FUNCTION-L₃ #23

“We’re technopaths, we can get a machine to do what we want,” you sign.

Akiko feels around the back of the cluster of pipes. “Yeah, look here,” she signs.

You shine your light on a set of intact valves. “They look practically new!” you sign.

“I understand we had a good titanium asteroid at the time, so a lot of ordinary things used it. Probably why these pipes aren’t all rust by now,” she signs. “Yeah, this should work, in theory! We could get soo warm.”

“Yeah let’s warm!” you sign.

“Okay, conserve your battery and set your ÆON at a safe distance, things could quickly become extremely wet if this thing isn’t as intact as I think it is,” she signs.

Aydan > ok ÆON, I gotta containerize you for a moment to avoid more potential water damage

ÆON > Do as you need, Aydan.

You shut off the light and return the device to the waterproof Faraday bag, but keep it within reach, feeling too nervous to let it get too far from you. You find Akiko easily enough, the only light source in the room being the LEDs in her eyes.

You see her looking at you, and sign, “Ready.”

She shuts her eyes off and turns the large valve. You hear a loud creak, then the rushing of water pouring out into the basin. You feel the steam hit your skin --- precious warmth. You see Akiko’s eyes light up in red rings around the edges of her irises --- infrared mode.

She touches your arm and slides down to your hand. You take her hand to listen as she signs, “The temperature will be perfect in about 144 seconds.”

You signal to switch roles, and sign, “You seem like you’re cooking us in a soup.”

Switching back, she signs, “I’m good at that too! But I’m not boiling my Aydan alive just to make femboy soup.”

You wait a few minutes, already warm and content in the steam. Then she signs, “Perfect.”

You hear the water shift as she enters it. Setting your towel down outside the water, you follow her into the hot water, at first burning hot to touch, but you start to adjust, trusting Akiko’s many senses. Slipping down further, you immerse yourself, enveloped by warmth that seeps deep inside you, crossing your skin and reaching the metal conduits underneath, efficiently conducting the water’s warmth and evenly spreading it all throughout your body. Hypothermia shouldn’t be a problem now.

Akiko shuts her eyes off, and you can’t make out even the faintest silhouettes of the walls, the pipes, the door, or her, as if she had cut off your sense of sight technopathically. You feel her touch on your shoulder, and follow through the familiar motions of tactile conversation.

“This is so nice...” she signs.

“It’s like floating in the æther, but being able to feel warm...” you sign.

“Baths are so stimmy, see?” she signs.

“We’d never put this much water in one place on the Moon,” you sign.

“Sometimes you just have to go out of your way to defy the logic of survival to have something really nice,” she signs. “It’s an ancient thing in my culture, we weren’t going to give it up just because of migrating to space.”

It’s a bit harder to hold onto her hand to listen with the water involved, but when you sign back, some tactile signs even work more smoothly this way, especially signs denoting motion using spatial indexing on the body.

“So you’ve had this kind of thing all your life?” you sign.

“When I was little, I loved it. But it’s been a while since I could go. Most public baths here don’t allow technopaths... or synthgirls...”

“Well that’s horrible,” you sign. “But not too different than how they see us in Korolev. I was somewhat protected by my family’s wealth, but even still my moms are so terrified to let my full weirdness be seen, they push me to assimilate into the perfect daughter they wanted.”

“But it’s not what you want?” she signs.

“I don’t know! They don’t stop pressuring me, so I can’t even think about what I want...”

“My school pushed back on me wanting to transition. They only relented after my autistic technopathy diagnosis,” she signs.

“Why do they have to make it so hard for us?” you sign. “Couldn’t our sponsors strong-arm our colonies into treating us better? My mom Yelena always said the military companies hold all the real power and everything else is just talk.”

“Yeah, they could, nobody could stop them.”

“And we’re their greatest asset, shouldn’t they want us to not be mistreated in our homes?” you sign.

“But don’t they also say that trauma makes strong technopaths?” she signs.

“Yeah, thinking about technopaths like Synthesis and 7, that adds up,” you sign.

“Maybe they purposefully let us get abused so we can be stronger when they own us. But that’s the same thing Anko tries to do to me in our head!” Akiko signs.

“Well I wonder where he learned it...” you sign.

“But at least we get to be ourselves at the end of the day! At least we get to find and know each other...and have our own little hidden spaces.”

“Yeah. We’re technopaths. Nobody can stop me from being exactly what I want to be,” you sign. “If only I knew what it was.”

“It’s your body, Aydan, you must have some idea,” she signs, in the process touching your arm, your shoulders, your forehead, and then petting your head with her wet hand. “Like, what about your implants and augments? Do you have a vision for what you want when you can get them all?”

“Maybe...” you sign. “What about you?”

“Exabytes of ideas. Obviously magnets...” She touches the tips of your fingers. “Extendable antennæ for fine signal detection.” She touches the tips of your ears. “Completely replace these, I think, useless cartilage, why not antennæ instead?” She starts to index points on your body as she paints an elaborate picture. “Gyroscopic sensors distributed at key points throughout, to always maintain exact spatial orientation, advanced proprioception...” She slides her fingertips up the conduits in your arms, across the web over your heart. “But not just sensory augments, definitely some just for fun. LEDs, for when I feel more visually stimmy, I think tunable strips along the conduits would be great. Infrared and ultraviolet available of course, when I only want technopaths to see.”

Touching some of your primary neural contact points on your arms and legs, she continues. “Maybe I’ll expose some of the conduits, I think exposed wires would be good, kind of like your avatar. Nothing too system critical though, maybe even decoy wires. And obviously, ports! Lots of attachment points for all kinds of connectors. I could use myself as an adapter...” You imagine it all in full tactile detail in your mind’s eye. “And some good old fashioned tattoos, the kind with a tactile structure, all kinds of interesting textures built into my skin! And other little accessories, piercings with LEDs, vibration motors, stimmy things...”

You slide down her arm to switch back. “That’s going to be amazing, the fully realized technopath Akiko.”

“What about you? You must have some ideas,” she signs.

[Author’s Note: Vote on this one as much as you want, if you find a way]