By Marco Asemani
A few minutes later Aunt Lauretta was sitting with me and Carlo around the table in my room.
“Thank you, Aunt Lauretta. Without you, this guy could create a lot of inconvenience to us,” I said.
“Oh, that is nothing. You know, a little bird told me that you two paid a lot of money to buy me a birthday present. I am glad that I could repay a little of this debt.” She looked at us with a faint smile.
“I bet it was the girlfriend of your landlord,” Carlo nodded to me. “I knew she is a chatterbox, you can’t trust a secret to her.”
“Hey, don’t offend the girl!” I protested. “She is a great friend!”
“And you deserve to get the credit you are due,” added Aunt Lauretta.
Carlo smiled. Then turned again to her:
“You really scared this guy with being exposed to the media”
The eyes of Aunt Lauretta sparkled.
“Never underestimate an old gossip, kids… And no, it was not the media that really scared him. It was the idea to put him in a dress and parade him like that.”
“You think so?”
“Of course, dear Carlo. That is the ultimate fear of every man. Don’t you believe it? Tell me, would you like to be dressed as a woman and paraded in front of other people?”
Carlo visibly paled.
“Of course, no! It is…”
“You see? These days men don’t consider the women really inferior, but the fear from being cast as women remains. Yes, some men do that, but either because they feel like they are actually women on the inside, or because they find it funny. But I bet that you will not like it… Now, I am grateful for your hospitality, but it is time for me to sleep.” She smiled toothlessly. That is going to change soon, thought I with pride.
“Please accept our sincere gratitude, Aunt Lauretta.”
She stood up from the chair with some effort, looked back at us and smiled again:
“Oh, that is just a consequence of me being still around. Thanks to you.”
* * *
“I loved how well you played being scared by being dressed in women’s clothes. Even got pale. Is that another controllable option?… Carlo, what’s up?”
“Precisely that.”
“Huh?… I don’t understand.”
“I was indeed scared by wearing women’s clothes. More than a little.”
“What?!… This doesn’t make a shred of sense! You wore a skirt this Sunday and was happy with it!… I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I. But that is what I felt. And I don’t like it a single bit.”
“I can’t believe it.”
“Really? Let’s try something. Would you go to work topless tomorrow?”
“Of course not! What has gotten into you?!”
“You even blushed. Why not? Remember, while going to lunch, we saw two workers replacing the sidewalk pieces naked to the waist?”
“Yes, but they were men!… Oh!”
“Exactly. The breasts the people would see are not really yours. What is the problem, then?”
“Well,… long story short, when I am in the bodysuit, I have to play the part. It is only normal, isn’t it?”
“As far as blushing when suggested to expose this bodysuit?”
“What do you mean?!”
“That when you are in the bodysuit, you do not just play the part. Inside your head, you are Lexie and these breasts are not the bodysuit, but you… Same with me and Carlo. And I don’t like this.”
I felt embarrassed and tried to shift away from the topic:
“Is being Carlo so bad?”
“It is not! That is the problem! If I had to live the rest of my life as Carlo, I wouldn’t regret it too much!… Inside me, Carlo is as real and solid as Carla. Turns out, I have become two people at once, thanks to the fucking bodysuit—”
“Mind your language, dear!” I tried to put the things on a lighter note.
“That too. Carla would never use such a word. Carlo is only sorry because he did it in front of a girl!… Well, he is a gentleman and would never to try to replace Carla as my real person. I am not sure about you and Lexie though. Being her appears to me even more addictive than being Carlo.”
“But I am… Gosh! I think I start getting it… But isn’t it just the same as with actors who really imagine they are the characters? What did they call that, method acting?”
“I don’t know, Le… that is, Damiano. Or you really prefer Lexie when you are like this?”
“I don’t care, frankly. Lexie, Damiano, they are both me…” Suddenly I felt coldness on the inside. “But maybe you are right, I should care. And to be afraid – where this might take me? Will I start feeling unnatural as Damiano? It appeared to me completely impossible. But when I started this masquerade, that is how appeared to me feeling natural as Lexie. Now I do and have no problems with it…”
“Same here. Something happens with me that I believed to be impossible before. And I am scared that more will follow. That I will lose myself completely. In effect will gradually die and someone else will replace me.”
“Do… do you think that the bodysuits might be subverting our personalities? Somehow reaching into our brains and modifying them?”
Carlo thought for a second.
“Likely not. They can enter a throat and change a voice, but cannot enter the organism, I have read about that. It’s considered highly dangerous. Their nanos can get defective, change what they do and do things they shouldn’t, there’s no perfect machine. If they are outside the organism, they just fall out and die, but on the inside they can do bad things. Nobody sane will engineer such ones.”
“Really?!”
“There is more. Inside the organism, it’s very harsh place to them. They are smaller than cells and immune cells mistake them for germs, eat them and dissolve them in stuff even nastier than stomach acid. And if they are made to survive that, immune cells cannot digest them, die and rot, more and more of them, poison the organism, bring you nasty illnesses. You design a nano your best agents will wear, you don’t want that. You do a lot to ensure it doesn’t happen… So I think that is not really possible.”
My relief was hard to describe. But…
“Why then do we get like this? Having additional personalities?”
“The more important question is, does this endanger our real ones. I’d like to think it doesn’t, that is what I feel, but cannot prove it.”
I thought for a moment.
“There was an old sci-fi with that in it, I can’t recall its name. A man goes to Mars and there discovers that his person is actually fake, created to gain the trust of the people he likes, and his real person is an agent that seeks to kill them. So he managed to stop the destruction of his person and remain alive, replaced the real person… What if Lexie decides that Damiano is a semi-human, compared to her, and should be replaced completely?”
“Hm. Is Lexie this kind of person?”
“Very much no… But she is really superior to Damiano, in everything possible. Kinder, more observant to the suffering of people, as strong physically but next to invulnerable, and many other things. Even smarter, I think… Becoming her permanently might become enticing at some moment.”
The Carlo’s eyes lit.
“That is it! She is superhuman, Damiano is human. Exactly like with Carlo and Carla… Hm… Thinking of it, if my bodysuit was turning me into a Lexie, she would have already taken over me. Without realizing this, I would want to be her only, to never be Carla again.”
“Same if I was turning into a Carlo… So the gender switch actually protected us from becoming super people, who however are not us?”
“To a degree, yes. And it’s not bad to be superhuman but, thinking of it, I still want to be me. I am afraid of someone else replacing me, even if they are eventually me, but much better… I might look like a pumpkin on a stick and have anxieties and problems, but that is the real me. I don’t want to lose it, even if I want to be superhuman sometimes.”
I sighed:
“There was a movie with that in too. Called “Superman” or something like. About a guy, Clark whoever, who can turn into Superman, a superhuman able to do practically anything. I watched it years ago, and was thinking – why Superman always returns to being an ordinary guy with glasses and a slouch? Isn’t being Superman much better?… Now I start getting it. He maybe is like us, able to be the superhero on need, but doesn’t want to lose being the ordinary man too.”
Carlo looked at me with interest:
“Because that is who makes him human? Being superhuman has a lot of advantages, but what if you are a human who has the desire to be better and to make the world better? Losing that human will make you powerful, but will deny you what your real self wants to be and do?”
“I think that Lexie will have all of the human part too. Maybe even more than Damiano… Dunno. Maybe other people would choose to make the switch, to become Lexie only. I wouldn’t want it. The sex change opened my eyes to how important is to be the real you. Something that I would likely have missed if I was changing into a Carlo instead.”
“Hmm. That will take some thinking before I can have a reliable answer.”
“Well, we don’t have the time to play a computer game already. So, what about playing some other game? Will that help us see the problem from all sides?”
“And explore it in depth?” Carlo smiled.
“Definitely!”
Comments
Sometimes
Sometimes I think these two think too much! I like their desire to remain themselves, to remain human. But I wonder whether circumstances will conspire to test their resolve. We’ll see!
Emma
Thinking too much
In a better version of this story this thinking wouldn't be so obvious. Don't shoot the writer, that is just how good he is. :D
I think however that most people at their place would be thinking a lot. In unusual circumstances people tend to do that, if they have the time for it.
And I get the feeling that they both are scared by the situation as a whole. (Carla maybe even more than she shows - I get the feeling that she has guessed a lot more than she lets out.) So they subconsciosuly seek excuses to cover their fear.
But once the excuses are found, some of them turn out to be a valid logic, one worth thiking about...
Basically, they both want to both have their cake and eat it. Be superhuman but also remain human. They don't know if this is possible at all, they understand that they want too much, but still want it. With childish naivete, but also purity and sweetness. Sunny children of tomorrow among powerful but cold "grown-ups", they might be at the door of something much more than the humans have been. Afraid to take the step, but also tempted by it. Afraid to even look through this door, but also tempted by it.
And maybe - just maybe - capable of linking what they are with what they can become. What is on this side of that door with what is beyond it...
But this might be a part of another story, I think. This one already gave them a lot of effort, fears and obstacles to overcome. Maybe give them some break by now?
Let them explore a problem of theirs in depth... in private? :D
No criticism intended!
Not of your characters, who really are sweet, much less of you. I was just having a chuckle at these two young people, freely gifted with superhuman abilities, model-quality looks, and the ability to have mind-blowingly good sex. Like young, earnest people everywhere, they simply can’t enjoy the gift without worrying their dear hearts out. Yes, I will be amazing, but will I really be ME?. An older person would probably say, “gimme the suit, and I’ll worry about Mephistopheles later. Who know? Maybe he won’t show up.” :)
Emma
Precisely! :)
One of the goals of the story is for the readers to have a chuckle at them now and then. Not only on a slapstick level, but also an an itellectual one, as far as I can pull this out. :)
And it is not only that they are young. The allure of the bodysuits is so strong that, if they didn't had to change sex - or if they were trans! - they likely wouldn't be able to resist it. Wouldn't even think about that. It is that "unhappy" coincidence that makes them think.
Or rather to excuse themselves for actually being afraid. :)
BTW, while writing this, Carla suddenly knocked on my head from the inside. To share that she is conscious about involving Damiano into this all.
"Hey, you aren't guilty!", I tried to calm her. "He already had the bodysuit without you being involved at all."
"Without me being involved at all?" There was irony in her voice. "No offense meant, but for a Creator you are pretty dense. If that was not staged for me, would that sex shop even have these bodysuits? And would it have a problem that I can fix? The girl in it went out for a lunch because she couldn't work because of that problem, if you don't remember that!"
I was left agape...
The best moment for an author . . .
. . . is when your characters find their own voice. Like children, they start to argue with you. And before long, they win the arguments. :)
Emma
And not only win the arguments...
... but manage to surprise you on top of that! :)
And, exactly like children, they tend to be insolent... :D
It's a trap!
Well, of course it's a trap :)
To me it is also a test, a test to see if they are worthy of having those suits in the first place imho.
We are drifting into the classic meme of 'With great power comes great responsibility'.
These suits makes the wearer supremely dangerous if they are augmented to their maximum potential.
So far we have two very ethically sound people wearing the suit so there is nothing really to worry about.
This brings me to the conclusion that these suits MUST have a kill switch of some kind to prevent a wearer from going rogue.
Currently the theory is the suit will not use nanites to intrude on the body.
But what if they can and change the wearer permanently and then have the nanites exit and then destroy themselves?
A trap and a test
Everything is a trap and a test. Both in good stories and in the real world. :)
Their suits are a really dumbed down version of what they can be, if their full abilities are unlocked. And that is a really dumbed down version of what they might become, if they are upgraded. So if there is someone able to create them, this one would highly likely be interested what the full potential of theirs can do to the humans who will wear them. How it will affect those humans... You might be on a very true and deep track there! :)
(Ah, those pesky East Asians! Always turning out smarter than us, in everything. You are scary, you know! ;) )
Many years ago, I read a story, fan-translated into English, I believe from Russian. Can't remember the name of the writer, the story was called "Mephisto". About a marine biologist who transplants the brain of his son, who is dying from cancer, in the body of a spruit. At first, his son is scared and depressed, feeling a bit like a trans person. Then he slowly grows, using his intelligence to avoid threats and to overcome obstacles. Starts fighting back against fishermen who unwittingly try to hunt him, then starts killing them. Gradually loses his need to communicate with his likes - there aren't such ones. Then, his link to the humankind. Grown enough, he starts sinking ships for distraction, then for pleasure, feeling himself The Lord and Master of the ocean. And one day for amusement kills his father... I think that some of the ideas in "Statistically Speaking", and especially the ones behind these talks, might have been influenced by this story.
But even as the bodysuits are, they could lift the status of the wearers. Imagine that Lexie's suit ended up in the hands of a very manipulative and ruthless person. Or that Carlo's suit ended up with someone who'd gladly be a mafia capo. They could become big in the society, and not in a good way... And that would be nothing compared to what they could become if even a small part of the abilities of the suits are unlocked. Bad people could become with that highly dangerous for millions of people and destructive to the entire society.
(A secret for you: the team who designed these suits through that secret AI had anticipated this. The super-abilities of the suits were meant to be given just for the duration of an assignment, and only those who are needed for it. An agent who runs away with his suit would find it useless after the projected time of the assignment runs out. That is a part of why the entire secret service that would use it went at full action when they discovered that the "options" sold by that GmbH are meant to stay with the suits forever. And that is why it was able to recruit all secret services in friendly countries to help it.)
Now, all you have is to connect two and two. Given that the technology is already compromised, what would be more important? To recover all the suits or to find out what their effects would be on the ordinary people? Whoever stole the technology and compromised it still has it - they might compromise it again, even more widely. What if millions of such bodysuits suddenly turn around? In the hands of people who don't have the discipline and the devotion of top-level secret agents? :)