Amstrad is on his way to apartment 23-C but he’s decided to pick up dinner first. This entails a byzantine process that, to the layman, would take a matter of days. But Amstrad’s been practicing for a long time now. He can apply and start work at any 'freelance' delivery service app in a matter of minutes. He's memorized all the proper lies to tell the algorithm so they'll put the application through as fast as possible and put him to work. That done, he looks for a big order, and takes it home. He can do this about ten times before they fire him. He then makes a new account.
   As sentient glasses must, Charmorag watches as Amstrad types on his flip phone. Knowing the answers before they ask the question, Amstrad passes tests faster than it would be possible to read for a human.
   Nice work.
   "I don't want to hear it." Amstrad says.
   Your human niceties are often in your way. It's good to see you shed the yoke, boy.
   "Human niceties are- who said I'm shedding human niceties? I'm not shedding human niceties."
   It's meant as praise. A simple observation of your productivity within the organism.
   "What organism?"
   The city. Maybe I mean a computer.
   "That's not a computer or an organism."
   Yes it is.
   "This is stupid. I'm being perfectly nice. I get free food, they get a refund- if not extra money for inconvenience- the only ones who lose are the corpos who run the business. And maybe some people are a little hungrier for, like, a second."
   Precisely.
   "What's bad about that?"
   Nothing is bad about it.
   "You said it wasn't nice."
   It isn't.
   "What, is it selfish? The maybe hungry people get to order again immediately. That's like- that's normal, man. That happens all the time. It's not about nice it's about, like, I need food."
   And statistically, most of the people who order through such delivery services with particular regularity are disabled and have no other choice, anyways.
   "Well don't tell me that. Is that true?"
   They're not as useful to the computer. Their energy is better placed in-
   "Enough out of you. Shut up."
   They're simple observations.
   Amstrad puts a hand to his glasses like he's about to take them off, but hesitates. He doesn't.
   "I'm nice. I just have to watch out for myself first."
   …