Cire.

  “Well, well, we—”

  “Dude, for real?” Rebecterrupted, letting out a long sigh of exasperation while the man now leaning against the building just stuck his finger up at the tall girl while taking a drag from his burner.

  “Fine, ruin all my fun! You know, if yonna keep calling me a ‘bad guy,’ you could at least let me monologue.”

  “Nobody wants to hear it, Chris… Seriously, just fuck off.”

  The man merely gri her, ign her ent to gesture with his at Cire. “Got money for a hooker but not for your tab, eh? Strahat… And here I thought, just this m, Ronnie ‘eared some sob story from ya about paying us— week.”

  Rebecca fli that, her mouth opening a fra before the much smaller and, holy, detly dressed man just let out a bark of a ugh at her, his plume of smoke pushing right into her face, but dissipating quickly thereafter.

  “Right, so here’s the thing, Beck. I like ya, I really do. You’ve a det head on your shoulders, ha! Not fug ho, but det for these parts all the same. So, Imma do ya a solid ‘an assume you’ve got enough cred to pay me—and that there high-priced bot. Else, we’re ing for your ovaries!”

  “Ugh, that’s not even funny…”

  “Yeah… ain't like those would sell for fuck all. Still!” the gangster chirped, expression amused as it was unhurried, “I don't o warn ya that we won't be breaking those pretty legs of yours; oh no, those are worth a det penny… Nay, we’ll just fug saw your arms and legs right off, repossess whatever else we’re owed, then leave ya bleeding ireet!”

  He took another cheery puff, rge and thick brows moving along with idle i, as if taking a moment to enjoy the fvor before pointing a fi Rebecca’s chest, who, by trast, looked to be trying very hard to hold her tongue.

  “Listen… I get it, bad decision, poor impulse trol; I’ve heard it all before, kid! Seriously though, this is gonna be week ‘three’ that you’re te on payment. And one of irls or not, you know Big P ain't gonna abide by no-one who 't square their debts. So, go fuck your prostitute, the y ass back out here and earn some fug cred!”

  “With what jobs? You fuckers don't hand me anything 'moral' that pays more than scraps!”

  “Then take the ohat do pay more than scraps,” Chris shot back, a now dangerous and predatleam in his eye. “The fuck you think we fihose arms and legs for? etic appeal? Put ‘em to fug use ive ‘em the fuck back. Either way, you’ve got until tomorrow to pay your due. Then—hmph… well, I ain't gotta say it twice.”

  The two stared at each other in mutual silence for a time, her saying a word, though the only one who was actually getting upset was Beckie.

  And, as if sensing that, the gangster grinned, giving her a wink befesturing at Cire with his . “How about it? Maybe I'll give ya ara day extension if you send that girl over to my apartment instead of yours.”

  “A day?”

  “Eh, day and a half?”

  “Fuck you, dickhead…” Beckie grumbled, pushing past the chug man as Cire followed silently behind.

  Only when they were through the lobby and heading into the elevator, did Cire bother to speak, and again, she only did so after turning off the camera that was watg them.

  “Wao curb-stomp his sanity?”

  “You do what now?”

  “Curb-stomp his sanity.” Cire reiterated, grinning while miming a fairly explicit act with her fingers. “These bots do some fug crazy shit. Holy, half of it's not even avaible to the public! I could have him begging for ‘walkies’ on all fours and barking like a dog in like, four hours, tops.”

  “Pfft!” The irl couldn't help it, and she ht snorted, a little bit of snot esg her nose, whily made her ugh harder.

  Cire giggled as well, more because Beckie had just pulled off a snot-rocket, rather than the part about leading the gangster around by a leash. Oh no, she retty serious about that, and reasonably fident besides. All the rger girl had to do was say the word, and Cire would get to business!

  Holy, she thought it would be pretty fun to break someone over her knee like that. And, the guy really hadn't been that hard on the eyes… Plus, he’d been ! A genuine uni of priene in a district that seemed to reject soap like it might early give them cer.

  “Okay—ha! Real talk, are you actually a programmer from Pts? Because that shit right there was too on the nose for some chick I’ve been assuming liked to walk around with a perma ass-wedgie all day.”

  “Gross—”

  “You’re not denying it!”

  “Eh, does it really matter where I e from?”

  Beckie paused, gng at her sidelong for several moments before letting out angle, shrugging her shoulders in reply while dropping the topic a moment ter.

  “So, obviously, you got to see that I’m ly swimming in cash—” she began, pausing as the elevator door chimed, and they stepped out onto the sixth floor.

  From there, they headed halfway down the hall, Beckie pausing at a nondescript door that was the same as all the others before she tapped her finger on the pad, and it opehe girl taking in a deep breath as she did so. “So, the aodations are gonna be pretty humble…”

  Humble.

  Humble?

  “Christ—it's worse than the Meadows…”

  “Wait, you’ve seen the inside of the Meadows?” Beckie asked, her attention snapping to Cire with ser-like focus. “Is it—”

  “Not fug worth it.” The android answered, not needing to uand what exactly the girl was asking.

  Still, as Cire headed into the dreary, grimy, disgustingly mold-ied interior, her eyes blinking with genuine surprise, she couldn't help but turn back to the girl and ameatement. “Okay—maybe there’s merit to it…”

  “Fuck you! It’s not that bad, is it?”

  “Pffft…” Pnting her hands on her hips, Cire took a detailed analysis of the room and came to the unanimous decision that, square inch for inch, it was about as bad as Warren’s.

  Now, it was essential to distinguish a few things, primarily that Warren’s apartment had been filled with trash. Beckie, by trast, seemed to be quite . The thing was, it didn't matter how tidy one was, not when the pce looked like it o be sed in fire…

  “You didn't do all this—right?”

  “No, there’s a problem with the ventition…” Beckie grumbled, pushing her way in and closing the door. “Building has a spore problem. No matter how much you it, it all just es right back.”

  “That’s not healthy!” Cire ughed, uo help herself. It was so ridiculous! Sure, she’d been in some somewhat rank pces, but this was the first time she’d been in one where the building itself was the problem...

  Usually, it was the people, not the other way around! Yet, even as Cire reached out, trying to get an uanding of what was going on, she quickly realized the situation.

  “Purification filters say they’re eighteen cycles overdue for ging…” she muttered, her voice causing the irl to peer over her shoulder. “Also, there’s some sort of brea the AC system… I don't... Hmmm, it looks like the efficy is way off… I only assume warm air is ing in from the outside through some opening and—probably filling the vents with mold as well? Holy, this pce is a fug shithole… why do you stay here?”

  “How do you know all that, not five minutes into being here?”

  “I’m good at hag things.”

  “R-right… A-and, I guess the ao the other question is—well, because I somewhat afford it.”

  “Somewhat?”

  “Not rich, remember?” Beckie stated, drawing her words out while the woman disappeared into an adjat closet.

  Like many apartments, this one was id out in a reasonably familiar ‘singles’ desig for one or two people at most, and evehey’d have to be intimate for it really to work.

  In all hoy, it was more of a bachelor or, in this case, bachelorette pad where the living room, kitette, and bedroom were all part of the same space.

  Off to the side, there was a small water closet that, from the schematics she’d already pilged, she knew wasn't at all rge. Likewise, there was a small walk-in closet adjat to the powder room, which reached the other end of the wall, thus making the spae big square.

  “Pink or bck?” Beckie called, and Cire could only wonder after the actual value of wearing anything that came out of a pce like—well, this…

  “Bck—I guess?”

  “Probably better for blending in.” The irl ented, ing back out a moment ter and tossing a few things her way.

  Cire caught the oversized hoodie, sniffing at it, and, no surprise, it smelled like mildew… Still, she pulled it over her shoulders, sighing all the while. At this point, Cire was just accepting her fate…

  soling herself that, with any lud faith in her own abilities, she’d be free from this nd of fungi, and hopefully, soohao boot.

  However, when she g the, well, the other articles of clothing she’d been thrown, Cire holy felt at a loss as to what to do…

  “There’s—no way any of this will fit me…”

  “Yeah, figured I’d give you the option anyway.”

  “Thanks…” Cire began, lifting a pair of frankly enormous panties before tossing them right back. “But I think I’ll just use my ‘ptes’ for now. The hoodie is long enough to reach my knees anyways…”

  “Ha! Yeah, you look like a fucked-up teddy bear! Fug straight out of a horror movie…”

  “Horror?”

  “Yeah, like an AI caretaker goes crazy, disappears the wife, then tries to suppnt her pce after falling in love with the husband? You look exactly like that one—mmmhmm; I want to say an Izzazi flick? Either way, the robot, like, totally goes plete psycho for whatever reason, and she gets this, like, giahing for the kid, but instead of, you know, just giving it to him, she fug cuts it open and hides inside!

  “Then, holy shit, she fug tears it open from the inside while the kid's sleeping so that only her head and arms are poking out, then, freaking tries to cuddle the poor fucker while he’s sleeping! Oh god, that shit literally gave me nightmares when I was younger!”

  “I’d imagine…” Cire ented, her tone dry as could be.

  “What? Not into horror?”

  “More that it doesn't make sense… I mean, a real A.I. would realize it wouldn't ever work, so she’d just secretly download the family’s brains into a personal instan the Sub-verse, and then she could live out her happy fantasy knowing the family loved her as much as she did! Plus, then she’d get to torture the mother over and ain—assuming that’s what she wao do. That way, nobody would know she’d gone crazy, and she could just keep doihing while living her happily ever after!”

  “Fuck…” Beckie whispered, eyes shooting wide as she stared at Cire as though she were a monster. ”Okay, that shit would make for such a fantastic sequel! Was that all off the top of your head?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Ugh! I fug wish I knew how to do movies… Dude, that would literally make bank! I swear to god, people would be losing their shit and jumping at Dolls for fug years after something like that!”

  However, after a moment, the rger girl’s smile faltered, all her prior enthusiasm fading as she let out a long breath and slumped on her couch… “Ugh… It would be awesome if I could pay Big P back with a movie script… I'm—so fucked, it's not even funny… Shit! They’re gonna take my freaking legs!”

  “Like, actually?”

  “Yes, fug, actually!” Beckie ughed, her tone jovial, but only because it hid the misery just below the surface.

  “And, what do you even do for money, exactly?”

  “I’m a goon…”

  “Like—”

  “Yes! A goon! A freaking hen, a goddamn mook! I do jobs for the local syndicate a paid actual credits, like, double digits, for most of it…”

  Cire’s lips thio a small li that, her expression twisting with mild s while trying for all the world to uand why anyone would work for so little…

  “Yeah, I see that face…” Beckie tinued, groaning while leaning bad closing her eyes. “But I don't like hurting people, alright? At least not ‘good people,’ so that means half the jobs are ht there… Mostly, I just brawl with angs… If there’s a fight going dowurf or beef, I’ll go crae heads, make some cred, then go sit on the bend wait until something else goes down. It's, ugh, holy pretty easy, for the most part… but holy, it's a lot of sitting around as well…”

  “So, you’re zy?”

  “I’ll work!” Beckie pined, gring at Cire as she did so, “I just don't want to fuck with people like Gunther all day! Poio a fight, and I’ll fight, but… I mean… fuck…”

  Cire wasly sure what she should tell the girl. After all, the answer seemed pretty straightforward. Beckie had no money, so she needed more of it! And it wasn't just going to magically ‘show up’ while she sat around and waited for it…

  “Hey, ugh, are you going to get in trouble for beating the hell out of all those dudes when I first saw you?”

  Immediately, Beckie’s eyes shot wide, and she bolted upright, almost as if her mind had been repressing that little issue, right before she fell back down…

  “Alright, so—I know Gunther said you're my responsibility and all, but you may actually o go find another pce to hang out. I might just be murdered in my sleep tonight before the syndicate chops off my limbs—after they put a bullet in my head…”

  Harsh!

  But Cire had her own opinions oter. And, strangely enough, she was growing to like her new big dumb roommate, just enough that she decided to do something about it...

  Heh... She really did have a thing for stray dogs...