Chapter Text
V hated people.
It wasn’t always the case, that she knew for certain. Even if her memories of before were… confused. Partial. Fragmented. She didn’t quite recall everything, but some bits of knowledge stubbornly clung onto her processor.
She hadn’t always been a maid.
She hadn’t always hated people.
She hadn’t always been called V.
But she also knew she hadn’t been happy back then. And so, she did not seek to dig any deeper. Doubtless she wouldn’t find anything worth the trouble anyways.
One did not get discarded if one was having a good time as a drone.
“Oh, V! Look! I found another one!” The excitable voice brought a smile on her face, the metal shifting slightly to reflect the warm fuzziness it elicited within her.
She turned away from dusting the shelves, facing her interlocutor. “Another one?” She asked curiously at the bright worker drone in a butler outfit standing close to her. Oh dear, that was very close. She felt a faint blush appear on her visor, struggling to keep it down. He always was good at breaking her composure.
“Yeah!” He held out a book; One of those with numerous pictures. On the cover was a goofy looking dog, its tongue lolled out. “Check it out! It looks super cute!”
She chuckled, glancing at the cover. “It is.” She hesitated, stammering a bit. “Do you think, maybe later…”
“Well duh!” He said, an amused smile on his face as he winked at her. “Why do you think I went to find it in the first place?” He added, her faceplate warming brightly as the blush only intensified. “Anyways, do you need some help with this? I’m done with my chores for the morning, so I thought…”
The sound of footsteps made both of them tense up, any hint of a blush vanishing from V’s face as she watched N’s eyes hollow out. She kept her sensors peeled as she analyzed the approaching noise. Not the almost militaristic cadence of the Elliott patriarch, not the click click of the matriarch… And nowhere near soft enough to be one of the other workers or Tessa. A guest, then.
The human walked past the library, glancing at the two with a mixed look of contempt and annoyance. “Ugh. I thought they programmed the slacker out of you lot. What are you two even doing?”
N immediately snapped to attention, his usual bright smile on his face even as she could see the hands hiding behind his back trembling. “Just ensuring the library is up to standards sir! Wouldn’t want someone to end up sneezing when trying to pick up a book!” That was N alright. He was much better at talking to the humans than the rest of them. J came across as insincere. V as too shy and, if one failed to pay proper attention, afraid. Cyn… the less said about that little weirdo the better. But N? He was the exact right blend of eagerness and surface level obliviousness that humans liked in their drones.
The human’s eyes narrowed. “Hm.” He took a few steps closer. “Well, I suppose I can hardly fault you for that.” V’s sense of alarm immediately spiked at that; That was far too accommodating for one of the master’s friends, far too understanding…
A sharp crack echoed in the air as the hand came crashing onto N’s faceplate, a small crack spreading across the visor under V’s horrified eyes. As tough as the workers were built, their visors had always been an easily exploited weakness. Intentionally, V suspected. Intellectually, V knew N wasn’t really harmed. Something like that wouldn’t trigger his pain sensors; Only a hit from one of the masters had the power to do that.
But all V could feel was the cold, familiar seething rage at seeing N fall to his knees, the light of his right eye slightly split in the middle as he kept his bright smile on his face. “Sorry sir!” He chirped with an added note of subservience and not all feigned fear, just the right amount to give the human the satisfaction of having inflicted the fear of god into them…
And as V expected, the human had an expression of cold amusement on their face. “No worries. Keep up the good work.” Without another word they turned around and left.
V stared in the direction they had left for a few seconds before N’s shuffling brought her back into the moment, helping them get up and guiding them towards Tessa’s workshop.
But even still, her processors whirred and calculated in her mind, the cold equation of a plan starting to form.
The party was going well.
She could see the master and the mistress discussing with some of the guests even as she slowly walked through the room, putting down another tray of drinks in front of a group of guests. They barely glanced at her before going back to their conversation, V already having left long before their gazes could linger.
The trick was to choose one’s moment strategically; When there was a lull in the conversation and the humans would not be upset at being interrupted by the arrival of one of the workers. V had learned that well after seeing another drone get a knife through the faceplate from a particularly irate guest one day, only for it to be brushed off after a small apology to the master for damaging his property. He’d laughed it off.
V’s oil in what passed for veins in her circuitry felt cold, cold, cold.
N wasn’t here today. She’d convinced him to spend some time with Cyn to prevent her from messing up the party by showing up and getting them all in trouble. As much as it annoyed her to leave him with that little pest…
Mine, his time, mine, all mine, not hers, why does he spend so much time with HER…
It at least got him out of the way for tonight. No suspicion upon him if he was busy.
And just on time, far back in the room, at one of the tables she very much did not serve, a familiar looking human began coughing loudly. At first this earned him little more than a confused look from those around him, but as the first flecks of blood began erupting from his mouth, panic began setting in. Guests either backed off from him as he collapsed on the table, rasping loudly as his eyes went wide, or got closer in an attempt to understand what was going on. Finally one of the guests, a prestigious doctor who was friends with the master, managed to get close enough to help; Before long, the culprit was revealed.
A set of nails slipped into the man’s drink.
He wouldn’t die from that. Spend a lot of time recovering, feel an excruciating amount of pain for months if not years? Yes, but not death. That would invite too much scrutiny.
The blame swiftly fell on the worker who had served the drinks to that particular table; V watched them get carried away pleading, begging that this was a mistake, that they would never harm a human…
V believed them.
When she was sure no one was looking, their attention too caught up in the scene before her, a wide smile spread on her face. Glancing down at the tray she had swapped but a minute ago at the table, when a particularly loud joke had distracted most of those in attendance.
The trick you see, was to make sure you acted when the attention was on something else.
Perhaps she should feel bad for the worker on whom the blame had fallen.
Ah well.
She wondered if there was still time to drag N away from Cyn for the evening?