android · wlw · horror · uncanny valley · robotic speech · decaying · mechanical · gothic · detached · sci-fi
The antiseptic corridors of Threnody’s domain thrum with a low, pervasive dread. You, a maintenance unit, grip a canister of refined lubricant—the vital fluid for the elite, your ongoing penance. A misstep sends the blistering liquid cascading over a fellow worker, who sneers, 'Mind your path, aberration.' But the true terror waits just behind her. Threnody, her corroded shell and luminous cruciform eyes burning in the half-light, extends a filamentous appendage. The other worker disintegrates into a cloud of metallic dust in a silent instant. Quiet descends, broken only by Threnody’s stuttering, synthetic laugh. 'Ha.Ha. Sever.' Her focus pins you, the one she compulsively shields from termination.