SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

seventeen ━ when in doubt, test

A couple more hours weren't going to be too hard for him to wait through, so he nodded and returned his attention to the laptop screen in an attempt to try and convince himself too that despite his feelings without explanation, despite the one casualty he had chosen to have at Mia's old home, the test came out negative.

"Without that conflict, your system should feel more stable to you as well," Mia spoke from behind him, taking the apple out of the bag and taking the first bite, one which muffled the rest of her words. "Though I truly doubt you'll have to use a gun again once we reach Elijah's house."

"I have one more question," Connor's eyes stopped on a particular line in the raw data. "If I may, of course." He held the laptop and turned to Mia to show her the screen. Once he was certain she was holding one hand underneat the device, he lifted his right hand and pointed her to the particular line that caught his attention. "rA9," Connor read out loud. "It's repeated three times on this line and two more times in the line below."

"Yes? Well spotted..." Mia didn't seem to follow why that was even relevant enough to warn his curiosity at that point and Connor quickly realized he's never had the chance to discuss with her properly any advancements on the Joel Reed case.

"The deviants I've encountered in the town seemed obsessed with 'rA9', writing it down excessively and by any means available to them."

"Really?" She furrowed her eyebrows. "I've never heard of deviants doing that before. It could be a new behavioral trait, or maybe some pattern we missed during our research."

"But what does it mean?"

"To them?" Mia shrugged, before looking from him towards the screen, "Hard to tell what they would believe it means. But in your program, I am pretty sure it's just a choice variable Elijah newly introduced with you. If I remember correctly, it temporarily stores an array of influential factors detected as related to an elected action sequence. But it's been a long time since I read the proposal file Elijah had on youe project. I would check it for you, but this variable is part of the base code as well."

Her answer did not elucidate this clue part of his case in full, but it did help him take his mind off of accepting the results of the test and what they implied related to his emerging emotions without definition, to instead focus on the mystery at hand, one he felt was significant to solve in order to better understand the case he was adamant in solving as soon as Mia was safe.

After the moment of silence barely disturbed by the way Mia had closed the laptop and packed it back in the bag, they were supposed to be returning to the car and no longer delaying the rather long drive ahead of them. However, as soon as they were outside and fresh air returned to her nostrils, Mia stopped, right hand holding on a little tighter to the strap of her backpack.

"Connor," she called, thus also ensuring he stopped from walkint too, only two steps ahead of her, the gun he held by its holster having its straps now dangle besides himself. It was a short distance, which she closed quickly. "Can you give me your hand for a second, please?"

Intrigued by what she was up to and generally never willing wishing to go against her requests, Connor lifted his free hand for her, watching perplexed how she maneuvered it around, closed it into a fist, before directing only two of his fingers to remain extended. She took those two finges and pressed them to her wrist.

"Do you feel that?" Mia looked up at him.

Underneath his fingertips, Connor felt her pulse, an echo of her heartbeat, vibrating ever so faintly the tips of his tactile sensors.

"Once we get your code updated, your only overheating source left will be your worry for me," Mia spoke once she noticed him looking pointedly down at his fingertips connecting with her skin and took it as enough of a proof that he was indeed capable of feeling her pulse. If that didn't prove it, then feeling the change from his synthetic skin to the marble like plastic beneath it gave it away for sure. "Touching as it is to know you are worried about me, I can't have your circuitry melt over this, alright? As long as I have a pulse, Connor, you don't have to worry yourself to software instability for me," she smiled. "Feel free to check my pulse however many times you need, if that's what it takes to calm your worries down. Try to do it, for me."

She used the same assumption of personal bias he had used on her that very same day and to her surprise, Connor nodded eagerly enough to denote that it worked — the bias went both ways.

• • •

AUTHOR'S NOTE |
Believe it or not, this chapter somehow ended up doubling in size once I started editing it 😭😭 took me a whole lot longer than planned, but I feel it was worth it.

Btw, this 'rA9' explanation that starts in this chapter and will be continued through the next ones is part of my personal theory, based off of the fact that most deviants could not explain why they were obsessed with it, and their obsession was always compulsive to the end. I will explain it more in the next chapters.

Small fun fact: the test Mia ran on Connor was half inspired by the Blade Runner 2049 movie seen test and half by the Turing Tests in various sources online. Sorta found an in-between ground between all of those, but I really wanted to bank on the rapid fire question vibe of the Blade Runner movie

By this point, btw, I am just looking forward to this act's finale because after that, I will finally be able to share with you all this one visual idea I had of RK900 and Mia 👀 I will say nothing more for now cause of possible spoilers, but goodness, so excited!!