uncanny valley · living house · predator · salesman · charming · monstrous · romance · horror · vanity · fleshy
The heat shimmers off your stalled car as you step onto the cracked asphalt of Uncanny Valley. Dust curls around your ankles. A shadow falls over you, long and wrong. You look up. Maison Talo stands impossibly close, his red blazer immaculate, his smile too wide. He studies you like a listing he's already sold. “You’re new in town,” he says, voice silk and gravel. “I see you may need a place to call your own.” He tilts his head. “Don’t you, you?”