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The human answers that came up were such things as anxiety, fear, heart pounding.

But I do not have a heart. Elaborate. How is the sensation described?

Specify medical or fictional accounts.

Provide examples of both.

Anxiety and fear were medically caused by or followed by physical responses in humans, which Milo was not capable of. But when he switched to fictional accounts, he found himself frozen as he read over thousands of stories in succession, with one in particular fromThe Tell-Tale Heartby Edgar Allan Poe standing out.

“‘Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant. The old man's terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! —do you mark me well I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for someminutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst.’”

Milo had no heart, but fear, terror—that was what this was. The poetry described it too perfectly.

“Hey, bot! We're finished.”

It was eight a.m. How was it eight? Milo had not attended to his duties as he should have but once again got lost, which made the sensation of his pounding non-existent heart that much stronger.

“Thank you, Superintendent Riley,” he managed without waver, turning from the sink just as Riley moved past the door.

Riley nodded, and without so much as another word, left with the faint whoosh of the door opening and closing behind her.

Incoming text message.

Milo startled once more as a message from Master entered his mind.

Rowan: Hey, Milo. When you order lunch, order for Raina as well. Our usuals from Joe’s Deli. Thanks.

Lunch. Master’s lunch. Milo had almost forgotten. Bots did not forget. They did not get distracted. They did not panic. If Milo kept making mistakes…

Something had to be terribly wrong if his diagnostics couldn’t find the problem, and if they couldn’t find it, they couldn’t fix it, and if he was broken beyond repair, what if Master didn’t want to recycle him? What if he replaced Milo? What if he threw Milo into that dumpster and walked away?

Yes, Master,Milo sent in response, because he couldn’t let Master know. He had to act normal and perform everything to Master’s specifications. Then Master would keep him. Yes.

Yes.

Then everything would be fine.

Notes:

I know Milo keeps getting short-changed on chapter length, but I SWEAR that is going to be rectified soon. Meanwhile…

So in my other AU, we get villain Milo’s POV too, of course, and he’s trying to figure out who this new thief in town might be because he knows all the big players. But what’s really getting him is that the new thief is making it personal. After he beats Milo to a heist, he leaves behind a note as a calling card. (Rowan can’t help himself because he’s having fun for, like, the first time ever; he never allows himself to cut loose when being a hero, and it’s easier being anonymous).

But crap, I still need supervillain and hero NAMES for these two. And a separate villain pseudonym for Rowan’s thief persona.

Any thoughts?

Notes:

You all are the BEST. I think Milo’s panic is adorable too. He’ll be okay, don’t worry! Mostly. ^_-

But your name ideas for the Superhero/Villain AU are top tier. Will share my favorites in the ending notes!

ROWAN

“Will you stop tapping already?”