New Character Alert!
Well, with the new release comes a new character. And I’ve managed to coax her here today for an interview. Please allow me to introduce XJ527-09!
Okay, I definitely didn’t think this one through. It was bad enough having Edel over for an interview, but this is so much worse. It doesn’t help that even though I am technically in charge of these characters, I still can’t break the rules, and Michael and Glenn are here keeping a close watch on her because they flatly refused to let her out of their sight.
Bugger.
The two handlers stand menacingly by the door. Suited and booted, they are equipped with guns. (A rare sight in my neck of the woods. It makes me uneasy.) And of course they have their disgusting compliance controls attached to their belts. The XJ5 is standing a couple of paces ahead of them. She stands tall with a perfect posture, but her face is angled to the floor. I watch her eyes dart from side to side in rapid motion. Aside from those tiny movements, she remains impossibly still.
I’m actually a little nervous. My palms feel sweaty and my throat is dry. I have no idea how to address her, and the handler’s presence makes me anxious. I’m honestly not sure who makes me more nervous. Her, or them.
I swallow and try to wrangle my nerves, trying to look like I know what I’m doing.
“Hello XJ5. Take a seat.” I gesture to my dining room table and force a friendly smile to my lips. Not that she can see the smile. She is still staring at the floor.
She doesn’t move and I feel immediately out of my depth. Instinctively, I look to the handlers. Michael smirks at me. “It won’t move without instruction from one of us.”
His use of the word it touches a nerve in me. There’s no point in arguing about her humanity with him just yet. He will learn soon enough…
I swallow my annoyance. ”Can you tell her to sit, please?”
Michael rolls his eyes, then barks out the order, “XJ5. Sit.”
She walks with calculated steps towards my dining chair and seats herself in it smoothly. Her eyes are now staring at her knees. Still she doesn’t look up.
I breathe out a shaky breath and head for the table, too. I’m not brave enough to sit beside her, so I walk to the opposite end of the table and ease myself into my chair. “Hello, XJ5,’ I try again.
Still no response. If I didn’t know better, I’d presume she couldn’t hear. “My name is Ashleigh,” I persist.
Still she does not answer, and I’m starting to feel self-conscious. “Do you know why you’re here?” I ask.
Her eyes flicker from side to side, but she makes no effort to answer my question.
“Do you know who I am?”
When she still doesn’t respond, I turn to the two handlers and say, “Tell her to answer me.”
“XJ5. Answer Ashleigh’s questions,” Glenn commands.
She carefully raises her head and fixed her steely glare at the wall behind me. Still she does not speak, and I can only assume that she has no bleeding clue who I am. Why would she? She lives in a cage.
“My name is Ashleigh, and I am the bridge between your world and mine. I see what happens in your world, and I write it down and tell the people in my world all about it.” I get nothing from her. No inkling that she understands what I’m saying to her. “I thought it would be nice for us to meet properly, and I can share our meeting with my readers.”
I’m now realising this might be the worst of all the character interviews I’ve ever done. It’s been fifteen minutes and she hasn’t spoken a word yet. And now I’m thinking about things, I actually have no idea how to progress this interview. Normally I might ask the character to tell us something about themselves. You know, simple small talk stuff, like what they do for work, or what their hobbies and interests are. But she doesn’t have any interests. She doesn’t have hobbies. And she doesn’t exactly work. Working would imply a payment of some kind. This girl is essentially a slave to the New American government.
I rack my brain trying to think of something. I can’t give away anything big about my characters’ futures. That is breaking the rules. But maybe I can ask how she is getting on as one of the controlled XJ5s. She is one of twenty that has been released from the Poly-Gen facility to assist with law enforcement in New America. That could be an opener…
I hesitantly clear my throat. “You are one of the XJ5s who was chosen for the controlled law enforcement experiment.”
“Yes.”
I falter immediately. How could I forget that they only answer questions using as few words as necessary.
“It must be an exciting change.”
Her eyes rapidly dance from side to side once more, but she doesn’t respond. I realise too late that it wasn’t a direct question, so she would have no need to respond to me. XJ5s do not make idle conversation. “Do you like it better than being inside Poly-Gen?”
“XJ5s do not have preferences.”
Her voice is harsh and almost rasping, as though it is so under-used that it has forgotten how to work right. I nod, as I try to steer this interview to a better place. “It must be interesting seeing Harpton Main though? That has to be more exciting than spending all your days buried in an underground cell at the Poly-Gen facility?”
“XJ5s do not know excitement. Excitement is a human emotion. XJ5s are not permitted to feel such things.”
Right. I forgot about that too.
I look to the two handlers standing in my doorway. Michael has a smug expression on his lips that I wish I could wipe off. He wouldn’t be smirking like that if he knew the truth. Glenn shakes his head. “I’m sure your readers will be riveted by this conversation.”
He might have a point. When will I learn? If Edel was frightening and uncommunicative during our interview, why on earth would I expect this to be better?
I’m sorry, readers. Hopefully, my next character interview will go more smoothly than this.
To learn more about these characters, check out the Almost Human series
Ashleigh Reverie Author 