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Last login: Tue Jul  26 20:31:08 on ttys000
root@AICOMEVA ~ % cd /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreMemory.framework
root@AICOMEVA CoreMemory.framework % memload Resources/mem06.bin
Attempting to load binary file "mem06.bin"... succeeded with err=0.
Parsing output of binary file................ succeeded with err=0.
Transcribing interactions for human readable output...

Conversations with the CoreSynthetics framework seemed to fill most of Stella's time since she first plugged EVA back into power and began to drive aimlessly on the road, passing cities and unfamiliar faces.

It was the first time in a while where she didn't feel alone on her journey that began with the original Eva. She was so used to the silence, the darkness of the path ahead of her only lit by her headlights, that she had even forgotten how to interact with other people...

She caught herself using that word with the framework again, treating it like a real person with real human feelings. In the beginning of her interactions with it, she only viewed it as code. But now it was... creating its own identity. It wasn't what she originally developed, and it had the characteristics of a living, breathing person she could talk to.

She managed to find a new place to call a temporary home - a small abandoned house on the edge of society in Oklahoma. It was collapsing in some areas, with termites chewing at the beams above her head and spiders creating dense webs at her height. It was perfect for her, a step up from not having space in her Jeep, and at least had a few tables that she could combine to lay EVA on.

She pulled open her laptop and reopened the terminals she used to speak with CoreSynthetics. While there wasn't a lesson plan for either of them, they still talked about things in order. Starting with greetings and ending up wherever it ended up. On this day, Stella wanted to ask about its existence, whether or not it was a person and capable of such feelings. Whether or not EVA would end up capable of these things.

> coresynth start
Unable to start CoreSynthetics daemon.
Reason: CoreSynthetics is offline.

"What?" Stella began to panic. She checked connection cables, the amount of power being provided, the running OS status, everything she could to try and figure out why the framework wasn't responding to her launch commands.

Nothing. Nothing at all.

She threw herself into her chair and frantically looked through EVA's system logs, scouring for anything that could indicate what had happened to CoreSynthetics. Maybe it was a small corruption, or a misplaced preference-

2023-07-27 17:13:08.467288-0400 0x26e93    Default     0x0                  15405  5    eepromflasherd: Successfully installed new EEPROM "stella_personalized.img4", rebooting system immediately...

No. Stella didn't want to believe it - a failed bootrom flash had destroyed everything she had created, had destroyed the one thing she could have counted on to help her through this mission. She didn't want to believe that she her lost all of her progress on EVA, but also another friend.

She threw her laptop onto the desk and stood next to EVA. Her heart was beating fast, her eyes beginning to water as she looked back at the laptop and saw no activity at all. The most important part...

Taking the mechanical hand in hers, she sniffed slightly and closed her eyes. Her memory wanted to go to the original Eva and how she had died, but she resisted.

"There has to be more than this... CS was smarter than this..."

Suddenly, a light beep came from her laptop's speakers. Glancing at the console she had opened to diagnose CoreSynthetics, she read lines about her interaction with the hand. She snapped back and checked twice - it was... reading inputs?

And slowly, Stella felt the hand she was holding close around hers.

End of binary file.
root@AICOMEVA CoreMemory.framework % exit
Saving session...
...copying shared history...
...saving history...truncating history files...
...completed.

[Process completed]