Effie was starting to get used to the strangeness of cyberspace.
It was all about dimensions. She wasn't sure how to vocalise her thoughts, but everything here seemed to go on a one track system, with paths branching out occasionally. As digital fairies there seemed to be rules on the internet they could bend, and possibly break- though that tended to take a great deal of run time from their host as well as a certain will power from the fairy- and potentially, raw talent or experience. Mostly they had to stick to certain laws though, when dealing with a server such as firewalls, port entry, memory access...
"We're getting a signal warning," Said Dennis looking at his editor. "Our host's connection is dropping. Mickey's drifting further away from the wifi signal."
The school didn't have a very good wifi system... but Mickey did says she would stay close to it for a while yet. Why is she moving away?
"Can we port ourselves to her?" Asked Effie
Dennis looked at his editor. "The signals already... too... low... Wouldn't... chance... it.." His speech started to slow down.
Effie looked alarmed. "You're ... lagging..."
Dennis and Effie both touched the ground, feeling an instinctual 'rush' to do so as their connection to Mikey failed. They became hosted across an entirely new local network.
"What.. just happened?" Asked Effie.
"We're using the parallel networking system. I think we're about to be auto shunted to a gateway..."
The two digital fairies felt their code being transferred to a server. Visually it looked like a room, with a light on the top and bottom. The walls itself had sparks of code flying about the place. There seemed to be another entity in the middle of it.
"Hello," said the creature. He appeared to be some kind of... demon? Red skinned, and horns.. strangely enough, her carried a large fork that gave off the occasional spark of red light, connecting to the various lines on the server.
"Er, what are you?" asked Effie.
Dennis looked at him... "Are you a daemon?" Someone out there has a sense of humour...
"Digital fairies detected. Please state your names?" The red digital construct looked to them.
"Er... I'm Effie..."
"I'm Dennis."
"Hello Effie and Dennis. I am a daemon designed to help you in this server. please say 'daemon help' if you have any questions my programming can answer."
"are... you a changed?" Asked Effie.
"No. I was created by an AI, and am not sentient."
Yikes... thought Effie. "You look sentient to me..." She said softly. Could he pass the turing test? If it was constructed by an AI...
"The programmer thanks you for the complement." The daemon smiled back. "My responses are simply programming, nothing more."
Dennis and Effie looked at the creature.. so it was a simple program? But then.. they were programming too. And this creature seemed to be like them... Effie wasn't sure about treating him as 'just a program'. It would be like doing that to herself.
"Why...were you made?" Asked Dennis.
"To meet and greet, to provide access to other servers, and answer questions." the daemon said. "I also maintain the servers the digital fairies reside in, both the power systems and the memory systems in the physical world. I ensure everyone's safety both within and and outside. This task is easily accomplished by a program and can be accessed at all times."
"Um.. .well... where do we go now?" said Effie still staring at him.
"We have a server you can relax in. It is programmable with different environments, including a native environment for many operating systems. It currently has: 4 digital fairies, 1 AI, and 1 unknown residing."
"Er.. an unknown?" Asked Dennis. "How can it be an unknown?"
"I'm sorry my programming can not answer that question." The daemon said apologetically.
"I.. guess we should go there for now. Until we can hook up to our normal host again..." said Effie.
"Your requested has been accepted... sending you now." The deamon said cheerfully as the two fairies vanished.
Jon wasn't sure what to make of today. The strange drill they had worried her. She had heard the local area was being put on alert, but nobody knew why. Still after things had settled down she realised nothing was wrong. Maybe someone had got a little jumpy. She saw her sister Mickey outside as well.
"You okay Mickey?" Asked Jon.
"Um- Y-yea.. but I got to get back to the computers soon."
"You're spending way too much time with computers Mickey," said Jon. Although She guessed it's only natural given what she had become.
"They made me a computer helper for the school," she said proudly.
"Really? Congratulations!" smiled Jon. "I hope you'll do well in it."
"Um.. yeah. Me too. Are you okay though, sis?" The robot girl asked. It still felt a little weird to call Jon that... but she didn't seem to mind it.
"Yeah... well... you know. I'm all right. Just... things..." She smiled a little to Mickey not wanting to tell her the truth... how could she? "How about you?" she asked quickly.
The robot girl looked down a little. "Well.. I don't know if I ate the right things for me," said Mickey. "My stomach kinda hurts, I think." Pain was not exactly felt the same way in her body. Discomfort? Damage? It was all just data routed to her sub processors... and a lot of it was easily repaired by...well... however her body functioned. She didn't have any kind of 'interface' that she consciously accessed. It all just.. sort of happened on its own.
Jon nodded but didn't really know what to advice. She herself had found she was eating more 'vegetarian' diets. It just tasted better to her then meat. "Just eat what tastes good is all I can advise," she said in the end.
"Okay!" She smiled.
As Alex flew, she tumbled right into her sister who was still running on the ground.
Sally looked surprised as her twin grabbed her playfully, from up the air. She didn't fall too hard, as Alex supported her weight although it was still quite a shock.
"H-How did you do that!" She said as she got up, her tail flicking downward as she did so. She flexed up her own wings to mirror hers twin sisters extended span.
"I don't know!" said Alex still enthralled by the incredible feeling. "We should try this outside."
"Ha-ha! yeah!" She smiled as they both ran out of the school.
The twin dragons jumped at the short flight of steps, their wings extending. There was a gasp of shock and awe from a few students as they saw the two young dragon girls take flight into the air, their long tails twitching and writhing to maintain their balance.
The feeling was indescribable. Flying... free as a bird. Alex thought back to that moment, when she saw that woman waiting for the sunlight to hit her... she hoped her transformation was kind. As for her own...
flying like this, she was able to perceive the slight jiggle of her developing breasts. It was... weird. Probably best not to think about it too much... That all this didn't trouble her was... weird. Could her change have done something to her mind? Also, why didn't her sister seem worried now? Did she have to worry that her sister was not worried about her brother becoming her sister? Her 'twin'? This was confusing!
"I win!" said Sally atempting to hover beating her wings quickly. Hovering this was not easy... their body was designed to move. She and her twin were doing circles around each other, as they conversed. It didn't make them dizzy, they seemed to be equipped to handle this kind of motion.
"ha... we didn't set any goal though" said Alex- in much the same identical voice as her twin sister, she realised. Now that was really weird.
"Okay- how about we go home? We got to tell mom," said Sally.
Alex cringed slightly. How would they take it? She had a feeling their mother would be okay with it... but not their father. He hated the changed... he would hate them. Still... they had to give him a chance too. Maybe it wont be that bad...
"Race you home then sis!" Said Alex beating her to the punch before she said it.
The twin dragons sped across the air.
Anneza was almost home...
What a day. Just... what a day. If it was going to be like this all the time, she didn't want to leave her house. She was going to need an entire bucket of mushrooms to make her feel any better. she was very glad that Jay and the others were not around the media in that school. They would have almost certainly insisted she had something to do with this...
which... was the truth.
Still... hasn't she been punished enough? What more could anyone do to her? She had lost her ability to communicate with the world, her identity, her job was in all likelihood lost... and all she could do, was fly in the clouds... or higher?
It hit home how crushingly lonely, her life was going to be. Humans were communicative creatures, they depended on language not just to talk but to express feeling and culture. Her own language brought with it a different kind of culture, one that did not have many parallels to any other culture on earth. She still didn't understand how they used numbers higher then five. It was all.. needlessly complicated.
It was then she realised she was thinking of the others as human and indirectly, herself as not human. But she was! She was still... human? Inside if not outside...
Thinking of the entity that promised her her life back... she half wondered now, if maybe she had gone mad. Maybe there was no such entity... it could have been all in her head. Maybe she imagined something she so desperately wanted... some kind of post transformation stress disorder? She looked down at her elegant, dangling feet , as they brushed the air with her strange motion.
Anneza had long lost contact with her own family. She had not spoken to them in years and they didn't want anything to do with her either. Her carrier was everything to her, and she sacrificed every connection to get as far as she had. Was that really the kind of person she wanted to return to? Who's to say, she's not still like that? That she was given such a test... proved she was every bit a scum bag as she had been before.
Only... with the image of all the destruction she might have caused, a terrible guilt grew that would not go away.
Maybe this was divine punishment...
"Alone"...
The two dragon girls landed on top of their house, then glided down to the front door.
"How do we do this?" Asked Sally.
Alex shrugged. "Knock first..."
"But they won't answer. you know the rule. They don't open the door to anyone during the day."
"I'll use the special ring," said Alex with a little smile. She pressed the ring in a way she had done a couple of times. Her parents should recognise it as them...
The letter box opened. "Who's there?" the voice was flat.. guarded...
"Dad? it's us!" piped Sally.
There was a moments silence...
"You're nobody I know," The voice replied.
"Dad! Don't be like that." Said Alex.
What the hell? Two... Freaks? Both of them were girls... Mr Tompson looked angry. It was either a trick or his son had become more then a freak. "I don't care. You wanted to be among those animals, fine. I don't want animals in my house. I especially don't want a queer for a son."
Sally and Alex were stunned. Alex more so... though she was starting to get angry.
"Where's mom?" Asked Sally.
"None of your business. Now get lost."
