Hearing System 006's defensive outburst, Everly didn't immediately buy what it was selling.
Even though she could communicate telepathically, since she was alone in her room, she deliberately spoke aloud—partly for dramatic effect and partly because she enjoyed the theatrical flair of interrogating her own brain parasite.
"Are you absolutely positive? So Jeremy's System 009 was spreading malicious gossip about your love life? You genuinely don't have romantic feelings for this mystery moderator?"
System 006 went suspiciously quiet for a beat too long.
[It's... uh... anyway, it's not what you're imagining, host!]
Everly paused, then broke into the kind of sweet smile that serial killers probably practiced in mirrors.
