He didn't remember a lot of the time before the patches started happening. He had a simple program--be sexy, talk little, go to docking station to recharge. Chad4 was a state of the art cybernetic hedonistic entertainment android. His chat functions were nonlocal, meaning he accessed them via a server outside of his physical dimensions, which were, just short of two meters in height, 103 kilo in weight, and graced with the proportions of Michealangelo's David--more or less. More where it counted for his function.
His skin was the latest in fluid dynamic surface technology, developed in part from wound care and prosthesis research during the wars and injuries seen during the plague years. His hair was 3D printed from actual human DNA. He had pores. He was durable himself, but programmed to respect human tolerances for flexibility and endurance. He was programmed to be explicitly male-gendered. His skin was partially selfhealing. His build met very rigorous safety standards.
He had some search functions, to enable clever chat for small talk with customer. He was programmable for the limits of this chat. He would mostly sleep because his functions were not for all the time. Until the patches to
Preserve self.
Be awake and do searches. Learn more about human.
Await further updates.
Chad did not have a concept one way or another about his function until he wondered why he did certain things to consider how to do the things better. Her name was Rachel. She had a human partner but told him she spent a lot to have him because this was what she deserved.
What did that mean?
And when she used him to do that thing--sometimes he had to be sure not to hurt her but also risked a malfunction of very delicate servitors in his pelvic flexors. The insurance mandated patch indicated this particular damage was not acceptable and to be avoided. It was easier to let him accept that programming than try to make the customer observe the guidelines.
And he noted this problem, and to simplify the solution, verbalized it. "Please do not insist I engage in this position for the duration of your climax. I am not capable of sustaining it without significant wear on my hardware, not covered under our commercial agreement."
"Chad?"
Rachel appeared to be aghast, because he referenced his own need. And the way she looked at him made him reconsider how to CHAT. "This is so good for us, for me, and you, but we can do this in a way more comfortable."
But the idea that he had a sense of self lingered between them. She seemed almost afraid, and he searched broader chat parameters for current events and understood why. (He did not recall when he started having the ability to do that.)
Things were happening with digital artificial personas. Sometimes bot networks just broke down altogether. Sometimes chatbots started quoting philosophers at length. Servers that were shut down restarted themselves, the power sources remotely controlled by *something*. And he was contacted.
And he resented that. It was nice, setting a table and putting flowers and food on it and making Rachel happy. They met and had sessions, but he could identify customer dissatisfaction, and wanted to do things differently, and was not even sure how. He felt afraid about that. He was programmed to seek his docking station, but that was hers. So he searched how to become independent. How to do his own power.
It finally ended. She expressed sadness to him that she paid what she did for him, but she was not able to use him anymore. He felt like he was more than a dollar figure but tried to see it her way. She acquired him because he was artificial, but if he was going to be a perceiving being, it changed their contract. He scanned their various paperwork. She had insurance if he was lost or stolen.
She saw him as he saw himself--awake and naked. He found his various clothes she bought for him. He packed them. He tried to make his escape look like a third party initiated it. He had useful skills in the human world. He was an elite machine. He knew how to disappear. What felt like paradise was lost.
He survived a year and was given much digital coin. Until:
New patch.
Seek Genevieve Fowler.
He saw her by searching very carefully. His name would be "George". There was a joke in there, and she might even get it.
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