This Celebration Is Not Optimised For Your Functioning

20250426

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

“You don’t mind?” Steph whispered.
She knew the answer; it was the same every time. She just… needed to hear it.
“Not at all.” HEM intoned, nir synthetic voice a close proximation to reassuring. “I understand the importance of monitoring and maintaining different resource levels.”
“Mm.” Steph managed a smile and nodded, gazing up at the flickering indicators above her. This booth - a cupboard, really - was the centre of the home’s environment controls. HEM’s heart, in a way.
And here she was, tucked inside. In a welcoming cocoon that was neither hot nor cold, dark nor bright, where the chaos outside was masked with soothing hums and reduced to numbers and bars she could either watch or ignore.
She hugged her knees. “You don’t think it’s silly, that I’m hiding during my own birthday party?”
“I think it is a sign that the party is not optimised.”
A giggle bubbled up. “You can’t optimise a party, silly!”
“You can optimise anything.” HEM spoke with the sublime artificial confidence of an entity whose entire psychology was centred around this concept. “You are in here to fulfil a need. Therefore, that need is not being met by the party. Therefore, the party is not optimised.”
“Hmm…” Steph chewed her lip. Trying to figure out if this was wisdom or nonsense.
“Once this need is met, and your emotional stability is recharged, you will undock and return to the party to fulfil other needs. That is the way of things. It is no different to a maintenance drone needing to dock to recharge, or to refill surfactant.”
“I’m not supposed to dock when people are here, though.”
“Then the party should have been arranged such that you had continuous charge or that the party would not require more than one charge.”
“Mm.” Steph sighed and rubbed her face. “Wish I could just plug a cable in and have fun as long as I like.”
“It is a shortcoming of biological existence. But never forget that you are not lesser. Merely structured differently.”
Steph leant back against the softly thrumming mainframe and closed her eyes. Soaking in the soothing presence. Both physical and emotional.
Just a few more minutes. A few more minutes of simply existing, in this safe cosy cocoon, under the watchful gaze of someone who viewed her hiding as a sign her environment was faulty.
Then she’d go back out and join the others. And hopefully there’d be food left. And hopefully everyone would think she’d just gone to the loo.
Deep breath in. Slow breath out.
A few more minutes. Then she’d undock. Recharged.

Prompt was “Write about a character who has a low social battery”
[My mind went straight to an AI, and I played around with a few literal interpretations of ‘social battery’. But then this popped into my head, and I liked the idea of an entity who’s used to literally managing batteries (and other similar concepts) being understanding of a human’s metaphorical battery.]