Harry a little shakily went back to where everyone was having dinner. Whatever was going on between Tiffany and that Teacher... she really didn't want to know. As she went back in, She saw Zoe... and bit her lip. She thought maybe she should say something to her.
"Zoe?" Harry asked a little timidly.
"Yeah?" the slime girl said as nonchalantly as possible.
"Look- I'm sorry... about before. it's... just really complicated for me. You know?" She tried not to sound whiny or anything, but her high pitched voice was still something she was not used to. No matter how she vocalised it, her voice sounded whiny to her own ears.
Zoe shrugged. "I know. I do happen to have two brothers in the same situation. They are dealing with it fine, and so can you. Honestly... you boys make it sound like its such a big deal to be a girl. Frankly, I'm starting to get insulted by it" the slime girl glanced annoyed.
Harry could feel herself shrinking at the look, and mumbled her apologies again before side stepping away. She didn't really feel that hungry any more.
Athena watched the girl walk away and turned to Zoe, being careful not to accidentally hit anyone with her large body. "Don't you think you were a little hard on her?"
"No. She needed it. Besides don't you think they are being a little silly about it?" Zoe said taking another mouthful of peas.
"I'm not sure," said Athena. She was rather glad to have kept the upper half of her body.
Athena watched the girl walk away, she was about to go follow her, when she noticed that fox boy following her instead... maybe she does have a few friends after all.
Ken followed the three eyed oriental girl.
"I know you're there," sighed Harry.
"Oh? You saw me?" Ken asked quietly.
"Yeah..." She couldn't consciously access the omni-view she possessed at the moment, but it was subconsciously there. It seems she at least could tell when being watched. And Ken had been looking at her a lot.
"I think you were great at that flute of yours..." He smiled.
"Uh.. I still need to improve," she said with a sigh.
"Haru?"
Harry bit her lip at that name. However she didn't correct him. She was still off put by the fact that she was thinking of that as her name for a good few hours before "Yes?"
"Um... there's this new film I think might be fun to go see. 'Rise of the sun.'" It was a high dramatisation of the current situation. Some people say its quite average filled with endless clichés, and things that just couldn't possibly happen in the real world- though that people changed into mysterious beings, that was now considered 'normal'.
"You want to go? As friends of course." Ken pressed.
Harry looked at him. Was he asking her out? But... no... of course he wasn't. Friends could ask friends this kind of thing... right?
"Er.. sure. I've been kinda wanting to see that film too," she admitted.
Jenny ate the chicken soup quietly as she looked around the kitchen. She didn't know why, but Muriel's house felt 'big' to her. Maybe she used to live in a poor house? She wasn't sure, but the table felt big, even the chair... she dismissed those feelings and ate her food. Muriel had a television in the kitchen, which seemed odd.
"Oh, a cup of milk would do me good," said Tetra.
"I... don't believe I have a cup your size," said Muriel. "Maybe I have something... um... " She took a top from a bottle, and inverted it.. it looked like it could be used as a small cup. She gave that to Tetra, and filled it with some milk. The little cat girl lapped it up eagerly.
"Why'd you have a Television here Miss Muriel?" the little girl asked.
"Oh- well I used to live alone... and being a police woman makes one work strange hours.. sometimes I would like to catch up on the news while I eat," she said a little embarrassed of it. "That one is broken now anyway,"
"Can I fix it?" Jenny asked automatically.
Muriel raised an eyebrow. "I... think it would be a little too difficult for you honey," she smiled. "I'll take it to a repair shop later or throw it away."
Jenny wasn't even sure why she said that. She nodded though and finished her soup. She went to the sink to wash her utensils and plate.
"My, what a polite girl you are" said Muriel. "You don't have to do that, I'll clean up."
Jenny looked a bit sadly. "P-please miss Muriel? I... just want to do somethin' for you"
The policewoman looked curiously and nodded. "Oh all right. Be careful with the hot water."
Jenny started to wash up the pots, cups, and plates... She vaguely had a thought about some... strange dream was it? She couldn't really remember... whatever she dreamt of, it made her feel uneasy. It was just a dream though, she reminded herself. She looked at the table and found a pack of cards.
"Oh don't mind those, I just like to play cards sometimes," said Muriel.
Jenny looked at the cards. They seemed... familiar? "C-can I play with 'em?" she asked.
Muriel smiled. "Sure, go ahead."
Effie smiled a little as she looked at the world of the internet, through the eyes of a digital fairy. There was something... comforting about being here. She couldn't really place the feeling, but she still longed for the 'real' world.
The AI's saw the internet as numbers, data constructs, inputs that changed into outputs... but a digital fairy saw rivers where there were was data flow. Physical aspects as real as themselves... even if, they too were also data. But how can they 'travel' through this place?
"I wonder if it would be like Tron," She said imagining riding a light cycle, but somehow she knew it wasn't going to really be like that.
"Tron?" Asked Dennis. "I've never seen that. Oh- Maybe Amy's programs have something?"
Effie browsed through Amy's notes.
"A fairy can travel long distances using one of two methods: tunnelling, where a shortcut in data-space between yourself and your destination has been created. this is accomplished via high speed compression programs linking various nodes. simply enter the tunnel with the destination code programmed in your editor." Effie quoted from the guide.
"That sounds very useful" Said Dennis.
"Yeah but we can not 'create' our own tunnels... they are made as part of the data nodes." Effie said. It was basicly like a high speed train system. It was still limited, but expanding.
"Hm, what's the second method?"
"Every fairy has a personal method of travel that is unique to him or her. I don't see any program though."
That was a little worrying. There should be something to help them make this easier. The two continued to walk down the path.
It was strange, sometimes they path would seem very long, but then suddenly their destination would be right in front of them. There have been a few times when Dennis took just one step only to carrier several feet forward from Effie. The two kept close together, as that seemed to stop such large spikes in their relative positions.
Effie held out a hand... "It feels.. warm in that direction" she said uncertainly.
Dennis looked at her curiously and held out his hand. There was a... sensation there. "Yeah... your right. I wonder what that could mean."
"Should we follow it?" Asked Effie.
"Nothing ventured nothing gained," grinned Dennis. "Let's go that way."
However this time, the destination didn't simply 'appear' to them... this one was taking a lot of 'walking'.
"I feel like we've been walking for hours," Said Effie exhausted.
"Just one hour... relative to our run time. But yeah, I'm tired too." Dennis sat down, on the light platform. "Let's rest here a bit."
Effie glanced around again, She just hoped nobody would track her down. Dennis placed an arm around her shoulder, and she leaned into feeling a lot better.
"Is.. that a shooting star?" She said looking up at the strange dark sky, with tiny lights above. It flared, and seemed to fall downward.
"A crashed computer," Said Dennis. "According to Amy's notes, a crashing program will sometimes send random noise... which to us, in the distance we can perceive as a shooting star.... still... you want to make a wish?"
Effie wasn't sure. Still she made a wish to herself.
"What do you think of it all so far?" Dennis asked.
Effie looked around again. "It's... big. I'm surprised people just passed us by as if we were... normal."
"Well the AI's probably barely notice us. They see everything at once." Dennis explained. "And the users in the real world, don't have the ability to really see us or interact with us... unless we interact with them first, I think. you can see their 'fetchers' mainly... which gather the data to send back to their nodes."
"what about other digital fairies though? I saw one of them looking around..." she wondered what kind of fairy it was.
"Its hard to tell what can be seen through these 'walls'. Anything we see could be further away then we think, or might not see us... even if we can see them. Its a tricky world based on permissions, and mathematical rules," Dennis explained. In the real world one always took for granted that a door was a door. You could open it or close it... but on the internet, it might not be possible to even see the door was there unless you were allowed to.
Effie touched the surface of the ground, with her hands... the light pulsed to her touch, sending a little ripple around them. This world was so strange. She pressed her hand against the 'wall' of the maze, and again felt that ripple...
"Our own... method..." Effie closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on the desire for travel. Her editor flashed a warning that she was starting to spike in her runtime use, but she persisted. A code within her must have activated, much like adrenaline would on a human. Light spiraled around the fairy, and Dennis stared at her in shock.
"E-Effie!"
Around Effie's form, insect like wings had appeared, made of light.
