Free android!Allen develops autistic traits, that much is for sure 😅
The grocery store was an assault.
The fluorescent lights emitted a constant, high-frequency hum, a data stream humans ignored but that rang clear and abrasive in Allen’s audio receptors. The space was a riot of conflicting inputs: garish color blocks of advertisements, the cacophony of clattering carts and muffled conversations, the overlapping scents of citrus, bleach, and baked goods. Every stimulus registered with equal urgency, his filtration protocols struggling to categorize important from irrelevant. His usual focus Sixty was absent, leaving his processing power adrift, turning inward in a paralyzing feedback loop.
People moved through the aisles with casual, unscripted purpose. A young father wrestled a reaching child away from a pyramid of soup cans. Someone laughed near the dairy case.
Allen logged it all, a statue of indecision.
[OBJECTIVE: Mimic Human Behavior] glowed on his HUD, underscored by a persistent, faint [STATUS: FAILING].
[SUB-ROUTINE: Initiate Movement To Blend In.]
TASK: Grocery Acquisition.]
Why was this so profoundly difficult? He had navigated high-society galas, violent altercations, and the intricate emotional minefield of the Stern mansion. But always as an extension of Sixty, his purpose a clear, outward beam: protect, observe, follow. His identity was a satellite to a specific gravitational pull. Here, alone, every sensor was turned back on himself. The minute weight distribution of his own stance, the artificial precision of his breaths, the blankness of his expression where a human might wear a mask of casual boredom, it all became a series of errors to be managed.
(Mirrors Part 2 anyone?)
