#wycc

I KNEW YOU WERE GUNNA PICK WYCC. so the original ASW prompt was 

When you’re around I don’t know how to hide my feelings.  I count in binary, in my head.  zero one one zero one one and you count clouds. (while you count clouds)

I toyed with a couple of ideas for this one before settling on a robot and a creator. I liked this idea of the creator having the most literal way of thinking --for the creator, the robot is codes and computers, a product of invention -- while the robot is the one with emotional aspirations. 

Niall in this ‘verse is really obsessed with humanity. everything good about humanity, at least. there’s so much goodness, but most importantly there’s love and connections and most importantly, warmth. something that’s severely lacking from life in a laboratory. the only warmth Niall really feels is towards Louis. 

Louis, who doesn’t really think of Niall as anything other than computer and coding. Niall tries so hard to get him to understand that there’s so much more than that. that it doesn’t matter, built or born, there is so much similarity. Louis is reluctant to see that, but Niall’s stubborn. like the most stubborn, so there won’t be any giving up. it’s all about making Louis understand. this is set at a point in the ‘verse where Louis is worn down -- like he’s tired, and they’ve had the same conversations over and over, and Niall is so insistent. it’s hard to maintain this idea that Niall isn’t anything more than a hard drive and wires when Niall is picking Louis apart piece by piece and showing this understanding of Louis as a person that Louis himself can barely comprehend. Louis doesn’t believe that there are dreams, he doesn’t believe that there’s real emotion, but Niall does dream and those dreams are about Louis.

Of possible interest to those of us in the Chicago area (everyone else is welcome to skip this if they’re so inclined):