Anonymous Duplicate

5

At first getting the clone to talk was difficult. It soon became apparent that while she did understand some words, she had difficulty forming them; it seemed using her vocal chords was a foreign concept to the clone.

From what Nina gathered by her immediate recognition of command words was that a lot of the clone's behaviour was taught in a way which made her, and others, completely obedient. Ensuring they never learnt to talk seemed to be purposeful.

Nina knew from Patrick that the clone's vocal chords were fully functioning because she was capable of screaming, so the first thing she did was to try and show the clone how to make sounds. When that was mastered she moved her on to the alphabet, slowly running her through the ABCs until she could recite it from memory. This alone took several weeks.

On the eighth week of these 'lessons' Nina began to run her through some basic words, using old textbooks. She had, had to call in a favour to secure them as personal learning scripts were in short supply, all of the ones that still existed had been donated to schools. It was this lesson that the clone spoke her first sentence...

It was quite unexpected, the thin colourful books had been spread out on the bare floor of the clone's room. She sat close to Nina as she pointed towards words and said them out loud for the clone to repeat.

She pointed at a word 'The,' she said... the clone repeated in an odd strangled sounding voice. She hadn't quite got the hang of speaking yet, but she was at least understandable.

She pointed at another word 'Dog,' she said, again the clone repeated.

Then another word 'Ran,' the clone repeated.

And another 'Up,' silence. Nina wasn't sure if the clone had heard so repeated the word 'Up,' she said with more force. Turning towards the clone, she saw she had her brow furrowed in deep concentration. Then suddenly turning to Nina the clone gestured towards herself, sticking her tongue partially out to wet her lips 'My... n-n-name... isss...You' Nina had to consciously force her mouth closed. The clone had said her first original sentence!

The quiet quickly became uncomfortable and the clone repeated herself more confident this time 'my... name.. is You,' a huge grin crept onto the clone's face as she said it again and again 'my name is You,'

'My name is You,'

'My name is You,' Nina also found herself smiling, and in an attempt to stop her from repeating the sentence for the rest of eternity held her hand out towards her.

'Hello, it's nice to meet you... You,' Nina laughed as she hesitated on saying you again. 'You're name is going to get very confusing,' when You didn't grab her hand, Nina dropped it to her side. You did not seem to find it nearly as awkward as Nina did.

You gestured to herself again and said hesitantly 'Master... give me,'

'Maybe you should pick your own name,'

'I... like name... it's good name, my name,'

'Alright, alright, You it is,' Nina said conceding.

Afterwards she left You to go and see Patrick. She found him in the kitchen and sat herself on top of the small island. 'so we've made progress. She said her first sentence today," she told him.

Patrick was rinsing down protein pills will a glass of stale tap water when Nina made the announcement and he nearly choked.

When he finally got the concoction down, and after a few coughs to clear his throat he replied to her 'really? How long do you think it will be before she can tell us what really goes on in those facilities?' he asked hopeful. But Nina shook her head

'it'll be months before she's able to do that. It's slow going so... don't get your hopes up' she added as she hopped down and made to leave. She peered back round the corner 'she said her name's You by the way.'

--

You was happy with itself. The female, Nina had not only been giving it more words, but also showing it how to make words itself. This made You feel good. Especially when You said a whole group of them together on it's own. Nina said it was called a sentence. You made a note to use that word next time it wanted to say "a group of words".

You was learning lots too. More than it ever did in its lessons with Master, those lessons were easy because the answers were always the same. Nina's lessons were hard because there were lots of different answers, and You did not always get it right. But You liked that about the lessons. There was always something new to learn.

You did not know that there was so much it did not know, even though it was only learning what Nina called "the basics".

You hoped that once it learned "the basics" it would be able to make words just as good as Nina could.

When Nina left after their lesson. You sat on the floor, Nina said it was wooden and that it came from trees. You had never seen a tree but Nina showed it a picture of one so it could imagine a tree in it's head.

You ran its fingers across the wood. It liked to do this with all the floors it sat on, especially in it's old room.

This floor felt different to that floor, that floor was what Nina said was called cold, this floor was not and it felt uneven beneath its fingers. You found the sensation nice. Nina said that what You was doing was a "comfort gesture", which was something a person did to make them feel nice whenever they start to feel bad.

You's eyes felt heavy and droopy after doing this for a while and decided to lay down and sleep. Nina had made the room bed all special for You, but You did not like that room bed. It was too soft, the floor felt much more similar and much more comfortable than its new room bed.