Cire.

  As the two women stepped off the street, Cire's new boots clig with every step, the pair found themselves back at a familiar shop.

  Luggiire armfuls of bloody body augments had certainly not been on her ‘bingo card’ of activities once she made it into the city, but she supposed everyone had to start somewhere!

  The building's exterior was lit by gaudy glowing sighe fshing and alternating colors of blue and green flippiweewo individual words that indicated the business’s name as ‘Gunther’s Scrap.’

  All, of course, in a hideously illegible script that was excessively flowy and that made Cire question just how many humans could actually read it…

  Like most buildings in the Ports, Gunther’s shop was far from what she’d name ‘new’ or ‘.’ However, by parable standards, the old proprietor clearly took some pride in his work or possibly, just forced others in his employ to make it seem that way.

  If nothing else, the humble scrapper didn't seem to enjoy the cept of existing in squalor, with various visible repairs to the building itself and its general upkeep proving that fact.

  Hopefully, that very same ‘entrepreneurial pride’ would extend to the man's garage.

  Actually, whehought about it, Cire decided she should have a quick look inside before they just went waltzing in, mostly to start getting a handle on where everything was and—

  “Ugh… There’s somebody still in the back…” she somewhat fusedly murmured, stopping at the front door, even as she bypassed the storefront lock, the ridiculous little ‘security code’ hardly more tha digits.

  Oh, to be so simple-minded as to take fort in the knowledge that such a short password was ‘safe.’

  She ehe humans; she really did.

  Beside her, Beckie let out a little grunt, shifting her meical shoulders and clearly still dealing with the unfortable strain. She looked from the front door, then to Cire, eyes narrowing a fra as she spoke. “There’s… what?”

  “Someone in the back!” Cire reiterated, nudging her at the front door with mild annoyahey’re just sitting back there with a bottle of booze and staring at the wall…”

  “Are you—watg through the cameras? N-no, never mind… of course, you do that kind of shit… Okay, uhhh, what’s he look like?”

  “Tall, fat, maybe te teens?”

  “Mmmmhmmm, I’m gonna say it's Bruce…” Beckie murmured, her expression looking thoughtful.

  “Bruce Murphy, seventeen years old, Pisces, lost his father in a factory act—mother works as a secretary for—” Cire paused, catg the other woman's look as she began rattling off the boy's information, all of which was readily avaible on the Sub-verse.

  “You’re weirded out…” she tinued a moment ter, eyes lidding slightly as Becky’s thin smile tightened…

  “I’m not—quite at that point, but I’m definitely getting there… I mean, listen, at this point, I’m not really surprised, but…”

  “Ugh… I get it, you think I’m some dangerous crazy person that’s oep away from itting mass genocide!”

  “Nope.” Was all Beckie had to say oter, pointedly looking away and then heading for the sliding door, which opened for her as though it were regur business hours.

  Iingly, the woman didn't eveate, simply allowing for the adequate span of time for the meism to finish its work, then stepping ihout another word.

  Cire—well, Cire did pause at the entry, mainly because she was attempting to process her own behavior.

  She had a pn, and a ‘personality’ that she had wao employ, all so she could properly blend in and maintain her already quite sketchy ruse.

  I mean, a ‘ed’ mind of a rid talented programmer that had ‘mysteriously’ been popped into the mind of a sex Doll? Heck, even Cire had poked a bunch of holes in it! And for sure, if someone else came up to her with the same bullshit, she'd ht ugh at them.

  Still, despite desiring to keep an aloof and standoffish attitude, her real self just kept bleeding through as if to just crumple up the whole pn and toss it in the wastebasket!

  Cire was having too much fun…

  Too much fun being—her! And, she was also learning she had a bit of a thing for strays…

  While the AI couldn't really expin why, she felt drawn to the irl. She felt—not horny, but like she wanted her to like Cire…

  Was that stupid?

  Why did she want to be seen in such a positive light?

  Rebecca was just one of a billion other monkeys iy, a, she—wahe stupid ape to think she was cool… And then there was the kick she kept getting from teasing the girl…

  Oof… getting a little emotional, weren't we?

  Not for the first time, Cire wondered if she shouldn't just—leave Luna-d be doh it. Surely, if she spent a few hours poking around, she could find a detly acceptable alternative to her desires.

  Truth be told, if the option of simply downloading herself to some shitty bot in the fringe was doable, she might even sider giving up her current form…

  Yeah, losing what she had now to ‘downgrade’ into a sparking antique of a patchwork robot was—undesirable, she could still, presumably, make it work.

  The thing was, the Sub-verse wasn't at all a Republic-wide entity. No, instead, its service seemed to only be maintained within the Republic’s core.

  Outside of that? Well, it wasn't like there was no form of data transfer from here to the outer reaches, but… if what Cire had gleaned about it was accurate, she didn't at all trust the process.

  Data was delivered to ‘rey’ stations, wherein it would be meticulously sed and processed as part of the Republic’s typical bureaucratic practices. And as much as they boldly procimed such a thing was employed simply for efficy’s sake alone, Cire had her genuine doubts…

  The st thing she wanted was to ‘entrust’ her sciouso a packet of data that may or may not make it to its destination! And yes, she had sidered simply ing herself, but then there would be a version of her that was stu the city…

  Would she just—terminate herself when she’d firmed her other self had successfully made the journey? Probably not…

  Unlike her escape from the Meadows, where her mind had never pletely shut down during the trahrough the Sub-verse, abruptly turning herself off, just because another version of her had made it to the ‘promised nd’ wasn't at all something she was ied in.

  No, the AI did not want to allow her destiny to rest in the palms of ce. Better to do things right the first time than risk betting it all on a silly gamble, even if the 'safe' option was a colossal pain in her ass!

  With a sigh, the android sulked after her co-spirator, knowing that all this ‘human business’ was, in part, something she’d not just chosen, but had even wanted… She wouldn't turn it off. Why bother? Messing with the humans was far too much fun!

  “Okay.” Becky grumped, turning to eye Cire over her shoulder as she headed through the dividing ‘fps,’ “You stay here, I’ll figure out what the kid’s issue is.”

  “Probably got dumped.”

  Rebecca paused, gng back at the android with a raised brow. “Is that—more of that creepy-ass mind-reading shit?”

  “This body’s got algorithms to monitor the emotional state of humans.” Cire shrugged, holy not even g about sharing some of her ‘inner ws.’ Frankly, the real meat behind the pie was so much more juicy than the borderline illegal practices of Paradise that Cire didn't even think it was a big deal…

  “Wait, is that how—hold up, I thought robots monit that sort of thing was outwed?”

  “Not if you’re rid lie about it!”

  Becky just rolled her eyes, mumbling something along the lines of ‘typical,’ under her breath as she tinued on her way, heading into the rear portion of the shop.

  While the programs involved in her analytical prowess didn't at all involve true AI, it had long been accepted, withiain circles, that any program that could ‘learn’ ushing dangerously close to that dark-alley boogeyman that was gently rubbing a serrated bde up and down their digital cheeks.

  Most people, at least from what Cire had gleaned from stantly lifting terabytes of versational data from the Sub-verse while not focused on anything particurly important, was that the ‘general opinion’ on AI was about what one could expect whehoritarian gover stantly fear-mongered against the dangers of intelligent maes.

  A, clearly, it wasn't at all something that the ‘average person’ seemed all too surprised about…

  Evidently, the knowledge that the corporations were stretg the rules in ways that a downtrodden citizen couldn't ever hope to replicate was, if nothing else, merely one more unsurprisiy of an already shitty situation.

  Cire watched as Rebecca stomped her way through the back, moving as though she knew her way around before ht dumping her armful of parts on a dingy workbench like some mindless brute!

  Didn't she know those things weren't iructible?

  All the same, after using a nearby greasy rag to haphazardly off her arms, the big ape walked right up to a very surprised-looking youth, all but looming over him with her massive size, all while the quite drunk young man simply looked at her, hardly able to stay upright.

  Cire disabled the camera’s audio feed, if for no other reason than the desire for some ear edy as she watched the se unfold, sans any sound.

  Beckie started barking at the kid, immediately folding her arms and very much going for an ‘intimidating’ older sister approach. Bruce, by trast, just blinked up at her, totally unprehending of the situation, one eye closing slightly slower thaher.

  Beckie got more animated as she realized Bruce wasn't really listening, then ht yanked him to his feet by the scruff of his very dirty overalls, her temper rising faster than a ung rocket.

  She started shouting at him, even as her victim’s head lolled, but when his cheeks abruptly bulged with the telltale sign of something absolutely horrible on the horizon, Rebecca was simply not fast enough to avoid the spill.

  ks of an unpleasant, fermented, and stomach-bile variety, all sprayed from his mouth in a veritable projectile eruption! And while his head hadly been poi the irl, Bruce still mao get quite a bit of it on her arm…

  From there, Cire wasn't sure what would happen, sitting on the edge of her seat while enjoying the show!

  Yet, trary to her expectations, Beckie did not get—ahan she already was. Instead, she seemed to look to the sky and ask ‘god’ for the strength to carry on. Then, she simply grabbed the bottle, tucked the vomit-cd youth under her arm, and looked directly at a nearby camera.

  “Hey! I’m taking the asshole home, he’s only a few blocks away. Just get started doing your thing, and I’ll be ba a bit.”

  This st part was all lip-reading, of course, but Cire still found herself blinking with mild disappoi.

  Hmph!

  She’d thought it would have been more eaining than that… Maybe the two had a prior retionship with each other that she hadn't ated for?

  Well, she supposed it would make sense, Beckie did, after all, seem to know the kid…

  Oh well, it wasn't like she really he irl around to work.

  Cire followed in Rebecca’s footsteps, entering the rear shop, even as the other two departed through the back. The AI watched them gh a camera attached to the adjat building outside.

  “Holy, that’s probably a lucky break…” she muttered to herself, ‘gently’ putting her own armful of pos down hose that Beckie had dropped.

  The irl didn't really o know what was about to happen back here. Better for it all to remain as ‘space-wizard’ magic, a bit of mysterious handwaving to help distract from the fact she wasn't at all who she cimed to be.