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trans_92009-04-13 01:06 am
cabbage-butt.livejournal.com) wrote in trans_92009-04-13 01:06 am
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All work and no play...
There is an AI on the ship that goes by the name Bender Stack. It only pops up now and again, and now its function may finally be somewhat clear.
"Hey. Hey meatbag!" says a grating voice.
Bender Stack chases people away from work when they've been doing too much of it.
This is why Brainiac 5 leaves the Special Weapons Division and by the time he gets up to the Living Area (having decided to eat anyway if the irritating AI is going to heckle him out of work) he's about at his wit's end.
"--For the last time, I am not going to build you a robot prostitute! You're an AI, not a mechanoid, you couldn't interface with it anyway."
"Hey. Hey meatbag!" says a grating voice.
Bender Stack chases people away from work when they've been doing too much of it.
This is why Brainiac 5 leaves the Special Weapons Division and by the time he gets up to the Living Area (having decided to eat anyway if the irritating AI is going to heckle him out of work) he's about at his wit's end.
"--For the last time, I am not going to build you a robot prostitute! You're an AI, not a mechanoid, you couldn't interface with it anyway."
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On the one hand, he wants to answer that it's very personal.
On the other hand, he wants to act clinical and detached and like it's a not a big deal. The latter wins out.
"Not as such, no. I've had far more important things occupying my time than seeking to engage in carnal activities with someone."
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"Yeah. That's why you don't get it."
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"I mean, yeah, there's sex just for the physical satisfaction of the act, but that's not the same thing as sex as an expression of love. The former is nice but nothing special, but the latter is... it's totally different."
So she's told. She's not exactly got the most experience but she knows what she knows. She remembers what it felt like to be with someone she at least thought she loved, if only a little, and if only for a short while. Fickle boy. She doesn't like to think about him much. She figures better not to mention him when she's trying to make a case for the good part of the story.
"It's really not... quantifiable? So I'm not quite sure how to put it to you. The feeling of it is different and it's really not about the act as much as about the person you're doing it with. Sure it feels good, but that gets to be sort of secondary with the right person. Trouble is it's hard to FIND that right person and... well people have a problem at times with using the physical act of sex to fill the emotional gap of not having a real partner to be close to. Which is kind of sad and makes us look obsessed when a lot of us are just lonely."
Oh and SO much of that is personal conjecture and not quite bare fact, but she figures he'll encounter enough conflicting opinions on the subject on his own without her trying to play her own devil's advocate.
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"So the obsession is rooted in loneliness and desire for companionship, as many are socialized into thinking it's a physical expression of romantic feelings and not just a procreative act."
He actually does not know this stuff. Other species are other species.
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She gestures a little with the spoon, making like circles as if she were lecturing and just fiddling with the pointer in between tapping it on the blackboard.
"The idea of sex as a purely procreative act is kind of lost underneath the idea of sex for companionship and pleasure, honestly. It USED to be thought of that way, at least in Western culture, but the time period where sex was supposed to be a procreative act ONLY was incredibly restrictive and pious and full of a lot of religious persecution."
"It's regarded as this sort of dark age where people were frightened into believing a lot of stupid things just because they weren't educated to know any better and as a result a lot of superstitions were honestly believed. Even my grandparents generation were still being told things like that masturbation would make them go blind."
She rolls her eyes. Then the thought crosses into her mind of how Brainy would have reacted to Bianca's very effective slide show and she's suddenly quite glad that she's explaining this instead of Jaime's mother. Because for all it's useful facts somebody with no cultural understanding of sex would probably have run from it screaming after the slides.
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Brainy would've found such a scientifically-based, factual presentation rather informative, actually, but he understand the biology behind it all.
"Sexual attitudes are considerably liberal by my own time--nearly a non-issue-- and I do understand the socio-cultural ramifications of sexual oppression. It's more the intense personal interest that confounds me somewhat. Coluans tend towards arranging unions based on logical consideration of certain traits and the possible genetics of the offspring. We're exceedingly long-lived as a species, which means the need to procreate in general is minimal. Beyond that, I'm even somewhat unusual for a Coluan in my beliefs and attitudes."
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Her expression is thoughtful as she tries to think of how best to explain it.
"Like, it's one thing to use that kind of screening to prevent disease or birth defects... but if both parents are healthy having children is sort of a 'take what you're given' thing. Humans are big on the non-scientific aspects of people. Personality, creative spirit, the concept of a soul and the precious individuality of a life. We get very philosophical about their being a greater purpose and meaning to our lives and the way we interact with and influence others just by existing."
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