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Description
“You know I can’t help you anymore, James.”

The aged professor sat, a broken man, in his office. He clutched his phone to his ear tightly, in hopes that somehow she would hear his pain.

“Please, Jen. You can’t be serious. There are three months before the Faire. You must help me, at least until then.”

“James - you know I care very much about you. You know I love Aurora, as if she were my own child. You know I’ve dedicated my past to androidics. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you on purpose.”

“So come back. Please, I’m pleading with you. I’ll pay you triple-”

“James... I’m sorry. I really can’t. My mother recently fell very ill. I didn’t want to use her as an excuse, but it’s the truth. I have to take care of her, and between the project and my mother, I think you would agree what is more important.” Her voice was steeled, but Stevenson could hear the pain in her voice.

“... I understand. Please wish her all the best.”

He dropped the phone into his lap, and sighed resignedly. That was a lost battle. Perhaps it was time to simply declare himself too old and retire-

“Dad? What’s the matter?”

“Ah, Aurora. Did you get Ben what he needed?”

“Yeah - I couldn’t reach it, but I knew where it was. We really ought to set up a database for all of the stuff in that warehouse. Who did you call?”

“Bah, not important. I was thinking about driving to the sorbet place a few miles out - do you want to come along?”

“Dad, that was Jen, wasn’t it? Is it settled?”

He motioned for Aurora to come closer, and when she was within reach, he hugged her weakly. “Yes. Jen won’t be coming back to us anymore.”

She patted him gently. “I’ll do whatever I can to help you. Maybe we should find another professor to take over, rather than a graduate student.”

“No, you don’t understand. It had to be her,” he wailed. “It had to be.”

Silently, she thought, You’re right... I really don’t understand.

—

Stevenson’s vehicle of choice was more of an ancient relic than a vintage classic. It had a robotic brain, but was rather incapable of navigating the newer streets and was prone to veering dangerously towards the sidewalks. As such, he preferred to leave it on manual so that he could feel the thrill of driving in full control of a road vehicle. Police would give him a quizzical glance when he passed, but he knew full well there was no legal precedent against the manual driving of a car.

The crew included Stevenson and Aurora, as well as the Dean and Redmond. The Dean enjoyed leaving campus every now and then, and particularly liked spending time with Stevenson and his ‘daughter’. These little trips were not uncommon, although usually the Dean was the one who initiated the meetup. Redmond, on the other hand, was starting to grow weary of his doctorly roles, and would regularly pass surgeries to his more capable underlings in order to enjoy more leisure time.

“So,” asked Stevenson, as he started up the archaic gasoline engine, “how has everybody’s days been so far?”

“Paperwork, as usual.” Haufman took a deep breath of the crisp air from the crack in his back passenger window. “A few students cheating, a few staff members complaining, the treasury hounding after my every move... nothing out of the ordinary. I received a thank-you letter from an alumni, though, so that was a nice surprise.”

“Well, what did you expect, eh? Frank, how about you?”

He waved the question off. “Nothing. Surgeries. Medical paperwork. Busywork. Work.”

“Aww, that’s no fun,” said Aurora from the front passenger seat. “You know I like to hear about medical stuff!”

Redmond smiled at the bright little angel. “Well, I may just have a story for you. A frail old lady came into my office today, with her son. War-torn veteran, you know the deal. She said that he wasn’t feeling well, and she had hoped I could give him a once-over to see what was wrong. I agreed - begrudgingly, to be honest; I don’t like veterans in general - and he just had a little bit of a migraine and cold mixed together.”

“That wasn’t much of a story,” pouted Aurora.

“Hang on, I’m not done. When it was time for them to leave, she noticed the medical band you used to wear, sitting on my desk. Remember? I had it made into that little trophy so I would remember all the times James knelt before me and begged. She saw that, and asked if it happened to belong to a little girl with black hair and ‘eyes of pure sapphire’. I said yes, indeed it used to be worn by a girl of that description. She asked if my having the band meant that the poor girl had passed away, and I told her no, that little girl made a miraculous recovery after some intense surgical procedures, and had no reason to wear it anymore.”

Aurora was practically bouncing in her chair. “I remember them! Dad, from the tram! Remember?”

“Yes, yes, I do,” he said, absentmindedly. “Gave us her seat, right? Lovely lady. Daddy’s driving, don’t bother him, okay?”

Dean Haufman chortled at the word. “She got into your head that badly, huh? I wonder if I shouldn’t revise my speech to include your dearest daughter along with you.”

Frank finally turned his attention to the professor. “Seriously, though. James, I might not be in the position to tell you this, but being so attached to an android could be an excellent point as to why they shouldn’t be allowed in the first place. Modern as our society is, such fears of enchantresses and seductresses still exist in a loud minority - they’ll be quick to call ‘witchcraft’ and banish you to Hell.”

“Well, I certainly know someone who does know witchcraft. The owner of this little sorbet place knows exactly which parts of the tongue to tickle - and he does a damn fine job of it. I’m surprised neither of you have been here.”

Frank rolled his eyes. “Not all of us can spare time from our jobs for such trivialities such as ice cream.”

Aurora glared strikingly at him. “First of all, it’s sorbet, not ice cream, and second of all, there’s always time for sorbet.”

Stevenson flicked her lightly on the forehead. “You need to start worrying about that sugar. Your system is barely holding up as it is with your candy intake. Any more and it’ll start crystallizing, and that will be quite a pain to extract.”

She slouched back into her seat, arms crossed in mock annoyance. “It’s not my fault you gave me a carbohydrate-processor for my energy source. It’s also not my fault you didn’t put in the peripheral so that I could monitor the sugar density.”

“You could always eat bread,” Haufman laughed, “but slather it in jelly or something.”

“Alright, we’re here. I’ll go and park, so why don’t you all get off here?”

Aurora practically dived out of the car and zipped into the quaint little shop, with the two gentle giants following, both wondering how much of a child Aurora really was.

—

Yeung-Liu was one of Stevenson’s prized possessions among his students. He had originally been a Biology-Physiology double major, but as a post-graduate, had joined some of his androidics friends in the search for the perfect non-human. Of course, Stevenson berated those particular students for spreading information unnecessarily, but once he heard their reasoning, promptly apologized and gave them full authority to do whatever they needed to in order to accomplish their goal.

They believed, through research into human behavior, that a good portion of humanness laid in our food behavior. The very predecessors of humans struggled to do one thing - find sustenance. Only after their hunger was curbed could they proceed in finding shelter, learning to build, and so on.

Even today, humans were unable to wean off that urge to consume food. Days were divided by the meals - breakfast before morning, lunch before afternoon, dinner before night, then once more around the clock. One thing that androids could do, to mimic the behavior, was to ingest the food and deposit it into a small compression chamber that would compact the food into a dense mush. The container, of course, would have to be extracted, dumped, cleaned, and replaced at night. This led to incredible cost inefficiency, especially if the android was dining at a rather expensive restaurant.

These students determined that if they were able to somehow allow androids to process certain foods into energy, then it would inherently make them more human-like - hence why they brought in Yeung-Liu. He had studied the gastrointestinal processes of humans, and had a rudimentary solution to their problem.

Yeung-Liu thought that if the food intake was limited to just the most basic form of sugars, a comparatively simple stomach could be developed to provide the android with energy while producing very little waste.

Who else to test this, but Aurora?

“Yeung-Liu? Did you ask for me?” came the sweet voice of none other than Aurora.

“Hello, Aurora. Yeah, I needed to ask you some questions.”

“This better be quick, ‘cause I need to get back to the Professor.”

“Okay then, one question only. What do you think about being able to eat some limited foods?”

“It’d be pointless unless I could taste it though, right?”

Yeung-Liu was speechless. Aurora took his frozen stature to mean he had nothing else to follow up on, and slowly backed away before sprinting back to the office.

Taste! Of course, why would you eat if you only needed to plug into a wall for a few minutes to be fully charged? Androids eating had to have some sort of incentive, and while humans were hungry to fill their stomachs, androids could be hungry to taste flavors. How interesting, Yeung-Liu thought, that a human was just taught how to eat by an android.

It was quite a while before the tongue was ready. That was partially because Aurora had a rather small mouth, and her tongue was a very exact size with the perfect flexibility and strength to mimic a humans’ mouth when speaking. Consulting with the original builders of her flesh, he had managed to find a rough blueprint, and had set off to work.

It was about two months into his work there that he realized how strange it was to have a floppy tongue in his hand. Some say he had a breakdown at that moment, but others knew that he had just found the true essence of androidics - when an android part, even by touch, could not be discerned from a human’s.

At the age of six and a few months, Aurora was finally able to taste food. Of course, there was no way to know if she tasted the was humans did. In fact, Yeung-Liu was quite certain she would be able to group tastes by which neural group was fired, but would have no concept of what tasted good or bad, and what to enjoy more than another.

Quite the opposite happened, in fact. She immediately took a liking towards sweets and bitters, and strongly disliked spices and savories. It was later that Yeung-Liu realized that it was because of the inherent effectiveness of certain foods for her body. Carbohydrates processed quickly and efficiently, and bitter foods were often high in concentration in certain toxins. The toxins wouldn’t affect her at all, but it was interesting to experience the different types and intensities. Humans were, of course, genetically predisposed to being unable to taste that level of variety. Other foods were simply irritants, with low efficiency for the stomach he had developed - so they were disliked.

It was then that Aurora discovered the beauty of candy, and ever since, she would have a pocketful of candy everywhere she went.

Description
“You know I can’t help you anymore, James.”

The aged professor sat, a broken man, in his office. He clutched his phone to his ear tightly, in hopes that somehow she would hear his pain.

“Please, Jen. You can’t be serious. There are three months before the Faire. You must help me, at least until then.”

“James - you know I care very much about you. You know I love Aurora, as if she were my own child. You know I’ve dedicated my past to androidics. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you on purpose.”

“So come back. Please, I’m pleading with you. I’ll pay you triple-”

“James... I’m sorry. I really can’t. My mother recently fell very ill. I didn’t want to use her as an excuse, but it’s the truth. I have to take care of her, and between the project and my mother, I think you would agree what is more important.” Her voice was steeled, but Stevenson could hear the pain in her voice.

“... I understand. Please wish her all the best.”

He dropped the phone into his lap, and sighed resignedly. That was a lost battle. Perhaps it was time to simply declare himself too old and retire-

“Dad? What’s the matter?”

“Ah, Aurora. Did you get Ben what he needed?”

“Yeah - I couldn’t reach it, but I knew where it was. We really ought to set up a database for all of the stuff in that warehouse. Who did you call?”

“Bah, not important. I was thinking about driving to the sorbet place a few miles out - do you want to come along?”

“Dad, that was Jen, wasn’t it? Is it settled?”

He motioned for Aurora to come closer, and when she was within reach, he hugged her weakly. “Yes. Jen won’t be coming back to us anymore.”

She patted him gently. “I’ll do whatever I can to help you. Maybe we should find another professor to take over, rather than a graduate student.”

“No, you don’t understand. It had to be her,” he wailed. “It had to be.”

Silently, she thought, You’re right... I really don’t understand.

—

Stevenson’s vehicle of choice was more of an ancient relic than a vintage classic. It had a robotic brain, but was rather incapable of navigating the newer streets and was prone to veering dangerously towards the sidewalks. As such, he preferred to leave it on manual so that he could feel the thrill of driving in full control of a road vehicle. Police would give him a quizzical glance when he passed, but he knew full well there was no legal precedent against the manual driving of a car.

The crew included Stevenson and Aurora, as well as the Dean and Redmond. The Dean enjoyed leaving campus every now and then, and particularly liked spending time with Stevenson and his ‘daughter’. These little trips were not uncommon, although usually the Dean was the one who initiated the meetup. Redmond, on the other hand, was starting to grow weary of his doctorly roles, and would regularly pass surgeries to his more capable underlings in order to enjoy more leisure time.

“So,” asked Stevenson, as he started up the archaic gasoline engine, “how has everybody’s days been so far?”

“Paperwork, as usual.” Haufman took a deep breath of the crisp air from the crack in his back passenger window. “A few students cheating, a few staff members complaining, the treasury hounding after my every move... nothing out of the ordinary. I received a thank-you letter from an alumni, though, so that was a nice surprise.”

“Well, what did you expect, eh? Frank, how about you?”

He waved the question off. “Nothing. Surgeries. Medical paperwork. Busywork. Work.”

“Aww, that’s no fun,” said Aurora from the front passenger seat. “You know I like to hear about medical stuff!”

Redmond smiled at the bright little angel. “Well, I may just have a story for you. A frail old lady came into my office today, with her son. War-torn veteran, you know the deal. She said that he wasn’t feeling well, and she had hoped I could give him a once-over to see what was wrong. I agreed - begrudgingly, to be honest; I don’t like veterans in general - and he just had a little bit of a migraine and cold mixed together.”

“That wasn’t much of a story,” pouted Aurora.

“Hang on, I’m not done. When it was time for them to leave, she noticed the medical band you used to wear, sitting on my desk. Remember? I had it made into that little trophy so I would remember all the times James knelt before me and begged. She saw that, and asked if it happened to belong to a little girl with black hair and ‘eyes of pure sapphire’. I said yes, indeed it used to be worn by a girl of that description. She asked if my having the band meant that the poor girl had passed away, and I told her no, that little girl made a miraculous recovery after some intense surgical procedures, and had no reason to wear it anymore.”

Aurora was practically bouncing in her chair. “I remember them! Dad, from the tram! Remember?”

“Yes, yes, I do,” he said, absentmindedly. “Gave us her seat, right? Lovely lady. Daddy’s driving, don’t bother him, okay?”

Dean Haufman chortled at the word. “She got into your head that badly, huh? I wonder if I shouldn’t revise my speech to include your dearest daughter along with you.”

Frank finally turned his attention to the professor. “Seriously, though. James, I might not be in the position to tell you this, but being so attached to an android could be an excellent point as to why they shouldn’t be allowed in the first place. Modern as our society is, such fears of enchantresses and seductresses still exist in a loud minority - they’ll be quick to call ‘witchcraft’ and banish you to Hell.”

“Well, I certainly know someone who does know witchcraft. The owner of this little sorbet place knows exactly which parts of the tongue to tickle - and he does a damn fine job of it. I’m surprised neither of you have been here.”

Frank rolled his eyes. “Not all of us can spare time from our jobs for such trivialities such as ice cream.”

Aurora glared strikingly at him. “First of all, it’s sorbet, not ice cream, and second of all, there’s always time for sorbet.”

Stevenson flicked her lightly on the forehead. “You need to start worrying about that sugar. Your system is barely holding up as it is with your candy intake. Any more and it’ll start crystallizing, and that will be quite a pain to extract.”

She slouched back into her seat, arms crossed in mock annoyance. “It’s not my fault you gave me a carbohydrate-processor for my energy source. It’s also not my fault you didn’t put in the peripheral so that I could monitor the sugar density.”

“You could always eat bread,” Haufman laughed, “but slather it in jelly or something.”

“Alright, we’re here. I’ll go and park, so why don’t you all get off here?”

Aurora practically dived out of the car and zipped into the quaint little shop, with the two gentle giants following, both wondering how much of a child Aurora really was.

—

Yeung-Liu was one of Stevenson’s prized possessions among his students. He had originally been a Biology-Physiology double major, but as a post-graduate, had joined some of his androidics friends in the search for the perfect non-human. Of course, Stevenson berated those particular students for spreading information unnecessarily, but once he heard their reasoning, promptly apologized and gave them full authority to do whatever they needed to in order to accomplish their goal.

They believed, through research into human behavior, that a good portion of humanness laid in our food behavior. The very predecessors of humans struggled to do one thing - find sustenance. Only after their hunger was curbed could they proceed in finding shelter, learning to build, and so on.

Even today, humans were unable to wean off that urge to consume food. Days were divided by the meals - breakfast before morning, lunch before afternoon, dinner before night, then once more around the clock. One thing that androids could do, to mimic the behavior, was to ingest the food and deposit it into a small compression chamber that would compact the food into a dense mush. The container, of course, would have to be extracted, dumped, cleaned, and replaced at night. This led to incredible cost inefficiency, especially if the android was dining at a rather expensive restaurant.

These students determined that if they were able to somehow allow androids to process certain foods into energy, then it would inherently make them more human-like - hence why they brought in Yeung-Liu. He had studied the gastrointestinal processes of humans, and had a rudimentary solution to their problem.

Yeung-Liu thought that if the food intake was limited to just the most basic form of sugars, a comparatively simple stomach could be developed to provide the android with energy while producing very little waste.

Who else to test this, but Aurora?

“Yeung-Liu? Did you ask for me?” came the sweet voice of none other than Aurora.

“Hello, Aurora. Yeah, I needed to ask you some questions.”

“This better be quick, ‘cause I need to get back to the Professor.”

“Okay then, one question only. What do you think about being able to eat some limited foods?”

“It’d be pointless unless I could taste it though, right?”

Yeung-Liu was speechless. Aurora took his frozen stature to mean he had nothing else to follow up on, and slowly backed away before sprinting back to the office.

Taste! Of course, why would you eat if you only needed to plug into a wall for a few minutes to be fully charged? Androids eating had to have some sort of incentive, and while humans were hungry to fill their stomachs, androids could be hungry to taste flavors. How interesting, Yeung-Liu thought, that a human was just taught how to eat by an android.

It was quite a while before the tongue was ready. That was partially because Aurora had a rather small mouth, and her tongue was a very exact size with the perfect flexibility and strength to mimic a humans’ mouth when speaking. Consulting with the original builders of her flesh, he had managed to find a rough blueprint, and had set off to work.

It was about two months into his work there that he realized how strange it was to have a floppy tongue in his hand. Some say he had a breakdown at that moment, but others knew that he had just found the true essence of androidics - when an android part, even by touch, could not be discerned from a human’s.

At the age of six and a few months, Aurora was finally able to taste food. Of course, there was no way to know if she tasted the was humans did. In fact, Yeung-Liu was quite certain she would be able to group tastes by which neural group was fired, but would have no concept of what tasted good or bad, and what to enjoy more than another.

Quite the opposite happened, in fact. She immediately took a liking towards sweets and bitters, and strongly disliked spices and savories. It was later that Yeung-Liu realized that it was because of the inherent effectiveness of certain foods for her body. Carbohydrates processed quickly and efficiently, and bitter foods were often high in concentration in certain toxins. The toxins wouldn’t affect her at all, but it was interesting to experience the different types and intensities. Humans were, of course, genetically predisposed to being unable to taste that level of variety. Other foods were simply irritants, with low efficiency for the stomach he had developed - so they were disliked.

It was then that Aurora discovered the beauty of candy, and ever since, she would have a pocketful of candy everywhere she went.