| Generated by Google Flow text-to-video AI software, powered by Veo 3.1 |
Renata slides most of the outfits to one side of the rack. She slides some
of them back the other way before taking a smaller fraction, and trying
again. She’s not seeing anything that would fit her, not stylistically, that
is. She looks over at Demo. “I’m more of a sexy, but still professional,
business casual, or a black catsuit and a gun, kind of gal. This stuff just
isn’t me.”
“It doesn’t have to be you,” Demo explains. “You just have to look the part
for tonight. Where we’re going, we’re not trying to stand out.” She glides
over and picks up a sparkly silver dress, holding it up against Renata’s
body. “This is what everyone else will be wearing.”
“Why do you even have all these costumes? Do you go to a lot of fancy
parties?”
Demo smiles. “The set diagram of the wealthiest among us, and the most
crooked, is practically a single circle. They care a great deal about
appearances, which is why...” She tests another dress, but decides against
it, “...they always hold these grand, expensive parties.”
“Why do we have to infiltrate this party at all?” Renata questions. “Can’t
we just wait until it’s over? Talk to him in the morning?”
“Time is of the essence,” Demo reminds her. “Your mother could be searching
for you from outside the network, like a god. And The Provider prefers to
step away to do business during his events. He doesn’t want to seem
desperate by spending all of his time in the spotlight.” She tests another
dress. “This one.”
Renata accepts the outfit with a sigh. “The Provider,” she echoes. “That’s
such a dumb name. Is he like me...or like you?”
“We’re not allowed to talk about it, so I don’t know. If he’s a visitor,”
Demo continues as she’s taking it upon herself to remove Renata’s clothing,
starting with her tank top, “he’s a very old one. I’ve been here nearly
since it opened, and he was already well-established in canon.” She tries to
unbutton Renata’s shorts.
Renata pulls away. “That’s okay, I can dress myself.” She finishes changing
her clothes. She then steps over to look at her reflection. The image is
corrupted by dust and mirror rot, but she gets the idea. She’s wearing a
floor-length emerald dress made of satin. It’s showing a meaningful amount
of cleavage, which is fairly typical of her, but there’s also a slit
along her left leg, which is not so typical. She looks quite pretty, and she
has to admit as much, but it feels awkward just the same. Still, Demo is
right. This is part of the job. Had she made it past one day in the program,
her training would have prepared her to be a chameleon anywhere, rather than
just a shadow in the shadows. It’s too late for that training now, though.
She’s in the deep end.
“Whoa,” Quidel says as he’s staring at her from the top of the ladder.
Reneta looks back at him via the mirror. “Are you allowed to be attracted to
a synthetic person? That is, is it socially acceptable?”
Quidel finishes climbing up to the loft, and approaches her. “Absolutely.
That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you. You may not be human, but you’re
still a person.”
Demo starts to unbutton her own shirt before shifting gears to untying her
boots. “You’ll see once you’re on the outside. You will not have a hard time
finding friends and mates, if that’s what you’re interested in.”
Lycander is walking up the ladder now, paying close attention to the rungs
as he’s talking. “Okay. The car is all filled up with the odorized water
that we’re supposed to pretend is petrol.” He finally looks up. “Whoa.”
“That’s what I said,” Quidel jokingly complained. “Get your own
interjection of intemperate awe.”
“Right,” Lycander says. He checks his watch. “If we were to leave now, we
would be on time.”
“Then we’ll leave in half an hour,” Demo decides.
The four of them continue to get ready, putting on makeup, and adjusting
their snazzy formalwear. Exactly 29 minutes later, they’re all in the car,
thankfully with the top up to block all the sand that they’re about to kick
up. “Check the glovebox,” Demo suggests to Renata.
Renata opens it to see a little gun holstered in a garter belt. “It’s cute.”
“My good one, which fits a larger gun, broke. That’s only my backup, so
don’t fire too many shots, or you’ll run out.”
“This is for me?” Renata presses.
“Of course. If I die, I wake up in one of my safehouse eggs. If
you die, we have no idea what happens to your memory. The answer is
usually, don’t think about it, but right now, I would say that you’re
a more valuable asset than even that weird techy thing in the back.” She
starts the drive.
“Thank you, that’s very kind of you.” Renata lifts her leg to wrap the
holster around it. The slit on the side opens pretty wide. She can feel
Quidel’s gaze. She looks back at him with a smile. “Stay on mission,
soldier.”
“Good point,” he says. “Lycander, I should be on car duty with the device.
You go in with them instead.”
“The assignments have been set, Mr. Jespersen. Figure it out,” Lycander
replies without any hesitation or self-doubt.
They drive across the desert, and pull up to the lavish mansion. It is hard
to miss out here in the middle of nowhere. The valet tries to take the keys,
but Lycander takes them from Demo instead, insisting that he’ll find his own
parking space. They don’t really like to do that, but they’re programmed to
be accommodating. He drives off while the other three walk up the steps, and
into the lights and sounds. They mingle for a little bit before Demo spots
the man that they’re here to see, inconspicuously pointing him out to the
other two across the room.
Renata takes a deep breath and tunnels her vision onto his face. She was
assigned to make first contact, so she must remember to not be pushy, or try
to get down to business right away.
As she’s walking towards him, he looks up and notices her. “Ah, Miss
Granger. How lovely of you to join us.”
He knows her already? “Mister Provider,” she says with a polite nod, as
instructed.
“I believe you two have met?” He claims with a smirk as he’s helping the
woman he was talking to turn around.
It’s Libera. Maybe they should have arrived on time.
