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

[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.

[hackingyoursensors]

I dunno, it's probably pretty different.

What's your cybercity like anyway?

[alphanumeric]

Mainframe?

[He glances upward. It's been a long time, but he could still remember it as if it were just last Second]

Once, it was a bright System. A dozen sectors, each specializing in something different. There was Sector 13, with Al's Really, Really, Really Slow food...and then there was Baudway, where I lived with my Sister at her Diner. I went to school. When AndrAIa came along, she went with me. We visited Phong, the Command-dot-com, at the Principle Office. We hung out with Bob, our System Guardian. He was my Hero. Still is.

[His head lowered. Dejected.]

But that was a long time ago. Who knows how the System's changed since we've been gone?

[hackingyoursensors]

Wow, it really is a city. You guys even eat.

Command-dot-com...? You mean the command line? And System Guardian? Do you mean an antivirus program?

[alphanumeric]

Something like that.

Though Bob was more than that. He fought Megabyte, sure, but he also helped mend tears and defend us from the Game Cubes.

[hackingyoursensors]

I've never heard of a virus called Megabyte.

Oh, so he was also overall system maintenance. Defragmenting data, repairing data blocks. But what's a game cube?

[alphanumeric]

Exactly what it sounds like.

It comes from the User, taking over an entire Sector. We have to play and defeat the User in order to avoid nullification. Sometimes, taking on Game Sprites as well. If we lose, the whole Sector is lost. Along with the Sprites and Binomes in it.

[hackingyoursensors]

[Eyebrow raise] So if you lose a video game, you lose your home? That doesn't make any sense. They're not supposed to be programmed like that. Computer programs just run it, they don't participate.

[alphanumeric]

Well, they are.

That's how AndrAIa and I ended up where we are now. We lost a Game...but to avoid getting Nullified, we converted ourselves back into her old Game Sprite code to stay with the Game. When it left after causing the damage, it took us with it.

[hackingyoursensors]

That's really messed up. So it's like you're at war with Users. I can say we definitely don't see it that way-- we have no idea that any of that's going on.

AndrAIa? Is she a friend of yours?

[alphanumeric]

Maybe it's time you learned.

She's more than that. So much more.

[hackingyoursensors]

I'm pretty sure nobody would believe me if I tried to tell them. If it's not explicitly in the code, I don't have any proof.

Oh. That close, huh? I hope you can find her.

[alphanumeric]

What do you mean, it's not in the code? Where else would all this come from but code?

She'll show up when she's ready. We're never apart for very along.

[hackingyoursensors]

It's not in the game code. It'd be pretty stupid of us to code something that destroys our own computers. It's probably a virus hijacking the games and overwriting the code.

You have a lot of faith in her, don't you?

[alphanumeric]

I know a Viral attack when I see one. Trust me, this is something completely different.

If you want to call it that.

[hackingyoursensors]

Then maybe programming is way different where you're from.

What would you call it?