INT. JASON’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
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[Jason closes the door and yanks the crate lid fully open. SD-A steps out casually. SD-K stumbles like a bot who just got out of a tumble dryer.]
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SD-K
“This place has the exact dimensions of a storage server error.”
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JASON
“Hey, not every bot gets to live in a luxury cube with exposed wiring, soundproof cardboard walls, and that sweet, sweet scent of overheating capacitors.”
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[He kicks aside a battery wrapper and heads to the back corner where a rusted pod charger hums next to a tiny bed (barely enough space for a mid-sized dog bot) and a curtain that hides a grimy makeshift bathroom.]
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JASON
“Alright. I’m taking a shower. You two—manage yourselves. Don’t touch the HUD terminal, don’t drink the backup coolant, and definitely don’t open the mini-fridge. I lost something in there six weeks ago, and I think it evolved.”
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[He pulls the curtain shut behind him. Mechanical sputtering starts—his shower is literally just a pipe that sprays hot mist and rattles like it’s doing taxes.]
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SD-A
(walking around, inspecting wires)
“This is actually... kind of cozy. In a pathetic, crumbling sort of way.”
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SD-K
“His bed is smaller than our coffin box.”
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[K leans down, tapping the power-charging pod with his boot. It flickers like it’s had enough of this life.]
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SD-K
“This thing’s about to file for retirement.”
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[SD-A stops in front of a half-lit terminal mounted into the wall. He pokes the screen.]
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SD-A
“He’s got records. Look.”
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[The display flickers to show Jason’s case logs, footage, and snippets of the Vision Tech propaganda posters he saw earlier.]
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SD-A
“Those terminals we found… same logos, same messaging style. Pre-Liberation design. One of them had logs mentioning Project Monolith and something called ‘IT-A03.’”
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SD-K
“‘IT-A03’... as in Ita, the moon?”
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SD-A
“Likely. I also found this symbol on one of the walls. Matches the one we saw on the parasitized bot earlier. The same one I scanned back at the hangar.”
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[He pulls up a holographic overlay: that strange emblem—almost like a hybrid between a Vision Tech seal and some organic, branching pattern.]
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SD-K
“I don’t like this. You’re saying there’s a rogue unit out there influencing bots with—what—infected metal?”
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SD-A
“More like... organically reprogrammed alloys. Based on the old tech they pulled from Ita. Vision Tech was testing it before The Liberation. That prototype might still be alive.”
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[Suddenly, the bathroom curtain slides open. Jason steps out, damp and vaguely shinier, holding a bottle of mint-scented machine oil and looking way too relaxed.]
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JASON
“Well! Nothing like a minty oil rinse and five seconds of existential silence. So—what did you break?”
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[SD-A and SD-K both look at each other. SD-K shrugs.]
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SD-K
“Your sense of privacy, probably.”
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JASON
“Ha. Jokes on you—I never had one.”
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[He flops onto the little bed, clearly too big for it, metal limbs dangling off each side like a crime scene chalk outline.]
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JASON
“Alright, lay it on me. What juicy, horrifying information did you uncover while violating my personal interface?”
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SD-A
“The infection we saw—it’s tied to Vision Tech. We think it’s linked to a prototype they were testing with organic metal from Ita. It’s... changing bots.”
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JASON
“So we’ve got a cosmic metal zombie plague and it’s made by the same people who manufactured exploding coffee mugs and emotionally unstable vending machines. Great.”
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[He takes a swig of machine oil, then makes a face.]
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JASON
“Ugh. This one tastes like disappointment and expired battery acid.”
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SD-K
“That’s probably what it is.”
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[The lights flicker. Jason squints at the ceiling, then lies back.]
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JASON
“Well... let’s enjoy our night of totally not dying. You two need rest?”
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SD-A
“We don’t sleep.”
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SD-K
“But we do recharge. And not in that pod.”
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JASON
“Smart bot. That pod hums like it’s one sneeze away from self-destruct.”
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[They all sit quietly for a moment, the muffled city sounds outside mixing with electrical buzzing inside.]
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JASON
“…Y’know, I used to think I was just a bot with a weird job and a worse apartment. But now I’ve got plague bots, parasite metal, and two illegal guests who probably snore in stereo.”
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SD-K
“I don’t snore.”
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SD-A
“He does.”
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FADE OUT.
ns216.73.216.205da2
