Page 65 of Dark Princess Emerging
The pleasure of it…
The euphoria…
Her body tingled, remembering it. She couldn't wait to experience another venom-induced trip.
"What's that smile about?" Brandon took her hand.
"Nothing," she said innocently, but her smile gave her away, and his knowing look sent warmth spreading through her chest.
When they arrived at the first Perfect Match house, an immortal female rose to her feet and walked over to greet them.
"Councilman Brandon, Princess Morelle, and Kaia. To what do I owe the honor of your visit?"
"The princess wanted to tour the Perfect Match operation," Kaia said. "She's heard a lot about it from Margo, Frankie, and Jasmine."
Morelle wanted to ask everyone to stop calling her a princess and just call her Morelle, but then she noticed that the female didn't have translating earpieces.
Fortunately, she'd planned ahead for the possibility that some people didn't have them and brought the teardrop with her.
She pulled it out of her purse, hung the string around her neck, and activated the device.
"Please, call me Morelle. I'm not really a princess."
"Welcome, Morelle. I'm Sarah," the woman said. "What would you like to know about the Perfect Match experience?"
"If someone wants to go on an adventure, what's the process?"
"Everything starts with our comprehensive questionnaire. It not only helps us find ideal matches for participants but also allows us to customize each virtual experience to the participant's specific desires and comfort level." She smiled. "Some people are risk averse, while others are adrenaline junkies. Imagine how difficult it is to match an adventure for a couple when one wantsnothing more exciting than a cozy mystery, while the other wantsJurassic Park."
Morelle didn't know what either of those things were, but she could imagine one was timid and the other not. "How do you resolve the conflict?"
"I don't," Sarah grinned. "Thankfully, it is all done by the algorithm. All I have to do is check whether the questionnaire was completed and help the participants choose an avatar." She leaned to whisper conspiratorially. "You can choose to be someone else entirely. We have a mer adventure that happens underwater so you will get a fishtail, or a futuristic world adventure where people choose all kinds of physical enhancements. Wings are, of course, the most popular."
"Of course," Morelle parroted.
She wouldn't have minded trying on wings. It sounded like fun.
"Let's sit down." Sarah led them to a seating area. "We have brochures you can leaf through and get a feel for the kind of adventure that appeals to you." She continued to give more detail about couples' adventures, solo adventures, and training modules, and she finished by explaining why the service was called Perfect Match. "The main purpose of the service is to find people who match each other perfectly. That's why we have such a detailed questionnaire."
"Could I see it?" Morelle asked.
Brandon tensed beside her. "It's in English. You won't be able to read it."
"Then it will be excellent motivation to learn quickly." She turned to Sarah. "Do you have one you can spare?"
The female smiled. "I can send you a link so you can download it. All I need is your email address."
Morelle cast a helpless glance at Brandon. "Do I have something like that?"
He let out a breath and pulled her new laptop out of his bag. "This belongs to Morelle. You can airdrop the questionnaire."
Sarah nodded, took the laptop, and did something with her phone that Morelle assumed had to do with the questionnaire. "It is quite extensive," Sarah said. "And some of the questions are quite intrusive. Take your time with it."
Morelle chuckled. "Given that I need to learn English first, it will take a while."
On her other side, Kaia cleared her throat. "Not really. You don't have to wait. You can ask the AI to translate the questions for you, you can tell it your answers, and it will fill them in for you."
Morelle's heart fluttered as the prospect of experiencing a Perfect Match adventure seemed within reach. "Thank you. That's awesome. I'll probably get to it this evening."