SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

three ━ new priorities

She nodded silently.

"But you would much rather install the upgrade after an approval from the board," Connor concluded out loud. The new analysis checked out with old information stored on Mia's personality: she wasn't fond of the idea of leadership, nor that of having choices to make. He was yet to identify a reason for this strange trait in her.

Mia slouched forward, a distinct look on defeat riddled over her features. "It will be months before they even consider reading my request to alter your protocols if I file it now. Elijah's trapped in some courtroom, so he won't be able to speed this up either. I can't just have you sit on a bench for however long it will take the board to respond to my request, just because some town idiot is scared of innovation."

"I don't mind sitting—"

"I know you don't," Mia cut him off. "But I do. I mind, Connor!"

"If I may," he leant forward, eyes narrowing, "is the update to my protocols in any way dangerous, Mia?"

Mia watched his eyes for a moment, most likely taken off guard by his inquiry choice altogether. "No. Of course it's not dangerous."

He identified that she was being sincere, if not even a little hurt. Though he did not mean to offend, he did not have time to clarify his choice of words.

"But some people on the board did think my idea was a little radical," Mia rolled her eyes. "People like control."

You don't, Connor noted, but remained silent.

"I suppose they think my upgrade would give you too much agency," she added, a bit more absent minded now that Connor had managed to stir the conversation in a direction which required her to think more than to feel. She looked at the screen and the brief report. "But they're wrong," she continued. "They don't understand this project. They never did, and I doubt they ever will until it's up and running and finally making our cities safe again."

"If the code doesn't work the way you want it to, you can always shut me down and go back to the previous version," Connor offered the solution he could see, though it seemed not to be enough to fully pull Mia out of her distressed state. "Though if you ask for my educated opinion, past upgrades you've installed in my program prove chances are near zero for this update to do anything other than what you want it to."

Finally, she had given him a side glance that held something else other than worry. She seemed... Connor couldn't identify the emotion she looked at him with, but he could read at the very least that she wasn't distressed anymore. Her stress levels were decreasing, at long last, and he couldn't help a feeling of satisfaction for handling the situation successfully.

"Alright then," Mia sighed, fishing from under the table a bunch of thin cables, braided together towards the end. "Let's do this then. If you put it that way, we don't have as much to lose trying it out as we do waiting for Officer Owens to see reason."

Connor was all too familiar with this procedure. As soon as Mia confirmed they would be committing to updating his coding, he stood up and removed his suit jacket. Making sure not to cause any creases on it, he arranged it on the back of his chair and begun undoing the button holding his shirt thight around his right wrist. Before sitting back down, he pulled the looser sleeve all the way up to his elbow.

Meanwhile, Mia had left her chair altogether to pull a much thicker set of spiralled cables from one of the boxes. She was now just getting up from under her table, where she plugged the divided end of the bunch into the respective ports of the computer unit. In her hand was the single rounded port on the other end, with which she walked around Connor. He got himself busy with deactivating the synthetic skin around his exposed forearm, only to then open up the plastic carcass to access his own internal wiring.