Thesa rolled her eyes, “That doesn’t mean anything, your face can show a whole range of emotions, you’ve gotta have felt an emotion at least once. Happiness? Sadness? Anger? Any of the basics that even animals can feel?” She shook her head and leaned against the wall, “Maybe all in seeing is faulty wiring or something, but it still not going to make you do anything.” Talking with him made her think. Really think about everything she knew and thought she knew. It was crazy,, and as much as she liked it, it also could get frustrating when she just wanted to prove a point or say something simple that didn’t need to make her think.
"Just because my face is capable of showing emotions does not mean that I have them. As for feeling them… I don't know what it would feel like in the first place." He said. "All Androids are capable of mimicry. The Foxtrot and Tango models do it all the time. It's in their programming." The Foxtrot and Tango models were, for lack of a better word, the sex models. Foxtrot was female, and Tango was male.
“That’s cuz they’re used for that stuff exclusively, yours is different. You know when you smiled after getting a reply from Alexi? You’re saying you didn’t feel a…buzz of excitement?” She refused to believe he didn’t feel emotions, even if he could prove that he didn’t, she refused to believe. It would be a terribly bland world to live in without emotion. She tried to imagine it and couldn’t, emotion was too big of a part in her life.
"I.." Zev hesitated, raising an eyebrow. "That is a good question." He said, looking at her. "However, that could be from the fact that I have not had repairs nor updates in 30 years." He shrugged slightly. The dreams. You have dreamed, Zev. He blinked, looking at Thesa.
She shrugged as well, looking around at the room, “Keep giving me excuses, it won’t change what I think. You feel at least some kind of emotion, I’m sure of it.” Eventually she walked out of the room and back to his ship, scooping up the last giant armful of food packets and bringing them back to sort through. Thesa dumped them on the table and set to work, very softly humming to herself.
"I am an Android. It is not in my programming to feel emotions." Zev countered. "I do not have the capacity for it. I have spent much of my life observing humans and trying to quantify their emotions, and categorize them. I could tell you the exact amounts of Saratonin in each bit of happiness you feel, but i cannot feel happiness myself. I can tell you how, exactly, the fight or flight instinct works in humans, but I myself do not have a fight or flight instinct."
“And I don’t have the capacity to keep arguing with you,” She replied, not looking away from her work, “You’ve gotta have felt something, sometime. Even if you don’t believe it. Alexi wasn’t the type to create a new android that was one of a kind and just make it like every other one ever made.” With the final stack sorted out, she put the good ones away and walked back into the room before. She looked around and eventually took up a spot on the edge of her bed.
"Yes, and I'm not like every other type. I have the ability to form my own thoughts and opinions, and am the closest thing to an individual that an Android can come. I have all the knowledge of the others combined." Zev replied. "That is how I am different. But you must have a soul to be human, and it has already been decided that androids are soulless. You must have emotions to be human, and I do not have them. I am an Android like any other. The only difference is that I do not require direct orders to continue working."
“I’m not saying you’re human, you’re an android, but that doesn’t mean you can’t feel emotions.” She laid back on her bed and sighed, putting a hand behind her head to prop herself up, “I’m saying you’re somewhere between human and Android. You look crazy humanlike from looks to decision making and the argument over emotions, but you have the internals of an android, the thoughts of an android, the straightforward, non human way of thinking.”
Zev nodded. "I don't feel emotions. As I stated, emotions are a human thing, not an Android thing. It is impossible to program something to have emotions." He said. "As you said, i act and think like an Android. Just because you wish and think I have emotions, does not mean that i have them."
Thesa scrunched her nose up, “You tell yourself that, I’ll believe what I want to believe. And when I prove you wrong, when you feel an emotion, I’ll just say that I told you so.” She didn’t want to keep arguing, emotions were such a simple thing. Alexi could’ve easily made something even slightly like emotions inside Zev and he probably wouldn’t acknowledge them. She wasn’t going to go past emotions though. There was no way she would believe that he could have dreams or even really feel pain, he was an Android after all.
"And why are you being so stubborn about it? It does not affect you whether or not i have emotions. Besides, from what I have seen, emotions are a hindrance. They cloud your sense of logic, and make you do irrational things that you otherwise would not do." He added. Some little part of his mind was still nagging him about those strange…things… that had happened. The closest analog he had been able to find was what humans called dreams, but it was impossible for androids to dream.
“Because I’m a human. We’re stubborn. And yes, emotions make you think differently, but they’re good most of the time.” She looked around before looking up at the metal above her, doing anything besides looking over at him. He was being stubborn as well, she thought, trying to deny having any emotions. Thesa was determined to get him to prove that she was right, wether it involved letting him see Alexi again and maybe trying to get him to feel happiness or any other number of things.
Zev shrugged. "I have seen and read of sadness and anger, and i fail to see how those could be counted as positive." He debated. He saw this as a debate, more than anything. He also did not understand why she was being so stubborn about him having emotions.
“Anger is very helpful when you want to get something done, I tend to get a ton of stuff done when I’m angry so I can think,” She replied, eyes flicking closed, “And I said most of them were good, sadness isn’t good at all, and even anger isn’t a good emotion sometimes.” With a shrug, she rolled onto her side away from him, hoping he got the cue that she didn’t want to argue or debate about emotions anymore.
Zev shrugged, and headed back to the cockpit to continue working. He lay under the console, and startrd working on the wiring again, silent. I don't have emotions. That is not how androids work. Emotions are not a part of us. Ever. At all.
For a minute Thesa just laid on her bed, eyes closed and thinking. Eventually she sat up though, with more questions about how the human body and mind worked. Walking back into the cockpit, she was silent and got right to work, ignoring Zev as she slid under her own panel and started replacing things once again.
Zev kept working quietly, at the same pace he had worked earlier. The sooner we finish the repairs, the sooner i can get back to Alexi. Something sparked inside him, and he frowned. And the sooner I can be repaired.
For the next few hours, Thesa worked silently and without stopping. Her pace was nearly as quick or consistent as Zev’s, but she was working and helping. The panel she was working on was very near finished when she finally decided it was time to quit for the day, sliding out from under the panel and sitting up quietly. “I’m gonna call it a day,” She said, not looking over at him as she got to her feet and stretched. In her home planet time, it was near six or seven at night, plenty late for her to eat something and maybe relax for the remainder of the night until she went to bed.
Zev gave a sharp nod. "Alright. Good night." He replied, still working. "I shall keep working on the ship, then." He had nearly finished his panel, and would soon move to the next. If he ran out of supplies, he would go raid the Daedalus for more wires, dials, etcetera. Whatever was needed.
“Goodnight,” She said with a nod, yawning as she wandered back into the other room and got ready to go to bed. Thesa started some water boiling while she got changed, coming out of the bathroom right as it was done and adding it to one of the food packs. Quietly, she hummed to herself as she sat on her bed with her steaming packet of food in hand, enjoying being alone and the relative quiet.
He kept working silently. The faster I get this done, the better. Because then I can get home. Or…back to Alexi, anyway. He thought as he worked. Zev's hair was messy and sticking up all over his head, though he didn't care.
The food disappeared quickly, having not eaten anything for lunch, she was quite hungry. Thesa set the empty packet down on the table carefully before reaching around and finding what she was looking for, a very old and tattered -but still readable- copy of The Princess Bride. With a gentle grip, she opened the book to one of the dog eared pages and started reading. She didn’t read much in her free time, but today she wanted to. It helped her forget everything happening in the day and also helped her fall asleep when she couldn’t.
(yussssss princess Bride XD)
Zev continued working quietly, with the through, careful movements of the machine that he was. If he could figure out a way to work faster, they could finish the repairs quicker. Which would benefit them. He just had to figure out how.
(XD yesssssssss, both an amazing book and movie)
She didn’t read for long, flipping off the light and reading just by the small and very dim light beside her bed. With her blanket over her legs and a good book, she drifted off to sleep quickly, the book held tightly in one hand and the light by her bed still on. It wasn’t uncommon for her to wake up in the morning with the light on and book held tightly against her chest, and it looked like this was going to be one of those times.
