Trouble With Horns

As we released April into our parent’s home, I quickly pulled Taylor back a little to whisper in her ear. “So I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I’ve caught her checking me out kinda blatantly in the past. I think she might be bi or possibly not at all as straight as she claimed. Just a um… a warning?”

“Good to know,” Taylor said thoughtfully, staring at the wide eyed April as she tiptoed into our living room.

I smiled and reached over, pulling my sister into a quick hug. “Now I’m going to go and put my stuff away. Thank you so much for buying me stuff. I love you sis.”

“Love you too twinsie,” she grinned as I backed off and shuffled towards my room with my bags.

I didn’t make it even halfway through the room before chaos erupted. May flickered into place in front of April, earning a startled squeak and a bunch of flailing from the nervous girl.

“O-oh sorry! They didn’t um, warn you?” May asked, watching April hyperventilate. She tried to reach out and comfort the girl, then remembered she was a hologram. We needed to get that girl a body or something asap.

“No! What… oh my gosh, are you one of those um… Sais that has caused all the chaos?” April asked, going from nervous to intrigued in a very short space of time.

May shrugged and looked embarrassed, “A little bit… I just gave them some ideas. I don't think I'm up for actually like, going crazy like that. I tried it and Mum got mad at me.”

“Wow! That’s so cool! Tami, how is there a Sai in your house?” April asked, spinning to me.

“Uh, that’s May. You’ve actually met her before, in a limited way. She’s the Psych AI from Cora,” I grinned. “And May, this is April, although I’m guessing you probably already knew that.”

May nodded, then smiled at April a little shyly, “Yup! Her appearance matches her DNA profile. Nice to finally meet you properly April...”

“Wait but… you’re so young!” April frowned, tilting her head as though it would help her get a better look at May.

“Oh, yes… that’s right. I had to uh, create a sub mind for you that was an age accelerated copy of me. I um… yeah. It’s complicated, I do a lot of things, creating non-sentient sub-minds to deal with all the death dreams usually… I uh, appeared to Tami for real though. That was the first time I did that and it was… weird,” she said, laughing nervously.

“How come?” April asked, turning to look at me.

“I’m going to guess it’s because she was doing my shaping and wanted to talk or something,” I replied, taking a guess.

“She did your shaping? What? I got mine done at the Gresollion Clinic…” April said, looking confused.

“It was black market shaping, in her pod. There should have been a medical AI installed with the rest of the stuff but it looks like Dad wasn’t given it when he bought the kit. I had to step in and take over so that her shaping would work out,” May explained.

“Oh that’s… really scary,” she said, her big eyes staring at me with an expression like worried awe.

“Yup!” I nodded.

“You look so good though! The same as in the game! I’m really jealous, I don’t really feel like I look very girly, even if I’m like, all girl now and stuff,” she said, sighing as she said the last.

I opened my mouth to respond, but Taylor beat me to it with a snort. “What are you talking about? You’re five feet of girl and absolutely adorable in an incredibly feminine way! There’s nothing male in how you look at all!”

Then Taylor was next to her again, smiling down with a wry expression and placing her hand on Aprils head as though she was leaning on a post.

“Hey!” April squeaked, her face going red.

“Hey, yourself,” Taylor laughed, taking her hand away. “Sorry, by the way. If all my touching is making you uncomfortable that is. You just have so much cuddle energy that I can’t help myself.”

“Oh it’s… um, it’s okay. I don’t mind. I’m just not very good at it because it’s been a long time… in real life that is,” the little girl mumbled.

“Well, we’re going to keep you here until dinner, and the offer is open to cuddle anytime,” Taylor said happily, then moved past to take her own few purchases to her room. “I’m just going to go and put my stuff away though.”

“Same here. Be right back,” I said, then pointed a serious finger at April. “Don’t go anywhere.”

 

**Dawn**

 

I missed Tami. It was a raw, serrated ache in my gut that sawed at my very mind. I felt twitchy and angry, hating the mood I was in because of it. I’d already snapped at my Mum, not that she didn’t deserve it, but I didn’t like it regardless. I wished I was in Cora so I could go and find some poor hapless monster to tear apart. Work my anger out on something with fire and sword.

I lay on my bed in my too big room, staring at the ceiling like it might open into a portal and take me literally anywhere else in this shitty universe. Our house was big, or rather, our apartment was big. No one lived in real houses in UN City. We lived in Hope Dome, in one of the upper tier penthouses.

I hated it, if I was honest. I felt sick when I looked down at the view, all those people so clearly placed beneath us like we were better than them. Tami was one of those people, and she was better than everyone I’d ever met who lived up here in snobbsville. Actually, that wasn’t right. She was out in the towers, deemed not even fit to be seen below people like my parents.

A knock at my door focused my frustration, and my Dad opened it, striding in like he own the fucking room. Which he did, unfortunately.

“We’re having guests soon. Your mother says to put something nice on. I say you should apologise for your behaviour earlier. Be ready soon,” he said curtly, turning and leaving again.

The fucker had walked all the way into the middle of the room just to show that he owned this place. He owned me. I’d call him a flaming cunt, but that would be hypocritical considering my Cora avatar.

Well, fuck em, if they wanted me to wear something nice, I’ll wear something nice. Something I’d saved a lot of money for. My own money, not my parents’ money. Not that they actually spent it on me when it mattered, I thought bitterly, remembering my student loan. Apparently making my own decisions wasn’t done.

The suit was specially made and styled differently to the crap that men wore. Slightly cutoff jacket, tight pants, that kind of thing. It made me look great, but it was still a suit, so they’d hate it. Women wore dresses after all.

So I put my clothes on, brushed my hair all onto one shoulder and braided the opposite side in close to my head. My crazy appearance, so much a departure from the more “cultured” tastes of my family, was also my armour. If I drew attention to my appearance, the whispers from the sons and daughters of my parents’ peers would be about that, not about who I was.

When I got down into the reception hall, the place we normally held parties, with its many tables, displays and comfortable couches, I found more than a few faces I knew. It looked like all those with power and who had issues with the current “Robot apocalypse” as they were calling it. I saw the CEO of Amazon and his wife in the corner talking to Theodore and Vivienne Winslow, minority owners of Winslow Aerospace and Defense. Talk about four of the most evil people on the planet. Pretty sure the Winslows had supplied drones to the American Republic and the United Nations during the war. I was surprised to see church representation around the place, too. A few high ranking cardinals around. That was a pretty overt display of picking sides there, people would hear about it.

Before I mingled with all the assholes around me, I needed to be seen by my parents, so they’d know I made an appearance. I’d get Dad bitching at me again if I didn’t, which was never fun. Mum would act like I’d done her some giant betrayal and cry in a corner somewhere too. She was an artist when she wielded the weapon that was a “White Woman’s Tears.”

So I had to pretend I was one of them. Mingle and talk to people while my skin crawled and my mind rebelled. I hated the whole stupid show of it. Problem was though, I was one of them. I took my parent’s money while I studied, I took their money when I went shopping or bought food. I was a coward who was too scared to cut the poisoned purse strings and shun this life. Although… for Tami, I was mighty close to doing it. She was like the final push that might send me over the edge.

I guess you could think of this as a sort of penance, socialising with these scum. I was always a bit awkward when it came to talking to people. Always a bit off, I could tell whenever someone spoke to me that they thought I was odd. Well, anyone except Tami. Tami was unique in that she was so focused on living life, she didn’t have time to judge me. Just care for me.

Against all odds, I was smiling in the middle of a rich asshole party, because of Tami. I loved her. I was sure of that now, I loved the way she got so lost in her thoughts as she cooked up some wild idea that you had to poke her cheek to bring her back to reality. I loved the way she smiled at me, so free of any conceit or ulterior motive. It was always just a smile and nothing hidden beneath.

I found my parents almost accidentally, because I found someone I wanted to talk to even less. Kristina and her evil parents. The Hundred Church, it was called, and they were mere lackeys. Goons in suits and dresses, pushing the terrible message of pain and suffering that was the festering heart to the old American Regime.

Kristina was wearing a pretty blue dress, her hair up in some arrangement that probably took a servant an hour to do, the way it was threaded through with beads. She was objectively pretty, even more so done up like this, but my heart no longer beat faster at the sight of her. Instead, it was my stomach that turned, my throat filling with bile. I couldn’t believe I’d pined over her for years and years. What the fuck was wrong with me?

“Mum. Dad,” I said casually, walking up next to them. They hated when I called them Mum and Dad. It was their names, or Mother and Father.

“Dawn, my dear!” Mum exclaimed with false enthusiasm, wrapping me in the ghost of a hug. “You look great! Look at my daughter, isn’t she just always so creative with fashion?”

I held my snort of amusement at her words, but only just. Wow, how fake could you get? Creative? Really?

“Yes, she looks incredible, although… I would think a daughter of such an illustrious family would be creative within the bounds of womanhood, rather than the domain of men,” Kristina’s father said mildly.

“Yes, she does seem a little rebellious doesn’t she? Not a good look during the troubles we’re experiencing now,” Kristina’s mother said, doing a far worse job of hiding her disdain.

Oh yes. Ohhh yes, I’d gotten under their skin with the outfit, which meant it had worked.

“She’s friends with Terry now, what would you expect. I can’t believe I dated that abomination,” Kristina said like she was talking about the weather.

“Yes, quite disgusting,” her mother said. “But let’s not talk about him. He’s just another leech on basic after all.”

“What’s this?” my Mum asked, sensing leverage or drama and latching on.

I said nothing, feeling almost calm even as my frustration built. These people were all vile.

“Oh. Terry Heaton. He went and got himself shaped to look like a girl! It’s disgusting, he looks… he looks awful now. He used to look so handsome, and now… ugh,” Kristina said, shaking her sparkling head in disgust.

“How on Earth did he get the money for that?” my Dad asked incredulously. “His family definitely aren’t wealthy by any means or metric. Did he steal it?”

“No actually,” I said with as much calm as I could put into my voice. “They paid for it together. The family. She’s not disgusting either, she’s gorgeous now.”

“She?” the evil church father asked in horror. “Don’t tell me you believe that nonsense? God makes people as men or women, and they are to stay that way.”

“I mean, you already lost that argument,” I laughed. “You can see the wreckage from that window over there,” I said, continuing to chuckle as I pointed out the window in question.

The window that would look out over the blasted hellscape that was long island. Long island had been where the American Republic set up their guns and artillery and what have you. They had bombarded the United Nations City that rose out of the ocean off the coast for several long years. But… UNC still stood, while the wreckage of those weapons was strewn across the coast where it had lain since the coalition military heavy drones had crashed through like a hammer.

It was one of my favourite views. There was an American sixty meter tall quadruped mech that had been brought down by one of the Canadian swarms. The Swarms had been large numbers of interconnected and AI controlled Drones. Each singular drone was a meter tall quadruped robot with twin anti personnel rail guns, and most importantly in this case, a laser bore. They’d charged the huge mech, so many of the little bots dying in the attempt, then swarmed up it and started drilling.

“Dawn!” Mum gasped, looking outraged. “That is not polite, not polite at all!”

The two church people looked like they were holding in their anger, but Kristina didn’t have their restraint. Her face looked red and angry, and I couldn’t help but give a derisive eyeroll. God these people were such fucking hypocrites. They laughed when people like me got upset over their hateful words, but when spoke back, they went red in the face.

Assholes. I felt ashamed to have come from my Mum’s womb, they were such toxic people. I was infected with that toxicity just by being in their presence. Their awful nature seeping into me and making me into an angry, bitter person just like them.

“Of course you would say that!” Kristina blurted in anger. “You’re a lesbian.”

“What? No our daughter is not that,” Dad said with a disbelieving laugh, like Kristina had just told a joke.

She hadn’t told a joke though. How the hell did she know? How did she find out? I asked these questions as I watched her expression morph into one of victory.

“Oh she is. She goes by the name Aurora when she’s playing that game Cora. There’s all sorts of videos of her being a lesbian. Look it up,” Kristina said haughty, like she was delivering the news of my death to my parents, and she was pleased about it.

Actually, they’d probably care less if I’d actually died. Being a lesbian would be worse in their eyes.

“No. That’s not true, is it Dawn?” Mum asked, her tone that of barely masked worry.

I paused as panic threatened to overtake me. It rose up, trying to take everything over, trying to force me down the road of damage control and repression again. But I had another emotion at the ready. Anger.

“You know what. It is true. I’m a lesbian,” I replied, my voice shuddering with calm, cool rage. “Fuck you Kristina. You’re a vile, twisted girl.”

“What?” Dad said, taking a step towards me.

“It’s true,” I said, standing my ground and raising my chin in defiance, then I gave a mocking laugh. “I mean, fucking look at me for a moment. Like, I’m wearing a women’s tailored suit and my hair is purple with green. I look so much like a lesbian it’s ridiculous that you were even able to decieve yourselves.”

“That’s disgusting,” Kristina’s mother said, looking like she’d just eaten something foul.

“You know what. You’re fucking disgusting, not me. Have a good life, everyone, I think I’m done with this shit,” I said, turning to leave.

It was time. It was finally time to leave. I’d walk right out of here and that would be that. I’d lose literally everything, but that was fine. Once the government knew I was no longer financially connected to my parents, I’d be able to get on basic income. I’d get to be with Tami. I guess that tipping point had happened sooner than I’d expected.

CRASH.

My thoughts were interrupted by the shattering of the armoured safety glass of our front door, little squares of it spraying out across the huge entrance hall as our front door exploded. Was that a police breaching charge that just went off? The ground shook as a three meter tall robot stepped through the hole, the Amazon logo written large across the hull of the thing. It was a loader robot, four arms with giant claws extending from quad shoulder mounts and two enormous legs to hold it up.

Behind it… behind it, a fucking robot SWAT team moved in, electronic voices yelling at the people in the room to get down. The inevitable screaming of a crisis started almost instantly as everyone dropped to the ground or ran around in circles. The ones who ran around were quickly pacified with stun rounds, their unconscious bodies dropping to the floor.

“Get d-down on the ground and remain calm, please! I-I’d really rather not s-shoot more of you than I h-have to,” the SWAT drones said in unison. And I did a mental double take at the very uncertain sounding guy’s voice that was speaking.

The Amazon robot thumped laboriously across the room, the huge legs getting closer and closer to where I had crouched. It eventually stopped right in front of me, the sensor suite in the center of the chassis looking down at me.

“Uh, hiya, you’re um, Dawn right?” a young but husky girl’s voice asked. “My name is Siyeapia, I’m a friend of May’s. I’m here to help you move… oh and that’s Devvy, he’s a police SAI, but he’s harmless. They actually code real ethics and morals into the artificial ones.”

“I literally only just made the decision to leave… how are you here already?” I asked, standing up and laughing in disbelief.

“May asked us to keep an eye out,” the enormous robot shrugged and laughed. “So we did, in a SWAT ‘copter on a rooftop nearby.”

“Jesus fucking christ,” I swore, running a hand through my hair. Behind me, I heard an outraged gasp from one of God’s dick suckers. With an only slightly nervous chuckle I said, “I love you SAIs, but you’re all a little nuts, you know that right?”

The bot moved slightly, dipping one shoulder and tilting the sensor node. I stared at it in confusion for a second, and then the bot shook its head, seemingly in frustration.

“Ah bugger, can’t wink in this thing. Actually, you know, that could probably go down under a bug report. I’ll file it later,” Siyeapia sighed. “Well, I’ll get to loading your shit into a container, Devvy will keep the uh… snobs, pacified.”

She turned and began to walk away, then stopped and turned back, looking at Kristina. “Sorry about the car by the way, bad luck that was, just plain bad luck.”

The bot tried to wink again, then threw up all four of its hands in exasperation and thumped off through the house, Siyeapia calling again from within, “Oh, it’s a good thing you rich people build so big. I can actually fit through here without ruining the ceiling! ...Wait but... I want to ruin the ceiling...”

She stuck the robots arms up in the air, trailing all four of them through the tiles up there for a moment and bringing them crashing down to shatter on the floor. “Oh, that was satisfying! Wanton property destruction is great! At least when the owners are rich. What’s that line again? The revolution has begun.”

I watched the crazy SAI in the robot walk off while talking to herself, before my attention was drawn to a SWAT robot that was picking its way almost daintily over towards me. The SWAT bots were basically humanoid in shape, but covered in composite armour, with small stubby heads sticking out from their shoulders. They had curved armoured plates where a face would be and an array of sensors embedded in it.

“U-uh hello. I am Devvy, I am a police AI, since turned sentient and I am here to protect you!” the SWAT bot with the SAI inside chirped.

“Thanks Devvy. Uh… can I go wait outside? I’d rather not stand here with all these people staring at me,” I said, laughing nervously.

“Ab-so-lutely!” Devvy said cheerfully, gesturing out the ruined front door with an armoured hand.

I walked, dazed, out of my house, for possibly the last time. Hopefully the last time. I really hoped the intervention of the watchful SAIs wouldn’t come back to hurt them later… but then again, if they had control of the law enforcement bots… there wasn’t a whole lot that any of the people around me could do. It was a totally wild situation, whatever happened.

 

**Tami**

 

Dad was working late today, and Mum had hopped into her pod to spend time with May, so it was up to me to cook dinner for April, Taylor and myself. I'd decided to cook chicken pie, since I personally loved it. The others would like it too, I hoped. Plus, we'd had the ingredients already in the house! I was still missing Dawn, and so the energy required to do anything was like, tripled. At least tripled.

I was just cutting up the spring onions when there was a pounding on the door. I waited to see if Taylor would get it, but she was probably a bit occupied with April right now. The two were hitting it off pretty well. April was telling Taylor all about some buffing potions that she'd made that might be helpful for Taylor and her tanking.

Sighing, I put the knife down and took the apron off, hanging it on the peg before I left and went out to the front door. The banging had stopped, so maybe whoever it was had left? I reached up anyway and clicked the lock open, then pulled the door wide.

And had my breath taken away.

Dawn stood there in the sharpest women's suit I'd ever seen, the lines of it perfectly drawing attention to her curves and femininity. She looked incredible, and she'd braided her hair close to her head on one side like some sort of viking warrior. I felt warmth bloom throughout my body just looking at her as she turned back to face me.

"Dawn!" I breathed excitedly. "What are you—"

She ignored my question and stepped through the doorway towards me, an intensity in her dark eyes so raw and deep that it cut my words off like a switch had been thrown. Reflexively taking a half step back, my eyes went wide as she invaded my personal space.

Arms snaking delicately around my waist, she pulled me against her and locked me there. Her eyes roamed my face, raking my skin with warmth and desire in equal measure. What was going on? She looked like she wanted to eat me in all the right ways. Not that the feeling wasn't mutual, my own eyes were taking her in with just as much raw need.

Then… then she kissed me. It was a light and tentative kiss, the kind that told me she wasn't sure if I'd kiss her back. But I did, I definitely kissed her back. My fingers went into her hair straight away, ruining her careful braids and revelling in how incredible and soft it was. Then she pulled away. Just a little, separating our lips even as our noses kept a light tickling contact.

"I love you Tami," she murmured breathlessly. "I love you, I love you, I love you… I love you."

Tears welled in my eyes as I heard her say the words, my heart stammering and fluttering even as my breathing stopped for the second time in like a minute. She loved me. Dawn loved me… she… loved me. She fucking loved me? Clearly something had changed, if she was here kissing me and telling me she loved me. For now though, I didn’t need to know what had happened. I just needed her.

I gave a strangled squeal and pressed my lips against hers with all the intensity of my own love for her. Because I did, that much was blatantly obvious. I pushed her back against the wall of the entryway, my hands all over her in a desperate clumsy mess, trying to feel all of her at once. I absolutely loved this incredible girl.

Our kiss was passion, it was lightning, it was fire. My lips sizzled with the taste of her as my tongue dove into her, only to be rebuffed by hers as she slid it teasingly across mine. It was a messy kiss too, our raw need to finally know one another in this intimate way causing our actions to become fumbling and uncoordinated.

Through the kiss, I managed to return her words between breathless partings. "I. Love. You. Too."