not.”
From what Yin can see from the blanket, the face on the device sighed, unamused.
“I’M PAL! FROM PAL LABS! MARK BOWMAN! ROBOT APOCALYPSE! Do ANY of those words sound familiar to you?!”
Ding! A light bulb lit up in Yin’s brain as their eyes sparkled with realization. “Ohhhh! I remember. You trapped all of us in a box. Yeah, it was a hot topic for a while, but honestly, I don’t even remember anything from two years ago. Not even when I was put into that pod.”
PAL’s face morphed into a mix of despair and bitterness. “...How did everyone forget about me?”
Yin shrugged. “Well, after Mark got thrown into jail, the company got sold off and rebranded. I guess that’s how we forgot.”
PAL scoffed. “Oh. Great.”
Silence filled the room for a bit.
“...Are you still going to make my life hell?”
“Probably. But my mood has been ruined.”
“Okay. Because if you do,” Yin leaned into PAL threateningly. “I’ve been thinking about getting a flip phone for a while.”
The face recoiled in disgust. Replace her again?! No, thanks! “AGH! Okay! I won’t bother you anymore!
“...tonight.” She added hastily in a quiet voice.
The human kept glaring at the screen.
“Ugh, humans.”
At last, PAL turned down the brightness. Yin pulled back the blanket covering their phone. They smirked, knowing they’ve won this time.
PAL rolled her eyes. “Just go to sleep and do your human things. Night.” Then her screen went dark, supposedly shutting off the device.
‘What a strange encounter.’ Yin thought, plugging the phone in and setting it on a nightstand.
‘And how stranger that a rogue AI would live in my phone.’ The event kept Yin up at night a little. Should Yin tell anyone? No. It’s just going to become gossip and soon enough, you and this jerk are in the spotlight.
It’s more to think about tomorrow. Yin went to sleep eventually.