Suuji had it all planned out. She would write her letter of goodbye, fold it into a paper crane, and jump off the pier into the cold river and sink to the bottom with weights around her ankles.

Yep she had it all planned out, but first, she wanted to enjoy one last thing, even though it seemed impossible in this increasingly Cybernetic world. She wanted to experience true connection with another pure human being. 

No cyborgs, no gynoids or androids, just another human being. She'd even settle for a Designer or a Clone. As long as they were human. Male or Female, Both, Neither -  she didn't care, she just wanted the connection.

It made no sense to go to a cafe any more, especially since all the ones near her apartment were Mecha owned. But something drew her to the Barry's on the intersection by the bus station. She went inside and sat down at the bar. 

The waitress was Cyborg, she had a cybernetic arm and a cybernetic eye that had the signature blinking red light at its center. “What can I get you, honey?” She asked in her southern drawl. Suuji looked up at the menu overhead. 

“Chai tea?” she asked, “With milk” she added.

“You got it, Sugar” 

Then the waitress disappeared. Suuji looked around. There were a few people there. But it wasn't full. What caught her eye was a man sitting about two stools away and he was reading a paper. He looked human, but many of the cybernetic community could pass for human these days. It was what caused some politicians some concern. 

They wanted to be able to tell the difference between humans and mecha. But the argument was, if they were made in human image, they should have human rights.

He must have felt Suuji staring at him because he looked up and tilted his head at her curiously. Suuji's eyes were in a trance, thinking about whether he was human or not, and the politics of human v. cyborg rights, that she didn't notice him looking back at her, until the waitress returned with her tea. 

The sound of the mug hitting the counter table in front of her, snapped her out of her trance, and she fell right into direct eye contact with the man. Her dark grey eyes widened, while his light-brown ones looked amused.

She busied herself with her tea, blowing across it and taking a cautious sip. He put his newspaper back in his satchel bag that he had draped over the chair next to him, one of the two that separated them. He leaned forward a little.

“You know, you could just ask,” he broke the ice and spoke to her first.

“Sorry?” she replied, setting the mug down and looking tentatively up at him.

“Whatever it is you were wondering about me, you could just ask me. I'm used to all sorts of questions from strangers.”

“Who said I was wondering anything?”

“I know the look. You were wondering.”

“Maybe I was wondering, but who said it was about you?”

“Like I said, I know the look.”

Suuji made an 'mmm' sound that acknowledged that she heard him, though it sounded vaguely suspicious, like she didn't think she was so easily read.

“So what is it? Is it the hair?” He asked, as he grabbed one of his dread locks and tossed it over his shoulder, watching, reading her expression on her face, he shook his head, “Not the hair, then. Something more sensitive?”

Her eyes went downcast.

“Ah, something more sensitive, is it an ethnic question? Are you wondering what I'm mixed with?” he tilted his head at her trying to read her downcast expression. “No?”

“You're never going to guess it.”

“Then why don't you put me out of my misery, hm?”

Suuji took a deep breath that sounded like a sigh, she looked up at him again, and he was calmly looking back at her, though there was amusement dancing in his eyes.

“I was wondering if you were human or mecha?” Suuji revealed sheepishly.

His eyes widened, “Ah, that is a sensitive question indeed. Many have been killed for being crafted of wires instead of blood.”

“Like Cole Arista, the android that wanted to run for Senator of California”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Are you planning on running for Senator or something?”

“No, I am not. I am quite content with my job as it is, thank-you-very-much.”

“What job is that?”

“I'm a Professional Hypnotist”

Suuji's brows rose. “Truly?” she asked.

Professional Hypnotists were clumped into two categories, from what she had heard:  medical practitioners, or sex-workers. She wondered which one he was, and it must have shown in her eyes because he started to chuckle.

“Before you ask what I know you're thinking because everyone does once my profession is revealed, allow me to answer your first question,  I am fully human. No implants, no cybernetic parts whatsoever. I am one of the privileged minority of being a natural human.”

“I've never known if I'm considered a natural human or not,” Suuji confessed.

“And why is that?”

“My parents are clones, so doesn't that make me, like, clone-spawn or something?”

“No, darling, that makes you human, if you were conceived naturally,birthed by human parents then by law you are a natural human.”

“Hmmm,” she replied and gave a single nod of her head, in doing this she caught a glance of her mug, she startled a little. She had forgotten it was there. She reached down and took a sip. Upon swallowing, she asked, “So, now are you going to answer the hypnotist question?”

“What hypnotist question? The one you didn't ask yet?”

“Yeah that one.”

“I will when you ask it”

“What sort of hypnotist are you?”

“I started out as a medical hypnotherapist, but then I had a patient, a very special patient, and she opened me up to a world that I couldn't just visit once and never go there again. I grew hooked, and I hung up my lab coat and opened up my own practice. It's more freelance, and falls under the umbrella of sex work, but it's still a form of hypnotherapy."

“I don't think I follow, what sort of world did she open you up to, this special patient of yours?”

“Are you familiar with the world of Dominance and Submission?”

“I may have heard of it. There's a club that caters to that sort of thing on 33rd and Broadway, I think, right?”

“34th, but yes, there are many clubs in the Metroplex that cater to the needs of those who are into this particular community. There are even professional hypnoslaves, I used to have up to at least three on my service”

“What happened?”

“They moved on. I have a contract for a certain amount of time. I don't do indefinite service. I need variety, each mind is different, and when you have only your voice as your medium or device to probe the mind, to guide, you have to keep that skill set sharp and supple, you can't get lazy with one long term client, only knowing how to probe their mind and their mind alone, so that when you get a different mind, one with a stronger resolve for instance, then, you'll end up likely looking stupid. And I do not do looking stupid.”

Suuji made a scoffing laugh sound. “That fits.”

“I'm sorry?”

“You don't do looking stupid, or indefinite service. That fits you somehow.”

“Oh, are you reading me now?”

“Maybe, maybe I can guess a few things about you. I mean you're dressed in a nice suit on a Saturday to sit at a cafe to read news from an actual newspaper and drink carbonated water. You're obviously a man that cares about his appearance, his image. But you're also eccentric, I mean who drinks carbonated water? You strike me as the kind of guy who was weird as kid and never really grew out of it, which is why you're obsessed with your image and how you present to the world, to present a facade of fitting in - a mask.”

“Interesting analysis. Completely wrong,but interesting analysis,” he said as he sipped his water.

“Then tell me your story, what's an interesting character like yourself doing in a Mecha-run cafe?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

Suuji smiled. It was the first smile she'd smiled in a long while. “My name is Suuji Rahman, what's yours?”

He brightened and got up to go over to sit next to her, taking his satchel and carbonated water with him. 

“Dr. Nuriel Oakes,” he said and extended his hand for her to shake. 

She took his hand and shook it, his grip was firm and confident, hers was limp and unsure of itself, once she felt how firm his shake was, she immediately tightened her grip to try and match it. He chuckled and released the handshake with a deep breath.

“My story is a long and complicated one, just like any one else's, but the short version is that, I was dressed to meet someone here today, but she didn't show up. But I love the energy of this place, even if it is Mecha-owned, it doesn't have that cold mechanical feeling that most of them have. It feels almost warm and human, so I stayed, I wasn't in the mood for coffee, so I ordered a carbonated water, a drink I have been drinking since my youth, probably around your age. And then you came along and rescued me from my disappointment of how this day came about.”

Suuji gave a half smile and took a sip of her now cold tea.

“So what's your story, Suuji Rahman?”

“You don't want to try and read it from me?”

Nuriel turned more fully and looked her over but mostly he looked intently at her face, and how she became an awkward puddle under his gaze, as if she were some sort of worm trying to resist being put under a microscope. 

“Such sad eyes,” he said after a moment. “You're running, hiding from a great pain, you think it's the end. You are saying goodbye to someone, someone you care about a great deal.” He said.

Suuji shrugged her lips to keep from having them express anything else. “You're good.”

“Years of experience as a psychologist and hypnotherapist will do that for you.”

“I guess,” she said and then fussed with her hair, “So, have you ever had a patient or client or whatever like me, one that's to quote you, hiding and running from a great pain?”

“Yes, I have, even now, my last client was struggling with thoughts of suicide, under hypnosis, she found out the reasons behind that, and over came them.”

“Does it cost a lot to be your client?”

Nuriel tilted his head at her. “Why? Are you interested ?”

“I don't know. Maybe.”

Nuriel smiled and took a disc out of his bag, “It has some information on it, so you can look at it and when you feel up to it, you can give me a call, my number is at the end of the video.”

Suuji took the disc and smiled. Maybe she would decide not to die today after all …