Effie continued to look troubled, even as Dennis seemed on the edge of saying something. The young digital fairy looked a little unsure what to say herself. One thing she knew for certain, she did not want to hurt Dennis... he was her only companion here, besides her host Mikey. But their own relationship was that much closer.
"What am I," asked Effie in the end. That question was always in her head. It was almost close to just 'who' too.
Dennis looked a bit closer to her. "I can only tell you what you are to me, Effie." He said with a simple smile. "You saved my life. I was sure that being a digital life form would mean playing 'fetch' for hosts, for the rest of my life. You may not think it yet but... you were the lucky one, to end up with Mikey first."
Effie looked to him. She certainly didn't feel lucky. her first steps on the internet destroyed all her memories, and forced some kind of hard wired 'reset' taking on more of this 'body's' feelings. And she seemed to be quite a girly operating system indeed. Though she never thought windows ME to be feminine anyway. Not much made sense. On Dennis's words she inched a little closer to the DOS fairy. Dennis took her hand, and Effie felt a strange elation. Her heart was racing as she stared at him. It was like there were butterfly's in her stomach-
Should she resist those feelings? But... why should she? That person she used to be... no longer existed. Maybe in some vague sense, but what good would it do to hold onto a life she could never have again? When she couldn't even interact in the real world any more...
They were so close together, she could feel her heart beating even more. It almost felt like their codes could merge. "D-Dennis?"
"Yes?" The dos fairy whispered.
"You... know who I used to be... It doesn't bother you, does it?" She cast her eyes downward, as her green hair flowed over her face.
Dennis shook his head. "Effie... I never knew you before then. But you never acted in any way other then who you appear to be." He smiled. "I think you are more yourself right now, then you give yourself thought for. Why not just be? For yourself..."
"H-How can that even make sense? I was never a girl. It-" She pouted a bit. How could anyone even think that? Just because she looked and acted and... Oh damn it Dennis was right. But what did that mean for their relationship? Wait... relationship? Well- it was probably just by default right? The two shared a host, they were together for weeks now, and had little else but each others company, aside from their virtual world. Effie knew Dennis placed a lot of emphasis that the virtual world was just as real as they were... but Effie did not. It was all virtual to her. Lesser in some way. Dennis however was real. He had substance- the same as she herself had. She didn't know if that was the right way to think about it, but it didn't change how she felt.
"Dennis? I..." she paused looking at him. "Do you think... do you mind um..." She blushed heavily. Damn it why couldn't she get the words out! Stupid teenage brain! It's not supposed to be this hard!
They were interrupted as a sound appeared on a router. A request was made for a transfer of a new entity. Dennis and Effie looked at each other, as a new body started to materialise when the request was accepted. It was the strangest digital fairy they had ever seen. A savage cat-taur creature.
"Hi..." Said the cat-taur. "I'm Riko... I have a delivery for you from Hiro."
There was of course, no way for them to know Riko was once the Daemon they rescued.. nor was it possible for Riko to know, that Effie was once Shadow666...
"We don't want anything to do with Hiro!" Said Effie immediately. The way he treated digital fairies- but wait, now he had a new one? Was Riko a slave to him? She looked at her with a mix of concern and outright fear.
"Your host saved mine from a strange virus. Hiro is... grateful," she said quietly. She knew how her host was regarded, but there wasn't much she could do about that now. "When the virus was purged, Hiro's biological systems created a protein sequence. It was then digitised by his cybernetic systems... we're trying to analyse it, but Hiro's processes can only go so far. I wanted to give a part to you as well..."
The cat-taur gave them a strange shard of code. "Be careful. This code seems able to ignore firewalls... we're still analysing our bits but I think Mikey can help to- if you want to. I should go now... sorry to be a bother." Riko started to walk towards router code, to get back to her own host.
Becca fumed a bit at Morgan, as she incessantly explained what magic could do to the world. That they could now change it for the better. The younger child didn't think it was a good idea though. Some of the things Morgan was thinking to do was downright scary...
"You're three, I'm two," smiled the elder girl. "My companion has been teaching me all about the power of two. I can't wait to start fighting evil, and to re-make this world. With another we can do it in half the time!"
Becca sighed. Were all magic girls going to be older then her? She really hoped not.
Lilly had gone to the library, and smoothed out her traditional green uniform as she looked at the row of books. She took what the spider-teacher said very seriously. She had to learn everything again. However she didn't know quite where to start now. She knew one thing though. Her father was one of the smartest people in the world, and he didn't know anything about magic... in fact he didn't believe it was real. But where could she learn magic, if it wasn't real before? But it did exist in one place... explored even.
She glanced to the fantasy books on the shelves. She was supposed to read one book for english... Lilly when grown was never very good at reading fiction books before, but now suddenly, it was like her mind was on fire. She read book after book, of world upon worlds... imagining she was the hero or heroine, seeing things from their side. She had read things so quickly, she didn't even know how much time had gone by.
Was this due to her 'girly' brain? Well... whatever the reason, it was certainly helpful. She was also writing notes, on every time magic was employed and how it was done in the books. That was not part of the official assignment of course. It was all fiction, and none of them could ever work in real life... or could they? It would be nice to believe they could... and that childish imagination, relished to do it too. Insisting even that it was okay just to play. Her twin tails twirled in anticipation.
She thought a bit on what she knew so far... but the missing piece, someone to actually 'teach' her something. Jenny and Artemis may not tell her about magic. Maybe they were incapable of passing it on... but there was one person who just 'might' let her in on it. She went to the reception of the school, to quickly make a phone call to her mum.
"Mummy? C-Can I ... go play at a friends house after school?" She asked. The young girl absently brushed a hand on the lower part of her chest, as she felt an itch there. She didn't wear a bra or anything- and didn't want to. Didn't even really need to anyway, not for a long time. At least, she hoped not. She had cringed in the morning, when she opened a drawer and found a bunch of training bras. The memory still made her shudder.
"Of course honey, who with?"
"Um- I'm gonna go to Jenny's house." She was going to go pay Melanie a visit...
Death tapped his computer.
Honestly, He would never understand the 'new' age. At least he got to keep the hourglasses. Every age he seemed to be just a little different, a new kind of death for a new existence... yet He was always... the death. Though there were certainly other deaths, for specific situations... such as the new digital life form he had enlisted- though had to dismiss her, when she broke the rules. Still the first death of magic, would bring his attention alone. It always ended this way... or was that, 'started'?
This strange 'you tube' thing... he clicked on it with the 'mouse'. (Why did humans make such things?) How did anyone even find anything here? He felt drawn though to certain videos, knowing there was something here he had to see.
Then he heard the song... with it's message. Death frowned a bit, and took out Lilly's hourglass with its little sand remaining. Honestly so many sands had to be re-allocated for everyone. He had to go get extra sand from the dawn of the universe itself, to make up the short fall. He then took out Jenny's hourglass... it glowed, going down four distinct channels. Amusing imagery, the reaper thought for what is really just a constant...
He listened to a song playing, and for a moment the Reaper 'thought' confusion. He then looked through his other sands... but the warning was clear. The first Death by Magic was going to cause a problem, to all mortals...
"Tomorrow will not exist..."
