man i haven't updated this place in forever-

     anyways, i just randomly decided to actually think about curi's autism (because i gave him lvl 1 autism) and felt the need to elaborate his thought processes- i really had to wreck my brain over to be able to understand what's a weird thing humans have normalized via evolution and what we've naturally known, so uhh- yeah, i totally didn't plan a book where curi's the main character and totally isn't going to write the entire thing in his pov so i'm TOTALLY NOT GOING TO SUFFER- AHEM-

     this is probably going to be short as fuck, especially since it's just a whole bunch of fucking description, basically just boring + filler content

     *cough* uh, here we are, enjoy!!

~

     What time was it again? Curious lifted his arm to check the watch- only to remember that he never had one there. Well, maybe he did at some point in time, otherwise where would the habit come from? But if he didn't remember having a watch there, then why did he always check it? It didn't make any sense at all, and so the habit never broke.

     Curious didn't understand why people always had to know the exact time. And why people always expected others to be five minutes early, even if they already told them an exact time, and why did they care about exact times if they were expecting something other than an exact time? And most people didn't even know how to read regular clocks properly, so why would they make things so complicated with exact times just to make their own lives harder? A range of times would be easier to keep track of, or just say "noon" or "midday" or something like that.

     But then again, people were so dependent on time by exact measures no one even cared about "noon" or "midday" or anything like that. Even then, they didn't think they had exact measures because the numbers always ended in fives or zeroes, and had to be "something o' clock" or "something-thirty-" so how did they classify exact measures and estimations in the first place? When Curious asked for someone to be around by four twenty-seven, they always told him he was being too exact. But when they asked for Curious to be around by five thirty, they were never being too exact. How did they always know whether times were exact or not?

     It suddenly occurred to Curious that all this fake interaction had come out of the pits of his brain, and he'd never ever interacted with someone so much before. He only knew Guiding and Rush and Screech and...

     "Curious, weren't supposed to check on the Rooms entities?" Guiding appeared at his door for a second, walking by with a stack of papers before he stopped and backpedaled to face him. "You know how rowdy they can get..."

     "Glitch said he'd watch them and make sure they didn't do anything too bad," Curious replied simply. After all, if Glitch told him, then why wouldn't he not do it? He knew there were some liars every now and again- hell, even he'd tried to lie a few times but to no avail- but he was sure it didn't happen as often as people made it to be.

     A familiar expression came over Guiding's face- the corners of his lips were slightly perked up into a small smile, eyes softened into a more oval, stretched yet relaxed shape, and his head tilted slightly to the right. His posture overall sank into what seemed to be him slightly sitting on his hip though the shift in position was barely recognizable, and Curious swore he could hear a tiny exhale- not out of annoyance, but more with affection. That meant he got something wrong, but it wasn't bad enough as so anything worse was going to happen other than having to talk more- either that or Guiding was about to tease him about something again. Heck, it could even be both of those options, as Curious had learned could happen more than once.

     "Still... go check on them, okay? Just in case," Guiding seemed to be slightly hesitating with his words, probably meaning he wanted Curious to listen carefully or was half coming up with what he said. His overall calm tone of voice seemed to signalize a serene coaxing, trying to get Curious to check on the rooms entities.

     It suddenly occurred to Curious that something might've happened, because he usually forgot on a daily basis and Guiding didn't ask him to do anything more, despite passing by his room and saying hello at the same time every day. Which brought him back to the topic of telling time...

     Focus, Curious, you're having a conversation! Snapping himself back to reality, he got up and stretched himself out the best he could with the low ceiling his room happened to have. "Okay, I'll go check on them," he muttered, ducking under the doorway and narrowly dodging past Guiding before realizing that was probably rude. A center of temporary panic bolted through his head before he turned around and said bye in an attempt to not come off as rude as he probably looked.

     Guiding's previous complexion turned into something more closely representing a smirk, his shoulders shrugging up a bit and the rest of his body straightening back up. "Don't die," he said, voice laced with a complicated series of emotions Curious couldn't immediately comprehend. It took a while to realize that the pinch of impoliteness threaded through a bold mixture of playful and unnaturally bold would make sarcasm, and he treaded through the hallways towards a much easier, secret entrance to the Rooms after getting himself back on track. Muscle memory kept him walking while he thought about everything that had happened previously, trying to see if he'd managed to interpret everything correctly.

     Keeping a conversation is hard, Curious thought as he turned a corner.