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Tano and Farai approach me one day without Dr Mensah in sight.
Not suspicious at all.
Farai waves and Tano nods hire head respectfully.
Not suspicious at all.
"What is the problem?" I ask, because I'm stupid, and my threat assessment is indicating there is a problem, despite language model saying their body language is relaxed and not threatening.
"It is a common practice for marital partners to welcome the new person into a polycule once their partner begins dating. Think of it as a sort of initiation," Tano says with a gentle smile.
It takes me over 3 seconds to process the words after they register.
My first reaction is to say, I'm fucking sorry what? And my second reaction is to say, Oh shit pardon the fuck? But thankfully I am running the delayed response code, so I say neither of those things.
I look to Farai, hoping she'll clear up the misunderstanding and say it's a one big joke. She smiles at me equally gently.
My language model recognises their body language as 'approaching a scared animal' and OH MY FUCKING GOD THEY'RE SERIOUS.
"I—" I start, and I do not know what I want to follow it up with. The beginning of the sentence just enters my buffer, goes through the 2-second delay and comes out of my mouth and by the time it's done I do not have a follow-up on an idea for one.
"We would like to welcome you into this relationship before you go formal," Tano continues hie spiel and if I was a bot I'd be glitching, I know I would.
I desperately wish Mensah was here.
"Go formal... with what?" I ask, even though I have a strong suspicion. My performance reliability percentage is dropping second by second due to the suspicion.
"Your relationship with Ayda of course," Farai says, and then she takes out a small box out of her bag and holds it up so that Tano can open it.
It contains a thin bracelet that would seamlessly blend in with my inorganic parts based on the colour of the alloy.
I am feeling an emotion. I do not know what sort of emotion I am feeling. My performance reliability is so low I could shut down at any moment.
"I do not have romantic feelings towards Dr Mensah," I say, sounding distant.
"You are her SecUnit," Farai says, "It is understandable it won't be like a human-human or even human-bot relationship."
I am... speechless. Actually speechless. I impulsively turn off my language module and the next sentence that threatens to go past my lips comes out as a crackle of my voice box corresponding to the trinary code I am running on after the latest update ART gave me.
I turn my language module back and say, "You should be mad," then, "You should be terrified."
Farai's smile turns sad. "I don't think we should. You protected her when we couldn't."
Tano nods. Hire smile is equally sad. "It's worth saying that you do not have to make anything official. We just want to include you into our culture after recognising how much you care about Ayda."
"I need to check the perimeter," my buffer throws, and I walk away at a brisk pace.
What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the FUCK.
It takes me an hour of walking aimlessly before I get myself to return to my quarters. My thoughts are non-existent and I do not know how my performance reliability hasn't shut me down yet.
I fucked up that encounter. I could have argued, or I could have made it clear that there's nothing weird between me and Dr Mensah or I could.... accept the gift? No. That's stupid—
I stop abruptly as my drone checking the perimeter before me notices something at my doorstep. The box sits there, locked with my feed ID.
I am feeling an emotion again.
I pick up the box, enter my quarters. I stare at the box for a long time.
The next day I wear the bracelet. It adds onto my feed ID but only to Dr Mensah and her two marital partners. When she sees the little tag her eyes widen and then her mouth opens, and I think, that was a bad idea, but then she smiles faintly, and I feel... gratified.