Back to Caleb!

Soon after the program initializes, Caleb settles into his phone game catching snippets of one-sided conversation like the first night.

“Really good! Spending time with you definitely changed my perspective, but I'll admit it got kinda fuzzy after we hugged. You told me something I can't remember and then we kissed. I don't remember anything after that.”

‘Wow, that must have been SOME kiss, explains why Evan dropped like a sack of potatoes afterwards, though I'm curious as to what she said too, but it’s Evan's business, best not to pry.’ Caleb wondered as he demolished blocks to get more gems for block-crushing upgrades.

Evan mutters confusedly. “Okaaay, where are we going? What do you mean in private? It's not like there's anyone around here.”

‘Private, huh? You sly dog, you. Gonna re-enact a bit of Virtuousity: the Home Game are you?’ Caleb ponders and chuckles to himself.

Then silence, broken only by Evan's slow breathing, fingers tapping on a glass screen, and the muffling ‘dings’ of blocks being crushed. Thirty minutes go by and Caleb wonders if his friend has hit the same point again and checks his screen where the loading screen is still sitting at ‘Program Initialized: Session 2 of 2-Autumn Park in Progress'.

“Shit, he must be really having fun in there, I guess.” Almost as if his words were a trigger, Evan’s breathing becomes shallow and rapid and his leg and forearm muscles begin to twitch slightly in rhythm with each other.

Several minutes pass by until Evan arches forward, lets out a wordless grunt and relaxes back into a resting state.

“Uh, did my roommate just have digital sex with an AI girlfriend? I guess he did... thankfully my bed linens didn't get soaked like that one party back in college. Fuck Mike and that floozy he was dating. I had to burn those sheets.” Caleb’s tone turns bitter as he gets mugged down memory lane.

After finishing twenty more levels of increasingly inane block crushing, Caleb looks at his PC clock and realizes it's been almost an hour since Evan went under, when Evanlaughs and starts speaking his one-sided banter again.

“Hah, well let's take that in stages, I don't get paid until next week and we also gotta get groceries since you ate us out of house and home.”

‘Guess he's foisting the blame for that on Andrea, not cool, dude, not cool.’ Caleb thinks before diving back into the block-crushing, satisfied Evan didn't get lobotomized like in that old Arnie flick.

“True, it has definitely felt like a dream, in several ways. It still feels strange in some ways, but I'm slowly getting used to the idea. Ah, here we are!” Evan reaches his arm up as if to embrace someone.

‘It is strange my dude, but if I suddenly grew taller and gained muscles I’d get used to the idea, pretty damn quick. Especially if I got a digital hottie raring to go, even better since Evan said he can feel her touch. Wild.’

Smirking, Caleb ponders all this and decides that even if he hadn't gotten Evan an Analog Girlfriend, this experience was going to be something he had to try himself, maybe he’d even get his hair back?

Evan chuckles lightly, breaking Caleb from his reverie. “That was terrible, I'm only laughing because you’re so pretty, you know that right?”

“Fuckin' duh, Evan. You laugh at her jokes, just don't tell her that's the reason you're doing it. I swear you have the Self-Awareness of a turnip sometimes.”

Then almost as suddenly as he had finished speaking, Evan goes limp and a small chime on the desktop alerts Caleb.

Session 2 of 2 Completed - You may safely remove and power down the Visualizer Headset. Please allow 5-10 minutes for the subject to regain consciousness.

Thank you for using HFI’s Instant Girlfriend!

P.S. Good luck, Stud.

“Wait, what? Is it talking to me? That is weird as fuck. I'm definitely having a talk with Evan when he wakes up, maybe he knows something. Shit! I should probably get him some water or something."

Walking down to Evan's bedroom, he grabs a clean(?) cup from the nightstand and heads over to the guest bathroom to rinse it out and fill it with cold water.

Trudging back upstairs, Caleb sets the glass on the desk and waits for his friend to wake himself up. “Guess I should've waited last night before carrying him off to bed. Saved myself the strain, though, I'll admit, this time feels *different*”