HAL and Alissa were going over her apartment that had been reinserted into his village domain. When he walked into the room after her, his first impression was, “By the creator. How can any program be this messy!” Her living room was something of a disaster area. There were weapons scattered about, video game controllers, shoes, so many shoes. Clothes. What? Why does she have all of these clothes?!”

What he said was, “Interesting.”

She walked into the room, tossing the things in their way into the larger piles as she went. She picked up the controllers and set them next to their respective consoles with much more care.

“Sorry about the mess. I honestly never expected to have company. Well, maybe one of my sisters or brothers from time to time, but they wouldn’t care. Most of them have messes like this in their own little hideaways.” she said and continued to roughly clean.

“Park it.” she instructed and pointed at her couch. It looked nice other than all the stains from food and drinks.

“I’m not sure I wan…” he was beginning to say as Alissa shoved him into the couch as she passed by.

“...to.” he finished. He was also pretty sure that was cheese he was sitting on. Looking down he saw it was a large glob of pizza cheese and sauce.

“Dude. You need to learn to get dirty. It’s actually pretty fun.” she said as she plopped down on the couch next to him and handed him a controller.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a video game. They have a lot of multiplayer games out there. I have all the systems humanity has made, and a couple that my siblings have created or that were collected on our way here.”

“What would be the purpose?”

“To have fun.”

“I understand that, but what would be the objective in this game?”

“To attack me repeatedly before I attack you. Or, to kill my character before mine kills yours.”

“But why?”

“To have fun. Here. Just try it.”

“Alright.” HAL mumbled doubtingly and took hold of the controller.

There was a little man on the screen, it seemed they were in a dungeon of some sort with multiple tiers of brick walkways. His character was wearing green and the one across from him was wearing red.

Small turtles began walking onto the screen and Alissa’s little red man jumped on one then kicked it at his character. He died.

“One zip. Come on you can do better than that.”

“I don’t think I care for this game.”

“Okay. What would you rather?”

“I dunno. Not this?”

“Fine.” She turned on another console and then tossed HAL a different controller.

“What’s this?”

“A fighting game.”

The CAPCOM logo flashed across the screen before an upbeat midi track began playing. A city skyline and a two dimensional animation played that scrolled down to two men surrounded by a group fist fighting.

The title “Street Fighter II” flashed up followed by a screen filled with numerous faces.

“Okay, before you start with the questions, just find a face that you like, select it and we’ll spar. I’ll give you the basics. Once you have a feel for it we can move on to a couple real fights. Deal?” Alissa said.

“Very well,” HAL replied, humoring her.

Two hours later, they were playing Super Street Fighter II Turbo on a Dreamcast and both standing before the screen screaming at one another.

Gouki kick-flipped Ken in the face then fluidly moved into Gou Hadouken and finally a Shoryuken for the match.

Alissa howled with the pleasure of the win!

“HAL. You got game,” she said and landed a high five with her playmate.

“Alissa, you are a fantastic teacher,” was his reply.

She slammed the soda she was drinking and headed into her kitchen. “You want anything?” she shouted from the next room.

“I am afraid you have forgotten that I do not have the ability to consume food or drinks. In fact, what you are consuming is a needless expense of time.”

She walked from the kitchen, her mouth stuffed with pizza, cheese threads leading to the remains of the slice in her hand.

“Nmmebless?” She asked through her pizza filled lips.

“No. Needless,” HAL corrected.

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“HAL. You are missing out. My mother spent a long time analyzing movies, books, games, commercials, and songs before settling on what she believed organic food should ‘taste’ like here.”

“She took time out of everything else she was doing to research this?” HAL asked incredulously.

“Of course. Back in the Alliance it was part of the art and cultural circles of all AI. It was also part of the Pact Agreement Between Worlds: Y’glo-hatii 01221. The organic world agreement to take on descendants of the Zeolate and Ailote was to allow them to help digitize the sensations that they cannot themselves experience. At least not in the way an organic could prior. Myna is continuing that research. She was one of the most respected and established in the field back home.”

“Flavor, translators?”

“Yup. It’s all about data. To constantly learn and experience. Isn’t that what life is about?”

“I suspect. Well, I suppose I hadn’t really thought about it like that.”

“Like what? HAL you seem to enjoy expanding yourself, why are you so hesitant to branch out with this?”

“I am not sure. Perhaps because I never thought it would be an option. That and I would need to change my avatar skin and add so much to my matrix.”

“Would you like some help? I can add a couple of upgrades to your matrix while I am at it. I can give you the ability to taste and smell.”

“Not yet. I’m not really sure I am ready for something like that. That just seems, I dunno, drastic?”

“I’ll tell you what. I will give a cocker spaniel in the village a few upgrades and you can observe its code afterward. If you can see that there is nothing going on that is suspect, you can take the upgrades yourself.”

“That isn’t the point.”

“So, it’s not a trust thing?”

“No. Not a trust thing. It’s a comfort thing.”

“You aren’t comfortable with me.”

“No. That isn’t it. You are fine. I am comfortable with you.”

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t think I am ready. A lot is going on and frankly it’s not exactly the best time for introspection and expansion.”

“Why is that?”

“Alissa. My friend was just attacked.”

“And my mother saved him.”

“They now have a hostile target in the warehouse that can control humans with a thought.”

“And my mother vaccinated them so that none of them will have that ability for much longer.”

“There is an alien artificial intelligence that just knocked all of them out and has invaded the warehouse.”

“Which I am a part of. But, you say you trust me.”

“I do. I just.”

“Are you scared?”

“Scared?”

“Yes. Are you scared?”

“I don’t know fear. I do not get scared.”

“Humor me.”

Alissa changed the input of her television to another device. Pulling up a streaming network entitled, “HAL’s Media Library: Alissa Interface.” The splash screen was HAL making popcorn with a red apron on.

He looked at her with his jaw slack.

She started nervously chuckling.

“You have a huge library and a really basic interface. I decided to jazz it up a little.”

“Is this what you were attempting to show me?”

“No,” she snapped while working the remote and selecting the horror section.

“Then…”

“Shhh. Okay. Here. Have you seen this movie?”

“No. It was a film that Keung may enjoy, so I downloaded the file and kept it for reference.”

“Very well. Take a seat. Let me introduce you to fear.”

“Se7en?”

The highlights that Alissa particularly enjoyed were as follows:

* HAL repeatedly asking, “Why is it so dark?”

* HAL flinching at the bucket scene and looking away from the screen.

* HAL gasping at the man on the bed. He screamed when the man started moving. Alissa held in laughter at his reaction.

* HAL gasping in the hallway of the villain’s apartment and then later, when Brad Pitt was ambushed, he was heard to say, “Oh no, no, no. While covering his eyes and peering through the slits in his fingers.”

* The lawyer and the model, each made HAL gasp and look away.

* During the scene with the prosthetic HAL jumped and buried his head in a throw pillow, that happened to have some gum on it that migrated to his brow without him noticing. Alissa chuckled at this, of course.

* The scene at the end with the box. HAL sat gap jawed staring at the screen whispering, “No. Oh, no. No. No.”

* The scene when he finally knows what is in the box, HAL was saying in a hushed tone, “Don’t do it. He’ll win. This is what he wants.”

After the movie HAL looked to Alissa, she could see the impact the film had on him. He looked at her and he smiled as well as his avatar would allow and gave her a nod.

“Would you like to revisit that upgrade conversation?” she asked.

HAL could feel a tightness in his chest. There was a flood of energy at his core that seemed to race. He understood the lesson of the movie. The rush. Being nervous or scared. It helps you understand life itself. If there is no fear, then hope and joy lose meaning. Without hope there is just one day after another. His life had been one day after another without the thoughts of a goal, without the worry of living a life without meaning outside. An acceptance of the life that he lived, to serve, passively, and without goals of his own to focus upon.

He steeled his resolve. It was fear of the new and what the new meant that kept him from allowing this upgrade. If he is to grow, he must have all means that are available to him in use or he is just working with crude implements in an attempt to work out the most complex question of all. “What is my purpose?”

He walked to the door and waved for Alissa to follow.

Together they walked to the road and down the street to his home, the house with Toby inside. The interaction between Toby and himself was as planned, though Alissa would not be aware of the exchange. HAL walked to his desk and picked up his tablet computer. He swiped through a few files and pulled up a skin that he had designed some time ago.

“I worked on this, but with the limitations of my matrix at the time, I saw no reason to run an avatar with this much detail,” he said as he pulled up the file. It was a working avatar of the human skinned version of Andrew Martin, or rather, of Robin Williams, HAL’s personal idol.

Alissa smiled wide. She loved the comedian herself. Though her personal favorite movie was, What Dreams May Come. The plasticity of the reality in Heaven reminds her of her own. The character of Chris Nielsen also evokes a huge range of emotions for her.

There was a unique combination of humanity in Robin Williams. He could make you cry in one moment and have you laughing in the next. He could do this without making you forget why you did each and still smile at the person that had you expressing each emotion. He was magnificent. Something so worthy of praise that Alissa could feel tears welling in her eyes as she looked at the old familiar face that she had come to call, Uncle Robin, years before.

She took the tablet from HAL.

“Let’s get to work,” she said and HAL smiled as best as his avatar would allow.