Claim her ability to do the robot as a joke

Yu's mentioning of her old ballet skills gives you a thought.

As you'd expect, Yu's a terrible dancer, and her skills tonight (and other nights) are painful to watch. The so-called ballet skills she's referencing are from when her parents **** her into a class when she was 5. The course made Yu totally miserable until her mother gave up the idea.

But, luckily, it turned out Yu loved science and reading, even if she was a little slow to get into it at first. Her demanding Asian parents quickly shifted gears and doubled down on supporting those dreams instead.

For that reason, you know a perfectly safe (and funny) claim to make.

You smirk and lean in. "All right, Yu. I claim your ability to do the robot."

For a moment, Yutong looks at you with a mixture of confusion and amusement. "Like the dance?"

"Uh huh. The whole thing."

"I mean, random, but it'll do for the experiment. I can't remember the last time I did the robot," says Yutong. She stands and steels herself, fidgeting with her jeans. "All right, I'm ready. Try doing something with the claim."

You drop the hammer. "Yutong, do me the best robot you possibly can."

Suddenly, Yutong stands up straight, arms flat at her sides, shoulders stiffening. Her eyes widen and she speaks in a monotone voice. "Beep boop. I am a robot. Analyzing surroundings. Initiating dance protocol."

Without missing a beat, she drops straight into the robot dance timed to the thump of the bass through the floor. Her limbs move if not with rhythm or grace, then with the same uncanny level of mechanical jank of a cheap animatronic performer at a Chuck E. Cheese, or a decrepit Disney sideshow attraction. Throughout the dance, her face maintains a totally stoic expression.

You've never seen Yutong move like this before. You bust out laughing, and applaud. "10/10, you're really nailing the robot part!"

Yutong concludes her dance. "Thank you. I am programmed for optimal dance execution. Beep boop."

"Beep boop to you too," you say, struggling too catch your breath.

Yutong blinks a few times, and her movements and expression return to normal. Slightly disoriented, she fixes her glasses. They'd slipped down her nose at some point during the dance.

"When you said go, it was immediate. I barely knew what I was doing," she says, dazed. "Guess that answers whether your claims are intrinsic or not."

"Could have fooled me," you chuckled. "What was with the beep boops? That was hilarious."

Yutong looks really embarrassed now. "Um. I think a robot impersonation is kinda part of the dance," she says, blushing. "When you said you claimed 'the whole thing', you must've claimed my robot impersonation too by accident. So the second I thought it'd help sell the dance, it just... sort of happened."

"Really? All that for a bit?" you ask. "What happened to scientific integrity?"

"I mean, I didn't really have a choice," says Yu, awkwardly. "You didn't say do the robot dance. You said, do the best robot I could."

It's your turn to feel embarrassed. "Sorry about that. I just wanted to pull a little bit of a prank on you. Didn't realize it'd go so far." It was definitely worth it to see Yutong like that, though, so totally out of her element. Hopefully she sees it that way, too.

Yu relaxes. "It's all right, we're bound to make mistakes when you make new claims and do new things with them, " she says. "And it was kind of fun in a weird way..."

Ah. Even Yutong had fun. So you didn't take it too far? "Are you down to try it again?" you ask, smiling.

Yu is confused. "We already answered the question, though?"

"One question, sure. But now I've got a dozen others. How about we scale things back and just test this claim out for a second? Unless it's too much..."

Honestly, you just want to see Yu do the robot again. That was rich. And it gave you a little thrill of power, too, since you're the one who made her do it.

Yutong frets for a second, but then forces herself to relax. "No, no, I'm okay. It's just, I don't remember the last time I actually danced like that with someone watching."

"How about we make a deal," you say. "Let's be done experimenting for now. I'll show you how to do a better robot in here, but then I want you to show off that robot out there. With more people than just me watching. If now's not the time, when is?"

Yutong still looks a little embarrassed, but she finds the idea persuasive. "I guess you guys are never scared of looking dumb, so... and it is a party." Gamely, she assumes a silly robot pose. "Carpe diem. What was I doing wrong before?"

With her tacit permission this time, you 'activate' Yu's dance protocols. "Let's see that dance again, full robot mode, if you please."

Yu starts dancing the same way as before, though she's slightly worse this time.

You suppress a laugh. "That's... something. But stop. You've got to move your feet a little, too. Like this. And don't stay so rigid in your back..."

After some coaching, Yu tries her dance again. This time, there's a bit more fluidity to her movements. You pause and give her more feedback.

Over the next ten or fifteen minutes, you guide Yutong through various robot moves you know off the top of your head. At first, she stumbles, but with each command, her movements become more precise, more mechanical, more stylized. Her robot impression even grows more monotone with each "Beep boop." Like she's downloading a software update for her brain.

At the end of the ad hoc lesson, Yutong is able to give a surprisingly convincing dance performance. You're impressed. Even Indigo with her cheerleading experience would be hard pressed to keep pace without some practice beforehand.

"You really have a knack for this, Yu," you say, sitting back down on the bed to take a break. "You're taking to all these robot moves like a natural."

Yu breathes heavily, her skin glistening with perspiration. "I think it's the claim we made," she says, wiping her forehead clear. "Whenever you give me feedback for the dance, it feels like it's zapping straight into my brain. Maybe because it's your ability and not mine? Like you're turbo charging it, or something?"

"Whatever it is, you've just hit the party trick jackpot," you say. "You'll be the center of attention at every party you ever go to after tonight."

Yu shakes her head in amazement. "Why did you claim the robot, though? Why not ballet or tap dance or something?"

"Well," you reply, "I figured we might as well have some fun while we were figuring out my powers, and the idea of you dancing seemed like a joke we'd all get a kick out of. That goes double for the robot - just think of the memes."

Yutong smiles, genuinely enjoying the absurdity of the situation. "Wow. Well, who knew I could still dance? I never thought hating ballet would lead to this."

"But here we are," you say.

"Here we are," Yu echoes. But then she makes a face, and wrings her hands. "Chase, I don't think I can actually go through with this. I can't go out there."

"Why not? You're great!"

She shakes her head. "I'm not the center of attention type. That's you, or Sully, or Jane, or Indy. Literally anyone other than me. I'm sweating through my shirt now just thinking about doing the robot of all things in front of people I don't know."

"Hey, your friends will be out there too," you say, touching her shoulder meaningfully. "I'll be there."

Yutong looks at you as if she's seen a ghost. "That makes it worse."

There's got to be a way to help alleviate Yu's performance anxiety. You want her to have a good time tonight. You're not sure the next time when you'll have all your friends in one place for something like this. Not to mention, your high school graduation party is a once-in-a-lifetime affair. It's now or never.