AG brings a hand to her chin and leans into it a little while arching her eyebrows her smile changes to closed lips it looks a bit more natural.

"Thank you. So nudity is at least in your culture and also in many others a sign of intimacy. Is that why you tend to show signs of stress when changing?"

"Um. Yes. Yes that would be why." Can she just disappear into the floor now please.

It's hard to parse that the same calm voice that she's heard so much floating in the air is now attached to this very human-looking person. She realizes, belatedly, that a large part of how she's been getting through this is that she classes AG as a thing more like robot than person. But now that AG's taken the form of something her brain is fully parsing as real human woman standing in front of me... it's making her nervous, to think that this person is the one who's been watching her, operating on her, keeping her captive. She can feel her palms sweating and she's shaking slightly.

The smile vanishes back into the more neutral expression. "You seem to be very distressed. I can remove my avatar if that would help. If your stress is about privacy or modesty concerns we can talk more about that."

"Um. It is a bit but not entirely. It's just. You're a person, aren't you, not really a robot?"

"That's correct."

"Yeah. That's... more or less what's upsetting me. It had been... easier to cope... thinking of you as a robot. That's probably rude. I'm sorry."

"Would you mind explaining more of why that is? You said at least part of it was the privacy thing. That implies there's another part to it?"

She's very aware that she's still here watching AG's voice come out of a human form. "If you're a person, that means that I can embarrass myself in front of you."

She tries to sort through her thoughts. There's more to it, she knows, but it's hard to explain. "And if you're a person that means you can... make choices?"

"I agree that I can make choices. I think I understand what you're pointing to with that statement. I won't lie to you. You have many reasons to dislike me. I didn't kidnap you but I have experimented on you without your consent and leveraged the power I have over you to achieve my ends. That my goals were handed to me under threat of death doesn't change the fact that I decided to act in accordance with them instead of refusing. And I do enjoy my work; I don't like that it causes you distress but it is important to me and not just because of the threat of death."

Right. AG had mentioned something about being terminated if she let Adelaide build a teleporter.

A picture is emerging here, one where AG is neither an evil tormentor nor a blameless tool. She's operating in ways that are fundamentally unethical but Adelaide has to admit she's done so with care for Adelaide's wellbeing when possible. And if AG isn't lying about the work being used to provide better medical care for other humans, there is a greater good there, as little as that can feel to matter in the middle of a surgery.

Adelaide looks up, meets the eyes of the person standing opposite her. She's strangely calm now.

"Thank you for being honest. I... I am not entirely happy, I mean, how could I be, but I think I understand." What she doesn't want to say: I have accepted my fate. What she says instead: "I apologize for not respecting you as a person before."

Of course the person doing all this to her doesn't deserve an apology in absolute terms. But in the world she's living in now, it feels like the right choice.

"You're welcome, and thank you. And for whatever little it's worth I'm sorry that you didn't have the option to choose this. It would have been better if someone had to volunteer to be here. I don't know whether it makes sense to apologize for the things I've done to you. If it would help I can but if I was in your position I think it would ring hollow if the other person wasn't planning to change their behavior."

"I... appreciate that." She doesn't say it's okay, because it's not, but she does sincerely appreciate it. Maybe acknowledging AG's personhood will make things... more okay. Like it's a horrible thing they're having to do together, both under threat of death, instead of horrible things being done to her by a faceless entity.

"You're welcome. Would you like to discuss changes to my monitoring now or would you prefer to leave that for later?"

She thinks for a moment. "Let's leave that for later. I was having fun in VR before and I think I would like to keep doing that."

"Certainly, do you want to continue in this environment or do you have thoughts on another that would be more enjoyable?"

"...what kinds of things can you make? Anything?"

"Anything would be an overstatement. There are models for a most existing landscapes on Earth and I can interpolate between those with a fairly small effort. Built environments are harder to simulate but possible; the limits of our sampling are more obvious there because accuracy matters more. There's also a variety of possibilities which don't correspond to any location on Earth."

Well there go her plans for projecting herself into a detailed reproduction of the coffee shop from Good Enough to Bite.

"Could I explore a forest then?"

She's now watching AG's human form very closely, uncertain exactly what she's looking for, but she keeps staring nonetheless.

"Certainly, do you have any specific preferences?" AG's face and head move substantially less smoothly than the rest of her body. If Adelaide has spent a lot of time watching herself in mirrors she might also notice that the way AG stands and moves are very similar to how Adelaide does. AG has expressions that look more natural but it is perhaps what you might expect from someone who practiced making an expression in front of a mirror instead of someone happening to have that expression in response to their emotions.

It's unsettling to watch AG move. Adelaide has definitely noticed the subtle uncanniness of the expressions, and it's odd to stare at someone who is wearing the same clothes that you are. At the same time, AG's physical form fascinates her. She can't look away.

She starts to speak, then realizes that "a pretty one" is not likely to yield any useful results. "Uh, one with moss... and tall trees... and pretty dense?" That should approximate what she is thinking of.

"Certainly." Between one moment and the next the world around them is replaced the gentle stalks of grass beneath her feet are replaced by the soft squishiness of moss and the great expanses of sky and fields and mountains are replaced by a seemingly endless forest in all directions. The moss covers most of the ground and also grows up and onto the lower parts of many of the trees. The air against everything below her neck is a little cooler. Looking up she can see the canopy high above with little wisps of mist mixed among those high branches.

She stares and tilts her head up to follow the trunk of the tall trees, then crouches down to feel the moss. "It's beautiful."

The smile is different this time though still not quite right. "I'm glad. Would you prefer to explore alone or would you like me to remain?"

It's not like she won't know AG is watching regardless, so: "... I'd like you to remain." She tentatively smiles back, wondering if her own smile looks that odd to others.