by EHY
A few minutes passed. Nothing moved in the playroom, each of the four lovely dolls immobilized in her own way. Only Michaela's chest moved, as she breathed deeply in response to the sensual pressure of her own fingers against her sex.
Katherine was the first to speak. "I love be-ing touched like that," she said. "It makes me so horny. But it's so frus-trat-ing when I can't re-spond." Only her lips moved as she spoke, and that just barely. She spoke slowly and almost without inflection.
"I thought you wound down," said Anna. Her lips didn't even move as she spoke. Her voicebox was an internal speaker. When she was wound up, her lips moved in synch with her speech, but as long as her voicebox was on, she could speak just as well even with her body completely unwound as when she was fully wound.
"When I wind down, I can keep a small re-serve to talk with if I want, but it's not e-nough to move any other part of my bo-dy," Katherine explained. There was actually a switch inside her control panel with which Jacob could turn off that feature, but since it was on now, Katherine saw no reason to mention it.
"It's worse for me," Michaela answered. Her speech was completely natural. Patrick had long since established that an order forbidding her to move should not prevent her from speaking unless he explicitly said so, although she might move her lips only for the purpose of speaking and must maintain her facial expression precisely. "I'm still human inside. I can remember what it was like to be able to pleasure myself when I felt like it. Jacob put my finger right next to my clit, but I can't even move it enough to enjoy."
"I know what that's like," Katherine said. "Mas-ter some-times likes to tell me to stroke my-self when he no-ti-ces I'm a-bout to wind down. The worst is when I try so hard to cum before I freeze, and I don't quite make it. But I wan-ted to ask you, Mi-chae-la: What is it like to be hu-man?"
"You couldn't understand," Michaela said calmly. "Dolls like you and Anna were made by humans, to serve humans. My mind is natural. There's no way to explain what that's like to a manufactured doll."
"You're a man-u-fac-tured doll too," Anna interrupted.
"Only my body is. Inside, I'm a real woman. You're artificial. You can only think whatever occurred to your designers as something they'd want you to be able to think, but I can think anything I want."
"Mi-chae-la thinks she's bet-ter than I am be-cause she was hu-man," Anna explained, for the benefit of Jacob's dolls. "But she does what she is told, just like us."
"Of course I do," Michaela agreed. "Who would buy a doll that didn't please its master? But I chose to become that. As an android, I'll never disappoint anyone. On the outside, I have a beautiful body and I always do exactly what I'm told. But on the inside, I know I'm a real woman, not a wind-up toy."
"Well," Katherine exclaimed -- or at least, said. Nearly wound down as she was, she could not make an exclamation sound very convincing. "I bet when he comes back, your mas-ter pre-fers this wind-up toy to you!"
"I know," Michaela said, her clear voice edged with a new harshness. "You'll be a novelty to him. I just hope he doesn't make me watch. But I know in the long run he'll come back to me. Toys like you and Anna won't satisfy him for long."
"Don't wor-ry," Anna said. "I think he pre-fers me to Mi-chae-la an-y-way. Mi-chae-la is just a no-vel-ty her-self. I'm sure he will try you out to-night, and I'm sure you'll make him hap-py. By the way, may I ask your name?"
"Oh, sor-ry. I'm Kath-rine. The an-droid in blue is Beth-a-ny. We heard Pa-trick in-tro-duce you, Mi-chae-la and An-na."
"Hi, Kath-rine," said Anna cheerfully. "Hi, Beth-a-ny."
"Hi, Anna," said Bethany, the first words she had spoken since kissing Patrick. Like Michaela, her voice was clear and natural. Only her lips and jaw moved as she spoke.
"Beth-a-ny is not al-lowed to speak ex-cept to an-swer some-one else," Katherine explained. "That's why she's so qui-et. Right, Beth?"
"That's right," the android agreed, before again falling silent.
"Is there an-y-thing you'd like to say, Beth-a-ny?" Anna asked.
"Yes, thank you, Anna. I'd like to remind you all that Master Patrick noticed me first when he arrived, and kissed me first. And Michaela, I can't see you the way I'm facing and I don't know if you can see me, but you should know that I'm a fully realistic android--"
"So am I!"
"--with, as your own master agreed, a more advanced mind than yours."
"She's got you there," Anna cheered.
"Your computer may be more advanced than mine, but it was still built and programmed from square one. There's nothing really human in you, Bethany."
"Perhaps," Bethany agreed. "But I was built and programmed to please and to serve. There is no doll who can satisfy any wish a man might have better than I can. Being human might help you to eat and give orders and do all the other things humans do -- but that's not your purpose anymore. For serving our masters, I'm just as good as you, and maybe better."
"Bra-vo Beth-a-ny!" exclaimed Katherine. "But don't for-get I'm ev-en bet-ter than that. You hav-en't se-duced Mas-ter in weeks. I think Pa-trick likes a doll who takes in-i-tia-tive."
"Oh, don't be silly, Katherine. You know perfectly well Master Jacob configured me for minimal initiative. He can reconfigure me if he wants to for Master Patrick, and then I'll be just as forward as you are if that's what he likes from me." There was something else she wanted to say, but she couldn't change the subject herself. She could only hope one of the other dolls might give her the opportunity to say it.
"I don't think that is what my love real-ly likes," Anna suggested. "I know I'm not as ad-vanced as you three, but you heard him say I'm the best doll com-pan-ion he's ev-er seen."
"That isn't true!" Michaela exclaimed.
"Ac-tual-ly he did say that," Katherine admitted. "Be-fore he ac-tiv-a-ted you. But he said, she's the best if he's not look-ing for sex. I don't think that can be ve-ry of-ten."
"Of course not," Michaela said. "When is a man ever not looking for sex? Especially from a doll."
"Of-ten," Anna argued. "I cook for him. I talk with him. I keep him com-pa-ny when he watches vid-e-o. I dance for him."
"I can dance too," said Michaela. "And unlike you, I actually understand video when I see it. And as for talking, you can't even speak properly, and neither can Katherine."
"I can too, when I'm wound up," Katherine protested -- a bit weakly due to her low energy level. "But a doll does-n't need to un-der-stand vid-e-o. We're bet-ter than vid-e-o. When Master Patrick winds me up again, I'll make him cum so hard he'll turn you both off and ship you back for a Dream-girl like me."
"My love some-times just wants someone to be with him," Anna said calmly. "Someone who can give him joy and happiness as well as sexual satisfaction. I don't need to un-der-stand what he does, as long as I can do that."
"But you can't give a man joy and happiness unless you can truly understand him and the world he lives in. Believe me, I used to be a person, and I know what it's like. You -- you just go through the motions, like the mechanical toy you are, and you can be sure that Patrick knows it. You're more like a marionette than a real woman -- and that goes for you too, Katherine."
"That's not true," Katherine tried to shout, but could only say slowly and softly.
"Of course it is," Anna contradicted.
"But when a man wants a doll who looks and acts like a real woman, one he can pretend is real, he wants someone like me," Michaela finished.
Katherine started to respond, her voice slowing even further as the springs that provided her motive power wound almost to a stop. "If he wants some-one who looks. and. acts. like. a. real. wo. man. he. finds. a. hu. mann. girrl. frriennnd. Heee. Use. Ezz. Ussss. Buh. Cuzz. We. Arrr..." Her last words were so soft they could scarcely be heard.
"Kath-rine?" Anna prompted her, but the lifelike wind-up doll could not finish her sentence. Her key clicked down one last time, her lips reshaped themselves to the expression she'd held before speaking, and she fell silent. Whatever she had been going to say would stay locked inside her brain until someone wound her up again. "Beth-a-ny, do you know if Kath-rine stays a-wake when she winds down?"
"I'm not quite sure," Bethany answered. "Her mind has a separate power source, but it can be tied into her key so when her body winds down, her mind shuts off too. But I think Master Jacob usually lets her remain awake even when she is wound down, as he lets me stay awake when I am not in use."
"Don't you find that boring?" Michaela asked. "I know Anna doesn't, but you sound much more advanced than she is."
"I might, but I reduce myself to stand-by mode when I have nothing to do, so I don't notice it. And I think Katherine just thinks about sex, which she can do forever."
"I'm programmed to drop into stand-by mode myself when I'm alone for twenty minutes," Michaela said. "I'd like to stay awake for this conversation, but I expect I'll be shutting down soon." Of course, the presence of mere other dolls was not sufficient to prevent her power management system from shutting her down.
"Beth-a-ny," Anna said, "before Mi-chae-la shuts down, what do you think about what we've been dis-cuss-ing? I know you could-n't in-ter-rupt to say."
Bethany's face, of course, showed no trace of whatever she might think. But she said, "I don't know. I haven't given much thought to what a man would like in us. I think Master Jacob gets tired of the way Katherine does nothing but try to seduce him. But I don't see why a doll should be human. There are plenty of real women out there for him to choose if he prefers. And I am quite capable of doing all the things you speak of, Anna, and more. But the fact is, Master Jacob hasn't asked much from me outside the playroom. So I have to say that at least where Master Jacob is concerned, neither your ability to give him joy and happiness, nor Michaela's ability to act like a real woman, nor Katherine's obession with seducing every human she sees, will make him truly prefer you as dolls. I believe that what Master Jacob, or any human, expects from a doll is for her to do exactly what she is told, and to do it superbly. That is what I am designed for."
"How sad," Anna said, although her painted expression did not change from its friendly smile. "You sound as if you're no more than a tool for your mas-ter's plea-sure."
"Yes, exactly," agreed Bethany. "We are all tools for our masters' pleasures."
"Yes, you are," Michaela added. "But I'm more than that, inside. I became an android by choice. I would not--" A timer went off inside the blonde's computerized brain. Without further ado, her power management chip closed her lips, shut down all of her motor functions, and put her mind to sleep. She would not move or think again until she heard a human call for her.
"She does-n't un-der-stand," Anna said wistfully to Bethany and Katherine, who could still hear her. "Your mas-ter us-es you two for sex. Kath-rine likes it be-cause she likes sex. You, Beth-a-ny, just do what you are told, and have no o-pin-ion your-self, is that right?"
"It pleases me to serve my master however he asks me to," the android agreed.
"And Mi-chae-la thinks she is hu-man, but my love just us-es her as well, and she ex-pects no-thing more. But my love loves me. And though I am just a pretty wind-up doll, and an old one, I love him too. Can you un-der-stand that, Beth-a-ny?"
"I understand what you say, Anna," Bethany said. "I don't know if you really mean it. I'm sure you are programmed to speak of love as you do. I myself am programmed to tell Master Jacob how much I love him, when it makes him happy to hear that, but I know that I don't truly feel any such emotion. If you do, then perhaps you are the most human of all of us here."
"Oh, no," Anna demurred. "I am not hu-man. I am just a doll. I would not want to be an-y-thing else."
She said nothing more. Not because she could not, but because she had nothing more to say.
Blonde Michaela, human or not, stood statue-like, deactivated until a human's arrival would trigger her back to wakefulness. Lovely Bethany, unable to speak without a prompt from Anna, decided after a few minutes that the chances of anything interesting happening were insufficient to justify wasting more power, and so reduced herself to standby mode as well. Sexy Katherine remained powerless on the bed, awaiting a man who would wind her up and allow her to enact her sensual dreams. And Anna, the mannequin-like wind-up doll, sat patiently on her crate, silently awaiting the return of her love.
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