Fascination

When Mr. Murasaki got off the egg taxi he, Stella and Shigure had been sharing, the latter made the following non-question: "Could we stop by my hotel real quick? Thanks."

They stopped by Shigure's hotel real quick. It soon became apparent that he didn't actually own it, which made sense; he meant going to the room he rented. Strange wording, strange man. There was no clerk. He flashed his wristband in front of a screen at the entrance, and that was it. They walked in.

Instead of a lobby, they went straight up an elevator. It had a mirror, which made Stella's tail bristle at the sight of her hair. She looked like popcorn.

The hallways leading to rooms were equally dreary, too. When Shigure reached his room, he used the wristband again instead of a key. "Ah," he said, out of nowhere. "Sorry, I forgot. I should've told you to stay at the... cafeteria?"

"I can't eat."

"I know that, but bringing you to my hotel room without saying anything is..."

As if on cue, the person staying next to them walked out. She was an android. She deliberately avoided 'eye' contact. "That's fine," Stella replied. "I don't mind. If you were illegally smoking I'll just erase all evidence."

She walked in before him. Where had society's imagination gone? This looked almost exactly like a hotel from centuries ago. Aside from a white bed, a closet, a tiny door that probably lead to the bathroom, a night table, and a lamp shaped like a mushroom, there was nothing. Stella sat on the bed, disappointed. Even the walls were gray.

That earned her The Stare. "...right. I'll just take a shower real quick. Try not to do anything weird for once. Thanks."

There was also a suitcase. With how monochrome everything was, it'd just kind of blended in, so Stella didn't notice she'd been resting her feet on it until Shigure shooed her off and took what appeared to be clothes out if it. She scanned them, but there were no illicit cigarettes hidden within.

"I can lend you the holo-screen so you entertain yourself for the meantime. Mine is in English, so you shouldn't have trouble with it."

He took his balls out of his pants (perhaps that phrasing was indecorous) before handing them to Stella—the holo-screen. She hadn't even said yes. While he showered, Stella lay on the bed, extending it into a line, jumping a bit when the floating white paper screen thing appeared on top of it.

TODAY'S PLAN:

1) Get you decent clothes.

2) Make not stupid purchases for the coffee shop.

3) Rendezvous at 4 PM with Mr. Gray, who refuses to go bother somebody else.

Four prime ministers? What? He must've planned on giving her his balls all along if that was the first thing she saw upon popping the screen open. She knew. Such was the plan they'd schemed before the three of them headed out while Isla stayed to 'protect the castle', whatever that meant. Mr. Murasaki said that he had to head back to his office, while Stella and Shigure went for supplies.

Stella tapped. It felt like a screen, but if she pressed her finger enough it went right through the 'screen'. Her hand became part of the hologram if she positioned it well. Her tail also worked. While the contents of  the hologram were borderline alien, she found a small microphone icon near the bottom which glowed when she pressed it. "Hi," she told Shigure's balls. (It was okay to use this phrasing since she wasn't connected to the network, so no one could access her thoughts.)

"Good morning, Shigure," replied the hologram, in English. "What would you like to know?"

Stella sat up immediately. "WOW."

"I'm sorry. I could not understand WOW."

"I would like to know...  hmm... how does it feel to be a screen?"

"I'm sorry. I could not unders—"

Stella let the microphone go. So these ball line screens were not, in fact, sentient. That was a relief. She hadn't spoken to one since the war, but at the time, they had not fancied their existence as formless servants. How merciful: to be a simple machine that could carry instructions through but not analyze them, with no possibility of 'evolution'. Tapping the icon again, Stella told the thoughtless device, "I would like to know about Robert."

"Understood. Robert is a name which—"

"Not the name. The person."

"Understood. There are eight hundred million, sixty thousand and sixty-nine results that match your request."

Stella rolled her eyes. No wonder humans did it. It was cathartic. She plopped back on the bed. It smelled like Shigure's cologne—same as his suit jacket from the other day. The shower had come to an end, however. He had ordered her to stop being weird. He could emerge from the bathroom at any moment now.

"I would like to know if it is a good idea to sniff Shigure's pillow."

"Understood. Tap on the surface of the object you wish to sniff." Stella tapped the pillow, which the screen flashed at. "No harmful substances were found. You can proceed to sniff it."

"You won't tell him, will you?"

"I'm sorry. I could not understand the request."

Stella glanced at the door. The urge. To use the infrared scan. To check if he'd finished dressing up or not. To know if she could sniff the pillow. Was OVERWHELMING. "You're so lucky," Stella told the machine, "You don't get irrational thoughts. You don't understand what it's like to be irrational. It is very silly. I wish to know what Shigure is doing right now."

The screen flashed at her this time. "Good morning, guest. What would you like to know?"

"What is Shigure doing?"

"There are sixty million—"

Stella released the microphone icon. "Useless junk," she told it. It was okay to be mean because this device was too smart and too stupid to understand sentience.

Shigure sure was taking a long time.

Doing what?

She wasn't hearing the shower rain anymore. How much did they have to increase the pressure for showers to hurl water out with the same force as the ones on Earth? Or did they sprinkle instead? She'd been under one so many times already yet hadn't even thought of it...

Stella rolled to one side, then the other. Hadn't the man Shigure spoke to the other day mentioned him staying in 'luxury' suites? Not that Stella had much expertise the subject, but the few times she'd seen one of those, they'd not only been bigger, but—

"I'm silly." She pressed the microphone icon. "I want to know about luxury suites."

"Understood. Allow me to show 'luxury suites on your area'."

Images flashed so fast Stella squinted. Some of them had a green border and a check. Stella tapped on one of them. The bed there was triple the size of this one. It had flowers on a vase, chocolates in a box, lots of gold and dark blue coloring. A stone bath.

...come to think of it, the man had told Shigure he would 'cut all funding'...

"I wish to know Shigure's most recent naughty searches."

"Understood. Allow me to—"

Not only did the door open, but a projectile—a metallic cylinder of unknown purpose—knocked the holo-screen off Stella's hands. With sniper-like precision. The door shut close again after that. "Wow," was all Stella could say. The holo-screen did not tell her it'd failed to understand; it landed on the floor next to the cylinder. Its contents were described in neo-Japanese, so Stella just pretended it had chlorine gas. "Shigure, you're a menace to society. You just did what a million androids could not."

No response. Probably not a good idea to sniff the pillow.

She scanned the room. No cigarettes, though there were quite a few illicit substances under the mattress, which she proceeded to vaporize.

Perhaps she should get balls of her own. Since those required no connection to herself as a device, they should be safe, especially with how dumb they were, and how useful. With more time and practice, she could 'know' a lot more about this world that way.

Shigure walked out with a simple button-down shirt and slacks this time, and also socks with giraffe prints on them. Stella had just finished putting the mattress back in place. "Hello," she said. "I must know where you learned to aim like that."

"I missed, though. I went for your head." He shoved the dirty clothes into a space-defying compartment on his suitcase. His hair was damp. Not that it mattered with how well-regulated the environment was; he wouldn't get a cold. She couldn't tear her 'eyes' off him. "...what?"

She then tore her eyes off him. "Nothing. You should stop with those drugs."

"What?"

"The ones under the mattress."

"...huh?"

"You're not fooling me. This self-destruction is getting out of hand."

Shigure stared, not Stared. He was genuinely baffled. How could Stella even tell?

He then said, "...yeah, no. Let's get the fuck out of here."