Muse has this thing about "Games" (Canon is REBOOT)

[alphanumeric]

[Have a sarcastic eye roll to start.]

Oh, great.  Another Space Game. That's original.

Just tell me there's no golf course.  

Right, AndrAIa?

[...]

[...]

...AndrAIa?

Comments

[alphanumeric]

Too many.

So what's your story?

[hackingyoursensors]

Personal. What's yours?

[alphanumeric]

[He raises an eyebrow, but shrugs.]

Searching for our home. Been lost since we were small Sprites.

[hackingyoursensors]

Sorry to hear that.

What do you mean by "sprite"?

[alphanumeric]

I mean Sprites.

That's what we are. AndrAIa and I.

[hackingyoursensors]

You mean like fairies?

[alphanumeric]

No.

Sprites. Citizens who aren't Binomes or Numbers. [His eyes narrow at this last example:] Or Viruses.

[hackingyoursensors]

[Binomes, numbers, sprites, viruses?]

You're from the inside of a computer program?

[alphanumeric]

A System called Mainframe.

Though we've been traveling the Net for Cycles.

[hackingyoursensors]

[Alright, this is just weird.]

So by sprite, you mean a game sprite. The little characters that show up on screen during a video game, right?

[alphanumeric]

[He looks away; whether or not he intended to, Robin had hit upon a vaguely tender subject.]

AndrAIa is a Game Sprite, but that never mattered to me.

I was compiled in Mainframe's Twin City.

[hackingyoursensors]

[He notices]

I don't see why it would matter.

I have no idea what that is. See, I'm usually the one using the computer. I only ever see the user interface.

[Though the idea of cities inside of computers is cool, in a fairytale kind of way.]

[alphanumeric]

[Eyes. Wide.]

You're a User?

[hackingyoursensors]

[Seeming...confused]

Yep. I use computers, I hack them, I build programs, I build computers.

[alphanumeric]

I've...never met a User before.

[A pause.]

I always imagined you'd be taller.

[hackingyoursensors]

Hey. I'm still growing. I'm considered young for a, uh, User.

[alphanumeric]

So there are multiple Users.

That explains a lot.

[hackingyoursensors]

A little over 6 billion, yeah. Though not all of them use computers.

[alphanumeric]

Then what do they use?

[Information Overload right now]

[hackingyoursensors]

[Jokingly:] Pen and paper.

[alphanumeric]

Huh?

[hackingyoursensors]

[Biting his lip.] It's a thin sheet made of wood pulp and a stick with graphite or ink that you can write with.

[alphanumeric]

Oh.

I think I've seen those in a few School Simulations before. You mean, those things actually exist outside the Games?

[hackingyoursensors]

Yep. Wow, you're going to be in for a lot of surprises.

[alphanumeric]

Nothing I can't handle.