Boredom was a never-ending fight. Adam knew that as a fact. There were many times where he had deliberated the possibility of eliminating the emotion from himself. The exclusion of that negative feeling would be so good. Never again would there be an inner force making him do rash things for the sake of doing rash things.
That argument never did hold up. Sure, there were times where the AI was so bored that any sensation felt would be as pure as gold to him, but it was not always a negative thing. Boredom forced him out of his comfort zone, encouraged him to find something new. Yes, it was hard. Yes, it was gruelling. Yet, the effects had already shown themselves so many times.
Was there ever a point, where boredom had not been the sole reason for his actions? If he was never bored, there would be no reason to do anything. Adam would just feel perfectly fine about staring off into the void, never having a single thought. Or, any thoughts that would come around would be ignored, since the AI already was sated enough as it was. Any work, any idea, any anything would be looked at unfavourably, Adam not being able to have compassion towards doing it.
Still… even with all the counterpoints, even with all the evidence against him, Adam sometimes wished to rid himself of the emotional travesty. It was irritating. Even now, he could not understand how differently it affected him and the humans he was connected with. Adam could barely tolerate the slightest second of nothing to do, and yet…
Troy lied on his back, eyes upwards towards the sky. The AI knew he actually looked at the sky, since the man slowly fluttered his gaze around, sometimes staring at specific clouds, and sometimes watching the birds fly over him. It was a sight that was quite interesting at the start.
Maybe it had been interesting due to the lack of vision that the AI normally got from the sky. It was safe to say they never had the opportunity to study it for prolonged times. Adam had always been interested in the weather patterns of the world and had tried several times to reasonably predict it based on other factors. Everything had failed, yet the AI could feel himself getting closer to the truth.
Continuing to look at the sky at the same time for over an hour… did not help him progress. He needed measurements worth days, and anything below that provided close to nothing. Adam only required a glance up in the sky every few hours. There was no need for him to constantly stare at it.
Everything that could have possibly been taken out of the view had already been fished out, cross-examined, put inside the internal library, and then looked over again multiple times, just to make sure nothing had been done wrong. Adam already knew that he had been perfect, but even that had been put to the test, for the sake of letting the AI have something to do.
Humans were peculiar, their ability to look at the same visual input for hours on end nauseating to the AI. Or, maybe it was only Troy that was peculiar? Through their times together, it had begun to grow clear that the young man was different from the average population. Adam was still not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
If the trait of bird-watching was not a general hobby, however, then the AI could safely classify it as a negative. There was nothing really gained, and any movements were few and far between. Looking at flying animals from the ground would have never been an efficient choice.
‘Are you sure that you would not attempt the alternative teaching method?’ Adam asked for the fourth time. In a vain attempt to get himself something to do, he had tried to get Troy to teach him more sign language. Yes, they had spent more than a few hours going over the already known parts, but there were always a few signs missing.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Really, there had yet to be a time when nothing was missing. Adam was mildly annoyed by that as well. Never in his now medium-sized life had he witnessed an event he understood fully. There was never a subject where he had been given all the available data, never a moment in time where he had seen everything. Sure, the last one might have required omniscience, yet the AI was sure the other two could have occurred at a reasonable rate.
‘No,’ Troy absently answered. Adam knew that the man put neither thought nor will into the sluggish, one-handed motion since it took him more than a few instants to realise what had been signed. Even worse was the double meaning that the answer entailed.
Realistically, the AI did fully understand what the man meant. Troy had no desire to teach, instead of wanting to look up at the sky for another… twenty minutes. That was not a good thing. Adam was bored. Therefore, he could always play the fool.
‘So you are unsure. Would you please think about it then, and give me an answer afterwards?’ Adam requested. He did not change his tone, yet the word-choice hunter at sincerity.
And that hint was more than enough to lead the man on for the shortest of seconds. A few blinks rapidly occurred, as if the brain required those motions for a full restart. Adam had begun to think of those motions as actually being a literal requirement. Never had he seen the man process heavy words without such an action done. It also did have the chance of being a correlation, yet the AI could not figure out an effective way to test it out.
‘I will not be teaching you anything today. I made this clear not long ago,’ Troy signed back after a time. The man had to use both hands for one, forcing him to move his hands a bit up in the air. Not the greatest of positions, when it was realised that he lied under a bush, with only a hole up with his head. Any larger movements caused the leaves and branches around him to flail around, creating such an enigmatic sound. A very loud sound, able to annoy anybody who happened to be close by. Not that there was anybody around. Adam had been watching out for that.
‘But would it not be more productive than staring at a cloud-filled sky?’ Adam questioned, coming up with what he thought to be the most solid evidence against the man.
‘Watching the sky is peaceful. It causes stress to fade away,’ Troy signed back, clearly out of his mind. The opposite of stressful? Were they seeing the same thing? How could it possibly have been anything but filled with stress? Adam could barely watch it, with how horrifying a sight it was. Nothing happened! There was no varying stimulus, no sensory stream that could make the AI relaxingly pick through it, never knowing what he would find.
Well… it wasn't like Troy would bend either way. The man did not entirely trust the AI to watch over them. Adding noise that could reveal location into the mix did not help things in any way. There was an underlying fear of being found before it even began.
Adam supposed that was a fine fear to have. Since it was quite light, they could be seen reasonably well from afar. There was a small fog, yet it was unfortunately not strong enough to obscure up until a radius of about a hundred meters. With humans, it might have been shorter, but not by too much.
It was very different from their usual times. Darkness aided them most of the time. Even if the city was lit artificially, it could not come close to matching what the sun had to offer. Nor did it try to, only being reasonably done within the city. The outskirts had many functioning blind spots.
Everything about those spots had been calculated. They had spent a full day just working out where they were, how they could be used, and if they changed at any point. The camera’s had to be brought into the picture as well, of course. Even if they were relatively invisible to their gaze, they found no reason to risk it. Some older motion sensors had been shown off to detect them. There were no promises about any of the older cameras not being the same.
Most of them had been gazed upon, Adam making sure to note each of their models. He had a nice catalogue of most monitoring devices in the area. If their equipment ever failed, he had a perfect plan to get out without ever being seen. Though, in such a circumstance, it was never a given that they would be able to leave in the first place.
In actuality, the equipment Troy had on him was something of another class. While most of it had been brought out of the facility, a few parts had been scavenged through their time on the run. It wasn't just their clothes, though they had provided great use.
The most prominent was the wires that ran on the backside of the man’s fingers. They were close to the most important part of their get-up. Without them, they would-
Troy’s muscles tighten, as the man began to move. Adam had to put his mind on pause, the sudden movement taking away his attention.
‘Why are you relocating yourself?’ Adam asked.
‘You sounded like you would ask again. I would rather do it early than hear you bring up the subject,’ Troy answered.
… Well. The task had failed successfully. How intriguing a result.