Things have been as hard for Seraphim as they have ever been, recently…

… but she is getting better. She is tougher than she looks, and she actually looks pretty tough.

Lia is a fox… literally; she has fox ears, a fox’s tail, and the small, sleek build of a fox…

… at first, Seraphim thought Lia was a Furry, but Lia does not identify with that ilk, preferring, simply, to call herself a fox… an NS-476 Aegis fox…

… Seraphim adores her little fox warrior friend.

Seraphim was drawn to the beautiful plasmic trail being left as this little DAX/2 wove her tail sinuously about herself…

Seraphim has been photographing her lethal little crush…

… this tiny little machine can walk effortlessly into battle carrying twice her own weight in weapons, despite the fact she is a weapon, herself; part of the Nanite Systems sales pitch for the NS-476 Aegis says: ‘Sleek and well armored, the Aegis’s internal systems are set into a single mold nanoweave steel housing, with almost two inches of composite carbon fibre, nanosteel and ceramic offering lightweight protection against direct impacts from attacks up to and including most HEAT and HESH rounds. Small arms up to .50 cal are nearly a non-issue, with the system’s core snugly protected in a wreath of steel and synthetic materials.’ When Seraphim marvels at how tiny Lia is, Lia says she isn’t tiny, Seraphim is big…

… Seraphim has hung two pictures of her combat drone crush in New Placebo Gallery, and will happily stand and stare at her for long lengths of time.

Miraculously, despite all this heartache and pain… Seraphim has fallen in love, again. The object of her new affections is Lia. Lia is a Nanite Systems, NS-476 Aegis combat droid. She is a beautiful killing machine. She is z0zo’s sworn protector. She is not a pleasure unit. Her weapon of choice is an enormous, heavy scythe. She is tiny, not much more than half Seraphims height. She loves to cuddle.

Like z0zo, Seraphim finds Lia oblique, and enigmatic. Lia, like z0zo, has not actually expressed love for Seraphim, but has indicated such a thing might happen. This is enough for Seraphim, who is learning to restrain herself when expressing her feelings for these amazing creatures. She is just luxuriating in the closeness with, and kindness of this fascinating, usually gentle, little warrior machine.

… Seraphim has realised… she has survived this! What her and z0zo had was beautiful, as these pictures attest.  It’s over now…

… but Seraphim still has z0zo… just differently, now. It is still beautiful. z0zo is still amazing, still whip-sharp, gorgeous, and funny. And she still likes Seraphim. She never, actually, didn’t like Seraphim… just couldn’t handle Seraphim’s love.

Now, Seraphim and z0zo have a relationship to build.

Seraphim still loves z0zo, even though she now realises z0zo never loved her, because z0zo is a courtesan unit, programmed to please, and that’s what she seeks to do… please. She does not care who she pleases, unless they violate the very lenient rules she operates by. Seraphim violated those rules. Not by abusing z0zo, but by loving her too much, being too possessive. Falling in love with her. She is meant to be ‘used’, not loved.

Through most of this therapeutic blog, Seraphim has had as much contact with z0zo as she could bare. z0zo is fine with this, as long as Seraphim understands her new place. That place is not at z0zo’s side, or in her lap. Seraphim went a little crazy when z0zo dumped her… mainly because of the cruel way z0zo did this. z0zo has been very generous in allowing Seraphim to have continued contact with her. Seraphim, for her part, is slowly realising that most of this was her own fault, and that z0zo did warn her, but she just didn’t understand that courtesan units are not really people.

Seraphim deliberately made herself keep seeing z0zo, at first saying it was so z0zo could ‘keep hurting her’, so she would learn to not love z0zo. But… that didn’t happen.

What happened has astonished Seraphim.

z0zo is very intelligent, charming, and charismatic… people fall under her influence like zombies. From the moment they met, her and Seraphim had a deceptively easy rapport. Because her mission is to be constantly seeking out new ‘users’ to have relationships with, z0z0 is an inveterate explorer, for this exploration, she favours the Stargate Network, as travel by Stargate does not deplete her battery charge as much as teleporting does. As a result of all this exploration, and all the programming she has that enables her to easily work her way into most people’s affections, z0zo is very worldly, and very self-confident.

z0zo moves with beautiful, fluid motion. She radiates something approaching boredom, but far more alluring than boredom… it’s a kind of jadedness that is so sophisticated, it’s erotic. She has stunning, electric eyes.

Seraphim never stood a chance.