What if I knew how to comfort Molly?

You made the wish and the screen flashed once again. You noticed new ideas running around in your mind, when you thought about Molly instantly thoughts on how to help her came to mind.

You ran out of your door and down the stairs where Molly was just going out the front door.

"Wait! Stop!"

She turned around, giving you a gloomy look.

You hugged her and her eyes went wide. "W-hey what do you think you're doing?!"

You squeezed her tighter, hoping your newly born thoughts were correct about this. "You looked so sad...so I made this for you-"

"-You don't make hugs Max-"

"-shuddup I'm trying to be a friend for you! And do the thing where I recite what you earlier said and-"

She chuckled "Like in bad romance novels?"

"Just...*Sigh*..." You trailed off and released her. "Yeah, like in bad romance novels."

She grinned and hugged you back. "That's my greatest weakness, you know."

"Wha-?"

"Bad romance novels, I'm a sucker for them."

You shook your head and laughed, "Would have never guessed it."

She released you and looked at you seriously. "You used the machine to learn what would comfort me didn't you?"

"'course I did."

"Bastard." She said, smiling.

She agreed to return to your room to think things over and talk about what to do with the machine. And after a long night discussing the implications of her discoveries and the possibilities the machine offered, you both agreed sleeping on it would be best.

She didn't care to do any science magic (her words) to go back home, and asked if she could sleep over. You agreed, and with a little setting up to make a makeshift bed from extra pillows, you were both off to sleep.

There was no discussion on sharing the bed, you were both determined to try to not to be determined by the many things Molly pointed out earlier.

When you awoke next morning, Molly was typing away at the machine.

Rain pattered against the windows and low rumbles of thunder sounded far away. A stormy day it was.

"What are you doing?" You asked, half awake as you slipped out of bed.

She turned to you with a grin, munching on eggs she must have cooked while you were asleep. "Just adding some new features..."

You crawled down next to her to peak at her work, rubbing your eyes to clear the blurriness of your vision.

She pressed enter and a loading bar jittered to the right until it reached the end, then several more bars appeared...

Max and Molly watch a two hour long Microsoft Word tutorial from the 1980s.

• Reader utility: -5
• M&M enjoyment: -2

"What am I looking at? Why is it calculating the enjoyment of chocolate candies?" You asked.

"A simulation, using several neural networks cross examined by t-" she paused when she saw your irritated look. "-...I mean uh, yeah. A simulation. It calculates how good an idea is without actually executing it, by several metrics. Firstly how much the readers like the idea, and then how much we like the idea. The M&M stands for Max and Molly, not the candy."

"Why didn't you just wish the machine to have the ability to do that?"

It was her turn to give you an irritated look. "Because that's no fun! Neither for the readers, nor me. Much funner to do it myself."

You shrugged. "Whatever you say. And..." You grinned teasingly. "..you combined our enjoyment values into one variable? Why if I didn't know better-"

She blushed. "-It's easier to look over two results than three every time it stimulates an idea, that's all!"

Your smile remained and she looked back at the screen, still blushing. "Whatever you say, Molly."

She stood up to leave, sighing. "I'm going to the bathroom, don't blow up the world while I'm gone, ok?"

"I'll do my best."