Day 1

It was late, and I did not need the clock to tell me that. My earphones played the song I was hooked on in a loop. It had been a few hours and I was getting the itch to switch to something different as it felt more like one long never ending song, as opposed to a song on a loop. It took me hours, but I finally figured out that it was a hardware problem and not a software problem. In hindsight all those early hours troubleshooting programs was worth it just to be sure, though that did not help make me feel better. At this point I made a list of all the components that I needed to change, took a shower, and went to bed.

The alarm was screaming, and neither my mind nor my body was in any mood to put up with it. Turning it off I continue to lay in bed and spent the next twenty minutes scrolling the internet. The start of my morning ritual. Once I was certain there was no other way to procrastinate any more than I had already done, I got out of bed and got on with the day.

I am a writer, I keep telling myself that over and over again. This is true, I pay my rent with the money I make from writing, and somehow it still does not feel real. It feels like it was only yesterday that I was a student, and now I am pretending to be a grown up that has it all together. It was not all bad, I still met people, went out of the house during the day, and generally had a life. That did not mean I felt fulfilled. What I had craved for the longest time is to be in a relationship.

I know a few people that managed to build their own partner, however I always held out for the hope that I could find someone real. I kept waiting for either the right person or the right time. So much so to the point that days, weeks, months, and years had passed with me waiting, and it had come to the point that I had decided to take the plunge and build my own partner too. Somehow, I felt ashamed of the fact that I had to resort to building my own, as opposed to actually finding someone. It made me feel inadequate in many ways. As such, I decided to keep it a secret. I did not mind the fact that it is something that I built, as long as it is able to give me what I wanted.

Assembling the parts and the appropriate programs was easy enough, it is actually putting it together for the first time that became a true challenge. It was like building your first PC, nervous at first, and confident over time. By the way things were progressing, I should be able to boot it up tonight.

Once everything was assembled I looked over everything. A part of me was nervous, while the other part of me was excited. Satisfied I looked over it, I am constantly amazed at how realistic it looks, if there was any movement at all, you would be mistaken for thinking it was an actual person. I checked the battery to make sure it was fully charged. It was the moment of truth, and I was steeling myself, hoping it would work on the first try.

I press the near invisible button at the base of the neck, and stepped back. The skin felt so lifelike despite the cold. It started whirring. I know it takes a while on the first boot, and the fact that I do not know how long makes me nervous.