Lara sat in the front room of the apartment she shared with her girlfriend Trina, relaxing and listening to music, when she heard a voice from the bedroom.

"Oh, Lara," said the voice. "I've got a surprise for you."

It sounded like Trina, but there was something funny about it. She paused the music and went to see what was happening, pushing open the bedroom door to take a look around. Trina was lying on the bed, fully dressed and on top of the covers. Her wrists were tied behind her back, and her legs were ties together at the wrists and ankles and tied to her wrists so she was bent backward as far as her back would go. She had something wadded up in her mouth, and she was looking Lara in the eye and quietly freaking out.

The door closed behind Lara with a slam. Lara spun around to see a figure that gleamed from head to toe in metallic pink. The face was Trina's, but the figure had more exaggerated curves and a waist so narrow it was almost hourglass, and it was wearing particularly evocative lingerie. She looked like a caricature of what Trina wished she looked like. Her joints had exposed moving parts, her metallic skin was rigid, and she had a large carving knife in her outstretched hand.

Right. Trina had gotten a couple of full-body remote duplicates instead of getting piece-by-piece cyber-upgrades like Lara had, and she had bought some new outfits to go with them. She thought it might be fun.

"Surprise," she said, waving the tip of the knife under Lara's chin.

"Trina, what's going on?" said Lara.

"Trina isn't available right now," said the duplicate. "I've lost my patience with her. Now you and I can get to know each other a little better, without her getting in the way."

"What do you mean, get to know each other?" said Lara. "What's going on? Did your duplicate get a virus or something?"

"So many questions," said the duplicate. "Just shut your mouth, and don't you forget who's in control here." The duplicate raised the knife to point right between Lara's eyes, just to underline what she was saying.

Lara nodded and said nothing.

"That's better," said the duplicate. The knife tip pressed against Lara's throat. "Now put your arms behind your back."

Lara complied. The duplicate reached around her to grab both of her wrists in the long, slender fingers of one hand, while the other maintained control of the knife.

"Good. You know how to follow instructions." The duplicate was very close to Lara. Their bodies were almost completely touching. It didn't breathe on Lara like she expected, which only made the whole thing more unnerving. "Now, you're going to follow a few more." The duplicate's mouth opened, and a gelatinous tongue extended from its mouth and stroked up the side of Lara's face. "But first, I'm going to see how your cute little top stands up to this knife."

The knife blade slipped between Lara's shoulder and one of the straps of her shirt. As it pressed against the fabric, the duplicate's face grimaced in pain.

"Ow, cramp, cramp," she said. "Railroad, railroad, railroad."

She let go of Lara's wrists. Lara stepped back and removed the knife from her clothes.

"What is it?" said Lara. "Is the connection breaking?"

"No, no," said Trina, now no longer pretending to be a psycho murdering robot. "Just help me undo this."

Lara went over to the bed with the knife and cut the line that held Trina's wrists and ankles together. Her legs immediately straightened out and she rolled over onto her front, and Lara untied her wrists and ankles so she could take the gag out of her mouth. Trina's duplicate started massaging her back while she worked her legs back and forth.

"Oh, that feels better," said Trina as the duplicate. "You know, they said that it wouldn't be easy to maintain two different points of view like this, but I think I'm getting better at it." She helped herself up from the bed, and her duplicate body sat down with Lara while her original body started doing stretches in the room.

"Yeah, that was really cool," said Lara, wrapping her arm around Trina's narrow waist and brushing her hand against the firm metal of her skin. "And of course, the roleplay was a fun way to get into the spirit of the holiday. What do you want to try next?"

Trina took a break from her stretches and sat down across her and Lara's laps.

"How about a little Alice in Wonderland?"