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you bet your skin
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2 No potato
Show Ice "This is Ice, my sig one. Look at her. Whoa. I mean, her face, her skin. Isn't she incredible? And smart? Whoa, she's the smartest person I know. She has to be, the kind of work she does with social diseases and all, chromosomes that turn things off and on like Christmas lights, peptides and enzymes, gene markers. With what she knows she can turn an Ethiopian into an Eskimo and right back again. Pretty amazing. But she can be difficult. Sometimes I have to wonder." Run video, the other night Vinny and Ice are at the kitchen table. Two food platters pop out of a wall slot. He places a chili burger with fries in front of her. She curls her lip as she examines a French fry. "There isn't one bit of potato in it." "Yeah, it's that incredible?" "The potato stuff is made out of corn. "And I can't even tell the difference," says Vinny, stuffing half a handful into his mouth. "That's the point, Vinny. That's what I'm talking about." "What?" "You can't even tell the difference. Wake up." He stares at her, fries protruding from between his lips. Skip >>
He says to the video diary, "It wasn't always like this, not that first time in the park." Play park surveillance >> He narrates as we watch the video. "It was cold, and there we were, nose to nose, not more than twenty minutes after we met, and I have her there, against a tree, and it's like she's going for it, but at the same time, like she isn't, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I have her, and her big blue eyes, open wide, staring into me -- but no emotion. Nada. Stone cold, outside and in, and her skin, pale and dry, like marble. And the way she's looking at me, like I'm less than nothing, or like I'm, I don't know, maybe I'm everything. I can't explain it, what that stare is doing to me, and bang, I'm done, in total collapse, my head on her chest, and her barely even breathing, like a corpse or something. And I'm looking at her. What a face. Even synthetic skin isn't that smooth, that white, glacier-blue white. I just can't get enough of looking at her skin. And her, her eyes looking back at me, looking right through me. "And then she says, so tell me, Vinny, how do you feel about that? "Man, that really caught me off guard. I mean, what kind of question was that supposed to be? We hardly even knew each other. "So I say, OK, yeah, I feel OK. "And then she says, and me, Vinny, how do you feel about me? "And I say, you? I don't know, you? You're kind of, well, wow, you know what I mean? And she says, no I don't know what you mean. And I tell her, hey, well I guess, you're cool. "And she says, no. I'm not cool. "So, now I don't know what to say. So I say, you're not? "And she says, no, I'm not cool, not at all. "And I say, no? "And she says, I'm cold." And then, she doesn't say anything for a long time. And I'm waiting, and we're just standing there, my heart still pounding like a freight train; and then, just her lips say, I'm frigid. "Well, the way she said those words, man, that was really cold, like a knife in the kidneys kind of cold. I mean, whoa! And I have to admit it, because it's true, I say to her, whoa, yeah, you really are frigid. And then, her wide eyes get even wider than before, and just like that, I'm up and running again, and she breaks out in this big grin, and takes my head in both hands, and she's covering my face with kisses like she's never going to stop, like I'm the first guy that ever got the point. "Next thing I know, she goes and changes her temp name to Ice. Go figure." Pause But it's not like that anymore. Play last night Although Vinny and Ice are lying together in the same bed, each appears alone. Vinny is staring at the ceiling. Ice, her head hanging off the foot of the bed, peruses a list of PorNovels on her InVision. She gives a sigh of resignation and makes a selection. Play The Quickest Lust of All A Latin couple argues viciously in an elegant restaurant. The woman in red unleashes her fury on the hairy-chested man in the open leather vest. "How dare you look at her like that." The man raises an eyebrow. Her two-inch nails slash his face. Other diners gasp. Bleeding and proud, he touches his wound with his fingertips and looks at the blood. He rises slowly from the table, towering above her. "Do you know what I'm going to do to you?" Ice yawns and switches the channel to Carnal Cooking. A naked chef is carving ribs from a side of beef on a hook. Vinny says, "Hey, you know that old favorite? You know the one?" "Not that again." "No, really. I'll surprise you." InYa setup A female helper says, "Hello, Vinny. Nice to see you again. Who do you want to play with? Your recent selections have been Ice and Ice, and lets see, Ice... Now, isn't that unusual, all of your selections have been Ice." "Yeah, me and Ice, my sig one." "OK, now select from your style options."
Het-Male(s) Het-Fem(s) Bisexual(s) Gay male(s) Lesbian(s) Trans-Male(s) Trans-Fem(s) Geek(s) Creep(s) Freak(s) Animal(s) Mix & match Other
"Other style. Gothic," says Vinny and he winks at Ice. The helper says, "How do you like it? Traditional, Oral, Anal, Equipped, Torture, Snuff, Mix and Match, or Invent your own?" "We're feeling inventive." Ice turns away from him. A virtual image of Vinny and Ice appears on their linked InVision. The game begins as Vinny morphs into a vampire. The tips of fangs emerge from between his lips. He presses his cheek against the nape of her neck. She doesn't respond. Slowly, he touches a fang to the vein on her throat and slides the needle tip into her neck. Tiny drops of blood form a row of beads on her skin. "Tell me, how do you feel about this, Vinny." "What?" "About what we're doing." "What do you mean, what we're doing?" "OK, sex then. Tell me how you feel about sex." "I don't know, I just..." She rolls over, facing him. "Well then, tell me how you feel about anything." "What?" "There must be something that you feel something about. Tell me something, anything that I don't already know about you. "What don't you know?" "Aside from your favorite team, food, and kink." He's silent. "I mean there's got to be more, Vinny. Something actually about you, anything." He stares at the wounds on her neck. His puzzled look turns to worry. "I think something's wrong with me, my Interface is flaky, my bio-ID and my skin." He rubs his eyes with his knuckles. "I'm afraid I have BID poison." She scoffs, "BID poison is like smallpox and polio, been wiped out forever." "A lot of people still believe..." "People believe in vampires. Look, there's no such thing as BID poison anymore. So you can..." "You asked me for something important." "Don't worry about it." "You know diseases. You could check for me, just to be sure." "I just told you..." "No, really, you could check it out for me. Just to be sure. That's all I'm asking. I'd feel a lot better." She sighs. "Whatever." "So then, I can count on that? I can count on you?" She is incredulous. "You're asking me if you can count on me?" "Well, if it was the other way around." She laughs. "Me count on you. You've got to be kidding. Skip >> |
