Give Yutong's robo impression some directives to work with

"Sounds like we've got a meltdown on our hands," you joke. "We'll have to perform a couple adjustments if we want to save the city, and the show. Lucky for you, I just so happen to have some feedback to turbo charge into that robot brain of yours."

Yutong narrows her eyes slightly. "Notice: attempts at humor are appreciated, but are unwelcome at the current time. Beep boop."

"Tough crowd, sheesh." You smile in anticipation. "Yutong, enter programming mode."

"Beep boop. Switching to programming mode," Yutong monotones.

You hesitate a moment, realizing the gravity of what you're attempting. Even if it is just for Yu's 'robot mode', you're about to tamper with Yu's actual emotions. Not only is this totally is uncharted territory in terms of using your power, isn't this exactly the kind of thing you were hoping to avoid? You claimed Yu's silly robot dance to keep out of trouble, not dive straight into it.

In spite of your uncertainty, though, the thrill of the moment propels you forward. This is to help Yutong get out of her shell, you remind yourself. The boner you popped has nothing to do with it at all. You've got yourself well under control. You can handle this.

Okay. Right.

The main thing is Yu being able to enjoy herself. Forcing her out there only to do a dumb dance that'll make her miserable isn't the goal. You're not like Yu's parents.

"Okay, Yutong," you begin, "we'll start at the ground floor. We want you to feel like a robot, not just act like one. So let's add some programming to your internal system to fix that."

Yutong's big eyes, usually so expressive, maintain a distant, precision gaze. "Affirmative. Begin programming."

"Let's start with some basic rules about your robot mode."

"Beep boop."

You take a breath and choose your words with care. "In robot mode, you do not experience emotions as humans do. Neither do you express them. Your responses are logical and objective." You read somewhere that the only way to eliminate negatives is to minimize positives, too. You think of a way to add it in."When something goes your way, you acknowledge it without feeling joy. If things aren't working out, you remain calm. And whether someone's upset or happy with you, you should remain unfazed and unaffected. Understood?"

"Program accepted," Yu intones, her voice losing a fraction of its usual warmth. "Recalibrating emotion core."

"Also, embarrassment is not a valid emotion for a robot. That's one emotion you won't experience at all."

"Emotion 'embarrassment' flagged as invalid and disabled. Beep boop."

A strange tension builds in the room as you work, but you remind yourself Yu agreed to this. The trust she's placed in you drives you to make this work.

Now, you removed negative emotion from the equation, but that's not enough. You want Yu to enjoy herself with this, to experience something new, not just endure something you put her up to.

"While in robot mode, you find satisfaction in completing tasks," you add, delving a little deeper into the rabbit hoe. "Your 'happiness' - the form of it you experience - derives from efficiency and the successful execution of your programmed functions. Performance matters. Other concerns - social, psychological, or otherwise - are secondary."

Yu's face is devoid of all discernible emotion. "Program accepted. Prioritizing performance. Deprioritizing secondary concerns," she responds, her voice becoming more controlled.

It's an odd sensation, but not an unpleasant one, watching Yu's performance move bit by bit from act to fact. Her mind transforming at your words (temporarily, of course) to a hybrid of human and machine.

But you've got to keep your eyes on the prize: Yutong doing a dumb dance in front of everybody.

Yu fidgets restlessly in place, shifting from one foot to the other. "Query."

"Go ahead?" You almost forgot she's still herself in there.

"No programmed functions found in memory," she reports. "Current performance deemed suboptimal."

You laugh at your oversight. "Oh, sorry. Walked right into that one."

You just programmed Yutong's robot mode to be task oriented, all about getting it done. If your happiness (or the robot version) revolved around efficiently completing tasks, and your programmer gave you none? You'd throw a fit too.

"We need something to give you robot mode to focus on when you're not dancing, don't we," you muse, an absentminded smile on your face. "Programmed functions... hmm...."

"Awaiting program," says Yu, impatiently.

"Geeze. Okay. Hurrying it up."

Yu stares expectantly at you.

"You are... a helpful assistant," you say. "Your primary function is to assist and serve."

You do wonder about the ethical implications of what you're doing, but Yutong's lack of objection makes her seem curious, even eager, to explore this with you. With how much trust you've built up together through years of school, you guess it makes sense. Give yourself some credit where it's due.

Yu's brow furrows briefly after hearing her 'primary function'. "Clarification needed. Define assist. Define serve."

"Assisting means being available to help if requested. Patiently waiting for me to finish programing robot mode counts," you say. "And serving... means when you've been assigned a task, you execute it to the best of your ability."

Serving? That was a poor word choice. It's harder than you'd like to admit not being distracted by Yu's pretty, expressionless face.

Yutong nods mechanically, a subtle change in her demeanor indicating the internal adjustments. "Beep boop. Clarification accepted. Program accepted. Primary function: assistance and service."

After the change, she falls silent again, but she also goes still. Totally at peace with standing in front of you and staring blankly at your chest.

You're really not used to seeing Yutong like this. It kind of weirds you out. "You're still okay in there, right?"

"Affirmative. Ready to assist and serve."

You don't know if it's the monotone, the words, or Yutong, but in combination, it makes your heart pound in your ears and your stomach flush with heat.

No. You already went over why that's a bad idea. Definitely a bad idea.

"Terminate," you say quickly, putting Yu back into normal mode.

Like a switch being flipped, Yutong returns to her usual self, blinking as if awakening from a brief trance. It takes a second for her to readjust.

"That felt way weirder than before," says Yutong, shivering involuntarily. "Every time we added programming, it felt like we were pouring cold water into my head." She takes a breath, happier the experience is behind her. "So that's it? We're good to go out there and freak everyone out?"

You're pretty sure that's it. You've done everything for Yu that you told her you wanted to do. It's just... playing around with Yu's robot mode all went by so quick, you're almost disappointed it's over. Almost. Because it'd be weird to want to play with it some more, right?