Datasets:
BlinAI
/
Testo

Dataset card Data Studio Files
xet
 Community
1
text
stringlengths
0
4.23k
#
I came clean to Lil about my systems that night, as we were fighting. Fighting had become our regular evening pastime, and Dan had taken to sleeping at one of the hotels on-site rather than endure it.
I'd started it, of course. "We're going to get killed if we don't get off our asses and start the rehab," I said, slamming myself down on the sofa and kicking at the scratched coffee table. I heard the hysteria and unreason in my voice and it just made me madder. I was frustrated by not being able to check in on Suneep...
From the kitchen, Lil barked back, "I'm doing what I can, Jules. If you've got a better way, I'd love to hear about it."
"Oh, bullshit. I'm doing what I can, planning the thing out. I'm ready to _go_. It was your job to get the ad-hocs ready for it, but you keep telling me they're not. When will they be?"
"Jesus, you're a nag."
"I wouldn't nag if you'd only fucking make it happen. What are you doing all day, anyway? Working shifts at the Mansion? Rearranging deck chairs on the Great Titanic Adventure?"
"I'm working my fucking _ass_ off. I've spoken to every goddamn one of them at least twice this week about it."
"Sure," I hollered at the kitchen. "Sure you have."
"Don't take my word for it, then. Check my fucking phone logs."
She waited.
"Well? Check them!"
"I'll check them later," I said, dreading where this was going.
"Oh, no you _don't_," she said, stalking into the room, fuming. "You can't call me a liar and then refuse to look at the evidence." She planted her hands on her slim little hips and glared at me. She'd gone pale and I could count every freckle on her face, her throat, her collarbones, the swell of her cleavage in the o...
"Well?" she asked. She looked ready to wring my neck.
"I can't," I admitted, not meeting her eyes.
"Yes you can -- here, I'll dump it to your public directory."
Her expression shifted to one of puzzlement when she failed to locate me on her network. "What's going on?"
So I told her. Offline, outcast, malfunctioning.
"Well, why haven't you gone to the doctor? I mean, it's been _weeks_. I'll call him right now."
"Forget it," I said. "I'll see him tomorrow. No sense in getting him out of bed."
But I didn't see him the day after, or the day after that. Too much to do, and the only times I remembered to call someone, I was too far from a public terminal or it was too late or too early. My systems came online a couple times, and I was too busy with the plans for the Mansion. Lil grew accustomed to the drifts of...
Being offline helped me focus. Focus is hardly the word for it -- I obsessed. I sat in front of the terminal I'd brought home all day, every day, crunching plans, dictating voicemail. People who wanted to reach me had to haul ass out to the house, and _speak_ to me.
I grew too obsessed to fight, and Dan moved back, and then it was my turn to take hotel rooms so that the rattle of my keyboard wouldn't keep him up nights. He and Lil were working a full-time campaign to recruit the ad-hoc to our cause, and I started to feel like we were finally in harmony, about to reach our goal.
I went home one afternoon clutching a sheaf of hardcopy and burst into the living room, gabbling a mile-a-minute about a wrinkle on my original plan that would add a third walk-through segment to the ride, increasing the number of telepresence rigs we could use without decreasing throughput.
I was mid-babble when my systems came back online. The public chatter in the room sprang up on my HUD.
_And then I'm going to tear off every stitch of clothing and jump you._
_And then what?_
_I'm going to bang you till you limp. _
_Jesus, Lil, you are one rangy cowgirl._
My eyes closed, shutting out everything except for the glowing letters. Quickly, they vanished. I opened my eyes again, looking at Lil, who was flushed and distracted. Dan looked scared.
"What's going on, Dan?" I asked quietly. My heart hammered in my chest, but I felt calm and detached.
"Jules," he began, then gave up and looked at Lil.
Lil had, by that time, figured out that I was back online, that their secret messaging had been discovered.
"Having fun, Lil?" I asked.
Lil shook her head and glared at me. "Just go, Julius. I'll send your stuff to the hotel."
"You want me to go, huh? So you can bang him till he limps?"
"This is my house, Julius. I'm asking you to get out of it. I'll see you at work tomorrow -- we're having a general ad-hoc meeting to vote on the rehab."
It was her house.
"Lil, Julius --" Dan began.
"This is between me and him," Lil said. "Stay out of it."
I dropped my papers -- I wanted to throw them, but I dropped them, _flump_, and I turned on my heel and walked out, not bothering to close the door behind me.
#
Dan showed up at the hotel ten minutes after I did and rapped on my door. I was all-over numb as I opened the door. He had a bottle of tequila -- _my_ tequila, brought over from the house that I'd shared with Lil.
He sat down on the bed and stared at the logo-marked wallpaper. I took the bottle from him, got a couple glasses from the bathroom and poured.
"It's my fault," he said.
"I'm sure it is," I said.
"We got to drinking a couple nights ago. She was really upset. Hadn't seen you in days, and when she _did_ see you, you freaked her out. Snapping at her. Arguing. Insulting her."
"So you made her," I said.
He shook his head, then nodded, took a drink. "I did. It's been a long time since I. . ."