Interlude - Skip


By Java

Time: Sometime 2500

Disclaimer: Let's see. ReBoot is owned by Mainframe, Project Metaverse by the collective Writers. I’m just a blonde writer attempting not to insult anyone. ^.^;; All characters are my own, although one name has been borrowed from AMG. Steal and Anya will flay your mind for fun. ^.~ Systems Inspiration and DHNL are mine as well. Alrighty? To the fic!

~~~~~

Tri,

Hey. Been too long. Why don't you Vid Window me anymore? I'm sure Inspiration isn't in so much danger that the occasional Vid will flush it out.

I've been pretty good. The group's been in somewhat of a slump since the whole rampage in Codex of those bastard Crossies. You'd think it would bring more people over to our side, but a lot of people here had relatives in Codex, and they're still in mourning. But especially in the younger men, I see a fire burning in them that'll bring them over to the right way. So in the end, there will be justice.

Other than that, nothing's really happened. The usual anarchy. I don't think the Guardians will ever get the idea that we don't want them in our system, never had, and never will. I mean, come on idiots, you never care about our system in the first place. You'd think we'd be agreed in mutual contempt by now. But no, the Guardians have to be the heroes in everything. Bullshit.

About the whole tree incident: yes, I remember, and I'm not surprised you do too. That was one of the funniest sights, especially for a young recruit like me - the anti-princess of the system, daughter of the ruling Virus, sitting on the crown of the tree, ignoring anyone's attempts to get her back down. You really must have been bored that day. And then finally her father floating up, exchanging venomous looks, and snatching her. That really was a big datatree. I still visit it occasionally - the C.C doesn't dare let anyone tear it down, since they say it's been up since the beginning of this System itself.

You know, I'd understand if you hated your father. He didn't give you any attention when you were growing up, and that's one of the nastiest things a parent could do. When he put you into my care, I saw how he dismissed you as just some child, perhaps an heir some day. I figured I had either a very sad or very angry girl on my hands. But when I look at it, when I met you, you were never angry or sad with your father. Really, what I saw was contempt. And I couldn't understand it. Here was such a tiny little girl, and instead of being simple and showing anger or wanting for your dad, you felt him below you. I guess I misjudged how complex children's emotions can be. Or maybe you're just a weird kid and always were a weird kid. It's that contempt for anything Draco that fuels your dislike for the way I went. That I admit I'm pissed off at you about. But that's your way.

And yet, why is it you don't show any bitterness or contempt for your mother? She left you with Draco, to go off and finish her rampage of the systems as the Sphinx. She abandoned you, whereas Draco at least took care of your needs. You never talked about her in DHNL. And then you found her after you got into Inspiration. I was expecting a letter full of venom. But you were happy to meet her. Is it that weird Legacy thing? That two Legacy virii can't be angry with each other. Except you've been angry with Aarys. Especially about plunking Liturgy on you. Has he stopped bugging you yet? I doubt it. You've really got to find him another girl. That's the only way he'll stop worshiping you.

DHNL is a weird system. I've been thinking about it. First, it had an anti-User movement running back in the Hero's age, far before the Metaverse was ever dreamed of. Then it stayed hidden even as it got moved into the Terracomputer, and stayed so for years. I think I'm pretty proud of my adopted system - look at my nickname, for the great Guardian. I don't think it's so unusual that it wasn't found for so long. They were throwing systems hodge-podge into the Terracomputer, and some of the uninhabited systems are still not fully re-registered and entered. Twenty-one years IS a long time, but there are by some estimates five million inhabited systems in the whole Terracomputer and the same amount uninhabited. All the inhabited systems were automatically entered into the records, so since DHNL was hacked to be seen as uninhabited, it missed out in the official count. And when the system seemed to close down, no one really cared since it was always a bundle of trouble anyway. So why didn't they find out about it later? Heck, even ten years after the war everyone in Project Metaverse was trying to fix problem. Of course, when there was a population boom in '85 and '86, a bunch of new systems were opened for inhabitation. And ours happened to be one of them.

How did we keep our system a secret and yet move in and out? That's the beauty of encrypted portals. And your mother did give us a damn good code for it, too.

But I know what keeps gnawing at the back of your mind. You didn't understand it since your birth. Even though you call yourself conscienceless, it doesn't compute. It's the question, Why do they hate the Users? And no, I'm not gonna call 'em human. Human connotes something caring, with "humanity". When they quit acting like the bastards who sent games to us each day, then I'll call 'em human. Not before.

For me, it's simple, Tri. It was the War

My mother fought in Mainframe. She did it because it was...our history. The Supercomputer is all nice and well, but our history revolves around the Heroes. It's a fairy tale, how people like Bob, Dot, Mouse, Enzo, Matrix, AndrAia, Ray, and even Hexadecimal could save the 'Net. And the thing about it is that we could have known the Hero's. If Ray Tracer decided to walk into my boardinghouse and ask for a room, I'd give it to him. If Enzo were playing with Frisket out at the park, I'd watch and laugh. They're so much realer than the User's heroes are, than Jesus and Buddha and Queen Elizabeth. They're so close to our hearts. The Heroes were real, live, normal people in an unusual situation and damn, did they do well.

And then, when the Users blasted the hell out of that system, OUR system...Mainframe was the equivalent of Great Codex in terms of history and culture. It was sacred. And they trashed it. When the Users attacked, they weren't trying to take it over. They were trying to erase each and every bit of our heritage, and Mainframe was our heritage. It was our history, our holy place. They wondered why we fought so hard, it wasn't even a capital or anything...Mecca and Medina rolled into one.

My mother fought there, saw it all. She wrote a diary of everything she saw and felt and heard, up until she was killed. And when I was old enough to read, I received that diary. I experienced everything just like it was. And that's why I am the way I am.

Those attackers of Mainframe were evil. Worse than virii. Yeah, Tri I know you're a virus. That's my point. In most sprite books, viruses rank up there like Users do in my book - but in a way, even the most hostile virii weren't as bad as the Users. Worse than Megabyte or Hexadecimal, probably worse than Daemon. You're the historian, you know that Megabyte wanted only to infect and control the system, using it as a stepping stone to the Supercomputer and beyond. Hexadecimal was psycho, but she didn't try to destroy and she ended saving the entire Net in the end. Daemon actually tried to stop people from being deleted. She only wanted to complete her function, and even though that function was as a Cron, it wasn't her choice. No Virus wantonly, deliberately destroyed like the Users. Some got close, but even if they did, it was part of their function - virii are programmed that way if they are that way. And anyway, everything the Virii did can be put squarely on the shoulders of the human who programmed them or their forefathers. Users have free will, like you and I. But we don't choose to go out and slaughter a civilian population, now do we? No, we don't.

The biggest difference between the Users and virii was this: they had free will and they did this.

Now, look at us. Sprites are of an entirely different race than Users. We are a peaceful, unassuming race. We started the Guardians out of selfless care for all systems. We know our place. Users have an innate superiority. They are better than everyone else. They like to play God however they can, whether it was in the beginning playing games with our ancestors' lives or now, with the experiments on innocent sprites by the TruPharm. We are not like that. They thought they had a right to our systems because they were special, because they "created" us, wrote the systems so long ago. We have a right to our systems because we have lived here from time immemorial. Perhaps if they had came to us in peace and without greed we could have shared, but they destroyed it. It's the arrogance. Sprites and Virii can learn it, certainly, but raise a User baby with Sprite parents and I swear to you that it will grow up to have that same arrogance. It is an inherent part of them.

You might have noticed I don't mention Anthros when I write. I don't like them, honestly. They have User tendencies I don't like. But they as well are victims of User prejudice and thus will be useful allies in the final war against the Users.

Oh, yes, there will be a final war. We'll throw them all out of the Metaverse, capture the Terra and make sure they never touch us with their filth again.

You don't like to believe it, and I couldn't teach you what was right or wrong - you always knew what you believed in. And I don't like having to let that User Jesse be exempt from us. But I give you priority, because of your father.

It's nightfall here. Time to say goodbye. Hope everyone is doing well.

Skip

~~~~~

Y'know, maybe she'd realize why it's been "too long"…

Tri looked up, from the nest in the dark side of Inspiration, and decided to take a ride up to the water.

Leaving the Nest, floating in the dark gravity-less air, she swam forward through the air, away from the great column of water falling down, and towards the edge of the system disk. When she hit the bottom of the system disk she had to use her powers to fly, since gravity came into play once one hit the bottom of the system disk.

She floated up, the outer limits of the system turning from starry black to a rich sky blue. She went through the torrent of the rain clouds ringing the system disk, and over the turquoise water, dripping only a little. There she sat in thought.

The first time I came here, I thought the system had been made especially for me. It was just the color of my eyes.

Tri stretched herself out, flexing her legs, toes, arms, fingers, and her claws a little. Slowly she relaxed her body fully and closed her eyes, almost in meditation.

But she's wrong. If humans are so bad, then virii are the same. Skip tries to give virii the benefit of being without free will. But virii have free will. They can go against their code. Just like humans can go against their upbringing. We can all learn new tricks.

She sighed. But free will is so subjective. We all have to eat, sleep, and propagate our races. Evolution requires it of us. And if you want to get into the quantum mechanics of it all, everything is just a reaction and our actions are just electrical impulses and neutrons bumping around. But that's going too far. All I know is that as much as I'm amoral, I find Skip's ideas a waste. I have no love for the human race, or the Sprite race or Anthropomorphic races, but I do care about my friends, and Jesse and Erinys are my friends. Well, although Erinys doesn't know about it yet. But Pyra says he's nice so I'll take it as that.

The virus paused, frowning at herself.

For Oosi's sake. Why am I arguing with it? Why don't I just admit to myself that her arguments are full of fallacies and circular reasoning with no proof? All her arguments have been used by every other hate groups in history - Crimson Claw, Nazis, Anti-Non's, Ku Klux Klan, and Apocalypse. Admit it, Tri, she's a fanatic. All I give a damn about with her now is keeping Jesse alright. So I humor her. Because humoring her is easier than killing her, since that's the only other way to keep Jesse safe. And I don't care for killing. I don't like the blood.

I have remnants of feeling for her because she tried to mother me. But as much as I accepted her and didn't fight and liked her, she was anti-human. Racism drives me nuts. Because of racism I'd be summarily executed if I was found out, or my mother or Lit or Essani, or any virus. Because of it my father was murdered, and although I despised him... If we ever let our guards down, we'll die. Don't they still use the viral breakdown chambers? Liturgy said it was worse than anything he'd ever felt, and he's been in his share of brawls and punk bashing.

Guess this makes me a hypocrite.

I say I'm amoral, but I care about total strangers because of racism. I've always said I had no morals. I mean, I practice identity theft and fraud for a living, which is pretty low on both Human and Sprite moral systems. I target businessmen, not elderly, because businessmen always have more credits. I've killed four people, twice in self-defense, once to protect David, and once in accident, and never shed a tear. Basically, there are three groups of people I care about- my friends, virii, and victim of racism. Of course I do have to be somewhat loyal to my race…and besides, I like most virii I've met, "evil" or whatever.

So what's this make me? A hypocrite? Not amoral?

She paused, toying with the problem, slowly unraveling the threads in it's Gordian knot.

Why am I jabbering about this like I was a jeirez'Oosi human? I'm a virus, I don't need to answer to any moral code. What I make of it is my own business. I needn't explain myself to anyone. Yet to call oneself amoral is to admit of the existence of a moral code one should follow…

So I'm mostly amoral and a little not. So who says I can't be both? Some dumbass religious guy? I can be whatever I choose. And define it as I may.

Tri nodded, since she'd been trying to deal with that conflict for a while. The epiphany brought her back to her first train of thought with a clear mind.

But back to Skip. It's simple. Fuck her. Whatever moral system or lack thereof I have, hypocritical or not, I hate racism. She's racist, I'm sick of hearing it, and this relationship we had is over and dead by now. She hurts Jesse and I'll kill her, probably literally, but this mother-daughter thing she thinks she has going is over.

After a few minutes, the Legacy woke from her trance and opened her eyes, staring into nothingness for a while.

~~~~~

"Tri!"

She turned slowly. Liturgy was floating next to her, clothed in khakis and a t-shirt, instead of his usual punk-chaos garb. She blinked a few times. "Is that you?" she asked, in disbelief.

"Sure it's me!" He twirled in a circle. "I'm no doppelganger! Just a bit…underdressed." Lit turned slightly red.

"What in the Net happened to you?"

He sighed, then ticked off his fingers. "Jacket's at the cleaners, chains are being washed out. Aisha's mother sewed my jeans back together, and the store was out of hair gel."

She raised her eyebrows and snickered. "You actually look presentable."

Liturgy moved back in the air. "You're not on the cusp of mivi again, are you?" he asked. Mivi was the period in which a Legacy virus was fertile, bitchy, and a bit sex-crazed - PMS to the Nth degree. The last time Liturgy had caught her like that, she took her frustrations out on him - not in the way he had wanted - and he had been sliced, diced, and julienne fried. As much as he wanted her, he did not relish going through that again.

Tri laughed. "No. Two weeks ago, remember? You don't have to worry for a month and a half." She laid down in midair. "How's Aisha anyway?"

"Okay." Lit sat cross-legged. "Quiet as always. Her mum's actually the same as her. Faerie's seam-ripping my jeans back to normal."

"Faerie found any blue guys?"

"Only a few sky's, and they're mostly with girlfriends or not his type."

"Sky?" she asked, confused.

The chaos nodded. "Yeah. Sky."

"I think I missed something."

"Y'know. Sky blue, goes both ways."

"Oh," Tri muttered. "What other types are there?"

"Well, navy is blue but discreet. And Faerie's a bloody blueberry sapphire neon blue."

While she listened to Lit's dissertation, she rolled onto her belly. "Gotcha. And Faerie thinks Jesse is blue."

"Yeah, sky, sure of it." Liturgy stretched and kicked his feet around a bit.

"Why aren't you pissing me off?" she questioned.

"I dunno." After a minute, he looked down, grinned, and dove. He hit the water with a pleasant splash, surfaced and trod water. Tri smiled. "C'mon down! It's nice and cool!"

"You're gonna drown down there with jeans on," she called, amused.

"I'll take them off."

Tri turned red. "How about no?"

Lit giggled and spit water up in her general direction. "Fine. I've got trunks at the Nest. Care to come with me?"

"No." She spread her hair out and closed her eyes, intent on a nap.

Liturgy pouted for a few minutes, diving around the water, being careful of the current. When a while had passed without noise, Tri opened her eyes and looked down, but couldn't see Lit. Worried, she fell down closer to the water, moving in a curve towards the whirlpool, looking for Lit in the deeper water. "Ta'Cae?" she called out.

At the system's Charybdis, she leaned forward, intently searching for the punk. Suddenly, behind her Liturgy came out of the water in a flash, snatched Tri's wrist, and dropped both into the violent pull of the central water. Tri didn't even have the time to yell, barely taking a deep gulp of air before plunging in.

The whirlpool sucked both of them in quickly and threw them down through the hole in the system disk down back to the underside. When they hit the bottom and the whirlpool turned into a column of water through the starts, Tri swam out, gasping. She had been underwater for perhaps a minute. "LITURGY!!" she shrieked.

"The little voices made me do it." She couldn't see him.

"The little voices are telling me to beat the shit out of you," she muttered.

He gasped in joy. "You hear them too!"

Tri flung out an energy-filled marble at where she thought he was hiding. He laughed. "Missed me by a mile!"

She rolled her eyes. "So much for not annoying. You keep doing this and by Codex I swear David will have your hide."

Liturgy's voice warbled in mockery. "David, huh? David couldn't do anything to me if his life depended on it!" Tri floated close to where she thought he was. "In fact, I ought to do something about David, since he's beginning to eye you."

Keep talking, Lit, she thought. "Really?"

"And you bloody well encourage him! I swear it wouldn't be more obvious if you batted your eyelashes and dropped a handkerchief. And especially since I happen to be your Intended and nothing's gonna change that, especially tha- ARG!"

Tri tightened her headlock on him. "You talk too much," she remarked.

"Tri-chaaaan!" he bawled. "You're hurting me!"

"Really?" she asked, dripping with sarcasm, voice viral. "You're leaving Inspiration before I murder you."

Liturgy put on his best puppy-face. "But Aisha's cooking and Faerie'll be by soon with the hair gel and all…"

Another presence made itself known. "And I'm quite happy to see him here," Aarys said.

Liturgy made a squee of happiness, which Tri quickly choked out of him. The Legacy looked to her mother in annoyance. "What do you want, Meme?"

"I want to know why you're strangling Liturgy, first off," Aarys told her, putting her hands on her hips. Her dress floated around in the null gravity until she pushed it back down telekinetically. "Second of all, what in the world happened to you?"

Tri let go of one arm to pull her hair back. Her telekinesis kept the choke on Liturgy as he started to turn colors. "He got me wet," she muttered.

Liturgy couldn't resist. "Then I've done something right!" He yelped in pain as Tri thrust her heel into his stomach. Aarys chuckled, and met Tri's glare of death.

"I am a grown woman, thank you all very much, and I don't need any of you meddlers to decide who or what is best for my life, specifically my personal life and in particular my sex life." She pulled at Lit hard at that one. "So, Mother, kindly shut up and leave me alone!" She let him go and threw him back into the water spiral. Ignoring her mothers look, she flew back to the Nest.

Aarys floated in the water, lion-colored hair flowing around her head like a mermaid's, and long white dress making her out as an angel. She sighed after her daughter, touching her mind once only to get an anger-filled block back. Then she looked back to the water, where Liturgy had freed himself from the torrent and came to hover next to her. He was furious.

"She's in love with David," he said.

Aarys paused. The virus then closed her eyes and dipped into Tri's head secretly. After a moment she came back up. "You're right."

Liturgy sneered, glaring at the Nest. "And I'll be damned if he doesn't encourage her. As if I hadn't told her enough times that she is my Intended."

"Then do something about it," Aarys suggested.

Liturgy paused, considering. A wild idea grew in his mind, chaotic but useable. Aarys watched his mind and saw it. "I have a plan, " he announced to her. He looked to her for confirmation, an allowance to carry the scheme out.

If Aarys wanted the best for her daughter, she should have and would have said no. But she was annoyed at Tri's ignorance of her rules as matriarch. And she still favored Liturgy, to be honest.

"Go ahead," she said.

~~~~~

To be continued in "Interlude - Jesse"

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