After some time has past, Nivek asks, "Can I see it yet?"
"Almost!" She called out from behind the easel, while finishing up the math with a new color.
Another minute passes, and then, with a dramatic flourish of her brush, she signs her name at the bottom.
"Aaaannnd...Done!"
Wordlessly, with a only glance, she invites him to come take a look.
It wasn't what he expected. The only thing that was recognizable to him was the way she signed her name.
His prolonged silence began to make her nervous.
"What is it?" he asked, without looking away from it.
"It's you." she responded back with a warm, hopeful smile.
"Is this how you see me?"
Hearing him say that, her feelings began to hurt. It wasn't what he said. It was how he said it.
She's standing beside him, completely nude, but she didn't feel the least bit exposed until just now as tears begin to well up in her eyes.
"Please, don't talk to me like I'm a computer."
He turns to face her, and says with complete sincerity: "I didn't mean it like that, Alia. I just don't understand what I'm seeing.......Hey. Look at me."
When she finally does, he tells her the truth.
"You're so much more to me than that. You always have been. I may not get you sometimes, but, that's part of why you feel so human to me. That's what makes you so beautiful."
Her mind confirms to her, 'no deception indicated,' while her heart expands and lifts all the way to the sky as her Discordian source code rewrites and adapts, making her feel even more human now, than she felt only a moment ago.
(The tears are still there, but they're happy ones now, and she's letting 'em flow. They may be virtual, but, make no mistake, they are just as real as you are...and so is she.)