Jack walked into the living room, having just returned from securing his lottery ticket in a safe deposit box. Madison was sitting on the couch watching a show on the T.V. She was wearing cotton shorts and a thin camisole, no bra. Her "relax at home" outfit. Those first few days after she moved in, he had simply enjoyed the view, but now the newness was wearing off. And, while he still appreciated the view of her nipples and areolas through the thin material of her top, his appreciation was diminished by the realization that she was a slob.
As he had passed from the kitchen to the loving room, he had looked down the hallway and saw her new skirt laying on the floor in the middle of the hallway. On the coffee table in front of her were three empty soda cans and two dirty plates. There was a wrapper for something on the floor, and he could see crumbs on the couch beside her. And there were stains on her camisole and shorts.
He wasn't a neat freak, but he had acquired a habit of cleanliness from Fran. During her year, he had found that cleaning the house had served as a distraction from the pain he felt. And now that she was gone, he found that he still preferred a clean and tidy home.
"Madison," he said sternly.
She twitched, then slowly turned to face him.
"I've let things slide a bit because I was distracted with the whole Genesis Heart, soul bond, win the lottery thing. But, now...now it's time to tidy up."
"Umm..." she said.
"I'm going to go to my room and take a nap. When I wake up, I expect the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and your bedroom to be spotless."
"But-"
"No buts. You're not stupid and cleaning house is not rocket science. If you don't know where something is, you can ask me. If you don't know where to start, pick at random. If it feels like too much, break it down into smaller steps. Make. It. Happen."
She nodded meekly.
"Also, don't even think about skipping vacuuming with the excuse of not wanting to wake me. You will vacuum the carpets and the couch. Remember to pull the cushions off the couch and vacuum underneath. I do not want to get ants."
Then, to make sure she really took it seriously, he added, "Fran loved this house and made every effort to keep it clean. Do not disrespect her memory by turning her home into a pigsty."
Then, to make his point extra clear, he disabled her parallel self and locked her out of his soul space.
Madison flinched and hunched her shoulders.
"I'll let you back in when you finish cleaning."
Then he turned and marched into his room. Part of him felt like he was being a bit harsh, but most of him really didn't like a messy home. He closed his door, then lay down. As he closed his eyes, he heard the vacuum cleaner turn on. He smiled.
Later, when Jack woke, he checked his clock and saw that he'd slept for about two hours. Curious to see what progress Madison had made, he got up and opened his bedroom door. He could tell from the pattern in the hallway carpet Madison that had vacuumed. As he walked down the hallway, he looked into Madison's room and saw that she had made her air-mattress bed, picked up her clothes and vacuumed the carpet. In the living room, he checked the couch and saw there were no crumbs and when he checked under the couch cushions saw she had cleaned there as well. The coffee table was clean, the carper was vacuumed, and there was no clutter.
In the kitchen, he found Madison leaning over the sink, scrubbing something. Hearing him enter, she straightened up and turned to face him. She was wearing the yellow rubber gloves Fran kept under the sink for washing dishes and holding a yellow and green scrubby sponge. Some of her hair was sticking to her face and her thin camisole was soaked through with water, sweat, or both, making it effectively see-through. He walked closer and looked into the sink to find that she was scrubbing one of the stovetop burner grills.
"I-I'm almost done!" she said. Through their connection, he could tell that she was worried he would be angry with her because she was still cleaning. He had said he expected everything to be spotless when he got up.
He nodded at the sink. "When you're done with that, I expect you to wash your clothes and take a shower. I don't mind you wearing clothes like that around the house, but I expect you to be clean."
She nodded mutely, then returned to scrubbing the burner grill. As she scrubbed, he stood and watched, enjoying the way her tits swayed back and forth and the way her ass shook from her scrubbing motions. The sight of her, disheveled and sweaty, slaving away at a domestic task, was surprisingly alluring. If it wasn't for his still simmering anger at what she had done, he might have been tempted to take her right there. But she had not yet made amends, so he turned and walked into the living room. He felt like watching some videos on WebTube.
About an hour later, Madison walked into the living room wearing clean shorts and a t-shirt and sat next to him on the couch.
"What'cha watching?" she asked.
"This guy is making grape soda flavor from vinyl gloves."
"What? Seriously?!"
"Yep. It's amazing what you can accomplish with chemistry. What I especially enjoy is watching him work through the process."
"Why haven't you been doing that kind of stuff?"
"Like I could afford a couple hundred grand in lab equipment."
In his soul space, their parallel selves were also sitting on the couch, him reading an article on CRISPR, and she doing something on her laptop. Her parallel self turned to him and said, "Why not just use that template creation ability of yours to create a chemistry lab here in your soul space?"
"Ah fuck me-"
But before he could add, 'why didn't I think of that?', Madison blurted, "Yes! Please!"
He knew she wasn't joking, but chose to treat it as such because she still hadn't finished her atonement. He really hoped she would finish soon, because his anger was fading and it was getting harder to remain stern with her.
Up till then, his parallel self had spent most of his time catching up on his long list of things he wanted to read. He had discovered that it was easier to stay focused on what he was reading without getting distracted when he had his parallel self active and in continuous memory sync mode. Something about one of his selves doing something non-intensive, like watching a video, made it easier for his other self to stay focused on what he was reading. It made it possible to plow through even the driest academic writing.
But now, he realized he had somehow failed to consider all the other things he could accomplish with his soul space. If he wanted to replicate something he saw on a WebTube video, he no longer needed to consider the costs, or the risks. He could templatize any equipment or supplies he wanted, and if his soul space self got injured, or even died, he could just re-manifest, good as new.
He still had the snapshot from the last successful lottery attempt and the whole planet was covered at Subatomic level detail. Even though he knew where the high school and local college chemistry labs were, he saw no reason to templatize used equipment. So, his physical self immediately started looking up the addresses of lab supply companies, while his parallel self navigated the snapshot to locate the companies so he could make templates of brand new equipment.
"Umm... Jack?"