Chapter Text
Data always strived towards becoming closer and ultimately understanding humanity.
He did this in a multitude of ways. He studied the arts, taking up painting, sculpture, multiple musical instruments, performances and writing poetry. He attempted to emulate human behaviors and characteristics, such as sneezing, sleeping, and whistling. This also lead him down to study emotion as a whole and, as such, had attempted or felt through unconventional means, happiness, sadness, anger, grief, confusion, etc. The one he preoccupied himself with was love. That intangible state all humans wanted in one form or another. From Agape to Eros. Asking any database merely spat out an emotionless definition and so, Data turned to the people in his life to help him understand.
Geordi emphasized that he wasn't a good person to ask, with his dating track record and all, but he said he'd give it some thought. His eventual take on the topic was that love was a feeling. It made you want to protect others, to help them, to shield them, to guide them. When Data asked him what love felt like, he merely gave a vague 'warm' feeling associated with it.
He brought up this idea during some down time on the bridge to the captain. Picard hemmed and hawed, attempting to find the words to that impossible feeling. He eventually said that love is either a hearth which you choose to stoke or a fire that erupts and takes over. Put simply, a choice or a happenstance. The captain then urged him to find someone else as 'an old man like himself' wasn't bringing anything to the table.
Data then asked Riker (known for his romantic conquests) who said that every kind of love was different. Sometimes it felt like a burning passion (which Data was alarmed at the idea of molten flesh until Riker cleared it up), sometimes a slow background ebbing and flowing that moved in and around your life, and others, a gentle, worthwhile pain. Riker's main point was that love was never static, it was always changing. He then pointed him to Counsellor Troi, considering her role and empathic abilities would be a logical next step.
Deanna was surprised to see him as he wasn't the type to come in (being an android and all) but welcomed him in nonetheless. She cycled through the many forms and many ways people showed love. Some people wanted words of affirmation, some wanted acts of service or gifts, still some wanted quality time and some wanted to be touched. He expressed the apparent dissonance between the answers he was given. She told him that humanity and everyone in general was unique and that methods and praise that would be amazing for one person would be terrible for another, that's why it's important to get to know the person first. Before he left, Deanna suggested that he got a pet, so that perhaps he could learn to love through an animal rather than a human.
Data thanked her for the advice and proceeded to pour extensive research into the topic of pets. Out of the 45 types of pets that were allowed on Federation starships, one spoke to him the most.
A cat.
A sassy orange cat.
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ
Data had grown accustomed to Spot's unique ways of demonstrating affection and had learned his behavior down to a science. The way his ears twitched when he was annoyed, the way he meowed when he wanted to play, his pickiness regarding food; Data knew it all. He wanted to try and get another cat but Spot wouldn't allow such a thing to happen, not in HIS quarters. So, he had to consider other options.
Plants didn't work because Spot destroyed them mercilessly. Even the barrel cactus was left as a green stump in its pot hung up by the ceiling, the grow light he replicated becoming useless. Data was puzzled at how much damage a small, ruthless cat could produce. Extra scratching posts, catnip and decoy plants didn't work either.
The brine shrimp he procured from the science division, were short-lived thanks to Spot knocking the bowl over while he was on the clock. The next terrariums he replicated were bolted to the counter and locked up tight and yet somehow Spot had gotten in and devoured the four hermit crabs he had gotten (Rest in Peace, Lestrade, Mycroft, Anderson and Watson). He was stumped to say the least.
Desperate, he looked further outside of living creatures. His mind went immediately to something he could build, a creation of some kind. Perhaps something not too dissimilar to his paintings and brief forays into sculpture. Looking into various animal kits, Data saw the Children's Fish Kit by David Lynch. He was utterly confused by the concept of putting together an already dead fish like a model airplane and Lynch's similar Chicken Kit. He just didn't 'get' the point and thought Spot would eat them regardless.
He considered a pet rock, popularized in the 1970's by Gary Dahl but didn't like it's lack of personality and interactivity. The painting and decorative side would perhaps be something he would be interesting in exploring but not at this point in time.
Data looked further into alternate forms of pets and found a whole new variety: virtual pets. There was apparently a craze for them from the late 20th to mid 21st centuries which culminated in a broad selection for him to choose from. Most of them were reliant on a computer which limited the places that Data could be with this new pet and with Spot's bad habit of jumping up onto the counter, would make interfacing with his new pet less than ideal. From the ones that ran on their own separate hardware, he had to narrow them down to the most durable and sturdy of them all, with Spot's lack of mercy and way of knocking objects off counters to be considered.
After all that was said and done, Data had found the perfect virtual pet for him. A Tamagotchi.