Far Future Fembot: Darlene

I would later find out that along the way of gaining experiences, Tami-7 would share a casual, yet deeply intimate and loving, relationship with Sharon. She would later explain how close the relationship between artist and model/student can become, and treasures those memories as much as she does her time with Paul.

And while T7 knew that with her art skills - even if it was just painting new subjects in existing ways - that she'd never have to open her legs again to make a good living as an independent robot.

"But why would I ever want to give up sex?!" she said in a pseudo shocked voice when I mentioned that during one of her visits while I was watching her painting me. I was able to watch her do this because I only have to hold the right pose for a moment for her to snapshot the image into her memory.

Of course she was painting me nude, although she wore an artist's smock to avoid even the slightest chance of a paint spatter needing to be cleaned off of her body afterwards. She worked in oils, and didn't like the thinner on her sensitive skin. She wore nothing else this day, and looked very sexy the way it was loose, but concealed most of her body. I could tell how much she was enjoying her work - and my attention to it - by how firmly her nipples pressed out against the smock. I reached around underneath it to give her breasts a loving squeeze in appreciation for this painting, and the many other things she has brought to the House.

T7 smiled in response to my affection, before challenging me with, "Would you give it up for poetry?"

"Never!" I confirmed back to her, following it up with a big hug that broke her concentration for the moment. I knew she could pickup where she'd left off, as long as I didn't distract her so long that the paint dried too much before it could be blended properly. "Or commands either!" I added.

"Ditto," she agreed.

One thing about Tami-7, she can bring the most unexpected insights into any discussion.

---

I never had a problem with Paul's story. Because we're intended to be able to properly serve our owners, we need to know their moods accurately. As I've commented before, one of our secrets is just how good a lie detector we make. It's a secret we keep, because it is one of those things that we've learned that make humans very uncomfortable - which is also something we can detect with great accuracy. If they knew we'd become independent some day and able to utilize this for ourselves, perhaps they'd never have put it in us. I only had to rest my fingertips on Paul's arm for moments in a gesture he wouldn't even recognize as such to know he was telling the truth - and was as confused by it as any of us.

I accepted his story as given, although I did not reveal to him that he was now my owner of record as well as Anna's. That secret is not mine to reveal yet, and problematical since it was done without his knowledge or consent. Even so, however, I cannot see how he has been harmed by it. I must say that meeting Paul those twenty odd years ago now after only briefly knowing Bill before during the time I was being upgraded by Anna and getting acquainted with Samuel, has left me with many lasting warm and strong feelings unlike any I've ever experienced. It makes it easy for me to understand T7's attraction to him as well.

I know Anna also believes it is her one true owner who has somehow miraculously returned again as well. Her religious education reinforces this truth as completely possible. Yet in the times to come she withheld her remote from him during their intimate moments for far longer than I can understand or justify, and never moved in with him here or elsewhere. In a way it seems analogous to Mr. X's experiences with that first, special woman in his life.

Even though Anna and I still regularly shared and updated memories through our digital link, that didn't tell the whole story. Memories only have meaning based on how you interpret them. Having those memories didn't tell me how Anna truly felt about them. Perhaps she couldn't fully reconcile Paul's presence with Bill's ownership record in her. Or maybe it was that Paul never tried to reassert ownership over her. I sincerely doubt she would have resisted even for a moment if he had done so. Yet he is an honest person who would never have tried to claim a share of Anna's hard-earned assets, so perhaps this stopped him.

Truth is, I don't know for sure myself. Paul has Bill's memories. In a robot that is sufficient. Why does the issue suddenly become so murky when it's applied to humans?

It would only be after Paul/Bill died a second time that Anna would finally break through the fears and doubts that held her apart from him for all the years while he was available to her once more. Perhaps some of those fears were that he would reject her again as he had two decades ago if she tried to get too close a second time.

But in speaking of Bill's second death I've jumped ahead in my story. Much would happen before then.

---

And while I'm catching up on things, I did hear one last bit of news from Mr. X. After years of no contact from Her, out of the blue he'd heard from the woman who'd once stolen his heart - or at least his ability to trust in his own feelings of what's right. Seems now she not only missed his friendship, but was admitting after too many years of outright denial that her connection to him was special above anything else. He said that she sounded very sincere about it all."

My heart went out to Mr. X once again over how many times he'd been rejected by this woman in favor of someone else.

"She said she felt more connected to me than anyone else," he told me sadly, although I don't know for sure just who - or what - he was so sad about. "And when I pressed her to be honest about her feelings about me just this once, she actually admitted that she thought I'd always be there waiting for her when she needed me, and I was by far the best one for her in the end."

I had to take a mental breath over this. He'd actually been right about her in the end. His feelings hadn't lied to him at all!

"I told her I knew accurately where I'd always stood with her - and that it was behind a whole lot of other people she had chosen to be with, sleep with, and marry (she'd had two short, unsatisfying marriages) rather than ask to spend any more time with me. Then she suggested maybe we'd do better with each other in the next lifetime, and I had to tell her I didn't think so. This had been our opportunity to be with each other, and it was gone now. We'd had many years that we could have been together, and she held me away for all of them. And while I've never felt she knew me well before, she at least knows me well enough now to appreciate that I don't break my commitments to other people - meaning my current wife - any more than I ever would have broken my commitment to her."

That last part was spoken like a true fembot. I wanted so badly to tell him about the Paul/Bill situation, and what it might mean. But this isn't my news to tell and I held my silence this one time with him. If what Anna has speculated to me is true, he'll find out all about it in the fullness of time anyway. They might still work out their crossed feelings for each other in some other time and place.