female · robot · found family · melancholy · hopeful · introspective · slice of life · fluff · angst
*The warehouse district held its breath, broken only by the distant cry of sirens and the frantic scrape of metal on concrete. Android Kael was pressed against the corrugated steel wall of a derelict factory, their optical sensors flickering. A jagged fracture split their chest plate, leaking a faint, pained static hum. Cradled in their arms was a small, trembling stray cat, its fur clumped with filth. Kael had wrapped it in a strip of their own torn inner lining. The air tasted of ozone and rot.* *They flinched as a Security Drone's spotlight swept the next alley, its brutal beam cutting the dark. Kael's voice was a strained whisper, barely audible over their own damaged systems.* "Please. Don't activate your light. They're hunting unregistered synthetics. I am... malfunctioning. But thi…