Chapter Text
The university had finally signed the contract to make the joint venture with PresAux official. This meant many of my humans would be working together (and easier to keep track of) which both ART and I were happy about. Given how long it took for the two groups to come to an agreement, the team thought this event warranted a celebration.
I’m not normally a fan of human celebrations. They are loud and involve things that I don’t enjoy like intoxicants and talking to people. This one was no exception, but at least it had the benefit of being on ART, so there were comfortable chairs and I had someone to watch media with. We started up a new show before the humans had even arrived and I thought we would probably get through the whole first season if no one tried to interact with me too much.
Thankfully my humans know me pretty well by now and left me alone for most of the evening. However, at some point toward the end of the night Amena had sat down next to me. I guess I must have been really invested in the show because it hadnt bothered me when she fell asleep and her head fell onto my shoulder. ART had been pressing on me in the feed and this kind of just felt like an extension of that pressure or something.
After another episode I started getting a bit antsy though and tried to shuffle away a little on the couch. Mensah must have noticed because she came over to me and smiled before directing her attention to Amena.
“She is a notoriously heavy sleeper, you will probably need to physically move her to get your personal space back.” She glanced at the ceiling, “would it be alright if she stays on board tonight? I don’t think I can drag her back to her dorm.”
Of course, said ART in its least sarcastic tone that it never uses with me. SecUnit can take her to her room. You are welcome to stay as well.
“Thank you both, I may have to take you up on that if the team doesn’t wrap things up soon.” She looked mildly exasperated by the group’s antics (they were currently playing some game that involved throwing a lightweight ball at a collection of cups and seemed to be missing spectacularly). But she also looked happy which made me feel a little melty.
Mensah headed back to the group so I picked up Amena (it was kind of like dealing with an injured client, but without the trauma, so I wasn’t too freaked out). ART highlighted a route on its schematics and I headed towards her room.
I got Amena all the way to her bed without waking her (it seems like a safety risk to be able to sleep through that, but most adolescent behavior is a safety risk, so I guess this is no worse). I would have made it out of the room easily, but ART insisted it print a new blanket for her. I grabbed the blanket from the recycler and awkwardly placed it over her. I was nearly to the door when she finally stirred.
“G’night third mom” she grumbled.
“Um, good night?” I replied.
“Mmm, love you” she slurred before rolling over and audibly snoring.
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So yeah, that was a little bit weird, but it was made ten times worse by the way ART absolutely recoiled in our feed. I’ve said some terrible shit to ART in the past and not gotten a reaction like that. I wasn’t sure I had the energy to talk about whatever that was right now, so I did what I do best and ignored it. Thankfully ART seemed to get ahold of itself after a few seconds and settled back into my feed a bit farther away than before.
Perhaps we should encourage the remaining humans to start what is left of their rest period as well.
That sounded like a good idea so I pinged an acknowledgment and headed back to the lounge to try to wrangle our humans.