[RadioDust] Artificial Love

Chapter 2: Hurry Up and Wait

Molly squealed so loud when he told her the news that Angel had to plug his ears for a second to avoid going deaf. "Angiiie, I'm so excited for you!" she gushed over a video call while he was doing his makeup for work that night. The screen next to his vanity mirror showed her practically vibrating with delight. "I can't wait to meet him! I bet he's gonna be great."

"Yeah, we'll see," he answered, though her enthusiasm was hard to resist completely. "Any idea about how long it'll take?"

"Mm, it'll prob'ly be a minute," his sister said, her mood dampening just a little. "I mean, there's a lot that goes into makin' 'em, y'know, and it's not somethin' you wanna rush. I think with Cherri it was about two months. Sooo, try not to get a new boyfriend between now and then."

Angel let out a scoff and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I don't think that'll be a problem. I'm gonna be stickin' with silicone for a while."

"Hey, if this goes well, ya might just never go back," his sister teased.

Oddly enough, considering how reluctant he'd been to try it, now that the thing was ordered, Angel found himself kind of impatient for it to get there. How could he not be curious as to how all his criteria would combine into one guy? And when he did arrive, what were they supposed to do? Should they go out for dinner? Sit at the kitchen table and chat over drinks? Just fucking...go at it on every horizontal surface in the apartment? Those would all be options for a regular date, but this didn't exactly qualify.

In spite of himself, Angel spent a lot of his free time over the next couple months learning whatever he could about toms and how they functioned. He'd kind of been avoiding the subject for a while, after all, so he figured he had some catching up to do with the rest of the world. At least once, he was almost late to work because he got too invested in an article that focused on 'Artificial Lovers' specifically.

Toms were made for a lot of purposes, and since they could be customized so much, they could be made to fit just about any role. His mother's tom, for instance, was made to be a personal assistant but had childcare features too; she'd essentially helped raise Angel and his siblings. Cherri, on the other hand, was a bodyguard first and foremost. That was why she could get away with threatening Tyco when the Laws of Robotics kept most toms from even thinking about hurting a human. She could only do it in Molly's defense, and it wasn't like she could kill anyone, but her protector role was pretty clearly defined.

A lot of Enrico's capos were toms too, but they weren't put together nearly as carefully as most; he just liked that they were strong and didn't get emotional and followed orders without question. To him, they were just especially capable machines, usually with little to no personality beyond their loyalty to him. No wonder Angel had a hard time imagining a real relationship with one when his father had used them as tools all his life.

On the total opposite end of the spectrum, there were toms like the one Angel had ordered. They were technically designated as 'companions,' but most people called them ALs. And damned if that didn't sting a little. Couldn't make a real lover work so you had to go with store-bought, huh? Maybe he should've sprung for some extra features so the guy could arguably have a purpose besides just curing Angel's loneliness. Maybe that was something he could get installed later.

His preoccupation with the whole subject must've started to show a little at work; although he kept his customers happy as ever, the people who knew him well could tell he wasn't all there. Val gave him shit about it, and Arden teased him for not having his head in the game, but like hell was he going to explain what had happened and why. He'd talked enough shit about the whole idea of toms, especially the kind people had actual relationships with, that he never would've heard the end of it if he'd admitted to getting one himself. Plus Val would've wanted to know where he got the money, and he didn't feel like having that conversation.