In Which Sooni Awakens Mackenzie Three Times
Bed time was… complicated.
Amaranth ended Two’s objections to Ian’s lack of pajamas by ordering her to let other people define acceptable sleepwear for themselves. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. It would make living with her that much easier, and it wasn’t actually a bad sort of rule to live by… but the more independence Two asserted, the less comfortable I was with drawing that kind of a line for her.
I was even more uncomfortable when Amaranth told me to strip while Two went to the bathroom to brush her teeth.
“Remember, I can’t cover myself in good faith unless we’re skin to skin,” Amaranth said. “Anyway, Ian’s more comfortable sleeping nude, and I sleep nude, so you will, too. If we’re quick about it, we’ll be under the blankets before Two gets back.”
That brought us to the next fun bit. Math facts: a bed that’s not designed to hold two people isn’t going to be any more suitable for three.
Amaranth took charge here, too.
“Ian should get the ‘aisle seat’, in case of emergencies,” Amaranth said. “And Mack should be in the middle, since she’s sort of the nexus here… I guess that puts my back to the wall.” She giggled at this, for some reason.
“What do you mean, ‘in case of emergencies’?” I asked. Was she worried about elemental eruptions? I didn’t feel like I could have invoked fire from a matchstick after my exertions in the shower.
“Well, he’s the only one with a mortal bladder,” Amaranth said.
“Wait, you guys don’t have to piss?” Ian asked. “Ever?”
“Nope, never,” Amaranth said.
“Not since I was little,” I said.
“So… if you drink something, where does it go?” Ian asked.
“Nowhere,” Amaranth said.
“It just stays inside you?”
“No,” Amaranth said. “It doesn’t fail to go anywhere… it goes nowhere.”
“Oh,” Ian said.
Amaranth pulled back the covers and climbed into bed, rolling onto her side and leaning against the wall. She patted the spot beside her and I climbed in beside her.
“On your back,” she said, and I obeyed. “Now, Ian.”
He eyed the remaining space on the bed with obvious doubt.
“We’ll both lay on top of her,” Amaranth said. “It’s okay, we won’t crush her.”
“This doesn’t sound very comfortable,” I said.
“You’re the one who wanted everybody to sleep together,” Ian said.
“Trust me, baby,” Amaranth said. “If I know you at all, then you’ll get the best sleep you’ve ever had, pinned between the two of us.”
Ian climbed into bed beside me, laying half on top of me. Once he was settled down, Amaranth pulled the blanket up and then rolled over so that she was on top of me, too.
Two came back from the bathroom as we were still settling into the least uncomfortable configurations we could find.
“Goodnight, Mack. Goodnight, Amaranth,” she said. There was a noticeable pause before she added, “Goodnight, Ian.”
“Goodnight, Two,” I said.
“Night, Twoey,” Amaranth said.
“Goodnight,” Ian said.
Two turned off the light and I heard her get into bed. The most noticeable sound in the darkness was Ian’s breathing. It seemed to be so much louder at rest than it was when he was active. I could feel it hot against my skin, though, which wasn’t completely unpleasant. I could smell him faintly, too… that strange male musk I’d only recently become aware of, lurking beneath the honeysuckle-scented cloud that had seemed to envelop me. I could smell Amaranth, too. The scent of honeysuckle hadn’t stuck to her, but she had her own unmistakable fragrance.
Ian was hot, Amaranth was warm, and I was… strangely comfortable.
I didn’t notice myself falling asleep, but it wasn’t long before I was dreaming. In my dream, I was running through a field of… well, I guess it must have been honeysuckle. I’d be the first one to admit that I wouldn’t know a honeysuckle from a honeydew, but my dreaming mind supposed they were a sort of pale yellowish flower and I was running barefoot through a field of them.
No, not barefoot… just plain bare. I was completely naked, and completely free. I could feel the warmth of the sun on my skin and I wasn’t the least bit self-conscious, not even when I realized I wasn’t alone.
No, I was running towards somebody… two somebodies. We were all running, to come together in the center of the field. It was Gloria, my beautiful sparring partner with the melodic island accent, and she, too, was running naked and free, as was the third person…
…Sooni.
That was enough to jolt me out of my dream and back into the realm of wakefulness. After the expansive feeling of freedom that had pervaded my sleep, it took me a while to sort out where I was and why I was under people. Ian was a comfortingly solid mass on the left side of my body. Amaranth was a comfortably pliant one on my right. She was murmuring in her sleep, making a variety of vague yummy noises.
I was wide awake, but I couldn’t move without disturbing the others. Amaranth had been right in thinking I’d have an easy time falling asleep, but it seemed like I was in for an uncomfortable rest of the night. These dreams with Sooni were starting to get a little disturbing, and they weren’t the only thing that bothered me.
How big a slut was I turning into? With two living, breathing people in my bed with whom I’d shared sexual activity, my mind still went out and found two other people to put in my dreams. Granted, one of those people I sort of thought I might have some kind of a shot with, but the other one was somebody I didn’t find remotely attractive.
Yeah, I’d also dreamed about Feejee, but she was nice and I did see her naked all the time. Physically, she had the same kind of profile as Amaranth, so it kind of made sense that my sleeping mind might find her attractive.
Also, as I manifestly wasn’t a lesbian, it seemed to me like I should have been having dreams about men some of the time. Especially if I was dreaming about two people at once, it seemed like at least one of them should have been male.
I resigned myself to a long and sleepless night… these were the kind of thoughts that could keep a person awake for hours.
Then, I was lying on my back on the coffee table.
Naked again… or still.
Sara, Tara, Finbar, and Trina were on the couch. Feejee and Rick were in the chairs. They were watching TV, talking and laughing, seemingly oblivious to the fact that I was on the coffee table. The twins put a plate of pizza down on me, and Rick wedged a can of beer between my legs. Trina threw the magazine she’d been paging through at my face with disgust. I had to resist the urge to dodge or flinch away, or else I’d tip the pizza or spill the beer.
It was as though I wasn’t just on the coffee table… I was the coffee table. I mean, the actual coffee table was beneath me and separate from me, but I was being expected to fulfill its role and everybody was acting like there was nothing unusual about this.
I wasn’t a person. I was an object… designed to be used, and nothing more.
Abruptly, the whole party got up and left. Feejee blew her nose on a tissue and threw it down on me before she headed out the door. After they left, Amaranth and Ian came in. Neither gave any sign they saw or recognized me. Amaranth laid down on top of me, and then Ian was on top of her.
It was crushing, physically and emotionally, but I couldn’t protest, I couldn’t cry out, and above all I couldn’t move. It wasn’t my place. I was there to be used.
Long before they finished, I became aware that I was aroused, and probably had been since the dream had begun.
When they left, Sooni and her nekoyokai “friends” came in. Sooni was dressed in her scandalously short bathrobe, and she sat down on the couch, flanked by Suzi and Kai. She put her bare feet up on my stomach. Maliko knelt on the other side of me, and began filing Sooni’s nails.
When I felt the sensation inside me building towards what Amaranth had told me was an orgasm… and seemingly from the mere touch of Sooni’s feet… I wrenched myself awake.
Ian’s dick was half hard against me. Amaranth, still asleep, was mumbling something about a “riding lesson.” I did not want to know.
Why did I keep having dreams about Sooni? Didn’t my mind know the difference between lust and loathing? I knew a lot of people who could charitably be described as “having issues,” but Sooni was just plain evil. Sadistic, domineering, manipulative, domineering, vindictive, overbearing, domineering…
And then I was on my hands and knees in the laundry room, dressed in a maid’s outfit with the same kind of panty-baring skirt that the yokai girls favored. Only, I didn’t have any panties to bare. A pair of Sooni’s panties were stretched out on the floor in front of me, and she stood behind me with a long, flexible stick.
“Clean harder!” she barked, and I tried to stand but my hands were bound to iron loops set into the floor. She lashed my ass and I cried out in pain. Helpless, I lowered my face to the floor and began to lick her panties.
“You’re! Not! Doing! It! Right!” she shrieked, punctuating each word with another swish of the switch. The last one, instead of going horizontally across my cheeks, went vertically between them. The pain was exquisite… I mean, unbearable.
She followed it with a series of blows that strangely caused no pain but made a weird rapping sound, like she was using her fists against a countertop or wall or something… or a door.
“Mack, baby, go see who that is,” Amaranth said groggily as we all half-stirred, as though I wasn’t the one on the bottom of the pile.
I could already hear Two’s feet padding across the floor, though, and a moment later the door opened. When I heard the too-familiar voice snarling, “Where is she?” I thought for sure that I was in another dream.
“Where is who?” Two asked.
“Your girlkissing lesbian girlfriend!” Sooni said.
“I do not have one of those,” Two said. “Hey, you’re supposed to ask before you come in!”
I heard the sound of Sooni stomping past the outraged Two, and then the light came on.
“Whuh?” Ian said as Sooni ripped the cover back. He tried to roll over and tumbled out of bed. He grunted; I think Sooni must have stepped on him. I had a moment of shock when I realized she was wearing the same robe she’d had on in my last dream. Her hair was beneath a towel (or perhaps several towels) in a towering pile on top of her head. Her shiny black eyes were fixed on me.
“You are too busy having naked orgies to remember to watch your favorite television show?” she asked.
“Fucking hell,” Ian said, grabbing for his boxers. “What’s she talking about?”
“I think you should probably explain yourself, Sooni,” Amaranth said in a tone of voice that was altogether too reasonable for the situation.
“Last week your pussylicking slave promised me that we could watch television together and then she didn’t!” Sooni said, pointing a finger at me. She hadn’t lost any of her outraged volume, but her voice was beginning to shake and her lips were starting to tremble. “And this week I even reminded her and now our shows are about to start and she’s not even done having sex!”
“I was sleeping,” I said. “And I didn’t promise anything. And I’m not a slave.”
“Liar!” Sooni shrieked. “Liar! You said you always watch Mecknights and you never miss it and then you did and I waited for you!”
“That isn’t exactly a promise… and anyway, Mecknights doesn’t start for another half hour,” I said, looking at the timepiece on the wall.
“But Science Princess starts in three minutes!” she said.
“You don’t honestly expect me to watch that?” I asked.
“Well we can’t just watch your show!” Sooni said. “That would hardly be fair.”
“She’s right,” Two said. “It wouldn’t be.”
“Oh, go watch your silly shows with her, Mack,” Amaranth said, pushing me towards the edge of the bed. “It’ll be good for you two to spend some time together.”
“But…”
Amaranth shushed me.
“Can’t you see she’s reaching out to you?” she said.
“That’s right!” Sooni said. “I’m reaching out… and you don’t even care!” Her voice could get almost as high and squeaky as Mariel’s when she tried.
I heard the sound of people stirring in the twins’ room, through the wall.
“Fine!” I said, if only to shut her up. I got off the bed. “Just let me get dressed.”
“But we’ll miss the beginning!” Sooni said.
“Here,” Amaranth said, handing me my sleep shorts and bra. “Go. It’ll be good for you. I’ve got a ritual to prepare, anyway.”
“She can’t wear those, they’re dirty,” Two protested.
“Oh, leave it alone, Twoey,” Amaranth said with a yawn.
“I’m having the weirdest fucking dreams lately,” Ian said sleepily, settling himself back down on the bed.
“Come on,” Sooni said, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the hallway. “Dress later. If I miss the opening because of you I promise I will hate you forever.”
“You do that anyway,” I said.
“Have fun!” Amaranth called from my room, as we passed Sara and Tara in their open doorway. They blinked bleary-eyed at the sight of Sooni dragging me, naked and clutching my underwear, down the hall.
Peals of laughter followed when they figured out what they were looking at.
Fun.
Yeah.
This is an excellent example of Amaranth being wrong…
Sorry for stating the obvious, but this one is really annoying!
As I have said before, Amaranth is as much an AI as TWO. Different programming does not change the fact that their limitations are set by the competency of their creators.
Two seems to be developing at a faster rate then Amy. TWO is already more autonomous and developing a shrewd sentience considering how limited was her level of real world experience.
Amaranth on the other hand is still bound in servitude to the requirements of her goddess. Amy does have innate emotional capacity and a lot of book learning. But her limitations are set by the repetitious demands of her public service duties.
Even the classes she is taking and the exploration of her BDSM proclivities/possibilities{?} and of course the evolving relationship with Mackenzie all seem to revolve around Amaranth’s
sex-when-anyone-demands duties.
@pedestrian,
I’ve seen your earlier comments about nymphs as ai, and I’ve gotta say, I strongly disagree with you. I fully view nymphs as sentient creatures, as much as Celia or Dee or Mackenzie. Do they think about some things differently? Yes, and so does Feejee, or Hazel. That’s just a racial bonus, like +2 strength. ;p If anything, though, Barley’s break-down should demonstrate that nymphs think, and are able to make decisions (good or bad) and form opinions, just like anyone else. They’re not an AI, they’re just an I.
~Sleet
AI is an intelligence designed by another mind. Which Amaranth is. It implies and intelligence designed to fulfill a specific purpose. Which she is. Amaranth’s faults are largely based around her inability to see negative aspects of others (and an intelligence complex). Her inability to see negative aspects in others is derived directly from the attitude her creator wanted her to have so that she would fulfill her purpose (sex) as well as possible. Amaranth is an AI (albeit a highly organic one) that has inadequacies directly derived from the intent of her creator. I would say pedestrian’s comment about Amaranth is completely accurate.
Although, I would actually say two is less of an AI than Amaranth. Sure, she’s less organic, but that’s not actually an indicator of AI, just something we associate with AI because of sci-fi. Two was designed to be sentient, but not intelligently self-aware. Just aware enough to carry out loose orders. When she was granted freedom, none of her personality was designed intentionally, for any purpose. In fact, much of Two’s problem is that she has no purpose other than an unintentional holdover from her servant days. Her traits were not designed to give her a specific personality any more than a couple intentionally mixes their genes so as to create a specific personality. So while Two is technically an AI, in the strict definition of something intelligent made by artificial means, she is less of an AI than Amaranth, who’s personality is largely a function of someone else’s intent.
Sorry for the rant, I just dislike seeing assumptions born of fiction, like that it’s not AI if it’s organic, or that AI would have any reason to dominate humanity, or that it’s impossible to try to make society better on a grand scale using improved technology without turning everything into a dsytopia or a “utopia”. We internalize far too much of what we see.
I think that in this case AI could also stand for Alien Intelligence. They aren’t very alien, but they most definitely use different algorithms than a supermajority of humans.
Since I am incapable of awarding your post with a Heart! I will simply state that I agree with you.