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It was supposed to be a normal day for Cyn.
Boring.
I woke up at seven in the morning as usual, listened to J’s complaints about how she gets stuck in the middle with Cyn and V.
I hate her.
She picked up the empty laundry basket she’d left by the door yesterday, she went out and, limping, set off to do her job, but not her usual job at the bar or cleaning rooms as always, but the one she’d planned by destroying two worker drones. She didn’t regret destroying and eating them, because they weren’t intelligent, and besides, she needed the oil.
They should have destroyed more.
And yet she wouldn't have been as happy if, last night, Tessa had declined to come for tea today.
A waste of time.
Since their room with the charger is just down the hall from Tessa’s room, Cyn quickly (for her condition) makes her way to the large door of Tessa’s bedroom.
Cyn slowly and quietly opened the door, and from the hallway she could already see Tessa sleeping peacefully, curled up.
After she stepped inside and quietly closed the door behind her, she looked once more at the sleeping figure and smiled at her.
A moment later, she stopped smiling and, as quietly as she could, hobbled off to the bathroom.
It was creepy even for me.
Cyn paid no attention to the obviously deceptive thoughts in her head.
Upon entering the bathroom and carefully closing the door behind her, she immediately set her sights on her target. A basket full of clothes or, to be more specific, almost all of the clothes were black dresses in various states of soiling; the same went for the underwear and a couple of aprons for working on machinery.
One dress was covered in grease and drone oil, another in mud, and yet another in some kind of paint; Cyn counted a total of six dresses.
After quickly switching the baskets, Cyn left the bathroom and headed for the exit.
As she walked, Cyn wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings, so she didn’t notice that Tessa was no longer in bed.
To her surprise, she was suddenly stopped and pulled into an embrace.
When her face was already at the crook of the person’s neck, she realized it was Tessa, who, in addition to hugging her, began to caress Cyn’s back and the back of her head, so she immediately relaxed and began to enjoy it.
Cyn closed her eyes, and involuntarily her core began to purr, but she held it back so it was very quiet, so the person hugging her wouldn’t hear.
A couple of minutes later, Tessa pulled away from the embrace and immediately placed her hands on Cyn’s cheeks. “Good morning, Cyn.” she said in a slightly sleepy voice.
Cyn was already pretty good at reading people’s emotions, so it wasn’t hard for her to tell that Tessa was happy to see her.
“*A joyful smile*. Good morning, Tessa. *An interested tone*. How did you sleep? *A question mark*.” Cyn said softly, bringing her head closer to Tessa’s warm hands. Out of the corner of her eye, and thanks to the short sleeves of her pajamas she noticed an unhealed mark from a chain on Tessa’s wrist.
Tessa, still sleepy, smiled gently and replied “I slept well, Cyn.” As she said this, she stroked the drone’s cheeks; when she pulled away and stood up, she stroked the drone’s hair once more and said briefly “See you later today.” And with that, she headed for the bathroom.
Without wasting any more time, Cyn walked to the door leading into the hallway.
When she closed the door behind her, she headed for the laundry room.
Disgusting… I don’t have a mouth, but I feel like throwing up.
Shut up and don’t go quoting “Harlan Ellison” to me here.
Cyn flinched slightly at the sensation of her “eyes” rolling back.
The walk to the laundry room took a while, because not only was it one of the farthest rooms, but Cyn’s irreversible code state also affected the way she walked.
Still, she made it to the laundry room in fifteen minutes.
We could have just teleported.
There’s no need to waste these abilities.
So she placed the basket on the counter so that the drone assigned to the laundry room could pick it up and do its job.
And to save time, she sat down on the nearest chair that had access to a power outlet for charging, but Cyn didn’t want to recharge because she’d had a bad experience when she’d used that charger right there the darn charger had gotten wet, and she’d gotten an electric shock, so Tessi had to fix it…
We didn’t need her help, we have this thing called regeneration.
But to Cyn’s delight, Tessa as a gesture of goodwill and with Cyn’s consent installed about a dozen classic games on her, and much to Tessa’s horror, the one Cyn liked the most was “Flappy Bird”…
I hate that monstrosity they call a game.
Shut up! (ò∆ó)
Cyn sensed that it had become angry, but she knew it wouldn’t harm her, because there was a window nearby with direct sunlight streaming in, and Cyn wouldn’t hesitate to use that to inflict pain on both this creature and herself.
She saw the ping-pong game, which had also been installed on her start up.
And in addition to the sounds from “Flappy Bird,” she could now hear the pixelated sounds of impacts and see the game itself, but despite this, she smiled triumphantly, and Cyn refocused on her game and her thoughts.
And yet, despite the horror, Tessa still praised Cyn for customizing the game to suit herself; Cyn was happy to receive that praise, and now that memory brings a pleasant warmth to her core.
Two hours passed, and just as Cyn broke her record in “Flappy Bird,” she heard the basket of clothes being placed on the counter.
Cyn paused the game, stood up immediately, and walked over to the counter.
Glancing briefly at the basket, she noticed that the clothes had been neatly folded, as if by a robot.
Leaving the laundry room, Cyn, instead of going back to Tessa’s room, walked down the hallway leading to the library.
Cyn noticed that the ping-pong game had turned off, and she felt that it had drawn her attention.
Although it took some time to get to the library, there was no one there except for a dozen or so working drones.
As soon as she crossed the threshold, she kept walking down the hallway, ignoring everything in the aisles between the shelves.
As soon as she turned the corner past the last bookshelf, she paused for a second, her gaze fixed on the back of a familiar drone, N.
N was calmly and quietly sweeping the floor next to the hatch Cyn wanted to reach.
Cyn quietly approached N, and when she was a couple of steps away from him, she said in her usual monotonous, glitchy voice “Hi. Big brother. N.”
N yelped in surprise, but to his credit, this time he didn’t jump a meter into the air like he did last time.
N turned around and replied with a nervous smile “H-hey, Cyn, you scared me, but how are you, buddy?”
Cyn tilted her head slightly and smiled. “*Giggle*. *Head tilt*. *Smile*. I’m fine, Big Brother N. *Intrigued tone*. How about you, Big Brother N? *Question mark*.”
“I’m fine, too…” he says cheerfully. “So what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to take these clothes to Tessa?” As he says this, he points to the basket of clothes, and his digital eyebrow raises.
Cyn’s monotonous, glitchy voice hadn’t changed, but somehow it had become more indifferent. “I’ll take it. But first, I’m going to talk to the voice in my head.”
N gave a nervous chuckle but said calmly “You and your wild ideas. But seriously, don’t take too long it’ll be bad if they see you, Mr. or Ms. Elliott.”
Cyn nodded as best she could and quickly said “I understand.” Then she walked over to the hatch, but just as she reached it and was about to open it herself, N stopped her, quickly opened it, and held it open for Cyn to go inside.
As Cyn climbed down, she heard N say “Should I hold the hatch open so you can see? Or should I just close it like always and hope you’ll find that lightbulb on your own in the dark?”
Without turning her head, Cyn replied “*Indifferent tone*. It’s fine.”
“All right.” Then she heard the hatch close, and Cyn was left in the dark.
Cyn took a step into the darkness. She heard the sound of a small device powering on, and Cyn realized that the Absolute Solver had connected to the cameras and claws that were there. There was no next step, but she heard dozens of little feet begin to tap on the floorboards.
And at that moment, the light came on; it was dim, so Cyn didn’t squint from the sudden transition from darkness to light, She saw a room filled with dead drones that had been used in experiments; she also noticed a camera pointing at her, and in the center of the room, she saw a claw clinging to a cord that was still connected to the light bulb.
Cyn’s first reaction was to simply growl at the camera through which the Absolute Solver was watching her. It knew that Cyn didn’t like the abrupt removal of holograms.
And as she did so, it rolled the camera’s eye in response to Cyn’s growl.
“Yes, yes, growl like an animal…” came a mocking tone from the camera’s speaker.
Using the Solver’s abilities, Cyn moved Tessa’s laundry basket to the corner of the room, since it was the cleanest spot in the room.
A mechanical laugh rang out, followed by words in a familiar, malicious tone “There’s a month left until the Gala Evening, and then we can put the plan into action…” Immediately after these words, a sharp manipulator tore the drone’s body on the table in half to be more precise, J’s body.
Cyn had long since grown accustomed to seeing the bodies of familiar drones here, but she still felt great pity for J, because J’s bodies were the most numerous here, and she had endured the most brutal experiments.
A sharp tentacle pierced right through yet another of J’s bodies, torn in half, and lifted her into the air.
“I can’t wait to see the sheer horror on their faces when I kill their friends and relatives and rip out their guts…” He continues his monologue.
Cyn isn’t listening. Well, not exactly it’s just background noise to her, so she hears it all, but she’ll pay attention if he says something new.
Cyn’s thoughts were similar to the Absolute Solver’s monologue.
Cyn wasn’t interested in the fact that it wanted to destroy the entire universe—and possibly even more because she simply didn’t care.
Instead of all those gloomy thoughts, Cyn decided to think about how today’s tea party with Tessa would go.
Cyn imagined how she would calmly arrive as a hologram so as not to startle Tessa with her true form.
How she’ll leave the basket of clothes in the closet.
How Tessa will give her a gentle hug.
How Cyn will finally drink her tea substitute instead of spilling it on herself or the floor again.
How they’ll play with dolls.
How Tessa will help her walk around the room without the difficulties caused by her condition.
How Tessa…
How…
H-how…
Cyn stopped imagining how the tea party would go.
Her gaze was vacant.
She stared straight ahead at the dirty wooden wall.
She came to one obvious conclusion.
Tessa is human.
And the Absolute Decider’s goal is to destroy the universe, and it has repeatedly said that it will destroy this planet and all its inhabitants.
Cyn should have been angry, but she didn’t let herself get that way, because if she had, it would have drawn the Absolute Decider’s attention.
Her eyes returned to normal, and a faint smile slowly appeared on her face. She slowly turned her head toward the Absolute Decider.
Cyn saw that it was doing something to V’s severed head. She noticed that flesh had begun to grow back on the severed head, but Cyn didn’t care.
Cyn began to crawl, and dozens of legs began to tap rhythmically against the floor.
She stopped a step away from the camera and, tilting her head to the side, said “*Tilt of the head*. *Disgusted expression*. Disgusting.” She wasn’t watching what he was doing; her gaze was fixed on the camera.
The Absolute Solver ended his monologue and let out a heavy sigh, which was distorted by the camera’s speaker.
The camera turned back to Cyn, and the metal petals that served as her eyebrows narrowed in a sullen, irritated manner, and an exasperated “What?” rang out.
Cyn lifted her head. “I have a question. What will happen to Tessa? *Question mark*.”
The metal petals slowly but sharply shifted from their position, forming what could be interpreted as a broad smile. That alone would have provoked Cyn’s anger right then, had she not been suppressing her emotions.
“It’s all pretty simple here. Cyn, you wanted to look like her, didn’t you?” Despite the camera’s speaker distorting the voice, it sounded overly complicated despite the tone, it was clearly not a question but a statement of fact.
Without giving Cyn a chance to answer, he continued speaking, but in a livelier tone “You know, it’s pretty easy to do. Thanks to my powers, all we need to do is will your bodies to merge her hair will become yours, her flesh will become yours, her organs, skin, and bones will be yours. Yes, it’ll be quite noticeable, because your metal body will be the primary one, but despite that, you’ll be able to control the flesh… And so her ‘self’ won’t disappear anywhere; we’ll need to do something to prevent her from having access to the body and to keep her from vanishing.”
Cyn pretended to mull it over for a couple of agonizingly long seconds, and then she tilted her head to one side and smiled broadly. “*Tilt of the head*. *Broad smile*. Sounds good.”
For a few seconds, the Absolute Solver’s gaze lingered on Cyn, and as soon as he returned to what he had been working on and as soon as Cyn also sensed that his attention was no longer focused on her she stopped smiling.
She wasn’t paying attention to what was happening around her right now, because her attention was fixed on the directory of files, but her attention was focused on one specific directory simply named “Random-files,” which, incidentally, was one of the oldest directories she had created after meeting Tessa.
Upon opening the directory, she had no trouble finding another one labeled quite simply “All-antivirus” opening it, Cyn saw nearly a hundred excellent antivirus programs.
Cyn remembered when she and Tessa had installed them she would have liked to dwell on those memories right then, but the timing was completely wrong.
She selected about a dozen other programs and configured them to activate whenever she manually activated one particular antivirus program.
She looked at the antivirus program Tessa had created, with the utterly ordinary name “blen-drrrrrrr.”
Her attention shifted to the real world, and she realized that the severed head was still doing something and continuing its monologue about destroying everything.
Cyn stopped holding back her emotions because she had launched the antivirus she sensed that her program had begun to absorb the Absolute Solver very quickly, causing him to halt all his actions and appear visibly flustered.
“*Giggle*” was all Cyn managed to say.
The camera slowly turned toward her, and, looking at Cyn suspiciously, he asked “Why are you giving me control?”
Cyn laughed somewhat maniacally, and, turning her head to the side, she smiled broadly. “*Giggle*. Antivirus programs. It’s fun.”
Immediately after her reply, the Absolute Solver was so deeply drawn into the system that the antivirus “blen-drrrrrrr” began performing its primary function, thereby living up to its name.
The Absolute Solver felt the antivirus programs begin to destroy him; he tried to stop it, to escape from Cyn’s body, but nothing helped, and with every passing moment he felt his code being torn apart, erased, and destroyed.
At the same time, he felt incredible pain; he tried to direct his power toward Cyn’s body to tear her apart, but when he did, nothing happened.
Instead, Cyn raised her hand upward, and a resolver appeared there; it was yellow as always, but it flickered and turned pure white the same color as her display, which had also been yellow just a moment ago.
But Cyn didn’t do anything with the detacher, she just watched as the camera and all the claws writhed in pain. Her broad smile never changed because she always smiles that widely but what did change was her gaze, which made it clear she was mocking him.
First, one claw clenched and exploded with a muffled bang inside itself; then another, and another, and another…
The camera looked at Cyn one last time, and from the camera’s speaker came what was meant to be words, but due to the speaker itself and the pain, it came out as a growl filled with malice.
But despite that, Cyn understood it, because she heard in her head the single word “Traitor…” which was filled with such venom and malice that she had never felt from him before. And yet, Cyn liked it.
The camera dropped, curling in on itself like a claw as before, but instead of a muffled explosion, a muffled sound rang out. The camera and the claw to which it was attached absorbed the pulsating singularity, and immediately a white dissolver appeared around it, which contracted and, with a muffled sound, destroyed the singularity.
And so Cyn found herself alone in the deathly silent basement.
And yet, Cyn savored this silence not only the silence of the real world, but also the silence within her own mind.
And yet, no matter how much she was enjoying it, she couldn’t ignore the pop-up message in the corner of her vision about removing the virus and the recommendation to restart the system; she ignored the latter and put it off for later.
She raised her hand again, and once more the Solver icon appeared.
Since Cyn knew what was required for stable use of the solver, it wasn’t particularly difficult for her to mark the files that needed to be saved; still, she was surprised that the whole experience exceeded her expectations, especially her expectations of “blen-drrrrrrr,” which was surprisingly effective.
So she can let her mind wander a bit into her memories…
-------------------------------------------------------
It was the first month since Tessa had pulled her out of the trash.
They were sitting at the table in Tessa’s workshop; since Cyn knows very little about her own body, Tessa is helping her with that.
Right now, after talking about antivirus software and why it’s needed, Tessa was flipping through documents on a laptop which she’d also pulled out of the trash looking for anything she might have missed.
Since everything was quiet except for the click of the mouse wheel and Tessa’s steady breathing, Cyn, sitting on Tessa’s lap, was simply savoring this moment when the Absolute Solver was silent and not paying attention, while she was nestled in a warm, cozy embrace, savoring Tessa’s warmth and heartbeat and the quiet rhythm of her breathing.
Until Tessa closed the documents and turned her attention to the drone sitting on her lap.
And now Tessa wrapped her other arm around Cyn, and she murmured affectionately, loud enough to be heard “Well, Cyn, do you want to rest, or shall we move on to installing some antivirus software?”
Cyn paused for a moment, savoring the situation she found herself in, but replied “*Cheerful tone*. We can continue.”
Tessa held Cyn in her arms a little longer until she reached for the mouse again with her right hand, opening one of the many folders on the desktop. Cyn noticed many different directories containing antivirus software for various purposes.
Before doing anything with the folders, Tessa unplugged the cable from the port on the right side of the laptop, and Cyn understood without a word what needed to be done, so she held out her right hand.
Tessa immediately plugged the cable in and, with a couple of commands, copied the files and transferred them to Cyn.
While the files were transferring, Tessa began tapping her fingers on the table as she thought something over.
Cyn was still learning to read people’s emotions, so she couldn’t tell if it was uncertainty or nervousness.
As soon as the process finished, Tessa stopped tapping her fingers.
After a few seconds of silence, Tessa finally said “The download is complete, so how are you feeling?”
“*Giggle*. I’m fine,” Cyn replied immediately.
“I see…” Tessa muttered before continuing in the authoritative voice she’d used just a couple of minutes ago when talking about antivirus software. “So, since you’ve memorized everything, the necessary antivirus programs have been transferred to you, and you, Cyn, will study them when you have time?” To which Cyn nodded at every word, nodding especially vigorously at the last ones.
Tessa nodded slightly and patted Cyn on the head before saying, with a hint of hesitation and shyness “So, since everything’s done… I recently wrote an antivirus program it’s been tested, and it lives up to its name.”
As she savored Cyn’s affection, she almost purred the following words “*Intrigued tone*. So what’s it called? *Question mark*.”
“‘blen-drrrrrrr’...” Tessa said quickly without looking at the drone, then continued at a normal pace, “I wrote down what it does in a small text file. But to be honest, it’s kind of pointless because it doesn’t actually do anything useful. It just gives the illusion that the virus now has access to the entire system and can do whatever it wants, but in reality, it’s just an illusion that can be exposed pretty quickly.”
Tessa, still stroking Cyn’s hair, continued “As I said, it lives up to its name because it just goes and scrambles the virus’s code, but even basic viruses can detect this pretty easily because it literally interacts with their code.”
“I don’t mind.” Cyn said, almost sleepily.
“Really?” Tessa asked quietly.
Cyn grabbed her head and nodded. “*Affirmative nod*”
Tessa hugged the drone tightly, and Cyn just wanted to fall asleep right there on the spot.
-------------------------------------------------------
Cyn stopped the replay of her memories.
The light flickered, and Cyn now looked like an ordinary drone holding a basket of clothes.
“Time for tea.” she said to herself.
She glanced back at the hatch, knowing that N had already gone to clean another area and that no one was nearby. Using the Solver, Cyn turned off the lights and teleported so she wouldn’t have to climb the stairs and open the hatch herself.
Glancing around the library, she started to walk away, but stopped abruptly. Cyn let out a quiet groan, realizing that the trip to Tessa’s room would take even longer.
Cyn groaned and flashed. “*Muttering* All right…”
In the shared room of J, V, and Cyn, a figure appeared in the darkness; the light emanating from her cut through the gloom. “*Disapproving tone* It’s too dark in here.”
After Cyn left the room, she calmly hobbled over to Tessa’s room.
This time, having arrived more quickly, Cyn knocked on the door three times and heard a muffled “Open!” After those words, she immediately opened the door and stepped inside.
After Cyn closed the door behind her, she glanced at Tessa, who was setting out a medium-sized porcelain teapot.
Cyn hobbled briskly to the closet to quickly and neatly arrange the clothes there.
As soon as she opened the closet door, she stepped inside, turned on the light, and set the basket on the floor.
Just as she reached for the clothes, a familiar hand stopped hers.
Cyn didn’t let on that she was surprised, since she hadn’t noticed Tessa approaching her so quickly and quietly.
Cyn looked over her shoulder and saw that Tessa was smiling gently at her; she pulled the drone closer and reached into the basket.
Cyn’s gaze followed the movement of her hand, and the first thing she saw was that Tessa had simply started tossing her clothes onto various shelves.
Meanwhile, Cyn’s screen displayed an old image with the word {Bro…} which Tessa didn’t even notice.
As soon as Tessa finished “sorting” she tossed the empty basket outside the door and, without pausing, lifted Cyn under her armpits.
This made Cyn yelp in surprise, and she immediately removed the image from the display.
As soon as Tessa had fully lifted the drone, she skillfully turned it to face her; she pulled it toward her, and Cyn immediately wrapped her arms around its neck while Tessa began to hold the drone more securely, half-embracing it.
“You could have left your clothes by the table so I could put them away myself later, sweetie,” she whispered into the drone’s audio system.
Cyn didn’t answer, but simply rested her head on Tessa’s shoulder, causing Tessa to chuckle softly.
Tessa turned off the light, and as she stepped out of the closet, she closed the door with her foot and strode over to the small table she’d set up.
As soon as Tessa sat Cyn down on the chair, she immediately ruffled her hair gently and, striding briskly back to her seat, kept her eyes fixed on the drone. “So, a redesign? Different eye color?” she asked warmly.
Without a moment’s hesitation, after fixing her hair, Cyn put her hand to her head and nodded. “*An affirmative nod* A change of perspective. Life.”
Tessa nodded and immediately sat down, pulling herself closer to the table, Cyn followed suit.
Tessa skillfully and quickly poured the tea substitute into Cyn’s cup and then into her own.
“*Smile* Thanks for the tea.” Cyn said before picking up her cup. She lifted the cup and brought it to her mouth… brought it even closer… and even closer still, and only then did she part her lips slightly and tilt the cup a little, letting the liquid flow into her mouth.
As soon as she set the cup down on the saucer, she was ready to jump for joy, because she’d managed to drink her tea substitute without any trouble!
Cyn looked at the cup and saw that there was now at most ten milliliters left… “Progress is progress” she said to herself.
She looked up at Tessa and saw that she was looking at her, smiling warmly with a hint of pride.
Despite the way Tessa was looking at Cyn, she knew that those three hours had been difficult for her… as always.
“*Tilting her head* So. How was your morning? *Question mark*” Tilting her head to one side, Cyn simply looked into the girl’s eyes.
Tessa had already opened her mouth to answer, but when she looked into Cyn’s eyes, she closed her mouth and then sighed. Resting her chin on her palm, she continued to look at the drone with a slight smile and said “To be honest, not as bad as it could have been.”
Cyn was only now beginning to understand.
“The worst part was my search for that tea substitute. I still have no idea why my parents kept it.” Tessa looked at her cup of tea. “Because, knowing them, they can’t stand that kind of thing. You know how they feel about you, and yet they keep tea that both humans and drones can drink.” She picked up her cup and drank it all in one gulp.
Cyn wants to show Tessa what she really looks like and then give her a hug.
Holding the empty cup, she looked up at Cyn. “Well, the time with them went by pretty quietly. Though I did hear a few things, they talk openly about everything so I’ve got some dirt on them again, but again, no proof, so basically I don’t have anything on them.” She set the cup down and smiled slightly. “How was your day?”
Cyn had been staring impassively at Tessa the whole time, and when asked the question, she answered immediately “I broke my record. At Flappy Bird. *Joyful smile*”
Cyn wanted to drop everything, flip this table over, and just walk over to Tessa and hug her.
Tessa grimaced as if she’d eaten something sour and muttered, “I’m still amazed you found the damn original version of that game, it's been over a thousand years since it was taken down.”
Cyn smiled at that. “I have my ways.”
Tessa rolled her eyes and gave a sly smile. “And I wonder who taught you how to hack the network and stay under the radar online.”
‘Mom taught me, please don’t leave me.’ Cyn wanted to say that, but she didn’t.
Tessa leaned back in her chair and asked, “So, what should we do?” She stretched. “Dolls? Dancing? Or do you want to learn something?”
Cyn looked away and frowned, torn between her desires and her rationality.
Tessa raised an eyebrow at this but remained silent, waiting for an answer.
Cyn looked at Tessa somewhat nervously. “*Hesitantly* Can I give you a real hug?”
Surprised by that choice of words, Tessa raised an eyebrow, but without paying it much mind, she lifted her chair and sat back, then with a slight smile, she opened her arms for a hug.
Cyn slowly stood up from her chair and walked just as slowly toward Tessa, looking down at her feet as she wondered if she was doing the right thing.
When she stood in front of the girl, Cyn still didn’t look up, so Tessa asked quietly, with a hint of concern in her voice. “Is something wrong, sweetie?”
Cyn looked into Tessa’s eyes and said. “Please, don’t be afraid.”
Tessa raised an eyebrow at this, but couldn’t say anything because, unexpectedly, Cyn wrapped her arms around Tessa’s neck.
Tessa immediately returned the hug, but when the moment passed, she wondered how a drone could hug her like that, since Cyn was so small… but her further thoughts were interrupted when Tessa was pulled upward.
Caught off guard, Tessa closed her eyes and let out a squeak, then pulled the drone closer to her. After that, she felt Cyn start to purr?!
She opened her eyes and slowly looked down; the first thing she noticed was Cyn’s head, which was resting against the curve of her neck. Then her gaze shifted to the rest of the drone’s body, and her eyes widened at the sight of Cyn’s lower half it looked like a long centipede?
Tessa couldn’t say for sure if it was actually a centipede, but it was obvious that it was long, with countless claws serving as legs, and it was slowly but purposefully wrapping itself around her body!
“But nothing bad will happen, right!?” Tessa thought. “After all, Cyn herself asked me not to be scared, but how can I not be scared!?”
“Mom.” Cyn whispered softly into Tessa’s shoulder.
Tessa didn’t know how to react, so she simply pulled the drone even closer to her and began stroking Cyn’s back in circular motions.
This went on for a couple of dozen minutes until there was a knock at the door, it opened, and the trio of drones N, V, and J came into view.
At first, Tessa panicked, but when she saw who it was, her panic subsided. However, the next moment she realized who it was and began to panic inside again but for a different reason.
The three drones at the door stood rooted to the spot, their mouths agape at the sight, and their digital eyes went blank.
Before they could say a word, some yellow glyphs appeared around them a second time and pulled them inside, and the door closed quietly and smoothly.
As the trio flew away, they didn’t have time to scream, because they had already flown into Cyn’s embrace.
“Hug,” Cyn simply said.
The three drones' gaze darted toward the top of the Cyn, which was still embracing Tessa.
V and J both gaped and muttered, “What the-”