Make Him Yours

Rae and Zach Jr. have now arrived at Rae's apartment—just a small, humble studio that doesn't have much furniture, not even a couch. Rae likes to joke that it is entirely open concept.

Soon after entering the apartment, Zach Jr. takes off his winter jacket and sets it on a chair. To Rae's surprise, he starts to remove his shirt, revealing his smooth, muscular upper body. When Zach is about to un-buckle his belt, Rae immediately blocks her view with her hands. "Uh uh uh, What are you doing?"

"To show you the two sensors used for my power and settings. One is on my lower back, the other is on my calve behind my knee. It is easier to show you when I remove my clothes. Also, I wanted to take off the clothes in case you change my height and weight dramatically. The clothes won't fit."

"I can change your look and your size?"

"Yeah. Right now I'm in a generic mode set by my designer. Let me show you the 'settings' ... um…," Zach Jr. tilts his head to the side, "You can put your hands down now. My super elastic boxers will stay on. I won't be naked."

He is now wearing just a pair of boxers. Rae checks out his tight abs and the two oblique lines leading down to his boxers. Rae blushes. She can only imagine what those devious and delicious muscle lines lead to.

Zach Jr. turns around to show his back, and he points to his right side, "There's a small area that looks almost like a scar, but it's a sensor. Do you see that?"

Rae bends and takes a look at his lower back, "Go ahead, put a finger on it, let it register your finger print. If you want, you can touch the scar with different fingers so it register more prints." She slowly puts her fingertips on his body. She feels a little shy about this, but she reminds herself he is a robot. She strokes the scar with four of her fingers. The scar feels cold and stiff like a piece of metal.

"Prints registered. You can power on and off using this sensor or the one on my calve." Zach Jr. points the other sensor on his left calve. "You can go to the settings now by pressing it for five seconds. That's the fun part," Zach Jr. looks over his shoulders, "customize me for your needs."

Rae places her index finger on the sensor on his back. Suddenly, a female voice greets her, and a Zabby logo surfaces on Zach Jr.'s lower back. It is like there's a projector inside his spine and his skin is a screen. Then, a list of settings is displayed:

Assistance Focus

Interaction Preference

Language

Appearance & Voice

Power Management

Security

Accounts

Data | Update | Reset

Rae isn't sure which one to choose. She doesn't want to mess with the settings too much, since she doesn't plan on keeping Zach Jr. for too long, and she fears she might break something. But out of curiosity, she decides to start from the top, "Assistance Focus." The female voice then reads the options, and they are displayed at the same time:

"Assistance focus: Career, Health & Well-Being, Relationship, Household Chores, Combination. You are currently on 'Combination.' mode."

Rae thinks combination sounds good enough, Rae then presses "Next."

"Interaction Preference: 1. What would you like to be called? Your name is registered as Vienna Rae Novak." Rae just says "Rae".

"2. What name would you like to use for your A.I. Assistant?" Rae doesn't know any good male names. And she really doesn't have a preference, so she just shortend "Zach Jr." to "Zach."

The system continues, "3. Any personality you want your A.I. Assistant to have? You can give a general description. For example, friendly."

Rae tilts her head, "Hmmm, I don't know, just be nice to me. I guess just use the original setting." Rae then whispers under her breath, "Well, I hope the original setting of the robot isn't a jerk." The next question goes: "4. What sexual orientation do you prefer for your assistant?"

"What?" Rae finds this question unrelated. She laughs nervously and says: "original setting," which is set as heterosexual. "Why does it matter? It's not like I care if he is sexually attracted to me." But sure enough, the system then asks "5. What kind of physical interaction do you prefer? Sexual, Intimate, Friendly, Only when necessary, None."

Rae knows she is definitely blushing now. He can be used... in that way? She moves to Zach's side and looks at his face, hoping he's not listening. Zach just looks straight ahead. But obviously, he will know his settings.

"Um…, maybe, just..., friendly." Rae immediately makes a face, wondering what "friendly" even means for their physical interaction. And with that question, this category is done, so Rae goes on with "Language," where she remains the original setting, which is U.S. English. She moves on to "Appearance & Voice," and she learns that the system allows her to change Zach's age, race, ethnicity, skin tones, eye color, hair color, height, body type. Zach is currently a 38-year-old, six-foot-three man. And he is obviously way above average looking. He is very handsome.

The system tells her, any change she makes will take up to eight hours to complete. "Can I change the gender, too, ha ha?" Rae pokes fun but the system actually answers her, "If you'd like a female assistant, please contact Zabby."

Rae gives his appearance some thoughts, but then she doesn't know if she wants to wait for eight hours, as she doesn't even want to keep him too long. Although Bo at the lab tells her, it's not that easy to break this robot, she still worries all those changes would be too drastic. She doesn't want to run into any issue. If she is going to change anything, she actually would like to make Zach look…less attractive. If Zach ever goes out with her, he will draw too much attention.

"Maybe just change the height and built? So he doesn't stand out too much?" She then remembers Zach says the physical change means his clothes will not fit him well. Rae does not have men's clothes for him. Rae closes her eyes like she's about to make some big decision, and then she finally says "stay at the original settings." She hits "Back" and presses "Done." The display projected on Zach's back disappears.

"I'm not going to worry about the details now. He's just going to be staying for a day." Rae says to herself.

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Bo's tablet receives important feeds from Zach Jr.'s system. But now that Bo is home, he is not holding his tablet and he is not looking at it. He is watching an action movie while he slurps instant noodles. Amid the movie's loud sound effects, he hears an alert from the tablet. He takes a look, it says, "User #2 asks for female assistant." Bo scrolls up, and sees another alert, "User #2 settings complete. No changes."

Bo grabs his cell phone and starts texting: "the user testing the robot asks for a female." A minute later, Bo sees a reply on his phone: "Working on it *Wink*"

Bo is not too happy with the response. But another text comes in. "Anything else?" Bo replies, "No." Bo hesitates for a minute, he seems to struggle whether he should add anything. Finally, he types again, "FYI she didn't change the settings at all. The robot has W look. Because I forgot to switch Jr. to the generic look settings."

"That's a problem," a message comes right away.

"Relax there's no way she will ever see W." Bo texts back.

**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****

"Hi Rae." Zach Jr. turns around. Rae realizes this is the first time Zach Jr. calls her by her middle name, like a real friend. "If you're done with 'settings' for now, I'm putting my clothes back on."

"Yes, please." Rae makes a gesture, like she is welcoming him to his own clothes. Zach puts his jeans on, covering the sensor on his calve. Rae sees that and suddenly wonders if she needs to turn him off for the night. "Zach, do I need to turn you off and then turn you on tomorrow?"

Zach stops buckling his belt. Still topless, belt hanging, he walks over to Rae. He leans over, "You can turn me on anytime you want," he winks, "We've got a lot to do."