SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

thirteen ━ memory lane

"I can't believe he's still alive," she admitted.

"There was a picture with it downstairs," Connor brought it up, hoping to earn himself some explanation to his previous wondering question left unasked. "The container was much smaller and much rounder."

"They gave it to be in a bowl from the carnival," she explained. "From the moment I saw it swim around in that small thing under the flashing lights of the vendor, as if its in a constant race with itself, I knew I wanted it. It was a bit of a love at first sight, if you think about it," she nudged Connor, not with her elbow, but by instead fully leaning against his arm for a brief moment. "Played every single game in that carnival to get this fish," a soft laugh motioned her lips into a lingering smile. "The most expensive fish in the world, that's what dad called it, but it didn't matter much to me. Though I suppose I should have kept the bowl. Maybe that way I could have taken it with me when I left." Looking away from the fish and its tank, Mia found Connor already staring at her, having that look in his eyes that almost always meant he was scanning, a look that had almost started fooling her recently as more than just a programmed expression that would help his computing blend in and go by unnoticed by humans.

What could be there to scan when it came to her talking about a fish, she didn't know, but it seemed enough to prompt her to turn around and resume what she was in that room for in the first place. There was no point in losing unnecessary time. "Let me find A.C.E.. He's somewhere around here, I know it."

Connor took this chance to take in the room too — from the posters on her walls of robotics events framing lines of awards from middle school science activities and competitions, to the two desks her room sported, he took it all in and was bound to relish in a certain sensation of satisfaction. "Your room fits your personality," he pointed out while Mia knelt besides her bed and leant down to look under it.

"Does it?" She asked, voice a little muffled now that she started reaching for something under the bed.

Connor missed his cue to answer, finding himself distracted by the opposing tables in the room. While the one to his left seemed to have been dedicated to schoolwork, the one to his right looked more like her first personal lab, so naturally, he was drawn to the latter, with all its circuits left unfinished.

There was a warmth out of his control happening to his gaze as he trailed it over what he assumed had been the last project of hers before she left. Careful not to disturb the peace and stillness of the room, he reached his hand out to an intricate design of a robotic arm put on display right in the middle of the desk. It was nothing like the CyberLife design of such a component, but more so a fidelity copy to a human skeleton, had the bones been made of metal and the blood vessels made of conducting wire, twisted around. That design idea of hers could explain the ripped pages of an anatomy book plasted over the wall in front of the desk. He could still see the places on the arm where she had had to weld the metal together herself, forming trembled lines of connection up and down the rudimentary, but absolutely mesmerising design.

Just as he spotted the external wire connecting to a button on the side of her desk, Mia dropped something with a loud thud on her bed, prompting Connor to abandon his quest of curiosity proving to him at every turn that he had been correct to assume she's always been a brilliant example of human genius. He turned around to her and met not only the box shaped robot on her bed, but also the excitement with which she beckoned him over. She was knelt before the bed, showing no signs of wanting to get up any time soon, but Connor preferred to remain standing, watching from above how she touched with gentleness the sides of the box, feeling around for the lid behind which she hid the control buttons.

Only once she found it and pressed long on the reboot button did she finally stand up. "Alright, let's hope it works," she muttered before quickly clearing her throat with a cough. "Hi, A.C.E.."