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Uzi frowned, sitting up on her bed. She closed the pop up that appeared for the millionth time.
“Antivirus is out of date. Please update for effective protocol.”
She selected the “ignore and run old program” again, maybe this time it would stick. For the last few years she hasn't needed to get an update. Being uncomfortable for a few hours, running the old one and spending extra time in sleep mode always worked out fine. But waking up to another failed install, was not rubbing her the right way.
Why did drones even have viruses that went around? Stupid human coding. She groaned, opening her door. Nori was standing in the hallway. Uzi blinked, looking at the drone.
“...why are you creepin outside my room?” she asked, shutting the door behind her. Nori rubbed her neck “you’ve had three sleep cycles today… have you been sleeping at night? Is something wrong?”
Uzi sighed “I’m fine mom, just tired.” Nori looked at her skeptically “...okay- if you say so, maybe I'm just being paranoid” she shrugged “I'm new to this mom thing, I don't know how much worry is normal.” she pondered, “It's possible I'm trying to overcompensate for your dads complete lack of parenting skills.” she glared into the other room, where Uzi assumed Khan was sitting.
“I did not do a good job! I am very aware!” he called. Nori put a hand on her face “I know honey.” she called back. Uzi chuckled, dad was a pretty good sport at the times Nori called him out.
Clearly sleep mode isn't helping the install… she didn't want to worry her mom more either. “I’m gonna go see if N is around” she nodded towards the door. Nori hummed, “wait- before you go-” she held her arms out, Uzi rolled her eyes, hugging her, Nori beamed when Uzi pulled back.
“You like those a little too much” Uzi teased, stepping into the hallway
Nori huffed “I missed out on way too many. Let me have this” she stated, turning back to the living room and giving a slight wave.
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Uzi frowned, the update not taking at all as she walked to where N would be. These kinds of things only made you overheat a bit for like- the whole first day. it wasn't going to be a big issue, at least, not now.
N was really excited to see her, they ended up drawing because Uzis limbs felt like hundred pound weights, and despite sleeping a bunch today, she was still tired. Which eventually led to her falling asleep on N’s shoulder while they watched anime. It was okay- she'd already seen this episode anyway. She was pulled out of sleep mode by a tap on her visor. She turned on her optics to see N’s face, holding a can of oil “I would've let you sleep but I think you’re overheating a little bit” he nudged. She hummed, taking the can and drinking it before curling back into him.
“You’re snuggly today” he said, she could hear the smile in his voice. “Tell anyone and I’ll bootloop you” she huffed, closing her optics off. “It's nice,” he said, hand petting her head. She just hummed in response. He looked down, seeing her tail curled up next to her. It wasn't always out- but he had noticed when she fell asleep, it would wrap around a pillow- or protectively around herself.
His heart plummeted when she twitched. They'd done this before, drones dont twitch in their sleep- drones dont twitch unless something is wrong- and the last time he saw her twitching, Cyn had been wreaking havoc internally. “Uzi,” he said urgently, tapping her.
She growled “wut”
“You're twitching again, something's wrong” he stressed, looking her over as she sat up. She didn't want to tell him and worry him, but insisting she was fine was probably worse…
“I got the virus that Thad had, I'm waiting on my antivirus install.” she sighed, rubbing her face. He blinked “oh- it didn’t install yet?” he questioned. “Yeah it's giving me some grief, I didn't mention it cause I didn't want you to worry.” she shrugged
“Oh- well as long as it's installing I trust you- it didn't get bad did it? It wiped Thad out! Remember?” he winced, remembering Thads unfortunate exit in the middle of class. She nodded “eugh, how could I forget.” she huffed “I’m just tired, that's really it.” he nodded, patting his chest, offering her napping place back, which she happily took. He startled at the feeling of her tail wrapping around his leg.
“Oh-” he snickered, Uzi hummed in question. He pet her head “little tail buddy likes me” he beamed. She snorted “that thing has been grabbing onto the most random stuff” she huffed, powering off.
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IT WOULDN'T INSTALL.
It was seven failed installs, seven!!! Now it was midnight back in her own room and she was overheating! Drinking oil isn't helping, eating batteries didn't help. The option to ignore the alert was flat out GONE, just the notification saying to update her antivirus software at the nearest clinic. Ugh- she really didn't want to have to get mom. The stupid clinic couldn't help her unless she had a guardian with her and she sure as hell wasn't going to ask dad.
The sleeve of her stomach clenched suddenly. She panicked, clamoring off the bed and tripping her way across the hall into the bathroom, which was nearly never used considering they were robots…
She threw the toilet seat up, gagging into the bowl pitifully. Jesus this was awful- a sour sludge of half chewed batteries and lukewarm oil. Just her luck this virus had Emetoware installed-
“Uzi?” Nori stood in the door, “geez babe-” she rushed over, rubbing her daughters back. “This bug comes on fast huh? The school told me it snuck up on Thad too…” her heart twisted at the sight of Uzi shivering, her chassis radiating heat.
Uzi opened her mouth, trying to speak “my- hhk-” Nori cut her off “hold on kid, let's finish barfing first okay? then we can talk” Uzi reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it as tears pricked in her eyes, body forcing out a dry gag, disintegrating into coughs.
Nori closed the lid, they didn't have running water so she'd have to deal with that later- she took the corner of a towel, wiping Uzis mouth.
Uzi felt- a lot more exhausted than she remembered, slumping against Nori, who braced her trembling form. Tendrils felt their way out, harnessing on anything they could get a hold of.
Uzi had a few panic attacks after the apocalypse, most of which were at night and Nori found her. The main thing she learned was that when Uzi needed stability, her eldritch powers tried to get that however the solver seemed fit. The more Nori thought about it, the more she realized the solver's behavior was a very clear reflection on what Uzi needed. If the drone was afraid? Tendrils were hostile. Nervousness ended up with the main tail chewing on things, mainly without Uzi even noticing. More than anything Nori had tried to pin what it meant when tendrils held onto things.
While Uzi slept, they would creep along her bed, curling securely around pillows and grabbing parts of the blankets. Sometimes she even noticed the tail doing so when Uzi was doing normal daily things. Eventually Nori realized that whenever Uzi needed some form of comfort, the solver took its cue to try to ground her.
Once she knew what it meant, she saw just how often Uzi needed some form of comfort.
She didn't know how to bring it up, or if she even should. Nori knew parenting would be hard, but it was even harder with a teen who loved to emotionally repress, and had experienced a lifetime of trauma in just a few weeks.
“S’ not working” Uzi mumbled into Nori’s shoulder. Nori was snapped from her thoughts, trying to pet her daughters back as gently as possible, feeling the tendrils loosen their grip when she did so. “What's not workin’ babe?”
“My antivirus s’ busted” she groaned, Nori blinked “what do you mean it's busted??”
“It won’ download” Uzi coughed, tensing as a wave of chills washed over her. “So stupid I tried like… all day…”
Noris heart clenched, tapping her daughter's display a few times to bring up the HUD, she dragged the antivirus over onto a different folder, but instead of the download prompt showing up, a glitched alert flashed onto the screen.
“Antivirus is out of date. Download is not recommended.”
If Uzi had tried to install the old one, it would most definitely make things WORSE, not better. Out of date hardware is a surefire way to kick a virus up a notch. “How many times did you try to install the old one, Uz?” she asked, closing the pop up and dragging the file to the trash.
“I dunno… seven? Eight?” she slurred, unfocused eye lights popping back on screen only to stare uneasily at the ceiling, nori could tell from the glitching that she was probably seeing everything double.
“Jesus Uzi!” she adjusted the smaller drone to sit up more “did your dad never teach you old hardware makes things worse?”
Uzi frowned, shaking her head as she trembled.
“And I also bet he never took you to update your antivirus either.” Nori growled, grabbing her daughter's arms to pull her up “c'mon- we've got to go install a new one” she held her mostly limp daughter upright, cursing when Uzi doubled over to vomit again.
“M’ sorry- m so sorry-” she coughed
“Don't apologize kid, let's just get you to the clinic okay?”
Uzis' tail wrapped around Noris body, startling her slightly.
“Okay…”