Chapter Text
"So, what will it be?" The store worker's voice pulled Kara out of her daydream. She had spent the last ten minutes staring at a number of different virtual assistants.
Her plan was to install one of the virtual assistants into her apartment so it wouldn't feel so quiet all the time. According to the ad she had seen, "if you take care of your virtual assistant, they'll take care of you."
All of this had led to Kara standing in her local 'Tech Shack' scanning through a shelf of virtual assistant options with a confused look on her face.
"Hmm," Kara pondered, "I'll be honest, I really have no idea what I'm looking for here. Any chance you know anything about virtual assistants?"
"You bet I do!" The employee perked up. Her name tag read 'Jessica'. She was wearing the tag over a bright red shirt that was part of the 'Tech Shack' uniform.
Jessica had long brown hair, blue eyes covered by large glasses, and looked like she was around the same age as Kara.
"Basically," Jessica started, "they're a way to make your life easier. If you buy one of ours and let us install it in your apartment, you'll have your own personal assistant 24/7. Not only is the assistant voice activated, they'll also do whatever tasks you want them to."
"Whatever tasks?" Kara asked.
"Well, up to a point," Jessica replied. "Let's say you want coffee in the morning. Instead of getting up and making it yourself, you just need to say "Hey Eve, can you make me a cup of coffee."
"And then Eve will make the coffee for me?" Kara queried.
"You bet!" Jessica replied enthusiastically. "We can even hook her up to your coffee machine so she'll take care of everything for you. In fact, after we install your virtual assistant, they'll have full access to all of your household appliances."
"So I'm basically getting a smart home?" Kara was starting to get more excited.
"More like a smart apartment," Jessica started, "still with all the perks of a smart home though."
"Okay," Kara paused to read the name tag, "Jessica, you've convinced me. I'd like to buy one of your virtual assistants. Just one question though, is Eve my only option in terms of assistants?"
"Well, there is one other choice," Jessica looked around the store. "We have another virtual assistant that hasn't made it out to market yet. I can't guarantee that it will work perfectly though."
"That's okay," Kara answered. "I'll try it, no matter what way it comes. What's my other choice?"
"Well, this assistant is called Lena. They don't really have much differences to Eve, apart from the fact that Lena comes with an Irish accent. And Eve has a glowing red light when it's installed. Lena, on the other hand, has a glowing green light."
"Lena," Kara repeated the name back to herself. "You know what, I just like that name so much more. And how can I say no to an Irish accent?"
"Okay, then it looks like we've got ourselves a deal," Jessica clapped her hands together. "Let me just take you to the front desk and we can wrap things up."
"And it's okay for me to get Lena?" Kara asked. "Even though I'll be the first one to use her as a virtual assistant."
"Sure it is," Jessica answered. "We're never gonna know if people want to use our prototype until we actually test it out. So just consider this as Lena's trial run, before it's released to a wider audience. I think you'll get on just fine anyway, you've already started calling Lena 'her' as opposed to 'it'. That's a good start."
"Calling Lena 'it' just sounds so impersonal, I prefer to think of Lena as 'her'. Does that sound weird?" Kara looked at Jessica's face in an attempt to gauge her reaction.
"No, not at all," Jessica laughed back. "Makes perfect sense to me. Oh, I almost forgot, if you want you can hear Lena's voice now before we install the program into your apartment. Just to make sure you're not disappointed tomorrow morning."
"No way," Kara shook her head, "I'm not gonna be disappointed. I'd rather wait til tomorrow, keep it as a surprise for myself."
"Roger that," Jessica saluted Kara, "I'll keep you in suspense until tomorrow then. Do you have somewhere you can stay tonight while we install Lena?"
"Yep," Kara replied, "I'm staying with my sister tonight, we're gonna have takeout and drink wine. It's gonna be a great night."
"Well, you've clearly got big plans then," Jessica smiled back. "You go have fun with your sister, by this time tomorrow, you'll have your very own Lena to help you in whatever way you need."
"Perfect!" Kara exclaimed. "In that case, I better pay you at the desk and then I'll meet Lena properly tomorrow."
"Sounds great," Jessica beamed back. "Let's get you finished up then."
After Kara finalised her payment plans and squared things off with Jessica, she made her way to Alex's apartment.
The whole time she was traveling to Alex's place, she couldn't stop thinking about meeting Lena tommorow. Sure, Lena might be a virtual assistant, and she might not even be a real woman, but that didn't stop Kara from getting hyped up to finally make her acquaintance.
Even during her time with Alex, which was sacred, she still had Lena on her mind. Fighting Alex for the last potsticker was usually at the front of her mind during an evening like this, not tonight though.
It was normal to be this excited right? That's what Kara kept asking herself. All she had to do was keep remembering, she's not a real woman Kara, she's a computer.
She's here to make your life easier, that's all. Kara had to keep repeating this to herself over and over again. Lena is your new virtual assistant, not your new best friend.
After she and Alex finally tired themselves out, due to a combination of too many potstickers and too many glasses of wine, they said their goodnights to each other and retired to their respective bedrooms.
Kara still couldn't sleep though. At least she could meet Lena tomorrow, then maybe her mind would finally be at ease.