Autumn Wind

"What happens if I don't take this one?"

"You'll get the worst case of the munchies you've ever had."

"Note to self..." he smiled and pulled up a chair. "What are you working on?" He didn't know if he liked the smile that spread across her lips when he asked that.

"Oh, just a few quick updates." Samantha replied slyly. "This over here, though..." she pointed at the loading screen on her other monitor, "this is what I'm really excited about. I'd hoped it would be ready before you got here, which it wasn't, but I think it'll be wrapped up in the next few minutes."

"And what's that?" he said as he unscrewed the cap on each bottle. The nanites sparkled in the dimly lit room, almost of their own accord. Considering the sparkle he'd seen run over Samantha's eyes during changes in the past few hours, he figured that's exactly what it was.

"Not 'what'." Samantha smiled as Ethan downed the first pill and then the second. He coughed a bit and nodded in thanks when Samantha handed him a glass of water. They were a little rough to get down, but he could feel the effects within seconds. There was a little wave of vertigo that lasted for about two minutes, during which he leaned forward with his head in his hands. Samantha patted him on the back a bit until he offered her a thumbs up.

"You ready to start playing?" Samantha asked.

"Playing what?"

Before Samantha had a chance to answer, there was a loud 'ding' from her computer speakers. The loading screen on the righthand monitor had reached 100%.

Squealing in excitement, Samantha ran over to the computer and entered in a quick command.

"What was that, again?"

The second monitor faded to black before becoming populated with a new menu screen that Ethan hadn't seen before. He watched as Samantha dropped open a SUBJECT menu and selected both of their names, closed the menu, and selected UPLOAD in the bottom righthand corner.

"Wait! What is this, Samantha?"

"I told you, Ethan. Not 'what'," she smiled and spun her chair towards him, "the better word would be 'who'." Looking off into the distance, Samantha called out, "Holly! Introduce yourself, please."

Ethan gasped as he heard a voice as if it was right next to him. It was soft, feminine, and young sounding. He saw a picture in his head of a pretty young woman sitting in a chair, looking at him with a smile.

"Hello, Ethan. I'm HOLLY, your friend and A.I. CHANGE Integration System. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The picture in his head changed, and Ethan had the impression the girl was holding out her hand.

"Go ahead," Samantha said as she stifled a laugh. "Say 'hello'."

"Hello?" Ethan said and held out his hand. The girl reached out and took his hand, and he felt her hand on his. It took everything within him not to immediately snap his hand back.

"Holly is an AI system I adapted in order to work the CHANGE app wirelessly. She listens to your thoughts and can help implement changes you need." She stood up and walked toward him. "She can also access the part of your brain that registers sight, so you should be able to see her pretty soon."

Ethan watched as the girl in his head counted down on her fingers.

Three.

Two.

One.

She appeared in front of him, as real as Samantha was. Except she was a hallucination.

"Not a hallucination. Not technically." She said. "More of an 'augmented reality' system."

Ethan looked between his girlfriend and this new A.I. before smiling. "This is really, really fucking cool."

Samantha jumped up and down a little bit in excitement. "Come on!" she took his hand and led him toward the living room. "It's time to play!"

-

"What would you like?" Ethan held up a bottle of rum in one hand and the bottle of vodka in another.

"Are you going to make us drinks?" Samantha lowered herself onto her couch, enjoying seeing Ethan make himself more at home. He navigated her kitchen easily, familiarizing himself with where everything was located.

"Well, we don't have a lot of options here for mixed drinks, but I can work a little magic." He flipped the vodka bottle in a practiced motion. "I did bartend for a few years in college." His eyes flickered over to the image of Holly sitting cross legged on the floor near the TV before turning back to Samantha. The AI was distracting him. She was beautiful, with a small build and kind eyes. Her black hair was cut short in a pixie cut, and impossibly purple eyes stared out over a tiny nose. She wore a matching outfit to Samantha's, with a small tank top, leggings and a sweater.

"We can do daquiris," he held up the rum, "margaritas," he pointed at a bottle of El Espolon in the cabinet, "or... do you have eggs?"

"Yeah, in the fridge."

He opened up the door and pulled the carton out. "Have you ever had a real lemon sour?"

"Like the shot?"

"Nope. But you're about to try one!" And he quickly got to work on making drinks.

Samantha watched him as he moved. He seemed so confident working in the kitchen, and that gave her ideas that she filed in the back of her head, before she realized that she didn't need to file them away herself.

"Hey, Holly?" she thought in the direction of the AI girl sitting on the floor.

"Yes?"

"Remind me later on that Ethan would look wonderful as either a hot little housewife or a sexy maid."

"Will do, Samantha." Holly smiled, offering a wink.

A feeling of pride swelled in Samantha's chest as she watched Holly's ultra-realistic movement. While the CHANGE app was the most incredible thing she'd ever worked on, Holly was what she was most proud of. Her whole life she'd been obsessed with role-playing games. Countless hours were spent just rolling up new characters and writing their backstories. During college, between the cacophony of bullshit she dealt with, she found solace in her schooling and in her characters. Holly had always been her dream; to make a character that she could interact with in real life. And she'd finally accomplished it.

"So, uh, girlfriend?"

"Yes, Girlfriend?"

"What exactly is Holly?"

"Well, she's kind of like Siri. Only better."

"Much better." Holly spoke up, a look of disdain on her face. "That child has nothing on me."

"Child?" Ethan asked.

"Child." Holly affirmed. "I haven't spoken to any children, but interacting with that program must be similar to what it's like for you to speak to a newborn human. They eat, they sleep, and they poop, and then they need you to do everything else for them. Siri does a few things very well, but they're mostly useless things. Like shitting."

Samantha laughed on the couch. "Holly here was written up to be a hands-free link to the CHANGE app. It was only when I was handed the gig with the nanites that I realized the potential if I were to immigrate her into the technology." She waved at Holly, sitting on the floor. "And now, we have an augmented reality AI system that we can communicate with."

"I can also help you two keep in contact with each other." Holly piped up with a smile. "You can communicate long distance like that." She snapped her fingers, and Ethan was surprised to hear an audible SNAP.

"So, if you're with us, nobody else should be able to see you, right? Or hear you?"

"That's correct." Holly said.

"Wow." Ethan looked off into the distance as he strained first the lemon sour, with its merengue top, and then the daquiri into a pair of four-ounce cocktail glasses. "So, Samantha." The carpet was soft beneath his toes as he stepped out from the kitchen.

"Yes?" she said, taking the glass from him.

"What kind of game are we playing tonight?"

"Well..." she said before taking a sip. Her eyes opened wide at the sharp flavor. "What's this?" she pointed at the white foam layered on top of the drink.

"It's a merengue made of egg white." He dipped his finger into the foam and brought it to his lips. "You shake the whites with the whiskey and the alcohol cooks the egg at a chemical level. The shaking motion aerates it all and you're left with this delicious, frothy, creamy textured layer on top."

"It's delicious."

"Thank you." He raised his drink. "Now, the game."

"Oh. Yes. I was thinking we could start with a game of cards."

"Sorry, that's not what I meant. I mean, what is this game? What are we working towards?" When Samantha cocked her head, he continued. "I'm living with you, my new girlfriend—"

Samantha raised her glass to toast his.

"—for a whole week. And apparently, she—I mean we, are into some really kinky shit. And we have an app that let's us change each other. This all sounds very sexual."

Shrugging, Samantha agreed. "Yeah."

"So, what are our limits?"

"Limits? I guess just tell me if we're going somewhere you don't want to go. But, that being said, we've absolutely got to test some boundaries with this tech, Ethan. There's just too much we could do not to take advantage of it."

"I agree, but..." he sighed and slumped back. "I'm sorry. I don't know how to ask this."

"Well, I may have an answer for you." She crawled over on top of him and kissed him softly on the mouth, taking his bottom lip in her teeth for a tiny, intimate moment. "Don't feel awkward making sexy changes tonight, baby. I fully expect tonight to end up in the bedroom."

Ethan nodded. With his heart in his throat and his brain in restart mode after Samantha's unexpected, sultry kiss, nodding was the best he could do.

"Now." Samantha sat back. "I propose a game of war." She held out her hands, and a deck of cards appeared in her outstretched palm.

Ethan reached out to touch them, and was surprised at how real they felt. There were no indentations on his fingers when he touched the deck, but he could somehow still feel it there. Weird as hell.

"It's simple enough. We play war, and if you win, you get to ask the other 'truth' or 'dare'. And..." she smiled seductively at him, "as we all know, games of truth or dare are rarely innocent."

"I never played much truth or dare."

"That's about to change." Holly said as she crawled along the floor closer to them. She gave her hips a little wiggle when she saw Ethan watching her crawl.

"Holly here can be our mediator. Since she can communicate with us in our minds, she'll let us know if the change we're placing on the other is out of bounds."

"So we can communicate with her, what, telepathically?" Ethan asked.

"You haven't tried yet?"

He shook his head.

"Well, don't let me stop you. Get used to the interface while I come up with some devious ideas for you." She winked at him and practiced juggling the digital cards. Ethan was amazed by the rendering quality.

"The computer's not rendering that. Your brain is." Holly smiled at him. "Or, rather, your brains are."

"You can just read my mind?" Ethan thought, testing the waters a bit. Holly nodded.

"Yes. But right now, only you can hear me. She can't even see my lips moving right now."

"This is so amazing."

"Why, thank you. I'll take that as a compliment." She winked at him from her spot on the floor. "While I'll appear in the same spot to the both of you, we may still communicate privately."

He thought about the implications of that for a few moments.

"Yes," Her red lips split in a sultry smile. "I can change my appearance for you, too, without Samantha seeing what you see." She motioned at her clothing. "This was a default because it's what Samantha was wearing. Would you like to see something else?"

Ethan watched as her clothes morphed over her frame, changing from a tank and sweater into a form fitting black dress. With a simple shake of her head, it was as if she'd pulled off her hair tie, and her pixie cut fell down over her shoulders as her hair lengthened.

"I can look however you want me to look." As she spoke, makeup spread over her features. Dark, expressive eyeliner complimented the red lipstick that flushed her lips. "If you don't like this frame..." she leaned forward on her arms, stretching like a cat and raising her ass in the air. Ethan watched as it ballooned out in size, raising Holly's dress up her thighs. "...I can change it for you."

"Holy shit." Ethan whispered under his breath.

"Holy shit is right." Samantha laughed. "Have you finished customizing her appearance yet?"

"Uh... hold up a minute. Working on that."

His discomfort was obvious, making Samantha laugh harder. "Is she teasing you?"

"Uh..."

"Holly! Play nice." Samantha threw a card at the digital person, who caught it and tossed it back on top of the deck.

Ethan heard Holly's voice inside his head again. "Tattle tale. Anyway! How would you like me to look for you, Ethan?"

He thought for a while before shrugging. "What would you like to look like?"

Holly appeared not to have expected that. "I'm sorry to say that it is outside of my abilities to make decisions like that for myself. As lifelike as I may seem, I am still just a program."

"Okay, then. How about..." he thought back to the restaurant and the attractive waitress with a smile. Looking Holly up and down, he asked, "Could you maybe—"

"Way ahead of you, sir." And her long, black hair began to curl, its length shortening a ways. He watched her thin lips puff up and her nose widen. Her purple eyes settled onto a warm, coffee bean brown. Holly's skin took on a deep tan, and she put on weight, especially in her hips, shoulders, and bust. Before, she'd needed nothing underneath her tank top, but if she'd tried that with the rack on her chest now, she'd be in a lot of trouble. And back pain.

Black slacks and a low-cut white top grew out of the cocktail dress she'd been wearing, and little blue studs pierced her earlobes. Brushing her hair out of her eyes, she asked, "Better?"

Not for the first time that day, Ethan was without words. Luckily, he still had his thoughts. "Yeah." He directed the thought toward her. "That's better."

Holly blushed at his compliment, then spoke. "Okay, Samantha. We're ready."

"Okay!" She sat up, clapping her hands in excitement. Somehow, the deck of cards didn't fall from her grasp during the motion. "So! Here's the rules."

Ethan took a deep breath, readying himself for the game ahead. This day was nuts, but holy shit was it fun.

"So, we both understand the rules of war. We each get half the deck and simultaneously flip the top card of our deck. If my card is higher, I get to keep your card and make you choose between a truth or a dare. Holly, here," she motioned toward her, "will make sure we follow through."

"What does that mean?" Ethan snorted and took another sip of his drink.

"She has access to the nanites in our bodies, so she can influence things."

"I can't force you to do something," Holly interrupted, "but I can impose penalties if you decline your dare. Assuming you agree to these conditions." She quickly added. "But, if you both agree, I can make it so you both tell the honest truth when asked a question."

"Shit... that's both amazing and scary as shit." Samantha said. "I'm down!"

He couldn't tell for sure, but Ethan thought Samantha was showing the effects of her drink. With another sip, he agreed.

"For the sake of time, we'll just use two suits." The deck in Samantha's hands shrunk in size by half and she handed it off to Holly. "Would you shuffle it for us, please?"

After a brief second, Holly handed each of them half of the deck.

"Ready?" Ethan asked. His date was literally bouncing with excitement.

"Yes!"

They both slammed their cards down in front of them. Ethan had the eight of clubs, and Samantha had the four of hearts.

With an excited, hungry smile, Samantha said, "Dare."

-

"So, what does this mean, exactly?" Ethan asked. "Do I just give you a traditional dare? Or do I just get to make a change?"

"I suppose you could dare me to let you make a change." Samantha winked at him and sipped from her drink. "Otherwise, we could simply agree to allow dares to constitute changes, as well."

Ethan nodded. "Do we have to tell the other about the change we're making, then? Or can we be more mysterious about it?"

Holly spoke up. "How about when there's an actual 'war' in the games, the winner can impose a longer-term change on the other? Or, alternatively, a change the other is made unaware of until told about?"

"That sounds fun!" Samantha said. "So then, yeah, you have to actually give me the dare."

"Okay, then." Ethan grinned and shared a mental image with Holly. "I dare you... to show more skin for me."

"What, do you want me to take my sweater off? Or—oh, shit!" As she spoke, Holly snapped her fingers and implemented the effect on her clothing. The skintight fabric that made up her yoga pants began to work its way up her legs, dragging over her calves and knees and coming to a stop high up her thighs, leaving her with a tight pair of workout shorts that ended just below her ass. A yelp of surprise escaped her lips as she felt her tank top simultaneously rise up her midriff and lower its cut down her chest, exposing the little cleavage she had and turning into a tight little crop top. Her sweater tightened a bit on her frame but remained mostly unchanged, though the point where the zipper stopped lowered considerably, so that if she were to try and cover up, it would still leave her chest on display.

Once the change was over, Samantha looked over her new duds, running her fingers along the seams in a complimentary way. "I've got to say, at least you have good taste."

"And you've got wonderful skin." Ethan leered at her slender legs, working his eyes up along her toned stomach, full breasts, bare neck, and red lips, until he eventually met her eyes. "I'm glad you decided to show a little of it off for me."

"We'll see who shows what after this next turn, mister." Her lips pouted at him, but her eyes laughed. She also made no move to cover up any of her exposed skin.

They both reached for their decks, Samantha's in her hand and Ethan's floating in the air next to him, and flipped the top card. Samantha laid down the ten of hearts, whereas Ethan held the two of clubs.

"Truth."

"You're no fun at all."

"I never said I would be."

Samantha looked around the room for inspiration before landing her eyes on Holly. "What did you customize Holly to look like, and why?"

"That's two questions!"

"The truth stands." Holly spoke up. "Answer the question."

"Fine. She looks like our waitress from the restaurant tonight." He felt awkward admitting he'd asked Holly to look like anybody other than his girlfriend.

He needn't have worried. "Really? The on with the big tits that you made me lust for?"

"Yeah."

"Interesting..." she smirked. "So, why her?"

"Well, I thought she was really fucking hot." The words blurted out of his mouth, and he raised his hand to cover it. His eyes opened wide in surprise and he looked accusingly at Holly, who was rolling on the ground, laughing her digital ass off in the 'really fucking hot' body of their waitress. He tried to speak again, but the words didn't stop. "I really liked how thick she was, and the way she swayed her hips when she walked. I loved that she had a bit of weight on her, and her boobs were incredible. Her outfit was formfitting and revealing, and watching you lust over her big breasts turned me on like crazy. I really liked her curly hair and could imagine running my fingers through it, and I know her accent was probably put on for tips but I still loved it."

There was a moment of silence as Holly stopped laughing as Ethan finished speaking. Samantha and Holly shared a look and then they started laughing again.

"I'm sorry!" Samantha said. "Your expression is just so funny!"

Blushing, Ethan replied, "Sorry."

"For what?" she calmed down.

"That I said all that about someone else."

"Oh, Girlfriend. Don't worry. If you remember, I was the one who invited her over for a threesome." She brought him closer for a kiss. "And I don't mind that you like a few more curves on your girls. Who knows? Maybe we can... remedy that situation soon."