Dear readers, I'm sorry it took so long to write this chapter. I've been busy with work recently, and frustrated by office politics, so I made this a very short chapter. Things should get better before too long though. I took inspiration from my real life for the beer game and the android who was frustrated with her Operator; I hope those parts aren't too boring. Enjoy the brief sex scene, there will be more to come. Also, any suggestions for where to take this story will almost certainly be accommodated.
LoverOfArtemis: thank you for reading. I will keep updating this, don't you worry. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 3: The Beer Game.
"Hello Hedon, I'm Operator 60. I was assigned to several YoRHa units, but now I'm assigned to just two of them and to you as well. Think of me as your personal assistant. If you ever need anything, just let me know. I'm so excited to finally be here on Earth for the first time, it's even more beautiful than I hoped, and it's especially exciting to meet a real human!"
"It's nice to meet you too, 60! Say, why are you wearing that veil over your mouth?"
"It's to prevent anyone from reading my lips while working as an Operator. We sometimes relate sensitive information to the YoRHa operatives we're assigned to."
"Then you don't need to wear it now?"
"No, not really, why?"
"Well, I'd like to see your face. It's a human thing, we like to see each other's expressions while talking."
"Um, I'm embarrassed, but okay." 60 removed the veil from one side of her face. She blushed, and looked down as she did so."
"I knew it!"
"Knew what?"
"How pretty you would look, you're gorgeous!"
60 blushed beet red, and couldn't speak. Her first time speaking to a real human and he reacted like this! He was handsome and young as well, which didn't hurt. Could he be interested in her? Ha! No way, like he would ever look at her romantically. Suddenly, he said something which snapped her back to her senses.
"What do you need to do now? Did you have any plans?"
"Oh, uh… I don't need to do anything right now, I was going to draw the nearby landscape. Why, do you need anything?"
"Not really, but maybe we could go together?"
"You want to? Alright, let's go!"
A2 had been spying on them from a distance, and saw them walk towards the outside of the camp. 'I thought he liked me. Is he flirting with her?'
"A2, stop crushing that part, it's valuable!"
A voice had brought her back to the moment. She looked down and saw a broken fuel filter in her hand. She had destroyed it in anger while watching Hedon with that stupid pretty android girl. Suddenly, she realized that Hedon might be in danger outside of camp without her protection. She chased after him, dropping the fuel filter on the ground.
"Hey, you need to pay for that," the Resistance android called after her, "it's valuable!
Hedon and Operator 60 sat on a slope outside the Resistance camp. They knew it was too dangerous to wander far, so 60 took in the surroundings, with her sketchbook sitting on her lap, her hands clasped together underneath her legs cutely.
"What the Hell…" A2 muttered under her breath as she stomped towards them.
Hedon, sitting besides 60, glanced behind at A2.
"Come to join us, A2?" he asked casually.
"Fuck you!"
60 jumped a little, startled by the ferocious yell.
"Paron?" Hedon casually said.
"You dingbats just stroll out of camp without a care in the world and without asking for escort? You think the clouds will shit candy on you? You'll sooner have your guts fisted out by a machine, but go ahead and have your little date you two-timing player dickwad."
60 was in a panic, "I'm so sorry, we'll leave right away, you're right, we-"
Hedon cut her off, "it's alright, we did nothing wrong." He turned his attention to A2, "well, someone's jealous. We're going to have a little chat in Anemone's room, you and I, and hash things out."
Hedon apologetically excused himself and followed A2; when they were alone, she took a deep, shaky breath. Her voice came as quiet as a whisper, and in the timbre of a whimper.
"I thought you loved me."
Hedon stood there dumbstruck, and A2 started crying.
"Damn it, why am I crying like a pussy ass bitch?"
"You are more to me than just my sidepiece. There's no one more important to me than you. I won't lie to you and say that I'll never look at another android, or that you'll be my only lover, but if you become my girl, I'll love and cherish you, that I promise."
A2 stopped crying, though tears were still in her eyes. She looked at him, a hint of vulnerability in her eyes, "if you're really willing to accept me, with my flaws and despite how I treated you at first, then I'll accept you warts and all."
The two embraced, and held each other comfortingly for a while. Hedon kissed A2 on the nose.
"You're cute when you cry."
A2 giggled shyly, "shut up."
"As you wish, my love."
He kissed her passionately. She kissed back awkwardly at first, but they soon found their rhythm. A2 was a fast kisser, which wasn't Hedon's style, but he liked her enthusiasm, and felt the eagerness on her rough lips. A2 soon started using her tongue; she really liked French kissing. A2 started unconsciously moaning, and Hedon started getting turned on. He led her by the shoulders to the bed, kissing her on the way. He pushed her down on the bed and climbed on top of her. Hedon kissed the neck of A2, and rubbed one of her breasts.
"Hmmm, what should I do?" A2 asked.
Hedon took one of her hands and guided it onto his crotch. She started rubbing, before sliding her hand into his pants and milking his cock a bit. Hedon groaned in pleasure, and took off his shirt. Following his lead, they took off what clothes they had on.
A2 was horny, and wanted to know what sex was like, especially with Hedon. She held his sides with her thighs. "Fuck me… please fuck me Hedon, now."
Hedon obliged, and slid into her pussy. It was a tight fit, and it took a bit to fit himself inside, but when he started pumping, A2's pussy fit like a glove. He rocked back and forth, rolling his hips. They were both experiencing more and more pleasure. Hedon had a hard time containing himself, he was so attracted to A2 that he finished after just 2 minutes. He was feeling embarrassed, and thought about making an excuse when A2 leaned her head back, sighed, and said, "that was amazing."
"There's more where that came from."
"There is?"
"Oh yeah."
The next round of sex lasted about 10 minutes, and the one after that over a half an hour.
"What were you doing in there?" a YoRHa soldier asked the pair after they emerged from the room.
"None of your business," A2 replied.
Hedon smiled, "we were just exercising." This earned him an elbow jab to the ribs from A2.
An hour and a half later, Hedon was sitting in the shade, reading a classified report about YoRHa unit production which he had cajoled an android into giving him.
"No no no, this is all wrong," he muttered to himself. This is inefficient. Hey Operator 17, or whatever you're called, come back over here!"
The android in question, who had handed him the report, scurried over.
"What can I do for you, sir?" she asked timidly. She feared she had done something wrong.
"Let me get this straight, YoRHa sometimes has to cease production of androids because you're waiting for parts to arrive?"
"That's correct, sir."
"And YoRHa contracts out to other android groups to supply certain parts for android production?"
"Yes, we are unable to produce everything we need ourselves."
"And lastly, YoRHa's production schedules aren't shared with the businesses which supply your contractors?"
"Should they?"
"Yes, they should."
'Why, that's classified information?"
"Have you ever heard of the beer game?"
"I haven't, what is it?"
"It's a supply chain game. There are four players: each player represents a level of the supply chain and has to place orders to the next highest level for how much beer they think they'll need during the next round. The amount of beer that's been requested will be subtracted from the next level of the supply chain's stockpile. Each round takes a week, and the idea is to not have way too much or way too little supply, because either way it costs a lot of money. Soon in the game, beer purchases skyrocket in stores, so the store starts placing large orders with the wholesaler, the week after, they start placing huge orders to the regional distribution center, and so on. It takes months for beer production and distribution to meet demand, and by that time, demand slows sharply. Everyone in the supply chain has placed so many huge orders by that point to the next highest level of the supply chain that when demand drops off, huge orders keep coming in for months, causing a lot of wasted inventory space and inefficiency. The best strategy in the beer game is for all levels of the supply chain to act in unison, sharing production and demand information and placing the same orders at the same time, this eliminates inefficiencies. That's what I propose YoRHa do in its production and warehousing efforts. This will also allow YoRHa to employ a Just In Time production process."
"What do you mean, Just in Time?"
As Hedon explained more of the lessons he learned in his finance program to the android, she took notes and asked questions. Eventually, the Operator excused herself to run some simulations to test Hedon's proposals.
2B seemed a little less cold than usual when she addressed Hedon, she even seemed a little apologetic.
"I'm sorry, sir, we need to check out several black box signals from missing androids which appeared in a nearby area. We will be back as soon as we can."
"Sounds good to me," Hedon answered, "just be careful not to attack the machines, unless they're aggressive to you. Also, there won't be anything you can do for your comrades, just destroy them, put an end to their suffering."
"What are you talking about?"
"You'll see, 9S. Safe trip to you both!"
After the two left, Hedon noticed a YoRHa combat unit kicking a rock hard in frustration. He approached her.
"Excuse me, miss, but what seems to be troubling you?"
It's my jerk of a handler, I can't stand her!"
"What did she do most recently?"
"There I was, having a servo glitch soon after rebooting for maintenance. I called my handler for help in diagnosing the problem, you know, before putting in an official maintenance request. Well in the middle of this, she asked if I had set my ECS to Dynamic as a recent YoRHa message instructed. I said I had, and sent her that part of my system log as proof that I had done it. She told me it was the wrong setting and to do nothing and wait for her to find the right one. I went and double checked the message, and verified that I had turned on the right setting. I knew what was going to happen: she was going to figure out quickly that I had done everything right, and then take a long time trying to figure out a way of weaseling out of admitting that she'd made a small mistake. That's exactly what happened. An hour later, she got back to me and without mentioning the setting, had me go through a series of random steps which couldn't have possibly fixed the problem. When that predictably failed, she told me to submit a maintenance request."
"That's a pain in the neck. I wish you hadn't had to go through that."
"Have you ever dealt with difficult people?"
"Of course, I did an internship for a hedge fund called Gondor Partners. There I worked hard 60 hour weeks, was focused and productive, did a great job, and still got yelled at." [Author's note: I have no affiliation with Gondor Partners, and I am aware that they are way too small to have an intern in real life. I chose to use their name because it's a cool name for a hedge fund, and they are one of the few hedge funds which actually perform well for their limited partners.]
"What should I do about her?"
"Well, my first idea is to get to know her as a person, and try to genuinely care about her. Who knows, she might warm up to you?"
"I don't see us becoming friends or anything, but I'll try what you advise. Thanks, you made me feel better."
"Anytime."
Hedon returned to his room with a smile in both his heart and on his face. He found A2 inside, laying on the bed, looking sexy as usual. He felt a warmth and beauty in his heart as he looked in her eyes. A faint smell of dusty electronics filled his nostrils from the room as he approached his favorite android waifu and sat on the bed.
"I really love you, you know," she said. Her eyes said that and more as he replied, "I know."
"Come here, handsome."
She grabbed his shirt and dragged him down into her arms and lips.
'So this is love,' she thought, 'no wonder humans obsessed over this feeling.'