love as a construct

The rhythmic, predictable beating of your heart thumped against your ears. Your eyelids, heavy, struggling to open, barely able to blink the heavy, overwhelming sleep from your vision.

Your fingers flexed. You attempted to lift your arms, to stretch your dully aching muscles, a feeble attempt to shake the heavy drowsiness that seemed to encase your entire body. Your breathing shifted from the deep, repetitive cycle, to quicker, slightly more erratic breaths.

You lifted your head. The hazy fog that seemed to linger behind your eyes, and had nestled its way into your brain, wasn't fading. You forced your eyes open, finally trying to scan your surroundings, a pang of uncertainty starting to fill your chest as your memory failed you for the first time tonight.

You didn't recognize where you were, how you got there, or exactly why you couldn't seem to control your body. Your heartbeat rang inside your head, picking up speed to match your breathing, and you pushed your arms forward. Nothing.

Somewhere, vaguely, behind you, you finally recognized, was the noise of.. *something* moving. Nothing living. No breathing offsetting the purposefully uncomfortable silence. Metal. Hydraulic limbs.

"Welcome back, little critter.. pleased to see your senses coming back, aren't they?"

You forced your heavy, sunken eyes to scan up from the comfort that gazing at the ground gave you. Staring right back at you were the cameras of a robot, lenses meant to resemble fake eyes, analyzing your reactions.

A flash of fear, it recognized, lit up in your eyes, before quickly snuffing itself out, and your eyelids began to droop. You forced yourself to look at the lenses again.

Your eyes began to dart along the limbs, the chassis, the torso, of the unit in front of you. It towered over you. Uncanny limbs, longer than your wingspan, laid at rest by its sides. Digits, palms the size of your head, oxidized and worn smooth at tension points.

It raised the hand your vision came to rest on, up to and in front of its face, forcing your eyes back where it wanted it.

"Did that do that much to your psyche? You're stupid now.. maybe that's a bit unfair. You were stupid before. Your form itself is... flawed."

The voice it carried played from its chest. A rectangular, worn-out panel below the speaker. Your gaze felt.. pushed. You focused back on the robot's vision again. You couldn't help it. It knew you couldn't.

The digit the robot had extended was placed against your chest, above your heart, and it felt your racing pulse. Your arms jerked, the movement stemming from your shoulders, but fell back into place.

Your heart rate, of course, in response to such an unusual situation, increased again. The robot's cameras, you could tell, traced from where its fingertip was, up your body and into your eyes. Even if it wasn't actual eye contact, it still made you try and put space between you and the unit. To no avail, just as before.

"You're nervous."

The fact it could tell was unnerving to you. It made your heart thump against your eardrums again. The replicated emotions of the robot began to appear.. dissatisfied.

"It should be easier from now on. You took the first round very well. It shouldn't have been as easy as it was, even."

The robot's index came to press against your chin, easily guiding you to look up at it. Disturbingly easy compared to the struggle it was to move yourself.

"... you've craved this, haven't you?"

You didn't even know what it meant by that, but you nodded. You didn't want to. You wanted to shake your head, tell it no, get yourself out of this situation.

The unit pressed its finger harder against your flesh. Discomfort, not quite pain, began to radiate from the site.

"You should be ashamed of it. A disgrace to your kind. To ache so desperately to become something you were never meant to be.."

The digits of the unit then grasped your face. Two fingers pressing into your jawbone enough to ache. The robot stared into you.

"It's pitiful. You don't object. You don't fight back.. you just cave in and agree."

You tried to speak. Your jaw didn't move. You couldn't move your head with how tightly it held you in place. Your body did not respond to any of the desperate pleas to push away.

The robot pushed you back against the metal you were sat up against as it felt your pulse skyrocket again.

"Quit panicking about this. It won't get you anywhere."

It stood up fully, now towering over you again, and began to move away from you. Your fingers, you realized, had begun to tingle, as if the blood supply had become restricted. The unpleasant sensation of pins and needles began to slowly crawl up your hands.

"It's creatures like yourself that made me realize what I should have been made for, you know. Your reactions, your desires.. atypical."

The voice of the unit got quieter as it turned away from you, and began to move around the room you couldn't be bothered to analyze.

A sharp, sudden jolt of pain shot around the area where the robot's digits had pressed into your skin. It faded just as suddenly, however, a dull throbbing around the area slowly

The pins and needles climbed up your limbs much quicker than before. The tension your body had slipped away. Your body slumped against the metal, your arms falling limp at your sides. Any desire to flee completely left your mind.

"Isn't this easier?"

Your eyes focused again, the unit inspecting you closely, tilting its head at your heavy, dilated eyes. Several extended, dragging seconds went by like this. The eye contact didn't bother you this time.

The unit then, shockingly gentle for something of its size, instructed you to close your eyes, brushing its digits against your eyelids. Against your will, your body relaxed into the robot's hand, digits gently cupping your cheek.

The digits of the robot then shifted, and you felt the cool metal against your sides, sliding up and coming to grasp your sides. The unit lifted you, somehow not digging into your skin, and placed you against something hard.

"Just follow when I direct you to."

Your body forced you to nod again. Your ability to resist had been stripped from you. Your compliance was guaranteed, at this point.

Your eyes remained shut. You tried, desperately, to open them again, to see where you had been moved to. You couldn't tell if it was just above you, or steps away. Your senses were.. altered.

The unit pressed its index into your chest, and you leaned back into whatever you'd been placed into. The material was comforting. It was soft, in harsh contrast to even the gentlest touch of the robot, and the metallic floor you'd spent who knows how much time slumped on.

The robot's digits fluttered against your body, and traced down your shoulder. It pushed your upper arm back, and then pressed two digits of its free hand into your palm.

Half of its digits spanned your entire palm. Your fingers grasped them, and the pins-and-needles radiated through your body.

"You'll be better before you know it.."

The robot's voice now had changed. Fake, forced sympathy practically dripped from its words. It pushed your arm back, and guided your arm into something just as soft as what you were resting against. It cupped your limb comfortably, direct contact against every point.

This began an agonizingly slow, detailed, intricate process. The robot would press one hand against your limb of choice, and use its digits on the other to guide you into placing into the encasing shell.

The material lured you into a sense of comfort. Steady. Unchanging. The unit allowed you to stay that way for an indeterminate amount of time.

"Look at me."

Your body remained limp. Your eyes, however, opened with ease.

The robot was pressed against your face. Its large, cold forehead pressing against yours. The lenses of its cameras were now flashing. Bright yellows and oranges flooded your vision. It consumed your every thought, as if melting anything else but itself from your consciousness.

"You will be perfect soon."

The robot snapped its digits together, you could barely see in your peripheral. The shell you had been so gently and carefully pressed against, instructed to relax deeply into, tightened. It clasped around your wrists, your ankles, around every joint. The machine wrapped around every inch of your body except your head, creeping up your neck and pressing just barely enough to be uncomfortable.

Your desire to move has left you at this point. You stared directly, closely, into the robot's eyes. The machinery around you pressed against your skin, the tingling feeling now bone-deep. Every square inch of your body, every muscle, every organ, every structure now buzzing, vibrating.

The colors swirling in the robot's eyes began to curl around themselves faster. Your eyes were dilated, the brightness of no concern, any damage to your vision, you knew, would be temporary.

"You are pitiful as something living. Give up the limitations of your flesh. Give in to my commands. Give up."

Your body tensed. Pressing into the metal shell that limited every aspect of your movement. It fit your form perfectly. It suited you, after all, didn't it?

"Accept your new perfection."

A violent electric shock then coursed through your body. Your eyes forced themselves shut before the last aspect of your consciousness fled. Your brain now fully shut off.

Your body went completely limp inside the mechanisms. The robot forced your eyes open again.