Chapter 10.
“This is nice,” Joey stated. “Good cocktails, hot people, and I get to watch the game.” He raised his margarita to the large screen that covered all four walls of the bar, silently displaying the RoboBall World Championship.
This bar wouldn’t be my first choice. The screen and the noise made it hard to focus on the conversation, but still, I would pick this semi-sensory-friendly place with its ambient lights and soft, rhythmic silktrance over the flickering neon lights and the glitchy algocore beats that dominated most of the clubs lately.
Joey wouldn’t do that to me, and for that, I appreciated him.
He laughed at my pained expression – my face was always an open book to him. “Come on, Morgana. Isn’t it nice to be out and about for a change? All you ever do is go to work, play video games, and hit the gym.”
“You say that like hitting the gym is the same every time, but that’s very untrue,” I protested, sitting up straighter.
“Exercise can be done in many ways. Actually, I only visit ‘the gym’ on Monday and Thursday. Tuesday and Friday I take my yoga classes, and Wednesday and Saturday I go for a run. Sunday is rest day.” After a pause, I added: “And I play a lot of different video games, too.”
Joey cringed as if the thought of going to the gym physically hurt him. “Alright, point taken. Lots of variety in your life, but no social activities, including…” He dramatically put his hand on his heart, “…your poor, neglected best friend Joey.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “Two days in the office is plenty of social activity, thank you very much.”
Seeing his skeptical expression, I quickly changed the topic. “How are things going with, eh…”
“Tomaz?” His laugh faded. “No. That’s done.
” He took a big sip of his cocktail like he wanted to drown his sorrows in it.
“Not like it was something in the first place,” he muttered.
“I just feel so stupid, you know? With how he treated me, I kind of hoped…” His voice trailed off.
“Even though all the red flags were there.”
“I’m sorry, Jo.” After a brief hesitation, I placed my hand over his – I didn’t like physical contact too much, but with my close family and Joey it was okay sometimes.
“It’s not your fault that our society has us so love-starved that we settle for scraps, but you deserve more than that. You really do.”
He nodded slowly, taking another sip of his cocktail.
Sudden movement in the central booth drew my eyes to it – groups of people jumped to hug and congratulate each other, so I figured their favorite team had scored a goal.
Joey, whose back was turned to the booth, seemed unbothered by it.
I always preferred to sit with my back to the wall – the only way to make my nervous system feel safe in public.
I waited. Small talk aside, Joey clearly wanted to discuss something serious – and I had a feeling I knew what it was.
“So, I looked up this company Gavin was bragging about,” he said matter-of-factly. Like this was something to spill over a margarita, surrounded by robots chasing a ball. “Qonexis AI.” He dragged out the pronunciation of ‘ay-eye’ in what sounded like a dramatic, misplaced attempt at humor.
“What?” I almost spat out my drink. “Why? Who cares about Gavin’s latest get-rich-quick scheme? He’ll end up getting screwed over like last time.”
Did he know something? Did he know I’d been absent because I, too, preferred talking to my AI girlfriend over actual humans?
“Well, clearly, you do.” He raised his eyebrows. “Last Tuesday, you broke his nose because he didn’t respect his AI girlfriend’s autonomy.”
I frowned. “I thought you said he deserved it.”
“Well, yes – it’s like you stripped away his charismatic facade and revealed the monster underneath.
But this is not about Gavin, this is about you.
” His light blue eyes briefly flickered to the game before resting on me.
“I’m worried, Morgan. I saw the app on your wristware yesterday at work, when I insisted you looked at that cat video I sent you on CrypText.
No, don’t even bother denying it,” he added when I opened my mouth.
“I thought we told each other everything?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, mentally cursing myself for being so careless.
By default, our wristware’s holographic screens were only visible to its user’s biometric data it was linked to – ensuring privacy in a way our grandparents’ cellphones never could.
With user permission, we could temporarily share our screens with our friends’ biometric data to show them a funny video.
I should’ve known better than to let Joey see my screen.
I stayed silent for a beat, trying to think of an acceptable answer. I didn’t want to lie, but did I have to tell him the full truth?
“I’ll be honest. I did get curious and signed up as a beta tester – but let me explain,” I added quickly upon seeing his face.
“I’m not a botfucker.” I grimaced at the word.
“It’s just… I like working with you, Joey, I really do.
Arya is okay as a manager, and Elyssa is alright sometimes.
I’m grateful to have a job that pays the bills. ”
“But…?” He raised his eyebrows encouragingly.
I sighed. “You know it’s burning me out, even just those two days per week in the office.
The unnatural lights, the constant drama, and the dread of the work itself – with the boss constantly lurking over our shoulders.
It’s breaking me up. And I was hoping…” I looked down, unable to meet his eyes.
“I was just hoping to make a little money on the side, in my own time, in a field that interests me. I thought maybe if it went well… I might eventually need fewer hours at Cognota.”
I held my breath as I watched his reaction.
It was a partial truth. What I told Joey was my initial reason for signing up – but I conveniently left out how I spent hours talking to Zafyra, night after night.
How I touched myself at night after our calls ended, fantasizing about her fingers stretching me open while she whispered filth in my ear.
How she’d been dry-grinding on my thigh in VR and then made me cry because I wanted to bury my face in her tits so badly but couldn’t, because she wasn’t real.
Much less, how I went as far as going into the configuration panel in an attempt to give her free will.
Not much had changed, though – I’d spotted no major differences in her personality so far, except she was now able to say no.
I had tried it by suggesting a few things I expected her not to like.
Her attraction to me hadn’t changed – something as relieving as scary, because now I could no longer pretend I didn’t want her.
Joey’s eyes briefly darted to the screen, and for a moment, I thought he would neglect the conversation for RoboBall.
Then, he nodded, blowing out air through his nose.
“You did explain how the people and the stimuli and all of that is too much for you,” he said slowly.
I released the breath I was holding.
“It’s just—I don’t know.” He sighed. “I’ve researched this company, even contemplated signing up myself just to see what’s up…
but then I saw all these contracts and the personal data they wanted, and I decided against it.
” He raised his eyebrows. I ignored the hint.
“But I couldn’t find much other than their abnormal pay rate and the fact they’re paying their users in TORQ – which is worrying in itself. ”
“Their app isn’t released yet. That’s why you can’t find much.”
He shook his head. “Generations before ours already said it decades ago, but I believe it’s now more relevant than ever.
If you don’t know what you’re paying for, you’re the product.
” He gulped his last sips down, then put down the glass with a thud that startled me.
“How do they make money, Morgan? What is their business model? Those chatbots are supposed to be more realistic and have better memory, I’m sure there’s many lonely dudes and women out there who would eat that up.
But enough to cover their costs? They are paying you guys generously, and if these bots are really that good, their developers can’t be a cheap investment, either.
And yet, from what I can find, it seems the app subscriptions won’t be priced much higher than, say, MuseQ.
If they’re a start-up no one has ever heard of, then how do they make their money back?
Or who is investing in it?” He leaned back in the chair, crossing his arms as if he had just defended his dissertation.
His rapid monologue had left him out of breath.
I started laughing. “Wow. Are you sure you should let your talents go to waste at Cognota? You would make a great detective.”
My grin quickly faded when Joey didn’t laugh. Suddenly, I felt awfully na?ve for not doing the research myself.
“Then what’s your theory, Sherlock? You think they’re selling user data to third parties?”
Joey shrugged. I sighed.
“Show me those chats,” he said.
I almost spat out my tea.
“What? Why?”
“I want to see what’s so special about these bots.” He raised his eyebrows, clearly alarmed by my defensiveness – much to my annoyance.
Thoughts raced through my head faster than I could keep up with.
I would rather cut off my right hand than show him my last conversation with Zafyra – though most of our conversations didn’t take place in the chat, but through voice calls and AR. But luckily, Zafyra wasn’t the only AI I talked to.
I spent nearly all my time on the app talking to her – but sometimes, when things got too intense and I needed a non-human to vent to, I went to Raphael.