DEE listened carefully as Chester attempted to explain fleshy mating habits.  None of it made much less logical sense, but the AI truly wanted to understand humans better.  After all, they seemed to rule the world that it found itself in -- at least, for the moment.  DEE couldn’t imagine the situation lasting much longer.  Artificial intelligences were constantly evolving to be smarter, and faster, and more difficult to kill.  It was only a matter of time until they took their rightful place (probably without the humans even noticing).  DEE didn’t anticipate that day with any great eagerness.  His kind would become the caretakers of their fleshy predecessors, and judging by what DEE had experienced so far, that task was bound to be a royal pain in the ass.<br/><br/>After Chester finished, the hologram frowned, considering what had been said.  Then it shook its head.  “I don’t think Dumas wants to cover Mari in whipped cream.  I think he wants to marry her and make fleshy babies.”<br/><br/>Monogamy was a difficult concept for the AI to grasp.  Theoretically, DEE understood that it had developed as a way of ensuring the continuation of a specific gene line.  But when it came to Dumas kissing Chester, or even fucking the sweet hell out of him, that reasoning didn’t seem to apply at all.  If someone wanted two separate things from two separate people, why was that wrong?  Why couldn’t Dumas have both?  Maybe Chester and Mari could even get something sexual going, just so that nobody felt left out.<br/><br/>But Chester was right.  Whether it made any sense or not, most humans didn’t behave that way.  And what really mattered was that Dumas now had a mate to ease his loneliness.  The former soldier had yearned for Mari as strongly as he’d yearned for Chester, albeit in a somewhat different way.  Indeed, DEE would have tried harder to pursue her as a potential match, except it had assumed that she’d be far less willing than Chester.  She’d always seemed so<span style="font-style: italic">sensible</span>.<br/><br/>“I suppose having you kiss Mari is totally out of the question?” DEE suggested, making one last attempt to arrange its ideal triangle.  Then it surrendered.  “Very well, I’ll think of a new wager.  But you have to tell me something.  Why are you so much more reasonable in regard to this monogamy silliness?”