Love Is Hell
Chapter Twenty-One: Robotic Immortality
Author's Note: For those who don't know, I believe that they are in the process of making Lord of the Rings in 3D. I don't know for sure if this is legit, but I sure hope so! Naturally, read and review, and as always, when one reviews, I normally reply!
After the movie had ended and everyone was back in their cars, Kate drove Sheldon and herself back ot the apartment. As they entered the apartment, Kate placed the car and apartment keys in the bowl per her routine, went into the kitchen and got herself a can of Diet Coke. Likewise, she handed Sheldon a bottled water, and he thanked her for it. As they sat on the couch, the door opened; Leonard and Penny entered, holding hands. Howard and Bernadette were the next pair to enter, and then it was shortly Amy and Stuart. They were boisterous about the Lord of the Rings movie, and even Amy, who never really shown interest in fantastical or science fiction movies or the generes as a whole, was enthusiastic. She sat beside Kate on the far right of the couch.
Kate looked at Amy.
"So did you enjoy yourselves?" asked Kate.
"For the most part, although I was rather confused. A point of inquiry: At what point does the Fellowship reunite? Surely they have reunion." Amy stated.
"You haven't read the books or watched the 2-D movies?" asked Kate curiously.
"I know of the plot but the details were never spent on me," Amy replied. "You're forgetting that science fiction or movies depicting fantasy play have never interested me, thus I've never taken the time to learn the details." She smiled broadly, saying, "But the plot intrigues me."
Stuart enlightened Amy on the details of the Fellowship, and the details throughout the books, and the distinguishable characters and how they evolved. Amongst them, they agreed that Aragorn and Gandalf were the most interesting of characters, but Kate was beside herself.
"I personally admire Arwen," stated Penny. "She's beautiful."
"Of course she is," Leonard said. "That's why she was given the Evenstar."
"I remember that," Penny noted. She glanced at Kate who was in the kitchen; apparently, she was going to make brownies.
"Hey," said Penny, standing and walking into the kitchen. "Who's your favorite character?"
"Male or female?" asked Kate.
"Doesn't matter," said Penny.
"Legolas," Kate remarked immediately.
"Why?" asked Penny.
"Why?" repeated Kate. She smirked, saying, "First off, it's Orlando Bloom. Second, Legolas is an Elf. Must I say more?"
Sheldon stood and accompanied her in the kitchen while Penny sat in Kate's spot to be next to Amy. The girls talked about the dresses in Lord of the Rings, and the pretty magical things happening. Amy was partial to the kingdom of Rivendell. Leonard liked the Shire; Stuart and Howard had to agree that their favorite character was Frodo. Sheldon sat on the left stool, watching Kate put the brownie mix, butter, and milk in the bowl.
"Kate," said Sheldon softly.
Kate looked at him.
"Yes, Sheldon?"
"Might I invite you in a conversation?" Sheldon asked. "I'm presuming that you can talk and bake simultaneously?"
Kate mixed the ingredients in the bowl and smiled at Sheldon as she set the oven to 360 degrees.
"Sure. Go 'head."
"All right," said Sheldon. "Given the choice of being either a Hobbit, Man, Elf, Dwarf, or a Wizard—in your case, a Hobbit, Woman, She-Elf, She-Dwarf, or a Witch—of the choices provided, which would you choice?"
Kate stopped stirring for a ten second pause, looking at him thoughtfully.
"Hmm...I'd say 'She-Elf'."
"Point of inquiry," said Sheldon. "Why?"
"Immortality, Sheldon," Kate drawled. "Lack of sickness and I get to keep my beautiful face." She indicated her features with a circular motion with her finger and she grinned sweetly at him. "You?"
"I'd choose the same," said Sheldon.
"And why?" Kate replied.
Sheldon clasped his hands slowly, looking at them for a second's thought then looked at her. It was the expression that befuddled Kate long ago when she had kissed him briefly...the same that was unfathomable and lacking definition to whatever emotion it possessed. Kate continued mixing the batter until there were no lumps.
"Like you, I'd choose the race for immortality," Sheldon said. "Light on my feet, invulnerable to sickness and disease or over all fatigue, and exceptional archery. Imagine the skills I'd possess considering I'm exceptional currently with archery; I'd be an excellent marksman. Consider this: I'd not only be the Homo-Novus of this generation but in the Middle-Earth, would I not be considered a god."
Kate shrugged considerably, saying, "One may say you would be." She poured the batter in the pan and then placed it inside the oven. She set the timer then turned to him. "But even Elves can't survive fatal stab wounds; in the third movie, we found that one out when Haldir was stabbed in the back...literally."
Sheldon looked at her pointedly. "That wasn't the basis of my thesis, Kate."
"Really?" asked Kate. "You'd choose Elf kind for immortality. What am I missing from your thesis?"
"My thesis, Kate, is being immortal. What I get from it is another thing completely."
"Good-bye, Kate, Sheldon..." Kate glanced up and saw the Leonard, Penny, Howard, Bernadette, Amy, and Stuart were leaving. Sheldon bid them farewell, and Kate waved and hoped to see them again tomorrow. At that point, Leonard reminded her that tomorrow was Wednesday, Comic book day and Halo night. They left shortly when Kate gave them a mild glare—like she needed reminding. When the door closed, Kate looked at Sheldon.
"What is the other thing you get from it completely?" Kate replied. She turned to watch the dishes—the cups, the bowl in which she had mixed her pancake batter, and the spoon. She turned on the water, added soap to the sponge, and started washing.
She felt Sheldon's hands touch her shoulders, line their fingers along her shoulder blades, then skim down her back to link around the front of her abdomen. The single gesture made her shudder pleasurably, her mind lapsing in the objective of dish-washing. Sheldon's lips touched her ear, and he spoke quietly.
"Kate, immortality is living forever," Sheldon murmured. "Buy into that, and you can do so many things in more than several lifetimes."
Kate slowly continued washing the dishes but her mind was not understanding her activity; it repeated—washing the same bowl, the same bowl, the same bowl, the same bowl...
"Yeah," Kate muttered.
"Unfortunately, I've realized that I don't have that many lifetimes," he said softly. "So everything I should have discovered and understood when I'm three hundred I'm forced to discover and understand by my seventieth birthday."
"Yeah," Kate managed. "It...it is sad." She put the bowl in the tray beside the sink for the dishes to dry. She started on a cup. But the task was monotonous. Sheldon moved his hands from her abdomen to her hips, his fingertips pressed down on her skin as they moved under her shirt. Kate heard him sigh in a way that she'd never heard exhale from him. It was hardly restrained, holding one of fervor.
Kate set the squeaky clean glass in the tray with the squeaky clean bowl. She began washing another cup and the task, just like with the other items, was automatic.
"Then again," Sheldon muttered thoughtfully. "One can pursue the ingenuity of immortality—calculate the years spanning from the average individual and collect the data of 100-year-old elderly men and women, list their anomalies of life, gather these enigmas into one database." Sheldon smiled against her neck and said, "Begin utilizing the surreptitious factors into daily living, make an algorithm of its affects, and with the two of us comparing our adverse affects, we can sustain immortality."
He smiled, saying, "Consider the following, Kate. By interviewing approximately two-hundred men and women who have lived past a century, itemizing their secrets to daily life, we can live more than two hundred years."
Kate felt his hands move along her abdomen underneath her shirt; his fingers made one, slow movement down her rib cage.
"Longer than what can be said about a Windows Vista," Sheldon added.
Kate smiled. Ha, flashback humor. She shrugged her shoulders and said pointedly, "True. But by the time you finished talking or managed talking to two-hundred biddies, they'd eventually croak; they still die. That's not immortality."
"Ah," Sheldon replied, "The only flaw in the ever-clever design."
He touched his hands to her hair, moving it over her right shoulder. He touched the nape of her neck with two fingers and drawled into her left ear, "This is where I'd put your micro chip by the way, if you wanted to become an android."
Kate felt his cool fingertips ever so slightly stroke downwards from the start of her neck and stop between her shoulder blades, over which her clothes became a barrier.
"Wouldn't an android last longer than immortal old-timers?" asked Kate lightly.
"Physically, yes. But the only flaw I've found is when a brain is placed in a self-aware robot, the form of the robot is consistent while the mind, after having been exhausted for centuries eventually wears down. Point to be taken into consideration that in spite of Ra's ability to maintain a physical physique by bathing in the Lazarus Pit, his mind, unlike his body, isn't rejuvenated. He only becomes more insane with every century passing," Sheldon stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
Kate started washing the silverware—the task was auto-pilot. Kate mainly stared at the running water while she become aware that Sheldon was—whether he understood it or not—seducing her.
"Another downfall in making a human into an android is that in spite of their brain activity depleting, the endocrine system, although unaware of its absence, still maintains an importance in the brain." Sheldon touched her lower backside; his lips were on her neck. "When connected with another android, its brain activity would become hyperactive, recognizing an opposite sex; only become more rebellious to its owner when the humanity in its system becomes more and more biologically primitive."
Sheldon kissed the nape of her neck in one motion, but it left Kate feeling hot underneath her clothes. She had finished the dishes but the water continued running. He kissed her flesh again but this time with his tongue. What had gotten into him...?
Kate turned off the water faucets and turned quickly. She pushed her mouth against his, wrapped her arms around his waist and moved him towards her. Kate gasped when he hiked his hands behind her knees and pulled them around his waist and her body up on the sink's edge. Situated carefully upon it, Kate pulled him to her even closer, her fingers grabbing his shirts; she wanted him.
Sheldon touched her thighs, moving from her knees and then her inner thighs. Kate sighed into his mouth, her insides burning.
"Of course if the android did decided to turn on its owner, in this case, it'd be me," Sheldon stated pointedly, "there would be a switch in a designated spot to which one simply flipped and then regain control of its mechanism." Sheldon smiled at her, saying, "In this case, Kate, it would be..." (he kissed her throat) "right here."
"Instead of regaining control of a horny android, why not give it the opposite sex?" asked Kate inquisitively.
Sheldon smiled at her, saying, "Wouldn't you think I've already thought of that?"
"I'd figure so, but, tell me anyway." Kate told him. She pushed him from her and was on her feet, but Sheldon took her arm and spun her towards him, so her back was against his chest. Kate looked at him over her shoulder.
"The brain still retains its memory, Kate," said Sheldon logically. "You place the brain in an android and it will still remember its past—events, family member identity, loved ones...sexual relationships."
Kate looked at him, saying, "And why would that pose a problem?"
"In your case, Kitten, even in android form, you would still be attracted to me, your master, in every form." Sheldon stated. "So by giving you what your brain desires is not only illogical, but unethical. If one robot fondles its masters affections, how will he terminate it once it has become indestructible madness?"
Kate smirked, saying, "So you're telling me that if you turned me into a robot, someone else would have had to make me because I'd still hold memory to our sexual encounters. By being my maker and my compatible mate, it'd only doom humanity."
Sheldon nodded, saying, "Surprisingly, Kate, yes. That's what I'm telling you."
Kate smirked, replying, "Would it only benefit humanity if I was destroyed the idiotic majority?"
"True, but because you are a robot, I have no one else to preserve the intellectual minority," Sheldon responded. "Long ago, we compromised that decision to procreate with one another—if you're a robot and I am human, it'd be, not only unethical and wrong, but impractical."
"Also true," Kate responded. "So rather than making an Android Kate and risk my anticipated apocalypse for lacking of having coitus with my master, you'd rather spend hundreds of hours interviewing old people for the secrets of life, possibly living two-hundred more years."
"Either one is predicated on what we do right now," Sheldon told her.
Kate smiled when the brownies dinged ready.
"Does it necessarily have to be making me into an android or talking to old people?" asked Kate curiously.
"Not necessarily; brownies are just as good." Sheldon told her.
"Good," said Kate. She turned in his arms and kissed him lightly on the lips. He returned it automatically. "Now, what I turned you into a robot? Would I have to destroy you?"
"Of course not," Sheldon replied.
"Why not?"
Sheldon touched her cheek and kissed her gently on the mouth, where there was an undertone of passion and sensuality hidden. Kate felt it.
"Because, Kate. By the time I've become a robot, our generation would have become smart enough to make anyone who wants to be a robot into a robot. You and I would be paired robots—and then we'd join the robotic war against humans—ATM machines leading, of course." He kissed her on the cheek and then began to get the brownies out of the oven.