Undercover Maidbot by Melissa M

[kayla_ditzmoor]

I've been checking regularly for the update for the past month- does it usually take this long to get your writing published here? I had wanted to read it and give you feedback by now before thanking you for continuing.

[Melissa M]

Thank you so much for your patience and for reaching out! I sincerely apologize for the delay, but I'm happy to report that the next part of the story is supposed to go up this week.

In the meantime, you might enjoy my Halloween story, The Witch-Bot. It's a standalone read that also tells the story of a woman who swaps places with her maidbot.

[teanndaorsa]

A month wait is about the norm at the moment, even for well edited stories, Halloween very much gets in the way! But part 7 is indeed up now, enjoy.

[kayla_ditzmoor]

Great chapter, I love the deepening of the role reversal this time. I can't imagine Ursula and Unit 734-B will make it through the weekend without that rift growing larger. Thanks!

Your Halloween story was also fun- keep up ths great work!

[marp]

The latest part (#7) should be "reluct", like the previous parts.
"Cons" alone seems quite incorrect to me.

Or better even "nc" by now - after all, with snippets like these:

"amplifying her despair", "painful reminder of Melissa's fractured life and deepening entrapment", "The irony was a bitter pill: her forced servitude, her humiliation,", "a stark reminder of her forced servitude", etc.

[Melissa M]

The latest part (#7) should be "reluct", like the previous parts.
"Cons" alone seems quite incorrect to me.

Thank you, Sir, for reaching out. I apologize for the mistake and will ask the site owner if the 'cons' tag could possibly be replaced by the 'reluct' tag.

But I don't think the 'nc' tag should apply here, because the heroine's situation in part 7 is her own doing and was not imposed on her: she is the one who gave away her freedom by willingly accepting her transformation into a maidbot and letting herself be collared (in part 1), by willingly accepting Eleanor as the owner of her collar (in part 4) and by willingly accepting to transfer emergency control of her collar to the home computer (in part 6).

[teanndaorsa]

The latest part (#7) should be "reluct", like the previous parts.
"Cons" alone seems quite incorrect to me.

Thank you, Sir, for reaching out. I apologize for the mistake and will ask the site owner if the 'cons' tag could possibly be replaced by the 'reluct' tag.

This has been changed now. Each part is edited and tagged on its own merits, and on the readthrough I did the overwhelming vibe, aside from those few lines quoted, is the protagonist has settled into their new role and has come to accept it. You can argue it both ways of course but I'm happy to take Melissa's steer on which side to land on. 'nc' is, clearly not the right fit, there is no real active resistance here in this chapter, and the path by which they got to this place in previous chapters is not relevant to the tagging for this chapter.

[jackierabbit1]

I very much appreciate the depth of this plot, the depth of emotions as well. Perhaps Clarissa and James will require an organic maid-bot of their own one day, such would certainly allow James to keep his wealth, without sharing it with Melissa in some sort of legal separation.

If Melissa can't explain her unique enslavement, does Eleanor, at some point, have to explain things to James instead, perhaps the two having a little "human" negotiation themselves while discussing Melissa's fate, so maybe shared custody of the Melissa maid-bot? Dose Eleanor embellish that tale, suggesting she begged for this, all while Melissa stands there listening, under the control of the collar, so not able to contradict her owner?

I also wonder if that's the moment Melissa snaps, as in she just gives up and stops fighting the collar, stops fighting the reality that she's a better maid-bot than she ever was a human. I'd expect her to break at some point anyway; so to me it's maybe a little like training horses, conditioning them to follow the lead of their human masters?

All that being said, James does sound like a piece of work himself, so all this isn't on Melissa alone. Does James learn from his past mistakes though, and does Melissa get to watch James 2.0 treat Clarissa like she wished she'd been treated, or by some twist of fate Ursula?

Thanks for sharing, Jackie.

[feline]

I am unsure what I think and feel about part 7.  As a self confessed, and proud, soppy romantic, it isn't really happy or romantic, or really all that sexy.  But, having said that, it is very well written, deeply thoughtful, and makes a lot of very interesting points!

We are almost getting philosophical about human nature here, about what it is to be human, how you find and achieve purpose and happiness...

I agree with Jackie, that the ending really is raising some quite pointed questions about James, and how involved, how invested in this relationship he is.  I am not that inclined to be sympathetic towards James, but trying to be fair, he has just produced, what is by the sounds of it, a *staggeringly* expensive gift for his wife, something that she has dreamed of, and lusted after for years...  and in the face of this incredible gift, this epic "I love you" gesture, she is dismissive...  doesn't really offer or give him anything to explain why she cannot accept it, is suddenly not interested in it...

Trying to build a good overall mental picture of things here, we have James who works all the time, works hard, brings home work, to provide a good standard of living for his wife.  Then we have his wife, Melissa, who just glides through life board, uninterested, unmotivated, not really appreciating what she has, or engaging with things...

It does beg the question of how much they have in common, how much life and passion is left in their relationship.

Now, we see the collar and the house computer enforcing her silence, making her keep her secret, but I am sure, from memory, that before now it has just been shame, embarrassment, a need not to make a fool of herself that kept Melissa silent.  So much of this is a trap and a mess of her own making, that it makes it hard for me to feel real and genuine sympathy for her.

At the same time, something that really shines through for me, is the life of drudgery, thankless hard work and just being ordered around that Ursula used to live as the maidbot.  If you accept that a maidbot is just a machine with no mind, no will, then that is one thing.  But it is quite clear that Ursula, at least, is a real living and conscious being by any reasonable standards.  So suddenly we are presented with the question of who is better placed to be the servant, and who is better placed to the mistress?

I do find that there is a lot of merit to Ursula's point that she is the only one who has really made good use of her freedom as a human, to explore culture and art.

Then of course we have Melisa's actual owner, and the simple human desire to be cruel and evil to someone you now have under your power!  Somehow I don't see Melisa getting a happy ending out of this, but I do find that I want to see Ursula getting a happy ending, since she is someone who really is growing on me.