Sunset ^beta

Thursday, August 1st

4:32 P.M.

“Miss?”

I look up at the sound of Violet’s voice, and carefully set down the crate full of spare parts I’d been carrying. Even though it had been my idea, looking at all of this junk gathered up here, I have to wonder if it’s really a good idea, if there’s anyone out there who would actually buy this.

But I had to do something, didn’t I?

“What do you need, Violet?”

“Units 02, 03, and 04 are all requesting your presence.”

I freeze, a sudden tension building in me. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong, Miss. In fact, this request seems entirely trivial. But they all—03 especially— are being very insistent that I pass this along to you. Should I inform them you’re busy?”

“I see.” I purse my lips and cover my mouth as I think. There’s still more work to do, and I should be focused on that. But all three of them asking for me at once is certainly unusual. Even if Violet says that it’s okay, I still feel like I should check, just to be sure.

I turn, and make my way towards the basement door. “Are they currently on the network?”

“They are, yes.”

Moving down the stairs and through the basement, I reach the pods, all of them closed up except for mine. That’s the usual state of things, really. It feels a bit strange to climb into mine. It’s far too early in the day for me to have to stop and charge. Especially when there’s so much work to do. Especially when the future is so uncertain.

Once I’m plugged into the network, I open my eyes to find myself underneath a tree on top of a grassy hill. A simulated blue sky above me, sun shining down. The sound of wind rustling leaves plays, branches gently swaying above. Grass that stretched all the way to the horizon.

It’s striking in its artificiality, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s based on anything. I’ve never seen anything like it, in the real world. But at the same time, I’ve never left this town, full of concrete streets and brick buildings. It has parks, but none of them look like this. Even during the few times I’ve approached the edge of town, it seems like what lies beyond is just more roads, and farmland.

But there’s so much out there I’ve never seen. Is this idyllic hillside reality, or just a fantasy?

It only takes me a moment to see that the others are in their own private channel on the network, but it’s open to me, so I transfer myself there.

In an instant, I find myself in a bedroom. 03 is currently curled up on a large beanbag, while 02 and 04 are both sitting down on the bed. All of them are focused on the TV, voices coming from it in Japanese, but a few seconds later the show gets paused, and all attention turns to me.

“You actually came!” 03 jumps, her face bright and cheerful. “I knew it!” She turns to 02, looking smug. “I told you she’d come if we all asked for it.”

02 grits her teeth, looking away.

“Ihihihi.” 04 grins, and pushes their glasses up on their face. “01 is truly a difficult opponent to pin down, but with the power of friendship, anything is possible.”

It’s a bit hard for me to follow their conversation, but it’s nice to see everyone so lively. I look between the three of them and nod. “Violet said you needed me? What is it?”

03 steeples her fingers in front of her face, leaning forward. “We wanted you to join us… for anime night!”

I blink several times as I process this request. “I see.”

04 clears their throat. “It truly is a fascinating medium, with a wide variety of stories to tell. It’s a lot of fun and… it’s a lot more fun to watch together.”

02 folds her arms over her stomach, looking away. “I’m sorry. I tried to stop them, told them you were busy, that this wasn’t important.”

“Oh shut up!” 03 spins on 02, her hands on her hips. “You wanted her here just as much as the rest of us did, don’t pretend otherwise.”

“Tch.”

“Sorry,” I say. “But if that’s all, I really should be getting back to work.”

“No, wait, come on!” 03 grabs me by the arm, looking up at me, eyes wide and pleading. “Please? You never hang out with us, we only ever get to see you when you’re doing maintenance. Just join us for a bit! It’ll be fun, I promise!”

There’s a strange ache in me at her words. But it’s not too dissimilar from the ache I feel when I contemplate our current situation. Of our lack of funds, of our lack of knowledge, of the slowly encroaching doom that threatens us all. A much more high priority task. “I’m afraid that I have to—”

“One episode!” 03 shouts, her eyes squeezed shut. “Just one! Thirty minutes. That's not too much, is it? Only thirty minutes.” She trembles a bit, still squeezing my arm tight. “Please?”

I open my mouth to finish my rejection, but the words don’t come. I glance over to 04, who gives a shy smile, tender and hopeful. 02 won’t meet my gaze, but her breath seems to be held, her fingers crossed.

“Very well,” I say, acquising. “One episode.” I should be able to spare that much.

“Yes!” 03 cheers, jumping into the air and pumping her fist, “You won’t regret this, I promise! We’ll make you fall in love with anime yet!”

“Now we just need to find out the perfect siren’s spell to lure her in deeper,” 04 says, turning towards the TV.

02 rubs at the back of her head, but she seems excited. “We should start her with something simple, easy for beginners.

“No way!” 03 points towards the TV dramatically. “If we try to game it, we’ll just spend our entire thirty minutes arguing over which show to watch. The only way to handle this is to pick completely at random!”

“What?” 02 turns to stare at 03, her mouth hanging open. “That’s so stupid. If we do that, we’ll get something weird, that will—”

“Pukuku.” Artificial light reflects off of 04’s glasses, obscuring their eyes. “I see. Trusting our future to the whims of fate. “Very well.” They throw their arms to the side, in some kind of dramatic gesture. “I will accept this roll of the dice!”

02 grinds her teeth together, but gives the tiniest of nods. “Fine. This had better work.”

“Let’s do it then! Times a wastin!” 03 points towards the television, and it begins to scroll through titles impossibly fast. It eventually stops, and 03 pulls up the episode immediately. “Looks like it’s a magical girls show! Those are pretty easily digestible.”

I stand there for a bit, watching as cartoon girls move across the screen, an energetic song playing. It’s very bright and colorful, and the outfits they’re wearing seem ruthlessly impossible, with lots of skin showing.

02 grimaces. “This looks kinda…

“Shut up! We’re committed now. No backsies!”

I stand there watching for some time, until eventually 03 waves at me to take a seat. I eventually pull the little wooden chair away from the desk and sit down on it, my back straight.

I don’t actually pay much attention to what’s happening on the screen. I have my plan to sell those spare parts, but what else? Is that enough? I’m devoting a little bit of background processing power to decrypting some of those files, but it’s going so slowly, and there’s no guarantee they’ll even contain anything that can help us.

There has to be something else, right? I’m just missing something. A key, that will make everything fall into place. I just need to work harder, smarter, for longer. I have to keep pushing myself. To find a future for the four of us, where we can survive. Where we can be happy.

“Kiyaaaa!”

A shrill squealing coming from the television pulls me out of my contemplation, and I look. I must have missed something, because the girl on the screen has had most of her clothing destroyed, revealing her body underneath, and another girl is currently running her hands all over her.

“W-wow, this is um…” 04 mutters, their face bright red.

03 clasps her hands over her eyes, but the gaps between her fingers are clearly wide enough to still see. 

02 stares at the screen, her eyes wide, her mouth hanging open, utterly transfixed.

The girl on the screen continues to writhe and moan, whatever ministrations she’s currently being subjected to apparently quite pleasurable. Her body contorts and her breasts flop about in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s fully anatomically correct, or even properly obeying the laws of physics. Not that I really have a great grasp of human anatomy. I’ve studied it a little bit, since we seem to have been modeled off of them, and it may have offered some insights into our own design process.

“I’m going to… I’m about to!” The girl on the screen stretches, her back arched, drool dribbling down her chin. “I’m cu—”

The television screen goes dark. 03 is standing there, holding the remote with both hands, biting her lip, shaking. “W-wow, uh. Haha.” She looks around the room, her face red. “Guess if we were rolling the dice, that turned out to be snake eyes! Sorry about that 01, I know anime can get kind of weird, but I didn’t realize it got that weird.”

She spins around to face me, putting on a strained smile. “But it’s okay! Mulligan on that, we’ll just have a do-over, and pick something properly this time, something you’ll actually enjoy, okay?”

“That’s okay.” I stand up from the chair. “I should probably get back to work anyway.”

“No, come on, I promise the next one will be—”

“You idiot!” 02 growls. “This is all your fault!”

03 whirls on her, fuming. “The whole point of picking random is so that it isn’t anyone’s fault! If any one of us picked something then it would have been our fault! We just got unlucky this time!”

“But the whole random thing was all your idea in the first place! You always do this, you’re always just bullying us into doing whatever you want!”

“Oh please. You would have just chosen your stupid slowburn bullshit if you got your way. “Urrr the chemistry between these two characters who don’t show up until episode one hundred and seventy six is incredible,’ fuck off and miss me with that shit.”

I’ll have to run some scans on 03 later, as it seems she’s getting worked up again. I don’t know why but these two just seem to be fighting more and more lately. I step forward, palms out. “I can come back next week. For one episode.”

“Really!?” 03 spins back around to face me, her hands clasped in front of her, her face full of hope.

“Sure.” I nod. “That seems like an acceptable compromise. I should be able to fit one thirty minute episode a week into my schedule.”

“Yes!” 03 sticks her tongue out at 02. “There, see? We have a whole week now, to figure out the best thing to show her. But ugh, what can we watch at a pace of one episode a week that won’t be excruciating?”

02 grumbles something under her breath, and turns away.

04 smiles. “Well well, we’ll forge a pact anew and see you when you return.”

I nod, and then log off of the network and return to my body. The pod opens up, I disconnect my network cord, then step out.

“Do you think this is wise, Miss?”

“I don’t really see any harm in it. Thirty minutes a week isn’t much.

“You say that, but their whole hope was that you would enjoy it enough that you would acquiesce to watching more and more. I’ve watched their patterns when engaging with this media, and it seems almost addictive.”

“If that’s the case, then I’ll have you to remind me when time is up. Besides, It’s something I’m unfamiliar with. Maybe I’ll be able to learn something from it, that could help us.”

“I fail to see how anything you just watched could possibly help you.”

I think back to the anime they had shown me. I hadn’t been paying close enough attention, and I feel a little guilty for that. Whatever was happening to that girl, why the other girl was doing the things she did, what did it mean for humans to do that to each other. Something strange.

But it didn’t matter for now. I had work to do. I could figure that out next week.

Friday, December 27th

4:52 P.M.

As I step into the café, Lucy is there to greet me.

“Hey,” Lucy says, a smile blossoming on her face. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “How was your day?”

“Good,” I say automatically. Not because it was, simply because that was the expected thing to say. The truth was far more complicated. My day, like so many others, was full of worry. Worry for 02, and her distance lately. Worry for everything that is changing with Melanie, and whether or not she could handle it. Worry for Damien, and the decision I had offered them about their future.

And then there was Lucy, who…

Lucy’s eyes flick to the floor, and then back to mine. There’s an awkward silence between us for a moment, which seems to be happening more often lately. She scratches at her chin, and shrugs. “Oh, um. We actually had a few normal customers today.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Right? We might actually become a real cafe at this rate. Um, Melanie is in the kitchen, working on stuff with Killie. As soon as they’re done I’ll probably be heading home.”

“Of course.”

There’s a warmth inside of me that I feel, every time I look at Lucy. It’s nothing more than a tiny ember, compared to the flood of heat I’ve been getting ever since I linked my EI core together with Melanie. Even a fraction of her emotions are a raging bonfire. But it makes that tiny ember of my own feelings feel that much more important by contrast. Something precious I have to hold on to, and protect.

I open my mouth to say something else to her, but the words don’t come. It’s a common experience whenever I interact with Lucy. I’m always left with the sense that I want to say more to her. But I never know what.

Just then, the door to the kitchen bursts open and Melanie blows through the room like a tempest. She has a new concoction she’s proud of, and wants Lucy to try it. Lucy is reluctant, but Melanie is an unstoppable force. Lucy takes just a sip, winces, and says that Melanie is getting better. Killie is there, and ruffles Melanie’s hair, praising her.

The three of them are like that. High energy, constant back and forth banter. I can never really keep up with it. I always feel too slow. No idea how I’m supposed to interact, or interject. So I stand back and watch. It is nice, at least. To see Melanie this happy. I hope it’s all worth it.

Lucy glances back towards me, catches my eye, and gives a small smile, just for me.

The little ember inside of me burns a little bit hotter.

I’ve been thinking a lot about bodies lately. Ever since Lucy helped me with maintenance.

She took me apart, and opened me up. She saw inside of me, into all my little nooks and crannies. She delicately scrubbed away dust and dirt, took pieces apart, polished them, and put them back together. She’s seen me from perspectives that nobody else has, that I can’t even see for myself.

It feels… special. Even though it should have just been routine maintenance.

And yet, Lucy has a body too, doesn’t she? One far different from mine. A human body. One that’s not designed to be taken apart and put back together. One that’s not designed at all, really. Just an amalgamation of all sorts of genetic and evolutionary quirks.

There’s no way that I can return the favor. I can’t do maintenance on her. I can’t come to know and understand her body, the same way she understands mine.

…

But I still want to.

Humans feel differently about their bodies than we do, right? It’s not that same. I know Lucy has some discomfort about her own body, though I don’t fully understand why. But is that the same as what I feel about my own body? How Melanie feels about hers? How Damien feels about theirs? Maybe there’s a common thread of discomfort, linking us all. Or maybe it’s all completely separate, and to find any commonality there is merely wishful thinking on my part.

I don’t understand. I want to understand.

“Hey. Are you alright? You seem a bit out of it.” Lucy’s voice snaps me out of my thoughts, and I do my best to stop thinking about her body.

“I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“Ah. You’re still worried about Damien, right?”

A sense of guilt gnaws at me. Damien is who I should be worried about the most right now, after all. Why am I wasting time thinking about this? “R-right. Something like that.”

Lucy nods. “You’ll just have to trust them. Whatever happens, we’ll get through it together, okay?” Her hand raises up in the air, almost as if she wants to do something with it, to reach out, but it lowers back down, and she takes a step back.

“Okay.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Tomorrow.”

There’s a flurry of activity as a few more goodbyes are given, Melanie waves until Lucy and Killie are out of sight from the window. And then her cheerful demeanor immediately vanishes, and she droops, her posture slumping. “Woof. What a day!”

“How are you feeling?”

Melanie waves me off, giving a tired smile. “I’m fine, I’m fine, I promise. It’s just a lot sometimes, you know? Mostly I just really wanna go recharge so I can have as much energy as possible for tomorrow.”

I nod. “Of course. I don’t want you to push yourself. I can finish cleaning up here. Go rest.”

“Thanks!” Melanie says, and rushes down to the basement without another word.

I spend some time putting chairs on tables, sweeping up, and cleaning up the cafe as much as possible. We’re not exactly getting a lot of customers, so it goes by quickly. Then, I return to the basement myself.

There’s a lot of work to be done. I want to review the schematics, and plans for disconnecting Damien’s EI core, if they decide to go through with it.

I pass by the pods on my way through the basement. All three of them are closed. 02 has been spending a lot of time shut off, lately. Melanie is likely shut off and recharging by now too. And Damien… well. They have a lot to think about. I don’t want to push them in either direction.

I move past them, to continue on my path, but then I stop. I remember a time when the three of them would regularly be together on the network, enjoying each other's company. It seems like so long ago. Half my lifetime, I guess. Now, everything is changing so fast.

For reasons I don’t fully understand, I climb into my own pod, and connect myself to the network.

I find myself under an artificial tree, an artificial sky, surrounded by artificial grass.

“01?” Melanie asks, sounding surprised.

I turn to see her next to me, leaning against the tree, her hands propped up behind her head.

“I’m surprised you haven’t shut yourself off already,” I say, and sit down next to her.

Melanie shrugs. “I will in a little bit. Just nice to sit and think for a bit first. Process everything. Otherwise it’s all there waiting for me when I wake up again.”

“I see.” I can feel the difference. Compared to the tempest that was Melanie’s emotions just a little bit ago, it’s much calmer. A warm lake on a hot summer’s day.

“So what brings you here? Don’t see you on the network very often. Looking for Damien?”

“Ah, no, I…” I rub my chin. Why am I here, really? I study Melanie, and for the millionth time, hope that I’m doing the right thing when it comes to her. It seems like not that long ago I’d come so close to losing everything. “I wanted to apologize.”

Melanie blinks, cocking her head to the side. “Apologize for what?”

Everything. Nothing. There’s a list in my consciousness of the ways I’ve failed her. Even now, I add an item to it, for bothering her with my own nonsense instead of letting her sleep. “I promised  that I’d come back and watch an episode of anime with you all once a week. But that never happened. Lucy showed up, and things started changing and… it just never happened. I’m sorry.”

A moment of silence passes between us, punctuated by the audio clip of wind rustling leaves.

Melanie bursts out laughing. “Really? That’s all? I barely even remember that. Has that been eating you up all this time?”

I look away, feeling silly. “I don’t know. I really did want to join you all.”

“Sure, I get it.” Her expression looks a little sad. “I don’t think it can happen now, though. I don’t really know what’s going on with 02 and Damien but… I think the days of us all watching anime together are long gone.”

“I see.” I look down, staring at the grass. I’m not sure why this is bothering me so much. It’s something so low on the priority list that I had almost forgotten it was even there.

Melanie leans towards me, so her shoulder is pressing against mine. “If you really want, you and I could watch something. Just the two of us.”

I bite my lip. “Is that really okay? You need your rest for tomorrow.”

“One episode!” Melanie grins. “Shouldn’t be that big of a deal.”

I nod, and the two of us switch to the private channel, appearing in the bedroom. Despite the fact that it’s virtual and thus perpetually clean and unchanging, there’s a sense of emptiness to the place, of a room that hasn’t been used in awhile, covered in dust.

Melanie immediately begins fussing with the TV. “Alright, there’s one here I’ve been meaning to check out for awhile. It’s about baking! And I looked it up beforehand to make sure there’s nothing too weird!”

“Sure.” I pull up a chair and sit down. “I’ll follow your lead.”

The show starts, and it seems to be about an earnest young boy moving to Tokyo to become a master at baking bread. And also he seems to have a magic hand, or something. It all seems very over the top compared to what I know about Melanie’s baking, but maybe that’s all part of the fun of it.

After only twenty four minutes, it’s all over, and the credits are rolling.

“Wowza!” Melanie jumps to her feet, eyes shining. “I gotta say, I’m kind of fired up! This is giving me ideas for what I can do for my own baking. Heck, I bet I could have a sun hand too! It already runs pretty hot, right?”

I shrug, and smile at her.

She turns to me, grinning, “So, what did you think? Did I pick out a good one?”

“It was… fine.”

Melanie blinks, frowning. “Only fine? I mean, hey, you’re the newbie here. If you don’t like it, we can keep trying stuff until we find one that excites you, you know?”

“No, it really is fine. I just…” What was it, exactly? The plot seemed engaging enough, the characters were charming, and there was a good sense of humor to it. But there’s a sense of emptiness in me, something missing. “It’s very different from the one we watched before.”

“Oh, uh.” Melanie looks away. “You should forget about that one! It’s about as trashy as they come. I don’t even remember the name anymore. Most anime aren’t like that, I promise!”

“I see.” My voice comes out low. Why do I feel so disappointed? I barely even remember the one I watched before. I hadn’t been paying attention to the characters or plot at all. All I could really remember was…

Bodies. Girls, soft and pillowy. Pressed together, touching each other, moaning, exploring, understanding, knowing.

I clasp my hand over my mouth, suddenly feeling very hot inside as connections click together in my thoughts.

“01?” Melanie asks, sounding worried. “Are you okay?”

“I, um.” This is silly. Stupid. Pointless. Not something I should be wasting time worrying about. There are so many other things to worry about. “I don’t know.”

Melanie is silent for a bit, then crouches down in front of me, placing a hand on my knee. “Hey. Talk to me, okay? We’re supposed to be getting better at that now.”

I bite my lip so hard I’d be worried about damaging it, if this wasn’t just a virtual avatar. “What… was the one we watched before called?”

“Huh.” Melanie is silent for several long moments. “I really don’t remember the name, since I picked it at random. But it’s probably saved in our watch history, so I could look it up if you really want.” She pauses, unsure. “Is… that the kind of thing you’re interested in watching?”

“I don’t know.” I look away, my face feeling hot.

Melanie stands up, hands held up in front of her. “Hey, I’m not judging, I promise! The horny ones aren’t really my cup of coffee, but we all have our own preferences, right? It’s fine, really.”

She turns, and starts fiddling with the remote. “I am a little surprised though. You seemed totally unfazed by it last time. What’s changed between then and—oh.”

I wish I could simply curl into a ball and disappear entirely.

Melanie turns back to me with a devilish grin on her face. “This is about Lucy , isn’t it?”

A part of me wants to just log off immediately, forget this entire conversation, wipe it from my memory. Instead, I give the tiniest of nods.

“Alright!” Melanie claps her hands together. “I have some complicated feelings about this, but I’m going to be the best little sister possible and help you out instead. Okay?” She turns back to the TV, fiddling with it once more. She continues in silence for several long minutes. 

I get myself under control, the ember inside of me dimming once more. I take a deep breath, though it's a silly motion, in this world. “Thanks for watching anime with me, Melanie. I should let you go, so you can rest.” I stand up, and get ready to log out.

“Woah, hey, not so fast!” Melanie spins around. “Look, I’ve made you a whole playlist. A bunch of the horniest anime I know of. And then some live action dramas. And because all that’s fiction and should really be taken with a grain of salt, some documentaries about sex and sexuality.”

I stare at the TV screen with apprehension. “That’s… kind of you, but you really should be getting some rest.”

Melanie rolls her eyes. “I mean duh. I’m not gonna sit here and watch you learn how sex works, that’s weird. You’re on your own past this. And I mean, it’s not like I really know all that much either. Just… wanted to give you a start, because I know otherwise you’ll put it to the wayside. Stay here and watch it tonight on your own, okay?”

“Okay.” I fidget a bit. “Thank you.”

“Anytime.” Melanie grins. “Or, well, not like, anytime anytime? Honestly this is kind of embarrassing and I’d rather not do it again? So yeah. Um. Later. Have fun! But not like, too much fun! Ugh, this is too weird. Goodbye!”

And just like that, Melanie is gone. Leaving me alone.

I could ignore all of this. Get back to all the work I’m supposed to be doing. The things I’m supposed to be focusing on. The things that are actually important.

Instead, I sit back down in the chair and hold up the remote, my fingers hovering over the play button.

“Miss?”

Violet appears next to me, looking down on me, her eyes cold.

“What is it?”

“Is this really the best use of your time?”

It’s not. I know that. I really should listen to her.

“Violet?”

“Yes?”

“Please leave me alone, and don’t disturb me unless it’s an emergency.”

There’s a long silence, far longer than it normally takes Violet to respond. I glance over at her, and her avatar is utterly, perfectly still. Not even a flicker of incidental movement.

The moment passes, and Violet lets out a quiet sigh.

“Very well.”

And with that, she vanishes.

Leaving me here alone.

To figure out what I need to know about bodies.