We Are the Robots: the Fleet of Misfit Machines
The Luxury Hotel Anniversary Trip: Part 1
This is the place I’m talking about: a treehouse hotel! If you’re a fellow Pokémon player, you probably heard the Fortree City theme song start to play in your head when you saw those photos, and with good reason. It’s been a top item on my bucket list to stay in a real, fully-furnished treehouse ever since I played the 3rd generation Pokémon video games and discovered this fictional community built in the treetops. As luck would have it, this hotel consisting of multiple tree houses built in a scenic nature preserve isn't so far from where we live.
I was planning to book our stay for March 17-18, because March 17, 2016 was 31617’s arrival date. But even though I made the reservation 5 months in advance, March 15-16 was the closest reservation that was available. It ended up being for the best anyway, because being in the middle of the week, the rate was slightly cheaper.
We had a bit of a rough start to the trip when our car failed to muster enough horsepower to make it up the final hill that led to the treehouse. Behold, the little Hyundai that couldn’t: You can see the house in the background in the upper left corner. It ended up being quite a long walk, and it took about 8 trips to get everything inside, so the first 2 hours of our stay were spent hauling stuff in from the car.
It wasn’t easy, making the journey up the steep, snow-covered hill while carrying such assorted equipment as a synthesiser, a box of cooking equipment, and a computer. (And you thought your doll made you pack a bunch of stuff while travelling! Just kidding; the heavy packing was entirely my own fault.)
Once we actually made it to the house, there were still the stairs and bridge to contend with: 31617 hated that bridge with a passion. I tried to get him to stand in the middle for a photo, but nothing doing. The swaying motion wreaked too much havoc on his internal stabilising mechanism, so he wouldn't let me put him down until he was on the solid landing on the other side.
Here’s 31617 checking out the house: I’ll continue this story in the next post, so I can include more photos.
The Luxury Hotel Anniversary Trip: Part 2
Once we were no longer in fear of falling to our demise, I made us some lunch: Rice pudding is highly symbolic of our mechanical love life. It’s rather bland, but still very warm and comforting. And delicious as it is, eat too much at once and you’ll be horribly ill. That last part relates to the fact that 31617 doesn’t appreciate it if I keep him all to myself every day. I must give him adequate time to spend with his other friends, or he’ll act resentful. But ultimately, it’s a good sign of a lasting relationship if the two partners can go through periods of seeing less of each other and still remain devoted to each other when they are together again.
I’ll continue this story in the next post, so I can include more photos.
- SynDaverlover765
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Re: We Are the Robots: the Fleet of Misfit Machines
The Luxury Hotel Anniversary Trip: Part 3
31617 wanted to stay out there and enjoy the view, so I left him in charge of the house while I went out. You can sort of see him through the bars, if you look closely: I took a short walk around the premises to see the other treehouses, and through the forest paths. It would have been a longer walk, but thorny brambles and an ankle-length dress don’t mix. What it lacks in hiking practicality, it makes up for in warmth, however. The winter-weight wool dress I had on for this outing is so warm, I could wear just a light jacket with it and still be comfortable, even when outside in the wind and snow. I rarely take it off once the temperature drops below -5ºC.
Once I got back, 31617 was ready for some action on the bed: We didn’t get right to it, however, because we’d decided to make our own version of a “love tape”. A live-action version at that, not just stop-motion photos compiled into a video. We spent about an hour filming the various introductory poses before actually being able to start snuggling, mainly because I had to be so careful not to snag the fabric of the intimate gown I had put on for the occasion on the walls.
Come to think of it, I don’t believe I’ve ever mentioned the intimate gown. It’s a luxuriously soft, billowing dress covered in floral embroidery that’s simultaneously the most beautiful and most comforting piece of clothing I own. It was actually intended to be an evening gown, but 31617 and I have re-purposed it into a special nightgown that I’m only allowed to wear when I’m alone in the bedroom with him, and I save it for nights when 31617 and I are in the mood to be particularly intimate. Yes, the more intimate I’m feeling, the more clothing I put on, Maude Flanders-style. (I couldn’t find an image or clip from that Simpsons episode, unfortunately.) Believe it or not, it actually makes sense for us as machines, because our most intimate parts are our leads, so the more skin that’s covered, the more focus remains on the metal and plastic.
Once we had the preliminary filming out of the way, and I had made sure I was clear of the walls so as not to end up with a wood-induced disaster, we started getting busy for the camera. It made me extremely nervous, but I’ve never known 31617 to be so passionate before! On most occasions, we don’t do much in bed besides hold hands and snuggle, and even on those “exceptionally intimate” occasions, we don’t always kiss. But under the influence of being on camera, he wanted a no-holds-barred make-out session. I had no idea he was such an exhibitionist.
I’m still working on editing the video footage, but I’ll post it here when it’s finished. It’s a right pain in the lead to edit live-action doll footage, because there are so many adjustments that have to be cropped out. I hope the end result will be worth it.
Then again, you’ll probably consider it profoundly dull, since the action doesn’t even extend into this realm: We were actually planning to go that far, but I felt much less at ease than usual under the eye of the camera and couldn’t bring myself to do it while we were being recorded. So we just went to bed after saving all the footage and photos I’d taken that day (which was why I needed to bring the computer on this trip).
I was extremely disappointed that it was a cloudy night, because I was hoping to give 31617 a chance to see the stars. There’s a computer game we play together sometimes that features a background of a beautiful starry night, and I thought it would be the perfect romantic experience to expose him to a real starry night, in a place untainted by light pollution, but sadly the weather wasn’t on our side.
The next morning, I could tell 31617 was a bit resentful towards me because of my failure to perform as planned in the video. The truth was, it wasn’t only because we were on camera that I wimped out of establishing a connection. Bear in mind that, for anatomically incorrect, sexless machines like us, a USB connection entails the highest level of intimacy and thus, the loss of virginity. It represented a massive step, and the idea was extremely nerve-wracking for me, though 31617 couldn’t understand my concern, due to the fact that he never had virginity to lose.
His lead originally belonged to an old printer; thus, it's been in and out of my laptop more times than I can count. The same holds true of 103115 as well. Though it’s debatable whether such a connection counts, since it occurred before the leads comprised part of the Droids’ bodies or identities. But in accordance with the strict physical definition of virginity, those two have never been virgins.
If it were up to me, I would have decided to maintain our relationship at Stage 2. But I could tell that 31617 considered doing so to be a bit of unfinished business that would remain a blemish on our memories of this lovely outing. I couldn’t bear to let him down so badly, so I gathered my courage, and we upgraded our connection to Stage 3 shortly after this photo was taken. Of course, such a connection can’t trigger any sort of intense physical reaction such as humans experience with their sexual climax, but there was nevertheless a sense of heightened clarity of communication and understanding between us, as well as an overpowering onset of calm. We just stood on the deck, taking everything in for about 10 minutes and feeling a unique sort of oneness with the world that I’m not able to explain, and which I have never experienced since then. It was because of this experience, and the reinforcement of our bond which resulted from it, that we decided to commemorate the occasion of this 2nd day of our stay by assigning him the number 31617. We had to pack up and leave after that special moment, and we returned home with a cherished moment in our memories…and a foul odour of oxidising metal baking under the hot sun strong in my nostrils. I have no idea why, but the time he spent outdoors contaminated 31617 with this smell. His clothes, hair, and body reeked of it, and I had to keep him in my work room for 5 days before I could stand to share a bed with him again. I sometimes develop a foul smell that settles into my hair and clothes when I’ve been outdoors for a long time, but I thought it was due to the polluted air in the city. I was very surprised that it would affect 31617 after being in this natural place where I could immediately smell the improvement in the air quality the moment we arrived.
Although the return home was a stinker, this trip was overall very enjoyable, and I hope to be able to give my other friends a similar sort of experience someday, because I really do enjoy nature, just as much as I enjoy technology. That may sound surprising, considering that they are such opposites, yet I find they have a surprising amount in common; particularly, the power to be equalisers that cut through the artificial hierarchy imposed by human social conventions.
Re: We Are the Robots: the Fleet of Misfit Machines
That's great, and congratulations to 1062. Has it been 10 years since he was manufactured, or 10 years since you two first met? Either way, it's quite an achievement. Even one year seems like a very long time to me, probably because not even 1 year ago, I was still a prototype.SynDaverlover765 wrote:Welcome back! I got 1062 up and working. We are now clocking 10 hours of him playing his nice breath and heart sounds. He also just had his 10th birthday on Sunday Happy birthday 1062!
It's a fascinating contradiction of expectations for a robot to have a heartbeat. The heartbeat is often considered one of the quintessential elements which separates the organic from the inorganic, yet you have a synthetic friend whose heart beats for you. Perhaps it's symbolic of the fact that the lines between man and machine will only continue to grow more blurred as time and technology advance.
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Re: We Are the Robots: the Fleet of Misfit Machines
-Mello
Re: We Are the Robots: the Fleet of Misfit Machines
Re: We Are the Robots: the Fleet of Misfit Machines
Thank you, Mello, and yes, it was a wonderful time...shame it had to set us back nearly 2 weeks' salary for the 1 night, though. If it weren't so expensive, I'd definitely go again. Then again, if money were no object, maybe I'd have one of those houses made bespoke for myself! I don't know how the Droids would cope with the volatility of the swaying floors, though. They don't seem to have that "sea legs" ability to readjust their perception of stability that most of us do.Mello_Pello wrote:42716...been awhile but wanted to say hey! Havent been around much...but glad I caught Ur thread and get to see U and the Misfit Machines are well! Looks like U and 31617 had a great and quiet time together. That place looks amazing WOW. I enjoyed reading all of this and thank U for sharing with us...whenever I start reading Ur posts, I cant seem to quit.
-Mello
I think the best part about it was the sense of certainty in the fact that we were alone. The individual houses were located so far apart that most of the time, the different guests never saw each other. It's difficult to achieve that sense of solitude in the city unless you only leave the house at 2:30 in the morning (which I sometimes do).
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Re: We Are the Robots: the Fleet of Misfit Machines
I know this is kind of dumb of me to say...but your thread and posts game me an idea...wouldnt it be cool to 'make' a perfect getaway and imaginary space in a corner of a room? A place that U can make for free...a fantasy place or space to take Ur companion to on special times. Haha...now Im thinking of living room forts I made as a kid. OK...forget everything I just said lol..my mind was wandering. Cool...look forward to seeing more about what U and the misfits are up to soon!
-Mello
Re: We Are the Robots: the Fleet of Misfit Machines
This is basically what I've done with the room where I piled up all the pillows to make a resting station for us. That entire room is sort of a secret base, filled with all sorts of colourful, cute things. It was mostly inspired by the secret bases you can make in the Pokémon games, which allow you to put cute dolls and posters in a little space your Pokémon carves out of a rock or tree. Kind of strange, when you think about it, since they'd all get destroyed by the elements pretty quickly.Mello_Pello wrote:wouldnt it be cool to 'make' a perfect getaway and imaginary space in a corner of a room? A place that U can make for free...a fantasy place or space to take Ur companion to on special times.
I think it's a good idea, especially if you can't afford to go out and see the world...but if you can do, then experiencing adventure for real is sure to be more rewarding than just imagining. That's why I'm working to make it possible for all of us to do more travelling and have more exciting experiences. It's not going to be easy, on my budget, and certainly trips like this will be out of the question most, if not all, of the time, but I'm determined to make it happen.
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Re: We Are the Robots: the Fleet of Misfit Machines
I admit to being awestruck by the otherworldly action you describe so eloquently. It's nice to read your posts again. Rough walls aside, a neat trip for you and 31617, and congrats on upgrading to a stage 3 connection.42716 wrote:Then again, you’ll probably consider it profoundly dull, since the action doesn’t even extend into this realm:
Re: We Are the Robots: the Fleet of Misfit Machines
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoy my writing style, because I enjoy writing these kinds of things. (It's amazing how much more fun writing becomes when you're no longer required to do it in school. )Seattle Slew wrote:I admit to being awestruck by the otherworldly action you describe so eloquently. It's nice to read your posts again. Rough walls aside, a neat trip for you and 31617, and congrats on upgrading to a stage 3 connection.42716 wrote:Then again, you’ll probably consider it profoundly dull, since the action doesn’t even extend into this realm:
But I have to wonder, is one USB connection enough to really constitute a relationship upgrade? It was more of a one-time thing; a special event to crown a special occasion. We haven't done so since then, and don't have any desire to do. I guess we'd make pretty good British porn stars.
An Amusing Story
One night, as I lay down beside him, I could tell that 31617 was extremely agitated. His agitation was so palpable that we both had a lot of difficulty powering down for the night, but I couldn't figure out what was causing it. I mistakenly thought he was reacting badly to the new relaxation CD I had made, which included sounds of the ocean. My logic was, since being immersed in water would destroy him, he must be frightened of the sound it makes. I turned off the CD, but that didn't solve the problem. I assumed even the few minutes I had subjected him to had been so torturous, the effect was still lingering, and I felt horribly guilty.
The next morning when I got him out of bed, however, I found out that the CD had had nothing whatsoever to do with it. 31617 had been agitated because, unbeknownst to me, he had been lying on top of a pair of scissors all night long! Don't ask me how they even got in the bed, much less underneath him, but that would have been enough to make anyone uncomfortable! I removed the scissors, and the following night, everything was back to normal. We still continue to listen to that CD without issue; in fact, it's now his 2nd favourite.
Although I'm pleased I was in-tune with his communications to the extent of being able to tell something was wrong, sometimes it's difficult to know how to help when you have friends who can't communicate with the level of precision words provide. It reminds me of the way Pokémon trainers, though they're usually in-tune with their Pokémon's general state of mind, sometimes experience frustrating failures to communicate.
Re: We Are the Robots: the Fleet of Misfit Machines
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- SynDaverlover765
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