Stories of Your Life and Others

Chapter 8
The user group has gathered to listen to Binary Desire's presentation
via videoconferencing; Binary Desire has made a payment to an escrow
service, and the funds will be released after the meeting. Seated at the focus
of her wraparound screen, Ana looks around her; everyone's video feeds are
integrated so that the user group appears to be gathered in a virtual
auditorium, each sitting in a tiny private balcony. Derek's sitting in the
balcony to her left, and Felix in turn is to his left. At the podium on stage is
Binary's representative Jennifer Chase. Her image onscreen is blond and
beautiful and tastefully dressed, and because the parties have agreed to use
authenticated video, Ana knows this is how Chase actually looks. She
wonders if Binary Desire assigns Chase to do all their negotiations; the
woman is probably very good at getting what she asks for.
Felix stands up in his seat and starts to say something in Lojban before
catching himself. "You will like what she will say," he says.
"Thank you, Felix, but let me take it from here," says Chase. Felix sits
back down, and Chase addresses the group.
"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. Typically when I meet with
a prospective business partner, I talk about how Binary Desire can help
them reach a wider market than they can themselves, but I'm not going to
do that with you. My goal for this meeting is to assure you that your
digients will be treated with respect. We don't want pets that have been
sexualized through simple operant conditioning. We want beings that
engage in sex at a higher, more personal level."
Stuart calls out, "How do you expect to get that when our digients are
completely asexual?"
Chase doesn't miss a beat. "With two years of training, minimum."

---

Ana's surprised. "That's a major investment," she says. "I thought
digient sex-dolls were usually trained for a couple of weeks."
"That's because they're usually Sophonce digients, and they don't
become better sex partners in two years than they do in two weeks. I don't
know if you've seen the results, but if you're curious, I can tell you where
you can find a harem of Draytas dressed in Marilyn Monroe avatars, all
bleating Wanna suck dick. It's not pretty."
Ana laughs despite herself, as do several others in the group. "No, it
doesn't sound like it."
"That's not what Binary Desire is looking for. Anyone can take a
public-domain digient and reconfigure its reward map. We want to offer sex