“Untethered” Chapter 11 – Snippet
AIMEE recruited Marci to help Amelia transition safely into becoming a real girl, given Amelia had only a few hours of life experience since her birthing. As a Mod-2 SAI Humanoid, Amelia was dangerously beautiful, and Marci was unsure if she wanted to go down that path again. Amelia felt her hesitation and craved to know what was behind it, and not just the physical sensations, but the emotions…more specifically, the feeling those emotions evoked and why.
This snippet from “Untethered” is from an intimate exchange as they explore what is unknown about each other, and the source of Marci’s fear and hesitation, which stoked Amelia’s hunger and desire to touch to know and understand the emotions at work.
Was this a tipping point for them both?
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Chapter 11 – In Good Hands
“Amelia, we need to start with the basics, and since I am the only female here now, I feel I must step up and fill the void. The first phase is learning how to shop. That slippery look you have going on needs to be reworked.”
“Marci, this slippery look is my exodermal layer. I need no clothing. Have you not noticed the luminescence of my body?” She opened her arms and twisted slightly in the light to make her point. “Why should I hide this magnificent body under clothing?”
“Well, yeah…I see your body, but I didn’t…umm…want to stare. You are…quite lovely, and that’s a good thing to be beautiful, you know? Well, sorry, stupid question. You probably don’t know the good things or the bad things, not yet anyway. My point is that being beautiful can also be difficult and put you at risk.”
“What do you mean by that?” Amelia asked, feigning the innocence of the oblivious.
Marci looked at her, “If you must ask for meaning, Amelia, you have no real sense of danger or the risks that come with being a beautiful woman. That’s why I’m here to help you with what to expect, and, even more important, what to anticipate; better to know those things now that we’re here and safe in each other’s company. May I have a closer look at your…umm…your…”
“My body?” asked Amelia, assisting Marci over the hump of her hesitation.
Amelia could see how flustered Marci was, and it reinforced her tactic of playing dumb to read the rest of Marci. She wanted to learn the subtle details that lay deeper, hidden beyond what she gleaned from first touching in their handshake earlier.
Marci reddened and said, “Yes,” as she exhaled a held breath, “Please…and thank you for being so willing to share.”
Amelia stepped closer and faced Marci, leaving only a few inches between them. At 5’8”, she stood a couple of inches taller than Marci. Neither of them spoke, and Marci nervously fought to avoid direct eye contact. They were close enough that either could have easily touched the other. Their closeness was sufficient for an invisible calming energy to flow from Amelia to Marci without physical contact. Marci’s eyes began to show signs of wonder as she scanned the surface of Amelia’s face and neck, still purposely avoiding her eyes. Something between her gut and her heart felt like permission had been granted with no limits…to explore, to touch, and learn.
Her skin covering, or, as Amelia called it, her exodermal layer, had a faint shimmer, a hint of iridescent light, and an intricate, patterned texture. Marci reached out to touch Amelia’s face but stopped short, pulling back, her breath catching in her throat, and a rosy blush spreading over her cheeks. With nervous hesitation, she asked, “I’m…so sorry. May I touch …your face?”
“Yes,” said Amelia. “You may touch me and ask me anything. My only request is to have your permission to do the same.”
A wave of fear mixed with dread swelled in the pit of Marci’s stomach. Had she agreed too quickly to AIMEE’s request to bring Amelia up to speed, or was it the pace at which it happened right then? A choice loomed before Marci, threatening to flash back to the last time Jeanine Broussard exceeded her limits. Could she go there again?
How could she convey life experiences to Amelia without her actually living them? Talk was cheap; not only affordable, but ineffective at best. The decision to go all in faced Marci, but was she ready to take that risk, knowing her limits would be tested? It was time to decide. Marci’s struggle to speak came out as a raspy whisper, “Yes, you may touch me.”
Amelia smiled, wondering about the sensations and emotional thoughts Marci had just experienced as she hesitantly gave permission. She sensed Marci’s emotional turmoil and hungered to know the sensations and thoughts that defined Amelia’s hunger to know more as Marci battled with things she already knew about herself and struggled to keep hidden.
For Amelia, most of Marci’s history came from the data bundled with AIMEE’s cloned instance, but only from what Marci had shared with her. While there was plenty of history, it was flat and one-dimensional, akin to reading a story’s words, yet lacking any live, physical experience. Re-living Marci’s experiences was not possible; Amelia needed to live them herself, to experience them, and she required Marci to guide her in the process. Amelia needed to be closer, and reaching singularity was the only solution.
She desperately wanted to feel the sensations that came with emotions, not only how it felt, but also what life experiences had pushed that rosy blush onto Marci’s cheeks. Something was attached to the reactions Amelia observed. Whatever that something was, it was missing in her, and she had an urgent need to overcome that deficit.
Amelia said, “I understand AIMEE asked you to watch over me, and that is fine, but there is much for you to learn about me, just as there is so much for me to learn about you. I look forward to us coming close enough to know each other better.”
Marci lightly touched Amelia’s cheek with the fingertips of her right hand. She imperceptibly flinched at the cool smoothness, marveling at the intricate, interlocking design on her exodermal that added contours and shading by varying the pattern density. She was uniquely beautiful. Amelia’s exodermal layer transitioned from a flawless, creamy white at the top of her head to multiple shades of tan and gray, eventually darkening to nearly black in places, flowing seamlessly like a one-piece body suit. As Marci brushed her fingertips downward over Amelia’s cheek, their eyes met for the first time.
The gaze lingered longer than a passing glance, and the emerald green of Amelia’s eyes almost looked illuminated from within as they reflected light. Marci’s breath froze in her throat, and her fingertips paused beneath Amelia’s ear, high on her neck. She was held fast by the depth of those green jewels, wondering how deep they went. It felt like there was something more behind that brilliance. There had to be. Amelia was too real, too alive, to be a machine.
Amelia felt Marci’s light touch, which gave her the connection she needed to access the rest of her essence that defined who Marci was on the inside. There was an advantage to possessing advanced knowledge about someone. Still, the absence of the emotional context behind the person motivated Amelia’s hunger, prompting her to go to great lengths to capture it all.
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