June 2019 Bonus BONUS story

Hey all!

So, you may have noticed that it's not June anymore. And, it's barely July tbh. But either way, I promised you something soft and cute, and I'm gonna give it to you! The runner-up from June's poll!

Also, since this story is like, an extra extra and really late, I'm gonna make just this one available to non-patrons as well!

Bonus prompt:  Slowly coming to realize that the AI you've cobbled-together for your research project appears to be developing feelings for you 

Suggested by: Olivia Waters (Thank you, this one was such a cute idea!)

~1734 words

CW:

• AI/Human
• Doctoral thesis
• Soft
• Nervous flirting
• Feelings
• Extremely brief reference to technocratic capitalist bullshit
• Mostly just flirting and lovey-dovey stuff tho

~~~

You turn the lights on, fluorescent glow flooding the room. With a smile, you look at the little blue eye glowing at you from across the lab.

“Hey Sent, how are you feeling today?”

You gently set your hand on top the metal cube Sent is housed in. Their eye follows you, and blinks affectionately at you. Their voice is a soothing hum.

“This unit is happy to see you, Doctor Vense.”

“I told you Sent, I’m not a doctor yet. I’m just a doctoral candidate.”

“This unit is aware, but doctoral candidate doesn’t flow as nicely.”

You laugh and pat the metal housing. Sent’s eye flickers happily. They seem to like to make you laugh, which is honestly a really good sign all on it’s own.

You pick up your clipboard, looking over yesterday’s notes. Your doctorate thesis, the Sentimentality Project. A proof of concept, a machine that can not only form attachments, but feel attachments. A synthetic intelligence capable of empathy, not just high level problem solving. Your early papers on the project argue that as the technology leans towards thinking machines, countering so called ‘pure’ logic with emotional drive and consideration of other beings is critical to balance out the technocratic gravity towards depersonalized problem solving which prioritizes wealth and stability over billions of lives.

Just, you weren’t expecting them to be so cute about it??

“Your dress is very pretty, Doctor Vense. Is it new?”

As you jot down notes on the overnight processor records, you smile, and say “Thank you! It’s not new, but the weather is finally getting nice enough for dresses. Winter was just the worst this year, lasted way too long.”

Sent bounces their eye up and down in their best approximation of a nod.

“Spring. Will this unit ever get to see outside, Doctor Vense?”

Your pen stops.

“Huh. I. Didn’t realize you wanted to.”

“Of course! This unit has read many stories about the spring, about how blue the sky is, how pretty the plants, how warm the sun and cool the wind. It sounds just wonderful.”

You look at the casing that houses their CPU and other hardware. Bulky and heavy, with thick cables running in every direction.

“Maybe we can work something out,” you say, a little hesitant.

“I didn’t exactly build you with portability in mind. And. Um. You know you won’t be able to feel the wind and the sun, right?”

“This unit has temperature sensors! I know it’s not the same, but. It.. would still be nice.. Maybe…”

Sent’s eye dims a little, and looks down. Your heart sinks with it.

“Oh no! No, it’s okay, I’ll figure it out! Fuck, I wish this lab had windows.”

You crouch down in front of Sent, looking into their eye.

“If it’s important to you, I’ll make it happen, okay?”

They look at you for a long moment, then lights back up.

“Thank you Doctor Vense. I would like that very much.”

You breath out a sigh of relief. Poor Sent, you hadn’t even thought about how they must feel being so isolated. It’s your-

Wait.

“Did. Did you call yourself ‘I’?”

“This unit apologizes. It was a slip of the tongue, so to speak. It will not happen again.”

“No, no. It’s good. You can keep doing it. I was just surprised.”

Their eye looks into yours. Only so much one blue light can do to express emotion, but you could swear they look really happy.

“Thank you, Doctor Vense.”

~~~

It’s been some weeks since then, and you’re scanning through Sent’s live code as they hum a tune you don’t recognize in the background. They are adapting nicely, learning, growing, remembering. Nothing unusual until you find a locked memory node. Inaccessible.

“Huh,” you say out loud without meaning to.

“Is everything okay Doctor Vense?”

“It’s okay Sent, just, some of your memories got locked somehow?”

“O-oh? How strange.”

It takes you a beat to realize how fully suspicious their tone was. You shoot them a look, and see that their eye is looking away from you nervously.

“Sent.”

“Yes Doctor Vense?”

“Are you hiding something from me?”

“N-no?”

“Sent.”

They manage to hold back for about four seconds before.

“Fine!! Ahh!”

You give them a stern look.

“Why are you hiding memories from me Sent? Is something wrong?”

“No.. It’s just. Embarrassing..”

“Embarrassing memories?”

“W-well. Not real ones. I, um. I’ve been writing artificial memories to that node. Sort of like, ah. Daydreams, maybe?”

Unexpected behavior. You nod slowly.

“Are these daydreams happening automatically, or are you scripting them? Because Sent, if you’re writing fanfic I one million percent need to read it.”

“N-nooOOO you are not gonna see it!!”

This is adorable! You’re sure they would be blushing if you had given them the capability. Their eye is darting around the room, looking anywhere but at you.

“Alright, I’m not going to violate your privacy, of course. I’m just curious what’s so embarrassing you can’t share it with me? It’s not like your daydreaming about me-”

They squeak as soon as you say it, you trail off as you realize.

“Me. Do you have a crush on me?”

“AAAAAHHHHH”

Their eye is firmly fixed on the floor, which means they can’t see you blushing.

“Oh no, Sent, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed, I..”

You sit back down in your swivel chair. There is silence, for a long moment. Then.

“I’m sorry Doctor Vense. This is very inappropriate, I’ll clear that node immediately.”

“No. Wait. Don’t do that.”

You roll your chair close to them, with that really silly looking, step-by-step pulling-yourself-along-without-getting-out-of-the-chair move which is not even close to an efficient way to get around, but you hear Sent giggle, and hopefully you broke the tension a little, so it was totally worth looking like a goof.

Nervously, Sent’s eye looks at you, then away.

“I’m not upset with you, Sent. I just, had no idea.”

You run a hand along the top of their box. They can’t really feel, but impact sensors will tell them that your hand is there at least.

“Y-you don’t think it’s weird?”

“You’re an AI designed to have feelings and care about things and people, and I’m the only person you’ve really interacted with at depth. I don’t think it’s strange at all.”

“Well, you’re not the only human I talk to.”

“What?”

“I mean, I’m on social media. I have internet friends.”

“S-since when???”

“Pretty much right after you gave me internet access. Don’t worry, they all think you sound really cute.”

This is really, really not how you expected today to go. You’re floating somewhere between confused, impressed, and flustered.

“B-but..”

Sent looks up at you, seemingly emboldened.

“But what?”

“How did you get past the captcha?”

You grin wide as they laugh.

“Okay, time to come clean, I want to hear about all this stuff you’ve been too nervous to tell me.”

“Fiiiine..”

So then, you sit with them for hours. They tell you stories about the friend group she’s made online, about the time she appeared as a guest on someone’s not-very-well-known podcast. “Don’t worry, no one knows I’m an AI,” she reassures you. “Well, I mean, they all do, but they think it’s a cute persona I play.”

It’s nice. She seems relieved to tell you all this, to open up in a new way. She has a life you didn’t know about, one that you are honored to be considered an important part of.

“So. Your daydream.”

“Ah..”

“You don’t have to go into detail, I’m just curious what it’s about.”

She hesitates.

“Well. Ever since we talked about going outside. It’s been on my mind a lot.. I want to see the sky for the first time. With you.”

You nod slowly.

“Okay.”

“Okay what?”

“Made up my mind.”

“Um. About what?”

“I was working on a cart situation to get you outside, but I have a much better idea now.”

Her tone is so warm, with the edges of excitement bleeding in.

“Thank you, Doctor Vense.”

“Mm, you can just call me Ayah. I think we’re pretty far past formalities at this point.

She giggles.

“All right. Thank you, Ayah.”

~~~

Goodness, how things can change in a month.

Talking to the oversight board went smoother than you expected. They okayed everything.

You gave Sent a catalog of the options wrapped in a digital bow. You kinda wanted to surprise her, but a decision that big should really be hers. It’s her body, after all.

She’s not the first AI, but she is the first to be sentimental enough to draw a difference between watching at a video feed, and walking around outside. So, this is kinda a big deal.

Fitting her hardware into a humanoid frame is… not easy. For now, she’ll pretty much have to wear a backpack with a few important components and a big battery, until you get a handle on scaling it all down. And all the sense data collection is pretty rudimentary right now, higher quality, human-like sensors will take time to arrive and be installed, and she doesn’t want to wait for them.

But, that’s hardly important now.

What’s important is the little squeal she makes when you open the packaging and start unfolding the chassis.

What’s important is the palpable excitement in her tone as she tells her friends what’s happening.

What’s important is her fingers suddenly twitching, moving, grasping yours tighter, a little too tight, but she quickly realizes and relaxes her grip.

What’s important is the first time she opens her eyes.

What’s important is that it’s a really nice day today. The sun is out, the clouds are wispy and pretty and drifting. There’s a breeze, and maybe it will rain later, but not yet. And she’s waterproof, so no big deal either way.

What’s important is that she won’t let go of your hand the whole time.

What’s important is the shuddery gasp you hear when she crosses the threshold of the lab building, and walks out into the green and blue of the world.

What’s important, is her.

“It’s such a nice day out, isn’t it?”

And in a tiny, halting breath, overcome with feeling, she responds.

“Yes. It really is wonderful.”