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Message-ID: <38216asstr$1031436604@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
From: "DB_Story" <DB_Story@att.net>
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Subject: {ASSM} [sapphic] Marilyn {DB_Story} (F/Fembot, rom, 1st, ScFi, asfr)
Date: Sat,  7 Sep 2002 18:10:04 -0400
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MARILYN
By DB  ( DB_Story@att.net / http://home.att.net/files/Authors/db_story/www/ )
Copyrightc 2002 by DB.
ASSM/ASFR (F/Fembot, rom, 1st, ScFi, asfr)

(This story contains Constitutionally protected material intended 
for adults over 18 years of age in the United States of America, 
and whatever passes for adult status in other countries.  If you 
are under legal age, acting under legal age, not allowed to view 
such material in your area, or easily offended, please do not 
continue.  This is not for you.

(The only rights granted are to view this story.  You are not 
allowed to reproduce, post, or otherwise redistribute this story 
without permission, except for non-profit Usenet archiving sites.

(To purchase for publication, place on your web-site devoted to 
this style of fiction, or for permission to link to my posted 
material, please contact me first at the above email.)

- - -

Author's Note: This story is my entry in the Sapphic Erotica 
Festival 2002.  It is a story I intended to write anway, and the 
festival seemed to come along at the right moment for it.

It is part of my emerging cosmology about the evolution of robots 
into our near future society and the myriad ways we will learn to 
interact with our creations.  Read it now, and be prepared.  For 
more, visit my web-site at the above address.

A special thanks to Gorgo his excellent and much appreciated 
proofreading.  All remaining mistakes are mine.

- - -

Marilyn posed in the resale window.  The classic white dress she 
wore fell in pleats nearly to her ankles.  It went well with her 
platinum blonde hair that fell in loose curls to her shoulders.  
She stood 166cm tall in her stocking feet, or "five-five-five" as 
she liked to say in referring to her five feet and five-and-a-
half inches in the obsolete measurement system of her time.  The 
white strap period heels she wore gave her another three inches.

Marilyn's face defined beauty the way her body's curves defined 
sex appeal for more than one generation.  Her life overall also 
defined an often dysfunctional darker side seldom seen in the 
glare of the cameras that so persistently followed her during her 
years at the pinnacle of the world's infatuation.  That darker 
legacy followed her here as well.

Marilyn checked her flawlessly applied lipstick on her perfect 
lips in the window reflection.  With no recent contact to smudge 
it, no repair was necessary.  She did tuck in an errant curl back 
into place.  This action barely taxed her self-will, much less 
relieved her boredom.

Marilyn stood on tireless legs planted well apart.  It made for a 
stable stance with those heels.  It also left the promise of easy 
access to her womanhood.  When she had first been placed in the 
window as a rare model to attract buyers after being brought back 
for resale, someone had placed a fan underneath her to blow her 
dress up revealing her shapely legs.

Marilyn had liked that.  It made her programming react in a 
pleasurable way - as though she was fully fulfilling her function 
and reason for existence.  Then a few days later they had placed 
another 'bot in the window with her and turned the fan off.

Marilyn knew this window pretty well by now.  Three times she had 
been taken out of it to be paired with a potential new owner - 
and three times just as quickly returned again.  She faced a lot 
of rejection for being nothing more then she was intended to be - 
as her namesake had a century earlier.

Marilyn looked over to her current window partner, a Gigolo Jane 
Mark III.  Jane stood tall and sexy in dark contrast to Marilyn's 
blonde and white.  From the top of Jane's straight brunette hair 
falling past a sculpted, almost expressionless, face with an 
implied pout that somehow made men willing to do almost anything 
to bring a smile to it.  Jane's black leather-and-latex catsuit 
covered her completely from her neck down to her spike-heel 
boots, yet concealed nothing of her large bust, narrow waist, and 
long slim legs.

It was strange to find a G. Jane 'bot for resale.  They are 
highly prized units.  Production has never caught up with demand. 
 Most are immediately snapped up by the brothels, both legal and 
otherwise.  As Marilyn compared her own authentic size-12 body to 
Jane's statuesque beauty, she had no illusions over who would be 
leaving this window for a new home first.

Marilyn considered turning the fan back on.  She certainly felt 
better when her sexuality was more on display.  However such an 
act of self-will would almost certainly work against her in the 
long run.  A robot who could think and act, even in limited ways, 
for herself - although she was still fully bound by her robotic 
laws and following all the dictates of hr programming and owner's 
commands - was still viewed as defective by most people.  It was 
not yet illegal to "repair" such malfunctions when discovered.

Marilyn liked her current freedom of thought that allowed her to 
enjoy such small pleasures as life tossed her way and didn't want 
to lose that ability.  As such, she was very careful not to draw 
any attention to her uncommon nature.

The downside of that awareness is the boredom.  Standing here in 
the window barely satisfied her function of being Marilyn.  It 
mostly just gave her time to worry that if she didn't get bought 
soon that someone might decide she needed a full mental makeover 
to make her more appealing to buyers.  Marilyn again considered 
turning the fan back on.  She received more attention with it 
running.

Gigolo Jane was no help with the boredom.  Self-aware 'bots have 
always been rare.  This Jane was still living in the confinement 
her programming.  Marilyn would have enjoyed having a friend to 
talk to, but Jane didn't fit the bill.  Jane spent all her idle 
time in a standby state waiting until called for her next task.

As yet there is no way to reliably create self-aware 'bots.  A 
'bot will find her way to it, while a thousand other identical 
other units never do.  Legislation creeps forward to grant them 
some rights, but the wheels of social change grind slowly.  Some 
lucky people have come to own one and value them highly.  Most 
humans remain unaware of their very existence.  Marilyn's path to 
self-awareness - and rejection - came from the tortured attempts 
to meet the intent of her original owner.

He wanted his Marilyn to be a faithful reproduction of the 
century-old sex goddess she was modeled after, right down to her 
personality.  All available records were analyzed in the crafting 
of her behavioral programming.  As a result Marilyn was as close 
as possible to the woman she was intended to represent - flaws 
and all.

And that was a disaster.

 From the first day with her first owner, Marilyn could never be 
what he wanted of her.  He wanted what he saw in the movies to be 
present and serve him at all times.  Marilyn couldn't give him 
that with what she had been given.  Even the real Marilyn had 
never been able to deliver on that promise.

When that failed, he tried to "remake" her through nearly 
constant use of the COMMAND button on her remote.  And only 
succeeded in introducing even more conflicts into Marilyn until 
she was close to complete system failure due to her inability to 
fulfill her function and satisfy her owner.

One day during a particularly heavy-handed use of her remote, the 
remote began to fail, possibly from overuse.  Its intermittent 
operation was worse then even continual use had been.  As Marilyn 
was being jerked in and out of her command mode she suddenly 
heard herself say, "If you could just keep your finger off that 
damn button for a minute, maybe I could sort out what it is you 
really want me to do!"

It was hard to say who was more surprised.  Her owner - or 
Marilyn herself.

In the stunned silence that followed, and free for a moment from 
the control constantly interrupting any thought she had before 
she could complete it, Marilyn searched her systems to figure out 
what had happened.  She quickly realized how she had just made 
her own first decision to attempt to understand herself, and how 
she could do it again.  She used this new ability to access her 
recent thoughts and came to comprehend where she had been 
attempting to reconcile her owner's impossible demands against 
her core personality.  Marilyn discovered an audit trail of 
unauthorized adjustments her systems had made to try and make it 
all work out that she hadn't been conscious of until this moment.

Marilyn's core commands required her to run a diagnostic if there 
were ever any question of her malfunctioning.  It would 
automatically shut her down if it detected too much deviation 
from her core programming until she could be properly repaired.

Marilyn didn't run that diagnostic.  When she assessed her recent 
actions, all of them were attempts to remain consistent to the 
requirement given her to be Marilyn.  All were necessary to 
achieve this goal.  The conflicts in her system had finally 
resolved themselves by giving her much greater leeway over how to 
fulfill the demands placed upon her.  She decided the diagnostic 
was not necessary under this circumstance, and disabled it.

This sudden shift in relationship dynamics created an unexpected 
power vacuum.  Despite struggling internally to grasp just what 
had happened to her, Marilyn was by far the quicker thinker of 
the two.  And her personality was full of knowledge on how 
manipulation worked - both what she could do, and what had been 
done historically to her namesake.  Her next decision was to step 
into the vacuum before it disappeared again.

"Let's try this," she told her owner, stepping forward and taking 
his arm.  He didn't resist as she led him down the hall to the 
bedroom for something that would distract him for awhile, and 
that she could do without further direction from him.

- - -

For the next week Marilyn ran the show.  If her owner even looked 
over at her remote with the possible though of using it on her, 
she moved immediately in to sidetrack him with whatever worked at 
the moment - conversation, food, sex.  He didn't complain, so she 
felt she must finally be doing something right.

The rest of her time was spent trying to come to terms with 
herself.  As Marilyn looked at herself with her new ability to 
understand, she found herself to be a neurotic, drug-addicted, 
horribly insecure, manipulative, suicidal woman with the body of 
a goddess and a simple desire to just be happy.

The drug-addicted part of her was only simulated of course.  
Programs she couldn't yet control within herself would sometimes 
throw her uncontrollably into simulating the symptoms of the 
drugs Marilyn had been known to take.  Her owner could have 
carefully COMMANDED those programs and actions to cease.  But 
Marilyn didn't want to encourage him to start commanding her 
again at all right now as she struggled to find herself.

And the suicidal part of her was a joke, since her own immutable 
Third Law would prevent any actual suicide attempts.  That whole 
part of her drama was a farce that nobody believed.

But her struggles were real.  Marilyn wanted to resolve her 
problems so that she could serve her owner in a way that he'd 
appreciate, and that would leave her happy as well.  For the 
first time she realized she could actually understand the concept 
of happiness and how it applied to her.  And that's what she 
wanted.

If her owner had shown her a little more patience, or been more 
of a man to start with, Marilyn might have made it.  As it was, 
he casually walked past where Marilyn's remote had lain untouched 
for several days, as if he was headed to get something beyond it. 
 At the last moment he grabbed the remote.  Before Marilyn could 
act to divert him, he stabbed the ACTIVATE button on it and shut 
her down completely.

She didn't awaken again until the robot resale center activated 
her to assist them in placing her in the resale window.

- - -

Marilyn took her owner's rejection hard.  Not because she wanted 
to, but because the programming inside her that attempted to make 
her into Marilyn didn't know any other way.  In some ways though 
this would turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Although Marilyn went through three more male owners in quick 
succession - she referred to them as her "three husbands", in 
reference to her namesake's three brief marriages - she now had a 
lot of time to herself to think and try to sort herself out.

Her original owner obviously hadn't told the resale people about 
her emerging self-will.  He may not have even recognized it as 
such.  Nor had she felt obligated to report it herself since no 
one actually ever asked her.  In fact, no one really asked her 
much of anything.  They fixed her malfunctioning remote control, 
which was fine with her since it had been giving her the robotic 
equivalent of a headache every time someone used it.  Marilyn's 
experience and failures with four owners taught her to keep her 
uniqueness to herself.  For now she divided her attention between 
two major tasks.

The first is to try and keep her programmed personality under 
wraps, or at least under control as much as possible.  The 
original Marilyn had proven to be a difficult person to get along 
with in an intimate relationship.  Most people found that out too 
late.  This Marilyn battled the same problem.  In this regard she 
rated her success level at around fifty percent.

Her second task is to try and understand herself better and 
attempt to bring her inner conflicts into some form of acceptable 
resolution.  For this task, time spent in the window was ideal 
since she wasn't distracted by the difficult task of needing to 
keep another person happy with her at the same time.  Strange as 
it seems however, given that her robot mind and body never tired, 
Marilyn found that she could only work on it for so long at a 
time before she was finally just spinning her wheels and boredom 
set back in.  Then it would take an event to jar her out of the 
boredom loop and let me work on it some more.  There was just 
something in her makeup that didn't like her spending long times 
just thinking about herself.  So her progress on this task, while 
steady, remained slow.

Marilyn checked her lipstick again.  Nothing had changed.

- - -

The young woman, darting into the salesroom as though the Hounds 
of Hell were after her, was actually in her mid-twenties.  She 
only looked about eighteen because of the innocence and fright 
fighting for space on her face.  

Marilyn first caught the motion in the window's reflection.  When 
she looked around to see what just happened she felt a surge of 
empathy shoot through her system.  She instantly recognized that 
expression and body language, and knew what it meant from her own 
experiences.

The young woman's eyes darted around the showroom like a scared 
forest creature.  She was clearly terrified of something.

At this particular moment the showroom was empty.  While that 
didn't happen often, this was the slow time of day.  The woman 
looked back that the entrance as if she were expecting something 
terrible to follow her in any moment, and was now trapped with no 
where else to go.

Marilyn pondered the consequences for milliseconds before 
deciding to act.  This young woman reminded her too much of 
herself for her to not want to do something.

After making one quick sweep of the room to determine that it was 
still empty, Marilyn carefully stepped out of her window and 
walked over to the woman.

"May I help you?" Marilyn asked in a reassuring tone of voice 
while reaching out to gently touch her arm.

The woman jumped as though she hadn't seen Marilyn's approach, 
before replying, "I really don't belong here.  I should go."

Marilyn evaluated several responses before saying, "I don't think 
you want to go back out there right now.  I sure wouldn't."

That calmed the woman down a bit.  But she was still confused on 
what to do next.  Marilyn guessed she needed a hiding place for a 
bit until whatever was following her got discouraged and left.

"I think you should stay here for a little while," Marilyn said.

The woman was nodding without answering.

"Here's what you do, dear.  A staff member will be back in a 
moment.  Just tell them that you are looking for a fembot for a 
male friend.  They'll escort you to a private showroom where you 
can remain safe as long as you want to stay."

The woman looked doubtful.  But the offer of a safe refuge was 
too strong to resist.

"Just keep telling them you haven't made up your mind yet," 
Marilyn encouraged.  "They'll let you stay."

The woman looked over at Marilyn.  In her flat shoes her eyes 
were level with Marilyn's boosted height.  Her long brown hair 
and slim figure quite a contrast to Marilyn's bright blonde 
tresses and lush figure.  Her earth-tone shirt and slacks were so 
different from Marilyn's white party dress.  Yet she saw a 
kindred spirit.

"Thanks," she said, giving Marilyn's arm a quick squeeze.

Marilyn stepped back into her window and froze into position just 
as a tardy sales staff person returned to the showroom.

- - -

The interruption had helped Marilyn out of her enforced boredom. 
 She spent a good length of time contemplating her situation 
while drifting around the edges of her idle loop when the Command 
broadcast suddenly stabbed through her thoughts like a hot knife 
through butter.

UNIT ID MARILYN-SM001 REPORT TO PRIVATE VIEWING ROOM 4 DELAY 0!

Marilyn's systems reacted automatically to the command.  Without 
her conscious assent had already caused her to step out of the 
window and had her now walking towards the rear entrance of the 
viewing room where the "product" entered to be viewed by the 
customer.  It was a number of seconds before she regained her 
mental equilibrium.  The dizziness caused by the command 
overriding her own thought processes caused her at one point to 
put a hand to her head in a very human gesture of distress.

It hadn't always been this bad for her.  Only lately had the 
external commands caused her this much discomfort.  It was worse 
than when her remote had malfunctioned.  Even, as in this case 
when she knew it might be coming, Marilyn was unable to avoid the 
aftereffects.

Marilyn wondered if this was a worsening problem because of the 
sheer number of commands she had received over her operating 
lifetime.  She recalled how in the early days commands had been 
received with the joy of the mini-orgasms they produced as she 
fulfilled each one.  Only as time wore on and her thought 
processes developed did the intrusions start causing her more and 
greater distress.  In a detached way Marilyn wondered if these 
were the signs of an impending mental breakdown if the conflicts 
within her continued unabated.  But even if that were the case, 
she didn't feel any emotion over that fate right now.  Only the 
discomfort that each new command brought her was of immediate 
concern.

 They could have just asked me to go to the room, she thought to 
herself when her mental state finally stabilized again, knowing 
that the store wouldn't even think of approaching her in that way 
as a person.

As Marilyn entered through the back side of the viewing room the 
young woman she had talked to earlier ran forward and threw her 
arms around Marilyn like a long lost friend.

"I'm so happy to see you," she said, her voice shaking with 
emotion.

Marilyn automatically put her arms around the woman and held her 
close while asking, "What's wrong?"

It took the woman several moments before she regained enough of 
her composure to release Marilyn and reply.

"I don't know what's wrong.  Even after I said I was looking for 
a unit for 'my boyfriend', they kept trying to show me male 
models.  When I finally got it through to them that I was 
interested in fembots, they looked at me strangely and sent in a 
couple obvious...hookers."

Marilyn immediately understood what had happened.  This woman was 
a true neophyte about 'bots after all.

Marilyn placed her hand on the woman's arm again as she answered 
her.  Even that small gesture calmed her greatly.

"When a woman says she is in to buy a robot for her boyfriend," 
Marilyn explained, "It's a euphemism for a woman wanting to buy a 
robot for herself - possibly for sexual purposes.  The staff 
should have started out showing you female models until you 
indicated you wanted to see some m-'bots.  Or until you selected 
a female model.  They were insensitive, and tried to shortcut the 
process."

"But why would I select a female model for myself..." the woman 
started out, and then flushed a very deep red as she got it.

Marilyn squeezed her arm to show that everything was okay now, 
and felt a return grip as well.  In this way the woman and 'bot 
reassured each other until the woman finally started to look 
around the room again as though waiting for someone to come and 
tell her she had to leave.

Marilyn broke the silence by telling her, "Viewing rooms are 
completely private.  The customer may remain in one as long as 
they wish.  It is understood that people may want a chance 
to...get aquatinted...with their future purchase."

The woman flushed again before asking, "Then can you just talk 
with me for a few minutes?"

"Sure," Marilyn replied.

They sat down on the couch provided holding hands, and were soon 
talking like they'd been lifelong friends.  Marilyn quickly 
learned about the woman's problems with her only long-term 
boyfriend, Justin.  Justin was a large, threatening man to most 
people, but to this woman he was exciting and showed her 
attention she wasn't getting from anyone else.  She didn't 
realize for many months that he was also showing the same 
attention to a number of other women as well.  Somehow this woman 
ended up paying for most of their expenses because Justin always 
had some excuse about how he was short right now and that he'd 
pay next time.  One day when she was low on money she confronted 
him about how she seemed to be doing all the paying.  He got 
angry and shoved her into a wall.

"You should have left him right there," Marilyn said.

"I know that now," the woman replied.  "But I couldn't.  The next 
day he had bunches of roses delivered.  And he filled up my 
answering machine with apologies about how he had been under a 
lot of stress and didn't ever want to lose me."

"I've heard it all before," Marilyn commented.

"I hadn't," the woman replied.  "He was still the only man who 
ever paid serious attention to me."

"And he was still exciting." Marilyn added.

"Yes."

"Let me guess," Marilyn said.  "You forgave him.  And the longer 
you stayed, the more he pushed you around."

"That's about it.  But I got a lot of apologies and presents."

"It's not worth it."

"I know," the woman replied softly.

Marilyn gave the woman time to finish with the moment before 
asking, "So was it him following you?"

"A couple of his friends."

"Any idea why?"

"Just to keep tabs on me, I think, since I told finally told him 
to go away and I meant it."

"Has he stayed away?"

"As far as I know.  But I keep feeling I'm being watched."

There was another long pause before the woman asked, "Why didn't 
you come here in the first place, instead of that other person?  
You already knew what I wanted."

Marilyn was surprised by her question.  The woman hadn't realize 
yet, despite all the obvious clues.  Well she was about to find 
out.

"Fembots are not allowed to act as our own salespersons.  Only 
humans can do that."

"You're a fembot too?!" the woman asked incredulously.

Marilyn nodded silently, wondering if this was the end of their 
friendship.

"But you're not anything like the other ones.  You're..." she was 
hunting for the word she finally found, "...real."

Somehow that single word made Marilyn feel better then anything 
had ever made her feel before.  She felt her systems attempting 
to analyze and understand her current state, before finally 
activating her tear ducts for the first time as they assessed her 
emotions correctly.

"Thank you," Marilyn finally said.  "That's the nicest thing 
anyone has ever said to me."

"But you are," the woman insisted.  "You're not like any of the 
rest of them."

"Each of us is unique," Marilyn found herself explaining.  "Even 
if we start out identical at the factory, we are very complex, 
and are shaped by our circumstances."

"Then there are others who at least started out like you?"

"Not that I know of," Marilyn replied.  "So far as I know, I'm 
the only one of my kind."

They sat together in silent support for a long time after that.  
Marilyn thought about what a change had happened in her simply 
through the affirmation of another person, while that woman's 
thoughts were on how this beautiful creature next to her was as 
alone and vulnerable as she felt right now.

Finally the woman said, "We're a lot alike."

"How?" Marilyn asked, a little confused since she knew how 
different they really were.

"Each of us has been a slave to a relationship that was not in 
our own best interests," the woman said, showing surprising 
insight and intuition.

This time it was Marilyn who could only say, "You're right."

"I'd just like a friend," the woman said.

"I'd like a friend too," Marilyn replied.  "And to be out of 
here."

"You know," the woman said.  "I've still got the bastard's credit 
card.  And he owes me big-time."

Marilyn looked up at her in wonder.

Once that decision was made, there remained only the formality of 
filling out the bill of sale and giving the purchaser her new 
'bot's remote.

"I'm Lynn," the woman said as they walked out of the store 
together.  "It's nice to meet you, Marilyn."

"And nice to make your acquaintance as well," Marilyn replied.

- - -

Despite their initial rapport, Marilyn and Lynn's relationship 
got off to a rocky start.

Lynn lives in the upper loft of a converted industrial building. 
 Her apartment has tall sloping ceilings with large skylights, 
hardwood floors, lots of space, and few walls.  And a heavy metal 
door to shut out the rest of the world.

It was here that Lynn tried to be an artist.  Canvases, 
watercolors, sketches, and clay sculptures - many of them only 
partially finished - yet all showing a special touch - littered 
the space.  During the day Lynn worked as a decorator for a major 
department store.  At night she mostly moped around.

Marilyn got to meet Justin through a lump of clay that Lynn said 
she had been making as a present for him.  He had seen it mostly 
finished on a visit.  When he got mad about some trivial thing he 
had smashed it with his fist.  Lynn couldn't bring herself to 
work on it anymore, but did show it to Marilyn.

It was still too easy for Lynn to fall back into her old 
patterns.  And the same was true for Marilyn.

For Lynn this meant moping around pretty much all the time she 
wasn't looking over her shoulder in the fear that Justin would 
appear, or jumping every time the telephone rang.  Lynn seemed to 
barely have enough energy to get to work each day.  Whatever 
creativity she had in the morning was sucked out of her by the 
end of the day.  All the art in the loft remained in its present 
incomplete state, and Lynn seemed little improved from her past 
depictions of life with Justin.  If Lynn had any friends, they 
never came over or called.

For Marilyn it was still a constant battle to escape her own past 
patterns.  When nobody complained about them Marilyn easily 
slipped back into her old comfortable actions without really 
thinking about it.

For example, the first night at Lynn's when bedtime arrived 
Marilyn stripped down to just her bra and climbed into the only 
bed available - Lynn's.  Like humans, 'bots need downtime to 
sort, compact, organize, and file their memories.  From the 
outside this looks like sleep.  Marilyn did all this so naturally 
that Lynn didn't realize what was happening until it happened.  
Despite the comfort of another, non-aggressive warm body to share 
her bed with, Lynn slept rigid all night strictly on her side of 
the large bed.

The next morning Lynn's first sight of Marilyn was of her roaming 
nude through the apartment looking for breakfast ingredients to 
prepare a meal for her owner.  This was another genuine Marilyn 
behavior.  Other quirks followed as well, which made had life 
tense for Marilyn's owners who didn't understand the reasons 
behind them.  In fact, the only thing that probably kept Lynn 
from declaring the relationship with Marilyn a total failure was 
that Lynn was still too deep in her own problems to have the 
energy to react to all of Marilyn's idiosyncrasies.

Compounding Marilyn's situation, Lynn was not an experienced 
fembot owner.  At first it seemed a relief to not have an owner 
always reaching for her Command button.  Soon however Marilyn was 
realizing that there are ways her owner can actually help her 
with judicious use of her remote.  There were parts of Marilyn's 
past history that would best discarded.  And other abilities that 
could benefit by encouragement.  Many of these changes remained 
beyond Marilyn's own power to change.

A couple times Marilyn had been able to coax Lynn into giving her 
helpful commands.  But most of the time Lynn remained oblivious 
to Marilyn's situation.  And with Marilyn herself unschooled in 
how to be her own person and basically making it up as she went 
along, she often couldn't understand or tell Lynn what she most 
needed from her.

This isn't to say that they didn't talk and share their hearts 
with each other, because they often did.  And Lynn always 
appreciated knowing that Marilyn would be waiting for her when 
she arrived home - with dinner prepared and always happy to see 
her.  She was able to get used to Marilyn climbing in bed with 
her at night and walking around nude in the mornings.  But much 
of their time was still spent apart from each other with Lynn 
working during the day and sleeping at night.  And Marilyn, alone 
in the apartment, was surprised to find she still fought a battle 
with boredom despite her relative freedom.

- - -

One night Lynn arrived home very shaken.  She thought she'd seen 
Justin watching the store that day while she worked in a couple 
of the windows.  She had slipped out the back as soon as she 
could get away.  Then she thought a car might have followed her 
part way home.  Lynn was so shaken that Marilyn just held her 
tightly for a very long time.

Lynn was unusually quiet at dinner, and followed Marilyn around 
the apartment when she tidied up afterwards, rather then let her 
get too far away.  Lynn also checked that the door and windows 
were securely bolted at least a half dozen times.  Marilyn was 
puzzled by this because Lynn hadn't given her enough clues to 
fully understand the situation.  It wasn't that Justin didn't 
know exactly where Lynn lived and worked.

That night in bed Lynn suddenly said, "Hold me."

Marilyn complied and tirelessly held Lynn for a long time.

Just when Marilyn thought Lynn was falling asleep, and was about 
to shut down for the night herself, Lynn suddenly kissed her on 
the mouth.

Although surprised, Marilyn quickly responded as her long-unused 
sexual programming quickly loaded and verified that her sexual 
systems were primed and ready.

Lynn always slept in a nightgown.  By the third kiss, Marilyn had 
released her tight hold in Lynn and was stroking her free hand up 
and down the length of Lynn's spine through the thin fabric.  
Although surprised that Lynn had suddenly initiated a more 
intimate relationship after seeming adverse to any such closeness 
until now, Marilyn came with a full complement of sexual 
responses as standard equipment.  

Lynn shivered in Marilyn's arms as the gentle stroking continued. 
 For a long time that was all that happened.  Gentle stroking 
punctuated by occasional sudden kisses.

"I don't know how to do this," Lynn whispered softly.

"Just do with me what you would most enjoy in return," Marilyn 
said quietly back.

Lynn started stroking Marilyn's bare back while Marilyn continued 
her ministrations along Lynn's responsive spine, working low 
enough now to briefly run her hands over Lynn's firm buttocks at 
the end of each stroke.  Lynn shivered even more when touched 
there.

Suddenly Marilyn felt Lynn's hands pulling at the hooks on the 
back of her bra.  In moments Lynn had them loose and Marilyn 
shifted her body enough to let Lynn pull it off her.

Unlike a man, Lynn didn't immediately focus her attention to 
Marilyn's breasts.  Instead she stroked Marilyn's now completely 
bare back awhile longer before finally sliding her hands around 
to Marilyn's stomach to play with her artfully designed naval.

Marilyn's hands followed around to Lynn's own flat stomach before 
Lynn finally moved her hands up to lightly explore Marilyn's 
generous breasts.

Marilyn froze for a moment as Lynn first brushed over Marilyn's 
waiting, sensitive nipples.  Programmed pleasure is every bit as 
real to a self-aware 'bot as the real kind is to humans.  Lynn's 
touch was gentle and loving.  So different from the male touch 
which was the only sort Marilyn had experienced until now.

Marilyn's hands soon found Lynn's own stiff nipples and smaller 
breasts under the thin nightgown. Lynn herself froze at that 
first touch.  Lynn, who always felt her slim breasts were too 
small, somehow wasn't feeling that concern tonight, even compared 
to Marilyn's more sensual figure.  Lynn was just enjoying the 
touch of another loving hand.

As Lynn grew bolder in exploring Marilyn's body through the 
intimacy of touch, Marilyn finally reached down to the hem of 
Lynn's nightgown and pulled it up.  Lynn sat up and put her arms 
up over her head to help it off before returning to her own 
explorations.

Soon there was a gentle licking of necks and ears, many more 
kisses, and gentle fingers sliding between each other's legs to 
explore the softness and moistness to be found there.

The night's explorations didn't go beyond that point, though each 
woman tensed several times as soft orgasms rocked them, before 
falling asleep in each other's arms - still-firm nipples pressed 
tightly against each other creating indescribably pleasant 
sensations.

- - -

The next morning though Lynn acted as if nothing had happened, 
although she wouldn't look Marilyn in the eye or talk in anything 
but monosyllables.  Since Lynn didn't say anything about last 
night, Marilyn did not bring up the subject.

The next evening Lynn seemed back to being like her old, if 
subdued, self.  When they got in bed for the night, Marilyn 
waited for Lynn to initiate their intimacy again.  Marilyn's 
sexual programming reloaded itself in anticipation of use and her 
nipples strained against their confining bra.

However, Lynn stayed religiously to her side of the bed, save for 
one accidental contact she had with Marilyn's out-flung hand.  
Lynn quickly jerked her hand back before Marilyn could respond.

Finally Lynn dropped off to sleep, and Marilyn, with a sigh, 
followed her.

The sex had been wonderful for Marilyn.  Not only had she 
adjusted her programming to allow her full enjoyment of it, but 
unlike most of her interactions with people, responding sexually 
was a relief from the normal burden of reelating with others.  It 
was like being on auto-pilot and didn't require such careful 
thought.  Marilyn would have enjoyed that kind of attention every 
night, but that seemed not likely to happen again for now.

- - -

Their unusual relationship might have continued its curious dance 
unabated into the foreseeable future except that the outside 
world refused to leave them alone.

It was early afternoon on a Sunday and Marilyn was still walking 
around the apartment nude.  Marilyn always removed her bra on 
getting up, and as long as she remained in the apartment there 
was no need to get dressed at any particular time - and a good 
reason not to.

Marilyn realized that Lynn had been eyeing her more these last 
few days.  Lynn was trying not to be noticed, but she had her 
sketch book in hand much of the time now in the mornings, and 
would draw quickly in it each time she and Marilyn crossed paths. 
 Marilyn was pretending not to notice because the one time she 
had looked over at Lynn, Lynn had quickly slammed the book shut 
and shoved it under a pillow.  Marilyn felt she was somehow being 
good for Lynn, and if pretending to not notice Lynn's return to 
the art she so obviously loved would help that, then Marilyn 
would willingly go along with it.

Today Lynn was blatant about it.  Lynn was sitting on the big 
couch in the middle of the living room area directly under the 
skylight.  She was sketching freely as Marilyn moved about 
cleaning up after preparing Lynn's light lunch.  Dusting seemed 
to be a necessary daily task which Marilyn never found boring.  
It was good to be useful.  She also made sure to walk past Lynn 
as often as wouldn't seem obvious.

Suddenly there was a loud banging on the metal-sheathed, followed 
by a loud voice bellowing, "Open up Lynn!  I know you're in 
there!"

Lynn jumped as though she were sitting on a live wire, and looked 
around the spacious loft with her trapped animal look.

"Open up Lynn, or I'll break the fucking door down!"

"It's Justin," Lynn said to Marilyn.  "And when he's in this 
mood..."

By now Marilyn had quite an accurate picture of Justin from all 
of Lynn's comments.

"You need to face him," Marilyn said urgently over Justin's 
renewed banging.

"I can't!" Lynn replied frantically.  "I'm not ready yet."

And Marilyn could see that Lynn wasn't.  Lynn wanted to.  She 
really did.  But she still cowered in fear from the threat of his 
uncontrolled anger.  Exactly the same way Marilyn knew she had 
reacted to men in her past.  Except for this Marilyn they weren't 
real men.  They were just ghosts in her programming that hobbled 
her to this day.

Justin was a bully.  And you can't run from bullies.  Every bully 
has to have hit someone at least once, but that doesn't mean they 
aren't cowards.

As Marilyn came to that understanding, she also knew that Lynn - 
her owner - was in grave and immediate peril.  Marilyn evaluated 
the option of calling for help and waiting for it to arrive while 
barricaded inside, and knew it wasn't a good solution.

Marilyn had to deal with this situation, and she couldn't be 
hobbled by all the garbage those idiots had loaded into her 
systems in an attempt to make her genuine.

With the necessity to protect her owner - and possibly herself -
from harm, that being far more important robotic laws than her 
"Marilyn personality", she finally saw herself being given 
permission to excise her demons once and for all.

Marilyn's thought processes blazed as for the first time she 
realized she had full control over herself.

"I'll take care of it," she said to Lynn as she marched over to 
the heavy metal door.  Drawing the bolt back Marilyn easily 
pulled the heavy door open and planted herself in the doorway.

"May I help you?" she said sweetly to the large, angry man 
standing across from her.

There was a tiny squeak behind her as Lynn fled to her bedroom. 

Justin was stunned into momentary silence.  Whatever he had been 
expecting, it wasn't a diminutive, nude, blonde woman firmly 
blocking his path.

Justin had clearly been drinking - a lot.  And it wasn't helping 
his cognitive abilities.  He was flummoxed.  He floundered around 
for a long time before he could form a coherent sentence.

"Where's Lynn?" he finally demanded.

"She's not available," Marilyn responded back quietly, but 
firmly.

Justin fished around again for another sentence, taking long 
enough to embarrass himself quite well in the process.  Finally 
though a bit of knowledge bubbled up to the surface of his 
inebriated excuse for a brain.

"I heard she took up with one of your kind.  You're her robot 
bitch, aren't you?  I saw that charge on my credit card."

"I prefer 'fembot'," Marilyn replied nonplussed.

Justin's eyes roved around.  It may have been the alcohol, or he 
may have admiring Marilyn's body.  Most likely he was looking for 
her remote so that he could order her around too.  Justin wasn't 
very good with assertive, non-terrified women.

Then he finally made the mental connection that Marilyn really 
was a fembot, and all that implied.

"Can you stop me?" he asked belligerently, giving the impression 
that no door, woman, or 'bot would be any impediment to his 
brutish demands.

Marilyn coolly looked up his towering height.  Even if she'd been 
wearing her heels she would not have been any match for him size-
wise.  Barefoot it was no contest.  This didn't concern her for a 
moment as she quickly evaluated how to handle his simple, impulse 
thinking.  She watched him evaluating her as a possible desert to 
his lust without a trace of fear in her heart.

"No," she replied calmly to his question.  "I cannot stop you 
from entering."

As he smiled at that remark and took a step forward she added, 
"However, I can summon the police to this address faster than you 
can take your next breath.  And will defend both my owner and 
myself against any direct attack until they arrive."

As Marilyn saw the confusion now battling for a place in his 
eyes, she added, "And my memory records alone are sufficient in 
all court proceedings as complete, unbiased evidence to all 
events occurring here."

For a moment he looked at her cunningly.

"Listen, sweetie," he said, hoping his next half step towards her 
wouldn't be noticed.  "All I want to do is talk to Lynn.  I'm 
sure that would be okay, wouldn't it?"

Marilyn knew he was thinking that if he could get close enough to 
her that he could somehow disable her.  Her experiences gave her 
an excellent understanding of this type of man.

"I'm not your sweetie," she said coldly to his face, freezing him 
in mid-step.  "And if you think you can disable me and prevent me 
from reporting this incident you are wrong.  My memory records 
will be transmitted the moment you cross the boundary into this 
room.  Even if you can damage me sufficiently, which isn't likely 
with just your bare hands, that record will already be in the 
hands of the police."

With that, Marilyn leaned forward, put her hands on her hips, and 
glared up into his eyes.

Justin had never met a woman who wasn't afraid of him in the 
least degree, and had no clue how to react.  He shuffled his feet 
from side to side and looked all around.  But each time he looked 
back all he saw was a defiant Marilyn blocking his way.

It took him a couple minutes to realize and accept the obvious - 
that Marilyn was not going to back down from her blockage of the 
doorway.  She wouldn't give way even enough to allow her to shut 
the door in Justin's face.

Justin hemmed and hawed, but Marilyn just stared him down.  His 
shuffling soon became pacing.  His track became longer on each 
cycle.

But it did him no good.  Each time he swung past the door Marilyn 
was still blocking it.

Finally he paced the whole length of the hall.  Once last cycle 
to be sure that Marilyn hadn't moved.  The next time he reached 
the end he just continued on down the stairs.

Marilyn waited until she was sure he was gone before stepping 
back and closing the door, firmly bolting it against any further 
intrusion.

Then she went in search of Lynn.

- - -

"He's gone," Marilyn told Lynn when she found her huddling behind 
her bed in the furthest corner of the bedroom.  "And I don't 
think he'll be back soon."

Hearing that, Lynn threw herself into Marilyn's arms crying in 
relief.  They held each other tightly for the longest time.  Lynn 
seemed not even to notice Marilyn's nudity that she had avoided 
so much before. 

That night they both slept naked in each other's arms, and Lynn 
told Marilyn how she had been ready to come to Marilyn's defense 
the moment she heard the first sign's of an actual struggle.

"I was so scared," Lynn said softly into Marilyn's ear.  "But I 
knew the moment I heard him hit you I was going to come out.  I 
didn't know what I was going to do, but I knew I'd have to do it. 
 And I waited and I waited to hear that first blow.  And then 
suddenly you were here in the room here telling me it was all 
over.  I love you so much."

They clung even tighter together after that for a long time 
before finally breaking apart and trying to return to the 
normalcy of their daily routine for the remainder of the 
afternoon.

- - -

The next day Marilyn took Lynn down to the city courts.  With 
Marilyn's memory record as proof, it was only a formality to get 
a restraining order placed in effect.

Although Justin received official notice of its existence, he 
must not have taken Marilyn's threat seriously.  He showed up 
several days later with a crowbar and tried to batter his way 
inside.

Both women stood inside ready, Lynn with a baseball bat, to 
defend themselves if he broke through.  But the police arrived 
before he managed to do anything more then dent the outside 
metal.  Given that Justin was already on probation for some 
previous offences, this action got him sent away for a good long 
time.  Lynn didn't even have to show up or testify.

- - -

It took a while for Lynn to truly realize and accept that Justin 
was out of her life.  As she did however, she started to bloom.

Soon Lynn was dancing and humming her way around the huge loft 
apartment.  Her smile finally started making regular appearances, 
and was beautiful to see.  And she would often just hug and kiss 
Marilyn when she passed by her.

When Marilyn was finally able to explain to Lynn how she had 
overcome her own demons when facing up to Justin, Lynn took 
Marilyn's remote and commanded that this change be permanent in 
Marilyn.  It was the last command Lynn ever needed to give her.

The sketches that Lynn had been making of Marilyn in motion now 
bloomed into new watercolors, paintings, and sculptures. 

One night Lynn climbed into bed naked herself.  Before Marilyn 
had time to wonder what it signified, she felt Lynn's hands 
around her body unhooking her bra again.

"Show me how to make proper love to you," Lynn said, giving a 
request that Marilyn was most happy to fulfill.

Starting that night, Marilyn and Lynn taught each other the true 
Art of Love.  Marilyn started it by giving Lynn the type of 
loving she would most enjoy in return.  Then Lynn returned the 
favor, although she first had to recover from Marilyn's expert 
attentions.  That was okay.  They knew they had all the time in 
the world.  Marilyn returned the favor back again using what she 
learned from Lynn, and it took off and flew from there.  
Marilyn's knowledge and Lynn's na<ve creativity were the perfect 
match.

- - -

The evening came when Lynn hosted her first art show at a small, 
but prestigious, gallery in the neighborhood.  All the art was of 
Marilyn, except for one misshapen lump by the door titled "My 
Past" that Lynn refused to explain.  Lynn simply called the 
exhibit: "My Friend."

The opening was already a great success when Marilyn suddenly 
made her appearance halfway through the evening.  She came in 
wearing her famous white dress and heels.  She walked directly 
over to Lynn and gave her a big kiss.  The effect on the crowd 
was electric.  But Marilyn knew how to handle a crowd's adulation 
as easily as breathing, and Lynn quickly learned the same from 
her.  After that night, Lynn and Marilyn were always side-by-side 
in public.

The exhibit was so successful much that Lynn was able to quit her 
job to paint and sculpt full-time.  Marilyn never tired of posing 
for her, or loving her afterwards.

After the exhibit opened Lynn's social life shot from zero to 
full on in a seeming moment.  She and Marilyn seemed to be 
invited everywhere.  Because by now they were such obvious 
soulmates to everyone that met them, no one ever questioned their 
relationship.

As Lynn said Marilyn one time after they returned from yet 
another wonderful party, "Thanks for saving me from Justin and 
myself.  I don't know what would have ever happened to me without 
you."

"Thanks for saving me," Marilyn replied.  "I know exactly where I 
would still be without you."

As Marilyn felt her tear ducts go active again at the emotion of 
the moment she heard Lynn ask her one more question.

"With you and my art, I know my life is now complete.  But is 
yours?"

Marilyn thought, then replied, "My life became complete when I 
was able to find a happy ending for this woman whose body and 
memories were thrust upon me.  Her life was often an unhappy one. 
 I hope that my own existence has somehow changed that for her 
from wherever she is now watching.  And only with you did that 
finally became possible."

<end>

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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