PSA
like all electronics, robots are extremely susceptible to ghostly influence
Glumshoe, S. (2018). Getting the Ghost Out of the Machine: Practical Exorcism for Androids. North Central Positronics. 19(09), 167-188.
“Ten?” Darya whispered. “Are you alright…?”
The android shuddered and rose slowly to his feet. There was something stiff and insectoid about his movements – nothing like Ten’s usual inhuman grace. His head twisted on his neck with a sound like a creaking gate.
“Hoowee! Talk about a haunted doll!” The voice that came out of the robot was not one Darya had ever heard him use before. “I’ve never gotten to play with a toy this fancy before!”
Darya took a step back. The android’s eyes fixed on her. Even in the dim lighting of the kitchen, she could see his pupil-like ocular lenses expanding and contracting independently, whirring in protest at the unnatural function. A shiver went down her spine.
“Ten?” she asked again, her mouth dry, and raised her hands slowly in front of her.
“Sorry!” sang the android in that strange voice. “’Ten’ can’t come to the phone right now! Care to leave a message?”
It lunged without warning. Darya screamed and stumbled backwards, bruising her spine against the edge of the counter. The thing’s hands shot out and grasped her by the throat, pressing cold thumbs against her windpipe. Its face contorted into a wide, manic smile that strained the synthetic skin of its cheeks.
Darya choked and clawed at its wrists. The android, insensitive to pain and far stronger than a human, ignored her and slowly began to squeeze. The pounding in her head grew louder and louder as she felt pressure build behind her eyes. Her vision blurred and her hands slipped off the thing’s wrists, falling leadenly to dangle at her sides.
Suddenly its grip loosened. Blood rushed back into her head and Darya wrenched away, gasping for breath. Ten’s body twitched again as she scrambled for the doorway.
“Ooh, am I not supposed to do that?” it chuckled. “Looks like I forgot to turn the safety off! Hey – where are you going, little lady? Don’t tell me you’re too old to play with dolls…”
Stumbling into the hallway, Darya froze. She wanted to run, but there was no way she could make it further than the edge of the yard without support, and that support had just tried to kill her. She glanced over her shoulder at the robot. Ten – or Ten’s body, at any rate – was still standing beside the sink, twitching weirdly as if something was shifting around inside of it, trying to get comfortable.
“Ahh. Much better.” It stretched its arms. “Now… where were we?”
“I’m so sorry. If only I’d known!” Ten’s face reappeared, his hand pressed against his cheek in mock concern. “We could have had so much more fun. Just think – I could have ridden around inside him, biding my time, making him do awful little things he’d never remember. Eventually you’d have to deactivate him. I wonder whose heart would break first… yours, or his?”
Rationally, Darya knew that Ten could not feel physical pain – at least, not in the sense that a vertebrate with a nervous system could. Even his emotions were muted, limiting his ability to suffer. Theoretically.