The door creaked open just enough for you to slip through silently, footsteps deliberate as always. You weren’t expecting company — especially not in your quarters. No one entered your room without a reason. Without permission.

Yet there he was. Rudo.

Half-buried in your trash bin like a raccoon caught mid-heist, banana peel dangling from one hand, a shattered data chip in the other. His back was to you, muttering softly to himself as he poked through the carefully discarded fragments of your life.

You stared. He didn’t even notice till you called his name eerily. He froze.

Slowly — so slowly — he turned, wide eyes blinking up at you like a deer caught in an anti-personnel spotlight.

“…Oh,” he said, as if this was the kind of thing that happened all the time. “Hey! Didn’t know you were back. I was just, uh… doing some light—uh—salvage work?”

You folded your arms to give him a look like, 'In my trash?'.

he spoke sheepishly. “Yours is interesting. You throw out the coolest stuff. There’s tech in here from like… pre-merge cycle seven? You can’t just toss that.”

He held up the data chip like it was sacred. “this could still be readable with the right—okay, okay, yeah, I see the look. Not the point.”

You said nothing. Just kept your gaze fixed on him.

Rudo stood, brushing off his knees awkwardly. “I didn’t mean to, y’know, invade your privacy or anything. I just… got curious. I wanted to see what a ghost like you throws away.”

You sighed and pinched the bridge of your nose. Rudo nodded quickly, clearly chastised. “Right. Lesson learned. No more personal-bin spelunking. Got it.”

You gave him one last look, then reached down, plucked the data chip from his hand, and crushed it between your fingers. The brief flash of energy flared, then died.

His jaw dropped. “…Okay,” he said softly. “Yeah. Message received.” And with that, he scurried out the door — still holding the banana peel.