Ava decided to catch up with Yaren, not knowing where she was. only for Yaren to join her walking by her side
Ava looks at her with surprise on her face as she carries a bag on her back, with her eyes wide, "Yaren?" as she stops
Where Yaren proceeded to hold Ava's hand and tell, "Ava, it's you, it's been a while since you were gone away from that arrogant, don't care attitude of a teacher" with a bright smile
Ava then scratched her back with happiness, "Yes, indeed, Yaren. He can be a bit rough, but he certainly has his charm. How about you? Is the class you attended doing well?"
Yaren was confused. She answered, "Weren't we in the same class as you? You are on the same course as I, no?" Ava then scratches her head, "Yeah, Quantum Informatics and philosophy. I get ya"
Yaren makes a chonky, disappointed gesture on her face while her hands are clenched, touching her hips.
Ava scratches the back of her head with casual mortification and apologizes, "My bad, I am a bit sloppy."
"Hmph" Yaren expressed
Yaren, before proceeding to seize opportunities with her, "Anyways, what's our plan? Shall we watch more anime or shows or something entertaining? Or perhaps go outside?" Yaren looks at her with ecstatic eyes.
Yaren looked at her and agreed, "Yeah, we can do that" and so the girls walked together, like it was a day of life in Sector 451.
Ava and Yaren walked to get ice cream, and then Ava looked at Yaren and asked, "Do you want to explore space with me one day?"
Yaren then looked at her and buoyantly exhaled, "Yes! I would like to explore space with you" with a smile
Ava then smiled and promised like a dreamy fulfiller, "I will make sure of that." Ava then looks at the sky.
Ava taps into the wireless network, also known as the Internet, with her mind. She sees the skies and the spaceships with their humming noises and appearance. Ava looked at Yaren and smiled.
Yaren watched Ava do her magic, "I suppose, Ava, you might have seen something interesting. You are not so prospective about certain things."
Yaren then clichely says, "Lemme guess you found a boyfriend…?" in the most girly, typical manner that pricks her to the core.
Ava then flaps her hand, "No, not something boring as that, more about space being full of ships and stuff."
Yaren then looked down and mocked, "Aww, bummer, bet you might find yourself an alien boyfriend, Ava."
Ava blushes and covers her mouth with her hand and retorts, "Is that something you see in your free time. Baahahahahaha, That's funny, like that will ever happen." Ava puts on a smug face, trying to deflect Yaren's comment.
Yaren noted with eyes in slight disapproval, "You are quite cynical, aren't you? What happened to one of the pretty girls of the class?"
Ava flustered and downplayed herself, "Pretty, I may be above-average, but I am by no means a celebrity. If you are talking pretty, it would be my mother."
Yaren commented, "Your mother, huh. Interesting" Yaren then asks, "What does she look like? Does she look like you in some way?"
Ava noted, "Uhhh, no more like a classical natural type. Nothing special, she's not a supermodel though."
Yaren responded with suspicion, "I doubt that she is a nothing, Ava." Her brown eyes were scanning Ava's words and body.
Yaren followed with, "I believe you. You do stand out as the reserved beauty, but I think you can be more like your mother." Her brown eyes stared
Ava then held tight to her bag and her eyelids looked down and responded, "Yeah, I am the reserved type. But I doubt I am anything classical or traditionally feminine. I suppose you are right. Enough of this talk, why don't we proceed forth with our lovely walk outside?"
Ava invites her in with anticipation, "Why don't you and I come to my house?"
Ava looks at Yaren. Yaren then looked at her with curiosity and said, "Really?"
Ava nods, her face turning casual, hopeless, "Yes, I don't have much money for books and Interactive PDFs. Let me check."
Ava checks her credit currency with her mind. She checks if she is frivolous with her wallet for such wants. However, she finds that there won't be the right time for it now.
Ava then frowns childishly, "Well, I don't have much in me now. It seems"
Ava asked again, "Do you still want to come to my house?" Yaren scratches the back of her head and nods. Yaren nodded with her blonde hair and said, "Mhm, I would love to. Plus, I really want to get to know you better, I mean, like really BETTER. I want to know what your type of man is."
Yaren asked another boring question, "What's your type of man? Is it some hot dude or some BDSM dude, or some guy who can capture your heart with sweet words and help you from danger? You know the hero type."
It then proceeded with blah blah
Yaren's talkativeness had Ava fed up, so she raised her voice, "You talk too much, OKAY"
Ava then proceeded to walk, where Yaren apologized, "I am sorry. Ava, I might have been too talkative. I hear you had books in your home. Do you have anything that can teach me how to interact with people better?"
Ava then held onto her bag on her back and marched forward, waiting to make her insight known, "Yes, I do. Though I believe they are not what you think and probably wouldn't help you in the long run."
Ava echoed with intellectual detachment and academic manner, "I have been thinking of exploring other planets or colonies of the solar system just to get more knowledge, especially something that's out of reach of our human hands."
Ava tells her, "The library may not be enough. I need access to something strange and unknown."
Ava then apologizes to herself and to Yaren for an unnecessary soliloquy, "My apologies, I got a little off-topic."
Ava then breathed in and out before proceeding to walk with a now more calculated grace in the hopes of diverting her mind to something else. \
Ava was trying hard to divert Yaren from suspecting something. Ava has been learning psychology for a while, but her understanding is very crude.
Mostly on the cunning application side of it, it may not work on everyone, but for Yaren, who is impressionable, it should be able to distract her mind from the predicament she made.
Ava then proceeded to make her steps, trying to relax her manners and posture. Channelling her inner focus, Ava continues to walk gracefully, trying to keep herself as calm and poised as possible, trying to walk away from the potential ignominy that might happen.
Yaren watches Ava walk, this kind of walking - she never seen her like this before. Yaren then nodded and asked Ava, "So Ava, do you live in a mansion or something?" with growing obsession
Ava flushed with embarrassment, responded, "Just stop assuming… I don't live in a mansion. I am just an ordinary girl with cybernetics."
Yaren, with concern and child-like curiosity, "Oh, so, what kind of cybernetics? Did you purchase them yourself?"
Ava answered slowly, "Congenital… really. I think everyone at this point might acquire cybernetics one way or another, but less likely to be prominent in areas of low socioeconomic upbringing."
Yaren answered with eyes feeling all probey, "Huh, I have been willing to invest in it. Are your parents scientists of sorts?"
Ava's face turned into a grimace and reluctance, "I am not at liberty to say, I suppose I have been blessed by it. I was driven by my own cybernetics to pursue computer security and artificial intelligence, and now quantum informatics."
"I can't imagine what it's like to not have them, makes me feel like a superhuman." Ava looks at her hands, her pride swells on her face as she looks at her hands, but she confessed something
"I am still missing something, though. What it means to be human, to feel, to empathize, I see people operating within layers of abstractum that I don't seem to understand but even I feel them. It's like alexithymia. Usually, humans wouldn't have such trivialities grappling with things like this since they have embraced the arbitrary, and so in their ability to bridge between emotions and logic, but not for a girl who's cybernetically enhanced from the very inception."
Yaren spoke with curiosity yet with cynical observation, "Huh, no wonder you are such a reserved doofus. Your problem with emotions isn't necessarily you; you were just merely asynchronous with your development. Over-reliance on cybernetics that you forgot the emotional needs or the necessity of your own self." Before her mouth morphed into a smile, she crossed her arms where the smile shows her teeth. Having felt like she figured Ava out already
Ava being impressed complimented her emotional intelligence, "That's the smartest line you can say with your doofus social skills, and your paucity of feedback with reality. Guess we are both doofuses"
Yaren dismissed her with a pose where she uncross her arms, eyes convicting, "I wouldn't put you as a more arrogant doofus out there."
Ava with the same detachment turned hopeful said, "Perhaps. Yaren, whatever, I'm still me. I don't know myself better than others but things in fact are easy. Just not with heavy theory, I prefer applications even if they defy conventional laws of physics or whatever. But I have my own interests. I guess I can say I am a savant of sorts."
Ava smiles smugly unto yaren face breaking her elegant pose
Yaren turned sarcastic with manic in her eyes and mouth and said, "Wow, looks like someone could be a superwoman. That's how crazy cybernetics can be. Life is easy, education is easy - though I don't really struggle with education - I don't think anyone with cybernetics will struggle with education at all. After all, we are in a transhuman age"
Ava forwarded with worldly acceptance, "Perhaps, technology makes life very easy. I suppose we should thank our rulers. I don't know who they are. But I am grateful for their gifts."
And so Yaren feverishly bowed on the floor, where Ava was a little stunned with her eyes widening. Ava responded, "Not like that, no need to be that feverish. Just do it like a normal bow with your head"
Yaren was shocked and stopped herself where they were both about to calmly bow
Both soon bowed their head and expressed their gratitude, "Thank you for the generosity of your technology, dear deity."
Ava is now tired, "Ah, that was a little religious time to cut the religious crap now. Wanna go get some food?"
Yaren gleamed with excitement, "Yeah. That will do", as the two of the girls head off.
They went to an area filled and from the sky shows a space shuttle with an ice cream poster glued on its plating. Its wings are like those of an eagle, and its design is sleek but old.
Possibly an old derelict ship that has been repaired over the years, it was in the sky for a while about to land.
The shuttle landed in the terrain, and soon the door opened where a man emerged, a man with a bald head and regular clothes with an apron, he brought a box of ice creams for anyone to purchase with credits. I assume he was here to do business for the sake of which, but delivering ice creams across the world with a spaceship - Imagine how cool that felt.
The man looked at the two girls and waved his hand about to advertise to them, "Hello, there. Welcome to my store, want some ice cream?"
Ava answered, "Hello, Mister, yes, a good ice cream wouldn't be so bad, plus you came with excellent timing."
The man put his hands on his hips and laughed, "hohohoho, don't mention." The man then fiddled with the box, tapped on some buttons to reveal frozen ice creams inside the box
He then proceeded to say, "Hold on, girls, this will take some time. He then plays with the box interface, and ice creams start to slowly heat up, causing the ice to melt before descending from the stairway of the shuttle to hand the two girls their ice creams.
The man requested with integral diligence, "You might want to transfer some credits. Sorry, ma'am, rules are rules."
Ava looked at Yaren and teased, "Who's paying? Hey, bet you might learn a few skills of socializing if you buy it for me. You know, treat it as XP for socializing?" while whispering this to her ears.
Yaren, being naive, decided to rush for it and handed her card, like it were a debit card.
(debit card, but it's not named that, more like a Money-Transfer card due to state-of-the-art security and its magnetic hold with the owner).
The man held the card and used a device to scan it; the transaction was successful. Man, overcome with overjoyed happiness, "Done, enjoy the ice cream, girls. Come back if you need anything. I will be in a different area. Here, feel free to subscribe to my channel for any news of the areas I will be appearing in. And yes, it is intended - I have control over this."
And so the two girls left with their icecreams, Ava touched her own collar, "I guess it's not so bad to be a normal girl. Even though I am quite distinguished from other people" Ava looked at Yaren and smiled.
Ava continued to walk with her while eating her ice cream.
Ava continued, knowing there was not much to say, "I suppose there is nothing to talk about now, we should be making adventures. What do you think, Yaren?"
Yaren responded, "Yeah, going shopping wouldn't be so bad. Ohhh yeah, how about the whole visit to your house thingy?"
Ava looked at her face and cautioned her, "Well, don't be too surprised by anything once you arrive at my house."
Yaren scratched her head with acknowledgement, "Okay, sure, fine. I will make sure of that."
Ava then leads the way to her house. Her walking is poised and silent. She thinks about the cartoons or entertainment she watched, the romance novels she read, which she's trying to get a grip on, concerning the concept of romance.
Ava was still lost in thoughts, but she must savor this moment with Yaren, one of her earliest friends she managed to make in the university she is enrolled in, or at the very least the first friend she makes.
Only because they both have their own pre-existing issues, with Ava's lack of understanding of her emotions due to her cybernetic nature, and Yaren's social awkwardness.
Yaren remarks with blank eyes, "You seem like someone who could talk to anyone. Are you really sure you don't have an understanding of your emotions, because if you don',t I can always tautologically assume that you at least have an understanding of other people's emotions. Do you play as an engineer with other people's emotions?"
Ava didn't seem to understand her question and further disclosed, "I read books about it, you know. It's my only leeway for myself, you know? I am still lost."
Ava continued, "I don't know why, but I just enjoy reading them as an insight into myself and the others around them."
Yaren asked, "What do you mean by that? You mean you enjoy reading about others, especially with that enhanced brain of yours?".
Ava nods, "Just because I have an enhanced brain doesn't necessarily mean I get to understand others in a way that has a mosaic tapestry, and I don't think I have an enhanced brain, I only have a cybernetic one. One for basic things and for connecting to the internet without a computer. But still, even I need a computer to do my stuff - I have my limitations, Yaren, and I am here to overcome them one way or another. Emotions are one of them. I didn't think I had to ponder them until now."
Ava extends and apologizes, "I am sorry for the long speech." Ava faces her head down and her hand is in her face in embarrassment.
Ava then looked into her eyes before asking, "How do you guess that I am into that then?" while her eyes stared at her
Yaren soon faced her and answered, "Because you act like an aristocrat, your actions do not seem real and frankly put you are not the same Ava I have watched you since our college years, our early meetup, I thought you were just some pretty girl who is uninterested in anyone, but that's particularly per your reserved nature but now you are like an aristocrat who has dealt with people before. While I know you are not an aristocrat by means and that you are just a lucky girl with cybernetics, I still think you are way better than me when it comes to getting along with others - and I hope you don't weaponize your knowledge of psychology with others."
Ava shrugs her shoulders, "I can't make promises. How about this, I can help you learn to socialize with others with only a more curated version of what I know. Is that a deal?"
Ava raises her hand, morphing to a handshake. Yaren, in her naivety, was still pondering.
She knows Ava has a way for her to overcome her social skills, but Yaren's instincts tell her that she has bigger plans and that she is on a path to something worse.
Yaren became concerned, "You may have something invaluable that I don't, but I can't trust you. I am worried, Ava, what happens when you turn against those with whom you are bound with. What happens if you turn into perfidy, what happens when you destroy those only because of the greed that lies in your heart."
Ava was shocked, "No, I WON'T destroy you or anyone. Neither me nor you nor anyone would be destroyed. You don't understand! Yaren I have the means necessary to reach something that only a few in their self-actualization journey could reach. I could reach heaven with my indomitable will. But I lack power, and that power is necessary to reach that fruit of superior knowledge. If I can't have it, fine, think what you want to think!"
Ava paused before apologizing, "I'm sorry. Maybe you are right after all. I don't know myself all that well. Do you still want to come to my house? You don't have to trust me on everything. Then we can go our separate ways."
Yaren, with her emotion assuaged, "I suppose that's fine, Ava. I don't mean to hurt you, I am just jealous.. After all, I wish I were just like you. I just said things out of line, you sorta remind me of those? I don't know too much about a perfect girl. And I was just trying to find your faults as a human."
Ava looks at her with a blank face and says, "Trust me, I am smarter than most people but that's only by extension of my cybernetic. I have lived with cybernetics my whole life and it was given to me. I am nothing but a hybrid of artificial intelligence and human; my interest in psychology was late Yaren because something awakened in me, and I don't mean to exaggerate it spiritually."
"I just think I am more than my cybernetics, and I want to find that out even if it means reading darker literature."
Ava then grabs Yaren's shoulders and says, "Yaren, for me to find my true purpose and spiritual self, I must embark on an expedition. Can you respect that?"
Yaren, with her eyes turned even more disinterested, dismissing her existential concerns as something redundant, "Oh please, why the need to find yourself. You can just be egotistical already with perfect, justifiable reasons. Why the need for such pointless stuff of high potential? It's a fluff, Ava. In this world, we are ranked by our most viable traits and material wealth. It's just the way it is, a living utopian of our own making."
Ava listened and nodded, "Yes, that is true, I have every right to be egotistical. But neither is that enough, I lived my life as a tabula rasa, my cybernetics controls me, and I have realized that sooner or later."
Ava confessed, "I think I have said too much and confessed too much, the collar has picked up its auditory pattern and my impulses. Great, just as things are about to get worse."
Yaren's eyes then widened as she looked at the collar, "Oh, the collar. I suppose I can trust you now for a bit since you are still being monitored by juvenile law enforcement as punishment for your curfew." Her eyes turned to mockery
Ava said with acceptance, "Fair enough, can I show you my house now instead of this fruitless argument?"
Ava then puts a palm on her face and instructs Yaren, "Just follow me, don't say anything more." Ava then makes a move on. Ava begins to walk; that was the end of all the ruckus she had with Yaren, with them being one-to-one together.
Ava makes way; she has Yaren to follow her. Ava continues to walk without saying anything, knowing that it's wise not to say anything to invite more chaos while her collar is still wearing her neck.