Xeya shakes her head emphatically. "It wasn't bad science! I learned something valuable, which is that getting a reminder about doing something with you is really confusing. It was just... distressing, in the moment. And now I have a bit of a headache."

"Maybe this is a bad idea, I nearly sent my brother to the hospital one time -"

Awwwww. She squeezes him, and manages a small smile.

"I'm okay! And now I know not to set alerts like that, which I could have learned in a much more stressful way. That's the point of doing science! Figure out what works and what doesn't."

"...what would've been a more stressful way?"

Hmmm. "If I'd set a reminder to try and get me to do something for you when you weren't around, like... throw you a surprise birthday party or something... that could have been bad, I think." 

...kind of a scary thought, really. 

"- yeah no you shouldn't try to do that. You wouldn't eventually decide your powers were on the fritz?"

"I mean, probably I would? But that's scary too, right."  

"...yeah I guess it would be since yours are good."

Awww. She gives him a little squeeze and then lets go.

"Okay. We should... brainstorm experiments! I have some ideas, but I want to make a list. Let me -" wait. no. "- come with me to my room so I can grab my laptop?"

"You got it." Up they go.

And to her room they'll arrive! She boots up her laptop (which skip will see has the name Widget when she logs in) and spins up a fresh google doc, making the font big enough so it's easy to read over her shoulder.

"Okay, things to test..."

Experiment Category: Activation

Can we stop Skip's Power from activating if I leave the room / line of sight, but...

• ...we're still talking verbally?
• ...we have a video call going?
• ...we have a phone call going?
• ...I can see him through a camera if we're not talking?
• ...I try my best to keep thinking about him?

Does he have any input?

"I think probably those all work except the last one? I don't get, like, customer service people dropping me over the phone."

"Alright. Let me - " <For the duration of these experiments, if I lose track of Skip, remind me to go look at my laptop. And then give me the usual reminder for Skip once I see him again.>

<Acknowledged.>

"- alright. Ready when you are?"

"...well, now I don't know what to talk about."

"Tell me about one of your favorite works of media?"

"...have you ever seen Little Shop of Horrors?"

"Nope! ...think I've heard of it, though? With the talking plant that eats people?"

"Yup, talking plant that eats people, from space. It's a musical. There's a movie of it too, Netflix has it."

"From space. How did it get into a little shop?" 

Xeya slips out of the room as she waits for an answer.

"It's not super clear how it got to Earth but it got into the little shop from some kind of flea market situation. Like it appeared among the flea market display of plants and the guy who was selling plants made up a price for it and sold it to the main character."

"So what do you like the most about it?" She's on the other side of the wall, but they're having an active conversation and she's focusing on him. 

"I like that the plant makes deals with the main character to get him to feed it but it's never actually clear if it's really helping or just taking credit for stuff that could've happened with even a non-talking famous carnivorous plant. Like it might be low key hypnotic or something but mostly it's not clear."

"Ahhh, so the main character is merely ambiguously culpable for the string of gruesome alien plant murders? What kind of stuff is it even offering him..."

(She ducks back into the room.)