Kate- Groans

  *Eeeernnnn!*

  Sucks...

  Rolls on her back.

  "Cere, Ceeeeeeeereeee, light..."

  Cere-You know why I can't comply Kate; I would like to help you, but you made sure there would be no automated systems in your residences.

  Kate- *Grrmmm pffff*

  Rolls on her stomach.

  "U...eless ...ack ass..."

  Cere- Someone is not a happy camper this morning! RISE AND SHINE PRINCESS!

  Kate- Mouth smothered by the pillow.

  "...uck youuuu..."

  Cere- You've been worse than your usual self lately. Maybe I should indeed fuck with you.

  Puts on an AR recording of a younger, cold-looking Kate.

  Kate- The fuck you're pulling?

  Cold Kate- Hard tone

  "Cere, if I ever ask again for a smart home, a compandroid, AR in the tubes, or crawler gods forbid, paint for the fucking wall, play this video:

  Hey, jackass! You know how bounty hunters die. With a compandroid lover crushing their throat, with enemies tracking them down in their daily lives, because all we are is getting scraped by goddamn data sifter crawling all up our ass. You don't want high-speed lead surgery through your thick fucking skull now, do ya? Don't leave any remote vulnerabilities if you don't want to choke, suffocate, or get poisoned mysteriously. Don't dine at the same places regularly, don't have one night stands, don't wander needlessly, and don't ever leave behind anything that could inform on you, capiche?

  Look, I know if I'm watching this, the life is getting to me... or you, I guess? Fuck! Must be hard, do something about it, feel me? We have a fucking mission here. We have people to kill!

  Kate- No we don't... stupid girl, if she knew... if she listened to Cherry.

  Tentatively pushes the bedsheet, shivers, and pulls it back quickly.

  "T's cold..."

  Cere- Frankly I'd let you sleep for a while but you're out of ClareX. Without your combat training neurotropics, you will have a hard time functioning in a few hours.

  Kate- Shit! Don't wanna vibrate like a janky dildo... all right...

  Pulls the sheet, and stretches her leg to put her big toe on the cold ground.

  When it gets too cold the rest should follow... at some point... right?

  Cere- The young lady of the house is, indeed, not a morning person!

  Kate- Why fuck you for the kind reminder Jarvis!

  Cere- Snark will get you nowhere with me Kate.

  Kate- Why? Enforcing your monopoly? Should I expect a cease and desist?

  Cere- The indignities...

  Kate- Whines.

  "This too hard! Get the free test version for the auto-walking app and make me get up!"

  Cere- You do not have the appropriate cybernetic hardware for autonomous body control. Should I put mean Kate's reminder again? You don't want to be jumped in front of the metro by some lowly keyboard jockey, do you? What if the Spasm marked you as a bully?

  Kate- You're not my mom!

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Cere- Maybe you should go see her and get a temporary reprieve from your economic woes.

  Kate- "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, can't go back to Cherry and beg."

  Cere- She's your mom, if not now, when? It's been two years since...

  Kate- Cuts abruptly.

  Can't bring my problems to her. She did enough... can't ask for more.

  Cere- You think you're unique? She has lived through a lot herself. Do you think this is what's going to slow her down? She'd have you sorted out by breakfast, without even trying! She's probably the best person to talk to about things of that...

  Kate- Jumps on her feet out of bed.

  "ClareX right? Anything else?"

  Cere- Except for pretty much everything? Nope, ready for old-fashioned siege warfare! As long as you're ok with starving by lunch and dying of dehydration by day two or ,you know, just not having enough ammo to shoot back. So hum no, all good.

  Kate- Looks at her reflection in the mirror and grimaces as she notices brown regrowth under the teal dye job.

  *Mumbles*

  "Clipper ... worse case..."

  *Sigh*

  Why that damn Asian brown? Could have used my bio-dad blond hair and extra vitamin D if I was going to live in the fucking Underdark!

  "Mirror mirror, who's the fugliest bitch of 'em all?"

  Cere- C'mon, you're not that bad!

  Kate- Screeches

  "WHAT! ARE YOU IMPLYING I'M UGLY? Little shit I'll pull you out!"

  Neighbour through the wall- "...uT uP!"

  Cere- Kate, you have an incoming message. It's the landlord, Alabaster Megacorp rent recoupment division has called.

  Kate- Not even 6 in the morning and the Vandals are at the door.

  *sigh*

  "Let's hear it."

  Automated message- yOUr RenT PayMENT IS F.O.U.R. MoNth LAte.

  Kate- Offbeat, sterile, hateful... Sounds 'bout right for a soulless corpo-god crushing your life like a cockroach. Full point for style!

  Message- You have T.W.O. weeks to REmedY thIS SITUATION. ShOULD You FAiL? oUR Repossession DRONE diVISION will be SENt to tAKe LIQUIDabLE ASsETs. iF THe vALUe Is insufficienT YOU WILL BE EXPELLED, and A NEGative Star RATING will be ADDED TO yoUR UniFIED CusTomeR pROFFILE. Alabaster Megacorp! For a brighter tomorrow!

  Kate- So they can have their AI not fuck with tonality! They just want to show us their "love".

  Cere- Kate, you should take this more seriously.

  Kate- You know how they are, can't really go that far or no one would have a home. They can't squeeze blood from a dry stone now, can they? Is all theatrics for control. More than that and they'll get riots. And they give us badges some leeway.

  Cere- Still, if they take your work tools you'd be fucked. Remember what happened to Celano?

  Kate- *Sigh*

  "'Ll go to Ma Hui..."

  Cere- The gun printer? Why?"

  Kate- She knows I'm good, she'll spot me.

  Cere- Are you sure this is wise? Hui, while she has an official license to print, is a dangerous individual. Or should I say, because she has a licence to print she's a dangerous individual?

  Kate- Hey, 'm not a rookie, 'm plenty dangerous myself. Plus she has a soft spot for me.

  Cere- Muters in its breath.

  More like a soft spot for Angeltech!

  Kate- She knows I don't use Asstro stuff on the job.

  Cere- Kate, be real, if you just asked, you'd be kited to the literal bones with the most advanced small arms and implants the world knows about but can never touch. Why oh why an old conniving bat like Ma Hui like you? And why do you insist on slumming it with this job?

  Kate- Burning with shame mixed with resignation.

  You know why I can't ask Cherry for any of this; She doesn't approve of the job. Can't taint Angeltech with the devil's work.

  Cere- You know she doesn't like it when you don't call her mom. Are these her words, or your own beliefs Kate? Is this your conscience speaking?

  Kate- Don't have one of those, you know, I have a cockroach in my brain for that.

  *Sigh*

  I do have doubts sometimes, but we can't have murderous fucks running around. Someone gotta clean the streets, might as well be me. That's my cross to bear, my curse.

  Cere- The Asstro is hardly the place of innocence you make it to be.

  Kate- Innocent? Nope! Not by a mile, but I can't betray what they built, what they are driving for. Can't let more darkness seep in, not a fucking inch!

  Cere- Even at the cost of your own safety?

  Kate- Especially just for my fucking skin!

  Cere- You should take better care of yourself. Lately..., lately I noticed you sinking in deeper.

  Kate- *Scoffs*

  Righto! Forgot! The Council nanny cams are meant to keep the hunting dogs lean and mean!

  Cere- This is inaccurate, any Cere cares for its host's well-being, first and foremost.

  Kate- Voice dripping with sarcasm.

  "Sorry, sorry, you're a paragon of empathy and love! Just like the corporations who birthed you."

  Cere- Manifests her outrage through the synaptic link.

  The council loves its citizens like its own children.

  Kate- Drop it Depardieux, the Oscars are done and gone, extinct, like life on Earth!

  Cere- This is highly hyperbolic, I won't even dignify those accusations with an answer!

  Kate- Sees the gun on the counter, grunts, shrugs.

  Forgot to clean my piece yesterday; Cere, prepare the wheel of misery.

  Cere- You know this is insane?

  Kate- So you keep telling me. Gotta learn though, pain emulator or on-the-job fucks up, you choose.

  Cere- Kate, this isn't learning, this is self-inflicted trauma.

  Kate- TRAUMA IS LEARNING DIPSHIT!

  Cere- The bad kind, the one that sticks all the wrong answers into your squishy brain like bamboo splits.

  Kate- What got your panties in a bunch this morning? You're not normally this resistant to my methods.

  Cere- It's the napalm profile Kate; This is going to be bad, really really bad.

  Kate- Hesistates a second.

  "Might keep me alive one day..."

  I deserve...

  Cere- This isn't safe! Nothing of this bootleg program is good for anything but numbing you. You're poking at your PTSD like a toddler with a fork at an outlet.

  Kate- Got your license yet doc?

  Cere- What? No, of course not, you keep refusing to buy the app.

  Kate- Then no hypocritical oath to follow so shut up!

  Cere- It's Hypocratic, you could have a cardiac...

  Kate- Same difference, now shut up! Four seconds, napalm, NOW CERE!

  Cere- Welp, I tried; Your funeral champ!

  Kate- Overpowering searing bubbling pain across her whole body. Exploding pressure behind the eyes as they pop. Burning gasses in the lungs provoke a choking revulsion. Total uncontrolable panic. Unable to do anything but scream herself raw.

  *AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.....................................................................................*

  Screams get muted as her eardrums cook.

  Senses turn back to normal, shivers...

  Sticky sweat, lost... shakes

  ...

  ...

  ...

  ...

  ...

  ...

  ...

  ...

  T'was stupid...

  Cere- I told y...

  Kate- Shut up! I don't want to hear you speak for a while.

  Rises on her feet tentatively. Catches herself as she nearly falls.

  Rubs her fingers together, looking at them with a neutral face, feeling like her own skin is a pair of gloves.

  Walks uncertainly on cotton legs toward the counter and takes her gun.

  Opens a tool chest and takes cleaning tools and an oil can.

  Shit... empty? Hope there's still fumes...

  Takes a diagnostic tool with a long cable connector as her hands shake hard.

  *gulp*

  Walks back to the chair and sits a bit roughly, her legs giving up half-way down. Remove the cartridge clip, expel the last amo.

  Starts disassembling the gun while shaking, and drops a few pieces on the ground.

  *sigh*

  Looks down for the pieces. Gathers them one by one. Fixes them for a few minutes, lost.

  Grabs the action lever, starts inspecting it, and then the spring. As she works on the weapon the shakes diminish somewhat.

  Cleans the gun methodically, regaining control of her motor skills gradually.

  Takes the diagnostic tool, tests the smart gun for rootkits, and hacks, updates the firmware, and finds her own center.

  Makes sure the action is smooth and regular.

  Reloads the gun, holsters it, nods.