Imperium

Chapter 6: Just Ask

All is quiet as the night carries on. Well, as quiet as it gets in an abandoned warehouse in the middle of a bustling city. The sounds of cars zipping down the roads and the occasional sounds of horns blaring is strangely pleasant to Colin, probably because he's always found enjoyment in new things, and this is certainly all very new compared to his old life.

Despite the pleasant sounds, Colin's attempts to fall asleep prove futile. Every time he thinks he's just about comfortable enough to power down, his damaged circuits spark and cause him to jerk awake, forcing him to start over only for the same thing to happen again in a vicious cycle.

After exploring a bit of the warehouse, he was able to find some blankets stored away in the trunk of an old red 1962 Cadillac DeVille. He hasn't seen many variations of cars in his life, so seeing one like that is quite a treat. Too bad they don't have the keys. And he can't drive.

He laid the blankets down for a temporary bed on the stone floor, and he made sure to leave enough for Edith to do the same, if she even wants to sleep.

But he keeps his focus on trying to sleep. He used a lot of his mental and emotional energy today, so he needs to rest in order to recover the used data. He can also tell that the files on Fritz finished uploading at some point, but he hasn't taken the time to review them. He'd rather save that for after he's restored his lost energy.

He squints his eyes closed, trying to keep them shut but knowing that the moment he allows his body to relax is the moment his damaged circuits are going to act up again. He still can't feel the pain, but that doesn't make this any less unbearable.

But he supposes that goes for this whole situation they're in. Not only is he wounded, but it now seems that he and Edith are giving each other the silent treatment. It hasn't been too long since he got mad at her, but they haven't seen each other, let alone spoken since. The warehouse is decently large, so she could be anywhere. He just hopes she's doing okay, wherever she is.

His body relaxes and he feels like he might finally be ready to sleep, but as soon as he becomes aware of his state of ease, his shoulder twitches and he grunts, sitting up and tightly holding the wound to try bringing himself back under control.

And now to repeat the process.

He thinks about laying back down, but he decides to stay sitting up for a moment to pull himself together. His strain fades and he loosens up a bit.

His tension starts to ease as his focus temporarily diverts away from his injuries and onto Edith. He knows that despite how he snapped at her before, he's still worried about her. He fears he may have been too harsh, which would mean he only made his situation with Edith worse.

He tries turning his thoughts away from the present and to the past, remembering when things were better. Aside from the Pull, he admits he did quite enjoy his time as CLive. Alain was a bit too dull, even for him. But even though, as CLive, he wasn't able to think as well as he can now, he thinks those memories were probably his favorites.

He misses relaxing at the Watchman with Edith during that year when they were together. How they would go there for dinner, and every single time Edith managed to rope him into dancing whenever one of her multitude of favorite songs came on, no doubt because Data made it happen.

By the end of the night, Edith would have always been somewhere between tipsy and full-blown drunk. And when she's drunk, she's the most carefree he'd ever seen her. But it never got to the point where she relied on drinking to deal with her stress. He always admired that about her; her self-control. That's something he regrettably never had a very good grasp over when he was CLive.

Colin sighs and forces himself to stop his train of thought where it is. He starts shifting to lay back again, but a circuit on his back sparks and causes him to jolt up again. He growls and covers his face with his hands, stubbornly refusing to give up on trying to sleep.