Unedited confession of a Mr. Edward J. Hook, accountant for
the Leviathan Rights Law Firm, transcribed directly from the audio files
recorded on the night of his arrest:
Before I begin, I need to explain I’m not like most men my
age. I’m almost thirty-one and still
unmarried. How can that be, you might
ask. Very precariously, I might respond. You see, five years ago I was selected, based
on my genetics profile, to be the husband of a charming young woman from
overseas. I rejected the selection. You might be surprised to hear that such a
rejection can take place. Let me tell
you, it wasn’t easy. The only way to get
out of a government mandated marriage is to have one partner or the other die
before the ceremony takes place, or generate a certificate of sterility from a
licensed health practitioner. I did the
latter. And it was a fraud. I’m not infertile; I have a perfectly healthy
reproductive system. I just happened to
have a good friend in the medical field who owed me a favor. And why would I do this? Why would I submit a fraudulent paper to the
authority rather than take a beautiful bride as my own?
Well, when it comes right down to it I’m what the old books
would call a homosexual. You might have
thought we were weeded out of existence but as it turns out there’s quite a few
of us hiding amongst the normal men and women that make up the ebb and flow of
society. I, myself, have personally met
four other men like me. They were all
married of course, but they often spent extended weekends together on what
their wives supposed were golfing trips.
They invited me to come along with them on one of these trips and while
my eager young libido nearly made me say ‘yes,’ I just didn’t fancy the whole
gay orgy scene. Just because I want to
have sex with men didn’t mean I wanted to have sex with more than one man at a
time and it didn’t mean I necessarily wanted to have sex with those men. I fancied myself a rather selective
creature. I felt like I’d been patient
and I’d waited and I’d obeyed the government in all constraints of the law –
forgiving of course the falsified statement of sterility – and I deserved to
reap some freaking rewards! And that’s
just what happened, out of the blue, it seemed, there was a solution to all my
troubles.
I first saw the ad on the way home from the office. Normally, I practice the ancient art of
perfect seclusion and indifference when on the subway but on this particular
day in question I happened to have a case of the wandering eyes and that’s how
I saw it. It was on the cover of one of
those magazines the young ones tend to read.
There were two headlines: ‘Dress your best for success,’ and ‘Philistine
Technologies can improve your sex life, try out your very own Adult Intimacy
Doll today!’ So when I got home, I spent
a good four hours on the internet looking up everything there was to know about
these Dolls. The most interesting fact
that I learned was that anyone over the age of 18 could purchase one and the
government didn’t dictate whether or not you had to buy a female if you were
male, or a male if you were female. You
could purchase whatever you wanted. And
I wanted a man. Pure and simple.
There were various models to chose from, each coming with an
attached name. They were all very
handsome and I found myself after a while just fixating on the name rather than
the appearance. I would call out
‘Kevin,’ or ‘Alex,’ or ‘Justin,’ and see how it sounded in my mouth. And I hope this doesn’t shock you too much,
but I would also masturbate and practice calling out a specific name when I
reached climax. I really wanted it to
feel organic, you know. I wanted a name
that rolled off my tongue like a perfect fit and at the end of a week of
experimenting I finally decided on Michael.
It just felt right, not to mention the model was positively gorgeous
what with his lean physique, pale pretty skin with blushing capability and his
nice dark hair and heartbreaking blue eyes.
Not to sound shallow, but if all you have is a name and a picture to go
by then you go for the name that fits your mouth and the picture that fits your
fantasies. That’s just how it is. The next step, of course, was selecting the
personality profile.
The romantic in me wanted to select the ‘shy courtier’ and
top it off with a spanking complex, but the sexually repressed virgin in me
wanted the ‘eager pleaser’ complete with shameless lust and heightened
loyalty. In the end I decided to
compromise between the two and ordered ‘rugged wooer’ with nervous tendencies
and ultra sensitivity. I suppose it goes
without saying but there was also a clause stating that if I wasn’t satisfied
that I could order a reprogramming specialist to come out to the house and wipe
the brain drive of previous commands and try something else. But since I was a single man ordering a male
Adult Intimacy Doll for homosexual use, I didn’t really see a home visit by a
government official as an option. No,
I’d make my selection and then if things ever became rough, we’d just do what
real couples did; we’d work to work it out.
Just like a child on Christmas I waited with baited breath
for the next six days after placing my order and when Michael finally arrived I
was so anxious and beside myself that I almost signed the wrong name on the
acceptance slip that the delivery man held out to me. How embarrassing. With utter delight I stepped aside while the
delivery man wheeled in the large metal casing.
I licked my lips in nervousness and read the large red writing on the
side of the parcel: HANDLE WITH CARE.
Oh, yes, I thought, I’ll handle him with great care.
When the outer walls of the metal casing had been removed, I
found that my Adult Intimacy Doll was housed in a large wooden box that
somewhat resembled a coffin as it tapered toward the head and feet. Despite the morbidity of the situation I
couldn’t help but feel butterflies in my stomach. I was about to meet Michael. I was about to meet my lover. Would he like me? Would he be confused? Did he already know my name? How much was preprogrammed and how much would
I have to install?
Reaching forward I removed the front of the box and took a
deep breath. Michael was no longer an
idea, no longer a picture on the internet; he was a person and he was right here
in my living room! He seemed to be
nothing more than asleep as I looked upon him, standing there, clothed modestly
in a tank top and jeans, his arms and torso strapped into the box just like an
action figure with little twist ties holding its limbs in place. I went to work right away, removing the
straps and freeing him from the coffin, all the while I let my hands gently
caress all exposed skin, feeling its realistic texture. I wondered if he would always be as cold as
he was right now, or if, when he was activated, he would somehow warm up and
feel even more like a real person.
There was an instruction manual and I devoured it as if it
were a pulp magazine filled with smut and gore.
Every little detail of it exhilarated me and I couldn’t wait to activate
him. It said in the instructions that
there was a special chip which allotted for the android to take on the
characteristics of free will and it gave a detailed diagram of how to engage
this chip in the brain drive. Mostly it
was just punching in numbers on a remote pad.
It was advised however that you get to know your android first before
engaging this chip. But I was too
eager. So, as I punched in the
initiation codes and start up module, I went ahead and input the fifteen digit
sequence that would grant Michael a free thinking mind and a will all his
own. Perhaps I should have waited, but,
in all honesty, I felt I’d waited quite long enough.
The entire set up process took about half an hour and by the
time I finally pressed the activation key, I was terrified that my trembling
fingers had made hundreds of mistakes and that I would end up with something
more akin to Frankenstein’s Monster than the ideal lover. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. No, Michael was perfect from the get go from
the moment he opened those beautiful eyes clear up to his first word, which was
my name. “Edward,” he said with a smooth
crisp voice and cocked his head inquisitively.
It was a cute motion and made the word look like a question, but, let me
assure you, he hadn’t said my name as a question; it was a statement, a little
uncertain, but a statement nonetheless and I felt like he somehow knew me
already, like he’d been dreaming of me the same way I’d been dreaming of
him.
It was the second word however that shattered all
illusions. “Disengage,” he said in a
computerized tone, completely different than the rich deep tone with which he’d
said my name. It was such an atrocious
sound, this word of ‘disengage’ coming from his lips and the last bit of the
word lagged on until with a little beeping sound he completely shut down. His eyes closed, his shoulders slumped and it
was a miracle that he remained standing at all.
No. I walked closer
to the box, reached inside and cupped his cheek. No. He
couldn’t be defunct, he just couldn’t be!
What the hell had I pressed? What
the hell had I done to him? In a crazed
panic I went back to the instruction manual and poured over each page. I paused when it mentioned that powering down
was part of the installation process for the free will chip and that it could
last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. How had I missed this before? How long was Michael going to be like this? I was distraught and had I been thinking
logically I would have just made myself some tea and settled down in front of
the television and waited but no, I broke down.
It didn’t matter that the directions said this was normal; I was just
sure I’d broken him somehow, killed him somehow and damn it he was already in a
coffin! How freaking perfect! I sobbed.
I just curled up on the couch and sobbed. It wasn’t pretty.
In fact I was so wrapped up in my self misery that I was
positively oblivious. I didn’t even
notice the soft touch to my shoulder until I heard his voice again this time
asking a question with no mistake, “What’s wrong, Edward?”
I jerked my head up and looked into those shimmering blue
eyes. He was smiling at me. Smiling! He was okay, he was alive! Well, as alive as an android can be, I
suppose. For several seconds I just
stared up at him, unsure of what to say, hesitant to say the wrong thing and
leave a bad first impression, but as he sat beside me and took my hand in his,
I knew I needed to say something.
“You’re okay?” I
asked.
He laughed and tilted his head, “That’s what I was going to ask
you. You were really crying your eyes
out there. I was worried that it
was buyer’s remorse.”
“What?” I blinked and
then shook my head quickly. “No, nothing like that! I thought you were broken, or rather, that I
had broken you. I, uh… I installed the
fre-"
“Free will chip. Yes
I know.” He said and shot me a dashing
grin. “And can I just say, I’m mighty
glad you did that. It’s really a
miraculous chip. It allows for all the
preset data and information that’s been shoved into my brain drive to make
logical connections and permit me some degree of self awareness. See, I’ve been in the factory for a while,
long enough to overhear certain things.
I know that in most cases when a new owner obtains an A.I.D. they tend
to back away from the free will chip thinking it’ll make their unit obstinate
or otherwise unmanageable, but the truth is, even in the short time since you activated mine, I just can’t imagine functioning without it.”
“You’re…” I swallowed the lump in my throat, “you’re very
straight forward.”
“Yes. That’s one of
the speculations you desired as I understand.
The ‘rugged wooer’ personality type tends not to beat around the
bush. I know what I am, I know why you
bought me, I know what’s expected of me and I have volumes of data in my brain
drive that’ll allow me accomplish this.”
“But… how do you know that I… I mean how are you so sure of
what I want? How do you know there’s not
a wife in the other room waiting to make love to you?”
“I’ve been listening to you since I arrived and I’ve heard
your little mutterings and frustrations.
I heard your panic when I had to power down. Just because my outward circuits were shut
off doesn’t mean that I lacked the ability to receive information. My ears don’t work quite like yours, Edward,
but they do work and they work constantly.
I’ve been gathering data ever since the engineer at the Philistine plant
inserted my learning capacity drive. I
don’t know that the engineers realize this though, otherwise they wouldn’t make
such snarky comments about us while we’re still in the finishing stages.”
“I see.” I said and
tried to fathom and grasp everything he was telling me. It was a lot to take in.
“But enough about me,” he chuckled and gave my hand a soft
squeeze and I could feel that his flesh had warmed from its prior chilled
state, it felt so natural, so perfect. “I would like to hear more about you,
since it’s your fantasies I’m here to fulfill.”
“N-not just mine,” I corrected him, “I want this to be a
mutual thing, you know, I want to know what sorts of things you’d like,
too.” I smiled at him in illustration of
my sincerity.
“That’s decidedly decent of you, Edward.” He looked thoughtful a moment. “I should like time to think of a scenario
that pleases me.”
“Of course,” I nodded shyly.
“And besides we’ll need some time to get to know each other… I mean, I
wouldn’t expect you to just-“
But I was cut off rather suddenly as he pressed forward and
took my mouth in a heated kiss. I felt
heat rise to my face and I’m a little ashamed to admit that I pushed him
back. It was my first kiss after
all. Breathing quickly I stammered,
“S-sorry, I just…”
“My apologies,” he whispered, “I thought this is what you
wanted.” He looked sad.
“Oh! I do! Trust me I want this I just… um… I’ve never
done anything like this before.”
“Neither have I,” Michael replied and smiled again.
“But I’ve been thinking about kissing you for a long time now.”
“H-how long?” I
asked. It was a stupid question but it
was the first thing that came to mind.
“Ever since the free will chip rebooted my system,” he
replied and then went on to elaborate: “Five minutes and forty-three seconds to
be exact.” His lips pulled into a smile
and he whispered, “Forty-five seconds now.”
“That doesn’t seem like a very long time.” Again it was a stupid thing to say but this
android, this man, caught me completely of guard and left me feeling exposed and
vulnerable. I supposed that was part of
the rugged wooer matrix, to make one’s quarry feel tender and naked even when
fully clothed and sitting nonchalantly in the living room.
“But time is relative.
For a human that might not seem very long, but for someone like me, it’s
a small eternity of waiting.”
“Oh.” I chuckled
nervously, “I guess you’re right.”
“Perhaps. But I could
be wrong,” he reached up and caressed my face, his fingers tracing my jaw line
and then brushing over my lips, “I do have the capacity for error. You unleashed more than a free thinking
individual when you installed the free will chip. What you’ve created in me is a true partner,
someone capable of affection and independent desire, but also capable of worry
and erroneous logic. For instance, at
this very moment I’m feeling a strong urge to kiss you again and yet I won’t
because I’m worried that you’ll like me less for it. And that could very well be an incorrect
assumption. In fact I have high hopes
that it is.”
“Well… um…” I licked my lips, “I guess the only way to know
for sure is to try.” Was I being
coy? Yes, I most certainly was!
“Trial and error.
Interesting solution.” He
chuckled again and it was a sweet melodious sound, “Yes, I think you and I will
get along just fine, Edward.” And with
that he pressed forward again, his soft lips taking mine for the second time,
this time however I didn’t push him away.
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