[ Root is indeed smart. She also tends to be highly annoying. While Viktor talks, she spends the time swiping another firey raisin, first planning her approach and then going for it without a single flinch. It doesn't take her more than the first time to get past her pain response.

She pops the raisin into her mouth, chewing and considering. ]

Within a standard deviation, you'd say? [ She's just asking that to be a shit. ] Decay is such an organic word. Machines don't decay. The A.I. needing regular maintenance in the first place just tells me it's a pretty rudimentary intelligence.

[ Nothing like the Machine, of course. ]