Gossip Hour

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This conversation occurred in mid 3227, before the events of Campaign 2: The Gal Pals. Read what happened before with Bodily Autonomy, or continue reading with Too Late.

Cast

Bry

An alien consciousness uploaded to disk

Brittany

A Syndicate engineer tasked with creating a human-like body for Bry

Amy

A Syndicate sociologist tasked with helping Bry pretend to be human

Camden

An Integrell programmer contracted to "aid in VI research"

Locations

Research Base

A suspiciously unaffilliated research station orbitting Nisora

Organizations

Syndicate

A black market group specializing in advanced technology

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Brittany adjusted calibrations and ran through another test. Everything checked out but didn’t ease her nerves any. Making a VI shell like this had never been done before, and required a lot of questionable pretech. Any mistake would be costly.

“So,” Amy broke the silence. “Heard you and Camden hit it off.”

Brittany rolled her eyes. “Please. It was a kiss, it’s not like I slept with him.” A dozen researchers in a confined space made it hard to keep secrets, but most respected others’ privacy. Amy was the exception. No birthday was safe from her antics.

“What’s a kiss and why does it affect your sleeping habits?” Bry’s voice filled the room.

“Shit.” Brittany dropped her head into her hands. “I forgot you were here.”

“It’s physically impossible for me to be anywhere else.”

“Wait,” Amy said, “you don’t know what kissing is?”

As nosy as she was, Amy was why this project might actually succeed. As the resident sociologist, she figured out the alien specs engineers like Brittany built toward. Otherwise, the shell would be too human for Bry to live in, and all their work would be wasted.

“No? It doesn’t translate?” he responded after a moment.

“I’m not explaining this.” Brittany began packing her things to escape the conversation. No one else was supposed to know they worked on an alien and not a VI, so she’d have to find less confidential work to do elsewhere.

“Tell you what, Bry.” Amy leaned over to look into the secured room containing a half-built human shell. “Once you’re in this body, how about I demonstrate what kissing is for you?”

Brittany gave her coworker a disgusted look. “Seriously, Amy?”

“What?” Amy shrugged. “He’s based on a companion model, so we know everything should work. It’d be a good test.”

“Ugh. I guess it would help him pretend to be human.”

“Exactly! And I’ll be doing a favor for some future lucky lady.” She winked.

“You know,” Bry said, “I’m a lot less interested now.”

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