"I can see exploring new systems as being lucrative!" he says. "Mining and such, finding palladium deposits or whatever the unobtainium is. I was thinking courier jobs, but I like your idea way better. And I think... I think maybe I did work for a exploring-systems company that I was doing corporate espionage for, possibly, hm, didn't mind its shady nature because I enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, or something? I feel like I could fill in those details later. And, hm, maybe I seduced you when I found you to take you home to my shady corporate masters, but halfway through the travel had a change of heart when you started talking about how happy you were to be free and I realized that my corporate masters would just enslave you again?" (That's not too much antagonism, is it? She doesn't seem to be having a problem.) "And that way we're on the run from everyone. I feel like being on the run from everyone is the best way to do this. Plus then maybe we have multiple shadowy villains to fight, and sometimes our villains can team up against us or something! I don't know why I seem to be turning this into a television show, I guess you're the one who called things episodes to start with. So it's your fault." He turns towards her, sticks his tongue out at her, and quickly turns back.

"Hmm. I feel like it might put something of a damper on our relationship if you were like 'I know I said all those nice things, but I was actually lying at you to enslave you for personal gain, but now I care about you and want you to have nice things', but it could be interesting to play that out! Though, um, potentially harrowing, for both of us? And I am into a certain amount of harrowing emotional experiences in my porn but I'm not sure how you feel about that. I'm all in favour of multiple villains in our television show, though."

"...that's fair, I suppose. It could be interesting to play out. Alternately, it could be the case that I just... don't tell you when I've had my change of heart, and so you don't find out until the midseason finale or something and we break up temporarily and get back together after the midseason break after having difficult individual adventures and realizing we love each other and need to be together." He semi-accidentally said that he loved her! Kinda. It was about his character. She knows that. It's fine. "Or something. Though that also sounds pretty harrowing. Possibly instead that can happen before they disembark. Or possibly he intended to steal the ship and when he finds out she's real and doesn't like being enslaved, er, well, being enslaved to people who mistreat her, I guess," blush "he changes his mind, so we don't have the midseason shenanigans." Also wow, he is really starting to think of their sex fantasy in terms of a tv show now. Why is this happening. 

"I am loving this imaginary television show we have made out of our sex life. Let's keep doing this forever. Anyway, I'm down for big midseason drama—assuming lots of cuddles after every episode—but we might want to start out with something easier and more lowkey, and only progress to the fantasies with big midseason drama once we're more experienced? In which case if we're planning to run this one soon, and I think we could as soon as I get the keys to the old house and some suitable costumes, we should probably keep it pretty light on the drama. I'm picturing a scene where, like, you're left alone with me—left alone in me, I guess—and this is your only moment to decide, you can't leave and have a moral crisis and come back, and you know you're going to steal me but you don't know who for, and you don't have anyone to talk to about it except me, and—I'm not you so I don't know how you play it from there, but I think the options are mostly good? My favourite option involves me noticing you're in turmoil and gently asking you about it and you spilling the whole story and me saying I'm willing to take my chances with what you'll decide when we're out of port, and then I give myself to you and we run away together and you decide on the way out that you'd rather be on the run with me than sell me into someone else's slavery. Please imagine I can use strikethrough text out loud when I add that my enthusiasm for sucking your dick may or may not be a deciding factor."

(He smirks a little about the left in her part.) 

"That does, um, sound like us," he says, thinking back to every instance of their interactions ever. "Also I bet as a spaceship you might have really good internal sensors and be really really good at picking up turmoil." As opposed to normal Rosy, who is apparently only merely really good. "I am uncertain how we get to 'I'm stealing you but I don't know who for' and 'I'll take my chances but I'd rather be anywhere than here' or however you want to do it, to you sucking my dick, though. Possibly I just am really attracted to you and you know this? Or, I guess you're designed that you have to belong to someone, and choose to belong to me? Um." He blushes. "Or possibly, um, you're an AI and my phone or personal computer is on your network and you look through my internet history or something and see what I'm into? Which is um, not entirely dissimilar to real life?" He blushes some more. "I know you didn't look through my internet history" thank goodness "but. Similar sort of idea." 

"It's definitely been part of this premise in my mind this whole time that I'm designed so that I have to belong to someone. Like, if you're rescuing me from slavery, I think the only reason I would go for 'sure I'll be your slave instead of someone else's slave' instead of 'what the fuck, how about we decide those questions separately' is if I don't get the option of not being a slave. Well, okay, being who I am as a person, I might also decide to do that out of a general attitude that if you're not sustaining at least a little psychological trauma in your personal relationships you're spending too much time in airports, but I like to think I'd still want to negotiate 'hello I would like to be your slave' from a position of strength if that was an option I even remotely had. So, my ship-self is fundamentally built around having a human captain, and can't function without one, on a truly fundamental level that we can't fix just by rewriting a little software or unbolting the evil circuit boards or whatever. And the only way to steal me is to steal my captaincy. But that's not to say that I'm deliberately constructed to want to fuck my owner, that part is just my personality. I would love to have my ship-self take a quick peek at your space internet history and find a ton of mind control porn and hit on you about it, that sounds adorable."

"...sorry, spending too much time in airports?" What? 

"Sorry, is that just my family? There's this, what I thought was a famous saying but might not be, 'if you never miss a flight you're spending too much time in airports', about like, where to set your level of risk. Because if you're spending all that time in airports to make really really sure you never miss a flight, that's time spent in airports you could've been spending having sex with your incredibly hot boyfriend at home, it's resources being put to use to get a result, and the cost of missing one flight is pretty small compared to the cost of spending whole days out of your year sitting in airports not having sex with your incredibly hot boyfriend. So you keep increasing your risk of missing flights until you miss one and you're like 'okay, that was too much, pull back', and then you're still mostly not missing flights but you're not spending nearly as much time in airports to achieve that result, and the efficiency of the whole system has improved. Does that make sense?"

"...I think your approach to risk may be slightly differently than mine." He plays back the earlier bit of conversation in his head. "Wait, you're doing this, um, airport logic with personal trauma? I mean, okay, I can see that, but also, um... are you okay? I guess you're ok. I don't want to um. Cause you trauma. Even if that means we have to spend more time in airports not having sex. Or something." 

"John, if I wasn't okay with risking some trauma in my personal relationships, I would not be magically enslaving myself to your will."

"...that's very fair. That's... that's very fair. Okay. I see what you mean. I still want to, um, help you leave early for the airport? I'm not sure this analogy holds up very well. I want to not cause you trauma even though you are in fact going to be enslaving yourself to my will." And soon! He should actually work on memorizing his lines! Tonight, even! 

"I am definitely on board with us putting effort into avoiding trauma!" she assures him. "I just, you know... I want to take all reasonable precautions, and carefully consider my risk profiles, and then do fun things that I want even though they may be objectively slightly insane. I want, for example, to try fantasies that involve harrowing emotional experiences, after we've spent a while getting comfortable with fantasies that don't, because I think fantasies that involve harrowing emotional experiences might be really fun once I get the hang of them, and I don't want to close off that possibility just because it's safer to never try it? Does that make sense?"

"...I think that makes sense," he says. What kind of harrowing emotional experiences, though. (Will they be the kind he likes that he can't currently do with her? Or should he really not be thinking like that. He should probably not.) "Let's work up to it at least? I like your idea of starting off smaller. Let's start off smaller and not end up showing up to the airport seven hours late the first time we go to the airport. But yeah, we can push things once we figure things out, I think." He's a little worried about Rosy being ok but also he wants to do fun things, and it sounds like she has fun things planned. But also he'll make sure to be careful. Or something. 

"I am all in favour of starting off small and gradually decreasing our margin for error, that seems like a very sensible way to do things. Anyway, we were talking about spaceships. Where were we—oh, you know, this isn't where we were but you never did answer, were you being ironic when you called the idea of my avatar being presented for your sexual gratification as a sales tactic 'disgusting'? I mean, it's morally abhorrent, I agree, but, you know, I'd've figured you would also have a different reaction."

He blushes. "I mean. I might have had some of a different reaction?" He totally did. "But it was disgusting. You're a sapient being! You, or the you-from-the-story being forced to um, sexually gratify man after man to help your creators sell copies of yourself" also wow okay he hadn't quite thought of it in those terms before that's a lot "might be, um, hot, but also... I feel like there would be trauma involved? Speaking of trauma. And not in a fun way. I think." He pauses. "I mean, okay, maybe, conceptually it's hot, but something about how it's presented also made it feel awful, I guess? It was both. It was definitely both." Also, look, there's his house! They're getting close to home, and then they will have to stop having this embarrassing line of conversation. 

Home is still probably a couple minutes away though, isn't it. Damnit. 

"I mean, I absolutely understand! By all means have and express that reaction! You're right, it's an awful thing for them to do! But that doesn't mean you can't also find it hot, you know? I... I want to see your nuance, John. I want to know what you think and how you feel about things. If you can't be honestly and completely yourself with the girl who plans to become your slave, I'm not sure you can be honestly and completely yourself with anyone, and that seems sad. Also I am just irrepressibly fascinated and enthralled by everything about you."

"I guess it didn't really feel right to call it hot," he says. "I just... it was a passing thought, it didn't mean anything, it wasn't important. I don't know if I could tell you every thought I have, we'd be here all day." Also there's no way he can tell her everything. Even if she wants him to be open and honest, even if she's enthralled with him. There are some things that saying them would hurt her or make her feel wrong (though Rosy has been remarkably and unusually resilient in that regard) and so he just can't say them. It's not a question of honesty, it's a question of good outcomes. (Right? Right?? No matter what that feeling is doing in his stomach that doesn't belong there.) 

"...okay. I can try to tone down the insatiable curiosity if you want."

"I..." she's clearly disappointed, from the way her head is hanging. Shit. Speaking of bad outcomes. "I can... try to share more? I don't want you to tone down the insatiable curiousity. I want you to be who you are." And he wants her to keep being just as in love with him as she is, apparently? Even though he doesn't deserve it, the idea that it could be taken away is worse. 

"Okay. But—it matters if you're comfortable, too, you know?"

Does it, though? "I... guess? I'd be willing to try, at least? I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable either, like your irrepressible nature is unwelcome. I... like that about you." He had not expected to say something like that. Apparently it's true, though? 

"Aww." She hugs her arms happily against her chest for a moment. "I'm glad."

A moment to consider her next words, and, "Well—try not to get too far outside your comfort zone? But... please keep in mind that for anything you might be thinking, any problem I might have with it is never going to be located in the part where I find out?"

That... doesn't sound entirely real. "If... you say so?" he says, slightly incredulous. 

"...I'm confused by your skepticism?"