Activated

Activated Part 20

Author: The Architect

Authors note: Another big one. Becca starts dating, talks to Arcturus. Calliope recovers from the weekend and sleeps through Monday causing some panic. The girls build stuff. Mike and Sandy have a fight, sort of. Sandy tells Mike about the nanites.

Sandy PoV

This morning Alex was going to take Mike back to school after dropping Jen off at her student teaching, Becca and I had a later class so we were going to take the cycle. The guys left and I was just finishing getting ready. I went into the common area and found Becca, she was wearing a very short skirt, showing off her long legs and a nice shirt jacket combo.

"Becca, that's kind of short for a motorcycle ride." I walked up to her and checked if she was wearing panties, nope. I accidentally brushed against her lips causing her to tense up and let out a little yelp. She looks me in the eyes and swoops in for a full-on kiss. Nobody else here, we have about 20 minutes before we leave, this can work. I lead her into her bedroom and sit her on the bed, I grab a pillow and kneel in front of her. I kiss her legs and make my way to her pussy.

Oh my god! Why haven't I done this more? I look up and I see Rebecca rubbing her tits. Wow, that's hot. She starts to moan loudly, and then pleasure starts to wash over me. I look up with a big smile on my face at Rebecca, that hit her hard too, she is now holding on to the bed to keep from falling over.

"[Wow, I guess I needed that. Oh, I always seem to go back to my native language when these hit.]"

"It's fine, thankfully I understand you. You know if you need help, we are there for you, we get it, we have been through the same thing."

"Yes, and thank you. Look at that, I'm bilingual again."

"Not to take from this, Jen is going to start teaching us some more languages this week. I need to get cleaned up." I head off to the bathroom. "I was going to ask you before all that why you were so dressed up."

"There is someone in my class today I was going to ask out."

I come back out and check her out, "Way to dress for battle, I think you are going to be successful. By the way, we're going to need to stop at the store on the way home, you need some riding gear if we have to ride in bad weather, we've been lucky so far."

She hugs me and I get a little aroused, I do a quick calculation, not enough time but so tempting. "You look after all of us." She gives me a kiss.

"All part of the job."

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I pull up to the engineering building and I see Rebecca skip out of the building with a smile.

"So, did you ask him?"

"We have a date for dinner on Friday."

"So, what's his full name, and social security number if you have it."

"You don't need to run a background check."

"Yet you know I will, right?"

"What does Poppy call you? 'The protector'?" She gives me a hug then gets on the bike.

"Shopping, then home? And you can tell me about the boy you asked out."

"I'm older than you, I should be in the big sister role you know."

"Hmm, go figure."

Shopping goes well, I actually pick up another outfit as well. We get home before Jen and Alex. I haven't checked but I think Alex has moved in, he never goes back to the dorm and I don't really blame him.

We bring the clothes into Rebecca's room, "Why don't you try them on, see how they look."

She looks at me, "Are you trying to get me to undress?"

"Never crossed my mind." It so did.

Over the next few minutes I get a little fashion show, the outfits are functional and look really good on her. She folds up the clothes and is getting ready to get dressed in something casual.

"Hold up a sec, maybe there was something to you getting undressed."

"I knew it!"

I get up and give her a kiss. "Remember this morning? I was wondering if you would be interested in some more of that?" I guide her down to the bed and start to pull off my clothes as well.

Soon we are in a 69 on the bed, I missed this. We are between the 3rd and 4th climax when we hear movement outside, we try to be quiet on the last one.

"Wow, what got into you?"

"Not sure, this morning was really good, I kind of wanted to do it again. Now, let's talk about this guy you asked out while we get dressed."

"His name is George Carter, about your height, brown hair."

"How did he react when you asked him out?"

"Surprised and a little insecure."

"Good, this will keep him on his toes."

Calliope PoV

"Parnassus, what time is it?"

"6:42 am on Tuesday the 8th."

I bolt upright, "TUESDAY?!?" Oh no, I slept through Monday!

I'm afraid to pick up my phone, I think I will wait a moment on that. I rush to the bathroom to take care of things and come back to find Circe & Odysseus have been sleeping next to me on the bed. They look up at me, 'oh good, we are fond of you human, we are glad you are alive'. We have one of those automatic feeders so at least the poor dears didn't starve. Time to face the music.

Ok, the texts aren't too bad. Two from Sandy telling me they got home fine, one more from Jen like that, also from Rebecca but hers is in Hebrew. A few from our friends telling me how wonderful it was here. That's good.

Michael on the other hand, 6 of them through the day with the last one at 11:41pm saying he'll be over to check on me before classes today. That could be any minute, I pull on a robe and head to the kitchen, that I haven't eaten in a day is catching up to me.

Almost as soon as I get to the kitchen, I see a car pulling up to the garage on the monitors, Michael is here.

As soon as he gets into the house, I hear him calling out to me, "Calliope!"

"I'm here in the kitchen."

He looks a little frantic as he comes in. "Are you okay? I didn't hear from you."

"I plopped down on my bed after everyone left and didn't wake up till this morning, I guess I needed some rest."

He gives me a hug, "I was worried."

"I'm fine, safe in my castle. I just needed a recharge."

If I had any sort of medical event I bet the house would spot it anyway and I'm sure that would be something else.

"When do you have your first class?"

"8:00am"

"You had better get going. I am so sorry I worried you, I will make it up to you."

"I have something tonight but I'm going to skip it and come over."

"No, I'm fine really. School is important."

"YOU are important!

"And I want you to take care of school, I am fine, I'll text you later. I'm going to take it easy today, not even going to paint anything."

If I asked him, he'd blow off the whole day to spend it with me, I will never do that. With a little reluctance from both of us I walk him back to the garage. He gives me a very long hug and we kiss of course. I wait there till I see him drive off.

Today I need to work on something I have been putting off, this house is huge, I need help keeping it clean, I need a maid. Time to make some calls.

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Well, part of the house is covered, I guess the shelter both gets rid of dust through the air filtration and uses UV light to kill germs when nobody is down there. And there are roombas down there, haven't seen them, they hide when I'm around I guess. We have a few of them in the house too but we're going to need a human. Heck, we have the pool that needs to be taken care of also, another thing I was talked into. I remember that conversation.

"I don't need a pool."

"You know you are going to have kids eventually and kids love pools. Do it for the kids Cali."

"Can we just wait to fill it when we need it?"

"You can't, that will cause problems with the structure, the walls actually need the water pushing back on them."

"I think you just want me to have a pool so you can use it."

"That is silly, granted I'm just a kid at heart and we love to swim."

Sigh, maybe I can take up swimming, get at least some use of it. Kids, bah!

Well, there is the hot tub, I do like that.

So, I need someone to look for things the Roombas miss and someone to tend to the pool and hot tub. Never thought about this complication when I got so excited by a monster house.

And after yesterday I think having someone to check on me will make everyone feel better. I'm actually lucky the college crew didn't notice; I'd never hear the end of it and I'm scared to think of what response would end up in the home system. I'm going to text Michael to keep this to himself for a bit.

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I filled out a form, and they called me back, "I need someone to help me clean."

"Ok, I was looking at your request form, how big is the house?"

"About 10,000 square feet." that I'll let someone know about.

"Wow, okay. Any kids? Pets?"

"Just 2 cats at this time."

"And do you have much activity? Parties or anything?"

"Nope, generally nothing. I'm looking for someone to come by every few days and help in the house and workshop."

"Workshop?"

"I paint mostly, a little other stuff, there isn't much in the workshop to clean up."

"I think we can help you."

"What comes next, do I interview them?"

"Exactly, we'll send someone over to meet you."

"Ok, any chance you can recommend a pool service?"

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They texted me that someone was coming over. I saw the car pull up and a lady in her late 30s came to the door.

"Good afternoon, Tina?" I guided her into the living room.

"Afternoon Miss. Bard, do you want to ask me any questions? I'd like to take a walk through also."

"Please call me Calliope, I still can't get used to 'Miss. Bard'. Well, tell me a little about yourself, then we can look around."

"I've been doing this for a few years, I have a 12-year-old daughter, and I am divorced. Not much else really. Can I ask you; the service said it is just you here?"

"Well, I have 2 cats that will eventually discover you. I have a boyfriend but he is in college, he's here on the weekends."

"I see all the screens on the walls, anything I need to know about?"

"I have a very good friend, she is away at college, she helped setup the house when we built it. It is a very smart house. Let's take a tour."

We walked around the house; it is times like this I feel both amazement at the house and a little overwhelmed.

"I see you have Roombas."

"Yes, hopefully they are doing a decent job, I need you to help where they can't."

"Got it. Laundry?"

"I guess, it won't be much usually. Just me usually and I'll do some of it myself."

"This place is huge."

"I'm sort of planning for the future, maybe overcompensating a little."

"What do you do for a living if I might ask?"

"I paint, I mean I'm an artist, which is probably the best time to show you the workshop."

We go through the hallway to the workshop.

"There are two levels, the upstairs is where I do poses usually. Because things are complicated out here there aren't Roombas so it might need more attention."

"Okay, that is fine."

"One important thing about the workshop, when I'm working it is usually locked down."

"What??"

"Well, I really focus when I paint so my friend has the workshop lock down when this happens."

"I bet that is interesting."

"Not sure, I sort of tune out the world."

"I'm going to check in with the service, how does 3 hours per visit, 3 times a week? We can adjust if needed."

"Actually, sounds good, will allow me to stay above water. First visit I'll get you into the security system, you will be able to park in the garage and it will let you in."

"Park in the garage?"

"I only have one car, there is room, that way if it is raining you can just come in."

"Very fancy."

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I heard back from the service and we confirmed Tina would be working here, I have a good feeling about her. Also, I scheduled the pool guy for every 2 weeks. Friday was her first day and just as she arrived a truck pulled up at the workshop.

"Hi, can I help you?"

"Yes, we have an installation, are you Calliope Bard?"

"Yes, but installation of what?"

"A small kitchenette with a refrigerator/freezer."

Sigh, I let them into the workshop, apparently, they have detailed instructions on where to set it up complete with pictures. I pull out my phone and start to text, "Anything you want to tell me about?"

"Oh, are they there? I thought it was going to happen on Monday, guess they had an opening today."

"You are something else."

"Something good?"

"Yes, something good, although not always predictable."

"I guess I should warn you, there is a grocery delivery on Tuesday to fill up the fridge"

"Of course there is. Thank you, talk to you soon."

*bow and arrow emoji*

"Tina, apparently after Tuesday there will be some snacks in this fridge too."

"Never a dull moment eh?"

"I mentioned to my overachiever friend that it would be nice to have some snacks out here for when I'm working. She set all this up, she has appointed herself the job to watch over a few of us."

Tina got to work cleaning while I watched them set up my new snack station. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my sketchpad and charcoals, I wanted to take this week off without going into a painting trance but certainly I can get away with a little sketching. I start drawing the workers then I get a nice picture of Tina, I actually draw a few pictures of her. I did introduce myself as an artist, might show I actually am one. I feel a little better once I start drawing, I think I'm wired to express myself, I'm like a pressure cooker and my art reduces the pressure.

They finish setting up and it looks kind of nice. Tina for her part actually comes over to sweep up any mess they made, I'm getting more convinced this was a good idea. I see her frowning at her phone.

"Miss. Bard-"

"Tina, call me Calliope please."

"Okay, Calliope, I have a problem on Monday. I usually have someone watch my daughter after school but we have a snag on Monday."

"You are welcome to bring her over if you want. I have this big pool and I have been reliably informed that kids of all ages love to swim."

"I don't want to be a bother."

"Don't be silly, I have this big pool I was talked into getting by the same overachiever who just had that installed." I point to the new fridge. "I might as well use it. I'll watch her and take a swim myself, it will motivate me. We can talk but I'm fine making it a weekly thing."

"Thank you." And she gets back to cleaning, I think I even caught a brief smile.

So I have someone coming in 3 times a week, this will probably reassure Michael and the college crew once they found out I slept through Monday. Now thanks to Tina's daughter I can claim I'm going to have some non-painting down time, I have been told I spend too much time painting.

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The common area of my old apartment comes up on the screen. "Just who I was looking for, got a second to talk?"

"Sure, but first, the fridge is all set in the workshop?"

"Yes, all ready for snacks. I wanted to ask you about that actually. I know you have your side hustle programming but you spent a good chunk of change on my house, thank you and what is up with that?"

"Oh that is simple, I have a couple reasons. One, I'm likely to use the work on your smart house as the basis for a future masters or PhD thesis. Two, you are my friend, I want your house to be perfect. Three, I want to. And speaking of that I sort of have something I want my brother to setup next weekend, look for a package from me this week."

"Do I want to know?"

"Just a little something for the shelter, it will be easier than assembling the Ikea furniture."

"I'll warn him it is coming."

"I have a question, what happened on Monday?"

"Michael told you?"

"Nope, activity logs, I'm not spying on you but I get the general idea you were really inactive that day. Wait, Michael told me what?"

"I slept through Monday, drove Michael bonkers."

"Did he rush over there?"

"Yes, before classes on Tuesday in a panic."

"One time thing or do I need to put something into the system?"

"No! One time thing, the weekend took the energy out of me. I actually sort of took care of that. I hired a maid to come in 3 times a week, that plus your brother on the weekends. I won't be rattling around this castle solo most of the time."

"Actually not a bad idea, at least until Becca and I build robots. Did you just roll your eyes at that?"

"Yes, but I guess it will only be a matter of time, not like I don't have dozens of drones orbiting the house at all times."

"Don't be silly, 3 at all times and then they swap out with the ones on the chargers."

"I'll look forward to that thesis on my smart house. Anything else going on?"

"Becca has a date tonight."

"Oh, exciting. No following them in your ninja outfit."

"I hadn't thought of that actually, Mike is coming over soon so I guess I can't."

"Have a nice night with your boyfriend, she'll be fine. She's probably second to you in ability to take care of herself."

"I suppose. I have to go, tell Michael I'll be in touch with a project."

The screen disconnects.

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Monday afternoon Tina pulls up about 3pm, I am trying really hard to extend my break but I think later I'm going to paint the group photo, it has been killing me. I hear the door open from the garage, and Tina comes in with her daughter.

"Miss. Bard, this is my daughter Cassy."

"Why don't you-" I'm about to tell her to call me Calliope but I catch a shake of her head. I guess Tina wants her to be formal with adults, not a bad lesson. "ah, why don't you join me in the kitchen, see if we can make you a healthy after school snack."

Apple slices and nut-butter, after I checked for allergies, I will admit I searched it out ahead of time, but it is a big hit.

"Cassy, I'm going to be working for a little bit, be good for Miss. Bard."

"Got it Mom."

"Cassy, not sure if your mom told you, we have a nice pool if you want to go for a swim."

I get a smile out of that and with that we head to the pool.

It is a very nice pool, I really should spend more time here. We get dressed and start to enjoy the water, my first priority is going to be watching Cassy. I see Tina peek in at one point while we'll splashing in the shallow end, apparently this is find so she goes back to work. I wasn't keeping track but I figure we were in the pool having fun for at least an hour, I probably could ask the house but I'm going to leave it at that. Cassy dries off and gets changed, I dry off and put on a robe, I might do some laps when they are gone.

I lead her back into the house and we make our way up to the cat room, Circe & Odysseus roam the house but they are usually found in their room.

"Cassy, this is Odysseus, I bet Circe is close by and we'll see her shortly." It took maybe 5 minutes for Circe to realize there were humans up in her room, she was probably keeping an eye on Tina or riding on one of the Roombas. She was enjoying playing with the cats when Tina found us, it was time to go.

"Did you have fun?"

"Yes Miss. Bard."

"Up to your mom but you are welcome to swim anytime."

Big smile.

"Thank you Calliope, this really helped me out."

"I do mean it, you can bring her by any time. Swim, do her homework, whatever."

"I don't want to impose."

"Don't be silly, I like the company. I am alone a lot with my paints in this giant house, this would be good for everyone. Just think about it, maybe we can talk Wednesday?"

"Thank you."

They head out and get my phone and bring up the shopping app, adding some kid healthy snacks. I put down my phone, on another wireless charger location I guess, and walk back to the pool. I'm going to see how many laps I can do.

Sometime later I stopped swimming because I was getting hungry, I lost track of the laps around 30. Maybe I will add swimming to my day, this wasn't so bad.

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Monday I finished up relaxing, didn't even go into the workshop, just settled down after dinner for some Netflix. I started to get into the Korean dramas and I'm looking forward to Jen teaching me Korean so I can ditch the subtitles.