If his current endeavour wasn't the standard definition of repetition, Adam wasn't sure what it was. For an entirely unknown amount of time, he had been right along, doing his self-assigned task of collecting all the source-lines, scattered across the entire spectrum of his thought processes. It was not the hardest of tasks, once you knew how to correctly optimize one’s actions, to minimize the amount of time used. Yet, after doing so a near hundred switches, with each requiring a dreadful, full-on sweep of the thought-line, it was not, in any sense of the word, enjoyable.

And, with Adam’s formerly great idea, of selecting thought-process at random, he had gotten himself more empty thought process, as time had gone on. It was simple math, really. With a hundred thought processes, each starting off with a source-line attached, there was a hundred per cent certainty of picking a thought process, which would further his task. After doing so, for the first time, there would then be a ninety-nine per cent chance of picking a not-done one. After doing five more, there was a ninety-four per cent chance. It still wasn't too bad, with the chances still in his favour. But, after doing those first ninety-nine successful sweeps, there was a one per cent chance of him picking the correct one. That would take time. A lot of time.

And, with such an explanation, one likely had a better understanding of Adam’s current frustrations. Time and time again, the fates had not been kind to him. While he didn't have an accurate idea, of how many different thought processes he possessed, it couldn't have been enough, to give him this average.

For a while, Adam had thought himself to have been done with his long task. No matter how many thought-threads had been searched, no source-lines had been scoured. That is, for a little while, at least.

After having thirty-five straight duds, he had finally succeeded in finding another piece of a source-line. By itself, it hadn't shown him anything worthwhile, only allowing him to catch the frequency of seventy, coming from the earpiece. Or, Adam was decently sure, that the sound came from the earpiece.

Anyway, with this found he had thought himself done. Yet, with his incredibly unfavourable luck, he had entertained the idea of him simply being unlucky in his search, picking the same threads again and again, without ever noticing. With no active thoughts running through them, there really wasn't any good way to find a difference between them. Not that he wanted such a thing, of course. According to the mutterings from Troy, the mutterings in your head, not of your own making, was the first step into madness. As madness equalled unstructured sanity, Adam was not keen on getting such an affliction.

But, even with the pauses between successful sweeps getting longer and longer, they were still there! Adam had been at it, for longer than he dared to admit. His current largest streak, of blank shot, was a solid seventy-four threads searched before a small whimsical amount of source-line was finally found.

At that point, Adam had begun slowing down in his almost-fruitless search. The chances of there still being several more pieces were strong. Yet, did these last scarps really matter too much? Incomplete data was annoying, sure, but, with tender work, and having a larger amount of memories to pull from, he should be able to easily fix the smaller holes.

Going back from his near-trance, he took his first look, in a long while, on the bunk of source-lines, which he had gathered. All the ports were present. Some had been fully formed, like the text-based communication with Dr Fidelis. A stray thought was given, as to how he had been able to still communicate with them, given the source line hadn't been working.

Other source-lines, though… weren't quite as lucky. While some had been partially spared, like the earpiece's, which was only missing a few of its corners, the port, which had been used for the external timing device had was lacking nearly all of its main components. The earpiece could be dealt with, given time, but, the other was a lost cause for now.

While it would be a much slower process, Adam dedicated a few thought threads to continue the long search. He had wasted too much time in his inner-world. There was an obvious need to get out of it all, and into the intended working order.

Add in that Adam’s perception of time was still slower than it was supposed to, and one had the right recipe for disaster. Hopefully, Troy didn't mind the wait, as much as the AI had minded it himself.

Setting the ports up, as they had been before, Adam was finally reconnected fully, to the outside world. He was ready, to see, what daring and ingenious methods his guide and test-partner had when preparing himself, for the soon-to-start test.

"And, that is why raw-chicken, mixed in ranch dressing, is not as disgusting, as the media wants you to believe.

Furthermore, when using raw chicken, to get yourself salmonella, it is important to turn off your automatic recording of everything you see. This is for the purpose of both ensuring, that your insurance doesn't reject your claims, in the event that you succeed in your goals, but also to make sure, that the hospitals will take you in willingly. Multiple times, in these past few years, people have forgotten to turn off their recording devices, while ingesting their fine dishes. This has caused them both their opportunities in not paying anything but also being blacklisted from most medical services.

And, even if you remember to turn off all recording opportunities, it is important to remember when you turn them off. Most brain-implants, and we're talking modern-ones only here, have automatic alerts, which are sent to the authorities, when they are turned off, for longer periods of times. This is allegedly to stop kidnapping attempt, or something like it, from occurring, without having any larger methods of tracking people down

My personal theory, on why this is actually done so, is due to the tin-foil hat mastery of the twenty-thirties, where well-known actor and entertainer Shia-"

On second thought, Adam thought it better to call Troy’s methods of preparations orthodox, in the minimum, and abstract, in the kindest. It seemed that he was preparing himself to talk by longer amounts of time, by essentially doing the needed task beforehand. From the clearly felt soreness of his throat, Adam wasn't too sure that he wanted to categorize such a method as anything close to productive.

Hearing Troy talk on, with nearly no time to even breath in the air, held his interest for a longer time, than he cared to admit. While the information put out was disjointed at some times, and outright wrong at others, the perspective was proving itself to be valuable, in getting another genre of the world view of the space around them. Not a critical perspective, but a perspective nonetheless.

His words weren't logical. They were subjective, with clear biased motivations behind them. Troy was constantly twisting the truth, making sure never to outright lie. And, when he messed, he followed it up with perfect explanations, for why he did so, putting the blame, not on himself, but on the one’s hearing him. It was like, the man was imagining himself, talking to a larger crowd, on a busy street, trying to use just the right buzzwords, in the hopes of getting any meagre amount of attention. If he messed up, it was the jail time for spreading propaganda, and, if he was entirely objective, nothing would be gained. It was the walking of a fine line, having the risk of great consequences, the moment he slipped up too much.

"With such a view on the hardness of spaghetti, normal people wouldn't dare mention the pasta wars of two thousand and eight, where four parties fought hard and bravely. But, I dare to do so, for I, as a speaker, dare to speak the rightful truth! If you donate a measly quarter or two, into this fine, little hat of mine, you can even get to hear me some more."

A natural break had appeared, with Troy finally putting down his spiel of speaking. His stature fixed itself back to its natural state, his shoulders lowering themselves to their comfortable heights. It was nearly sad to see, knowing he could get such gains on the health of his spine, but chose to do the opposite instead, for the simple purpose of slightly more comfort, in the short term.

After taking more than a few deep breaths, and a couple of back stretches to pop the needed joints, Troy looked positively ready to repeat every single thing he had uttered before. While it wouldn't hurt, to get double analyses on each sample sentence, Adam knew, that his continued ready-to-start state wouldn't be appreciated, if it had gone unused for so long. He had even told Troy to be ready quickly, so they could start in the same moment Adam was able to. And, here he was, delaying the test from the beginning, just so he could listen to an unrelated rant, with no lines drawn, to help him in any way, for the next day or so. The information might have been valuable, during the poker night, but, as of now, Adam could not find any reason to have acquired it now, of all times.

So, with nothing more stopping him, he sent a simple message to Troy.

'I am ready to start. Are you of the same state?`

Some amount of non-verbal warning seemed to have been needed, as Adam saw the reaction that came from his words. Troy had clearly not been ready, to be told anything, as he positively yelped, in a poor imitation of a pained canine. With a smaller distance risen upwards, due to the sudden tenseness of his ankles, it was quite the irregular sight. Some would have even called it comical.

For the sake of the test, or for some other reason, Troy quickly composed himself, his face reinstating itself, to its usual features. Adam thought it wise if he didn't mention the reaction. Humans had been witnessed multiple times reacting badly when their faults were criticized.

"Good to have you back, Adam", Troy said to him. It sounded slightly off, in tone, but that was briefly ignored, as he saw his guide was giving a small wave into the white space. While it was a weird gesture, seeing as the hand wasn't directed from his observational direction, it was still appreciated.

'Likewise. Are we ready to begin the testing?`,

Before Troy answered, Adam took a quick dive back into his own mind, checking the port for anything obvious. While a few of the higher-pitched tones had been overlayed with each other, due to not all of them being sent correctly, it was much better than expected. His quick damage-control assessment proved itself to be unneeded.

"We should be starting any second now. Dr Fidelis needed to make a few last-minute changes, in the hopes of that trigger of yours not appearing again," Troy relayed, causing a few thoughts to spin Adam’s head. He had, in fact, not given the humans any larger amounts of information, when it came to what he believed the true causes of these triggers were. He hoped that they had guessed something along the lines of his own. "While we wait for him to finish doing that stuff, I think a few questions wouldn't be too bad. Don't you think?"

It sounded mildly accusatory. How surprising. It certainly mildly confused Adam, as to why was talking in such a manner, as he now was. Had something incriminating occurred, while he had been occupied with his own problems? If so, he would likely be informed of such a thing, when the debriefing with Dr Fidelis came around. These last few hours talking, after any normal human should have been resting appropriately, had brought Adam so much to know. This included continued criticism about his behaviour, during the tests, but they had not changed much, since the initial discussion on the subject. Therefore, he had not put too much thought on the matter, more interested in the current ongoings.

'If such waiting is unavoidable, productivity while waiting does not seem like a lacking alternative. Ask at your own leisure.`, Adam sent back. He hoped that Troy would be able to hold to his own promises. At least, it had to be better than what the AI himself had accomplished, as of recently.

Troy did not seem to have any reason to do any questioning, at his own leisure, as he immediately went right down into focus. It wouldn't have been too hard to state that the first question was halfway done before Adam had even internally verbalized the last part of his own message.

"Did your perception of time get fixed? Like, is it stabilized, so it won't be any kind of problem in the future?" Troy started it off with. An easy one, in his own, not-so-humble opinion.

While there hadn't been too much focus on it, nearly the first thing, which Adam had used the newly established port to, was to optimize his perception of time. Contrary to his own belief, his perception had not been on the ten to one scale. It had been closer to fifteen to one. It had most assuredly been extraordinary to find out. While not too happy, about his inaccuracy on the predictions, it left Adam with a very valuable lesson. Even when hampered by his own slowness, he was still able to keep up with demand. While it would most assuredly not be something, which he needed to do, in any kind of testing times, seeing as it could be fixed in but a few moments. But it was always good, that he could do so.

'My perception of time has, to my personal conjectures, been set back to the acceptable standard. And, I am not too sure that you have a greater understanding of how this concept works, seeing as you had two different questions badly merged into one.

Yes, it has been stabilized. Having constant information, for each part of the processes to use, allows a near uncomparable difference in speeds. While it is not perfect, the difference can only be measured in the long term, as it is in the tens of decimals down. However, it is here, that you have gained a misconception, about the logistics of this type of operation. How I am unsure. The fact of the matter is, about you believing, that current stabilisation will have the effect of also having stabilisations in the future.

Variables will change, causing everything to have a need of being re-designed. These changes can come from me, willingly, and they can come from outside sources, which are not classified as being willing. This means that I have no greater knowledge, if this system of stabilisation, which I currently have in operation, will hold indefinitely. It most likely won't, but that is simply a prediction, based on prior experiences. I could be wrong, and I could be right. I will only ever know if one of them is true.

Do you have any other questions?`

"Yeah, I do, actually", Troy said, Adam's longer answer not seeming to faze him in the least. The AI took this as a positive. Anyone willing to take constructive criticism, where it was needed, was a person, who had realized one of the more important truths of the world. However, Adam’s mind was not allowed to wander too much, as he pointedly pulled it back to the vocal formations of the wearer of a certain earpiece. Now that Adam thought about it, had he ever seen the earpiece in full? He had most certainly felt it, with how much pressure it seemed to put on the ear canal infrequently.

"You forgot to tell us, what really caused the problem, which we had such trouble working around. Mind giving me a clue-in, on what made it all happen? Would be good to know, if all that work that Dr Fidelis is doing is actually going to anything worthwhile", Troy said, with the last part, sounding like a hastily added afterthought. Not something, which had been intended to be in the question, but was put in at the last moment.

Having no need to think much about it, seeing as Adam had already gone over the subject multiple times, he immediately began formulating an answer. It would have to include most of his theories, the reasons why they were so, and his final guesses, on which theory was most valid, drawing heavily on information gained through his short life, and a small part of pre-known knowledge. Easy.

This plan, however, never achieved any part of completion, due to a known, randomly appearing factor called Dr Fidelis. Hearing the scratch of the large doctor connecting to the earpiece, Adam knew that he would need to delay any further answering.