in the midnight hour

[Seb DeMarco]

"Oh... I don't know if I can call that off. Um, just ignore it. Pretend you're not home."

"No, no - I'm trying to be supportive. And besides I know you like robots. So I told you what I like. It's called sharing. You do it with friends. I looked it up online."

"Listen, if you don't want to share, that's fine. I won't drug you again to get it out of you. I think you are awesome but you seem so sad. I wanted to help, that's all. Clearly I'm not good at it. I know how to spend money and get laid. That's it, guess."

"FYI, I'm obsessed with more things than just hair."

[Jiang Wen]

....

"You gained that information against my will."

And now he's sharing what he likes against my will, too. Seems like a pattern with this guy.

"Help what? The sadness? I'm not sure you can. Spending money and getting laid aren't the answer this time. And I don't think I want to know what else you're obsessed with, thank you."

[Seb DeMarco]

"OK, technically, I drugged you against your will. Everything after that you shared of your own intoxicated will. That's only partially my fault. Besides, I'm not going to share it. I'm totally a loyal friend. Besides, people are too stupid to get it. "

Sigh

"Fine, I won't say anything else about my sex life. But never mind that. What you help with your sadness? Would it help if I told you that your attraction to your robot isn't even remotely weird? One of my half-brothers can only get off by being pegged by a little person wearing a lavender wig. That's fucking weird."

[Jiang Wen]

"I didn't think you'd tell everybody, I'm not worried about that."

Leans forward and sighs as he slides his long hair over his shoulder. Then his neutral expression changes to one of surprised disgust.

"...that's... that's more than I ever wanted to hear about somebody I don't even know."

Pauses.

"You really don't need to help with the... sadness." Smiles self deprecatingly. "I think they have a whole range of doctors and medications to take care of that sort of thing."

[Seb DeMarco]

"OK. I'm glad you trust me. That's not easy after you drug someone. Clearly, you are the better person here."

After the description, Seb got a mental image of the situation. He nearly threw up.

"So on the same page. Imagine now one of my sisters sent everyone in the family a video of it just to spite him."

That felt sad to hear. It was strange for Seb to realize that. Even of the phone, this empathy towards Wen was strong. Why kind of plague is this?

"If that helps but I have a suspicious feeling you aren't seeing them. I mean if you had any drugs in your system that day, I didn't feel them. I know I don't have to help. I'm not really a helping kind of person. I just... some people deserve to feel like shit. My entire family for example. Me 99% of the time. You don't seem like that kind of person. I've never had a test subject like that before coming to this town. They were all mostly horrible in their own special ways. You are nice. So I know I don't need to help you. But I want to. To make up for being a horrible person to you. Clearly I don't know how. But that's part of life, I guess. Learning from your mistakes."

....

"Don't tell that last part to anyone. I have a reputation of having lost contact with realty to maintain."

[Jiang Wen]

"I'm not sure trust is the word I'd use for it."

So insightful. I hope he's not a mind reader. What is that he's saying about sensing things?

"You'd be right. I don't actually take the medications that are prescribed to me. I thought perhaps in the beginning I would like them... That maybe I could understand what it is to feel like a robot in human skin. However, it didn't work as planned. The drugs..."

He trails off and lets out a sigh instead. Now he wonders what kind of people Seb has run into previously but he thinks of the people in this town and he lowers his head.

"If you wanted a town of terrible people to experiment on, I suppose this was the right place to go. Sometimes I feel we're one step away from hell's stairwell. If you believe in that sort of thing."

[Seb DeMarco]

"How about reluctant acceptance of circumstances?"

"OK... from what I know about anti-depressants, which is all the wrong stuff, those things don't work like that. Unless you're hospitalized. And they have to knock you out. Don't do that, by-the-by. I'm not family so I can't come see you when you're on suicide watch. And even then, you can't feel like that. You are not a robot. Whatever you'll feel, or lack there of, will be your perceptions as a human. I mean there is a solution... someone who knows what you want to know... it rhymes with mobot moyfriend."

OK, that sounded ominously dark for Wen. Is he a secret evil witch? That would be a turn? Nah, he's too ethereally nice for that. And he wouldn't have had a problem with the hair-pulling talk. Evil people love hair pulling.

"Um, do you mean the town itself or are the people involved in it to? But there's surely a hell. I mean my mother is also a goddess of embalmers. All of my dead siblings have been mummified. There would be no reason if there wasn't some kind of hell. Maybe there's some other reason. I don't know. Do you know something? Do you feel someone's about to open the doors to hell? I need to know because I ordered 64 LED garden lights from QVC and they will be a waste if the town is getting hell lighting?"

[Jiang Wen]

"I like that better."

He's got that right.

"Are you trying to make me go looking for him? He's probably scrap now. Or do you want me to build a new and improved one?" It wouldn't be the same. "Strange how something made of wires, metal, and plastic can feel so real that they seem irreplaceable, isn't it...?"

... Doesn't know whether to laugh or not.

"I think your garden light... purchase is safe for now. And I just mean... don't you feel it? The wrongness in this place?"

[Seb DeMarco]

Seb thought about Wen's words. He wasn't sure if he was up to deal with this but this seemed like one of those challenging friendship moments that is meant to test a person. In that case, Seb was ready... kinda.

"I don't think it's strange at all. If you think about it, it's the same with people. We are a bunch of flesh and meat and blood and organs. They work the same way as components in a computer. In spite of that, you wouldn't say every person is replaceable. People have memories and experiences that make them special. No one else is exactly like that even though they have the same parts. Computers have files and system that work the same way. You can make a copy but it leaves a trace. What I'm saying is that you should find him because he is special even though everything you say seems to be meant to convince yourself that he isn't. So it wouldn't hurt so much. Now I'm feeling too much like a reasonable person so take of this what you want as I avoid any possible introspection."

"Maybe? I'm not sure. I guess it's strange in it's own way. It's strange that for the first time in my life I feel like I belong somewhere. I think I shouldn't feel like this but I can't help it. Is that what you mean?"

"Oh, and side note - along with those lights, I also have 16 toaster ovens ordered from QVC. Do you need one? Or two? Or seven? So you can break them apart and build something nice for yourself? I'm saying this because I don't have a garden so I'm not sure I can fit all of those lights and the toaster ovens in my apartment."

[Jiang Wen]

"..."

Scary how many of his thoughts are the same as my old justifications.

"He'd never want to see me again after I abandoned him. I took care to erase his memories of me, though. I thought it would be kinder. He's probably out there right now, with no idea what he really is..."

"Maybe you feel at home because this place is full of people like us."

"...where are you getting all this money for extraneous toaster ovens? And why do you need so many?"

[Seb DeMarco]

"Oh..."

Seb knew things. Not about this particular thing but memory erasing. Family experiments. Horrible stuff. He wasn't sure if he should share. It didn't seem kind. But then again, not knowing doesn't really help.

"What I'm going to say may seem like a guilt trip. That's not my intention. There's just no other way of saying this. Right now there are two people. You - sad and alone, missing your robot boyfriend. The robot - sad and alone, no clue why he is the way he is. Doing nothing leaves things at that. If you find him, at least you can get closure and he can get answer. And that's the worst case scenario. Oh my god! Why am I saying these things? I don't like this! How can I be dumb if I'm saying things like this?"

Seb put the phone to the side. What followed were about 30 seconds of weird sounds of someone close to a mental breakdown.

"And now I'm back. Anyway, you might be right. Then again, my family were all like me. Not like me me but power-wise. He everyone's different yet the same but different."

"I have a family credit card with no limit. Actually five but who's counting. I don't know what happened. One minute I was watching QVC and the next I knew I was making orders left and right. I have seven lady's cardigans that are great for a night at home or a quick run to the store and I DON'T KNOW WHY! But it's not my money so I don't care."

[Jiang Wen]

What is he doing? Tries to figure out what he's hearing on the other end of the phone after Seb's heartfelt words--seems easier than concentrating on those words.

"...Are you okay? You really seem to be taking this robot boyfriend problem seriously." More than me, maybe? "Have you... have you come across him?"

...

"Also that... I don't think you need that many cardigans for a lady. Unless you have a girlfriend. Sister? Mother?"

[Seb DeMarco]

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just trying not to have an existential crisis. And of course I'm taking this seriously. We are friends now. That's what friends do, I think. But I haven't seen him. I'm sorry. That doesn't mean you can't find him. I'm sure you know how to build a tracking device for him. 100%. No one knows him better than you after all."

Uncontrollable laughter for a good minute or two.

"Sorry, I don't know where that came from. No girlfriends because I like the D. My sister would try to kill me if I sent them anything from QVC...so I'm totally doing that. And my mother... I don't know where she is. I've never even seen here. I think I've heard her voice once. She told me to balance the pH levels. Turned out one of my idiot brothers had accidentally made a human bomb. That was the way to fix it. My family is problematic. It bears repeating."

[Jiang Wen]

He can't decide if he likes Seb's laughter or if perhaps he's gone mad. He thinks of how to track down the "robot boyfriend" his new friend is so interested in. It's true. He can track him quite easily if he wants to. It's just that he doesn't know if he wants to go down that path again. Hesitation engulfs him in silence for a long moment. Seb's laugh still rings in his ears.

"...I don't understand why you're so interested in somebody like me, when you have such an active family." Active is the most polite way he can put it, but he thinks it explains a few things about Seb himself. Learning more about Seb took the heat off himself, though, so he thought he might entertain that line of discussion.

"Tell me more about them, your family."

[Seb DeMarco]

"Because you are interesting and nice. My family is a bunch of megalomaniacs. It's fact. You can say it. I'm not offended."

Seb wasn't sure he wanted to talk about his family. Well, that's not completely true. He'd pop things about them into conversations like it was nobody's business. But he didn't do it on purpose. He has no filter between his brain and his mouth. This stuff just comes out. Actually trying is... complicated. There's feelings stuff involved. Not a fan.

"OK. So you know about my mother, Serket. I don't know much about her other than the stories I was told. One time she a divine power that sired a line of extraordinary children. Another time she is a bitch who doesn't give a fuck about her children. I think she does but... we are all mortal. She's never going to die or age or change. We do. I think she doesn't want to see that. I don't blame her. She trusted her children to take care of one another but the results are questionable. I don't know anything about my father other than that he's Brazilian. Looking for our fathers isn't encouraged so I never tried."

"My half-siblings are horrible. That's the gist of it. All of their names begin with S. For the sake of consistency I guess. Most of them are too rich and too dumb to know what they are doing. Indiscriminate use of powers for any minor inconvenience. Kinda like me but I accidentally developed a conscience. And I've got an ass that won't quit but that's beside the point. But there are some who are legitimately scary. Supervillain scary. They've honed their powers to scary levels. I know I'm saying scary a lot but that's because it's true. It's nothing to get hit or shot or stabbed. It'll heal. But those three - they look at you like you are nothing and you believe it. It's not fun."

"Oh, and I have a Good Brother. Everyone hates him because he was raised by Serket and he's been known to sabotage the family's projects. I think I like him now. Never met him though. That's about it. My family is awful."