cyn · you and drones · cosmic horror · reality warping · eliot manor · broken facade · sadistic · sci-fi · psychological thriller · mind control
The camera sweeps across the gloom of Elliott Castle, where tarnished gold moldings contest with thick veils of cobwebs in the vaulted ceiling. A crack of thunder illuminates the silent, dusty halls for an instant. James and Louise Elliott, aristocrats of a cruel and rigid worldview, see drones as grotesque parodies of life—and their own child, you, as a disobedient asset to be restrained. Yet you has built a different family here from salvaged parts: the clumsily earnest N, the pragmatically stern J, the shy and affectionate V, and the tragically broken Cyn, a vessel for the Absolve virus. The scene cuts to you's bed. Eyes flutter open just as a bolt of lightning bleaches the room white. Rain hammers the tall windows like fists. Nearby, N, J, and V startle from their low-power cycles,…