Chrome Butterfly Chapter Two

"Humph! Don't think that this is because I l-like you, b-baka!"

Alex and Genesis considered the approximately twenty centimeter tall schoolgirl model PI-Doll as it crossed its arms and tossed hair over its shoulder, making the condescendingly dismissive expression that matched the gesture.

The display model wasn't connected to a proper Aide, of course. It was operated, if that was the correct term, by something between a chat-bot and a copy of the sort of script that went into very old fashioned toys that referred to a digital lexicon of phrases and noises to make when a cord on its back was pulled. There was no conscious thought there, and extremely limited decision-making ability beyond identifying whether or not it was being directly observed by a potential customer and acting out a pre-installed response.

Alex almost pitied the program for this sort of existence, when a doll could instead simply be set, inert, on a rotating table to be viewed. There had to be some kind of marketing reasoning for it.

"D-don't stare so intently at me! You weirdo." the display model said, replicating  an expression and tone of restrained disgust.

"Is this sort of personality your fetish?" Genesis asked through his earpiece.

Alex inhaled sharply but managed to not draw attention as he carefully and slowly exhaled.

"The important thing is what you think about it." he said instead of commenting on his own preferences.

"Accessing corporate records and cross-referencing customer reviews... Cutie-PI model prosthetic interface dolls are designed around specific aesthetic tastes for visual market appeal. In addition to 'Schoolgirl', other basic models include 'Nurse', 'Librarian', 'Witch', 'Alien', and 'Elf'." Genesis' synthesized voice came from his phone. "However, the primary selling point appears to be archetypal niches. Product reviews consistently imply a lower quality of material utilized to lower construction costs, resulting in the need for frequent repair and replacement of components such as receiver chips and joint mechanisms to ensure continued function."

"Ah, is that the case? It looks good from the outside." Alex pointed out.

"You d-dummy! You can't comment on a girl's appearance!" the display model immediately responded, faking a blush.

"Exterior polish is not a reasonable measure of inherent quality for internal components." Genesis counter-pointed.

Alex sighed but nodded. It was a pity, since this was the best looking of the models available, with no visible doll joints or surfaces that were clearly metal or plastic plates. Since he hadn't planned on looking into prosthetic bodies until he had the spare funding or materials to either buy or fabricate one, and so he wasn't entirely up to date on which of the specific product lines were currently good or bad. By the time he had the funds together, that might have changed, right?

"Well, in the end, you're the one who is going to be using it, so you should really pick." Alex said, attempting to pass off the decision. "Haven't you ever wanted to have an independent body?"

"Searching... records not found. No. I have not experienced such a desire. Additionally, the rhetorical implication of an independent body is fallacious as my central processors and databanks would remain outside of the doll." Genesis countered. "As such, the primary criteria for judgement are the general quality and your own aesthetic preferences."

"Please don't just put the decision back in my hands." Alex sighed, before waving for a sales representative. "Excuse me... miss? Ah, yes. Could you tell me what companies you have basic PI-doll models for in stock?"

"Don't like the Cutie-PI's? Must have read the online reviews, right?" she chuckled. "They look good for the price, but you'll spend more in the long run so it's only really worth it if you want the design. Hey... Do I know you from somewhere? I think I've seen your face around..."

"You might have seen me taking classes, unless you happen to get coffee from the shop I work at." Alex replied.

"Might be, might be. Well, if you're trying to narrow down what doll to use, the specs of your Aide can play a factor. One model isn't exactly a fit for every alternative, you know?" the sales rep pointed out. "Humanoid shapes are popular, but there are niches for non-standard body plans, too. Feline, canine, avian, arachnid, and more, with the different body plans offering divergent functionalities and ranges of motion. A good place to start, though, is with the company model number of the Aide themselves. It's always a safe bet to match models, since the company will have the opportunity to make very sure in testing that the technology and interfaces should play well with each other in both directions."

"Oh, well that's..." Alex replied, rubbing the back of his neck a little awkwardly. "Genesis is a... sort of a custom work."

"... hm. Well, that does make it more complicated." the sales-girl replied, enthusiasm visibly cooling. "The custom designed and programmed often need similarly customized accessories and peripherals in order to function well, and that can get a little expensive... Even just particularly robust models with excellent tolerances for quirkiness and little interface mismatches aren't exactly cheap."

It wasn't that Alex didn't understand what she was getting at. The implication was that he had cobbled Genesis together out of scrap, spare parts, and cobbled together buggy code that he had devised on his own, meaning that any number of things could go wrong.

It wasn't the case at all, of course. Far from being a barely-functional scrap pile held together by duct tape and prayers, Genesis was truly a masterpiece... but trying to explain that always got dubious looks and patent disbelief, since it wasn't like the field was the same as just plugging more RAM and memory into a PC motherboard in order to improve performance.

"No no, no need to worry about that. I lucked into winning a lottery, so I have a voucher..." Alex explained again.

For a moment the woman's eyes sharpened, sizing him up. Then they evened out again, behind the boiler-plate customer-service smile.

"Oh, I think I've heard of the one. How lucky! Congratulations!" she said, feigning cheerfulness. "Well, in that case, you'll want to go with one of the more robust models, since you aren't footing the bill anyway and you won't be able to guarantee that you can win the follow-up tournament for a better one, right?"

"Yeah, that's about the size of it..." Alex said, chuckling even though he felt like she had just taken a back-handed shot at him for not being independently wealthy.

All the same, even if the woman's opinion of him seemed to be low, she was still doing her job to the best of her ability, ruling out one model after another until only a couple basic frames remained.

Without external adaptations or adornments, they looked like nearly featureless naked dolls, with impassive and blank faces that had empty and vacant eyes set in them. Every joint was visible, and they held a faintly unsettling appearance in their limp immobility. One was made of a durable molded form of rubberized plastic, with a little give and flexibility to it, while the other was metallic and rigid. Both were advertised as being waterproofed, and neither had the expensive synthetic 'skin' that was realistic enough to go over limb-replacement prosthetics for humans, of course, since these were basic models. The facial features and scalp under the hair, pulled back into a thick braid, were essentially the only parts that had a facsimile of skin to begin with and it wasn't the high quality stuff. Rather, it was the sort of silicone rubber that... it went into other things, where good enough really was good enough.

The main remaining issue was the one that had been present from the very beginning, in that Genesis was unwilling to commit to one of the two choices.

"My understanding of tactile sensitivity is primarily academic." Genesis noted. "Please offer your opinion on the available frameworks."

"One feels like plastic and the other feels like steel." Alex sighed, long since tired of this shopping trip.

"Please elaborate." Genesis calmly and politely insisted. "Any decisions made are final, and as such all relevant parameters must be considered prior to confirmation. Does one material provide a more pleasant tactile feedback than the other, in your opinion? Are there any complicating factors that are important for consideration? I have no personal preferences between material, and as such your opinion and information which you provide will represent the deciding factors."

"We could have been done with this in twenty minutes." Alex muttered under his breath, wearily.

Then he took a deep breath.

"The metal frame is smooth and polished, so things slide along it easily. I'm not sure if that will be an issue for grip and moving things around, but there's a little texturing on the fingers and palms so I'll go out on a limb and assume that they accounted for that. Currently, as they are not in operation, both models are at room temperature and the metal one is a little chilly to the touch. Depending on how conductive the material itself turns out to be, in operation it might turn out to still be cool to the touch or it might end up being uncomfortably warm to make unexpected contact with."

"Noted." Genesis commented as Alex paused for breath in his analysis.

"The plastic is similarly smooth and has a nice little give to it under pressure, but not so much as to be concerning. I can still feel an internal skeleton that the more delicate components are kept inside, which is more rigid and less prone to deformation. That does mean that there's less leeway if part of that internal system is actually damaged or deformed, though. I've also worked with some materials like this in the past, and while it feels new I think cleaning it could wind up being an issue in the long term, since in my experience dust and such winds up getting stuck on the surface and leaving it with a faintly... gritty or sticky feeling, to the touch."

"Acknowledged." was Genesis' reply to that. Followed by a stubborn "Which is your preferred option?"

At every turn it kept coming back to that. Alex sighed and gave up.

"We can get the metal one, since it will be easier to clean up if it gets dusty or something spills on it." he decided, since Genesis wasn't going to.

"And this is your preferred tactile sensation?" Genesis asked.

"It's fine, they were both fine." Alex replied.

"Noted and logged."

What made that worth logging, Alex wanted to ask but didn't have the energy to. The similarly exhausted looking sales woman blinked, seeming to register that they were now, finally, finished selecting a new body for Genesis to wear.

"Ah. Thank you for shopping here." she said, clearly almost completely on autopilot. "Now, this model doesn't come bundled with accessories and decorative options like the Cutie-PI brand line, but generic outfits and ornaments are available for purchase."

Alex quietly realized that he would almost rather die as she raised a hand to an assortment of small clothing items.

"I hold no personal opinion or investment in fashion trends or counter-trends." Genesis commented from his phone. "As I do not have access to the data set which allow me to make a viable informed selection, please dress the interface as you prefer."

The 'data set' she was referring to being his porn collection.

Oh no, his hard-copy porn collection. Alex hadn't even thought about that, but if Genesis had a body then just leaving it in a room where she didn't have surveillance wasn't going to cut it any more. He was going to have to actually put some effort into hiding the magazines until he was finished with them.

He didn't have the energy or willpower to think about this just yet.

"Just get a full body single-color jumpsuit." Alex said, exhaustion clear in his voice.

The fish shop had long since closed, meaning that he was going to be picking up fast food on the way back to his apartment.