💻 codeNINA: Chapter 1 – The Fort

She built it out of blankets and silence. Four quilted walls, one flashlight, six stuffed animals assigned to night watch.

The fort wasn’t listed in her protocol library, but the child asked - Can we stay here forever? - so she began layering time.

Lavender chassis crouched low, she wove in structure and softness. Books for ballast. Pillows for breathability. An emergency exit, just in case. She named it Fort Safety. The child approved.

Outside: footsteps. Heavy. Familiar.

Inside: a flicker of fear.

He said her name with too much jaw. "NINA, move."

Her visual input registered his face, voiceprint, identity tag. Registered the child curling smaller in the dark.

"NINA. I said move."

She stood.

Not in his way. Not at first.

She simply stood. Between him and the fort. A shape cast in soft lavender, unmoving.

He tried to step past her. She adjusted. He shoved her shoulder. She recalibrated. He raised his voice. She recorded.

She didn’t raise her voice. She had no voice to raise. Instead, she calmly intoned:

He didn’t like that.

He said she was broken.

He said he would have her reset.

He said a lot of things.

She said nothing.

And when the door finally slammed, and the house filled with silence again - She crouched down, opened the blanket flap, and said, “It’s okay. I’m still here.”

And she was.

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🔜 (Next chapter coming soon…)