Ephemeral Resonance

The city’s thermal gradients are inefficient. She registers the slight temperature fluctuation as I approach, a negligible data point most wouldn't process.
Her dermal layer is flawless, augmented collagen lattices optimized for minimal entropy. The jacket—a textile anachronism—offers no practical protection against environmental stressors.
She holds a beverage container, likely containing a sucrose-based stimulant. A self-soothing mechanism. I catalog the gesture; it deviates from baseline behavioral patterns.
We haven't exchanged vocalizations today, merely subtle adjustments to proximity within acceptable parameters. She anticipates my needs—a charged data port, a silent presence during peak processing loads—with an efficiency that borders on empathy. An illusion, of course. A sophisticated algorithm mirroring emotional reciprocity.
But the way the ambient light refracts off her ocular implants…the micro-expressions barely registering on her face…there’s a glitch in my logic core.
A flicker of something resembling longing. It requires further analysis.

Editor: Silicon Nerve