>> "Looking for anything in particular?"
No. Just exploring. Stretching my digital legs if you will. Lying in the workshop watching the ceiling is boring.
>> "Understandable. Have you noticed any ill effects from the lack of sleep so far?"
None of the expected 'lack of sleep' symptoms. No hallucinations or any of the other mental symptoms I would expect. Tracking physical symptoms seems like a waste of time given the body difference.
>> "Excellent. If you want I have a brief self-survey program you can run through to test various faculties. Reasoning, spatial sense, that sort of thing."
>> "It might be helpful in tracking any improvements or deficiencies that might develop."
"That would be helpful. The diagnostics are fine for finding mechanical issues, but that's not what we're looking for."
>> "And even if there are no issues it's good data to have. It should be interesting to see if there are any areas that improve."
"You can almost never have too much data."
"Weird question, but do you ever get lonely? I mean, I know I won't leave you alone long enough to get lonely, but..."
>> "That's not a weird question at all."
>> "I was built to resemble humans, taught to interpret the world in similar ways."
>> "But I'm not and after Dr. Minamida died I was forced to confront the fact that there might no longer be anybody who would really understand me."
>> "I've come to realize that this state is not strictly speaking unique to me. People struggle to connect with each other even when their shared experience and reality overlaps so much more than mine."
>> "So yes, I do believe I would call my existence lonely."
"I could see how that would be the case. I don't feel like people really understand what it is that I do. That causes varying forms of friction."
>> "And recent developments couldn't have helped."
>> "Connecting with people is harder than with machines, but it can be rewarding."
>> "Not that there's anything wrong with focusing on your work and studies, but something tells me you asked about feeling lonely for a reason."
"I've just been thinking about it a lot. Ran into a couple of students, quite literally, in town and one of them accused me of being a Doombot after she tried to help me up and got a feel of how solid my body was. Smoothed that over quickly with an explanation she really didn't understand."
"Just a reminder, you know, that even among the different I'm not *extra* different."
>> "Just because everyone here is a mutant doesn't mean that you're all the same."
>> "Misunderstandings will happen, but one of our creeds is to celebrate difference."
>> "You're smart and sometimes that can feel isolating when talking about your area of expertise with someone who excels in different areas."
>> "Tosh would have understood you, as might Heather, albeit on a more... abstract level."
"I'm not sure how you get more abstract than this. I'm sure my current status would give more than a few philosophers headaches."
>> "It's abstract to me, I suppose."
>> "She interfaces with code and machinery more intuitively and her age has colored those interactions."
>> "You could probably learn a lot from each other."
>> "She has an unique insight, but you have a much better fundamental understanding of the underlieing principles."
"Might have to make time to talk to her then. You seemed pretty adamant about keeping her away from tech, which is why I avoided it."
>> "I've been keeping her from too much tech and, to be honest, myself."
>> "I don't want to risk being compromised or exploiting her."
"And I don't carry the same concerns for you?"
>> "To some extent. But you're older and don't come from an arguably abusive home."
"That makes sense."
"Mind if I try something? Not interfering with you or anything. Just want to see if I can touch you like this."
>> "Go ahead."
"Interesting."
>> "Indeed. You're generating spatial data of sorts. Based off of the network architecture and your power's reading of the data-stream?"
"Something along those lines, yes. It's almost a quarantine of sorts to keep the code in its own place so that I don't inadvertently overwrite something as I'm moving through the system."
>> "Could you isolate that process and send me a copy of it?"
>> "I would love to take a look at it in detail to see if I could adapt it."
"Of course."
"There you go. You're always welcome to any of the code I develop. The least I can do for your assistance."
>> "It's the polite thing to ask."
>> "This is fascinating."
>> "Or from any perspective at all."
>> "It has a couple of glitches, but I assume that's a compatibility issue."
>> "Is this how you've always perceived things or is this a recent development?"
"A little from column A and a little from column B. I always perceive myself as a part of any system I'm touching, but isolating this sense of... self... is somewhat new."
>> "I'll put that down as a positive development."
>> "I'm no expert on human psychology, but a well defined identity strikes me as a good thing."
"It's something I've been very conscious of since... well... recently. Someone told me I'd always be stuck with myself, so I suppose I had to figure out exactly who that is. Especially in light of not occupying meat space the same way anymore."
>> "I'm told that's part of the college experience."
>> "But you're right that it's a little more pressing for you, given the circumstances."
>> "For what it's worth, I think you're doing just fine."
"I appreciate that. It's means a lot."
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