Timelined after Family Proposition, same day
<Jessica> Jess was up in her usual spot in the cupola watching the world go by and listening to Sharky playing catch with the robot below her in the library. She had had a moment of panic when she'd thought she'd seen something down on the street that she didn't want to see but she had probably imagined it as it wasn't there when she looked again so she'd managed to relax back into her distraction.
<Shaw> "She spends all her time up in that tower." Sebastian aimed a finger at it as he pulled to a stop on the street. Shifting the Aston into park, he finished his coffee and plunked the empty container into the cup holder.
<Broo> Held back by his seatbelt, the short mutant looked like he needed a toddler car seat as he leaned forward to look at what Shaw was pointing towards. "At least she has a nice view." Broo commented.
<Shaw> "Perhaps a tad too nice," he said, deciding not to share her recent possible hallucination just yet. He got out of the car and opened Broo's door, since the mutant seemed to have enough problems due to his size.
<Broo> Broo unbuckled and slid out of the car, adjusting the clothing he nearly forgot to put on. "You mentioned that you wished for me to be here for a few things, and just mentioned the danger room, and me visiting Jess. I'm guessing you wished to discuss more things?" he asked.
<Shaw> Glancing around to see if that old man who owned the adjacent building was watching, he finally pulled his attention back to Broo. "Oh, I think there's someone else here you'll be pleased to meet, but for today perhaps we might focus on Jessica." He led the way to the door.
<Broo> "Pleased? Sharky? Well, he is rather fun to play with since hee and I have made our peace. He does not blame me for using him as a guinea pig, and I do not blame him for tearing through my thesis."
<Shaw> "No, not Sharky," he chuckled, setting his hand on the biometric lock at the side door. Stepping inside, he held the door for Broo and glanced at his work room door.
<Jack> Broo shuffled in underneath Shaw's arm, without even ducking. "I'm confused, do you have someone else living here?" he asked.
<Shaw> "No, that's just my work room." He considered this for a moment. "You know, this lower floor is almost an apartment to itself. It has a kitchen area, and its own entrance and bathroom. I've been considering moving mine upstairs, as Jessica spends so much of her time in the cupola. You are welcome to this space, if you wish to use it."
<Broo> "That sounds marvelous, thank you so much, Sebastian." Broo replied, "But... are you sure this won't cause problems later on?" he asked. "I really do not wish to intrude too much."
<Jessica> Jess was aware of the extra voice downstairs but remained where she was.
<Shaw> "I don't believe so," he frowned a bit. After all, something needed to be done.
<Broo> "Most excellent indeed. And the rules concerning dress code would be the same as you had before, correct?" Broo asked, eying the layout of the place and already coming up with plans on what to put where.
<Shaw> Remembering what he had found in the boy's workshop, he suppressed his natural reaction. "Yes, please." He showed Broo around the rooms. This arrangement would require an upgrade on the lock to the wine cellar.
<Broo> "Oh my, what a large wine cellar you have. I always wanted to try wine. Then again, I had a rather strange reaction to laboratory alcohol once. I didn't intend to ingest it. I just forgot which beaker had water in it, and which had the ethanol."
<Shaw> "...yes, well there is a marked difference there." He couldn't suppress the smirk and indicated the stairs. "Perhaps if you'd like to try a slightly different experience we can open a bottle sometime."
<Shaw> "Well, if you'd like some tea, or coffee, we can go up to the kitchen and see if we can lure out your sister."
<Broo> "I think for now, the latter option would be for the best. That was the original plan after all." Broo said, nodding and following.
<Shaw> The stairs wound up and up and Sebastian wondered if the boy would notice the covered mirrors. As he passed the closed door of the nursery, he set his eyes on the stairs until they arrived at the kitchen. Jessica, love?
<Jessica> I'm here.... Of course she was, she never left. She stretched a little where she sat and push a hand through her short hair.
<Shaw> He was relieved she'd at least responded. Will you come see your brother? "Coffee, or tea?" He put on the kettle for Jessica just the same.
<Broo> "I think I shall have coffee this time." Broo replied, making his way towards one of the chairs at the kitchen table, climbing up and sitting in one.
<Jessica> Okay... They'd probably just come up there if she didn't go down anyway. She straightened up, pausing to scan the street outside one more time before she headed down the stairs.
<Shaw> Sebastian could hear her approach, and sense it, with her unending aura of sadness. He started the coffee brewing and turned to face the stairs, running a hand over his face in a nervous gesture.
<Broo> One didn't need to be psychic to pick up on the nervous energy in the room. Unfortunately one probably had to have a little bit more empathic to pick up on it, which Broo lacked a bit. "Do you by any chance have some pudding in the fridge?" he asked as he waddled over to the large metal door in search of something sweet.
<Shaw> "Uh," that pulled his attention away and he shook himself. "Perhaps? I can check for you." He moved to the fridge to open it and crouch beside the boy to search.
<Jessica> Jess reached the floor they were on and paused in the doorway to the kitchen, "Hi..."
<Broo> Broo turned and grinned, waving, "Hi Jess! We're looking for pudding."
<Shaw> He twisted to look over his shoulder at her with a small smile.
<Jessica> "Top shelf," she gave her brother as warm a smile as she could manage, eyes wandering to the kettle.
<Shaw> Sebastian fetched the pudding for Broo and rose to get a bowl and leave them to talk. "Would you like some as well, Jess? And tea?"
<Jessica> "Not hungry... but tea would be nice..." She turned to wander across the hall to the study and curl up on the sofa, Sharky wandered after her with his ball.
<Broo> After doing his squint and grabby hands at the top shelf pudding, that always seemed out of reach when Shaw took it to the table to scoop into bowl, Broo decided to just climb a chair be served instead of trying to get stuff for himself. The second he got on the kitchen chair, Jess was out of the room. "This place is too big." he mumbled, waiting for his bowl, already getting ready to climb off again.
<Shaw> "You go talk to her, I'll give you some privacy," he said softly, giving Broo the bowl of pudding and turning to the coffee and tea.
<Broo> "Thank you. Will do." he replied, making his way to the study, silver spoon in mouth. When he got to the sofa, he carefully climbed up with the bowl, pushed Jess more aside to make space for himself, and plomped down, eating pudding. "Chocolate pudding is amazing."
<Jessica> Jess offered him a small smile, shifting to get comfortable again, "It is nice..."
<Broo> "Did you know next month on the 26th it's National Chocolate Pudding Day?" he added. He was the master of small talk.
<Jessica> "No, I didn't know that... where did you read that? On the internet?"
<Broo> "I believe so. Or maybe it was on one of my chocolate pudding cups I keep next to the blood samples in Dr McCoy's fridge."
<Jessica> "That can't be hygienic, maybe you should ask Hank for another fridge...."
<Shaw> Sebastian made her tea as she liked it and stared at the coffee pot's drip.
<Broo> "Not to worry, everything is hermetically sealed. Besides, Dr McCoy keeps his ice cream in the freezer next to it. I think Dr McCoy has a lot of sweet things hidden away in his laboratory. Not just his Twinkies."
<Jessica> "That wouldn't surprise me at all," she shook her head a little. "How are things at the school?"
<Broo> "Going quite well... I think. I'm rather secluded sometimes in my workshop lab. I tend to lose time there, which makes things a little difficult when I forget to sleep. I think I made a bomb. "
<Jessica> Jess stared at him for a long moment, "I think we've already had a conversation about you building weapons."
<Broo> "Not consciously. I was sleep...sciencing."
<Jessica> "Broo... you need to set alarms to remind yourself to sleep and eat, okay?"
<Shaw> Black coffee took little dressing, but he fussed with Broo's a tad while listening to them talk. Finally, he felt he couldn't stall any longer and went hunting for a tray for the cups.
<Broo> "Okay. Sebastian suggested that I come and rest during weekends here, just to get away from all my tinkering." Broo replied.
<Broo> "Side note, I'm not sure if it is a bomb. It might just be a very elaborate Jack in a box. That uses high amounts of power."
<Broo> "And it vibrates sometimes. And it gets warm sometimes. I once heard it beep."
<Jessica> "Maybe you should put it somewhere safe or get one of the other students to look inside it for you... or invisible it a bit so you can look inside... just in case...."
<Broo> "I'm rather cautious with it though. It has a very tempting big red button on it."
<Jessica> "Then paint it a different colour so it doesn't look so tempting before someone comes along and presses it..."
<Shaw> "I was rather tempted to press it, I must confess." He smirked as he came in with the tray and gave Jess her tea first, then Broo his coffee.
<Broo> "Mmm, thank you," Broo said taking the cup and breathing in the aroma.
<Jessica> "Thank you..." She took her cup and held it in her lap, between both her hands.
<Broo> "So would that be fine if I stayed here during weekends?" Broo asked sipping his coffee.
<Jessica> "Oh... you're asking me? I thought I already offered you a room? The offer was never taken away - you're family..."
<Shaw> He sighed into his cup silently.
<Broo> "Well... I rather now hope to get the basement after Sebastian suggested it. He suggested. Him." Broo said, pointing at Shaw.
<Jessica> "That's where I had in mind... there's a whole apartment thing down there... I guess it's supposed to be for a nanny..."
<Broo> "I don't mind sharing." Broo added.
<Shaw> Sebastian raised an eyebrow at Broo's pointing, then winced.
<Jessica> "Sharing with who?" she asked, her expression saddening. "There's not going to be a nanny to use that apartment."
<Shaw> "Perhaps," he said slowly. "Someday there could be, although there are few I would trust with such a duty."
<Broo> "And what if I created a lifeform? Maybe I would need some help raising it." Broo added.
<Jessica> "Unless it's another robot, you better not be making lifeforms in our basement..."
<Shaw> Images of spawning giant hybrid insects in his basement made Sebastian begin to regret his offer.
<Broo> "M'kay." Broo said with disappointment.
<Shaw> "I believe you may feel better after you meet the other creature with which we share the house." He looked at Jessica questioningly, wondering where the robot was.
<Jessica> Jess looked down at Sharky who was happily gnawing on his ball, "Go find your friend." Sharky yipped and hurried off to do that, taking his ball along with him.
<Shaw> "Perhaps you can help Jess think of a name for him, or coax him into naming himself." He watched Sharky scurry off with his ball and bounce up the steps.
<Broo> "I am starting to feel rather confused. Who are you talking about? Is this the other thing you wanted me to meet?"
<TFTB> There was a soft trilling sound from the stairwell and the silver friend danced around metallic legs. The robot stopped at the landing and stared wide-eyed into the room at the maker and the new human friend and... a very large insectoid creature.
<Broo> Broo stared back at the mechanical thing staring at him, both unblinking for a very uncomfortably long time.
<Shaw> Sebastian gave Jess a very broad grin. "Well, this should be interesting."
<Jessica> "This is Broo," Jess introduced him to the robot.
<Broo> Broo kept staring, frozen where he sat. Deep inside his head, he was already breaking down the robot into components and learning what is making it tick, using all his knowledge to piece each bit together again. "Hello." he finally said, needing a reaction so he could study its programming from where it stood.
<TFTB> The robot raised an articulated, five-fingered hand and gave a slow wave.
<Broo> Broo cocked his head.
<Jessica> Jess looked between them, "He doesn't talk yet but I'm teaching him things."
<Broo> Broo took a sip of his coffee, leaned over the sofa's arm rest to place the cup down on a coaster, and climbed off the chair to step closer to the robot. He looked up at it, then tapped at its head with a clawed finger. "Why don't you talk?" he asked.
<TFTB> Head cocked and bent forward to study this talking insect that did not match information in its databanks, the robot recoiled a little at the tap and burbled.
<Jessica> "Aww... Broo, be nice...."
<Shaw> "He's perfectly capable of it, he just hasn't yet." Sebastian shrugged, watching this strange couple. "Truthfully, as he's programmed to be an evolving artificial intelligence, I've been content to let him follow his own learning curve."
<Broo> "I'm just curious. From what I gather, it should be able to talk. If it's a learning AI, then I'm guessing it hasn't been on very long then. Did you turn it on last night?" Broo asked.
<Shaw> "He," Sebastian corrected, not sure why he was so insistent upon that. "He's been in limited operation for months, but I didn't allow him out of the lab until recently."
<Jessica> "I've been teaching him how to cook. He likes cooking."
<Broo> "Really?" Broo was now intrigued. This was a puzzle for him now. "Two reasons why there is no talking. Either it.. apologies. He... he's shy. Psychological problem. Or he simply he has no need to speak. He's processing way faster than any human or mutant can think. It seems like he tries his best to slow down though, which explains the careful movements. Wouldn't be surprised if he would be a little clumsy as well."
<TFTB> The robot whistled and reached out, carefully petting the little talking thing on the head.
<Broo> Broo didn't mind the petting at all. "You will be happier and less confused if you have a name. I felt very alone until I got a name. You should try it. It will give you a sense of worth." he told the robot.
<Jessica> "He seems shy..." Jess put in, as she had spent large amounts of time with the robot.
<Shaw> Sebastian raised an eyebrow. There were a plethora of psychological problems in this room.
<Broo> "Probably because he is." Broo said. He just kept looking at the robot as he spoke to everyone. "You need a hobby, or something that interests you. It will help you focus. Plus it will slow down your processing if you do it at the same time as interacting with the outer world. Can you access the internet?" he asked the robot.
<TFTB> There was an affirmative whistle and one nod, after the robot glanced to its maker, who seemed to be more interested in his coffee than anything else.
<Broo> "Do me a favour, please. Search through topics of what you think would interest you. Including items that would need a lot of computing power. Start with chess, and work towards the SETI@Home distributed database." he asked the robot. "I'm sure you will find something to keep you busy while you're learning in the outer world."
<Jessica> Jess chewed her lip a little as she listened to Broo talking to the robot. She worried that the robot would change a lot if it complied and she wasn't sure she liked that.
<Shaw> "Those would certainly be projects to keep him entertained, but I have another." He sat forward and watched Jess' reaction from the corner of his eye as he spoke. "Danger played an integral part in his creation and original programming, so he's quite suited to help us recreate and expand the hard light training program for the school."
<Broo> "Oh, that's a good one indeed. Does he have access to the hard light programming?" Broo asked. "If so, then we can already try him to go over all programming that has been done, just a check of for bugs in the programming, that would slow his processing down a bit, then he would be able to.. well.. for lack of a better term, focus better here."
<Shaw> The robot burbled, still petting Broo's head and Sebastian laughed.
<Jessica> "But only if you want to..." Jess decided to speak up, "Because you don't have to."
<Broo> Broo kept watching the robot. "Still... it would make you feel better if you got a name for yourself. Would you like an organic or mechanical name? I mean something that sounds like them, or something that sounds like you?"
<TFTB> This time the chorus of noises sounded both confused and sad, and it glanced between the two humans.
<Jessica> "It's okay, you can still bake with me, I won't ignore you if you want to play with the hard light stuff... maybe you can have fun with Sharky when you learn how to do that too?"
<Broo> Broo had to turn and look at his sister. "Umm, Jess, he has difficulty learning because he's processing too fast. People tend to forget that a pocket calculator has more processing power than the average human. And our friend here... well... I hate to say it, but he doesn't have anyone to communicate with on his level. That's why he might be shy. And why he tries his best to... dumb down to our level. I'm just suggesting an easier way to dumb down
<Jessica> "He learns fine," Jess argued. "I told you, he likes baking."
<Shaw> "He operates the security system, and I've considered expanding his duties," he said, watching the impending disaster.
<Broo> "Very well. However, Jess, when you're teaching him again, ask him how many programs he has to run to slow down his thinking so that he is at the same pace as you. All those extra programs in the background will most likely be looped programs that has no use. I was just suggesting that instead of doing that, that he could do something productive while he learns."
<Jessica> "I'm not saying that he can't do all those other things!" She pointed out, getting frustrated and getting up to retreat to another room again.
<Broo> "But... I thought you were insinuating he not do all those background computing?" Broo asked, dripping with confusion.
<TFTB> The robot whistled, crouching to pet this new insect friend all the more since it seemed distressed.
<Broo> Broo felt somehow reassured.
<Jessica> "Only if he didn't want to.... he's allowed to have a choice..." Jess muttered from the kitchen.
<Shaw> "He's been created with free will," to an extent, he didn't add. "So most everything he does is due to choice."
<Shaw> Especially this penchant for petting things.
<Broo> "Well.. okay... I guess... I wonder if there's another way of getting him out of his proverbial shell... hmmm..." Broo pondered, then noticed something was missing. He looked back up at the robot. "Why'd you stop petting?" he asked.
<TFTB> It was talking to it! The robot perked back up and turned its attention back to the insect from the kitchen door.
<Jessica> Jess realised she'd been followed to the kitchen and cast a smile in the robot's direction.
<Shaw> Sebastian licked his lips, looking from the robot to Broo, then shrugged.
<Broo> Broo shuffled closer to Shaw, tugging on his sleeve to ask him something. "I think he should have a friend that can keep up with him. Do you mind if I ask your expertise on robotics if I create an AI or robot as well?"
<Shaw> He smirked at the tug, then turned his full attention on the boy. "Of course, it would be an honor. Something of a family project, yes?"
<Broo> "Yes. Definitely." Broo nodded. "He just seems so... lonely." he added, looking back at robot. "And tomorrow, if he still hasn't decided on a name yet, then I'll start calling him something. Can't go around without a name. Name is good for self worth." he mumbled.
<Shaw> "Very," he said slowly, giving Broo a speculative look over the rim of his coffee cup.
<Broo> "Oh, I got coffee," Broo said, his attention now on more important matters as he turned to get his cup and drink. "Mmm..."
<Jessica> "So..." Jess said to her robot friend, "Now that we ditched the boring people to talk about things I don't understand... want to make some cookies?"
<TFTB> Whistling, the robot joined her while its little silver friend bounced into the kitchen with his ball.