PRIDE DAY 9/1: ¡Viva The Outer Alliance!

[mbranesf]

I can't wait until it's officially 9/1 in my hemisphere.  I am posting my Outer Alliance Pride posts this afternoon, both here and at M-BRANE SF.  The one at the other site is a short clip from my novel-in-progress. The one below is an excerpt from my short story "The Robbie" which will be appearing in the anthology Things We Are Not in a few weeks. I'll caution readers that "The Robbie," while a science fictional story that deals with some serious issues, may end up being viewed by some readers as a  dirty gay sex story, and that is somewhat indicated in this short excerpt (even though it's not really). But what can I say? I'm a dirty boy.

But first, the Mission Statement of the grand new Outer Alliance:

As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity.  I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work.

From “The Robbie,” forthcoming in Things We Are Not…

Though it had already been two years since he and Jayson had gotten the robbie, Chad had still not gotten quite used to its appearance, which he found vaguely creepy during those moments when he wasn’t wanting to use it. Of course it didn’t look quite human. It was remarkably human-like but, like all robbies, it was obviously and undeniably a robbie. By careful design, Jayson had told him. “They didn’t want them looking so realistic that they could pass for humans,” he would say every single time that Chad mentioned his vague discomfort with the thing’s appearance. “People were afraid of them back then.”

 

But it looked too smooth and guileless, almost painfully too young. It was that simple, but it had taken Chad weeks to figure out what his source of unease actually was. Its body possessed the basic proportions of an adult human male in fine physical condition—was, in fact, probably designed detail-by-detail in some kind of ancient focus group made up of horny old samesex men and het women—but it was a bit too short, a bit too slight in frame, and its face was a bit too youthful and too soft. That boy-face and smallish frame were almost indecently incongruous with the thing’s extra-thick stick, its swollen balls that seemed about to burst through their taut sack.  The sight of the naked robbie was, Chad thought, probably somewhat like that of an unclad human teenager who had maybe hit his sexual prime a year or two before but whose body hadn’t quite caught up with his nuts.

“You know what?” Chad said, considering the naked robbie. “Come with me for a moment. I want to try something.”

The robbie waved away its monitor screen and stood, its upturned erection bobbing. Lack of any sort of body hair, Chad suspected, was maybe part of the problem.  “Come here.” Chad cupped the robbie’s chin in one hand and kissed its lips, pushing his tongue into its mouth. Despite the undeniable artificial weirdness of the robbie, it was remarkably lifelike in many regards. Chad could kiss the thing, close his eyes, and the experience would be virtually indistinguishable from kissing Jayson. The robbie’s mouth was as warm as a human’s, its spit had the same taste and texture and Jayson’s. Indeed, it could mimic any human’s bodily fluids perfectly.

“That was nice,” Chad said softly, his lips still brushing against the robbie’s. “I want to try to dress you in a new way today. Come with me to the closet.” He took the robbie by one hand and led it across the catwalk to the master bedroom.

“We’ve tried it so many times,” noted the robbie, following its master. “And I looked even younger last time.”

It was true. For some reason Chad had thought that dressing the robbie in the thickly padded uniform of a z-ball player would somehow add years. If anything, it had subtracted a couple. Before that, he’d clothed the robbie in a formal three-piece suit with a shimmering black tie. He had slathered his palms in glittered pomade and slicked back the robbie’s brown hair in a conservative style. He’d even given it a pair of wire-framed spectacles.  But the robbie had persisted in looking too boyish, that time like a boy getting ready to go to a school dance.

            “I know,” Chad said, excited now,  “but I have a new idea.”