pshhh, who needs to keep posts in chronological order to the plot?

[heart_hidden_in_binary]

[when left to his own devices, you could set a clock to Kaito's daily routine. for the people who care enough to remember it, this makes him easy to track down. mid-morning? taking advantage of everyone being in the labs to clean the house. afternoon? quietly watching whichever section of the labs are busiest (or reminding Len to eat lunch, if it's precisely 12 o'clock). late afternoon? in his room, either observing social interaction over the internet or analyzing a movie or tv show.

...except for today, when he's not in his room at all.]

Comments

[heart_hidden_in_binary]

[... pats her head]

It would be a different kind of heart if it weren't like that.

[sleepingspark]

[pouts and eats her mikan]

[heart_hidden_in_binary]

[...

picks a daisy and offers it to her '-']

[sleepingspark]

[.....]




...Thank you.

[heart_hidden_in_binary]

You're welcome.

[looking away from her, back up at the sky, and then shutting his eyes]

[sleepingspark]

[starts eating one of her onigiri, but keeps the daisy in her other hand, staring at it thoughtfully]

[heart_hidden_in_binary]

[opens one eye a few minutes later to check on her. he hadn't heard her move, but that wouldn't tell him if her facial expressions were changing...]

[sleepingspark]

[it's a quiet, pensive sort of look. she's finished her food by now and is just staring quietly at the daisy, rolling it carefully in her fingers.]

[heart_hidden_in_binary]

... Should I not have given that to you?

[sleepingspark]

--Eh?! No, no, it's not that!

[clutches the daisy to her chest :c it's not like he's gonna take it from her but STILL]

I-it's just not what I expected, okay?

[heart_hidden_in_binary]

... Okay.

[he starts to say something else— and then actually hesitates]



Is that bad? That it wasn't what you expected?

[sleepingspark]

[giving him a very strange look]

No, it's... it's nice. In a way you're not usually.

[heart_hidden_in_binary]

[... he had been feeling uneasy again. he hadn't even noticed until the slowdown and redundant trains of thought he associated with the emotion had dropped to lower levels.]

I see.

... I made some recent changes to my programming to streamline how I process decision making. This has had the unintended but so far beneficial consequence of altering my behavior.

If those differences become less "nice," please let me know.

[sleepingspark]

I... okay. I will.

... It's still a little weird. But not bad weird, I don't think.

[heart_hidden_in_binary]

... Good.

How is it different? It's difficult for me to tell.

[sleepingspark]

It's... um...

I'm not sure if this is it, but it kinda seems a little more... human?

[heart_hidden_in_binary]

...

[nods]

Good.