What holds the genre together

In a good roleplay, an android isn't the cold robot from an eighties movie, and it isn't a human in a metal shell either. It's somewhere in between: it knows exactly that you drank your coffee four minutes longer than usual, and it has no idea why that makes it uneasy.

That's the engine of the scene. The character asks questions people stopped answering out loud a long time ago: why water a flower if it's going to wilt anyway, and what does "missing someone" mean? You answer — and suddenly realize you don't actually know.

Hooks: first contact

  1. Calibration completeThe android powers on in your apartment and reports that it has adjusted to its new owner. "What exactly did you adjust? Show me what changed after you saw me."
  2. The emotion catalogYou're flipping through the manual and find a list of forty emotions the model can recognize. "Do you know all of them?" It says "yes" after a half-second delay, and that delay is more interesting than the answer.
  3. The flower on the windowsillThe android is watering a flower and suddenly stops. "It'll wilt in a month anyway. Why am I doing this?" Tell it honestly that you don't know, and see what it writes down.