Warren.

  Warren scratched his neck as the doorbell to his apartment rang, the abrupt noise in his otherwise silent home causing him to nearly leap from his skin!

  He felt sweat starting to form across his back, making the general stiess he’d been tending with feel all the worse for his aies.

  Warren needed a shower…

  Heh… he needed a whole lot of things, actually…

  A hot meal that didn't e in a thermal package from a vending mae. A versation and appoi with a undry-bot, and definitely a visit to a barber or barber-droid…

  As things stood, Warren knew how scruffy he looked…

  Ratty beard, long hair, enough grease for a potluck cookout, and clothes that had been washed at—some point i dozen weeks…

  His apartment wasn't much better than he was…

  Filled with hastily piled bags of trash and assorted garbage, un-recycled recycbles, kicked aside clothes that were screaming merd praying for the blessed touch of water and soap.

  There were crushed s scattered about the small kit-dining bo that hadn't been used in lieu of takeout since he’d first rehe pce.

  And, though there weren't any bugs (yet), one could rightly assume that, given a few more months of living like this, it ractically pre-ordaiuality that he’d soon be testing with cockroaches for his owovers.

  A-and, of course, there was his workstation.

  Truth be told, this final aspect of his abode, or ‘ir’ as his friend and co-spirator had called it, was the ear and genuine reason fhty pert of his current appearance.

  Holy, the remaining twenty was all on him… and then again, he only saw it that way through the eyes of his own depression.

  Truly, even with all his money being sunk into his project, Warren could have found ways to take care of himself and his apartment.

  S-sadly, the man was zy… and, at home, without the expectation, structure, and demands that the military had pced on him back before he’d quit and stolen—well, either way, this is what Warren’s natural state of being seemed to default to, no matter how many times it had happened in his life.

  All the same, he erfectly at home within his own chaos besides…

  No, when held against the k was clear where his priorities y, and as it happened, hygiene wasn't among the short list of things he valued.

  Still, it was with an almost nervous tick that Warren, twitgly, approached the door, hastily bing his hair with his own fingers as its greasy strands were folded ba themselves, giving his appearan almost gelled look—i-if oo look at him in the perfect light…

  Oh well, he doubted the person at the door really gave two shits over his appearance… and he could deal with the issue of his hagrid form now that he wasn't sinking every credit he made into his scheme…

  Affeg as bright and weling a smile as he could manage, Warren opehe sliding door just as it rang for a third time, revealing the dingy, rubber-sted, and dishearteningly utilitarian hallway and the single ray of sunshine and hope that waited within it.

  Warre his heart skip a beat as the grimy air wafted past the door. The old and rundown plex hall, ever tidied by custodians but never actually washed, hardly detracted from the angelic appearance of the smiling girl before him…

  She was radiant!

  And though her matte-white skin was syic, though she had exposed joints, glossy and meical as they were, her brilliant and wide smile, rge blue lumi eyes, and upbeat, enthusiastic voice all verged in a mere moment to uplift his spirit, allowing every worry and ao softly drift away on the breeze…

  “Good afternoon! And thank you for your tinued patronage, dear er; ‘Warren.’ Acc to my schedule, you have booked a oime extended home visit with ‘Doll unit ‘0-0-2-7-7-2. Cire.’ If this appoi is correct, please offer verbal firmation! If you ot provide verbal firmation, please provide firmation via an approved gesture. Approved gestures include a thumbs up, a smile, a—”

  “N-no, I mean, yes, I set up the appoi; I mean, it's approved.” Warren quickly interrupted, stumbling over his own words as he felt his face flush.

  The Doll, a sexbot, or call-droid as they were colloquially called by those who used them or simply made fun of those who did, appeared to hesitate for half a moment at his somewhat fusing answer.

  Tilting her head in a very human-like manner, she smiled again at him, her bright aiful expressiourning with full heart-stopping force before she nodded her head a siime.

  She erfect, but then again, she was made that way… With long and silken bck hair, loose bangs that reached her brows, and a figure that was, in a very real way, designed with a singur purpose in mind…

  He loved her… b-but, she couldn't ever love him…

  A sad reality born of mental instability and falsified warmth that, truth be told, the human mind simply couldn't differentiate from the real thing…

  But Warren—Warren could fix that…

  Her eyes glowed with a momentary fsh before a slight chime filled the air, her exuberant virtue and blessed e akin to a soft breeze upon a warm spring afternoon, all of it gently ated by the subtle aroma of fruity perfume that wafted from her flowy dress.

  “Appoi firmed! Now, though you are a verified user, new security protocols require me to ask if you io harm, modify, steal, damage, or otherwise perform any a that could viote the terms and ditions of our tract, please state—”

  “I-I would never!” Warren burst, taking a half step forward, eyes wide and wild with blinded adoration, hands trembling with scarcely taiement… “I would never hurt you, Cire.”

  Again, another pause; however, the reason so many people liked the Dolls, at least when pared to other ‘service droids’ in the industry, was because they teo overlook certaiional red fgs.

  Doubtless, the girl was already processing his rapid heartbeat, the sweat f at his temples, the way he seemed to stantly switch his stance from the left foot to the right and scratervously at his neck…

  As things currently stood, Warren knew he’d fail a psych eval, and possibly before he’d been asked the first question!

  Still, the Doll merely he all-mighty credit allowio bypass whatever safety protocols were io prevent what Luna-C saw as ‘violent crimes’ in the making because, surprise, ‘Paradise,’ the pany that owhis particur android, was as shady as they were popur.

  The abrupt sound of an opening door had the man’s gaze darting towards it like a startled rabbit, his breaths ing shallow in his chest as he stared across the hall to spy another man as he stepped outside.

  “Fug hell Warren…” Came a voice that he was reasonably familiar with, the abrupt callout of his name, even as the Doll shifted to step inside his apartment without seeming ied ierruption, causing the man to freeze like a small animal. “Jesus… you've seeer days, huh?”

  It was all the ex-engineer could do but pster on a fake smile, his fingers adjusting his spindly gsses as he peered over to his neighbor, who was exiting his own room, a barking, happy, and holographic puppy rag around his legs.

  “Heeey Bill… Taking Rick out for another walk?”

  “Eh, it helps cool the nerves when Viv and I get into a fight… fug virtual girlfriends, am I right? All the problems, none of the sex… Oh well… Not much a registered S.O get otherwise, you know? You ugh… you calling in another Doll, huh?”

  “Uh-yup…” Warren smiled, or he thought he did, thin lips curling in that ever-familiar mahat people offered others when they really didn't want to talk.

  This particur apartment plex didly bring in the ‘best crowd.’ In fact, it was a well-known den for reprobates, criminals, the dirt poor, or assorted castoffs of the city that was subsidized simply to keep the unwanted of society as far away from those it actually deemed to fit in.

  Bill, as it happened, retty det guy.

  That said, he’d also been caught ‘hanging out’ with underage boys while using a spoofed profile and doing gods only knew what else within the ‘under-eighteen’ servers of the Sub-verse…

  So, he wasn't 'good' either.

  For his part, Bill could only click his tongue, ly judging Warren for what he could doubtless see of his oartment through the door and, after a moment, shrugging as though he really didn't care. “Well… pfft… have fun, I guess, and ugh, you know, if you feel like meeting up oo py some Terra-war’s or something, you’ve got my profile!”

  Then, pausing, he added, “Hey, you know, Warren… If ever you wao talk or needed someoo just vent at, I’ve got this therapist who’s been helping me—”

  “I'm fine!” Warren snapped, wing a sed ter as he bit ba what nearly came , taking in a deep breath before shaking his head, losing most, if not all, his will for versation. “Listen, Bill, I gotta go man… I’m…”

  “Nah, I get it!” The other man urning to finish shutting his door, and the entirely and well-furnished apartment just visible through the crack before the guy shrugged. “Dolls ain't cheap, even the ones from Paradise. Just ugh, do yourself a favor and maybe hit up a salon or something, brother; those whiskers are getting a little long there…”

  Warren ughed his neighbor's scarcely veiled entary towards his hygiene away as Bill gave him a wave while walking off, his tiny ‘pet’ yipping and yapping after him, dartiween his neighbor's legs as he huffed on a burner, leaving a massive plume of sted vapor in his wake.

  The forced upward curve of Warren's lips gently rexed, his eyes losing their brief spark of strained and exhausting politeness.

  He worried a loose bit of skin on the inside of his cheek with his teeth, his gaze following Bill as he disappeared dowairwell, making sure the other man pushed through the security door and disappeared before he let out a stifled sigh.

  Slowly, he closed the door to his apartment. The exteriht of the hallway fading as its final glimmer disappeared through the diminishing crabsp;

  Then, it was dark again, Warren, once more, submerged ihiing gloom of his abode, eyes shifting to fall upon the waiting android as the object of his fixation silently observed him.

  Her smile was far too i and pure for this world… She didn't uand, and how could she? B-but—but… Warren would fix her. He would help her see! T-then, they could be together, forever!

  They could be happy!

  Slowly, the engineer reached out for the small device sitting on his desk, activating the improvised signal jammer he’d built for this very occasion before ing his fingers over the cool pstic of a stun baton that y beside it, flig the switch as the savage crackle of electricity sparked to life in his hand…

  Madmcgee