âThank you.â Mara smiled when he opened the door for her. It was unusual for a program to act like this. At her time on the Grid only Zed had held open the door for her from time to time, but in the User world she often saw men act like towards women, it seemed to be a habit.
She looked around to find the seller. Mara knew it was quite late to interrupt, but they needed the ink to get the last papers printed for tomorrow. Luckily the shop was still open. Since she started living with Ezra and helping him with his paper, she often ran errands like this. It made her feel useful and helped her to find a place where she belonged.
Kryptor nodded in response. He stepped inside after Mara and let the door shut - as he did, he frowned slightly and pressed his hand against his right side. On the Grid heâd had some minor damage there from an injury that hadnât healed properly. Heâd barely noticed it then, just the occasional sharp pain when he moved his arm too quickly⌠In this world, it was more of a nuisance, a steady, painful tension that never went away. He wasnât concerned; it was merely an annoyance, like many other things about the human body.
He looked around the little shop, examining the various supplies on the shelves, memorizing any useful information for future reference. There were many different kinds of brushes and quills, rubber stamps, various colors and textures of paper⌠Kryptor analyzed each item, determining what they were used for and how they were all used together. Some were practical; others seemed to serve a purely aesthetic purpose, which clearly was a lot more important to Users than it was to programs.