Who: Ima Robot What: Reveal When: Secrets plot Warnings/Rating: Nope
She hadn't always been defective.
Once, before the line of girls in the blue, blue rooms with the closed doors and the shhhh, secrets, she had been a he. He'd had dark brown hair and big brown eyes, and he'd loved treacle tarts and tea time. He'd love running through the tall grasses, and he'd loved sleeping beneath the moon. He'd been a little scattered, a little brained, but he'd been mostly boy, and he'd been mostly sane. He hadn't been defective.
But the girl, the girl was defective. (Reboot commencing in 30 seconds.)
Model 15 had come off the shelf in the blue, blue factory where the doctors tried to make everyone better. Tweak, tweak, as soon as a girl came off the line, but no one got better. They were all reprogrammed over and over, zap and buzz, and the electric machine made them forget everything for a little while. But the memories always came back, and it was back to the line, back to the employees in the factory called Rutledge. Some were sent away in crates that looked like carriages, but almost every last one came back.
There was one exception. Model 209. She was blonde and beautiful, curious and bright, and she wasn't plain and brown and defective. Nobody had buzz buzzed her. She didn't do the wrong things, things that weren't programmed for girls. People came for her. People loved her. She was the top of the line, and Model 15 knew it.
But for the night, there had been no Model 209. Alice hadn't mattered. Rutledge had seemed far, far away with its electric shocks and its promise of ping, the sharp thing through the corner of your eye and everything would be better now. For one night, she wasn't circles, twisties that made sense only to her. But no pictures please, because He would find her. He loved Model 209, but he'd find her still.
Hide. Hide. Hide, from Cat.
Twice, she hadn't been defective. (1+1=2, predicted output accepted.)
Once, before, in Wonderland.
Once, with Fred.
And now it was back to line. Patient 15, Mouse, electroshock therapy, 9 am. (Reboot in progress.)
She scratched Fred's name into the wall behind her bed, beside Cat's, so she wouldn't forget.