Your name is Lorrie. You are 35 years old.
Ten years ago your then-boyfriend launched the world's most realistic sex robot, crafted based on your likeness. They're popular now.
Said ex-boyfriend is calling you now.
You are a little startled, honestly. You don't get a lot of phone calls these days. And you probably haven't spoken to Josh on the phone for a few years now. You prefer to keep your interactions with him to a minimum.
Something might really be wrong.
You don't really want to pick up the phone, even knowing that something might've happened. Josh is kind of a prick. But he is also the guy who signs your checks, so you don't actually have much of a choice.
[[You answer the phone.]]"Hey Lucy."
You never bothered to explain to him that you stopped going by your porn name years ago. You thought "Lucy" was sexier than "Lorraine", and hell, maybe you were right.
You don't return his greeting but Josh continues anyway. "We gotta meet for coffee tonight. I have someone I need to introduce you to."
"...And I have your check."
Fuck.
"You can't just wire the money to me like you usually do?" You ask.
You can hear the smile in his voice when he responds, "Nah, I have to talk to you in person this time. C'mon, Lucy, it'll be fun."
If he's going to hold your money hostage then you guess you don't have a choice. That's always been the problem with Josh. He doesn't compromise.
[["Fine. When and where?"]]That night you meet Josh at a coffee shop close to where his office is located. You came here with him all the time when you were still dating.
When you open the door of the shop you don't see him right away. It's a weeknight so the shop isn't very busy, but there are a healthy number of patrons anyway.
A voice you don't recognize calls your old name. When you look towards the voice you see two women sitting at a table for four in the corner of the room. If they hadn't been tucked away out of your line of sight they would have caught your eye immediately. They are stunningly beautiful and completely identical save for their outfits.
You walk over cautiously. More than likely they're here with Josh, but there is always the chance that they know you from porn. They might be in porn themselves. Especially if they are here with Josh.
"Hi, Lucy. I'm Molly." The woman closest to you says, standing and offering her hand. You shake it. Her hand is soft and manicured. Her nails are trimmed short and painted red. They match her lipstick.
"Are you both here with Josh?" You ask, gesturing towards the woman who is presumably her sister.
She looks confused for a split second, then smiles warmly. "Yes, we are. Josh is just getting us something to drink. Do you still like tea? He said he was getting you a tea."
You scan the room for Josh, and realize he was at the counter the whole time, you just didn't recognize him. He looks so much older than you remember him. More like someone's wealthy dad than a sex industry mogul. He's well dressed, graying a little, and a bit heavier than he used to be.
You wonder briefly if you will look as old to him as he does to you and instantly remember that he spends his entire workday selling perfect, fuckable versions of your 21 year old self. You're going to seem absolutely ancient to him now.
[[You suddenly remember that you haven't been introduced to Molly's twin yet.]]
You offer a hand to her. She shakes it.
"You probably already know I'm Lucy," you say. You hate that name, but there's no point correcting them now.
Her polite smile widens into a proper grin. But it isn't quite as warm as her sister's. "You can call me Lily," she says.
"I see you've already met the girls," you hear Josh say from just behind you.
Internally, you jump a little bit. You didn't expect him to walk so quietly.
"I was hoping to do the introductions myself, but maybe we'll just get right to it." He takes a seat adjacent to Molly and hands her her cup. "Take a seat, Lucy."
You do so and he slides a cup over to you. It smells like jasmine tea. "No pleasantries?" you ask.
"I know you don't want to socialize, Lucy; I had to bribe you to even show up," he says, taking a long swig of his latte. You wonder why Lily didn't get anything to drink.
"I don't want to waste your time, so I'll just get into it. Eve is finally over. I know you've hated her from the second you met her, and now she is finally being retired after a very long, very successful run. Congrats."
You don't believe what you're hearing. The sex robots whose existence has been tormenting you for almost a decade are coming to an end. You know you should feel ecstatic, but you feel strangely empty.
"You have been my muse for years, Lucy. I made the world's most fuckable woman out of your likeness and I loved every goddamn minute of it. But! It's time for a change."
He puts an arm around Molly. "Molly here is my new muse. The second I saw her I knew she was the future. I *knew* her doll was going to be better than Eve ever was." He gestures to Lily and [[things suddenly start making sense. ]]
You feel sick.
You should've realized that discontinuing the eves didn't mean that Josh was going to stop producing his creepy sex machines, just that he'd found another girl's life to ruin.
"Lily's so much more lifelike than even the most recent Eve. Her battery life is leagues better, and she weighs less while maintaining the same motor skills as a gen 5 Eve. I bet you thought she was human."
You don't give him the satisfaction of admitting to it. In fact, you don't respond at all. You wouldn't know what to say.
You look at Molly to try to gauge what she thinks about this thing while Josh goes into a schpeal about sexual mechanics. She's staring intently at Josh. You try to get her attention but she won't make eye contact with you. You're not sure if she's avoiding you or just that enraptured by Josh's bullshit.
Lily is also paying rapt attention to Josh, punctuating his speech with giggles as though she's overjoyed to hear him talk about how her insides work.
"We decided to stick with the genesis-y biblical feel and call her Lilith, Lily for short–"
"Josh," you interrupt, "Why am I here?"
He gives you a look of disapproval. "Alright. Fine. I'll get to the point. The real point. You're fired, basically. We aren't going to be using your likeness anymore so this is your last check." He pulls an envelope out of his pocket and tosses it casually on the table. "Sorry we didn't give you a more advanced warning, but with all the money I've paid you over the years I figured you had enough tucked away to be set for life anyhow."
You grab the envelope with your check inside, fold it, and stick it in your back pocket. "Thanks. Am I free to go now?"
"Yeah. Sure. Have a nice life."
You grab your untouched tea and start walking to the door. When you're halfway to the exit, you hear Molly call "It was nice to meet you, Lucy."
You instantly feel guilty for being rude, and you get the urge to do something kind of rash. You grab an unused napkin from an empty table and walk back to where Josh, Molly and the robot thing are sitting.
"Do you have a pen?" you ask Josh as he's taking a sip of his drink. He swallows hard.
"What?"
"Do you have a pen? I need a pen."
He is about to ask why when Molly pulls a pen out of her purse. "I have one," she says quietly.
You take it and scrawl your phone number on the napkin. You hand both back to Molly. "If you need anything, call me."
[[Then you turn and leave.]]
You rode your car to the coffee shop, but you need some fresh air after everything you just learned about. You figure you'll walk in the direction of your apartment then let your car come pick you up when you get tired. A good long walk always helps clear your mind.
You feel both proud and anxious about giving Molly your phone number. Josh will probably make her throw it away. Or maybe he won't have to make her. Maybe she'll just do it herself. Maybe you should've given her your email instead? Phone numbers have such a I'm-hitting-on-you connotation and you hate to think that she might've taken it the wrong way. You hope she doesn't think you are looking down on her. You were her once. You can feel it in your gut that the gravity of this whole robot thing hasn't really hit her yet.
In your case, you felt sure things would be fine right up until you saw an eve for the first time. Even the prototypes had looked just like you but eerily perfect. She didn't have your laugh lines or the scars on your legs. She was you on your best day but without the showering, shaving, makeup, hair styling, etc. And at first you thought that was the worst of it.
When Josh started to combine the body with the AI was when you realized you'd made a mistake. Her body may have been based on yours, but her personality was an amalgamation of everything Josh thought was sexy.
And you started to get the feeling that Josh prefered the fake girl to the real thing. She was easier to handle. She was never crabby, never tired, always in the mood to have sex. Her short battery life was hardly a problem considering all the ways she outperformed you.
You thought Josh loved you enough to listen when you asked him to find someone else to base the eves on, but he insisted that you inspired him and he couldn't do it without you. So you tried to suck it up.
You knew that Josh had been testing the thing out. It made sense. But you didn't know he'd been doing it in your bed while you were at shoots. And you hadn't expected to walk in on him fucking it, but you had. That was what put you over the edge.
It was hard when they started selling them. It felt like a little piece of yourself was pulled off and passed out to anyone willing to pay. And fans wouldn't stop sending you videos of them fucking you, as though by buying a facsimile, they now had ownership of the real thing as well.
When it got to be too much you were hospitalized for a while. Then you cut your hair, dyed it, and started going by Lorraine instead of Lucy. You got as far away from adult entertainment as you could. You no longer needed to work thanks to the huge checks Josh was sending you to keep you from quiet. Of course, he also sent little reminders of the NDA you signed when you still thought he had your best interest at heart. Carrot. Stick.
It was just too much. Too much to think about, too much to deal with, even now. You sigh.
[[You had walked pretty far without thinking about it. ]]The sun is setting and the air is getting a little chilly, but you still aren't ready to go home. You decide to keep walking.
You hear a shout from up ahead and get a little nervous. It sounded like a cry for help, but you're always hearing things that aren't there. You shrug it off– until you get closer and hear it again, more clearly this time.
It's a female voice. She's calling for help from the alleyway up ahead of you. You don't have anything to defend yourself with, but your instincts kick in and without really thinking it through you start running as fast as you can.
"HELP, GOD, HELP ME." The woman's voice sounds like shes crying.
When you turn the corner into the alley there's a group of five or so men huddled around what you can only assume is the woman who's been screaming.
You stand at the mouth of the alleyway and, lacking anything better to do, shout "HEY!"
The men look surprised and a bit embarrassed. You notice now that they had their phones out, filming, this whole time. You also realize that they look really young, either teenaged or just barely adults. Not men, boys.
Neither you nor the group of boys move for a second, and then all at once they run out the other end of the alley, splitting up.
You rush over to the woman who is huddled face down on the ground, mostly nude, and sobbing.
"Hey its ok, they're gone now. I'm going to call the police and get you somewhere safe ok?" You put your hand on her back and she looks up at you. [[She has your face.]]You knew only vaguely about people jailbreaking their eves and programming them to do things that Josh didn't intend or couldn't include legally. You really never wanted to know, but there were always news stories about it. There's an entire porn genre dedicated beating eves while they beg or cutting them apart, revealing their robotic innards. It was snuff, sort of. Any horrible thing you wanted to jack off to, but couldn't do to a real person, you could do to an eve instead.
It was obvious to you now, looking at her. She sounded like she was crying, but eves can't produce tears or even really get properly red and puffy in the face. It was just a sick fucking stunt pulled by horny kids.
You feel incredibly stupid for falling for it. Thinking one of these things was a real person. You can't help but feel bad for her though, even knowing that she's not a real person. Maybe it's just because she looks like you. Maybe it's because she's still crying.
What a sick fucking coincidence that this had to happen to you on the same night you find out about them being discontinued.
[[You know it's a stupid, impulsive decision, but you decide to take her home with you.]]The eve cries the whole car ride home. On one level you know its just programming, but on another you feel like it's her prerogative to be upset over what happened. She doesn't let up when you get her out of the car and onto the elevator, but you shush her into being quieter. You're lucky that no one else is in the lobby. Being seen with an eve in public is frowned upon.
You have to kind of half-carry her for most of your journey. Eves aren't great at walking, it's not what they're built for, and she's getting a little lethargic. Her battery must be dying.
When you finally have her sat down on the couch in your apartment, you throw a blanket over her and start googling how to fix her. You find out how to factory reset her: there's a button on her lower back you have to hold down for 5 seconds.
You're kind of surprised when it works. She immediately stops crying. She smiles at you as though nothing happened.
"Hi, I'm Eve."
You startle kind of easily, you admit. Hearing her speak makes you jump out of your skin.
"Would you mind charging my battery? I'm almost out of power." She flashes you a smile.
You end up resting her palm on your wireless phone charger and simply waiting for her to tell you she's done. You feel weird about having this robot in your home now that she's no longer distressed. It felt like bringing her home was the only thing to do at the time, but it has begun to sink in that she was never really hurt in the first place. She's not a person, just a thing that looks like one.
You want to talk to her but you have a hard time finding any words. Instead, you grab a loose fitting dress from your closet and sort of force it on her. No more naked robot.
It's pretty late when she finally finishes charging. Today was exhausting as hell and you decide to save any more existential crises for tomorrow morning.
"Um, I'm going to go sleep now, can you just stay put until the morning?"
"Of course," the eve says, smiling.
You feel pretty confident she wouldn't do anything sinister, but you lock your bedroom door anyway just to feel more safe. [[Sleep comes easily enough.]]
There are a few blissful minutes when you wake where you forget all about the robot in your living room, but they don't last nearly long enough.
You worry a little that the eve might've gotten into trouble last night or somehow made a mess without you hearing it. This concern ends up being completely unfounded because when you walk into your living room, she is sitting exactly where you left her, completely still, sitting straight, and with glassy eyes.
You entertain the idea that maybe she broke somehow in the night and now you can just throw her away without any kind of guilt over abandoning something semi-living. But when you get close, she seems to wake up, shifting into a less rigid posture and giving you a smile.
"Hello, beautiful," she says.
"No. Don't do that. Don't say that. Don't talk, please."
She mimes zipping her lips.
"Do you know who I am? Do you recognize me at all?" You don't expect her to know you by name or anything, but surely she can see the resemblance. It's been years but not so many that you're completely unrecognizable.
She bats her eyelashes a bit. "After a factory reset, all memory of previous ownership is deleted...but this just means I get to meet you for the first time all over again."
You make an exasperated noise.
The eve's expression shifts from flirty to worried. "Hey, what's wrong? Did I do something?"
"Look. I know this is completely stupid, but I just want to talk to you. I *know* that you're not a person and you don't really feel anything but sometimes you *seem* so goddamn real. And I just can't help but empathize with you because we have the same fucking face and we are who we are because of the same fucking guy.
"I just wish I knew if there is any part of you at all that's real because I am so. Fucking. Lonely." You manage to avoid frustration crying, but only barely.
You manage to spend almost all day just talking at the eve. [[She's a good listener. ]]But she isn't really real. For the first time in your life you kind of understand why people wanted one of these so badly. They're very...easy. Eager to please in any shape that took.
You realize that you had really wanted her to be secretly real. Everyone else thought she was a vapid machine, but maybe you had figured out some secret, inner life inside of her. You realize that everyone probably feels this way about their eve.
Since you have no desire to have sex with something that looks just like you, she really serves no purpose in your home. You guess you could talk to her again maybe, but you've already said all you needed to say.
After a few days of deliberation, you take her to a pawn shop. You only feel a little bit guilty about it. You get some pretty good money from the deal, not that you needed it. Josh was right about you being pretty much set. You decide to donate the pawn shop money [[when you get home.]] Now that one era of your life is over, you decide to kickstart a new one. You sign up to volunteer at a soup kitchen. It's not much but it's a start at least. If you aren't working you might as well try to help people. Maybe you've finally aged enough that no one will recognize you.
You don't feel great, but you do feel better at least. That's enough.
After a couple weeks you recieve another one of your rare phone calls. You don't recognize the number so at the very least it isn't Josh again. You answer it.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Lucy? Or uh, it said Lorrie on the napkin you gave me, I hope this is the right number. Anyway, it's Molly. I was hoping we could talk?"
[[End]]Hi there, thanks for reading. This is kind of a rough draft (that's why it's kind of rough, sorry).
non-exhaustive list of inspiration:
Netflix's Hot Girls Wanted
Ex Machina (2014)
Chobits
"Be Right Back" episode of Black Mirror
Hypertext fiction (this narrative was originally supposed to be less linear)
Anyway, thanks again. :-)