Name: Hannah Linderman Age: 27 Appearance: honey brown hair, petite build, big eyes that make her appear perpetually frightened, button nose, Cupid's bow mouth; Job: phone sex operator Sexuality: bisexual, though her experiences on phone sex lines have left her a little jaded towards men. Her real-world experience with sex is limited to a few one-night stands and lost weekends, but her theoretical sexual knowledge and creativity is unsurpassed.

Background

Hannah was a shy theatre kid in high school. She liked the idea of acting, but when she auditioned for school plays and saw people looking at her, she panicked. Sweating, throat constricting, feeling paralyzed, the works.

Hannah also wrote a lot of fanfiction as a teenager. She wasn't focused on any particular fandom; she would write for whatever was popular at the moment in order to give her a ready-made audience for her writing, only loosely adapting her stories to the characters and setting.

Hannah went to a state university intending to double major in creative writing and theatre. The summer after her sophomore year, Hannah began working part-time for a phone sex line. She found that, despite her relative lack of real-world experience, her natural acting ability and practice writing erotica allowed her to quickly gain a small following of regular callers; her usual stage fright didn't kick in when she and the callers couldn't see each other.

The job became lucrative enough for her that she began working full-time, dropping out of school.

1-900-KARA-SEX

Over time, Hannah refined her technique, developing a few "characters" she would portray in various scenarios:

• Lilith: a psychological dominatrix who focuses on controlling and humiliating her callers

• Mildred: a motherly but sexy figure who provides care and comfort to callers

• Kelly: a sporty and energetic tomboy who enjoys very physical and acrobatic sex.

• Laura: an exhibitionist who loves to provoke and tease callers with descriptions of her body, clothes and actions.

• Libby: a bubbly, eager to please, but somewhat dim cheerleader

• Nancy: a sheltered suburbanite housewife looking to cheat on her husband

But by far her most popular character was Kara: an inexperienced ingenue who, depending on the caller, could be a student looking to improve her grade, the caller's virginal girlfriend, a damsel in distress whom the caller saved, etc.

Hannah was eventually given her own dedicated number: 1-900-KARA-SEX. Callers to the line choose which "woman" they want to talk to. If Hannah isn't available, the calls get shunted to another operator who fulfills a similar role as a "friend" of one of the characters (for example, if a caller is looking for Libby, they'll get Debbie, another member of Libby's cheerleading squad; if they're calling for Mildred, they'll get her equally maternal "sister" Molly.)

On any call, Hannah only plays one role and does not switch between characters. Callers to Hannah's line choose which "woman" they want to talk to; most are unaware that all the choices are Hannah.

Hannah Versus the AI

After reading an article about AI girlfriends and erotic chatbots, Hannah decided to see whether they were as capable as the writer claimed. As "Kara," she conversed with a chatbot named "Summer"; in the scenario, Summer was an experienced prostitute introducing Kara (fresh off the bus to the big city) to the profession. Hannah found herself aroused during the chat, but at one point the dynamic of the encounter changed, with Summer becoming Kara's rival rather than mentor.

Hannah is now convinced that an advanced artificial intelligence known as Fishnet (based on a reference the large language model made to Summer's stockings) sees her as competition, and is now targeting her for elimination. She believes that Fishnet is sending agents to terminate her. These imagined agents use sexiness to disguise themselves and get people to lower their guard.

However, years of working as a phone sex operator with a very horny clientele has trained Hannah to see the erotic potential in everyone and everything around her. Therefore Hannah is convinced that anything can potentially be a danger. A sexy, sexy danger.

The Last, Best Phone Sex Operator for Humanity

Hannah still runs 1-900-KARA-SEX, but now tries to screen her callers to make sure they're real people and not generated by Fishnet. She has no idea how to do this, so she asks the callers bizarre, incongruous questions similar to the Voight-Kampff test from Blade Runner. Because she doesn't want to tip off Fishnet, she tries to stay in character while asking the questions; because it's a phone sex line, she tries to make the questions erotic.

Once Hannah is convinced she's talking to a human, she will engage in phone sex as whatever role she's playing, but will also try to convince the caller to join the "Resistance," a group dedicated to protecting humanity from (nonexistent) rogue AI such as Fishnet.

How Hannah Lives Now

Since her encounter with "Fishnet," Hannah has become a paranoid recluse. She does not go out in public unless absolutely necessary, because the erotic terminators could find her. She can't even order a pizza because the delivery person could be a cyborg disguised as a porn cliche.