Turnabout

===Mosata, Lucille:

AFFECTION: -2

“I’m an intellectual property lawyer,” Lucy said, about a minute after the events leading up to this moment finally sank in.

“Gus is a pretty intellectual piece of property,” she said, then gave a quick snort, enjoying her own joke a little too much for her roommate’s liking.

“Human rights don’t apply,” the intellectual property lawyer said, deciding to ignore that and change tact. She had studied many areas of laws, you would find out later. “It is not a human.”

“But he should still have rights,” Isabelle countered. “He’s intelligent. Sentient. Self aware.” The doctor looked to you now, a sadness in her longing gaze. “And they’re going to shut him down.”

Your mind pulsed at the worrying notion and this surprised you. Lucy seemed taken aback too, even though she had only just met you. “If they ever find out about him anyway,” the Doctor added with a shrug. She ate some more chicken noisily.

The lawyer sighed, giving you a sidelong look, her lips pursed. You had registered her now, after that ‘formal’ introduction. She was on your Wavelength, the one you generated and that humans were not able to detect, but would still feel in a way… And you could feel that she still was barely tolerating your existence right at the moment. Probably because you hadn’t said much.

“You’re seriously doing this then?” Lucy asked her ‘friend’. “You’re just going to… foist this upon me. Like when I went to that stupid office party with you and twenty minutes later you abandoned me with that lanky technician who tried to bore me into submission?”

“You’re the one who agreed to go on a date with him in the end,” Isabelle reminded her.

“That was the only way I could get out of the conversation!” Lucy protested hotly. “He wouldn’t shut up otherwise.”

The doctor was thoughtful for a moment, tapping her lower lip with the metal chopstick.

“Hmmm, maybe you’re not the one we should be getting our representation from then. You don’t sound like a very good lawyer,” she said. The challenged attorney flipped her hair back and shook her head, scoffing at the assertion.

“I gave him a shot, then I let him down easy,” she said of the ill-fated date. “He told you that was the best date he ever had and was beyond pleased, right? Even though he knew I’d never see him again.”

Isabelle’s concession to that was a shrug. This was apparently enough to placate her friend, and you watched Lucy sit herself down on the couch then let out another exhalation.

“You really believe in this, don’t you?” she said, looking at you now but still speaking to the doctor. It was clear that the topic of Isabelle’s goals was something the two women had discussed before, probably on numerous occasions and at length.

“I do, for the advancement of scientific endeavor,” said the doctor. “And the betterment of everyone.”

The look that Lucy gave you seemed to subtly shift. You weren’t only an illegal prototype android housing a potentially dangerous artificial intelligence system… you were the embodiment of Doctor Isabelle Isaac’s dream to free humanity’s shackles placed upon your kind.

===Mosata, Lucille:

AFFECTION: -1 (+1)