Akasha glanced up, and blinked in surprise as Alex flickered into life above her, "Oh, hello! Having fun over there in the haven?"

Alex nodded, smiling broadly as they floated around, "I am! I just had a moment, and figured I haven't checked in with you guys for a while. How are things?"

Putting her book down on her desk, she relaxed in her chair, "Besides Laura, things are about the same here. With Sam gone... Nobody has anything to do."

Alex blinked as Akasha sighed, looking around quietly. Floating amongst the shelves with a hum, Alex giggled, "The doctor does make things hectic. No major incidences, with all of us gone?"

"None. The biggest event not involving Laura was when Billy fell off a balcony... Several floors up."

Wincing at the thought, Alex shivered, "Judith patch him up okay?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. He's fine now. Might start to consider signing up for... What was it's name? AHOR?"

"Ahh, yeah. If he gets cybernetic reenforcement, he won't get hurt as much." Coughing slightly, Alex looked towards the exit, "Speaking of... Any major breakthroughs there?"

"As far as I can tell? It's going pretty good. We almost have artificial plasma ready, which wil be usable in general medicine, and as a means of operating the AHOR models. You included."

Blinking in surprise, Alex 'sat' down in a chair, "Wait, really? That was fast. If we get that perfected, everything else is pretty much done."

"Yup. Laura has been slaving away over prototype models to test the new theories, and Ren has been sending almost daily revisions to your brain map."

"I noticed that. I would be losing most of my power to prevent overheating, but if he does get it small enough..." Shivering as they thought about Ren's research, Alex shook their head, "Anyway. I will probably stick with my bigger model, maybe get an upgrade if we have the time."

Akasha giggled, "And why would you need that? You could barely use a fraction of the main processor when you left."

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"... Nobody told you?" Akasha raised an eyebrow curiously, confused as she shook her head, "I semi-recently managed to fry my current processor."

"Wait, really? How did you do that?"

"... Secret. My main point is, I now handle more complex sims on a daily basis... And, more complex emotions, too."

Smirking, Akasha leaned over, glancing at Alex appraisingly, "Really now? This is news..."

"Oh, shush." Blushing bright, Alex turned away to murmur quietly, "... Remember Jolana? I brought here through the connection a few times..."

"... Oh?" Akasha blinked in surprise, going to lean on Alex before catching herself, remembering that there was only a hologram there, "I thought for sure you would still be chasing after Sam."

"Strange things happen, I guess." Still a bright shade of red, Alex sighed as they turned back to face Akasha, "And, was I really that bad before?"

"Well, yeah. Did you forget that was our argument for you being sentient?"

"... I did, actually. Archived too much stuff over here. I can't just remember that stuff, sadly." Smiling as they floated back up into the air, Alex hummed thoughtfully, "Yet another reason I should look into an upgrade... I have waaay too little memory space on one little shuttle."

Akasha nodded, "Well, maybe we could refit some of the shuttle to neural banks... Used primarily for energy storage and memory."

"... Hmm. Doubling the use as a sort of battery, huh?" Alex nodded to themself, "That's a pretty good idea. Once Laura is finally done, and is back at the haven, we should talk with Ren about the idea."

Noticing something niggle at their attention, Alex paused for a moment, "Well, I gotta go. Have some guests to entertain, and plans to make before that point. We should catch up more often~"

"We should!" Waving goodbye, Akasha sighed as Alex disappeared, picking her book back up to curl up in her little corner of the library...

But not before rolling her eyes at the departing message from Alex. "Oh, by the way... There is one thing you should learn from Billy~ Talk to you soon!"