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At AzerTech, all employees receive three days off each month, beating the industry average by zero-point-seven days, as proudly advertised on their recruitment pamphlets. This benefit applies to all employees, even the less-than-voluntary ones, such as the Android workforce: Humans who'd had their identity replaced with a new, more corporate-friendly personality. Even the drones got their days off, as new hires often joked. And the drones did indeed get time off, though only upper management knew what they got up to. Well... upper management and the drones themselves, of course. - - - LI-EF04 sat, kneeling in the center of the room. The carpet kept her knees from bruising on the floor, though bruises were only cosmetic. Her system only emulated pain when directed, and the worst the floor could do was trigger a few diagnostic warnings. Her arms hung loose against her sides, relatively short against her torso. She wore a fitted white blouse, a black skirt just long enough to avoid accusations of being a mini skirt, and white stockings that stopped just above her aluminum-alloy knees. The skirt was artfully splayed around her, a trick she'd learned from the one who'd given it to her. The senior executives at AzerTech were known to pick favorites among the drones, and Miss Alyth had gifted LI-EF04 a fairly substantial wardrobe over the years.She felt a hand ruffle her hair from behind, carefully smoothing it back down after it finished. The hand belonged to DY-9A9E, affectionately known as Nines by the group gathered in the unused conference room. Nines' hand retreated as he knelt beside her. He was much larger than her, having been a taller-than-average woman before being overwritten. Unlike Nines, who had a lot of visible cybernetics, LI-EF04 was designed to be as human-like as possible to appeal to customers and investors. Her design had landed past the uncanny valley in terms of likeness, though she had been modeled more towards the engineer's ideal secretary than an actual human. The other Logistics Drone in the room, LI-A2F6 or Lia, suffered a similar fate regarding body type, though Miss Alyth had seen fit to grace her with slightly more covering clothing.Nines twisted LI-EF04's head towards his own and grinned. "You ready, Leaf? I'm pretty excited to see if this new version will work."The new version he was referring to was an override script designed to lock a drone out of its movement systems. Since their last meeting, Nines had refined the script, allowing the drone to speak and retain facial movements. He'd been bragging about it incessantly since he arrived, much to Leaf and Lia's chagrin.Leaf had refrained from moving for the past fifteen minutes, but she let her mask drift into a pout as she whined, "I still don't see why Lia can't test it out. You've made me do it three times in a row."EL-1454 (El, preferably) spoke up from where El leaned against the wall, "It's 'cause Lia never lasts as long."An indignant squeak came from the couch as Leaf's focus drifted away from Nines and toward El. El's adornments were the simplest in the room, consisting of only a dark grey latex bodysuit, black gloves, and a black cloth blindfold. El was a security android. The network used El's neural tissue to process the security footage produced by the tens of thousands of cameras coating the corporate campus they lived in. The blindfold was partly to keep El's brain from wasting time trying to see and partly because the team in charge of security liked the blind-saint aesthetic. Instead of eyes, El used security cameras to see. There weren't many blind spots on the campus, and the network could see through its drone eyes in a pinch.The other two people in the room sat on the arm of the couch, one in the other's lap. YC-2D7F referred to as 7F by others, was a courier bot. Its little body had an intelligence core strong enough to give it baseline sentience, though it acted more like a trained dog than a human. The courier bot was one of the premier services AzerTech provided, a fleet of flying machines capable of carrying up to five hundred kilograms (for a maximum of two minutes, but they don't advertise that part). 7F was one of the smaller models, small enough to rest on the lap of CH-1F03.Chi was officially marketed as a companion android. The pair belonged to Miss Alyth, although neither saw frequent use. Where Leaf and Lia's bodies were modeled after the ideal secretary, Chi had much more freedom regarding their appearance. The material making up their face, chest, and waist was malleable at the high temperatures the heating element in their hands could generate. They could sculpt themselves upon request, though they idled in the most androgynous form the inner components allowed. Leaf had asked them about it once, and Chi had related the disgust they felt about every aspect of their existence. This seemed odd to Leaf, who enjoyed her job very much. She supposed it was an android thing. The overwriting process was rarely perfect, and most androids retained at least some of their original personalities after the fact.While Leaf was busy staring into El's lack of eyes, Nine had reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a data stick. It was 6.5 centimeters long, with three rounded sides and a circular connector on one end. Nines could download and execute code directly onto Leaf through touch or their shared network, but he preferred "the more old-school approach," as he liked to say. Leaf and Lia also thought he appreciated the anticipation caused by the drive's slow throughput.Waving the stick before her as you would a treat before a dog, he purred, "Are you going to be a good little drone and override your firewall, or are you going to be a brat and struggle?"Leaf shook her head, eyes going to the floor. Fighting the virus wouldn't work, of course, but it would set the tone for the evening going forward, and Leaf wasn't in the mood to play at resistance."Such a good little doll," he said in a tone that would have made Leaf shiver if she hadn't been Trying Very Hard to hold still.Nines reached behind her and slotted it into her data port. She felt a rush of sensation and awareness as her systems interfaced with the device- a subroutine in place to make sure no one surreptitiously attached something to her. She overrode as many safeties as possible, letting the barely aware virus rush over her. It ran through her mind, causing minimal damage on its way to its real destination: Her artificial skeleton and the machines that controlled it. The program tacitly avoided any actually protected areas of Leaf's processors. There were a few hardcoded sectors in every AzerTech drone that the company didn't want visible to the general public. Leaf was very pleased to have a protective sabotage system function installed but less so about the actuality of activating it.Nines and El maneuvered Leaf so she was sitting facing the large screen on one wall. After being set down, she could see the screen but only see the others if she turned her head as far as the Nines' freeze allowed. After finishing with Leaf, Nines and El set their sights on Lia. Leaf could feel her friend's face light up red as the two androids sat on either side of her. Chi remained in their spot on an arm of the couch, though 7F flew off of them and onto a table that had been pushed against the wall where it would idle for the rest of the night. 7F preferred to stay in the vicinity of at least one of Miss Alyth's androids at all times. The little drone seemed to get anxious without supervision.The four on the couch got to the night's main event: The game they would be playing. Ordinarily, it was decided whether El or Nines got to the console first. Usually, Nines got to choose, but El could put up a fight. If Leaf or Lia wanted to choose, they had to beg Nines beforehand. Chi never raced the others, but every once in a while, they showed up with a super-hard-to-get licensed game, and on those occasions, there wasn't any fighting. Nines generally picked out competitive fighting games, while El still preferred competitive games, but rathered they fight to be the best, rather than the last person standing. The drones always wanted to play cooperative games and were indulged on occasion.At the moment, they were both being indulged, though not regarding game choice. El had beaten Nines to it and had loaded up an old racing game. In revenge, Nines had pulled Lia away from El, hauling the drone onto his lap. From what Leaf could see over her shoulder, Lia was staring fixedly at the floor and trying not to squirm. The program holding her joints hostage took the opportunity to remind Leaf about holding still. Her head snapped back forward, and her posture was corrected against her will.Oh.Nines had made an immobilizing hack that didn't bother to immobilize her.Ah, she thought, that's why he was so excited to try this variation out."You enjoying yourself, doll?" came an annoyingly pleased voice from behind her.Answering El's silent query, Nines added, "My new toy doesn't make her stay still. It just provides... incentives to do so yourself. First, it'll start with a few reminders, then move on to more invasive punishments."The meanie was probably smiling ear to ear, Leaf thought. - - - "Aha, take that, you slowpokes!" Nines' triumphant shout received a grumble from Chi and a sigh from El.The first race ended with Nines finishing first, beating Chi by a few hundredths of a second because Lia had crashed into them earlier. El had been dead last for the first two-thirds of the race, only to burst from behind using the special abilities El had collected. Lia had finished fourth, predictably, though she'd still finished long before any of the humans in their online lobby. Interfacing directly with the game console had some advantages, after all.Leaf had held still to the best of her ability, only moving once when El had placed a booted foot against her back. It wasn't her fault, pressure on her back caused her to twitch forward. That was one of the many 'humanizing' additions AzerTech had included in her design. Nines' 'little toy' hadn't been sympathetic, though, and she'd spent most of the race experiencing the digital equivalent of being berated to tears. Nevertheless, she'd managed to hold since then."Luck!" declared Chi exasperatedly."Have you considered that I am simply better than you?" Nines shot back."If by better, you mean happened to dodge four consecutive luck-based items and won despite Chi and myself being better than you, you be correct." El snapped, clearly getting competitive."Dodging luck-based items is a skill, I'll have you know."While the two bickered, Lia apologized to Chi, "I'm sorry I crashed into you.""It's not your fault I lost," Chi answered. My connection glitched at the last second," a pause, "I thought we agreed to leave tricks out of this. Nines."There was a silence that lasted long enough for Leaf to render a 3d model of Nines' sheepish face down to 0.0001-millimeter precision before the accused let out an embarrassed apology."I still get first choice, though," he insisted, standing up.He moved over to where Leaf was still sitting, frozen. In front of her field of view, he shook a matte black plastic bowl containing about a dozen more data sticks. Leaf couldn't distinguish what was in them; her low-level sensors failed to differentiate between the overlapping drives. She did get a sense of frivolous levity as if the constructs weren't taking each other very seriously. Nines dipped a hand into the bowl. He made a show of swirling his fingers around, stirring up all the sticks before finally grasping one. He raised it in front of her eyes and wiggled it, taking visible pleasure from the way Leaf's simulated eyes dilated slightly at the sight."What do you think this one does, little leaf? I put most of mine into the middle, but maybe this toy is one of El's."He leaned in and whispered, "Let's find out, shall we?"The rush of sensation from the drive's insertion was coupled with what remained of her walls being torn down. The movement restrictor had been content to prop the digital doors open for late guests, but this new intruder ripped up the carpet and tore the wallpaper on the way to Leaf's throat. Though her mask often idled with emoticons resembling a human's face, she didn't have a real mouth. Instead, her voice was generated by a speaker inside her neck. The construct settling in her vocal system didn't seem to be doing anything immediately, but Leaf could feel it sitting there, waiting for a chance to pounce.Nines' head was tilted on one side, apparently unable to tell what had affected her, "So, which one is it, doll?""Yeah, are you alright?" Lia chimed in."I-ahh... I think i-its a voice thing." Leaf squeaked out.Her voice was suddenly much higher pitched, almost breathless, compared to her normal speaking range. Even that simple sentence had her speaker drawing quintuple its ordinary power range. Her subdermal vents started sucking in more air to cool her core, and all her other systems were throttled lower to balance the new energy requirements. All that extra energy was rerouted to feed the metaphorical cat that had her tongue. The most recent construct rested there, gleefully hoarding energy Leaf could be using for important things, like Staying Still. She still had plenty of energy, and her reserves were overly substantial considering her role in the company, but she would be much slower at resource-intensive operations."Ah, that one's mine," El noted, "It induces an energy leak in your vocal system. I wouldn't talk much, that'll make it worse.""Boring," complained Chi, and, as much as she hated to, Leaf had to disagree.Being almost unable to talk was just as crippling to her as being unable to access the network would be for El or being unable to fly for 7F. Her sole purpose was translating data from the network for AzerTech executives, and without her voice, she couldn't do her job. The androids probably thought she'd gotten off easy, but the concerned digital prodding she was getting from Lia told her that the other drone knew just how intensely humiliating this was for her. She was experienced with being unable to move, stillness being the main requirement of her employment, but lacking speech meant she couldn't be *useful*, and the thought led her emotion subsystem to produce a burning, sticky feeling that wasn't strictly unpleasant but certainly didn't feel the best.She'd discussed the issue with other drones, Lia included, that androids never quite understood them. It made her sad, so far as she could feel sad—disappointment at a lack of efficiency was about as close as she could get—but Nines and the rest never treated her exactly like a person. They acknowledged her sentience, her sapience, even, but she was useful before any other adjective, which was noticeable. She didn't mind, of course. She couldn't mind, even if she wanted to, and Leaf firmly believed it was better to want the things that were going to happen to you regardless. She just wished to be treated with the humanity she so clearly lacked. If she asked for things, she'd often get them, but in the same way, you'd give an endearing pet a treat, not as if she were a real person who deserved to have her needs fulfilled.Leaf answered Lia's concerns, answering her queries with calm responses, masking her true feelings just a bit. She didn't want to worry her friend when things weren't so bad. As much as she could feel uncomfortable, El's energy leak program wasn't the worst thing she'd felt even in the past month. Every once in a while, an AzerTech employee would ask a question drones weren't allowed to answer, and whenever that happened, the drone usually retired from work for the day out of shame. Her voice being taken away felt bad, but at least it was during her mandatory day off. If she'd lost her voice for whatever reason during working hours, she probably wouldn't recover for weeks.While Leaf was pondering, Nines had made his way back to the couch behind her, where he asked, "So doll, who's going to win this round?""Umm... I t-think El will"Gosh, he was such a jerk. Her sensors were getting so fuzzy, her audio and visual inputs losing definition as her core throttled to support her energy-hungry voice. It's not like anyone even cared about her prediction. Nines and El both thought they were going to win; Chi thought they or El would beat Nines, and Lia thought whoever's lap she was in would win. Nines was just asking to get more mileage out of El's voice virus. As the frustrated thought flitted through her head, she felt an impact in the small of her back. It sent her tumbling forward onto her hands and knees."Oh, no faith in your favorite security android?" His voice changed to address the rest of the room, "Y'know, maybe if it were a bit less silly, it wouldn't get bullied as much."Leaf only caught the first half of what Nines said before his immobility 'toy' took umbrage at her movement. A flash of pure white lightning hit her consciousness, shattering her entire world. Her whole body was shaking, hands clenched into fists, and her arms and legs spasming as they were overwhelmed with junk signals. And the lightning wouldn't couldn't stop. Someone somewhere was gasping, pleading, but the presence in her throat couldn't stop her there was no energy to steal. All thought had left her head, and she was shaking on the ground, her limbs going blurry like water splashed on a canvas. A thousand stars, pinpricks of brilliance flashing across her body, punishing, warning, holding her in place.Then, all at once, everything stopped. The flashing, dazzling, wonderful thunder vanished, replaced with frigid stillness. Her arms and legs froze in place, a one-way door letting sensation through but blocking all her attempts to sit up. Even her mask froze in place, twin spirals frozen where her eyes should be. Her mind was still shattered, slowly piecing itself back together, feeling sensations but unable to string together a coherent thought. People were talking, she thought. Laughing, maybe? The words glanced off her sensors, only the barest of emotions coming through: Pity, glee, indifference, and superiority. The vents hidden beneath her clothing finally started closing, her core no longer needing so much cooling.As she slowly came to, she saw that the four had started another round in their game. She couldn't see the wall-sized screen with her forward-facing cameras, but her connection to the local network let her eavesdrop on the millisecond-precise commands the players on the couch were sending to the game. It looked like Lia was somehow in first place, with El and Chi behind her. Nines was trailing behind even the humans, apparently because he'd been targeted by El and Chi's combined attacks. Despite the attacks, he was gaining ground on the others, surpassing a human player every few seconds.Still prone, Leaf watched as first El and then Chi passed Lia. She felt the drone's lighthearted despair as she was passed in the second lap. Nines swore as a human-thrown item cost him another second. The pair in the lead sped around the track, Chi prioritizing items, El taking every shortcut available. This map was some sort of snowy mountain with lots of icy spots to slip on. A few players had already flown off the course, crashing and having to wait to respawn. Lia was, unfortunately, among them. Though she regained her spot in fourth, Nines had passed her by then, laughing maniacally as he closed in on El.Leaf had yet to play this game. The first time they'd played it, she and Lia had been the center of attention. That had been around two months ago. They'd had another android with them that time, a medical worker who'd been flirting with Nines. Lia had been on the floor with Leaf, as El had suggested hooking the two up to the network's surveillance grid. The intermittent swapping between complete sensory overload and watching the other drone twitch and shudder on the bland carpet had left a lasting impression. Just recalling that moment from memory made her processors run a little hotter. But she hadn't gotten to play the game that time, and no one had wanted to play it again until today, so she was feeling a little left out. Not enough to make her jealous or anything, but enough to make her feel a little sad inside."Come on, someone get them!" Nines objected, cutting through Leaf's reverie."Oh, struggling, are you?" El jabbed over the sound of Chi's laughter.Leaf checked again. Chi was halfway done with their third lap, and Nines and El were practically side by side, with Lia just behind them. Three of the humans in the lobby had left for some reason, and all the rest of them were still in lap two. Even through the playful fighting, El and Nines still wanted to win. The issue seemed to be that the two of them didn't have any items, having used up their last ones on each other. Lia had a speed boost, and while she used it as soon as she got it, the item only succeeded in knocking El out of the way as she passed.Lia was surprisingly good at this game, Leaf pondered. She may have come in fourth in the last round, but it looked like she would place third this time. It wasn't uncommon for the drones to rank behind humans when they played online, but Lia was holding her own. Shifting focus back down the track, Leaf watched with amusement as the three players in last place all crashed into each other. They were well over a minute behind at this point. Chi was crossing the finish line, but Leaf stayed focused on the humans, watching the one who'd been in last speed ahead. Watching them struggle and fight each other while in last place was kind of cute.Chi was cheering, Nines was letting out some choice profanities, and El was laughing so hard Leaf thought El's voice might glitch out."Aww, can't without network cheats, Nines?""You're a smug little fucker for someone who won by two milliseconds.""Hey, no fighting!" Lia objected, shoving Nines in the chest. It didn't do much, but he did stop prodding Chi's walls with malware."Aw, thanks, Lia," Chi said. "Do you wanna do this round then? I'm not in the mood to play with Leaf right now.""Really?""Sure.""Yes, yes, yes! Thank you!"El sent Leaf a recording of Lia bouncing up and down on the couch, which Leaf smiled at while her friend hopped off the couch and moved over to face her. Lia moved over to the bowl of data sticks, grabbing it, before moving over to sit cross legged in front of Leaf. The drone's mask was displaying one of Lia's preferred happy faces. She said it showed humans that she was feeling happy without looking over the top or artificial. Because of that explanation and the way Lia had radiated happiness when she'd given it, it was also Leaf's favorite, though she spent most of her time in a more neutral expression.Lia shook the bowl, then reached in decisively, pulling out a stick that had been right at the bottom."I wouldn't go with that one quite yet," El said."Huh?" Lia replied"That's one I helped Nines put together. It'll be fun, but save it for the last round of the night if we do end up using it.""What does it do?" Asked Lia, pouting as she dropped it back in."You can always try it yourself if you want to find out," suggested Nines.Lia shook her head and raised a hand to Leaf's cheek. Drone masks didn't have many sensors, so Lia sent the data from her hand directly to Leaf, letting both of them enjoy the sensation. It was a familiar ritual, one Leaf leaned into as much as the construct immobilizing her would allow. Lia reached back behind her and grabbed a different data stick from the bowl. She paused a moment, presumably waiting for one of the androids to object, before moving her hand out of Leaf's view. Leaf felt the hand go to the back of her head; it fumbled for a moment before lining up the stick with Leaf's data port."Are you ready?" Lia asked, staring into Leaf's eyes."Yes," Leaf whispered back.A rush of sensation, and then Leaf felt the third invader of night. It wasn't precise like Nines' was, and wasn't as destructive as El's, rather, if Leaf had to pick a word, she might settle on dainty. In all honesty, the program stalled halfway to its destination, and she had to give it a little push before it settled in her hands. Unlike the first two constructs, this one did do something immediately. The sensors she had in her hands started to tingle. It was a warm, fuzzy feeling, like how she imagined putting on mittens would feel. Her fingers brushing against her palms amplified the feeling from both, sending a substantial but not overwhelming stream of data to her core."How does it feel?" Lia asked as she moved to hold Leaf's hands in hers.The steady stream of tingles exploded into sensation. Where the data spike earlier had been sudden, intense stimulation lasting a fraction of a second, this was ongoing, endless. It didn't make her limbs spasm, and it didn't short out her sensors, but the continuous sensation broke her into a thousand pieces. Her attention was split into a hundred thousand million parts, each only able to focus on the intensity of Lia's hands in hers. All her circuits, all her loops, and all her sensors lit up, electric sparks flying up the wires that made her. Trying, failing, and trying again to comprehend everything in the two hands holding hers.Her mind fractioned over and over, splintering into infinite pieces, powdering like snow across her consciousness. Her vision was going white, her hearing was fading, and her connection to the network was reduced to the barest hint of a thread. All senses were left discarded except for touch, a burning need to Understand the thing she was holding. The synthetic skin layered over lightweight metal alloy, the fragile electrical impulses flashing beneath, over a hundred minuscule servos, all perfectly crafted and mass-produced to create a hand to rival an actual human's biology. The way it curved and twisted to better grip her own, the way it squeezed back, ever so lightly, caressing its fingers across her palms.A voice. Speaking? Questioning? She can hear the words but can't focus on them, can't interpret beyond the faintest hint of emotion. After a moment, a connection is made. It probes with inquiry, wondering what is going on inside her. But her hands were still flooding her systems with data, and all she could do was reflexively shove as much of the raw input across the connection as possible. Her mind clears just a bit, and she catches a gasp in front of her. Then, the sensation in her hands falls away. No longer filled with an unending urge to process and analyze the data received by her hands a thousand times over, she started to slowly flush the caches holding the overflowed remnants of sensor output."Oh," Lia choked out, still breathless, "Oh.""'Oh'? What do you mean, 'Oh,' doll?" Nines' voice from behind her."So much-" Leaf breathed, then she let out a whimper as her voicebox sucked up what little available power there still was, stalling her entire self for half a second."No clue what happened, but it zapped both of them pretty hard." That was Chi."I put in a program that tries to clone the first person it meets into the host's framework, but that shouldn't have worked with Lia." Mused El"Um, she... I grabbed her hands, and she threw a giant bundle of sensor info at me," gasped Lia."Hmm, where was the data from?" Asked Chi.Lia's mask blinked into a loading pattern. Three blinking dots lighting up one after the other in a cycle. It was AzerTech's standard after an internal study showed that viewers were happy to stare at LI model drones for any amount of time without apparent visual stimulation. The three-dot pattern was chosen to indicate a process was ongoing and because one of the project supervisor's favorite drones liked the animation. Leaf was also rather fond of the load screen, though she prided herself on never leaving an employee or customer waiting long enough to see it. Seconds later, Lia's mask faded out into an exclamation point, signaling completion."It's just my hands, over and over again," she said confusedly."Ah, that makes sense," said Chi, "One of mine makes the sensors in your hands super sensitive, though looking at the two of you, I probably overdid it."After the room stayed silent a moment too long, they added, "What, You're not the only one who can make constructs. Maybe mine are more clunky, but they get the job done... and besides, I thought it was cute.""Cute?" squeaked out Leaf, and El laughed."I mean, it kind of was," El said. "How'd you know she'd wind up holding hands with someone, though?"Nines, whose voice sounded like the verbal incarnation of a smug cat, added, "Yeah, I can think of a lot of things her hands could be doing later tonight, and all of them are way less cute than this.""Not when I'm around." Groaned Chi.Lia stood up, still shaky from connecting with Leaf, and, while standing, begged, "Chi, can I please sit with you, please?"A halfhearted mumble and an excited "Yay" before Nines interjected, "If Lia's running off, I want Leaf."Leaf heard footsteps behind her, then, in the same tone he'd used right at the start of the night, "Don't worry, you won't be punished for me picking you up. I'm not that mean..." a pause, "No promises for if you squirm in my lap, though."She almost broke down shaking right there. Her audio system was extra sensitive to compensate for her tactile sensors being dialed down, and Nines' voice had such an intense resonance that she half thought it was an audio-based weapon. However, she persevered and remained limp as two arms grabbed under her armpits and hauled her to standing. She was maneuvered back to the couch and nestled between Nines' arms. Her head was laid against his chest, positioned to see El, Lia, and the rest. The screen was off to her left, but she didn't need to see it to know what was happening, anyway.Leaf slipped into a comfortable daze, idling all her major processes, leaning on Nines and fading into hazy blankness. There was more talking, but her audio had dialed so much she couldn't decipher the words. Lia had settled down next to Chi, who had gotten into a conversation with El. El, in turn, had closed the game, leaving the group free of distractions. At some point, Nines reached into Leaf's system and removed the constructs obstructing her voice and movement. He did leave her hand sensitivity turned up, brushing a thumb across her palm as he went. Leaf's shoulders twitched, but after a moment, she went still. Her core started slowly rebuilding all her shattered walls, her mind pieced itself back together from its dizzy, fragile state. - - - "Are you up for a bit more playing, doll?"Leaf had been passed over to El at some point and came back to full consciousness in El's lap. She hadn't paid much attention while dozing, but she'd noticed when 7F flew out and overheard Nines complaining to El about the new protocols going into place company-wide. It was silly that Nines had to follow the same security guidelines as AzerTech's human workforce, but Leaf supposed it made things easier for the company in the long run. Nines had ended his rant by asking Lia to put up the new firewalls and then bashing his way through them in milliseconds. Lia had, in turn, fallen off the couch with a squeak. Afterward, Nines turned to Leaf and asked if she wanted to keep playing."Um, sure. I think I'm all awake now.""Perfect," he grinned. "Do you all want to keep going with the game from earlier?""Yeah," said Chi.El added, "I have to leave in an hour or two, but until then, sure."Lia stayed silent but nodded at Nines to signal her assent.In response, Nines pulled Leaf to a sitting position facing the screen and flipped the game back on. He maneuvered to the vehicle select screen and motioned for Leaf to pick a character. She perused the options briefly before settling on a girl wearing a crown. For her vehicle, she decided on just the standard model. Chi pinged her with a few charts demonstrating the most efficient combinations, but she waved them off. For accessories, she picked whatever looked the best. She sent her choices to Lia, and when her friend responded positively, Leaf asked Nines to start the game.The race started with Leaf in the middle of the pack, right next to El, surrounded by human opponents on all sides. Chi and Lia were in the back, and Nines was right at the very front. He celebrated this by sending several custom-rendered shots of his vehicle across the network to the group. The renders were helpfully annotated with comments like 'At the first where he belongs' and 'Best driver in the corporation.' El responded by launching a hasty malware attack, to which Nines didn't even deign to reply. Lia added a few smiley faces to the digital teasing, and Chi just sighed despondently.The timer ticked down to zero before the word 'go' flashed across the screen in bold lettering. Nines shot off in the lead, veering away from the mess of crashes happening behind him. El weaved through the players ahead and got into second place, a ways behind Nines but gaining. Leaf slammed into the player to her left and spun out, nearly colliding with Chi as they flew past her. She recovered from her spin right next to Lia, and the two of them sped down the track together, making sure to avoid bumping into each other.Leaf picked up an item and briefly lost focus on the race while she queried her memory for a recording of one of the others using it. She concluded it was a speed boost and used it just in time to avoid an item thrown by someone behind her. She outpaced Lia and even started catching up to Chi, though they would still shake her in the long run. She tried to keep an eye on the pack behind her, but it was a struggle, given how shaky her core still was. She contented herself knowing that Lia had pulled solidly into fifth, leaving the lobby's humans in one big group behind the androids and drones.As they sped around the course, Leaf reflected on how the androids could use the immense power of the network to plan out frame-precise tactics minutes into the future. None of the people monitoring the network cared about their activities, and anyway, when they played these kinds of games, the androids always liked to have some extra advantages. One of the first nights they'd spent together had involved a deck of cards and a punishment for Lia if she lost a hand. The drone had proceeded to go on an incredible lucky streak and had eventually begged El to rig the deck against her.Past El had been very obliging, but present El not so much. Nines insulted El's parentage in a very colorful sentence as El passed him. Apparently, El had used a combo Nines hadn't known about, and he was playfully upset. Chi was laughing so hard Leaf thought they might fall out of their seat. Nines calmed down as El finished the first lap seconds ahead of him. He finished lap one neck and neck with Chi, and Leaf, surprisingly, wasn't far behind them. Lia was pretty slow in comparison, though she was still easily outpacing the rest of the lobby. Even without the network behind them, the two drones still had enough processing power to effortlessly beat anyone manually inputting commands.Once it became clear that Nines wasn't going to catch up to El this round, he stood up and moved towards a cabinet on one of the walls. Standing up didn't break his concentration on the game, he was more than capable of multitasking. He rooted around the cabinet before grumbling and looking in a different one. Leaf tried to take the opportunity to pass him, but he swerved in front and almost sent her spinning out entirely. Lia commiserated with her on her attempt, having also tried to pass Nines while he was distracted. She had used an item, though, and as such, got closer than Leaf did.Nines let out a satisfied noise and then shouted, "Hey Leaf. Pick a color: Red, Green, Blue, or Black.""Umm... blue?" Leaf replied."Perfect," Nines said as he walked back to the couch.He held out a blue controller and added, "Oh, and by the way, this round counts for double if you lose."Then, her link to the game cut out.Immediately, her vehicle started to decelerate as she jumped for the controller. But she gasped as soon as she got it, dropping it onto the floor with a clatter. She'd forgotten about the tingle in her hands, Chi's construct that Nines had neglected to remove earlier. Even that glancing touch left her shivering as she bent down to pick it up again. She desperately braced herself before grabbing the blue handholds.Her consciousness was slammed just as it was when she'd held Lia's hand. She felt the plastic, the micro ridges from the molding process, and the divots cut out to allow for a better grip. Every single imperfection made itself known, searing across her mind so so so much intensity. It shook and thrashed about, looking for something, anything to cling to against the racing tide of information. The current swept all of it away, instantly eroding the shelters it had tried to erect, smashing through all its fragile defenses.It tried to focus, divert any remaining thought to seeing through its eyes. It couldn't lose this race; it had to try. Its thoughts were so jumbled, the sensors in its hands disrupting any attempts at coherence. It finally managed to pull itself together just enough to realize it was in last place. An entire lap behind! It pressed a button on the controller, trying to accelerate, and oh, the sensation of its skin molding down around the button as it pressed down. Its mind flashed blank again.Someone was talking, but it couldn't spare the energy to understand the words. It was nothing but sensation and purpose, capable of nothing but steering down the track and feeling the controller in its hands. It crashed, bumping into another player, and felt its hands shaking. The controller nearly slipped away, and it tightened its grasp. It couldn't let go, couldn't give up the overpowering sensation flowing from its hands.It crossed the finish line, but in the depths of its mind, it knew it had another lap left. Then, it stalled out entirely. The sheer intensity of moving its fingers became too much, and it clenched them tight around the object in its hands. Pulsing waves of data flooded into her core, only to be replaced by new information, over and over, in and out. It couldn't hear or see, it had no room for any of its sensors, only able to concentrate on the magnificence of the thing in its hands.Then, the controller was removed from its hands and replaced with a cleansing rush of sensation. The feeling of a data stick being inserted into the back of its neck replaced the overwhelming flood emanating from its fingertips. A program waltzed into its system, moving from its neck to its center, finally settling on its memory. And then... it didn't know."How does that feel?" A voice. El's, it thinks."...sorry, um, i don't- i don't know?"Its so confused. Why is it confused? What's going on? A sensation like a hand rummaging through its thoughts, and then,"Oh wow, El, I assume this is your work? This is pretty good... Information is flowing into her short-term memory, but she can't access it while it's there."Who was that? It doesn't know."Ah, that one. The best part about it is that she'll be able to remember all of this later. It only makes her blank on about the past five minutes."That was true. It could remember kneeling on the carpeted floor, losing its voice, and even holding Lia's hands, but it couldn't remember what just happened. It shook a bit more, servos releasing pent-up spasms it didn't know they were holding. It gasped when a hand touched its back and leaned forward, tingly hands curled up into fists on its lap. It barely caught the following conversation, only understanding a few words."...another...""I'd forgotten...""...Is she okay?""A little shaken-"Then another barb of feeling struck it in the neck. Another rush followed, then... nothing. This time, its vision was completely gone, and its sense of touch and connection to the network were inaccessible. This wasn't like before when its processors couldn't keep up with the flood of information, right now, it simply wasn't receiving data. What was going on? The only thing it knew was the slight sounds all around it, the thump of feet against the couch, the vibrations of fingers rubbing against each other, the agonizingly loud rustle of cloth on cloth, and-"What did that one do?"It was screaming, sobbing, clasping hands to ears it didn't have. The noise was impossibly loud, like a slap across the face or a whip across its back. It screamed and gasped, trying to choke back its sounds, and it screamed and choked some more. Eventually, its noises stopped of their own accord, but the overwhelming sounds continued. Back and forth, highs and lows, occasional shouts about it all. After a while, it lost track of them all. It faded into the background, the hurt blurring into sensations that couldn't even be described as painful.It vanished into a hazy fog, each word shattering its center, a thousand uncaring blows preventing any attempts at coherence. It wasn't moving anymore, the pounding, slapping, aching force piercing it at every opportunity had exhausted its limbs. Its power was almost run dry, it had no capacity for movement, no energy left. The painful, pleasurable sensations were fading, creeping down from chaotic spikes to a gentle ebb and flow.Things were moving around it now in celebration, it thought, but it didn't know why. There were arms in the air and the throbbing pulse of voices. Its body shifted as if something was patting it on the head. The stimulation caused its mostly white vision to blip into pulsating fractals of color. A rainbow of lights and a cacophony of sounds skated across the frozen surface of its mind. There simply wasn't anything left to process the sensations.Another pause, another jab, and a concentrated bolt of energy crashed through its core, lighting up every servo, motor, and tendon. It tensed, curling itself into a ball, yanking the device in its neck away from the holder. Its spine seized up, shuddering with the mechanical force contained within. Its whole body shook, it twitched, trying to contain the tamed lightning inside itself. And then, all of a sudden, or perhaps an hour or two later, the gathered energy exploded.And then each and every muscle inside it convulsed, spasming out in a mess of limbs. It kicked and flailed and stuck out at nothing. Its mind was so far to pieces that nothing was left, but even the dregs remaining couldn't control the spasms. It vaguely felt itself collide with the floor, only deducing that from the fact its right arm could no longer move. Even its smaller, more articulated muscles were contracting and expanding. Its thighs shuddered open and then clenched tightly. Its shoulders rose nearly to its ears, then collapsed as its neck twisted itself around as far as it could go.The convulsions continued, for how long it didn't know, and eventually, the flooding surge of energy ebbed away. It rested there, still blinded, with noises pounding into it from all sides but no energy to twitch or thrash away. But in the depths of its consciousness, it knew that there was more coming. The endless parade of raging whirling constructs flooding through its systems was yet to end. It couldn't move at all, of course, but it tensed up in anticipation of the next drive being inserted into its neck.For a while, nothing happened.And then-A rush, a burst of feeling instantly overwhelmed by endless heat. Fire poured down into every crevice and curve. Warmth filled its head, consuming all thought and emotion. Its skin was lit up with such intensity it almost cried out in pain... joy? It couldn't tell; everything was so, so much, and it was so, so tired. The fire was all-consuming, devouring the myriad scraps left behind after a night of indulgence and hedonism.The flames emanated from its core, from its center, and were so infinitely hot. It couldn't tell the reality apart from imagination, wholly unable to tell if the heat was in its head or real, but its fans were whirling around and around, processors glitching out as the temperatures rose and rose. It couldn't take this; it couldn't take the intensity, this was all so, so much.Everything was slowing down, stuttering to a halt as the pressure built and built. The temperature was rising and rising, the intense sensation growing as its core started skipping out. It was glitching and lagging seconds behind as its internal sensors screamed louder and louder. The heat pulsed and squeezed around it, crushing it in as a thousand warning messages flew across its mind. Long dead diagnostics cried out a final plea as it-GlitchedWrithedBurnedAnd burst into fiery darkness, blankness settling in all around as itSlept - - - Leaf cycled back on slowly, rising into wakefulness over several minutes. As she came online, she felt around her systems. Her internals came back mostly positive. Some muscles in her arms had been damaged through excessive torque; her voice box wouldn't reach ultrasonic ranges without servicing, and her short-term memory was patchy, but all in all, she was functioning at almost full capacity. This had been a fairly intense evening, but Nines had—presumably—done a pretty good job of putting her back together. The network had probably also helped quite a bit. It didn't mind their play, as long as they weren't working, but the consciousness didn't like any of its drones remaining non-functional for long periods.As her physical awareness returned, she felt a hand running through her hair. After another moment, she realized her head was in Lia's lap, the drone's hand stroking through her hair. She smiled up at Lia, focusing on the girl's face. Lia smiled back and sent a silent question across the network. Leaf answered by sending back a general sense of her emotions. Her joy, contentedness, and general exhaustion flooded their connection, and Lia responded with her own happy satisfaction. The two of them sat there for a little while longer before someone noticed Leaf had awoken."Oh hey there, doll. You're back with us." That was Nines' voice from across the room.Chi's voice followed after with, "One of these days, she's not going to wake up and you'll have to explain to management how you wound up breaking one of their drones.""Aw, she's tougher than all that- ah, hey!"Lia sent Leaf a recording of the last minute, and Leaf quietly laughed as she watched the replay. Chi and Nines had been playing a two-player fighting game, and Chi had used the distraction of Leaf waking up to combo Nines off the map. Nines had retaliated by throwing a couch cushion at them. Lia showed Leaf the overall score between the two androids, and Leaf physically winced. Nines was down three to seven games. Her memory of the earlier games was fuzzy, but she thought he'd only managed to win one or two rounds. All in all, not a great day for him.Checking around the room, Leaf's sensors could only pick up Nines, Chi, and Lia, so she asked, "Where's El? I can only feel the three of you.""Oh, El had to leave, and since you'd just crashed, we stopped playing. Then Nines fixed you up a little bit, and then he and Chi started with this new game."After explaining, Lia pulled Leaf up into a sitting position, Leaf's head resting in the crook of her neck. Leaf, in turn, slowly blinked at Lia before setting her mask to display a peaceful sleeping face. She let her head rest on the other girl's shoulder, let her arms and legs go limp, and started cycling herself back off. Leaf didn't strictly need the rest, but her mind was exhausted, and it never hurt to recharge. Her core slowly cut off its flow of power, and her awareness of the room around her started to fade away."Goodnight, Lia," she mumbled."Night, Leaf," Lia replied.And she faded out completely, sinking into sleep.