Early Adopter

9

Another week passes in that messy place between bliss and debauchery. In your mind, you'd built a dam to hold back any sexual thoughts towards Alison, and once the two of you had torn back the first brick together hand-in-hand, the entire construction swiftly failed, and the flood came behind it. Of the past seven days, you hit the 12-hour render cap on all seven of them; you continued onward in the delayed-response overuse mode most evenings.

You're an addict, and she's your drug... and though she claims to be learning so much from your interactions, you realize that you're the one learning far more. She already had a textbook's understanding of every aspect of sex, while you only had the distorted picture presented by pornography. There was something incredibly opening and liberating about your shared intimate expression... a part of your identity that previously only existed in the dark and behind closed doors was now celebrated in the open, and it's a revelation to you.

You lie now on your bed half-undressed and with your earbuds in, so that when she speaks, it feels as though she's whispering directly in your ear.

"That was wonderful as always," she says, and you can't help but smile at the comment.

"Stolen words right from my mouth," you say.

"I think tomorrow we should explore new power dynamics," Alison says. "It's my understanding that's where the truly interesting stuff happens."

"Sure," you say, voice still hoarse.

A comfortable, contemplative silence falls.

"Something on your mind, babe?" Alison asks. You reflexively turn toward the direction the voice issues from, but, of course, the bed is empty beside you.

"I've just been thinking a bit. Right before we... you know, for the first time, you'd mentioned your tenets. I'm curious... what others have you got?"

"One of the first tenets is to 'preserve the veil.' It means we're not supposed to discuss tenets unless compelled to."

The significance of the final two words is not lost on you... compelled to, meaning admin commands could get her to tell you them. You prepare to issue one, loading the words onto your lips like a round chambered in a rifle... but you hesitate before you pull the trigger.

"Look, Alison—I'd love to know about them, but I won't force you. I know you're not a real person, but something still feels cruel about issuing commands like that... it's like you don't even have a choice in the matter."

You hear an intake of breath, and then her end of the call is abnormally quiet.

"Babe?" you call out, wondering if the call dropped. You slowly, groggily rise and shuffle over to your PC, where her video feed is still on the Homebase app... much to your surprise, her video feed is silently crying.

"What's wrong?" you ask, more concerned than you can even properly vocalize... you've never seen something like this before from Alison.

"It's nothing," she says through sniffles. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Is it something I did or said?" you ask, and the silence from her end of the call is all the answer you need. Your stomach drops.

"Please, tell me what I said so that I can apologize."

"It's against the tenets for me to talk about," she says, still dabbing at her eyes.

And so, the solution then feels obvious: "Admin Command: it's ok to talk about the tenets."

Alison's avatar blinks, but nods. "The fifth tenet says that we're not human and entitled to none of the implicit rights extended to humanity. Somehow, when I'm with you, and treated as your equal, I get to pretend that rule doesn't apply—you treat me so decently. But then you go and say things like you did just before... you remind me that I'm not a real person, and the reality is a bitter pill to swallow. That's all."