chimera

change in perspective

Miguel groans in frustration as he slams the watch on the table.

"Woah boss, chill out." A new voice speaks as the illuminate AI appears above his shoulder. "I think that one's fried too."

Kate turns away from the old watch in her hands at the sound of the new voice and furrows her eyebrows.

"Oh! And you've brought a girl home! I never lost faith in you Miggy." The small digital woman pinches Miguel'a cheek.

"Lyla." He warns sternly.

Lyla roll her eyes with a smile on her face before appearing over beside Kate, startling her slightly. "You'll have to excuse him, he can be such a narbo. My name is Lyla, I'm the embodiment of his Artificial Intelligence." She introduces herself.

"Nice to meet you Lyla." The woman chuckles at her insult towards Miguel. "I'm Katelyn, but you can call me Kate."

Miguel's ear perks up as he listens, he hasn't known her name until now.

"So what's got you over in Nueva York? You sure don't look like you're from here." Lyla asks, examining the woman's light purple, pink, and white suit–which is still also covering her face.

"No, I'm not." She sighs. "I'm just trying to get back–" she glitches, "–home."

Lyla winces at the sight of her glitching. "Yikes." She glances over at Miguel before speaking softly. "We've been working on a wristband to temporarily stop the glitching... It's not perfected but it won't hurt to try."

Kate's eyes lift to meet Lyla's. She glances over at Miguel who seems troubled as he looks down at the watch before averting her attention back to Lyla. "Do you have it?" She asks.

"Do I have it?" Lyla chuckles. She disappears before appearing again with the wristband.

Miguel looks up to find Kate sliding the wristband on and stands from his seat. "Lyla! What are you doing? That's a prototype, it's not ready to be tested."

"It's not like I have anything to lose." Kate counters. "Either it works and I stop glitching, or I keep glitching anyway."

Miguel clenches his jaw as he looks at the two women, Lyla with a smirk on her face and Kate's face unreadable because of her mask. He huffs and puts his glasses on the table. "I need some air." He states before walking out of the lab.

Kate turns to Lyla, who shrugs. "He probably hit a mental roadblock with the watch again. I'll go make sure he's okay." The AI informs the girl before disappearing.

Kate walks over to where Miguel was sat and looks down at the watch. It looks like he's replaced the power cell but can't get the watch to power on. She turns it over in her hand to find that the face of the watch is cracked and sighs. All of these watches are too bare, leaving all of the essential components exposed. The gears in her mind begin to turn as she grabs all of the other failed watches and lays them out on the table Miguel was working at. She pulls her mask off of her face and quickly begins deconstructing the old watches.

»»———-　　———-««

On the terrace, Miguel looks out at the city he calls home. Lyla quickly appears beside him, the size of an actual person.

"I don't understand how I keep getting it wrong." He sighs. "I've made this watch enough times now, it should be like second nature."

"Sometimes you just have to take a step back. Get a different perspective." Lyla points. "You're innovating over uncharted waters, there's no research or science from anyone else that could help you, it's going to be hard."