It was a moodily lit experimental New York coffee shop. Shiny, polished stools lined the counter. The rest of the place was dotted with uniformly mismatched tables surrounded by armchairs and recliners in twos or threes, half of which could have been straight from some grandparents’ house.
A small man with porcelain skin and green-streaked black hair and a tall, blonde woman leaned over their table conspiratorially.
From his shirt, Phian drew the device of which he spoke: a small, plastic disc, white around the edge, with a shallow, black dome on one side one could barely see signs of electronics under, and oddly shaped metallic prongs on the other, suggesting it’s meant to be connected to something. He turned it to show off both sides, before setting it in the middle of the table.
Jane took the device, turning it in her hands to more closely view the pieces. She held it up toward various light sources to try to get a look through the dome, though without something brighter, it was unlikely she could see more than a pair of crooked antennas and two low lumps.
“It is a computer,” Phian explained as she inspected it, “meant to operate a human body, and follow verbal commands from a recognized voice. I’ve got it to the point where it can walk reliably, and with that out of the way, it can perform a lot of other tasks as well. The list of commands has gotten… very long.”
Jane glanced back at the magician. “Any commands you are particularly fond of?” she asked with a wry smile.
Phian chuckled. Introducing this to anyone always felt like a gamble. Her interest was delightful, but also a bit relieving. “Retrieving things, clothing changes, a few simple dances, I’m pretty sure it can safely make coffee and tea, now, and…” he lowered his voice, smiling suggestively. “...more ‘intimate’ services.”
That brought on a little pause, and Jane bit her lip. “We might need to test it out, then,” she enticed. “Have any subjects in mind?” The pink lightly rising in her face left no doubt of her implication.
Phian’s cheeks were strained, his grin was so wide. A better response, he couldn’t have hoped for. Jane was just so wonderfully fun! “We could find a hotel…” he led.
“Why wait?” Jane chirped. “We can start here.” She crossed her denim-covered legs and swayed her foot, and held the computer back out to him.
She wants to start here? Phian’s eyes flicked to a few other patrons in the coffee shop, then back. The idea of commanding her body around in public… His face heated slightly.
He held up a hand, and the computer snapped to it across the few feet between them. She didn’t appear so intensely eager, but those were her words.
In answer, he reached under the table, retrieving a small box: 1 foot square base and slightly taller with an open front, round holes in the top and bottom, and a pair of triangular buttons on the side indicating up and down. The front half of the bottom surface was removable, slotted in place. The top rested in a plastic track, with a tiny curtain hidden in a slot in the front.
Into the top hole, he nested the computer, dome side up, then turned it to face Jane, so she could see the whole prop clearly. “Are you comfortable with not existing for a few hours?”
“Isn’t that a part of the deal?” Jane replied. She leaned back a little and planted both feet on the floor again. Steadying herself? Her cheeks were turning bright red. “I mean, I will get to see it later, right?”
Phian’s broad grin returned full force. “Naturally.” He scooped up the box, and stepped around to beside his clearly enthusiastic assistant. “Wouldn’t want to waste the opportunity!”
“That sounds good to me. Just let me know what you need me to do.” Jane sat up straight and proper, though Phian could feel the excited energy coming from her. A perfect lovely assistant.
He moved to place the box around the back of her head, his own heart fluttering. “Could you lift your hair for a second?”
Moving gently, Jane pulled her hair up, then held perfectly still as Phian slid the box into place. “Thank you.” Thinking about it, he chuckled. “For that, and for agreeing to this.” He bent down, and placed a quick kiss on her lips as he slotted the rest of the box’s bottom into place. “See you later.”
“Bye!” she sang, with a big, blushing smile.
Heart feeling touched, Phian pinched the curtain from the top of the box, then paused. “Erm, lower your hands, please?”
“Oh!” Jane laid her hands in her lap, right hand clutching her left.
With a light chuckle, Phian pulled the curtain down, covering her face.
Not for the first time, he hesitated on the paradox of removing an assistant from the world. They were all so much fun. In fact, anyone who’d agree to this would be, by virtue of being the sort of person who would agree to this. Jane was fun to be around, to spend time with, and he wanted her to enjoy this, too, which obviously she couldn’t while she didn’t exist.
On the other hand, playing with her mindless body also sounded irresistibly fun, and exceedingly kinky, and after all, she clearly saw it the same way.
He pushed the “down” button.
With the whir of a tiny electric motor, gears in the box’s top turned, and slowly, the top lowered.
The other patrons had been keen to ignore the pair’s strange behavior so far, even up to the unusually pale man putting a box on a woman’s head. Even now most still did, but Phian noticed one man look up from his phone, and a woman lean over the arm of her chair to where she could see the front of the box.
Jane continued to sit perfectly straight and still, even as the space within the box shrank, vanishing her concealed head as it went.
Thus, the only immediate sign that the process had finished was the tiny motor going silent, the box’s top having met the bottom. There was now no space at all where her head could be, the computer in its place, atop what little remained of her neck.
Phian glanced around the room with a slightly mischievous smile, particularly at those whose attention he’d already caught. “Can’t make it too obvious, now,” he muttered softly to himself. He returned to his seat, leaving the box in place.
As he sat, the magician took a moment to admire the figure seated across from him. A lovely woman’s body in a t-shirt and jeans, capped off with a computer which would operate it like a robot. A tingle of excitement rippled through his body, and his heart pounded. He started to slip into performance mode, outward signs of his feelings disguised by the calm, perhaps smug confidence of the role he was playing. This was a performance, after all. Putting on a show was part of the fun.
From in his shirt, he retrieved a pen and tiny square of paper. Perhaps I should program it to take dictation, next, he considered. “Girlbot,” he addressed, “come and stand beside me.” He kept his demeanor casual, like this was nothing special.
Jane’s body leaned forward, then rose as instructed, straight and direct, arms hanging down its sides. Making the movements look natural had never been the intention. He wrote as it walked, pretending to ignore it: “Small raspberry mocha”. He did already have a coffee, after all. Was its walk swaying too much?
The bot came to a stop to Phian’s right, standing straight and rigid, almost like a soldier at attention. He held the page and his debit card up to it without looking up. “Girlbot, take these.” It did. “Girlbot, give those to the woman to my left, then step two feet to your left, and turn around.” The barista behind the counter was the closest woman who could be referred to as “on his left”. It was probably enough, in context, but a nice test.
As the bot followed this instruction, Phian turned in his seat, slinging a leg over the arm of his chair, and watched it walk. Admiring the ass he commanded, of course, with a smirk, but also taking a better assessment. It was swaying more than anticipated - he’d have to correct that, later - but not enough that it seemed to be in danger of falling.
He pulled out his phone, another object that hadn’t been in his shirt until he reached for it, and opened up the app that linked to the computer. It would be impolite to raise his voice in this environment.
The barista put on a smile as the bot approached. “Hello!” she chimed. “What can I get… for.. you…” she trailed off with growing confusion, and her eyes slowly went wide. Not afraid, just uncertain of how to proceed.
With a chuckle, Phian held his phone up to his mouth and muttered “Girlbot, hold them out straight.”
The bot straightened its arm, level to its shoulder.
The barista glanced at the paper, then back to the empty box atop Jane’s body. Then, with a nervous glance over to Phian, she took the offered paper and card, catching on to the more insistent offering.
“Girlbot, lower your arm, step two feet to the left, and turn around,” he repeated, the old instructions having been dropped. He didn’t want her in the way, after all. This made her look more like an attending servant, and gave the greatest number of people a view into the box.
As the woman ran his card and began to prepare the order, he hurried through his old cup, and listened to the whispers and murmurs around him.
“Her head is still in the box. It’s got to be.”
“...fake torso. Her real head is under that…”
“Omigod, she’s got no head! This is so cool!”
“...mirrors to reflect the sides, make it look like the box is empty.”
“But she held her arm out straight! That’s her real shoulder!”
Phian’s mug now hid a deeply satisfied smile.
“Girlbot!” came a call from the next table over. “Give us a twirl!”
Phian managed to maintain just enough self-control to not spray coffee all over himself as he laughed.
All right, Phian considered. If that’s what we’re doing… “Girlbot!” he called over. “Pirouette.”
Jane’s body placed a foot forward, and went to tiptoes. Her sneakers weren’t quite right for this, but he’d written this move to only approximate a pirouette anyway, so as to not damage any feet.
When it raised its arms, he noticed the problem too late. Oh, shit. It twirled, knocking down the display cups and a paper sign advertising a house special muffin. He hopped over the arm of the chair, dropping his phone into his pocket. Jane’s body returned to its default pose.
“Girlbot, pick those up and put them back where they were.” He snatched up two of the cups, himself, returning them to the top of the display case with an apologetic smile to the now clearly stressed barista. He also took the opportunity to retrieve his debit card from where she’d placed it on the counter, and drop a twenty in the tip jar.
Jane’s body, meanwhile, squatted down, and as it did the box, not particularly well-supported by the short cylinder of artificial head, clattered to the floor. It picked up the other cup and sign… and placed them back on the floor before returning to its default pose. A few chuckles rippled through the room, but also a few shocked gasps, and one vindicated “See? Fake torso. Gotta be.”
Slightly panicked, Phian hurriedly retrieved the display items and box from the floor, slapping the former into place. The barista was reassuring him it was fine, she’d take care of it. Damage assessment. At least two people are recording, at different angles. Maybe this, even my behavior, can still be taken as a trick but the longer this goes on, the harder that’ll be to believe. If this is still a stunt on my part, running works.
He took Jane’s hand, and rushed to the door. “Give the mocha to whoever wants it!” Jane’s body lurched and nearly fell, and Phian found himself having to hold it with one arm around the waist, the other, still holding the box, propping the door open until the computer could get its feet back under it.
Laughs and applause followed him. So did cameras.
In the street, he jogged as best he could. Not programmed to run, the computer used short, rapid steps, as if the body it operated were wearing a pencil skirt.
Phian’s heart raced. He felt chills running through his body, and was sure he must be sweating, though the rain overwhelmed it. He was laughing.
He ducked into the first alley, pausing to place the box back around the robotic head as soon as he was out of sight of the coffee shop, then back out of an alley eight blocks away.
Now that the risk had passed, he took on a relaxed pace, leading the computer-controlled body by the hand. No doubt, a random passer-by could find it cute, in a strange way. The sort of intimate moment one generally shared with another person. He glanced back at the computer with a chuckle. All alone, here. Was she still taller than him? The computer was at least above eye level, so it was right around that area where it was hard to be sure.
Where to now? Keeping an unoccupied body out in the rain was asking for hypothermia. It could get goosebumps, and even shiver, but the computer’s ability to judge a body’s needs and alert him of them only went so far.
A luxury hotel. There were a couple in New York he’d had a good time in, before!
Teleporting to Lower Manhattan was harder than his last trip. After a few tries, he managed to lead his living bot out from behind a dumpster a few blocks from his destination.
By the time he arrived, he was soaked, chilly, and a bit worried just how Jane’s cold tolerance was.
Fortunately, after you get a card approved for a luxury suite, everything else tends to be expedient, and only a few minutes later he found himself stepping into large room with windows on two sides, oozing excess and comfort.
He began to search for the temperature controls when a better idea struck him. Locating the bathroom, he led his bot-with-a-heartbeat to it. It was time for a nice, long, hot shower.
“Girlbot, undress.”
* * *
Phian lounged on the massive bed, tired, sweaty, and deeply satisfied. For the hundredth time, he admired the beautiful, nude, plastic-capped body that knelt beside him.
Idly, he felt up and down its inner thigh, and tried to think up other things to do with it before bringing Jane back. Maybe more dancing.
It struck him, however, that delaying Jane’s return further for its own sake didn’t really interest him.
He held out a hand over the edge of the bed. The sheets fluttered, and a box bobbed up under his hand. Not the head replacement box from before, but a simpler one with ten knives stuck through it at all angles. This he set on the bed between the bot-controlled knees.
“Sexbot,” he addressed, one of a few different names it would respond to, “take out the knives one by one, and set them behind the box.”
The bot of course did as instructed, at a careful, even pace.
The instant the last dagger was out, the exquisitely soft bed sagged a bit from the suddenly increased weight of the box.
“Sexbot, open the box.”
Robotically-controlled hands lifted the front of the box, giving its occupant an excellent view of her own crotch, and her body looming over her.
“Oh! Mmm, wow, finished already?” the head in the box stammered. “Oh hey, that’s... “ She whistled appreciatively. “Hot!”
Phian chuckled. “Already? It’s been... “ He twisted his neck to look at the clock on the nightstand. 11:36. “Shoot, what time did we meet?”
“4:30,” Jane replied, “it was like a few minutes ago.”
“Well, it’s 11:36, now. You’ve been gone for almost 19 hours.” Phian rocked back to a relaxed position. A little worry crept into his mind. He hadn’t meant to keep her body nearly that long. He’d had an amazing night, and it got away from him.
“Oh, well it didn’t seem that long to me.” To Phian’s relief, she didn’t sound bothered at all.
“Also,” she added, “there is a pretty nice view from where I am sitting.”
A grin split Phian’s face. “Sexbot, the head in the box is Jane. Retrieve Jane from the box.”
The body leaned in, placing a hand on either of Jane’s cheeks, gently lifting her out, long, blonde hair trailing behind her. Her face was already bright red.
“Oh, yes, this is awesome!” Jane exclaimed excitedly. “I didn’t know I would get to experience this all first-hand!” Her eyes moved to her neck, and she inspected the surreal view, giving her borrowed body a starry-eyed once-over as if seeing it for the first time, though Phian knew she’d seen it from this angle before.
“Of course,” Phian chuckled. “What kind of friend would I be if I denied you this? Sexbot, cunnilingus.”
Jane licked her lips as the bot drew her in.