Effie stuck close to Dennis, fuming as she stared angrily at the ceiling, where the sparks had been forming. This didn't make any sense! If one of those wannabe deities had kidnapped them, why wasn't he showing up to gloat? Clearly he was aware of and interacting with them on some level, but couldn't he at least have the decency to speak to them? It was like...it was like...
It was like he didn't know they were people at all. Effie gasped softly as the realization hit her. Instead of toying with them, their captor had just been trying to clear one of them out, like he was emptying the trash or something. Maybe they'd been reading this all wrong - certainly this was an attack of some kind, but maybe not quite as malicious as they'd thought.
But if the mysterious attacker didn't even realize they were people, they certainly couldn't hope for any mercy from him - they would just be masses of data as far as he was concerned. In a way that was better than being targets for torment, but it certainly wasn't where they wanted to be standing. They'd have to get through to him...get him to understand...
"Guys," she said, "I don't think it's what we thought..." She quickly explained her theory. Janus nodded. "That would seem to fit," he said. "I dunno, maybe he's just a warez kid...? Beats me how the hell he'd get that much horsepower, though."
"But how do we get through to this person?" Dennis asked. "If he doesn't have an avatar in here, can he hear us? Wouldn't he have already caught on if that were the case?"
That was probably true, Effie thought - but what other means of communication did they have? It wasn't like they could just reach out and tap him on the shoulder...she thought of her perch on Mikey's shoulder - it seemed like so long ago that they'd left! If only she were back there...
Wait. She remembered the way she'd sent text-only messages to Mikey - their captor might not be able to hear them, but certainly he could read plain text! "Got it!" she said. "We can talk to him through a text channel!"
Janus nodded. "Hey, yeah. If he's logged in as administrator, there's a daemon running that routes all text addressed to the account to a notice window. Just prefix things with @admin: and he should see it."
Dennis frowned. "I thought it was 'root,' usually?"
The Linux fairy laughed. "Nah, this isn't a Linux system - I came over from my own machine shortly after I changed. If I remember right it's some custom microkernel Vertigo designed. Guess he's got a little more work to do on the security...um, anyway..."
Effie nodded. Maybe this wouldn't work, but nothing ventured, nothing gained...
Kyle was trying to figure out where the character-delete option had gone and how he could fix it when a terminal window popped up.
@admin: Please stop trying to delete us!
Heh, so the NPCs responded if you went after them...cute. Some programmer must have a sense of humor...and so did he.
@bots:, he responded, Sorry kids, it's spring cleaning time!
@admin: Please, we're not "bots!" You are attempting to kill virtual life-forms!
He frowned. @bots: Look, this is cute, but there's only so far we can go before you flunk the Turing test.
@admin: Aren't you aware of sentient AIs? Haven't you heard of "digital fairies?"
Hey, he had heard that term tossed around a couple of times in the last month or so - he hadn't paid much attention, but he did wonder what it meant. Of course, he was sure this was more scripted-response stuff, but...he took a quick look on Google.
What he found was amazing. There was a whole corner of the Internet dedicated to this stuff - it seemed like the sun actually had changed people into true artificial intelligences! "Digital fairies" were AIs that ran in a kind of machine-independent VM and interacted via virtual environments...so that's what this was! Not a game, a chatroom!
Still, he wasn't entirely convinced that he was dealing with people - he'd seen far more twisted humor from game designers than a bot that could beg for its life. News to me, he responded. Okay, if you are for real, do me a favor and give me rot13 for tenqvhf.
There was a pause. @admin: Uh, "gladius?" As in the sword?
It was actually "Gradius," as in the video game. That cinched it - it would be crazy enough for a bot to suss out and recognize that request from what would ostensibly be casual conversation, but the fact that the AI on the other end had taken actual time to answer, and had made a mistake, meant that it was almost certainly a person he was talking to.
Cripes, sorry, he sent. Honestly, I hadn't heard of any of this stuff...thought this was just another game-company FTP site. Lucky I didn't start WWIII or anything. Are you really living inside a computer?
Effie breath a heavy sigh of relief - had they really gotten through to him? She felt a little furious that they'd nearly been killed in what seemed to be just a stupid misunderstanding, but...they were alive and, for the moment, the threat seemed to be over.
@admin: Yes, we are, she replied. She felt like chewing him out, but thought better of it - they'd gone through enough trouble to arrive at this truce...
Huh. Were you humans to begin with, or did the sun change computers to create AIs within them?
She couldn't help but smile at that. He'd gone from impassive destruction to bemused belligerence, but curiosity was a lot more desireable of a reaction to be dealing with. @admin: We were human, she said. We were near computers when exposed to the sun, and somehow we just wound up inside them...
Dude. So, what, is that just something that happens if you're exposed in proximity to a computer?
Effie frowned - how should she know? And did he...sound interested in the prospect?
@admin: Not necessarily, Janus answered. There's...some correlation, but not enough to claim a strong link. There have been AIs created within other electronic devices than just PCs, and plenty of people who were near a computer when exposed but who became something else entirely.
Kyle frowned thoughtfully as he looked over at his PS2 bank. He had to admit, there was a certain appeal to the idea. To live in a world that was apparently one giant sandbox game...and having a new (and apparently pretty decent, if these three were any indication) body wouldn't be too bad either. And it wasn't like he was that attached to RL anyway.
On the other hand, did he really want to leave what he had? Certainly he hadn't taken very good care of himself, but otherwise his life was pretty decent...he was fairly well-off, he got to make his money doing things he liked, and nobody bothered him. Would there even be a use for his money in a world where the "physical" was just an illusion?
And there wouldn't be any going back; the sun only changed you once. He'd be stuck in that world, whether he liked it or not. And it apparently wasn't guaranteed that he'd become a "digital fairy" if he exposed himself...what if he became something different? What if it was a form in which he couldn't type? Then he'd really be screwed...
Still...he couldn't deny that the idea piqued his interest. Of course, it was already dark out, so he'd have all night to consider it...
While they were waiting for a response from their captor, Effie noticed that Dennis was looking dejected. She moved up next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "You okay?" she asked.
He sighed. "I guess...it's just that...I wasn't able to get us out. If you hadn't suggested talking to him..."
She smiled. "Hey, you did your best," she said. "Remember what you said to me after we talked to the daemon? You can't expect that you're always going to succeed at everything." He nodded, still glum. She put her arm around him - she wasn't tall enough to go over his shoulder, so she settled for around his waist. He reciprocated, putting his arm around her shoulder.
"And you've done lots of other stuff right!" she said. "You navigated us over the Internet without getting lost, you tracked down Nadine's home IP just based on her address...that took a lot of skill. And you yourself said there was no guarantee on this one. I mean, you wouldn't expect to break into the Louvre just because you can pick a lock, but that doesn't mean you're bad at picking locks."
Dennis smiled in spite of himself. "Thanks," he said. "I'm glad you're so confident in my aptitude for a life of crime..."
Effie laughed. "You're welcome."
Still upset, still confused and frightened, Steve followed her mother out to the car. The drive home passed in a daze for her, so that she didn't even notice the tingling feeling returning to her gut once again. She just wanted things to go back to how they were...if not to change back completely, then at least enough to where she could easily hide it...
They got home and her mother helped her inside. She sat down on the couch, feeling the petals behind her brush against the cushions, and her mother gently rubbed her shoulders...
"Mom," she said, her voice a little calmer, "I...I really do want to take a week off school...if I can just get this healed up, I can..."
Her mother shook her head. "You can't hide this, Steven," she said.
"B-but," Steve stammered, "I...I don't want them to see me as...as...please, mom! This is important...if they see me as a girl..."
"No, dear. I mean you're not going to be able to hide this." Steve stared blankly, and her mother looked surprised. "Didn't you notice?"
She took a hand mirror out of her purse and handed it to Steve, indicating her daughter's head. Steve looked into the mirror and gasped - another flower, like the ones on her breasts but significantly larger, had bloomed atop her head. Its petals came just down to the top of her forehead.
"N-no, no!" she stammered. "I-I can get a hat..."
"And then what, Steven?" her mother asked. "If your skin changes color, are you going to bleach yourself? Cover up your perfectly lovely scent with something else, maybe? How much long-term trouble are you willing to put yourself through to save yourself a little pain from admitting to everyone else what you know is the truth? You've changed, Steven. I can understand why you hid it, but that doesn't make it a good decision."
Steve's lip was trembling. "P-please, mom, don't make me d-do this..."
Her mother embraced her, gently but firmly. "Oh, Steven," she said. "I know this must be terrifying for you, but...it's not worth it for you to hide away from the world and spend the rest of your life being scared of people ever knowing something as simple as what you are. Even if you can't see that right now, dear, you will in time."
*The rest of my life...*no, this couldn't be real! She couldn't spend the rest of her life as..as a flower-girl! She couldn't even find words - she just sat there, trembling, tears streaming down her face.
Her mother held her in her arms, making comforting noises like she was holding a little child. "Steven," she said softly, "life is going to be different for you, but I know you can make the best of it. You have your health, you have all the capabilities you always had - you haven't lost your mobility like some plant-people have. There's nothing about this that can stop you from having a happy life, if you'll just let yourself."
They sat there for a long time, saying nothing, Steve just being held by her mother. Finally, taking a deep breath, the flower-girl sat forward, ready to get up.
Her mother gently rubbed her back. "Steve, honey," she said, "how are those clothes feeling on you?"
Steve wasn't sure she wanted to know where this was going, but...there was no point in hiding things from her mother anymore. There was no secret between them... "Um...a little tight around...um, the chest..." she said. "And the hips...um, and it kind of chafes on my...nipples and my..." She trailed off, blushing.
Her mother nodded. "I see. You're going to have to get used to a day schedule over the weekend, but for tonight, we'll go back out and get you some more suitable clothes. Why don't you leave the sweatpants, at least..."
Steve gaped. "You mean...no, I can't go out naked from the waist down!"
Her mother smiled. "You've got a built-in covering, dear," she said. "And you said yourself that those are uncomfortable."
Steve looked down at the petal-skirt around her waist. There were two interleaved layers to it, so it would provide covering (at least most of the way down, before they began to narrow to their tips,) but...she didn't want to go around in a skirt! But she could tell her mother was serious...and suddenly she found herself wishing that the petals would grow longer.
