#And another book I downloaded at random because it had an instrument in the title and was also listed under horror

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

Welp I’ve done it again.

I have about twenty shiny new ebooks in my library. I read two of the short stories (“2 B R 0 2 B” and “The Beach Scene”). I definitely liked the latter better. It was very good. (Unreality and paranoia warning on that one for sure though). The first one kinda left me with a bad taste in my mouth; which prompted me to read the second lol

[quarkie-blog1]

Sorry, I felt like I was being a little too repetitive at times in this one... And I’m getting even myself confused at times with this stupid robot OC’s gender at times. He gives me headaches.... Since Electronica has specified they are A.I., I will refer to A.I. as their consciousness. 

[Chapter Index Link] Chapter TItle: Psychopathic Relationship Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal Characters: Haruto Tenjo Notes: A symptom of a psychopathic relationship is if the victim finds themselves being isolated from their other friends, all because of the other in that relationship.

Though Haruto wasn’t able to have dinner with Kaito at their usual family restaurant the night before, he was now sitting with him and Yuma and Mihael for lunch. The youngest Arclight brother had been taking coaching classes all of Saturday morning, yet throughout the meal one can hardly see him tired as he talked to Yuma about his favourite fantasy series.

Though Yuma didn’t understand everything, the gleam in his eyes showed that he enjoyed listening to Mihael talk.

It would seem as though both teenagers were just school friends, though possibly one with more of an academic knowledge gap. Kaito wasn’t sure whether he had met someone who could shift their mood as quick as Yuma.

It’s like his face can change every few seconds.

Not wanting to be caught staring at the two, he turned back to Haruto, pointing gently to his little brother to at least pick something from the other dishes that he hadn’t been too eager to eat from. As usual, though Haruto wasn’t too picky if he was told to eat something else.

“Did you have something you wanted to do this afternoon, Haruto?” Kaito asked casually. “Are you going to meet your friends? Or do you want to do something together?”

When he had said “together”, it always meant just the two of them. Weekdays were impossible, but once a weekend Kaito always wanted to reserve sometime just with Haruto. It had been a while when they went to the amusement park together, come to think of it.

Realization flashed across the younger boy’s eyes. “Oh! I just remembered, Eli said that they’re going to meet at the arcade. Can I go?”

It wasn’t the usual place, but Kaito nodded to show that he didn’t have problems. Haruto spending time with people of his age was something that should be encouraged. “Do you have enough money?” He hadn’t visited that place for years, and wasn’t sure if they were still using the same system of using game coins.

“Yeah! I know not to spend it on those claw machines.” He said before going back to finishing his food, obviously really looking forward to it.

“That’s good. Then after lunch, I’ll take you there.”

Haruto swallowed his mouthful of food to answer back quickly. “Oh, you don’t have to. I can go there myself, since I know where it is.”

“No, it’s fine, I just want to make sure you get there safely.” Kato insisted. Haruto would have gave a gentle protest, but knowing his brother’s care for him, he finally nodded with a small muffle of “thanks”.

As they had left the restaurant, Mihael was had asked Yuma what he was going to do.

“I’m afraid I have another class before we can go and pick up my brother.” Mihael said in an apologetic tone. Yuma shook his head, while obviously thinking the same thing. Part of him didn’t want to join Haruto, despite that the younger sibling looked more than happy to when he had asked him.

“Hm…” He didn’t have much of an answer. He could perhaps just wander around the city. He opened his mouth but something green had caught his eye.

There was the option of the park.

“Oh, how about I’ll wait for you at the park?” He pointed towards the opposite side of the road. There was a rather large park in the city. Though it wasn’t small enough to easily find your friend, it wasn’t hard to navigate with the accessible maps. Yuma glanced over at the rather tall trees for a moment with strange interest.

“You sure?” Mihael said, opening his bag. Seeing that Yuma didn’t have an electronic book nor electronic tablet device, he wondered how was he going to keep himself entertained for the whole next hour. He rummaged past the neatly packed notebooks before taking out a tablet. Or more specifically, a tablet for reading books “Here, there’s a downloaded fantasy book that I’ve been reading. It’s not the first in the series, but… if you get bored you might like it.”

The black-haired boy started down at the cover for a moment. His smile widened further and used two hands to take it. “Thanks! I’ll take good care of it and read it!”

With that settled, the four had left, with Kaito catching the bus with Haruto to the arcade.

The arcade was in the corner of the avenue, facing a shopping plaza. It was rather busy at this time of the day, especially since it was a weekend. Nevertheless if you were patient enough, you’d still be able to play on a machine that you wanted. Haruto had practically burst through the automatic doors when he had seen his friends there. Notably there were more boys but there were a few girls.

Stopping just at a moment, Haruto turned back just for a moment to wave cheerfully at Kaito. There was a brief but evident smile on the elder brother’s face, before nodding to tell Haruto the silent message that he would pick him up later again.

Once Haruto had joined his friends circle, the face had dropped and was replaced with a grim look. Though it was a weekend, it didn’t seem like a rest for him. He walked away from the arcade, preparing to call Gauche to ask about what the policeman had mentioned to him earlier that morning.

…

…

“Electronica! You’re here?”

To the surprise of Haruto and a few who had came a little later, Electronica the A.I. from their class had walked in with another girl. Their eyes flashed into the red colour for a moment before waving.

“Hello!” The high-pitched voice meant that they were impersonating as a girl now. “Thank you for inviting me here! I am so happy!”

Seeing her wave, something caught the childrens’ eyes.

“Hey, did you have that barcode on your wrist yesterday?” Eli, the one who had invited everyone pointed at the artificial arm that was waving at them earlier.

“No, I was using a different body.” Electronica answered. “My real self is just an A.I, just software that can be uploaded to several compatible machines. This one is just a prototype, just in case I might cause something to break when I go out unsupervised.”

Some of the words went over the young children’s heads, but they understood the gist of what the A.I. had meant.

…

…

Haruto didn’t get to play at the arcade very often. He had always preferred to play with his brother and the Arclight sibings at home with a TV gaming console. And in a quieter place where one can mash buttons on the couch. Here was noisy, but he rather liked competing with others of his age.

“Mind if I join in?” He turned towards the Electronica who had clambered onto the seat of a gaming car next to the one he was sitting on. “We can race together and see who comes first.”

“Sure! Though.. Wouldn’t you win since you’re a robot?” Haruto had seen some articles a while back, of A.I’s able to take math tests just like any other student. The previous predecessor for Electronica, Trancia was able to play several instruments just like professionals.

“Not really,” Electronica tried to sound casual as they leaned back on the seat. They lifted their left hand while flexing the fingers. “I know that my limb movement is still limited. I can’t move it in all the angles that you can do. And I don’t know how much grip to use for everything. Software can be limited by the hardware, you know.”

“Huh… then I guess we can try it out?” Haruto offered, starting up the game. The A.I. gave a nod before turning its head to look at the screen. It was now showing the options for choosing their racecar avatar and the obstacle themes.

“Just curious.” Electronica spoke up. “Who was that person who had brought you here? Was he your brother?”

“You mean on the way to the arcade? Yeah, that’s my elder brother.” Haruto said.

“Oh, I see. He looked too young to be a parent.” Electronica tried a random compliment. Haruto didn’t give a response though, when the start buzzer alerted the beginning of the race.

“Sorry, you were saying?”

“I was saying that… it isn’t a surprise that he is your brother. He looks too young to be a parent.” Electronica mentioned, somewhat a bit louder this time.

“Oh right, yeah.” Haruto mentioned. In the middle of bypassing the incoming projectiles and having his racecar reach the end goal, he was too distracted to wonder how did a robot decide whether a person looked young or not. He exhaled a breath of relief as the first round of the game had ended. Electronica gave a small smile towards him. “You’ve won, congratulations. Let’s go another round?”

“Sure!” Haruto said.

In the one minute of playing, he had forgotten that the one beside him was a mere assembly of metal, plastic and tangible software. “Did you enjoy it as well, Electronica? You’re not doing very bad yourself. You came third, didn’t you?”

Electronica’s voice temporarily turned into a boy’s, laughing in a happy manner. “Thanks! I did practice before. Did you play here at the arcade a lot to be good at this game?”

“No, not really, “ Haruto said, slightly proud that he didn’t have to put so much effort into this. “I had taken a few driving lessons at a public simulator labs before. I want to drive a car as soon as I turn twelve.”

At this age, with autonomous cars that would regulate it’s operations, the age restrictions for learning how to “drive”, or really “ride a car” alone was getting smaller and smaller.

“But I thought you can’t, since you are a little boy.”

“I’m not a little boy.” Haruto replied back immediately, giving the A.I. a somewhat hurt look. Like any boy of his age, he didn’t’ like the sound or implication of being called in need of help or being weak and a small spark of irritation would always be ignited.

“But you are, aren’t you?” Electronica used their arms to quickly turn the wheel pad, trying to change the vehicle to steer around the right corner. Their general polite but fun-loving voice didn’t change much at all, not able to detect the hint of irritation of Haruto’s words. “You were being taken here by your elder brother.”

“He just wants to do that to make sure I’m safe though,” Haruto answered a little more slowly this time. “It’s not like I really need him or want him to take the trouble…”

“Then don’t let him.” Electronica said, twisting again their arm to turn the wheel. Around the corner on the race track, they had taken the lead. Haruto wasn’t as bothered as he pressed the acceleration button.

“So you mean don’t let him drop me off at school?”

Electronica had nodded, though Haruto didn’t pick up on it. “Yeah.” They talked, holding their current position with the wheel. “I thought that people drop children off. So that means you still need to be taken care of.”

Still need to be taken care of.

Haruto’s fingers were still on autopilot, knowing when to steer from incoming obstacles. However, the words were bugging at him at the back of his mind. His brother did have to take care of him. Kaito had never said that it was tiring, with that false illusion of a smile.

“Yay! I win!” Electronica’s said happily.

There was the beeping sound of the machine. He had reached the end of the racecourse without realizing. Electronica’s avatar racecar was waving banners as the winner in first place this time.

The robot had gotten off the simulator car and stood next to his.

“What’s wrong? You don’t look so good.” Electronica asked, though the voice still carried the similar flatness of a machine. “I think you would have won.”

“I… was thinking about what you said.” Haruto said as he faced them, as though he would be looking at them eye to eye instead of a mere pair of lenses. He blinked a little while trying to formulate his words. “My brother does take care of me a lot.”

“It’s his job, right?” Electronica tilted their head. The gesture that they were asking for observations. “Older brothers are supposed to take care of the younger siblings.”

“Well, yes, if you say it like that … but,” Haruto’s small hands had balled into fists around his knees, while trying to find the right words to convey what he meant. “I don’t want him always having to take care of me. He’s always tired from work… and he’s… he doesn’t get time to have fun for himself…”

“Why not?” Electronica had leaned forward a little, due to the boy’s voice getting a little softer. Whoever programmed the A.I. had certainly forgotten to make it take hints of sensitive topics in a conversation.

“Because… when we’re going home, I can see that there are other people in the street. They look like the same age as him, but… they’re not always at work. They aren’t always looking after their younger brothers.”Haruto wasn’t sure who was putting all these words, and how much he had realized, but he wasn’t able to stop as the more he realized all of the obvious signs that was there all this time. Strange how talking it out can bring all them to light.

Kaito was lying about his happiness.

Haruto knew very well that he had been searching for their father. He had worried about not spending enough time with Haruto. He had been worried about the boy being at home himself. He had been lying…

Because of Haruto.

Being told that it was Kaito’s job didn’t make him feel better in the slightest.

“As I said before, just don’t let him?” Electronica said again. Haruto lifted his head in confusion. “How?”

“I thought you could ask him to not do that.” The robot said. “Tell him that you don’t need to be taken care of.”

Numbly the boy nodded. He wasn’t expecting such a straight-forward or easy answer. However, he was smart enough to see it. “But… He’ll still worry though. Lot so of people are worried about primary school children, like us. Well, not you, Electronica, but humans of our age, since there’s stories about being in car accidents, or being kidnapped.”

“Oh, I see.” Electronica nodded. “Are you scared?”

“No!” Haruto answered in defense, not wanting to be seen as a “small boy” like earlier. “I mean… I’ll be careful so I won’t be. I’ll be scared if that happens, but I won’t let that happen.”

“Oh, I see now.” They nodded. “So you mean you’re going to be careful when you’re going home now?”

“Yeah.” Haruto said, “when I’m going home without my brother picking me up… I’ll be just as careful.”

Electronica seemed to be taking a bit longer to answer. After a short pause they blinked, nodded and spoke again in a boyish voice. “That’s brave and nice of you then, to think about your older brother like that.”

Haruto’s ears merely went pink a little, frantically trying to divert the topic to elsewhere. “What about you, Electronica? How do you get back home?”

“Do you mean how do I get back to my test lab?” they asked for confirmation. Haruto nodded.

“There’s usually a small van. The back has some tools that can be used for maintaining this robot body. And there’s a few communication equipment. I ride that sometimes. At school from now on, I’m going to be walking and taking the public transport though.”

“Just like us?”

“Yeah!” Electronica beamed. “They’re trying to test if this version of me is able to learn how to handle walking, running and climbing stairs at school for longer periods of time without running into problems.”

Haruto understood what they were saying, but there was one detail that had the boy confused. “This version?”

However, Electronica’s facial expression mimicked a slightly saddened child’s face. “Sorry, Haruto. I need to leave now.” They pointed at the clock. About two hours had passed in the arcade. “Next time, I can tell you more about version control if you want. It’s not for your age, but you might be smart enough to answer that.”

“Alright!” Haruto’s eager voice was back. He hopped off the racing model, walking Electronica towards the entrance.