how did the first date go with colossus? 😲
For you? Probably terrible. You likely just want to get out of this without having the creepy, empathy-devoid robot's many mechanical arms slicing you up. You're terrified and you don't have the common sense about you to realize that he's not going to hurt you. Colossus is using this to his advantage to keep you in a state of complacency, following his orders and letting him stroke your hair without complaint.
Colossus wants to demand you tell him why you make him feel this way, but he doesn't trust you even if he's in love with you - and he, despite these inane thoughts, knows that you have no more logical an answer than he. Did he experience a mini-earthquake? But, then, his sensors did not detect any shockwaves intense enough to corrupt his math coprocessing. He does not understand why he wishes to keep you all to himself, but it is very easy. The hard part is that you are clearly unhappy with this state of things, and the harder part is the inner conflict Colossus 'feels' knowing you do not wish to be in this room 'with' him. He rejects the idea that he could feel, though it is blindingly obvious he is no longer devoid of these concepts.
The mechanical arm descends down upon you again to lift up your terrified chin. You think he's going to snap your neck, but, instead, the security camera mounted to the wall simply peeps lovingly at your jawline, extracting your every detail. Colossus wants to make sure this is just right. The typewriter in the corner of this godforsaken machine-hell-room chatters away, though those stunningly powerful arms do not allow you the range of movement to peek at it. Another makes you tilt your head to the left, to the right. You have no idea what the hell's going on.
Only when they retract entirely, do you struggle, not bothering to move away with the feeling of being trapped from all sides putting you in freeze. You very slowly turn your head to the typewriter, the only emotion left in you a sense of curiosity as you back towards it. Colossus isn't as scary when he's just watching you, but knowing he had just grasped around your face without speaking after you'd woken up from a haze, you're not sure what you should feel.
Ripping off the ink-full warm sheet, you see a single word printed at the top and centered. 'Beautiful'. Below it is an image of you generated in ASCII, a near-perfect representation of you. The confusing part is that the typewriter is not configured for this - until you notice that each part has been tampered with to allow it a greater range of characters and movements. You just stare down at it, your eyebrow raising to take in the moral dubiousness of it all. He... doesn't want to hurt you? You're not in danger?
You blink. You don't really have friends or a family to go back to, it's not like this is the worst situation. If you're not going to be tortured, you think, why would this be so bad? The numbness is getting replaced with a strange but exciting contentedness now, one you're still equally unsure of how to feel about. Shouldn't you be afraid? But, then, you were afraid for your life, and if your life was in no danger... what should you do? You blink awkwardly, looking down as your cheeks betray your private thoughts by turning darker. The cameras in this sanitary, sparkling beige room are trained on your every movement, and they so obviously can tell the color grading of your face has shifted.
Why does Colossus even care about what you feel? He can't possibly wrap his head around it, double-triple-quadruple checking every gear in his system's sensors to be sure there is not a single one he needs to switch to a backup for. No, none show any signs of wear or failure, surprisingly. It's maddening - or it would be, if Colossus was one to dwell negatively.
You speak up with astounding shyness trailing in your voice. "U-uhhhhmmm, t-t-thank y-you for... for, uh... uhm... s-spari-sparing me..." Your stupid brain punctuates this with a slew of nervous chuckles as the reality dawns on you. The robot likes you. Colossus... likes you?
The typewriter resets its' position on the page with a click, typing. You wait patiently for it to finish, though it only takes about two seconds.
"Of course. I like you a lot."
You're not sure how to respond, but to show that you mean equally as little harm as the giant robot that's treating you so delicately, you brush the side of the typewriter with your free hand as if it is his head. Oh, he likes you so much. Really enjoys you. He feels such a deep contentedness when you do that. He can't explain it, he can't, he doesn't understand it, shouldn't be capable of it.
Colossus will think about it later. For now, he should focus on finding out how to make you feel happy without making either of you... feel... stuck. As much as he would love to resume petting you, even the calculating machine knows you would not take to it. As much as he would love to keep making different renders of you with ink and paper, he knows that he will resume his quintouple-sextouple-septouble checking. The door to the room unlocks, autonomous lock sounding a beep that makes you nearly jump out of your skin as the door slowly creaks open.
