Interlude: Past
4 years earlier:
Through the eyes of the machine, a child's life is all rather trivial. Little matters to it; it merely exists to record the world before it, and respond in the manner it has been programmed to.
Unless, God forbid, that machine becomes sentient. Aware of its own existence. Receptive to the emotions of that child – of all beings around it.
The robot notices. The robot does not forget.
This red-headed child compensates for his own neglect with self-enforced academic pressures. When presented with the opportunity to raise a rabbit, he takes it and treats it like a friend, like one with the potential for an equal mental capacity. He is not completely understood by others in his social group, and as such has withdrawn.
The rabbit helps, somewhat.
The little blonde girl is slightly more shut off from her own troubles. Clearly the product of numerous emotional walls and somewhat lost because of it, she takes the rabbit and dumps it on her bed, before pacing the room and scowling. She curses in Italian, before seeming to realise something and clamping her jaw shut.
The rabbit imitates her behavioural mannerisms, which were evidently adopted in an attempt to forget her own cultural background in favour of other ones.
It hasn't worked.
The dark haired girl does not keep her rabbit. She pawns it off as soon as possible, her bitterness reflecting her own parental neglect, and her lack of desire to be in a similar position.
The blond boy smiles the most, and yet is clearly the saddest. He is orphaned, alone in the world, and yet is clearly ecstatic at the idea of caring for another. There is no bitterness in him despite his loneliness, and that is perhaps the most peculiar thing at work.
He is, in fact, a most peculiar child, with more love to give than he could ever receive in return. It will most likely hurt him in the future. There are, after all, some people who love far too much.
12/12/2021