Seraphim explained to vi0let that the Eisa hierarchy had given her permission to do a photoshoot of vi0let. She asked vi0let if she could place herself with her back to the bay, as a stunning backdrop. Vi0let ambled over to the edge of the roof… the very edge of the roof, several stories high…

… and pretended to throw herself off, backwards. Seraphim was not particularly worried… such a fall would not kill an NS unit, though it would probably damage her…

… when she saw she had not alarmed Seraphim, vi0let said ‘perhaps I should throw you off, strange one?’… to which Seraphim replied ‘I am 4000 years old, little thing, I could rip your head off if I wanted to, and that fall would not harm me at all’… and stared calmly through vi0lets glasses, all the time steadily operating her camera drones…

… vi0let became very still, inscrutably returning Seraphim’s gaze…

… then she turned away and said ‘It was nice meeting you, Miss’. The shoot was over.

The big day finally arrived for Seraphim’s photoshoot with vi0let. Seraphim was a bit nervous, and wished she could be holding Tee’s hand, but Tee was at home, off-line…

… vi0let was even more impressive standing and on-line, her magnificent horns even more imposing, somehow. At first, vi0let refused to even acknowledge Seri…

… but Seraphim’s attraction to gynoids generally works both ways, and her gentle manner eventually got vi0let to, first, cooly acknowledge her presence, then…

… to turn and face Seri. Seri kept calmly talking, about the view, about how she had seen vi0let sitting here a while ago, and had found her an irresistible photographic study, about the fact vi0let was currently only on-line because the Eisa hierarchy had agreed to allow Seraphim access to vi0let. This last bit was pretty much an instruction vi0let could not ignore, though, by now, she had a grudging respect for this strange creature on her roof, some kind of non-human she had never seen before, who seemed to think she, vi0let, was ok.

A couple of weeks ago, on one of her regular visits to Eisa, Seraphim found this fabulous creature, lost in her own thoughts, on the roof of a building where Seraphim had never been, before…

… Seraphim had not, and has not, since, seen such a unique, charismatic gynoid before… she was instantly smitten with this creature…

… this is the very unique vi0let… she is a heavily traumatised Nanite Systems SXD unit… her life story involves much sadness and loss, as well as attempted murder…(excerpts from vi0let’s official NS records) ‘vi0let’s last purchaser was Dr. James Gibson, a professor of psychology at the Tei Tenga Abnormal Psychology Research Program. He found her mildly amusing and had no interest in using her; she was heartbroken and obsessive. In the end, vi0let was overcome with jealousy for Dr. Gibson’s wife, Rachel, and made the 1600 km trek from the research facility (on the dark side) to Tei Tenga City to murder her.’… ‘Despite enduring 37 knife wounds, Mrs. Gibson survived, and Nanite Systems was sued for US $50 million’…

… ‘Ai Santei was a PhD candidate in Dr. Gibson’s lab. She had interviewed with NS for an HR position shortly before her thesis defense, and was asked by the company to bring vi0let with her back to Earth for analysis, to save the company the trouble of sending out an additional recovery team. Once settled at the company, Dr. Santei successfully petitioned for the opportunity to diagnose vi0let psychologically rather than simply resetting her, as had been the standard procedure for other recovered malfunctioning machines’…

… ‘Over the intervening years, from 2006 to 2014, Ai worked tirelessly to reconstruct vi0let’s sense of identity and to eliminate her complex PTSD and attachment disorder traits. While more work continues, she has come a long way.’

It has taken Seraphim 2 weeks to get approval to use these photo’s from the NS hierarchy… she has finally not only received that approval, but been given the go-ahead to do a photo shoot with vi0let! Needless to say, Seri is elated (: