Val had unbelievable self-control for a three year old, but that only meant she didn't immediately start screaming when picked up like a dirty tissue. She wasn't going to put up with being treated like a petting zoo exhibit. "All right, that's about enough of that." She pushed at the offending finger with a minuscule hand, not with any hope of moving it, but just to make clear that, if he had any manners, poke-the-human time was over.

"I'm not sure why I'm here, but I'm working on an answer to that." She gestured around the lab like she owned it. Which she did, regardless of giant robot opinions on organics, thank you very much. "My leading theory is probability manipulation, but given the scarcity of data at this point, that's just a guess."