School was ending, and night side was about to start.
Principal Erin, a creature of sand, looked at the setting sun. Its colours turning strongly more towards the orange shades it once did, but still glistening like a rainbow. He wasn't really sure what to make of it any more, any less then being in the body he now possessed. the sands on his palm left a light trail at times, hence the need for the bowl on his desk. He couldn't really say he was comfortable being what he was, but he knew he had a job to do. All this so far, was the easy part.
Now really began the difficulty.
He heard a knock on the door, the rabbit teacher entered.
"Hello, Miss Maple" Erin nodded. "Come in..."
"Must you keep it dark in here?"
"Its soothing to me. Feel free to turn on the main light if you want."
Maple turned on the light, seeing the principal. He was still wearing his fedora hat. It was not exactly easy to see something that by any measure, should not be 'alive'. However there he was, a creature of sand. With it seems, one or two special abilities. Maple frowned a bit at that. "I thought we agreed, you would not use your... ability on the students."
"You saw them. There was not much choice. It was either that, or Sarah would have gone topless."
"And what's wrong with that? None of the students we care for are human any more. None of them will care! Who exactly are you trying to protect here?" The rabbit girl looked quite huffed at this.
"The students, as always Miss Maple. I thought you knew that by now. You care for them as much as I do, otherwise you would not be here... none of us would be."
Maple knew this was true. It was hard to tell how many teachers were able to teach in the day side, but it was a lot less then expected. Approximately more then half the population had changed, it was guessed. But even that was just a guess. It might even be 90% depending on who you asked. Of that, only a few teachers were willing to continue as teachers. probably less then 20% of them. Many cited reasons such as being ashamed of their bodies to the complete fear of dealing with pupils that were no longer human- ones that some could literally bite your head off or worse. The teachers that remained were either the hard, the idealistic, or the foolish. Maple was probably a bit of each she guessed. When she had to be.
"The matter of the dress code is on the agenda..." Erin took out a piece of paper.
"What did you do with Tiffany?" Maple asked, her ears straightening slightly as if poised to hear it.
"Sent home... suspended for three days. She will... probably have a nightmare or two tonight..."
"You didn't-"
"Can't say... it would be quite improper to use ones abilities in such a manner. Though of course, accidents happen.... What about the hack onto the school computers?" he asked changing the subject.
"I believe Michael. She's always been a good boy- I mean... girl." she frowned a bit at that slip. "There's no way she would have tried changing the grades like that."
"You are that certain?"
"I have taught her for almost a year, one picks up the trouble makers. Michael is not one of them."
"Perhaps a prankster then? Or someone trying to make life difficult for her? Hm.. from now on, I would like to protect the schools computers. Isolate them from the internet. All the results of our tests are stored on them too, I do not want confidential information spread out. I fear the internet has become a somewhat... wilder place since the sun." Though the principal knew that was probably not a perfect solution, given what Mikey said about 'digital fairies.'
They sat down and started going through a check-list.
"First of all, how many students do we have on hand?" Principal Erin asked.
"Our grand total appears to be five hundred and seventy two... there were quite a few that did not come though. But I think we can expect that much for now. We must also deal with a wider age base then usual. Other schools are simply not able to cope with the new situation... lacking in the.. facilities." Though she suspected it was more then that. A lot of schools have simply decided it would be easier, to just become night schools for normal humans.
As a result they were drawing in a lot of changed students. Very few schools were actually doing what they were doing, to try and become 'everything'. A school for both humans at night, and the changed people during the day. It was usually one or the other.. and heavily biased in favour of humans. Erin was making it his personal task to make it something for everyone.
The principal nodded. "I see. Our first issue: We seem to have students with different mental abilities in the wrong kinds of bodies. immature forms with the mental prowess of an adult. We also have students who were once normal young adults, but have regressed into childhood. These ones make things easier, as we can simply put them into re-education."
"I would agree to that. But what about students who are immature in body but not in mind? Where should they go?"
"Hm.. I suppose their mental state must be the decision maker there. If they are able to perform the tasks of their peers, that is that is required for them to join a class. Just like any other transformee dealing with their new bodies."
The rabbit girl nodded. "We seem to have at least one student, who was aged from childhood, but did not gain any mental growth... there might be others."
Erin rubbed his head, delicate pieces of sand falling off him. The rabbit girl had to stifle a yawn. This was so difficult.
"I think even the young will have to deal with transformees at some point. Treat their mental ability as the key decider. If there are any issues we'll deal with them as they come."
The principal started to draw a square on a piece of paper, and separated it out into quadrants, trying to visualise a plan. "We have a situation on day side, where we have 'normal' looking humans, which might be different in minor ways. I suggest we keep those ones together. Separate them based on their mental abilities like any normal school."
"How do we gauge what is minor?" My change for instance, might be considered minor... but I'm not human." Maple really hated to say it. her rabbit ears twitched a bit. One other thing she gained aside from her ears was a rather high libido. Still she seemed to have a very tight control on that beast.
"We will just have to play it by ear... um- no pun intended."
Maple actually laughed at that. "None taken".
So, lets call this group, mostly human... how many do we have that are in that kind of group?"
"According to the test... only a few. About 20. give or take. And only a tiny number would pass as 'human' if you saw them."
"Hm.. that's too small a number to make into a group on their own." Well there goes that idea. "They will have to go into the same classes as the others."
Maple sighed and nodded. The logistics of this was insane. Theres no way to put everything together in a way that could work harmoniously. "We need to come up with a solution for the aquatic students"
"Some are capable of walking on land. Wheelchairs could be used for the rest, if we need to take them out of the pool. But I agree, using the pool as a classroom at times would help ease the pressure on other classes, and probably make things more comfortable for them."
"Okay, so we separate this group into ages as well... try to put them into at least three age groups. I think that takes care of most of the issues for the aquatic group."
"So the rest go in the same classes as they did before? If their minds are still intact, and they are able to perform the tasks as they did before despite the change in their bodies? And we create a new separate area for the junior side, which only number in the 50 odd students so far..."
"yes, separate them out, and allow them to come first into the dinner hall. The older students can come after they are done."
They continued to mull it over, changing students over, as slowly the picture emerged of how to organise classrooms. Special attention was given to students who were particularly transformed, but so far the idea was to keep things the same and see how it worked out, then change it if it didn't.
"I think that's the only way it could work... the ones that are disabled we have to put in an environment they can cope with. We don't have the resources to give individual attention to everyone."
Maple nodded. "So by this logic, we have two groups. The able in a 'normal' environment, and the able in a 'different' environment." Effectively this was the same logic applied to students facing a disability. It was crude, but it seemed the only way it could work for now.
"I believe that is the crux of the matter... I want the students to work in the 'same' environment if possible. Adapt our technology for them if it seems logical to do so... only separate them, if it is absolutely necessary. Keep them within the same age groups. This is a new world, and they have to work with each other. I don't want 20 years to be the end of civilisation."
"Some would say, civilisation ended a month ago"
"Not while I'm running a school..." Erin said stoutly.
"Well... are we going to get onto the matter of the dress code? If your putting all the students together as before, you have to accept there will be varying degrees of 'issues'. Sarah was probably just going to be the first. I've seen one male that was not even bothered to wear pants... to quote him, it simply 'didn't occur to him'."
The principal rubbed his head. This was the hardest issue of all. A situation where all classes were mixed, various degrees of 'humanness' with 'animalness'... just where was the line drawn? "Lets be.. sensible about this then. If you look human, you should be clothed... agreed?"
"Agreed." The rabbit girl nodded.
"The only thing we can do at the moment, besides clothing the students if need be, is to separate the naked ones."
"Have a nude group? That's going against your ethos, sir.. you want them to get along.. to accept eachother. Even naked."
Erin looked a bit pained at that. What could he do? Maple was right.. but what was the solution? He had to sigh as he realised, there wasn't a real solution... not one that allowed things to be as they once were. "yes.. you made your point. The principal looked positively squeamish at this. "If a student for whatever reason, declines to wear clothing, they must gain permission from a teacher first. Secondly, any student that objects to it- which I must concede is unlikely, will have to see me. If they object 'very' strongly, we put them in a separate group."
Maple smiled at that.
"Finally..." the principal continued. "I want no... shenanigans at all, from this. Any student harassed, may have to contend with the police as well as myself. we'll sort out the little details with all the other teachers."
maple nodded. It was almost time for the night shift to begin, and she was a tired rabbit.
Effie looked in awe at the computer screen, it shifted various pieces of the most incredibly complex code she had ever seen. It almost felt like... it was looking at her? Could a code do that?
"I loaded up the program from Emergence into my computer. It runs off my hardware, but the GUI is in that system. Since I know you can jump into it, I thought it was the perfect place for you to look at it. That's the code running inside my head that runs your process."
"So... this... code... is me?" Even as she spoke the 'program' on display adapted and changed in many myriad of ways. Was this what it was like to look at ones own genes? Not just the genes, but the very thought processes of a sentient being. The very fundamental aspects of who you were... it was all there, almost indecipherable.. yet there were parts she could see. Parts that fit a windows ME system. Things like a 'start up' system, a 'cleanup' system... but so much was lost to her understanding, even as a meager programmer. "Could I be backed up?" she wondered off handedly.
"No..." Mikey said, information from emergence pouring into her even as the question was asked. "cause your a running process according to the site. Even stopped something about digital fairies prevent them being backed up whole."
The digital fairy put a finger on her chin as she thought about that. "Mikey? Have you ever thought of looking at your own program? I mean.. if your a machine.. you must be made of code too, right?"
Mikey looked startled. "Er... No... I wouldn't know how to do that anyway- Oh I have another surprise for you." She minimised the window, and showed a new desktop background, with a three dimensional environment. It looked like a room.
Effie looked surprised.
"I thought you might like a nicer place to sleep in then that taskbar... I downloaded this one off emergence too. Um... Can you jump into it?"
Effie gave it a try... and found herself once again inside the screen of the computer. The environment felt a lot like being in cyberspace, everything was very real to her. But she sort of knew, deep down, none of this was real at all. It made her feel a little sad that her world was reduced to information. Easily downloaded things, was all she ever needed. "Thank you- Mikey. You're um..." She actually started to cry wiping her eyes.
"D-dont you like it?" Mikey looked very worried.
"I- I love it... sorry... I- I just never had a friend- before. Who would do anything like this for me. I just wish... I could be more help to you in that world... the real world."
"You are! You told me about that MAC address so I wouldn't get into trouble." She smiled.
"I- I guess. Well- I have to learn to code now" She gave a shy smile getting down to buisness. "Since this is an interpretor running on your system, I should be able to make a program you could use directly too. Maybe I'll surprise you with something helpful" There was a distinct part of her that relished the idea of running a program on an Ai..
Mikey was essentially a unique computer. Nobody else knew how to program 'on' her... And as long as it was done in protected memory, anything she did would be perfectly safe. But even so, she would take every safe guard possible. She felt incredibly protective of her host.
She downloaded all the information she could from emergence, starting from the beginning, making occasional notes. Mikey left her to her work. She didn't feel exhausted from school, but there was an element of fatigue. Maybe she would see how Jon was after her day.
Outside traffic was heavy, as the new human rush-hour arrived. The Humans moved quickly.. motivated to do their tasks as efficiently as possible.
