noises

the wind-tunnel roar of my laptop’s fans as she crunches through three thousand eight hundred and ninety simulations, the clinical grinding of a dremel, the rumble of a bandsaw, twenty-three frantic beeps from a transmitter running out of battery, footsteps metronomically down Building 4, the sigmoidal curve of a belt sander spooling up, the snake-hiss of carbon dioxide precipitating out of a Red Bull can, could I have the rice and salmon please? yes, with edamane, thank you so much, the smoke of a soldering iron, the curious purring of four servos controlling flaps and ailerons as a little plane stretches her plywood-and-foam wings for the first time, Laufey–Lover Girl (2025), a sigh, a door creaking closed, the rhythmic flourishes of a marker drawing a block diagram on a whiteboard, the lullaby of a washing machine, ten minutes of silence, thirteen pings on Discord, a friend’s laughter scootering down the street.