I shook my hand and twisted my wrists. My back feels stiff, fingers shaking. Avner hasn’t developed the necessary hand muscles to sit down and draw for hours in one stretch. And so my wrist hurts quite a bit.

I need to take a break every now and then to have it recover.

“Randell, what is the weather like today?”

[Today will be sunny, do you want more detailed descriptions of the wind pattern and cloud density?]

“No, it’s alright.”

[Why do you ask about the weather suddenly?]

“Just curious about the capabilities of an AI.”

Randell’s avatar is a file icon. Two vertical lines as eyes and a floating cursor acting as a hand.

[Do you wish to run a diagnostic?]

“What’s that?”

[To calculate Randell's ability to run heavy programs on this device.]

“Okay, let’s try it.”

I don’t know what this diagnostic test is all about, I’m only doing it out of curiosity.

A panel popped up with a loading bar. A bunch of spinning cubes in one slot, the rendering of an environment in another. Long logs of unknown strings of digital script.

[Score: 78. A moderate result.]

“And it means?”

[It is a measure of Randell’s ability to run programs. The score drops in proportion to the health of the current OptAR you are using. It is recommended that the device should be changed if the score is below 50.]

So it’s like a measure of when I should consider changing my glasses.

“By the way, I heard that this glasses has the ability to adjust the degree?”

That technology sounds too good to be true. There are cases where people who have minor myopia recover because of the constant small adjustments to the degree on their glasses.

[Yes. Currently, this device is set to +2.25]

That’s quite severe. And here I thought perhaps I could fix my eyes. I don’t like not being able to see without my glasses.

I got up and made my way to the living room.

Lia was watching a serious movie. Father and mother were working in their respective rooms. Working from home is the norm of this world.

“Lia, do you know where aether went?”

“Xe’s in the garden,” Lia threw another bite of pudding in hirs mouth. This elf is enjoying the bloody war movie it seems.

I made my way outside. Our home is a landed one, not an apartment, which is rare in itself.

“So I need to get a bigger pot?”

Aether was tending to the garden, talking to hirs AI.

“I’ll think about it, what if I planted it here instead? Not enough room?”

It wasn’t too beautiful. And from Avner’s memories, aether had only recently begun hirs green thumb journey not too long ago.

Flowers and small leafy vegetables. The soil around each plant was flipped. It had most probably happened when aether tried to pull up the weeds.

“Aether, what are you planting?”

I walked up and squatted down. I noticed that there were holes in the plants. Bugs.

“I need to move this cabbage out from the pot, the space is not enough for the root. But I don’t know where to put it.”

“Maybe here?”

[The plant wouldn’t grow well there.]

Really? Do the AI have some foresight ability, or is the prediction based on some data collected from farms?

“If not, maybe we pluck out some of these ones, they’re ready to eat right?”

“Good idea.”

Aether did just that. Xe asked me to grab a basket as xe began to pull up the leafy greens that were closer to the inner side.

Then xe proceeded to dig a hole for the root of the cabbage. Transfering the green into the basket, I noticed some worms wiggling around. Will aether be cooking these also? Hopefully not.

Half an hour passed, my hands now dirty in the soil. I helped hir carry the vase with these small trees that looked like bonsai.

Having pushed the vases to one side, I realized how much my hands hurt after. I forgot my initial intention of resting. Now that it’s come to this, there’s no way I can get back to drawing later.

“Thank you Avner.”

I nodded. Slightly frustrated, at the same time, elated that I was able to make aether smile.

I’ll continue with my drawing in the evening then.

“Oh, it’s here.”

I heard the buzzing of a 4 wheeled robot come to a halt. It stopped in front of our gate.

No wonder aether was out in the garden. Xe was waiting for this.

Cleaning hirs hands lightly with the gardening hose, xe went to open up the delivery package. Ingredients for lunch. Looks like we’re going to have basil leaf pizza and pepperoni.

“Help me bring this in Avner, I need to confirm the delivery.”

“Got it.”

My hands were dirty, so I used my arms instead.

I rushed into the house and dropped the ingredients on the kitchen counter, making sure none of the dirt got on the surface.

“How many times have I told you not to eat on the couch!”

I heard mom yell.

Oh no. Lia got in trouble, that’s sad. I didn’t know there was a rule like that.

I washed my hands with soap before making my way to the living room.

“Clean up the mess!”

Lia pushed past me and went to grab the towel in the kitchen. It seems xe spilled the pudding.

“What are you there standing for? Waiting for me to do the job for you is it?”

I shook my head and turned around. Lia already went to grab a wet towel, what else can I do?

Xe came back and wiped the small pudding piece and crumbs off the synthetic leather couch.

My mom stood there with her arms crossed while Lia desperately tried to rid of the stain that just wouldn’t come off.

“If only you knew how difficult it is to earn money, then you’ll be more careful around these things.”

===

Lia only stopped when aether came back from outside. Xe managed to diffuse the situation. Afterwards, xe went to prepare food.

Pizza box. It was a food box with ingredients already measured out in the correct volumes. All we need to do is follow the steps in constructing the food.

Xe added extra cheese which was sitting in the fridge, including some dried crickets for the crunch factor. Then both pizzas were thrown into the oven to bake over high heat.

Xe also prepared side dishes. Those weren’t included as part of the food box. Potato wedges and salad. The salad would be made using the leafy greens we plucked from the garden.

No worms were harmed in the making of the dish.

The pizza took a while to bake.

“Be careful next time, okay?”

“I will..”

Aether consoled the teary eyed Lia.

When it was ready, aether used a wooden board to hold the pizza. Using the pizza cutter, Lia sliced it into sections of 8, it was slightly off centered.

Aether called everyone down; Father and mother who were working, and we had a meal together.

It wasn’t the most pleasant thing with Lia shrinking back when xe saw mom and father’s worn out expression.

Either way, there were no left overs for the pizza by the end of lunch. Looks like aether will have to prepare something else entirely for dinner.

“Is it alright if we go out for dinner later? I have someone I need to meet.”

Or not.

“Who? Where?”

“A colleague of mine. Somewhere close to Crown Square.”

“What do you want to eat?”

“I think Sanada food.”

“Again with that place? You guys never get bored of the food there do you?”

“Then where else do you want to go?”

“I don’t know.”

I don’t know: A typical part of family dynamics.

If Novelle and I do get married in the future, would she begin to act in this manner too?

I began worrying.

Needless worrying.

===

dotturndot: Tell you what, I’m a worry wart. I can sit silently on a Sunday and suddenly feel a shiver up my spine because I’m scared I might not hit my work quota for the next week. I’m doing the writing, editing, art, publishing and marketing for this series all by myself. I literally wake up at 2:40 am to work on this series.

On one hand of the spectrum, you have people who procrastinate because of fear, on the other hand, you have people who overwork because they’re scared.

Then again, I love what I do, so think of it as someone loving sports even though it hurts every muscle fiber of their body. Yup, we’re all masochist by nature, worrying our hairline away even though we’re living in the safest era mankind has ever created.