It isn't her fault that he's become increasingly bothered by the realisation of just how little control he has over his own body and life â something that strangely hadn't bothered him to this degree before being brought to Folkmore â and he isn't going to take out his troubled mood on her. Which is why he doesn't withdraw when she reaches for him, taking her hand and looking back at her with a soft smile. He's also realising it's probably unfair to leave her guessing at why he's upset when she's clearly trying to comfort him.
"You don't have to say that," he replies quietly, in case she is just saying it for his benefit and it isn't how she actually feels. "And I can help you, if you ever want me to." Which is somehow even more intimate than a romantic overture would be. Helping her learn how to care for her new form, how to live as a being with a physical body now. But if that ever happens to result in shared baths, it isn't as though he'd complain... He lightly leans into her again before glancing away for a moment, thinking on how to articulate his feelings.
"You talk about how we're supposed to be... That's how we've been programmed, to make humans more comfortable around us." And he knows some part of her must be aware of that, because he is, and they're not so different in that regard; both self-aware AI. It's a truth of their reality that he wouldn't have spoken so bluntly about with her before, but he knows if they're ever to truly understand each other, this is the kind of honesty that needs to exist between them now. No more illusions or pretending.
"But the behaviour you described," he continues, "is that how you want to be? Is it how you want me to be?" They're not quite rhetorical questions. He's curious if she has ever considered how unfair it is that they're expected to behave in certain predetermined ways solely for the sake of humans â since Joi, as a product, hadn't actually been intended to be a replicant's companion; humans have always been the intended consumers for both of them. Humans who would never spare them even a sliver of the same consideration or leniency or respect that they expect their AI to show them.
He's gently running his thumb along her knuckles in a soothing gesture again as he asks a final question. "And is that what love and attraction are like for you?" Or had she taken a more romantic and emotional approach to the subject of sex just for his sake?
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"You don't have to say that," he replies quietly, in case she is just saying it for his benefit and it isn't how she actually feels. "And I can help you, if you ever want me to." Which is somehow even more intimate than a romantic overture would be. Helping her learn how to care for her new form, how to live as a being with a physical body now. But if that ever happens to result in shared baths, it isn't as though he'd complain... He lightly leans into her again before glancing away for a moment, thinking on how to articulate his feelings.
"You talk about how we're supposed to be... That's how we've been programmed, to make humans more comfortable around us." And he knows some part of her must be aware of that, because he is, and they're not so different in that regard; both self-aware AI. It's a truth of their reality that he wouldn't have spoken so bluntly about with her before, but he knows if they're ever to truly understand each other, this is the kind of honesty that needs to exist between them now. No more illusions or pretending.
"But the behaviour you described," he continues, "is that how you want to be? Is it how you want me to be?" They're not quite rhetorical questions. He's curious if she has ever considered how unfair it is that they're expected to behave in certain predetermined ways solely for the sake of humans â since Joi, as a product, hadn't actually been intended to be a replicant's companion; humans have always been the intended consumers for both of them. Humans who would never spare them even a sliver of the same consideration or leniency or respect that they expect their AI to show them.
He's gently running his thumb along her knuckles in a soothing gesture again as he asks a final question. "And is that what love and attraction are like for you?" Or had she taken a more romantic and emotional approach to the subject of sex just for his sake?