Chapter Text
before you start reading, I offer a music playlist ive assembled for this chapter that you can play in the background in case anyone likes to read w/ music to get in the vibe :) optional ofc. If you want to play it I recommend you right-click and "open in a different/new tab" (press and hold if you're on mobile) so you don't accidentally close this fic out.
>click here!<
(songs used will be listed at the end of the chapter.)
(IMPORTANT NOTICE: IF YOU ARE ON A PHONE PLEASE TILT YOUR DEVICE SIDEWAYS [LANDSCAPE MODE] AS OTHERWISE THE IMAGES WILL APPEAR VERY SMALL!)
For some context, about thirty minutes ago N showed up at the Doorman residence and barged through the housing unit’s front door with a pillow in hand; exclaiming “ SURPRISE!!! ” before promptly announcing he was here for a spontaneous sleepover with Uzi. Much to the dismay of Khan, but his objections weren’t taken into serious consideration by Uzi as she dragged her best friend into her bedroom in total ignorance to her father’s protests.
Then, for the next couple of minutes, the two proceeded to prep Uzi's room for a two-person sleepover which ended up leading to many blankets and pillows being laid out upon the floor after following some ‘bedroom aesthetic sleepover’ search results the worker had pulled up on her sticker-coated laptop. It didn't look great, or much like the pictures they were basing it on, but it was good enough– at least to Uzi's standards. N on the other hand looked over the moon with how everything came together, behaving as if this was one of the greatest sights he’s ever had the blessing to see.
Uzi looked over at N, “Me neither,” she responded, “I sorta don't know what we're supposed to be doing here. My classmates never really invited me to their sleepovers for… obvious reasons.” that being her classmates either hated her or failed to remember her existence too much to even consider giving her an invitation (not that she would even go if she had got an invitation, but, y’know).
“Well!” N began, “I've seen in movies that they stay up really late watching movies, playing board games, and doing that thingy where they gather around in a circle to spin a green bottle and the person it lands on has to either answer a question or do something.”
“The last one sounds like the truth or dare version of Spin The Bottle. We could do that although it'd only be the two of us and Spin The Bottle typically works better with a group of people, at bare minimum a trio.” Uzi explained, “ Also, I didn't know you had movies?” she added on with a raised brow. JCJenson didn't seem like the type to supply their genocide bots with nice items.
“Yeah! When I'm scouring the city for, y’know–” oil , Uzi clued in, “– I sometimes come across some frozen DVD cases which I'll try to thaw out to watch on the landing pod's monitor.”
Ah, well that made more sense. “Right,” the girl said.
“Anyhow,” N returned to topic, “As for the Spin The Bottle thing, I don't mind us being underneath the usual player amount. Any game is fun as long as you're here with me, Uzi!” He said, looking down at the worker with a wide, friendly grin.
Blush lines popped onto Uzi's screen against her will and the worker wanted to thoroughly slap herself across the visor for it; Ugh, come on , Uzi. He's just a friend. That sentence wasn't even implying anything, either! “O-Okay then! I, uh, can go find us a bottle to use from the kitchen.– Tthen see if I can find a movie and boardgame too, sounds good?” She said a bit flusteredly, slightly tilting her head away in an attempt to hide the blush.
N gave her a thumbs up, “Yep!”
—————
Uzi was in the kitchen combing through the various cabinets’ holdings, which consisted mainly of old kitchenware that hadn't been touched in robo-god knows how long, for a sufficient spinning bottle. To mention, worker drones didn't need to eat – being drones and all – and would instead regain energy by plugging themselves into a bedside charger. Because of that plates and such weren't really used much except in the small occasions of filling up a cup with gasoline or filling a bowl with batteries to snack on.
The kitchen’s atmosphere was dead silent, a horrendous tension lingering in the air; tacitly urging Uzi to hurry up and find a bottle and some games so she could run back into the comforting confines of her bedroom like a spooked robo-roach.
Most of which she's contributing to the fact she could practically feel her dad's eyes boring into her from afar. She knew he wasn’t happy with N being here.
“So,” Khan – her father – began slowly, Uzi didn’t bother to make eye contact. “How long is it staying over for…?”
Uzi blinked, her head slowly turning to face her dad. He was at the kitchen table sipping at a cup of coolant. “ It? ” She repeated indignantly.
“Uhm–” Digital sweat briefly appeared on Khan’s visor, “Your… Murder friend.”
Uzi’s eyelights narrowed, “First and foremost, N is not an it . Second, he’ll be staying until next night seeing he won’t be able to leave in the morning. Robo-vampire and all.” She said as she finally found a suitable bottle; a champagne-shaped blue-tinted glass container. It was unsurprisingly dusty as all robo-hell so she began swiping it off.
Khan didn’t like that answer very much, “Ah, I see, that’s… Great.” He strained to say.
Uzi gave her father the side-eye before quietly moving on, going into their living room to pick up a board game and movie; she knew they had a few rarely-played tabletop games and movies lying around collecting dust somewhere. As the worker searched she mused over her interaction with her father; Khan had never been that approving of her friendship with N since the beginning. Before he had tried to somewhat passively pull them apart- attempting to pair her up with other worker drones her age in hopes she’d start preferring to ‘hang out with her own kind’ (note: that dreadful prom), but now he’s just taken a backseat. Letting her and N be with just a constant disapproving atmosphere. It wasn’t great, but it was better.
Standing on her tippy-’toes’ (they didn’t have toes, just jointed metal), she managed to reach an old Jenga box and movie case that was situated on the top row of a metallic bookshelf. Without sparing a singular word to her father (Uzi tried her best not to even look at him as she passed by) she would head straight back to her room with haste.
...
“Got everything!” Uzi announced upon entry, shutting the bedroom door behind her with her foot.
N – who was previously lying down on his backside, curiously staring up at Uzi’s newly remade conspiracy ceiling – jolted back up into a sitting position in excitement upon the girl’s re-entrance, “ – Is that Jenga?!”
“One and only,” She plopped the bottle, movie, and Jenga down in the center of their floor blanket before sitting down herself. “You've played it before?”
“No, but I've wanted to,” N told, “V and J never could play with me, they were always too busy with hunting and stuff. Every time I wanted to invite them to a game their schedules always happened to be supeeer booked with other things they needed to do – which is understandable!... It’s just a little disappointing, I guess.”
Judging from the treatment the other disassembly drones gave him, Uzi had a strong feeling his squadmates were just coming up with excuses not to play with him. But she wouldn't verbalize it; “Well, I played this with my father once or twice in the few times he bothered to hang out with me so I can teach you how to play,” She began, “I also found an old copy of SnowBuddies gathering dust on our shelf and I figured you'd like watching it.” Uzi remembered being obsessed with the movie when she was a lot younger, like back near the days of pill-baby younger, and it’s been years since she revisited her favorite childhood movie.
N curiously picked up the case, the wag returning to the murder drone’s tail and his eyes slightly widening upon seeing the cover, “Uzi, is this a dog movie?! And they’re golden retrievers!– Besides one, that one at the top is a little husky!~”
Uzi chuckled, finding his reaction amusing, “Yep! It's an Airbud spin-off franchise I think, that's what I remember my dad telling me at least. Saw it and thought you might enjoy it.”
She continued, “So which one do you want to do first? We can do Jenga, Spin The Bo–”
“Movie.” N cut off with an excited grin, holding the DVD case out to Uzi, “– Sorry for cutting you off, that was a little rude, but I really want to watch the dog movie first. Please?”
She took it with a small laugh, “ Okaay , request accepted. Hold on.” Uzi got up to fetch the external DVD player in her desk’s drawer and hooked it up to her laptop. “Hopefully you don't mind dealing with a little laptop screen, though. I don’t feel like dragging the living room TV into here, nor do I think my dad would let me.” The worker added, bringing the laptop down onto their little assortment of blankets and cushions.
“Oh, I don’t mind!” N told cheerily, his tail lightly thumping against the blanketed floor. Once Uzi set the laptop down the disassembly drone abruptly stood up, and without a word of explanation began to collect fluffy pillows and form them into a little pile where he was previously sitting.
Uzi raised a brow as she watched him, “What are you doing?” She asked.
“Making a pillow nest,” N simply replied, repositioning the collection of pillows into a little circular bed. Then he flopped down on it similar to how a cat would, getting comfortable. “Ready for the movie!”
The worker stared at his work, “That looks comfy,” Uzi said, “Got… Room by chance?” …was that weird to ask?
N wordlessly nodded, not seeming to mind as he happily got back up and gathered more pillows to extend his little pillow pile. He then laid back down and patted the pillows beside him once he was finished, looking at Uzi expectantly.
Uzi thanked N before clicking on the movie and settling down beside him on the cushions, the murder drone's eyes being locked onto the small laptop screen the millisecond the opening credits began.
When the first dog appeared on screen, N began squealing; “That's an Alaskan Malamute!- I think? Their mouth looks weird, uhm. Are they mixed?”
The worker shrugged, they honestly didn't know much about dogs, “I think it's just the mouth CGI.” Uzi guessed.
“Maybe,” N said.
The two drones would watch the talking dog movie. While viewing the film N couldn't help but chime in with some of the occasional golden retriever facts whenever the moment called for it (or, more like whenever the movie gave him an excuse to enthusiastically ramble on about his favorite dog breed for a good ten minutes before apologizing and resuming the movie) which led the worker to come out of this experience with renewed nostalgic love for her childhood movie and at least twenty-nine new dog facts by the end.
Afterward, they started playing an intense game of Jenga (which Uzi lost at, thrice,) and then played a very scuffed game of Spin The Bottle. It wasn’t really Spin The Bottle honestly, since it was only the two of them and because there ended up being mainly only truths – which turned it into just an average conversation between the duo, just with a spinning bottle being a third wheel. But regardless, they had fun.
When the clock struck 3 AM was when Uzi started getting low on battery, dropping down to 15%, which urged N to convince her that it was time to do the sleep part of a sleepover.
N and Uzi shared a bed due to the lack of alternative options (no way Uzi was letting N sleep on the floor or take the couch and there wasn’t anything in her room for him to hang upside down on). N’s side of the bed was utterly barren of any covers or sheets as the disassembly had rejected them and pushed it all to Uzi’s side in preference for just extending his wings and enclosing himself like a bat instead; finding more comfort in using his wings as a blanket. Which Uzi had no problem with, more cover for her.
The worker wouldn’t say this aloud, but it was really nice to be recharging in the company of N. Especially with how hard falling asleep has been for Uzi lately, being alone in the dark with your own traumatized thoughts attacking you. Sinking in haunting visuals of the countless classmates she’s murdered – she never liked her classmates, but she never wanted to see their mangled, gorey half-consumed bodies scattered across the snowy landscape in oily pieces. Nor did she want to be the one to have done it, to have all that oilshed on her hands. But she did. She ruthlessly attacked and emotionally tortured her now-deceased classmates before eating them, some of which alive . (And! To make this even better! not only would she legally be considered a serial killer now if word got out that V wasn’t the one who ate the teens, but she’s also a cannibal now, too! Isn’t that great?! Ahaha! Isn’t that incredible?! ISN’T IT? )
… But, anyway; It was nice recharging in the company of N. Usually having to deal with these thoughts alone until you eventually tick off into sleep mode was rough so having somebody she trusted with her tonight gave her a sense of security. Even if they weren’t actively talking, just N’s presence made things a lot better. In fact, this whole night had just been overall better for her mentally; these past hours had successfully gotten Uzi’s mind off the horrific events of the camp, she hadn’t thought about it whatsoever up until right now which was quite a feat for her. She was incredibly grateful N swung by for his little surprise sleepover because she really needed this.
Although… There was one large complaint she had about this, though.
Sonorous mechanical rumbling emitted from the opposite side of the bed.
N snored loud .
Seriously, it was like she was trying to sleep inside a factory during the holiday season. Why is his rumbling so loud?!
To drown out the sounds, Uzi pulled up a music folder on her visor and played an hour-long playlist filled with songs from her favorite band; Dead Batteries. The sound was local which meant only she could hear the music so it wouldn’t disturb N’s slumber.
The sounds of heavy rock and screamo lulled Uzi into a deep sleepmode like a (un)gentle lullaby.
.
.
.
“What are these weird purple stripes on the wall?”
“I think those are some sort of… Fire decals?”
“This is odd. And a mess, so much clutter and dust! Why are there so many sticky notes all over the walls, and what’s that on the ceiling?!”
Uzi groggily booted out of sleepmode, “Huh…?” She yawned as she sat up, her hands rubbing her visor as she blinked tiredly.
Then, her eyes hollowed and she went entirely rigid upon noticing the strangers in her living room.
There were three. One was a white-eyed male worker with short side-swept white hair wearing a black butler suit and a black hard hat to match, another was a white-eyed female worker with white short swept bangs and circular glasses wearing a maid outfit, and the last one was a white-eyed female worker with white pig-tailed hair also wearing the exact same maid outfit.
And she couldn’t help but notice how she was alone in her bed, N was gone.
“Who– Who are you guys?!” Uzi exclaimed, jolting up and scrambling out of bed – dragging clinging covers off the mattress with her. Instinctively, she moved her fingers with the intention to activate her solver but she stopped herself– No, no, no. She’s not about to kill more people, even if they’ve– they’ve straight up broken into her home. She could turn into that fleshy bat form again and kill more people, and if that happened within the bunker there’d be no saving her then. Everyone would know her for the monster she’s pretending not to be, and–
A feminine voice distracted her from her down spiral, “We should be asking you that. This clearly isn’t Elliot Manor.” The pig-tailed one said with hands on her hips.
Uzi raised a brow, “Elliot Manor?– Wait. ” She paused, that voice… “Why… Why do you sound exactly like–”
“Have we been assigned to a new location?” The one with the swept bangs spoke over Uzi, also having a strangely familiar voice.
The one in the butler suit spoke up, “Maybe, but why would we be reassigned to a new location days before the gala? I'd think Tessa's folks would've wanted all hands on deck to prepare for all the important guests.” He said. And his voice, oh, his voice .
He sounded just like N.
The one with the pigtails sounded just like J .
And the one with the bangs sounded just like V .
In fact; they looked like them too, to an extent. Like worker drone versions of the murder drones.
Uzi was so confused and frankly, a little scared too. Was this the doing of the Absolute Solver? Were these all holograms? Was that spooky-hollow-crab version of J back and she was taunting her with worker drone versions of the disassembly drones?
With a trembling hand, she reached out to grab a pen near her and tossed it at the worker with N’s voice.
It didn’t go through, it bounced off of him and landed on the floor. The butler looked down at the pen and back at Uzi in confusion, “Uhm?”
“You’re real…?” Uzi breathed out. No, no this – She didn’t know what this was but– “Why are you guys in my house?! What did you do to my best friend and why do you look and sound like worker drone versions of the disassembly drones?!”
“Your house? Wait, you own this manor?” The butler seemed to ignore the rest of the sentence and wholly focus on the ‘house’ part.
“Manor…?” Uzi was confused.
“But she's a butler…? I don't think I believe her, can drones even own property?“ The worker who looked like J questioned.
“I don’t think so,” The V-like one replied.
“But!” The N-like drone began, “When we woke up she was the only person we came online to, and usually when going to a new property the one we come online to is our owner. And don't forget she was asleep in a bed , and you know that beds are for homeowners only .
“Not only that; she also doesn't look like a butler- she's wearing casual clothing.” He added.
“So… Our new owner is a… Drone?” The V-like one looked visibly weirded out at the concept, “That’s… Interesting.”
“Well, we can’t look unprofessional then!” the J-like drone chided, “Do the introduction, now!”
Uzi blinked, “The what now–”
The three drones got into a horizontal line in front of her; J on the left, N in the middle, and V on the right. All three of them wearing welcoming grins with their gazes locked on Uzi, it made the girl feel so creeped out.
Uzi looked horrified, her jaw slacked. “N-N…? Are you… My N? What… What happened to you?”
N grinned wide, “Of course I’m your N! You’re my new owner and I’ll do whatever it takes to make you pleased, miss… Uh… Huh! Seems like I don’t know your name yet, care to introduce yourself?” He asked cheerfully.
“You… You don’t…?–” Uzi didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t believe any of this was real, this had to be some sort of trick, hallucination, a dream– Maybe she was dreaming and this was an incredibly lucid nightmare! Yes, yes– that had to be it! The worker rushed past the three servants and bolted out of her room, “I’m dreaming, I’m definitely dreaming! This is all just a weird frickin’ dream!” she repeated to herself.
...
Khan was in the living room preparing for another day of work as the WDF chief, preparing his work bag propped on the couch and filling it up with tools.
A while ago, Khan could hear the noises of his daughter talking with what he’d assume to be that murder beast she was so fond of. When he heard the sound of the bedroom door opening he turned to greet his daughter with a warm smile, “Good morning, U–” He stopped, seeing the distressed look on Uzi’s face. “What’s wrong?”
He got no response, but he quickly got his answer upon seeing three worker drones dressed in servant outfits trailing after Uzi. One of which looked exactly like that murder drone just in a worker drone form.
Khan dropped the screwdriver he was about to put into his bag, the tool falling and clattering against the metallic floor as he stared at the servant trio bewilderedly. “What in Copper-9…?”