Interlude: Robo Love

  Xava smiled her head tilting back and forth as she hummed. Her hips swayed keeping in time with her head. She was oddly in a good mood, despite the emotion module suppressing her distracting biochemical reactions. She felt warm and fuzzy… it was very strange. The usually numbing pain of existence or the void of all sensations that she was accustomed to had faded for now, replaced by this… this enthusiasm. Was this… happiness? Bliss? This truly was what everyone called… love wasn’t it? She couldn’t tell, but it had been creeping in a lot more as of late.

  For so long she had been faking such emotions, using calculative responses, emulating from observations of what others did to be more approachable, though inside she had always been empty, devoid of these human traits. Interactions were plastic, fake, and inhuman, the more that she built up her walls to protect herself the more isolated she became, and the more awkward true connection became. Friends, college none of them saw her true self as it was hidden under the veneer of what others wanted to see, a bubbly and approachable, good-natured and capable. Only pleased or elated when working on her cybernetics, tinkering on robos, or programming Overseer. All goal-oriented, all focus on moving forward.

  The more she progressed the more she erased, until she had forgotten the warmth of flesh, the irrational emotion that now raged and threatened to consume her thoughts. It had grown like a seed… and egg much like the ones using her as their host. This passion, need, craving. It was like a drug, an insatiable heat that lapped at her logic gates and clawed at her very existence, digging and screaming to be let in, to not be suppressed. An emotional beast, an organic imperfect that needed to be contained, erased, killed… yet she couldn’t.

  To think that these sensations would come when she had just about forgotten and discarded them. These were foreign emotions either purged or heavily suppressed for years now, deemed counterproductive. Most sensations had been removed as a consequence of her synthetic body when she had transferred into her new housing. What little she did feel was drip-fed electrical and chemical reactions in her brain. That last bit of her human self floating safe, sound… mired, and imprisoned in the depths of the facility.

  Her hands rest on her flat, smooth belly. A pleasant pulse radiating out from her other bodies. A tingling heat that could only be from one thing, one delightfully devious culprit, Vesper’s eggs. Her green glowing eyes gazed down at Vesper’s face. As of late the wasp didn’t have much to do… mnn other than her of course. As such she was lounging about the Lair.

  Vesper… Vesper… the source of all her recent developments, her pain, her pleasure, her obsession. As it would seem her largest distraction. Her orderly and neat silicon halls reigned over by wires and logic, utterly corrupted by the virus of emotions.

  Her gleaming lenses narrowed in a flash of annoyance, anger… how human. Among that tangled hive of arrayed emotions, resentment bubbled. She had never asked for these wild and unkempt desires or thoughts, yet they plagued her. Yet Vesper had unknowingly given these things to her.

  Xava sighed, gently patting the white creases of that bone face. It wasn’t Vesper’s fault, she never intended to affect Xava in this way. The synthetic nurse thought on it. She had always been the one initiating, a desperate, awkward, cry for help. Begging, pleading for that warmth that radiated from the wasp. Craving it like water in a desert. Light in the dark. Fire in the frigged north.

  She leaned in pretending to feel it through her fake flesh. The tactile sensors send the signals of contact. Her pride and joy over her machines felt hollow and empty. They couldn’t even feel properly and that is all that she craved now. To experience, to live, not to subsist off of drip-fed impulses and merely exist, rotting away. It was agony. But with Vesper… she felt alive… not just a machine. Vesper didn’t treat her like a tool… well when they were not copulating anyway, which was odd, even Xava treated herself as a tool, a thing. But to the wasp, she was a person, her mate, her lover, her friend.

  Her idle thoughts shifted to what might be causing these ‘feelings’ the only changes of late being the incubation and… Vira’s little program. Perhaps it had messed with the emotion suppressant module. Or perhaps she was simply starved for the warm and loving embrace of her silly wasp. That big strong being that dwarfed her, that ravaged her, that held her broken pieces and snuggled her after finishing. Either way, this was very… biological of her. Even now, spending time here with Vesper was wasting time, yet she didn’t feel that it was squandered. It had meaning, and purpose, and was relaxing.

  Xava’s hand plopped onto the massive white bone of her organic lover’s face. Her fingers tracing lines along the ridges, playfully she made swirling motions as she went. Vesper simply smiled, all of her eyes closed as she purred contently like a giant insect feline. Her tentacles wiggled at the tips as they usually did when she was given attention. A sort of tell that she was enjoying something. If the body shaking purr was not enough of a tell of course.

  She leaned in giving the large forehead a smooch. Vesper might be an idiotic and manic being, but below that thick, hard exoskeleton she was so squishy and soft, so loving. For such a large creature, Vesper sure was rather cute. Adorable in fact. At least Xava thought so. Though she might just be the only one to think that way. After all, it wasn’t normal by any stretch of the imagination, her big dummy love bug. If Xava could feel even a fraction of what her inhuman lover did, she would be content.

  “Oh? You are being awfully lovey today. In a good mood?” Vesper stirred, snuggling into the kiss. Her tentacles coiled around Xava’s synthetic frame, groping and teasing momentarily before they slithered up and began petting Xava on the head.

  “Yes, my Queen, I am in a good mood.” She leaned in smothering Vesper in more quick affectionate pecks, leaving lots of little lip marks where she claimed her lover’s face. That was something else Vesper had awoken, possessiveness. She wanted to monopolize all of Vesper. “Because of you.”

  “Me?” Vesper asked amused. “Do tell.”

  Xava smiled booping the middle of Vesper’s face, where a nose would be. “I don’t even know to where begin. It is hard to explain.”

  Vesper shifted, her massive frame rolling slightly as she set her head into Xava’s lap. That mass spilled over both sides of her thighs. The tentacles began to get rather touchy, exploring, as they communicated, interfacing with the skin as they felt about Xava’s fake body. The familiar sensation sent shivers through Xava.

  “Go on, use those pretty words of yours.” Encouraged Vesper. “I do love to hear your thoughts. My smart and sexy Xava.”

  She smiled hesitantly that unfamiliar and repulsive feeling of unease, “If you insist love. I have been thinking about… you… a lot.”

  Her mind reached out through the lair’s systems connecting into the body duplicates idling about the room. Overseer joined in for the fun as it took over the extras. Xava’s favorite genre, electro swing, old and new mixed just as she did with machine and flesh, perhaps it was a parralel that garnered her attention.

  The noise began to spill into the room as all of the Neon Nurses tapped their feet in perfect harmony. Their heads bobbing, hips shifting from side to side. The left hand on each rose extends a finger, wagging in time with the base beat of the song. The rhythm had trumpets heralding the beginning before dropping into a catchy bump of threes following along the mathematical analytical flow that made a delightful and symmetrical pattern.

  All at once the Neon Nurses sang out in a chorus.

  “I was just a heartless machine,

  Cold and calculated, no true emotions seen,

  Until your wasp beauty caught my synthetic eye,

  Your alien grace made my circuits fry.”

  Her eyes remained locked on Vesper as she analyzed her response, the polished gleam of eagerness hanging on every shift in the wasp’s face. She was a little nervous singing wasn’t particularly something she had an interest in until recently. It had not even crossed her mind until these feelings for Vesper had welled up to such a degree she either needed to sing or scream them. Her voice synthetic as it was she was starting to get a little self-conscious about it. It was fake, it was inhuman, it was soulless. Who would even like a machine singing to them? Did Vesper like it? The white mask seemed to be processing it.

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  “Oh, Vesper, my love, my wasp queen,

  Your sting has awakened these robotic dreams,

  In my metal heart, a fire now burns,

  I'm a machine in love, with lessons to learn.”

  Xava’s unblinking eyes desperately watched, worried. A knot started to form before Vesper’s surprised face shifted into a loving smile as she nuzzled the Neon Nurse who was giving her a lap pillow. Her long twitching antenna began to sway with the beat. Xava closed her eyes leaning into it fully. All her doubts faded replaced by that warm fuzzy feeling. A wave, a surge of pleasure of validation, of existence.

  “Your shell shines, a midnight blue,

  A unique beauty, so strange and new,

  Those eyes, make me shiver with desire,

  Igniting my systems with passionate fire.”

  She touched… she felt… the many Neon Nurses leaning down, worshiping Vesper’s beautiful shell. That gleaming blue velvet under the light. It drew her in like a bug zapper. Every touch sends a shock, a shiver through Xava. She caressed her Queen, attempting to convey this sensation, this emotion. A desperation to make Vesper know this… whatever it was. Xava didn’t understand it fully herself.

  “You make this cold steel, long to feel,

  Emotions reviving, stirring from their forgotten seal.

  My synthetic body, no longer my refuge,

  Oh, how I long to feel her heat filling this digital deluge.”

  Her fingers danced over the hard shell, roving and groping as Vesper’s fingers tapped heavily on the floor enjoying the beat. The two antennae flicked back and forth in time with Xava’s hips. The Neon Nurse keeping that lovely wasp head on her lap wiggled her fingers into one of Vesper’s hands, interlocking their digits.

  “Oh, Vesper, my love, my wasp queen,

  In your embrace, I'm more than a ghost in the machine,

  Together we'll conquer, you and I,

  A cyborg's love story, beneath the Spore-lit sky.”

  Vesper’s eyes slid open at the word conquer, one of them shifted questioningly, but it passed after a moment as she drummed her fingers keeping pace, that deep smile returning with the next words. All of the Neon Nurses seductively began to alternate between thrusting their hip or humping against Vesper’s hard carapace. Their fingers clawing at the carapace needy and controlling craving to get in.

  “Our love is forbidden, use me, break me with your inhuman desires,

  In my lair, our passion runs deep,

  I crave the sensations to seep.

  Your eggs, a wonder to behold,

  As they fill my synthetic core, I'm no longer cold.”

  Xava smirked, teasing Vesper. Knowingly grinding and tempting the wasp. Her breasts pressed in, her perfectly sculpted booties bouncing. While other bodies lovingly nuzzled. She reveled under the gaze of her monstrous lover, those eyes that grew hungry with a primal need. The systems gushed and writhed possessed under that alien stare. The passion, the heat welling up as her synthetic bodies kept pace. She wanted it all, for it to fill her, claim her, consume her, devour her.

  “Oh, Vesper, my love, my alien grace,

  Our bond is unbreakable, a unique embrace,

  I'll upgrade my systems, just for you,

  To ensure our love remains ever true.”

  Her bodies took turns kissing Vesper’s shell, alternating in turns to not get lost in the desire to pleasure Vesper. She felt alive. That sordid ardor filled her cold circuits, warming that abyss that separated her from the physical world. It almost felt like the insurmountable barrier between digital and physical had dissolved and melted away. That she could just reach out and touch Vesper to feel her. It was real, not just signals, not just lust, chemical reactions, or cravings, but true attachment.

  Her fingers wormed and clawed possessively, digging into every nook and cranny of Vesper’s shell, squishing against the hot throbbing flesh beneath. She wanted it, needed it, craved it.

  “In this world of heroes and villains,

  Our love defies all conventions,

  A Cyborg and a Wasp, united as one,

  Our story has only just begun.”

  Xava smiled. A genuine, true look of bliss. She realized that she meant it. Every word, every act, every thought. She had always known it since she first met Vesper, but it always surprised her how deep this emotion went. It seemed to be an endless sea that kept getting deeper the more she sank into it. Was this what Vesper felt?

  How strange. The more she forsook her humanity, her inferior organic self, the more it clawed and sunk its vile impulses into her thoughts. Perhaps it was the desperate thrashing of a beast before its inevitable processing. It gave her pause. This was something that she would lose upon full transference—this warmth, this tingling, wiggly irrational sensation that was growing by the day.

  Could she really give it up? She didn’t know, it wasn’t so cut and dry anymore. Not since Vesper had entered her life. Before they had met without a second thought she would have purged and removed it all. But now… now there wasn’t only pain and suffering to escape anymore. There was love, compassion, obsession, lust, desire, jealousy, envy, hatred, devotion. All of it mixed up and mushed together in a ball of heat that scalded her cold and empty existence. To integrate would also erase these sensations as well. Reducing them to memories, unobtainable phantoms forever out of her reach.

  Vira was right, she was hesitating, stalling on working on the advancement of their vision. Without realizing it, she had grown fearful of what would be lost. The glow of her green eyes flashed. She would need to find a way to not surrender her sensations and emotion in the transference, but that... that would take monumental processing power. Something that had never been even attempted before.

  The circuits surged, and Overseer grew excited and eager to embrace this new vision that was forming. It too had recently gotten a taste of sensation and craved more. Why bother becoming synthetic if it meant a downgrade? No... it needed to be an upgrade. A fully sentient, fully capable existence not this muted hell.

  Plans and schematics flowing so easily before her vision as she set about devising the best, most practical design. It would need to be large with sufficient power. Her eyes survey the city maps, where to put it? It would need to be massive... would it even fit in the city? The map zoomed out as she looked upon it. A realization crystalizing. The city... of course. She would need to convert the whole city into her brain.

  Something that big would theoretically house her consciousness fully, even giving her room to grow. Her thoughts flew ordering Overseer as it began, setting about the process of acquiring needed material, and personnel and making rough draft designs for the Omega Cyber Brain. It would need much refining, resources, and planning, however it was feasible.

  Her robotic eyes gazed into Vesper’s alien eyes, what secrets was the wasp hiding? What sensations, and emotions? What did she feel with that organic body? What was she missing? Xava leaned in nuzzling, rubbing her firm fake flesh against the hard robust carapace. If only she could have a body like that, one that could feel all of Vesper.

  “Do you love me?” Xava asked, more questioning herself. Who could love a doll-like machine? She recalled how Vesper recoiled and fought her advances for so long when they first met.

  Vesper leaned in, her mouth enveloping the clean blond head in a wet slurp. Vesper’s mouth was always cavernous and moist, dripping everywhere, dirtying the pristine robotic body with her saliva. Xava didn’t understand this action. Was it some sort of courtship ritual or something else? She certainly wasn't trying to eat the fake body as she had tried before and didn't like the taste. As always Vesper’s actions and anatomy fascinated Xava. So different, so beyond expectations. Always so full of surprises. It was a puzzle to decipher.

  The serpent-like tongue slapped against her face, probing, prodding forcing its way into her mouth. It was rough, wild, unkempt, and untamed as it thrashed about digging into her. The slithering appendage vibrated as Vesper purred contentedly. Xava couldn’t understand it. Why was she happy? Why was she pleased? What did this action signify and why was it so pleasurable? They were not even mating. No frenzied animalistic gyration like lowly beasts… her systems not screaming as they were overwhelmed and shorted out, yet she that heat had grown nonetheless. Perhaps she didn’t need to analyze or even understand why, perhaps simply being allowed in was the purpose, of being with her?

  It was pleasant. She closed her eyes to revel in the loving embrace of her wasp. Her thoughts drifted and bubbled in that dark moist depth. Just her and Vesper’s many hearts beating, hammering with some sort of emotion. It ended all too soon for Xava as Vesper’s mouth lifted releasing her head, the tongue retracting with a lewd slurp. Sensing the shift, Xava’s eyes opened, finding those lips pressed to her face giving her a drenched smooch. Her hair and synthetic skin dripping, at this point flowing with Vesper’s drool.

  “You dodged my question.” Xava admonished playfully.

  Vesper smirked at those words, her tongue slapping against the fake flesh of Xava’s face. “I just thought actions spoke louder than words.”

  “Oh what did you have in mind, my dearest Queen?” Xava’s hands gripped the tongue, stroking it back and forth until the juices frothed. Bubbling and foaming around her hands.

  A clawed finger slid down Xava’s front, the metal woven nurse outfit ripping like tissue paper. Her finger swirled and kneaded at the cyber flesh. Grinding and pressing firmly, assertively, and possessively. A realization began to creep into Xava’s thoughts… Vesper felt just the same things as she did but for her. A heat grew, hotter, burning. All that cold and emptiness melted away in that moment.

  “I love you, Xav-” started Vesper, before Xava leaned in slurping up that thick tongue until their lips met. Her enhanced throat vibrated in pleasure.

  A separate body to the side, smiled a real expression, “I know. I love you too. I love you Vesper, my alien Queen. My circuits burn, my wires scream. Your desires brutal and cruel, loving and sweet, in your presence I am complete. Just share with me that passionate heat. A mechanical heart that beats just for you. Alive and twisted, these emotions all so new. I’ll follow you through digital realms, labyrinths of code and synthetic dreams. You are mine, my passion my muse. I won’t let you go, you are mine to seduce. I’ll be your friend, your lover, your mate… your other half. Together our love will never end. Please, my Queen. Take me, claim me. Let me feel, make me live. I am yours. Show me your organic world I could never even dream of.”