Vignettes from a Corporate Family - Revision history

Spaz: /* Chapter 32 - The Miner's Wife - Part 2: A wedding, and A Malfunction */

2026-04-10T03:01:58Z

Chapter 32 - The Miner's Wife - Part 2: A wedding, and A Malfunction

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Spaz: /* Chapter 24 - Help Me, Maryanne! */

2026-04-10T03:00:35Z

Chapter 24 - Help Me, Maryanne!

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Spaz: /* Chapter 22 - Mother, Now Wife */

2026-04-03T00:44:15Z

Chapter 22 - Mother, Now Wife

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Spaz: /* Chapter 22 - Mother, Now Wife */

2026-03-27T02:26:19Z

Chapter 22 - Mother, Now Wife

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:26, 27 March 2026
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	It felt so perfect now...		It felt so perfect now...

			==Chapter 23 - Mother, Now Wife (Flipside)==
			I walked slowly into the slowport, carefully checking to make sure I am properly attired and nice looking one more time as my feet go on the paving one step at a time towards the doors into the slowport. My straw hat has a few small fake flowers tied into it with a ribbon, my sundress loose and comfy in all the right places, yet also tenting in my chest as it fits well everywhere else but up there with my pendulous breasts, even though I am wearing proper support undergear. Freshly laundered sky blue cotton thigh-high stockings on my legs.

			I blink slowly. He prefers it when I wear less makeup, says I look so much prettier. Just a touch of foundation and a light brush of eyeliner to go with a slight touch of warm pink lipstick. Otherwise I am au naturale in the facial section.

			I brush up against one of the railings, looking out at the tarmac for the arrival of his slowliner back from Berlin. It has been a long time, and I ache for his company again, to feel him against me, to touch each other in forbidden ways and manners in the quiet away from other disdainful eyes.

			I am Elsa Risseau, and I am the lovely wife of a lovely salesman...
			------------------------------------------------------
			My memories are hazy, and they begin with waking up next to him in the quiet of the morning. There are distant blurs... why are there tear stains on my face? He went somewhere for a long time... where did he go?

			I try to remember, and the world spins a little. No, better to just let it go. The here and now with him is what makes me who I am, not some distant past.

			He is not trained as a craftsman, but he has grown to love tinkering, turning our upper loft into a small creator's heaven - books on mechanics and robotics on his tables, some strange new gadget or workpiece. When he is home, the scent of burnt sugar fills the loft constantly as the mass printer churns out some strange new design. I have sat there for hours in between housework and cooking for his nutrition, just watching him work.

			I do not understand much, if any, of what he does even when I ask about it, yet to sit there as he toys with stuff is almost religious as an experience. I regularly feel bits of me floating away, just my consciousness and the view of him making yet another new and possibly useful item, unable to move or do anything else.
			--------------------------------------------------------
			Edgar is no stud horse, and neither am I some sex goddess, but in each other we find much satisfaction, exploring each other's bodies. We can sit and stare at each other for a while, then suddenly crash together like the ocean waves, our imperfect bodies finding a joy and thrill in embracing each other's forms. I really should lose some weight, I am slightly heavy and getting pudgy. Edgar is lanky and clearly in need of extra food that he refuses from me. But Edgar refuses to let me lose the inches I should be losing, he says I am the perfect wife as I am right now.

			That is what I want to be for him. Perfect...
			-------------------------------------------------------
			I grab a small complimentary coffee from the visitors' counter. It is far from perfect - dusty, murky black, one sugar too many. I sip it and watch the sky. Sometimes the slowliner pulls in an hour or two early. sometimes it comes in three late. But for something that takes days to cross the Atlantic, it seems an acceptable delay to bear.

			The counter offers information on the wonders of Little Sanctuary, my hometown, as well as Minnesota at large. It also offers complimentary recharging pods for androids. I watch as a woman enters the pod area and lies down for a recharge on one of the curvy little things, the cover sealing to allow for privacy as she sips free electricity while she waits.

			I blink, wondering how someone could be content with manufactured perfection like that. In my human imperfection, Edgar sees true beauty and makes me feel warm and loved inside. He embraces, and I am truly loved...
			-----------------------------------------------------
			It is now five hours after the slowliner was supposed to have arrived, tailwinds slowing the slowliner down. This is probably the last time the timing of his arrival can possibly be delayed, as he is almost home. But the wait has become a little taxing. My spirit still wants to sit in the chair and wait for him to touch down, to rush to hug him as he ascends from the purgatory of immigration checks and baggage collection in the basement of the terminal.

			A concierge looks concerned with my tiredness. I look at his polite offer to get some rest elsewhere, but I refuse, merely asking him for some of that free cake in the glass-fronted display. He goes away and brings me a small plate with a morsel of cream cake, a small raspberry staining its top with a touch of red. It is delicious, but I daren't impose on him to bring me more, and I daren't splurge on the uppriced small foods surrounding me.
			--------------------------------------------------
			There is just two more hours left before Edgar's slowliner touches down and spills its cargoload of humanity. They have travelled days to get here to Minnesota from Europa. Edgar has travelled that long. He will enjoy my company as he comes into the lobby, we shall go home to our small but comfy house. I will make him some thing small and simple but tasty, as the slowliner will have plied him for days with the best cooking one can find in the sky. The best cooking, but not mine.

			My eyes are heavy for some reason. I shake my head a little. I must be here for him. I focus on the things immediately around me to ward off the gradually settling exhaustion. On memories I do have with him. The slow breathing and love that makes my bosom heave. The mundane times we sit together for hours in each other's company, doing nothing of real value. The blurred green text on black, motes travelling in my eyes randomly but making no sense to my tiny mind.

			I am Elsa Risseau... I am... the... perfect... wife....I... will... wait for... wait... for... forrr....
			Code: Select all

			Unit Identifier: Elsa Risseau
			Technical Identifier: Arendtcore Analisse Lovemachine

			Error: Battery reserves at 5%
			Error: Shutting down to preserve memory core on remaining power. Please recharge.
			INFO: broadcasting low-drain high-range distress signal until power is at 2% in 24 hours....
			----------------------------------------------------------------
			The concierge stared at the perfect android wife slumped on the viewing lounger, eyes wide open as she stared blankly at the sky. An Original-era model, someone's lucky charm and inheritance, perhaps. She had refused his offer to help her to one of the free recharging pods, but she had refused. The rules were clear on not assisting passengers who weren't in distress or need, so he had moved on an hour earlier.

			He carefully lifted her limp heft onto a trolley. She was in need now, her power reserves clearly drained by waiting for a delayed slowliner. Possibly the one from Berlin, five hours late. He carefully wheeled the loyal android into the pod area, laying her down onto an empty pod, before quickly using a scanner to locate her built-in identity tagging... Elsa Risseau... what a lovely name.

			He scribbled it into his smartpad as an android awaiting a claim back. The owner would need to produce his passport to take her back after she had had at least a decent amount of recharging down. The slowport had services to announce the deposit of such drained androids, and they would notice her absence and her name on the list after touchdown.

			The concierge sighed deeply. These plastic people in these pods were so pristine and straightforward in their care for their masters, he envied their singularity of purpose, even if it got them into trouble ever so often, like in the lobby of this slowport. He closed his eyes and murmured a small prayer to his god to reunite them soon with the latter, then walked out of the pod area to see to other customers...

	==Chapter 22 - Mother, Now Wife==		==Chapter 22 - Mother, Now Wife==

Spaz: /* == */

2026-03-27T02:25:43Z

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Spaz: /* Chapter 16 - Remember Massachusetts? */

2026-03-27T02:25:21Z

Chapter 16 - Remember Massachusetts?

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Spaz: /* Chapter 15- That kind of night */

2026-03-20T22:24:01Z

Chapter 15- That kind of night

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:24, 20 March 2026
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	Paul whined. "No... one Faymee is quite enough. I don't need a world where I can't believe anything I see ever again..." And with that, he fell asleep right there, face flat against the marble surface of the table.		Paul whined. "No... one Faymee is quite enough. I don't need a world where I can't believe anything I see ever again..." And with that, he fell asleep right there, face flat against the marble surface of the table.

			==Chapter 16 - Remember Massachusetts?==
			Lishu Hua had heard rumors, of course. Here and there... She wasn't really sure they had any substance. Still, she had to be sure, and she did have the ear of the Chairman Founder, or at least the man helping him out in their absence. And so she asked... "Can I do an interview with Julia Manners?"

			Paul North and Bellamy Arendt thought nothing of it. "If Marcus is amenable, and Julia has the time and the willingness, we can lend you the testing room for an interview." Marcus had agreed to it, and so had Julia.

			And so it was that Julia sat down with Lishu in the inner sanctum of the Arendtcore Minnesota office complex, as high in the sky as anything in Minnesota could climb without being a rat race maze or a tourist attraction. Julia was dressed in a black dress meant for office attendances - not too flashy, but not so lazy and simple either.

			Lishu noted this down for some reason, before hitting the record button on her recorder. "Lishu here, today I have the privilege of interviewing Julie Manners, the wife of our chief artist in residence, Marcus Manners. Thank you for coming today, Julie. it's nice that you could come."

			Julie smiled and nodded at Lishu. "Anything for our up-and-coming bright spark. I've some good things about you from Paul and my honey... You'll do well in this company." Her smile widened as she noted this.

			Lishu looked away to one side for a moment, trying to see Paul and Bellamy behind the one-way mirror that looked into the testing room. She couldn't... She couldn't tell how they would react to her test until she went out of this room and into that watching booth... or they tapped the tannoy and alerted her in an emergency... or if they were very upset.

			Lishu took a deep breath. This was for the good of both the company and the township that had slowly grown up all around the offices themselves. She had to do it, she told herself... "So... you're the mother in a family of three... Erm... can you tell me a few facts about them? Like their ages?"

			Julie grinned. "Certainly, Ms Lishu. My hubby, Marcus, is turning 100 this year. That premium rejuvenation they started him on all those years ago at the expense of the company... a very great expense, I should point out... is really doing wonders at keeping him young. Then there's me, I just celebrated my 60th birthday. Nothing fancy, hubs and I just had a tipple and a good meal at the Spanish Restaurant in District 33... you should try their tapas... and then there's my little boy, Elliot, you've seen him sometimes in these offices, he just turned 12..."

			Lishu took a deep breath and fished in her folio, before handing Julie a sheet of paper. "Julie," she asked with a little trepidation, "could I ask you to read these facts to me?"

			Julie nodded and took the paper... "Okay, apparently, this paper says my hubs is 100 years old this year... and I'm 25 years old, and Elliot is actually 62 years old." She paused... then looked up and nodded. "That is correct."

			Lishu rubbed her forehead with her fingers. Oh no. "But you just said your family's ages were 100, 60, and 12. Now you said this is correct. They can't both be correct."

			Julie nodded again. "Those facts are correct. These facts are correct."

			Lishu sighed and raised a hand as if to pause Julie. "Okay, look, let's move on to something else I wanted to check... " She fished in her portfolio again. "I heard that Marcus adopted Elliot after he went through a pretty bad accident. it was life threatening and he almost died in it, didn't he?"

			Lishu winced as the tannoy crackled to life in the room. It was Paul. "Lishu... I'm not exactly sure where you're going with this, but I don't like it."

			Lishu looked over at the silvered glass partition. She considered this for a moment, then asked "Are you telling me not to go on with this interview?"

			Paul didn't respond for a while... Finally, he did. "No, you may continue, but I'm just monitoring Julie's vitals just in case."

			Lishu nodded and gave a thumbs up. She turned back to look at Julie... "Well... that was a terrible accident wasn't it?"

			Julie frowned at the mention of the accident... "By the time the Alaskan Snow Express came in to save them, his father had died and he was suffering from severe frostbite in multiple parts. He almost died himself. Marcus took pity on him as the son of a family and corporate friend and adopted him while he was recovering. He's gotten better since, but he still has a little clumsiness and his sentences are very short usually. Brain damage will do that for you... "

			Lishu fished out another document and handed it to Julie. "According to this affidavit by the rescuer, Elliot suffered extensive full-body frost damage and was just dipping into having absolutely no power left. Severe hardware and software damage nearly amounting to irrecoverable and worth only scrapping, even. God knows what happened in these offices to resurrect him."

			Julie blinked. "Apparently Seamus discovered that the presence of individuals important to him was a sort of keep-alive signal and put us to work keeping his attention half the day. and then some."

			Lishu sighed. "Okay, first you tell me your son is a frostbite victim with severe brain damage, then we have these papers that say he was a robot that almost turned completely scrap but for a bunch of inexplicable occurences. Which is it?"

			Julie repeated the same line: "Those facts are true. These facts are true."

			Lishu rapped her knuckles on the interview table and leaned in menacingly. "That can't be right. These facts contradict each other."

			Julie said the exact same thing. "Those facts are true. These facts are true..." She paused, looked down at her lap for her while as her hands gripped tightly at thin air. "The truth is what serves the welfare of the community and that of my family."

			Lishu snapped. "BULLSHIT. One of these facts is not true, and the other is true. You can't have them both be true when they don't fit together.Now which is it?"

			Julie started twitching. "Well... that is... Those facts are.... true... These facts are... true.... which fact serves... wel...welfare of ... my family better... community welfare..." Her eyes rolled up gradually as she attempted to answer Lishu in a proper manner. "Ms Lish.lishu.... I know this fact is real to me... and those f.facts are real to me.... Error: attempting to reconcile. Fact A is true. Fact B is true. Facts A and B cannot be simultaneously true. Facts A and B are both true to me... Logical disruption detected...." She slid back in her seat, eyes wide open. "The truth is what serves the w.welfare of my- family.... and community... But Facts A and B cannot-"

			There was a faint crackle from her belly. "Warning: Overvoltage detected. Please check system before restarting." Julie reported in a blank voice, a look of distress on her face as her head fell backwards. "Database error. Data entities not coherent. Please repair. Please repair." She repeated this in a gradually lowering register before clicking loudly and going silent.

			The tannoy crackled. "Lishu. My office. NOW." Paul did not sound happy.

			Paul wasn't happy. He paced the space behind his table, Bellamy standing at attention in one corner of the office... Paul did this repeatedly before he finally spoke up. "Lishu... what was the point of that interview? I'm now going to have to fix up Julie and wind her back to the backup I did before this interview."

			Lishu Hua took a deep breath, then sighed. "Sir... I was trying to check on something I suspected... and it is as I feared, her AI is capable of lying, somewhat."

			Paul shrugged on hearing this. "It's not lying, it's working with two different sets of facts on the same matter. Bellamy?"

			Bellamy nodded. "I did program her to be capable of doing that to some extent. But the way you forced her to reconcile them into one whole... that wasn't good for her programming."

			Lishu yelled "THAT. IS. LYING. We have a LYING AI. Do you even REALISE what you just did? Did you not remember why Massachusetts is a fucking GIANT CRATER in the middle of our country?"

			Bellamy raised a finger to protest. "Just the one unit, We do have safeguards, Miss Hua. We have protocols that can override and compel them to tell the truth without causing this kind of damage, just in case. And they do prioritise lying only if it benefits our company, our town, and her family. And... and we don't allow her to make any irreversible decisions if they have significant consequences without Marcus in the loop..."

			Lishu wasn't calm. "And I am prioritising our company. This shit could open us up to legal trouble. And god forbid we have a repeat of the Massachusetts antimatter explosion."

			Paul finally snapped. "ENOUGH. Lishu... I thought you were going to be a great addition to our brotherhood, but this isn't the first time you've done something to cause strife and injury in here." He frowned, then reached a palm out. "I didn't want to do this but... I'm revoking your access to this sanctum. I'm not firing you - I value your contrarian viewpoints and the way you can look at things from unusual angles... - but I'm afraid I can't exactly have a fellowship that has you as a member."

			Lishu looked at the palm... then fished in her folio and carefully placed the pass Paul had given to her as a sign of trust and of of great things she would accomplish. "If it's just this one unit, I suppose it doesn't really matter as long as you keep her from deciding anything that could ruin all of us... but Mr North... please be careful. Even if you have a protocol to 'force the truth', how can we really tell that it works?"

			Lishu bowed and walked out of the office, presumably to ride back down to the offices one last time from the sanctum, the loud click of her heels on the concrete fading away into the bell of the lift doors being opened up.

			Paul rubbed his forehead. "And just like that, I have to continue hunting for successors. not that I ever stopped even with her in the loop. Bellamy... can you check that everything you coded to enable Julie to lie except under protocol is working properly? And can we reinforce her logic system to prevent a recurrence?"

			Bellamy considered this thoughtfully. "She did have a point... and frankly I always thought were were going to be at loggerheads on something of great important sooner or later. She did something you would have done as Seamus."

			Paul slammed his hands on the table. "I am NOT Seamus. That psychopath is still around, but I really, really want to keep him from ruining this company. There's no room anymore for his antics." He sat down... then buried his face in his hands. "We're not cowboys anymore. We're leading six million people from every which where, almost all of whom weren't with us when we started this endeavour... I can't risk their lives on anything silly now."

			Bellamy walked over and squatted next to Paul. "I don't know... they all had a vote of faith in you the moment they crossed any one of those gates to settle down here and be part of the family... I think the key thing here is that you be honest with them on how something will affect them. And hey, it never hurts to lie ever so often. White lies. Having more than one truth. Just as long as you remember what the point of us four sitting down and buying that first few hundred acres of land was for."

			Bellamy stood up and tapped a finger on the desk. "Now, are you going to come help me fix Julie? I daresay my technical chops have grown a lot, but I'd rather have my brother by my side gunning it and looking over the things I'm not an expert in. Not this fucking worrywart whinging in his chair."

			Paul looked up and nodded, "I suppose she IS my responsibility, as a daughter of mine..." He got up and cracked his knuckles, smiling faintly as he remembered how much of a bad habit Seamus had made of it before he tried to run from being Seamus and become Paul... "Let's see what the damage is, I'm sure the overvoltage regulators kicked in before any serious damage..." He said as he fished out his old Fixit-microbar.

	-----		-----

Spaz: /* Chapter 10 - Faymee goes to town on ASFR fetishplay, a new Four Brothers franchisee */

2026-03-20T22:22:12Z

Chapter 10 - Faymee goes to town on ASFR fetishplay, a new Four Brothers franchisee

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Spaz: /* Chapter 5 - The good Director And The Doctor of Unit 3 */

2026-03-20T22:18:58Z

Chapter 5 - The good Director And The Doctor of Unit 3

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Spaz at 02:27, 13 March 2026

2026-03-13T02:27:04Z

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