Mastermind tapped away at his tablet, becoming increasingly irritated. Why did he have to go through this crap, just for a stupid doctor's appointment? He knew the freaking doctor, for Pete's sake!
He was beginning to consider other options until he heard a familiar cheery whistle. He immediately perked up and saw the whistler himself, with his silly emo haircut and the metallic headband.
Mastermind whistled himself and snapped his fingers, gesturing to the boy to get his attention. "Hey," he said, "hey, kid, hey," The recipient turned his head. "C'mere."
He complied, coming into the nicely furnished bedroom and standing before his senior.
"What is it?" he asked.
"You and the other two," he asked, "do you guys have names?"
He questioned his question soon after he asked it. Of course they don't have names, he thought.
"Of course we do!" the boy exclaimed, surprising Mastermind.
"O-oh, really? Well, then—" he began.
"Mine is TA-568."
The senior deadpanned. While the boy, quite content and happy with his answer, smiled and beamed, the former just stared at him with blank eyes.
After a moment, he shook his head, as though he was shaking off his initial shock. "N-no," he said. "I'm not talking about how the scientists at the lab identified you," he clarified. "I mean, do you guys have proper names? Like I or Esper or Lusa?"
Now it was the latter's turn to deadpan. He looked as though he had never heard of such a thing. "A proper ... Name?"
Mastermind sighed. "Yes, proper names," he said. "Do you guys have them?"
But still the boy stared at him like he had spoken a foreign language.
After what felt like an eternity, the man finally broke the silence. "Alright, I guess we need to coin some names for you."
As he thought about what to call him, the boy started talking again. "Why do you want names, anyway?" he asked.
Mastermind picked up the tablet he had been using and showed it to the teen. "Call it housework," he said. "I have a doctor friend and I'm trying to get you kids appointments." He scowled, suddenly reminded of his previous struggle. "But apparently they need the names of the patients, and I doubt they'd react well to something like 'TA-568'."
The adolescent nodded and hummed in understanding.
The elder propped his head up with his hand, back to wondering what to call this boy. He looked about him, thought about his personality and quirks, the criterion for naming a child. As he did it, he realized something.
"Actually," he said, voicing his thoughts aloud, "you remind me of someone."
This caught his attention, making him lift his head up to look him in the eye. "Really? Who?"
"I have a friend who has a little sister, and you kind of remind me of her," he explained.
"Ooo, what's her name?"
"Architecture," he said. "Code: Architecture."
On his desk he had a framed photo of the girls in question. Handing it over, the boy was immensely interested in the young lady.
After a moment of silence, he finally said, "What about Arc?"
The other scrunched up his face in thought, cocking his head and narrowing his eyes. "What if we add 'Tracer' to the end of that?" he suggested.
