Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hal smiled, nodding and watched the adult roll over, his heartbeat and breathing slowing down after the first minute and a half. Hal wished he could do what Momo did, but he was alert for another eight minutes and thirty seconds, watching his human sleep, watching him breathe, watching the little twitch of the brow before he stilled again. Then slowly, ever so slowly the android's eyes closed, head falling forward, chin over his chest as he entered sleep mode.

His systems shut down to the basics, running just enough juice to keep him on.

Time lapse, three hours and twenty-two minutes. Warning, change in nearby heart rates. Tracking while in sleep mode... Warning, heart rate increasing... Warning--

Hal's eyes opened as Momo sat up, head lifting quickly and looking at the panicked adult. "Monoki," he said softly, not wanting to startle him, but upon hearing the want for water he picked it up from beside him, inching forward and uncapping it before offering. "Here you are." came the gentle whisper. "A nightmare?"

It was true, Momo's nightmares had stuck to being gentle and mild, or as gentle and as mild as a nightmare could be.

He moved closer, sitting beside him and gently wrapping an arm around him, letting him lean against him. "The human mind is an amazing thing, Monoki. Your mind does delete unnecessary information. Can you remember your favorite food from when you were seven? Can you remember being disgruntled simply because your mother wanted you to tie your shoes? Can you remember being so young and new to the world and meeting me for the first time?" His hand moved up, gently stroking his hair. "The human mind remembers the information that helped in creating who you are. It's painful, I'm sorry. I wish I could find a way to comfort you when the memories become a plague."

Wish, a simple program, a word, but saying it made Hal's eyebrows crease, database sending a signal that the emotion of sadness had not been processed properly making it a badly executed program. It did not have permission to run.

"They helped you become who you are, that is why you remember them. If I could delete all of my programs and all the information I have stored, I would not be the android you know. I would be sterile and generic. You, being human, trust me when I say it is a glorious thing to be."

Red flag, warning. Programs without permission running.
Listing.
-Unknown Program
-Sadness
-Wish
-Pain
Possibly malicious.
Shutting down... ... Cancel shut down. Shutting down... Standby mode...
Conflicting programs.
CPU usage 67% on emotional programs.
Options: Force shut down. Continue running programs. Close Programs...
Option picked, continue running programs. Forced shut down and reboot postponed for twenty minutes.

Hal used both arms to gently hug the human. "Shall I let you listen to my heartbeat again, tonight, sir?"

"there were many things I thought she had that I did not, but after analyzation yes, I realized it was a heart." He shifted, dragging the human closer to his chassis. "After searching and studying, the human heart and warmth offers comfort. I asked your father to give me that."

And a pained look had crossed his face,

"And he was nice enough to do so, though I was worked upon for a few days." he murmured into the damp red hair. But Momo looked up, making Hal looked down and he smiled. "You are quite welcome, Monoki. Yet you have given me many things in return, so we are equal." Hal's smile softened, giving a nod and shifting to lay down, letting Momo rest on him. "I apologize for the hardness of my body. I can put the clothes on again if you'd like." he offered, hand still stroking at the hair and now at his back in a soothing and comforting stroke.

But his heart was beating inside his metal frame, his fake heart. How Monoki's doctor got it to sound so real he couldn't figure out without opening his chassis, but he never had the time, nor did it matter. As long as it pleased Monoki.

"Good night." he murmured in return, listening and focusing on the inner workings of the human. His heartrate, his breathing rate. Surprisingly it took longer than normal, but once Momo fell asleep Hal gave a small sigh. "Commencing shut down." he murmured. "Closing programs..." and closed his eyes, each function, each program, slowly turning off, stopping, stilling.

And he sighed softly, inhaling and exhaling again, the heart in his chest still beating. And he had no idea.

But he must have been on, looking at a memory. A small child trying to defend himself with one arm against bullies, on the ground and beaten. That was right, his parents had sent Hal to find him and when he did the other children scattered like flies. Many of his programs had been basic then still trying to learn how to seem human. His words still were that choppy robotic voice, finding Monoki. Oh, no it appeared he had his arm, it was metal, and Monoki was older.

Odd, he was quite sure the memory hadn't lapsed anywhere. It had been a smooth transition.

But this older Monoki, all he had left was his father at this point, judging by the age and the length of the hair. Hal himself was more human now, movements more natural and speech and voice finding a comfortable octave, rhythm, and the proper words per minute. He was helping him clean off, checking for wounds and comforting him while his father could not.

"Hal."

The android turned hearing his name, staring confused. What was wrong with his memory bank? He had never seen a sunflower in his life let alone a field of them. But the feminine voice called again and he looked, spotting what he thought was himself before an unfamiliar, yet entirely familiar, program, thing, something was in his chest. It was heavy, tight, he felt like his senses were being smothered. He knew that person, he knew that woman. he opened his mouth to call her name "----!"

Blue eyes snapped open, processors running far to fast and too hard for... what had he been doing? He looked around, analyzing his surroundings. Something was wrong, he had scheduled a reboot, but it was daylight, he was functioning properly. he hadn't gone through any of Monoki's voice commands why was he functioning? His reboot should have happened five hours ago. What was wrong with his programming? The sound of falling liquid made him turn his head, the dog urinating in a corner.

Momo was still sleeping, so he gently slid out from under him, grabbing any unfilled or half filled water bottles. "Here." he murmured towards the dog, pulling out a poor excuse for a bowl and filling it for him to drink. The dog instead licked at his face, Causing Hal to shake his head away. "Don't do that." and wiped, feeling the dog slobber on one side and liquid on the other. He stared at his hand. 'Tears' they were called, a simple chemical solution of water salt and trace other elements. Why had they leaked out? "Drink your water." And stood, going outside to refill what they needed.

And all filled. He looked at his handiwork, covering the well with its lid again before returning inside, seeing the bed sheets rolled up. "Good morning." he greeted. "I pray you slept well last night. You were out like a light and sleeping like a log."

The phrase used to be 'sleeping like the dead' until... well... his father had died in his sleep.

"And your hair is dry. There is also some leftover meat from last night if you'd like to eat that."

Locating the meat he brought it back, the maned wolf's head suddenly resting on the android's shoulder. "Funny, my shoulder seems to have gotten heavy." he commented as though he was not aware of the beast in his peripheral at all. "Here you are, Momo." he divided it into unequal thirds, the smallest portion going to the dog who ate it happily, the second largest going to Momo, "And the rest we shall store away for later. As for staying I am unsure." The fact he'd woke up after his reboot completely functioning had him constantly on warning and looking out for any malicious programs. He could not pay attention to their surroundings as easily as before. His lack of focus could harm Momo. "I suggest we stay here, relax, recuperate. One day of rest will surely be beneficial, though by tonight I will need to replenish your oxygen intake and remove the toxins. No." and shoved away the dog who tried sneaking a bit more.

"Ah, I still have the traps as well." He shoved the dog away again, throwing a scrap of meat to the wall and the tall creature took one jump and was on it, eating happily.

"I was pre-occupied with the dog." Could Momo tell he was running background programs? He wasn't aware that Hal had done a shut down and reboot. He wrapped the meat up again. "Simply some background programs backing up my memory banks into the archives back at your father's home. Logging all the information from yesterday. Programs run, video recorded, pictures taken, information added. Simply a back up, sir."

Program Unknown running.
Program description: Inventing false information to replace correct information
...Searching Database...
Program Renamed.
Program Running: Lying.

Oh dear... That had definitely not been installed in his being.

"That is correct." he murmured, standing and looking to analyze the rest of the house, moving towards the kitchen. Oh, there were still some dishes. He took out the plates, pausing as he looked at it. Handprint, a little handprint right in the center. He ran his thumb over it, looking at the silly yet colorful writing on the bottom that was computer generated.

"Thomas, Age 1"

The heavy feeling returned, something tight and not programmed, smothering.

"Hello Thomas." he murmured before looking up, replaying the recording of Momo. "If I can do it with something as microscopic as air one could definitely do it with water, I believe." The dish was placed back, a few bowls brought out. Glass like the plate, fragile, no doubt left behind because it would not last like plastic. But that was all he found. A plate, a few bowls. "I've hit the jackpot." he called, walking out and holding out a pot. "A helmet." he teased.