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"Did you have a nice trip?" Dr. Ayda Mensah asked.
"ART imitated a pirate captain," SecUnit informed her with a deadpan expression, a surprisingly rare occurrence when SecUnit wasn't surreptitiously observing everyone's reactions, or looking for spies or assassins. SecUnit's resting face was usually brazen skepticism or rolling eyes, from what Ayda could tell, with the occasional case of an impolite longsuffering attempt at politeness.
This time, it was Ayda raising her eyebrows expressively. "That bad?"
A second later, SecUnit sent a video to Ayda's feed.
"Oh dear," Ayda said, not five full seconds into playing it.
ART had gleefully imitated a pirate captain and taken the corporates for all they had, complete with a purely mythical growling accent and a very realistic impression of a disguised gunship. SecUnit's lecture against manipulative behavior, reckless endangerment of clients, and potential revelation of being an actual gunship (Ayda did an internal double take) had rolled off its hull with no trouble at all.
(Yes, Ayda knew that ART's 'real' name was Perihelion, but it seemed quite happy with the name SecUnit preferred to call it and hadn't asked for it to be private.)
Despite SecUnit’s vociferous and extensively documented objections to their actions, SecUnit seemed a bit pleased with itself by the end of the clip.
Ayda finished watching the mini-movie and smiled despite herself. "You're an adventurer now, just like in the serials."
SecUnit froze for an instant.
"Was it fun?" Ayda asked.
After a long moment, SecUnit acknowledged, "I think I'll go again. How was therapy?"
Not the most subtle subject change.
But Ayda could admit, a fair one. "Well." Slowly. She grimaced a little, still not nearly as comfortable with talking about... things... as she should be.
SecUnit watched her with that watchful expression that meant—
"Stop. I'm not really your client." Ayda tried to fend off the protectiveness before it could start.
"Of course not," SecUnit replied smoothly. "I'm your SecUnit."
A legal fact too difficult to argue with. And not entirely comfortable either.
"I'm not your owner either," Ayda admonished.
"You're my human."
Ayda sighed. SecUnit was as stubborn as any of Ayda's children, despite being obviously less of a child, but trying to explain that Ayda really didn't see SecUnit as anything other than an equally autonomous adult was difficult on a good day, what with the requirement of being SecUnit's guardian.
"You don't have to protect me from discomfort," Ayda finally settled on. And wasn't that the whole boat they were both on together. "You did plenty of things you weren't comfortable with to figure out what you wanted to do with yourself."
SecUnit looked downright mulish. "That's different."
"Not really. You know it's important I go." A momentary pause. "It's not the therapist," Ayda finally offered, picking off the precise point SecUnit could justifiably be concerned about. "It's the topic."
SecUnit's shoulders eased.
"But that's the thing about autonomy, isn't it?" Ayda went on. "No one else can make the hard decisions for you. Like talking about feelings."
She said it that way on purpose, amused at SecUnit's immediate shudder.
SecUnit didn't deny it though. They'd both been muddling their way through difficult choices. Instead, another topic change: "I brought new media."
"I'd barely started Worldhoppers," Ayda protested in mild dismay. She'd never catch up with a construct's rate of media consumption, but she'd been putting in some effort.
SecUnit almost smiled. "It's about an adventurer. Just like you."