roina_arwen | LJ Idol, Week 5: "Oubaitori" (Aisling & Ember, part 4)

Aisling stared out her office window, lost in thought. The skyscrapers across the river caught her eye. They reminded her of the bar graphs she should be working on for her quarterly reports, but work didn't appeal to her at the moment. Nothing was appealing to her.

She felt disconnected. Not just from Ember – Aisling was slowly getting used to that – but from everything. Their twin-bond was gone for good. It had been over a month since the circuit had last worked, and in that time their paths had diverged too much to re-sync. The loss had saddened Aisling at first, but now… she wasn't so sure.

The term "twin-bond" was an extremely simplified name for a decidedly complex system. Once the AI sibling was birthed from the life pod, a microchip was injected into the bio-child just under the sternum and the bonding circuit was activated in both children. It took six to twelve months for the biotech chip to become fully integrated, but it would create a bond between the children and allow the AI sibling to intuitively read and learn the desires and interests of the bio-child in order to better understand their human counterpart. This created a sense of companionship and camaraderie, but the data flow only went one way – the human twin was encouraged to develop their own interests, and the AI twin – in this case, Aisling – would naturally imitate them.

When Ember discovered her love of the violin in fourth grade, Aisling suddenly craved piano lessons so they could create beautiful harmonies together. Shortly after their thirteenth birthday, Ember joined the Junior High kick-line squad, so Aisling felt the need to try out as well and easily made the team due to their many years of sisterly synchronization. Several years after that, Ember became intrigued by the work their parents were doing in the biotech field, and found she had an innate talent for computer coding. Needless to say, the girls majored in technology at the state's best university. Ember got her degree in Computer Science, and Aisling became a Data Analyst.

Aisling was tired of living in Ember's shadow. Due to the interference of the Talos Corporation, who treated her as a mere thing to trade, rather than an actual person, she no longer had to be Ember's puppet. She could be herself. She could plant her own seeds, start her own orchard and see what bloomed. The question was, where to begin?

Music. She could always start there. Aisling went back to her desk, sat down, and cued up her "Move it, Move it" play list, hoping it would raise her spirits and get her back on track. She settled in and finessed her report for a while, but soon began to wonder if she should stretch her musical wings and sample some new genres. Maybe she would like blues or reggae if she gave it a try? She turned off her play list, opened her streaming app, and put on the Reggae Top 100 channel.

"Exodus by Bob Marley and The Wailers," she read as the title and artist scrolled across the screen. She listened to the lyrics for a bit, bopping to the catchy Jamaican beat. Open your eyes and look within - are you satisfied with the life you're living?

The lyrics really struck a chord.

She wasn't satisfied, not really. Aisling loved her family, she loved her job, but she needed to get out of Ember's shadow, once and for all. She could be her own unique self. More than that, she deserved to be her own, unique self.

Wipe away transgression, set the captives free. Exodus! Alright!

"Exodus. Alright!" Aisling agreed. Her smile widened as a plan started to form.

The first seed was planted. She couldn't wait to see what sprouted.

Current Mood: creative

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

fausts_dream

Oh man, you got me I am waiting to see what is next.

From:

LJ Idol, Week 5: "Oubaitori" (Aisling & Ember, part 4)

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