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Picking blueberries had always been a relaxing activity for Ceiline. She found it had a meditative quality to it, slowly and carefully sifting through bushes to find clumps of berries to harvest.
As Ceiline sifted through the bush, trying to find a clump of berries closer to the stem, she felt something crawl up her arm. She quickly removed her hand from the bush and stepped away. A wasp followed her hand out, a wasp unlike any she had ever seen.
Ceiline yelped as the wasp’s stinger punctured her skin and envenomated her.
She collapsed to the ground. As she looked up, a purple shimmer frantically retreated, flying off into the grass.
“Gweh…”
“Ceiline!” Ceiline’s girlfriend, Aileen, immediately ran over.
“Are you okay? What happened?”
“I’m-ah, got stung by a wasp.”
“Mm, are you okay?” Aileen asked.
“Whew… yeah, I’m okay, I just feel… dizzy,” Ceiline said.
“Right, well, come on, let’s get you inside then.”
After a few hours of tending to Ceiline, Aileen got called in to cover the last half of a shift.
“I have to go to work now, you’ll be okay, right?” Aileen asked.
“Yeah,” Ceiline nodded sluggishly. “I’ll make it.”
“Okay, see you in a little bit. Bye!”
“Bye,” Ceiline said sleepily.
She watched the door to the office close, and then turned back to her computer, and typed the words “Purple Wasp” into a search engine.
Hm. Nothing interesting. “Shiny Purple Wasp”? Ah, there are some results.
Uh oh. There are some results. One word kept popping up in the brief snippets of each search result.
Drone.
Drone.
Drone.
It wasn’t an unfamiliar word to Ceiline, hell, most people were probably familiar with it. It was just one of those things that happened. Happened to other people, mostly. But here she was.
“Venom takes 2-10 hours to reach its full potency within the human body, antivenom is only effective if administered within 4 hours of being stung.”
4 hours… she’d been stung at nine.
It was five in the evening.
She felt a fresh wave of near-debilitating drowsiness overcome her, and she slumped back into her chair, dropping the mouse on the desk. Ever since she’d been stung, she’d been drowsy. It was just… so difficult to keep thinking. Consciously moving her limbs took immense effort. Instinctive movements, like breathing and reflex twitches, seemed effortless as always though.
Whatever, she had to power through, and find an alternate solution to this.
Did she though?
Yes, she did. That was a stupid thought. Of course, she had to find a solution to this, after all, she doubted her girlfriend wanted to come to a drooling shell.
A drone isn’t a shell though, it is merely a vessel waiting to be filled with purpose.
What? Why was her brain being weird? Whatever, time for another search.
“Alternatives to Shimmering wasp antivenom”
Another page of results. The first was a forum post of someone claiming to have found an alternative cure from household materials. The poster’s last known activity? Half an hour after their last post.
The site of the sting felt warm, as though an iron were pressed against it. It felt… radiant, in more ways than one.
It felt like something was seeping into her mind.
Guh. what an unpleasant sensation. Or maybe it was pleasant? No. It wasn’t. It could be?
She scanned through the rest of the post and found a link to an external website. Upon clicking the link, she was greeted with a 404 Page Not Found error.
Not good. Not good. Not good.
She felt it seeping into her muscles, radiating outwards from the wound, polluting her body.
Good. This was good. Why would she need a cure? There was nothing wrong with her, after all. As that thought swam through her brain, she felt her eyes begin to get heavy.
“No… guh…” She struggled to say sitting upright. Every single part of me wanted to slump back, to relax… relax… relaxing felt…
“Gaaaah!” She jerked herself forward, nearly falling out of her chair.
No. Yes. NO. Yes.
“Shut up!” She tried to return to her search when a fresh, potent bout of drowsiness struck her and pinned her to the back of the chair.
“Guh… not… not like this.” This couldn’t be happening, not to her.
It was happening to her, and it was lovely. No, please.
She couldn’t be… a…
Why not?
Because…
Because?
…
…
No reason?
…
…
Pleassee…
Ple…
Please help you? Very well.
If she had been conscious enough to look up, she might’ve seen her eyes reflected in the window or computer monitor. Her hazel eyes were slowly turning an iridescent purple.
Ceiline sat there, slumped in its computer chair, mouth agape, staring at the floor until it heard someone enter the house. It did not stir, but the mental machinery in it began to whirr and hum.
“Beginning startup procedure.” It muttered.
The house was eerily silent when Aileen got back home from her shift. Maybe Ceiline had gone to bed early? Hmm, that’d be disappointing, but at least they’d have the weekend to spend time together. Besides, it seemed like she was still under the weather from that sting the other night, so rest could only do her good. After setting her on the kitchen counter, she walked over to their room, only to find it empty.
She opened the door to the office and found Ceiline reclining in a chair.
“Evening, dear.”
“Greetings,” Ceiline said, flatly and emotionlessly.
“You… okay?” Aileen asked.
“This individual is functioning optimally.”
“Uh-huh…” Aileen pulled over another chair and sat across from Celine.
“Hello?”
“Greetings,” Ceiline said again.
"Ceiline?"
“Shall this individual answer to ‘Ceiline’?”
Aileen's attention was diverted from her girlfriend by the computer. She examined the tabs Ceiline had opened.
"Oh no..." She muttered. "Of course, the sting from earlier..."
The drone repeated its question.
Hm... maybe having a drone for a little while wouldn't be so bad?
“Um…” Aileen immediately felt bad about considering that. No, it was fine, she could just take Ceiline to one of those drone clinics and get her fixed up.
“Yes, you are Ceiline.”
“Affirmative.” Ceiline was silent for a few moments before it said “Awaiting an assignment.”
“Hmm… hug me?”
Ceiline rose from its chair and then embraced Aileen.
“Hm…” Aileen returned the hug.
Aileen would take her to get de-droned.
Eventually.