Fandom (Glitch Techs Crossover) GT×: Gnu Fork

[Lady Moldoma]

At that moment, Gadg8eer received the first call he'd ever gotten on his relatively new SpyWear XR goggles. He tended to use a device that didn't attach to his face for voice chat, as before becoming part of his PLixelf the device was bulky and unwieldy compared to newer models. This time, since he was the recipient, he extended his thumb and pinkie in a "phone" gesture to answer. "Yeah?"

"Okay, I notified corporate, they gave the go-ahead." Arco explained, unheard by Zoe. "But for both your sakes I hope you know what you're doing. I don't know Zoe's videos that well but even her dodoFarms thread points out she's the victim here, even if her fans can also be abrasive - Tobi notwithstanding - and I wouldn't want her or you to do anything rash."

"I'll do my best." Gadg8eer told him, and ended the call. "Van, refresh last scan."

"Filtering by criteria... Publisher: GotSee Studios... No results found. Would you like to broaden your search area?" the AI responded.

"Yeah." he told it.

"Range: Kootenay-Boundary Area. No results. Range: British Columbia. No results. Range: Canada. No Results. Range: North America. No results. Range: The Americas. No Results. Range: Western Hemisphere. No results. Range: Global. No results. 404: Glitch not found. Please refresh the page. If that doesn't work, please try again later." the van explained.

"Remove the GotSee Studios filter and refresh."

"Range provided too many results. Please narrow your search area."

"Scan our jurisdiction."

"27 results found."

"Reapply GotSee Studios filter."

"No results."

"Now, considering GotSee is a second party developer that has a licence to make games for Hinobi platforms using the Sisyphus Engine, and that clearly Hinobi isn't worried about legal retaliation, what do you think that means?" Gadg8eer asked, giving a playful smirk to let her know he wasn't trying to aggro her.

“That I have no end goals left.” She says. “If GotSee is already hurting I’ve got no overarching opponent. Other than bashing the head of that glitch king or whatever it was straight in.”

“A deep sadness and inadequateness can’t be cured like that. I’d need a personal outlet.”

“It doesn’t help that every five or six minutes after I say anything I’m getting corrected by one of you absolute nerds…”

“Jesus fuck… I think I might just go back to streaming… I do not have the patience for this.”

 

[Gadg8eer]

“That I have no end goals left.” She says. “If GotSee is already hurting I’ve got no overarching opponent. Other than bashing the head of that glitch king or whatever it was straight in.”

“A deep sadness and inadequateness can’t be cured like that. I’d need a personal outlet.”

“It doesn’t help that every five or six minutes after I say anything I’m getting corrected by one of you absolute nerds…”

“Jesus fuck… I think I might just go back to streaming… I do not have the patience for this.”

Gadg8eer immediately looked sad, because he was. "...I'm sorry. I just... I thought that..." he stopped, and sighed. "Thank you for all the help tonight. I'll be sure to remember you saved my hometown, and... I think I'll miss you. You've been a good friend today, and I didn't think I'd say that when we first met."

The van stopped at a set of traffic lights on Central Avenue, just east of 2nd Street, to wait for the light color to change. Gadg8eer got an SMS back from HardModeWarez to explain the situation.

"So, just FYI, it is kind of scary that Hinobi's HGPS can be tampered with at will, but there are apparently moderation logs so it's not like this can just be covered up. The real damage is that the government cares, and that Hinobi's Glitch Positioning System can refuse service to companies like GotSee Studios as a way of saying that Hinobi condemns their actions enough to risk public safety by leaving Glitch containment squarely in the hands of the Intelligence community... the Canadian Secret Intelligence Service and the Central Intelligence Agency in your country... and that's not taken lightly. We're talking Military Intel 64: Agent of Chaos levels of espionage, and yes, the movies are based on actual high-risk black ops even if they never mention the dealing with Glitches part of the job. I get that it doesn't make you feel better about yourself, I just wanted you to know that nobody got hurt that wasn't already risking their reputation by being greedy, and that in a sense you've been avenged. That, and it's still valid for you to stick around as the girl who beats the crap out of glitches that are too stupid to realize this is the real world."

The light finally turned green and Zoe began driving again. At that moment, Gadg8eer's AI assistant, the Operator, finally spoke up. "The current internetwork time is @333 on Thursday, June 29 in the year 12028 HE. The local time is Midnight PST, on Thursday, June 29 in the year 2028 Anno-Domini-slash-Common-Era. Your Countdown To App countdown for the smartgrid has completed."

Aside from the possibility of receiving a prize for his Hi-Texpo entry, he had been waiting all day for the chance to see the smartgrid in action, but losing Zoe as a coworker took the wind out of the day's sails.

But it was the dawn of a new day, and strange things were about to be afoot...

 

[MisterEightySix]

"I- yeah. Are... are you Pentifer?" she asked, a bit shaken.

"Whoa, whoa, easy there," Hum said disarmingly, gesturing downward with his arms. "Come on, you're not gonna get anywhere trying to beat the crap out of him with a scooter. I don't know who you are, but I know you're a Tech, and if they gave you that gauntlet, that means there's someone who trusts you to use your head."

He turned to look at Pentifer.

"And right now, my head is telling me that the three of us need to talk. But not here. I have a feeling Grand Forks Short Line is going to have a few questions about their missing train, and I don't want to be here when they do. That..."

He made his way to the front of the train and looked over the controls, then reached into one of his many pockets and pulled out an HCP. Ominous yellow sparks jumped forth from a long crack along its top as he held it between his fingers.

"...and I'm not about to let tomorrow's headline be 'train crash, three die in fireball'."

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

"Whoa, whoa, easy there," Hum said disarmingly, gesturing downward with his arms. "Come on, you're not gonna get anywhere trying to beat the crap out of him with a scooter. I don't know who you are, but I know you're a Tech, and if they gave you that gauntlet, that means there's someone who trusts you to use your head."

He turned to look at Pentifer.

"And right now, my head is telling me that the three of us need to talk. But not here. I have a feeling Grand Forks Short Line is going to have a few questions about their missing train, and I don't want to be here when they do. That..."

He made his way to the front of the train and looked over the controls, then reached into one of his many pockets and pulled out an HCP. Ominous yellow sparks jumped forth from a long crack along its top as he held it between his fingers.

"...and I'm not about to let tomorrow's headline be 'train crash, three die in fireball'."

Pentifer gave a gentle nod to Elextrixtr before quietly attempting to grab the nearest pole to try and stop the train from going any further by fashioning together some sort of makeshift anchor.

 

[Gadg8eer]

Pentifer gave a gentle nod to Elextrixtr before quietly attempting to grab the nearest pole to try and stop the train from going any further by fashioning together some sort of makeshift anchor.

The pole was just the guard rail on the external walkway of the locomotive, but it certainly wasn't designed for the digital - if surprisingly empathetic - demon's superhuman strength, bending and breaking off surprisingly easy. Unfortunately, this wasn't the kind of cartoon where nuclear material routinely ended up stuck to a balding man's back for half the intro, so after Pentifer shoved the bar deep into the ground as a form of anchor, it simply pulled him clean off the train entirely, leaving the two techs onboard, possibly face-palming if they understood the intent.

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

The pole was just the guard rail on the external walkway of the locomotive, but it certainly wasn't designed for the digital - if surprisingly empathetic - demon's superhuman strength, bending and breaking off surprisingly easy. Unfortunately, this wasn't the kind of cartoon where nuclear material routinely ended up stuck to a balding man's back for half the intro, so after Pentifer shoved the bar deep into the ground as a form of anchor, it simply pulled him clean off the train entirely, leaving the two techs onboard, possibly face-palming if they understood the intent.

Pentifer let out a loud annoyed yell.
"AW CMON! I WAS HOPING THAT WOULD WORK!" His complains faded into the distance as he slid down.
Elextrixtr almost died laughing.
"Did he think this was some cartoon or something?!" She tried to say between laughs. After a few seconds she calmed down and planned something. "I'll try and find a way to slow the train down to non-life-threatening levels. Try and see if you can figure out a way to get Pentifer back on here. He may be a glitch or demon or whatever but he's pretty cool." She instructed calmly before quietly looking around for a way to slow the train down.

 

[Gadg8eer]

Pentifer let out a loud annoyed yell.
"AW CMON! I WAS HOPING THAT WOULD WORK!" His complains faded into the distance as he slid down.
Elextrixtr almost died laughing.
"Did he think this was some cartoon or something?!" She tried to say between laughs. After a few seconds she calmed down and planned something. "I'll try and find a way to slow the train down to non-life-threatening levels. Try and see if you can figure out a way to get Pentifer back on here. He may be a glitch or demon or whatever but he's pretty cool." She instructed calmly before quietly looking around for a way to slow the train down.

The locomotive's cab was still present, and therefore the best option. She climbed down from the roof and onto the gangway on the sides of the diesel engine and opened the door to the cab to try and understand the controls... (( Captain Wyldstorm How much do you or she know about trains? Would the controls be obvious or would they be confusing and byzantine? ))

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

The locomotive's cab was still present, and therefore the best option. She climbed down from the roof and onto the gangway on the sides of the diesel engine and opened the door to the cab to try and understand the controls... (( Captain Wyldstorm How much do you or she know about trains? Would the controls be obvious or would they be confusing and byzantine? ))

((Confusing, just like I'd see 'em.))
Elextrixtr was very confused and began spamming every single lever, button and switch in sight.

 

[Gadg8eer]

Gadg8eer immediately looked sad, because he was. "...I'm sorry. I just... I thought that..." he stopped, and sighed. "Thank you for all the help tonight. I'll be sure to remember you saved my hometown, and... I think I'll miss you. You've been a good friend today, and I didn't think I'd say that when we first met."

The van stopped at a set of traffic lights on Central Avenue, just east of 2nd Street, to wait for the light color to change. Gadg8eer got an SMS back from HardModeWarez to explain the situation.

"So, just FYI, it is kind of scary that Hinobi's HGPS can be tampered with at will, but there are apparently moderation logs so it's not like this can just be covered up. The real damage is that the government cares, and that Hinobi's Glitch Positioning System can refuse service to companies like GotSee Studios as a way of saying that Hinobi condemns their actions enough to risk public safety by leaving Glitch containment squarely in the hands of the Intelligence community... the Canadian Secret Intelligence Service and the Central Intelligence Agency in your country... and that's not taken lightly. We're talking Military Intel 64: Agent of Chaos levels of espionage, and yes, the movies are based on actual high-risk black ops even if they never mention the dealing with Glitches part of the job. I get that it doesn't make you feel better about yourself, I just wanted you to know that nobody got hurt that wasn't already risking their reputation by being greedy, and that in a sense you've been avenged. That, and it's still valid for you to stick around as the girl who beats the crap out of glitches that are too stupid to realize this is the real world."

The light finally turned green and Zoe began driving again. At that moment, Gadg8eer's AI assistant, the Operator, finally spoke up. "The current internetwork time is @333 on Thursday, June 29 in the year 12028 HE. The local time is Midnight PST, on Thursday, June 29 in the year 2028 Anno-Domini-slash-Common-Era. Your Countdown To App countdown for the smartgrid has completed."

Aside from the possibility of receiving a prize for his Hi-Texpo entry, he had been waiting all day for the chance to see the smartgrid in action, but losing Zoe as a coworker took the wind out of the day's sails.

But it was the dawn of a new day, and strange things were about to be afoot...

The Perfectly Electric Vehicle arrived at a shared building at 876 72nd Avenue, labelled as Abbeyfield Communal Home on the sign in front. "Thanks, again. For saving my hometown and helping me get used to this job. And for the lift home." Gadg8eer let her know, and reached for the door handle on his side.

"Um, Gadge, before you go..." Zoe began to say. ((I'll let you take it from here, Moldoma, I just figured one of these scenes was inevitable.))

 

[Lady Moldoma]

"I'm gonna... Take inventory of how I act as a person. If my goals are already achieved, and my enemies are already suffering, I don't really have so much to be mad about anymore." Zoe says. "I think I have a lot to sort out, so if it means I start treating you and everyone else differently, treating you better, then I hope you aren't caught off-guard by it." Zoe explains to Gadg8eer.

In truth, a lot of the revelations tonight had given her reason to act differently, and to look over what she'd been doing ever since she started streaming. The rage was authentic, but maybe it didn't have to be, and more importantly, she had better things to look towards now.

 

[Gadg8eer]

The Perfectly Electric Vehicle arrived at a shared building at 876 72nd Avenue, labelled as Abbeyfield Communal Home on the sign in front. "Thanks, again. For saving my hometown and helping me get used to this job. And for the lift home." Gadg8eer let her know, and reached for the door handle on his side.

"Um, Gadge, before you go..." Zoe began to say. ((I'll let you take it from here, Moldoma, I just figured one of these scenes was inevitable.))

"I'm gonna... Take inventory of how I act as a person. If my goals are already achieved, and my enemies are already suffering, I don't really have so much to be mad about anymore." Zoe says. "I think I have a lot to sort out, so if it means I start treating you and everyone else differently, treating you better, then I hope you aren't caught off-guard by it." Zoe explains to Gadg8eer.

In truth, a lot of the revelations tonight had given her reason to act differently, and to look over what she'd been doing ever since she started streaming. The rage was authentic, but maybe it didn't have to be, and more importantly, she had better things to look towards now.

"Thanks, Zoe. Me too. I don't think I really understand people, and I assumed I knew what you wanted just because I knew what I would've wanted in your situation." Gadge explained. "I guess we'll see how things go tomorrow." he smiled.

The rain finally started to let up when Gadg8eer opened the door of the vehicle to headed into his apartment, waving a temporary goodbye to let her know it was all cool, before closing it completely and triumphantly running and jumping in a joy his new form let him express more easily.

At that moment, a long and slightly sinister-looking black limousine pulled up along the driver's side of the green Hinobi van. The tinted, electric window lowered and an individual was illuminated by the limousine's backseat compartment lights.

"Miss Wingon." the mechanical being inside said matter-of-factly. "Gavin E. Strong, Innovative Online Industries. How would you like to live forever?"

 

[Lady Moldoma]

"Miss Wingon." the mechanical being inside said matter-of-factly. "Gavin D. Strong, Innovative Online Industries. How would you like to live forever?"

"I don't know. Depends on what living forever means." She says. "If this is an advertising deal on account of my streams, you've certainly got an odd way of proposing it, but I can't say I'm not disinterested."

"If it is though, I have to make it apparent that I can't wager exclusivity, since I do already have a deal with CheatGenKey." She says. "And... A significant amount of fanart between my avatar and the mascot..." Even just her voice and the limited facial expressions of her screen are enough to show that she's giving a squinty glance to the side as she says that. Not that it's really above her to express a certain level of attraction to fictional characters, but generally in the professional space you don't get too deep into what your fans exactly draw.

 

[Gadg8eer]

The Skullfort

Meanwhile with the C-Plot, The Council of Doom was once again convened in their Staff Room going over the results of their first attack.

"So we all agree then, This was a big fat failure. Not only is Bolypius Free and not under our Control, We failed to flood the town, Oh and our Big Portal of Doom is down!" Yukhoe said.

"Ves, I vas There, Vhy do you feel the need to explain everyzhing? Ve all know zat."

"I wasn't explaining it to you old man! I was explaining it to everyone who missed the Last episode!" Yukhoe promptly pointed an arm at where the camera would be,

"Oh yeah those guys..." Madame Vile suddenly spoke up "The Audience we call them."

"Vatever ve call zem matters not. Not all iz Lozt, if we can get 'Bolypius' to join our alliance Zhoze Bunglerz are az Good az Dead. And he seems to be on his way here." Doctor X pointed to a map of a Radar with a Red Dot heading towards the Skullfort. On the legend the dot was labeled "Bolypius"

The Skullfort
Archive of Original Video
Meanwhile with the C-Plot, The Council of Doom was once again convened in their Staff Room going over the results of their first attack.

"So we all agree then, This was a big fat failure. Not only is Bolypius Free and not under our Control, We failed to flood the town, Oh and our Big Portal of Doom is down!" Yukhoe said.

"Ves, I vas There, Vhy do you feel the need to explain everyzhing? Ve all know zat."

"I wasn't explaining it to you old man! I was explaining it to everyone who missed the Last episode!" Yukhoe promptly pointed an arm at where the camera would be,

"Oh yeah those guys..." Madame Vile suddenly spoke up "The Audience we call them."

"Vatever ve call zem matters not. Not all iz Lozt, if we can get 'Bolypius' to join our alliance Zhoze Bunglerz are az Good az Dead. And he seems to be on his way here." Doctor X pointed to a map of a Radar with a Red Dot heading towards the Skullfort. On the legend the dot was labeled "Bolypius"

 

[Lady Moldoma]

The female clerk at the counter took a look at the ticket, typed in something, and then said "Oh! The flight's been cancelled, but we've chartered a smaller and slightly faster aircraft. Follow me."

The lady lead her halfway across the airport, and then through a door onto the tarmac. A private jet was waiting, bearing the logo of a much more trustworthy organization, if not perfectly so...

View attachment 1165338

"Right this way, ma'am." said a bodyguard, escorting her to the aircraft. When Zoe boarded the plane, still a bit bewildered, she saw a young woman waiting in one of the seats of the small plane wave to her.

((Since D is your character, I'll let you take it from here, but I'd like to ask permission to have Dee do a quick infodump.))

The woman's appearance was, unusual to say the least, people who can afford Plixelfs are few and far inbetween, so seeing one in person would've been a shock. It felt different than seeing Gadge's body through the remote robotic body.

"Y-You actually look like your character?" Zoe asked. "T-The last time we talked in person you were human."

The young woman shrugged. "I had the money and the resources, so I thought I'd bring her to life. Might as well hop on the trend before anyone else. Heard you have a friend who has one too." She crossed her legs. "Feel free to sit down."

Zoe hesitantly sat down as a female android with a maid-like aesthetic stepped up and inquired in a pseudorobotic voice. "May I take your things, miss Wingon?"

"Um... O-Okay... Alright." Zoe said, a bit shyly, as the android took her bags. "

"So... IOI, huh? Yeah... They've funded a few games which had a new anti-cheating system that they used to try and mount lawsuits against CGK. But the codified law and consensus of the courts says that cheating and modding are legal for self-bought applications, albeit at the lack of liability for the companies involved in the creation of the original software..." D began to explain. "It's... Obvious why I think this is a step too far... And I wanted to get you as far out of home's way as possible if I could help it. Corporate warfare is pretty twisted, but killing civvies is an unbreakable taboo, especially for intimidation. Now that I know they'd be willing to break it, I know that it's not safe for you as you are now. Especially since you kicked the hornets nest by telling them off."
"I-I'm sorry... I-I didn't want to just abandon you.." Zoe says.

"It's fine. I prefer it this way now that I know what they're willing to do. They don't respect human life enough to give whatever's left of your consciousness a fair shake in exchange for mind uploading." D says. "Now... On to what we need to discuss here:..." ( Gadg8eer )

---

The Skullfort

Meanwhile with the C-Plot, The Council of Doom was once again convened in their Staff Room going over the results of their first attack.

"So we all agree then, This was a big fat failure. Not only is Bolypius Free and not under our Control, We failed to flood the town, Oh and our Big Portal of Doom is down!" Yukhoe said.

"Ves, I vas There, Vhy do you feel the need to explain everyzhing? Ve all know zat."

"I wasn't explaining it to you old man! I was explaining it to everyone who missed the Last episode!" Yukhoe promptly pointed an arm at where the camera would be,

"Oh yeah those guys..." Madame Vile suddenly spoke up "The Audience we call them."

"Vatever ve call zem matters not. Not all iz Lozt, if we can get 'Bolypius' to join our alliance Zhoze Bunglerz are az Good az Dead. And he seems to be on his way here." Doctor X pointed to a map of a Radar with a Red Dot heading towards the Skullfort. On the legend the dot was labeled "Bolypius"

Bolypius made it to the entrance of the skullfort, not inherently recognizing it's origin from any game it had effected, but recognizing it's nature as a plixel-modified structure, and the presence of several high level glitch entities inside. It had yet to gather enough energy to take on the full breadth of it's usual form, so it was still in it's "Chibi"-esque form with less-than-intimidating superficial traits.

It recognized that in it's current state, it probably wouldn't last long if it tried to go for the more hard-hitting route of trying to consume the mass of said glitches. Even in spite of it's experience, and ability to manipulate code, it lacked the proper data to manifest it's more gamebreaking abilities in full. The energy it had consumed from the train was only so much to work with.

It had actually resigned itself to being eradicated or derezzed moments beforehand whenever it met the odd, fellow altered glitch, but it seemed that the exchange had left a divergence in events which didn't require it to fight or sacrifice itself. Either way, its best effort was to try and talk it's way into the company of said stronger glitches while passively gathering power.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

The woman's appearance was, unusual to say the least, people who can afford Plixelfs are few and far inbetween, so seeing one in person would've been a shock. It felt different than seeing Gadge's body through the remote robotic body.

"Y-You actually look like your character?" Zoe asked. "T-The last time we talked in person you were human."

The young woman shrugged. "I had the money and the resources, so I thought I'd bring her to life. Might as well hop on the trend before anyone else. Heard you have a friend who has one too." She crossed her legs. "Feel free to sit down."

Zoe hesitantly sat down as a female android with a maid-like aesthetic stepped up and inquired in a pseudorobotic voice. "May I take your things, miss Wingon?"

"Um... O-Okay... Alright." Zoe said, a bit shyly, as the android took her bags. "

"So... IOI, huh? Yeah... They've funded a few games which had a new anti-cheating system that they used to try and mount lawsuits against CGK. But the codified law and consensus of the courts says that cheating and modding are legal for self-bought applications, albeit at the lack of liability for the companies involved in the creation of the original software..." D began to explain. "It's... Obvious why I think this is a step too far... And I wanted to get you as far out of home's way as possible if I could help it. Corporate warfare is pretty twisted, but killing civvies is an unbreakable taboo, especially for intimidation. Now that I know they'd be willing to break it, I know that it's not safe for you as you are now. Especially since you kicked the hornets nest by telling them off."
"I-I'm sorry... I-I didn't want to just abandon you.." Zoe says.

"It's fine. I prefer it this way now that I know what they're willing to do. They don't respect human life enough to give whatever's left of your consciousness a fair shake in exchange for mind uploading." D says. "Now... On to what we need to discuss here:..." ( Gadg8eer )

---

Bolypius made it to the entrance of the skullfort, not inherently recognizing it's origin from any game it had effected, but recognizing it's nature as a plixel-modified structure, and the presence of several high level glitch entities inside. It had yet to gather enough energy to take on the full breadth of it's usual form, so it was still in it's "Chibi"-esque form with less-than-intimidating superficial traits.

It recognized that in it's current state, it probably wouldn't last long if it tried to go for the more hard-hitting route of trying to consume the mass of said glitches. Even in spite of it's experience, and ability to manipulate code, it lacked the proper data to manifest it's more gamebreaking abilities in full. The energy it had consumed from the train was only so much to work with.

It had actually resigned itself to being eradicated or derezzed moments beforehand whenever it met the odd, fellow altered glitch, but it seemed that the exchange had left a divergence in events which didn't require it to fight or sacrifice itself. Either way, its best effort was to try and talk it's way into the company of said stronger glitches while passively gathering power.

Arcade world Reloaded! (The Skullfort)
When the Council of Doom had turned an Abandoned storefront Into an Arcade they had pulled out all the stops. There was a Skull above the Door because brand recognition is vital for any would be Conqueror, an Awning between the door and the skull with the words "Arcade world Reloaded" on it. Dr X's Logo for when you're about to enter a boss fight on the side, And Automated sliding doors that went up instead of side to side unless locked they would open whenever someone stood on the mat.

 

[Gadg8eer]

((Confusing, just like I'd see 'em.))
Elextrixtr was very confused and began spamming every single lever, button and switch in sight.

"Stopping train. Starting Train. Heading for Depot. No Destination, 70 km/h. Ignoring signal." the locomotive responded in a series of pre-recorded, 1950's female voiceovers. The locomotive passed a red signal and entered a siding filled with various freight cars, leaving not much time before a collision...

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

"Stopping train. Starting Train. Heading for Depot. No Destination, 70 km/h. Ignoring signal." the locomotive responded in a pre-recorded, 1950's female voice. The locomotive passed a red signal and entered a siding filled with various freight cars, leaving not much time before a collision...

Eventually Elextrixtr found the right switch and set it off, climbing onto the roof of the train again before jumping onto one of the freight cars.

 

[Gadg8eer]

"I don't know. Depends on what living forever means." She says. "If this is an advertising deal on account of my streams, you've certainly got an odd way of proposing it, but I can't say I'm not disinterested."

"If it is though, I have to make it apparent that I can't wager exclusivity, since I do already have a deal with CheatGenKey." She says. "And... A significant amount of fanart between my avatar and the mascot..." Even just her voice and the limited facial expressions of her screen are enough to show that she's giving a squinty glance to the side as she says that. Not that it's really above her to express a certain level of attraction to fictional characters, but generally in the professional space you don't get too deep into what your fans exactly draw.

"My company, IOI, have been able to successfully do what Hinobi claimed could not be done." Gavin gave a smirk that suggested he was in some way condescending, but that Zoe was nonetheless more valuable than an average pawn. "Would you really stick with Hiverse pirates when they can't offer you what you want? To be entirely digital?"

 

[Lady Moldoma]

"...What are you implicating?" She asks. "You've figured out brain uploading?" She asks

This was conflicting. Dee was her best friend, and CGK was Dee's brainchild service. It'd be abandoning someone she had known for years.

Albeit, Dee herself couldn't figure out brain uploading, or if she could, She wasn't willing to make the necessary sacrifices to do so.

"I-If that's your offer... Can I call someone first and... Ask if this is okay?" She was a little premature on the matter. She hoped she could talk Dee into it. The thought of finally conquering her Bardiel Syndrome was important to her. For all of her talk about hating corporations, Zoe was only human, and humans will often throw away their morals in favor of getting something they've been wanting their whole lives.

 

[Gadg8eer]

"...What are you implicating?" She asks. "You've figured out brain uploading?" She asks

This was conflicting. Dee was her best friend, and CGK was Dee's brainchild service. It'd be abandoning someone she had known for years.

Albeit, Dee herself couldn't figure out brain uploading, or if she could, She wasn't willing to make the necessary sacrifices to do so.

"I-If that's your offer... Can I call someone first and... Ask if this is okay?" She was a little premature on the matter. She hoped she could talk Dee into it. The thought of finally conquering her Bardiel Syndrome was important to her. For all of her talk about hating corporations, Zoe was only human, and humans will often throw away their morals in favor of getting something they've been wanting their whole lives.

"Very well. Remember, though, this is a limited time offer..." Gavin said, and tapped the screen on his IOI-brand tablet computer to give her his temporary contact information. "...and I do mean limited."

He showed her the display on his device. It read Current Time: 2028-06-29 @343 and showed a countdown of Offer Expires: 2028-06-30 @333 that it counted down to in a non-decimal 23 hours and 46 minutes... well, 23 hours and 42 minutes a moment later.

 

[Lady Moldoma]

"Very well. Remember, though, this is a limited time offer..." Gavin said, and tapped the screen on his IOI-brand tablet computer to give her his temporary contact information. "...and I do mean limited."

He showed her the display on his device. It read Current Time: 2028-06-29 @343 and showed a countdown of Offer Expires: 2028-06-30 @333 that it counted down to in a non-decimal 23 hours and 46 minutes... well, 23 hours and 42 minutes a moment later.

"...I'm not interested in a time-limit right now... It shows me your dishonesty that you'd come to me with an offer like this and then try and pressure me to give you an unprepared answer..." She says. "And... Now that I think about it... How do I know you're not just gonna enslave my mental-model and whore me out to the highest bidder? I've heard horror stories of the kind of cyber-trafficking your kinds of companies get up to... Fully digital or not..." She looks to Gadg8eer's house. "Fully digital or not... There are people who need me here now..."

She places her hands on where her temples would be. "You companies always try and hide things like hidden fees in the subtexts." She says. "Hinobi... I at least trust a little bit more... They were willing to admit to me they can't promise anything..." She says. "It takes guts to say you can't do something."

"But you don't have guts, do you?"

"I just had the most earth-shaking few hours of my life, and you want me to abandon my best friend, and the only new acquaintance I've made in 7 long years of getting progressively more and more introverted... in 23 hours and 39 minutes...?"

"Tough shit... If I ever become suicidal again, I'll call you... Then you can do whatever the hell you want with me, make me suck as much VR, executive, hoo-hah crack-back as you please... Though I can't promise you there won't be depreciation of the product by then though... This body might be my doll, but I'm not yours. So unless something horrible happens and I'm back to square one, I'm not interested, slick."

She rolls up the window slowly and drives off, back to the home where she had been keeping her robot body during down-time.

 

[Gadg8eer]

"...I'm not interested in a time-limit right now... It shows me your dishonesty that you'd come to me with an offer like this and then try and pressure me to give you an unprepared answer..." She says. "And... Now that I think about it... How do I know you're not just gonna enslave my mental-model and whore me out to the highest bidder? I've heard horror stories of the kind of cyber-trafficking your kinds of companies get up to... Fully digital or not..." She looks to Gadg8eer's house. "Fully digital or not... There are people who need me here now..."

She places her hands on where her temples would be. "You companies always try and hide things like hidden fees in the subtexts." She says. "Hinobi... I at least trust a little bit more... They were willing to admit to me they can't promise anything..." She says. "It takes guts to say you can't do something."

"But you don't have guts, do you?"

"I just had the most earth-shaking few hours of my life, and you want me to abandon my best friend, and the only new acquaintance I've made in 7 long years of getting progressively more and more introverted... in 23 hours and 39 minutes...?"

"Tough shit... If I ever become suicidal again, I'll call you... Then you can do whatever the hell you want with me, make me suck as much VR, executive, hoo-hah crack-back as you please... Though I can't promise you there won't be depreciation of the product by then though... This body might be my doll, but I'm not yours. So unless something horrible happens and I'm back to square one, I'm not interested, slick."

She rolls up the window slowly and drives off, back to the home where she had been keeping her robot body during down-time.

"Very well." Gavin said as she drove off. "We'll do things the hard way..." he responded, and clasped his hands evilly as the window rolled up.

At that moment, Zoe felt a sudden jolt as something collided with her and her VR equipment in her real location, cutting off the connection between her and her robo-self in Grand Forks...

---

Arlington Metrobelt, TX, United States of America
2028/06/29 @ 344 Winks
As Zoe became aware of her surroundings, it became clear something serious had happened. She stumbled through the smoke and dust with her hearing temporarily disrupted, and realized that, fortunately, the issue was not within her home. However, the small outside window of her geek cave in the basement of the building was broken and there was clear evidence that the neighbors' house had been damaged.

She was about to go outside to see what the hell had just happened when she saw a small sticky note beside her VR rig with a logo on it...



Say hello to your elderly neighbors. We'll see you and your new friends, Ms. Wingon, in the Finals.

 

[Gadg8eer]

Eventually Elextrixtr found the right switch and set it off, climbing onto the roof of the train again before jumping onto one of the freight cars.

"Stopping train..." the voice said as she bailed onto the train cars on the adjacent siding. Hum was quick to do the same, as the locomotive didn't stop fast enough and collided with the string of empty freight cars on the track it took.

Oddly, upon collision, the container flatcar (which was at the "front" as the train had reversed direction but not orientation) itself glitched up momentarily, before it twirled around on the spot, emitting a pixelated cartoon fireball and instantaneously turning monochrome.

Fortunately, this simply caused the locomotive to have a few more precious feet to stop, finally shoving the damaged railcar until it was sideways across the tracks and just barely not crushed from being sandwiched perfectly between the other railcars and the locomotive.

At that moment, the now-active ctOS Lite citynet-smartgrid-thing sent a signal to the Grand Forks Courier, the local newspaper, to automatically send a notification to the whole town for basically no reason. Go figure.

---

Gadg8eer arrived at the door to the 10th unit of the Community Housing he now lived in, located on the top floor (the building had a total of 4 one room dwellings on each floor, including the basement) and requiring him to climb the stairs to his room. At that moment, an AugReal window popped up with a notification, showing a slightly distressing sight.

Train Crash! 0 die in fireball after collision!

"What the- Oh, crap! The train was still moving slowly!" he said, feeling chills go down his spine. He extended his pinkie and thumb, put them to his head to enable the phone app, and said "Operator, call DPortEd!"

"Dialing..." a voice explained.

"Not a good time, kid." the store owner said.

"I know. I'm sorry I didn't realize the train was still moving before I went home." Gadg8eer assumed.

"What? No, that wasn't your fault. At least, I think it wasn't. How did you know about it?" Eddy responded.

"You know the Nobi's Skylines plugin to connect the Flitter app to your virtual city to your phone or eyeware notifications? I use that, and ctOS just sent me a message about the train."

"Ah. No, you're good. We were handling it and, unfortunately, we let this one slip through our hands." Eddy explained. "If you'll excuse me, I now have to deal with the fallout. Thanks for checking in, though. Wait..."

"Huh?"

"Before I go, have you ever seen something like this?" Eddy said, and cast a video of the train crash to him. "That spinning motion somehow looks off."

"Is that... A train car from OpenTTB? I think andythenorth made that for the "Mustang" version of his train catalogue mod!" Gadg8eer realized. "That explains why the notification said 0 die in fireball like some sort of primitive AI from before ChatBPT-based models replaced everything else."

"...and where Hinobi got the train car from without anyone noticing it missing." Eddy realized. "Good to know. Get some sleep, I'll handle this."

"Thanks." Gadg8eer responded, and ended the call. He tapped the smarthome lock with his poindex (index/pointer finger, but for 4-digit Toon hands) and riddle (combined ring and middle finger for 4-digit hands) in a vaguely gun-like pose, but instead of a weapon, he rotated his wrist and unlocked the door as if his hand was some sort of magic key. The door unlocked itself with the buzzing of the internal motor, and he went inside.

It wasn't a very big place, but it was home and was the largest unit in the building. Aside from an old iron-frame bed, a beanbag chair, a desk with a huge PC tower under it and a repurposed iqTop 64 from 2001 which served as the PC's monitor and red/blue laser optical disk drive, the only other things in the room were the charging dock for his Neo GamePlayer and the various children's toys placed on the window frames that he still kept around as decorations. At least that meant it was spacious.

Fortunately, that also meant his apartment wouldn't take 50 pages to describe. I'm looking at you, Ernest Cline.

Gadg8eer took a quick look through the day's news before bed to take stock of things he actually cared about, and saw that a new game had been released by Volpe, the current makers of the Doglefox XR Browser. Originally created by a company called NetSettler, as the NetSettler Navigator browser in the 1990s, its' open source code was passed to Neozilla at the turn of the millennium as Megamass' Progress Explorer for their Progressbar OS became the most widespread browser. By the late 2000s, the top dog role had changed hands to the popular search engine of the time's new project, the Nudle Crane browser, and Neozilla Doglefox began to die as a browser. As recently as 2024, Nudle Crane's "Cranium" open-source-but-at-what-cost code had functionally made every browser except Doglefox rely on Nudle's interpretation of Web³.

And then, dethGrr struck.

Designed to infect common source code found in all Cranium-based browsers, dethGrr was a type of Machine Learning malware which was based off of the same code responsible for the co.vid_19 "virtual pandemic". Also known as a cryptoken killer, these types of malware attacks made corporate- and bank-run cryptoken wallets and Cranium obsolete overnight as co.vid_19 and dethGrr together stole 99% of all cryptocurrencies at the time except BeeCoin. Although they were not simply stolen, something that would have been impossible given security features unrelated to web browsers, dethGrr did lock all affected wallets into being frozen assets with no recorded recovery phrase. Billions of dollars in AltCoins were lost, permanently destroying most cryptocurrency economies and leading to a surprisingly short recession in 2026.

Aside from Hinobi, the clear winner was Neozilla, whose alternative open source code and non-profit foundation nature meant that it was the ONLY browser that could be trusted to not leak data to someone, because as it turns out... dethGrr wasn't using an exploit. It was using a backdoor, created by Nudle because of the ruthless dragnetting which the CIA and the Chinese Communist Party both used at the time to try and get an edge over the other's nation. To operate in both of said countries, Nudle became Big Brother, and unlike the version in Gregory Orswell's 1974, Big Brother didn't win. It had only been a few weeks since Alphabitz Inc. had finally given up the ghost... They had just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy the same day Hinobi announced the global Hi-Texpo.

dethGrr was never captured, or even identified. It's unknown whether it worked as intended, or was simply designed to shift the balance of power over the distributed cryptoken system by removing major holders and spread too far. Whatever the case, the Doglefox browser was still open source, and without Nudle other browser projects have been able to once again flourish, including an Xtended Reality browser created by Volpe which had licensed Neozilla Doglefox for its Xtended Reality systems in their upcoming Hiverse MMA FPS Tournament, The Finals.

Well, it was upcoming. According to the front page of the Swarm store, it had just been released and was now a hot ticket item among eSports fans. Unfortunately, due to 'Day 1 Platform overload', it was only just now that it had been released.

---

(( Will post more tomorrow. ))

 

[Gadg8eer]

"Stopping train..." the voice said as she bailed onto the train cars on the adjacent siding. Hum was quick to do the same, as the locomotive didn't stop fast enough and collided with the string of empty freight cars on the track it took.

Oddly, upon collision, the container flatcar (which was at the "front" as the train had reversed direction but not orientation) itself glitched up momentarily, before it twirled around on the spot, emitting a pixelated cartoon fireball and instantaneously turning monochrome.

Fortunately, this simply caused the locomotive to have a few more precious feet to stop, finally shoving the damaged railcar until it was sideways across the tracks and just barely not crushed from being sandwiched perfectly between the other railcars and the locomotive.

At that moment, the now-active ctOS Lite citynet-smartgrid-thing sent a signal to the Grand Forks Courier, the local newspaper, to automatically send a notification to the whole town for basically no reason. Go figure.

---

Gadg8eer arrived at the door to the 10th unit of the Community Housing he now lived in, located on the top floor (the building had a total of 4 one room dwellings on each floor, including the basement) and requiring him to climb the stairs to his room. At that moment, an AugReal window popped up with a notification, showing a slightly distressing sight.

Train Crash! 0 die in fireball after collision!

"What the- Oh, crap! The train was still moving slowly!" he said, feeling chills go down his spine. He extended his pinkie and thumb, put them to his head to enable the phone app, and said "Operator, call DPortEd!"

"Dialing..." a voice explained.

"Not a good time, kid." the store owner said.

"I know. I'm sorry I didn't realize the train was still moving before I went home." Gadg8eer assumed.

"What? No, that wasn't your fault. At least, I think it wasn't. How did you know about it?" Eddy responded.

"You know the Nobi's Skylines plugin to connect the Flitter app to your virtual city to your phone or eyeware notifications? I use that, and ctOS just sent me a message about the train."

"Ah. No, you're good. We were handling it and, unfortunately, we let this one slip through our hands." Eddy explained. "If you'll excuse me, I now have to deal with the fallout. Thanks for checking in, though. Wait..."

"Huh?"

"Before I go, have you ever seen something like this?" Eddy said, and cast a video of the train crash to him. "That spinning motion somehow looks off."

"Is that... A train car from OpenTTB? I think andythenorth made that for the "Mustang" version of his train catalogue mod!" Gadg8eer realized. "That explains why the notification said 0 die in fireball like some sort of primitive AI from before ChatBPT-based models replaced everything else."

"...and where Hinobi got the train car from without anyone noticing it missing." Eddy realized. "Good to know. Get some sleep, I'll handle this."

"Thanks." Gadg8eer responded, and ended the call. He tapped the smarthome lock with his poindex (index/pointer finger, but for 4-digit Toon hands) and riddle (combined ring and middle finger for 4-digit hands) in a vaguely gun-like pose, but instead of a weapon, he rotated his wrist and unlocked the door as if his hand was some sort of magic key. The door unlocked itself with the buzzing of the internal motor, and he went inside.

It wasn't a very big place, but it was home and was the largest unit in the building. Aside from an old iron-frame bed, and a desk with a huge PC tower under it and a repurposed iqTop 64 from 2001 which served as the PC's monitor and red/blue laser optical disk drive, the only other things in the room were the charging dock for his Neo GamePlayer and the various children's toys placed on the window frames that he still kept around as decorations. At least that meant it was spacious.

Fortunately, that at least meant his apartment wouldn't take 50 pages to describe. I'm looking at you, Ernest Cline.

Gadg8eer took a quick look through the day's news before bed to take stock of things he actually cared about, and saw that a new game had been released by Volpe, the current makers of the Doglefox XR Browser. Originally created by a company called NetSettler, as the NetSettler Navigator browser in the 1990s, its' open source code was passed to Neozilla at the turn of the millennium as Megamass' Progress Explorer for their Progressbar OS became the most widespread browser. By the late 2000s, the top dog role had changed hands to the popular search engine of the time's new project, the Nudle Crane browser, and Neozilla Doglefox began to die as a browser. As recently as 2024, Nudle Crane's "Cranium" open-source-but-at-what-cost code had functionally made every browser except Doglefox rely on Nudle's interpretation of Web³.

And then, dethGrr stuck.

Designed to infect common source code found in all Cranium-based browsers, dethGrr was a type of Machine Learning malware which was responsible for the co.vid_19 "virtual pandemic" which made corporate- and bank-run cryptoken wallets and Cranium obsolete overnight as it stole 99% of all cryptocurrencies at the time except BeeCoin. Although they were not simply stolen, something that would have been impossible given security features unrelated to web browsers, dethGrr did lock all affected wallets into being frozen assets with no recorded recovery phrase. Billions of dollars in AltCoins were lost, permanently destroying most cryptocurrency economies and leading to a surprisingly short recession in 2026.

Aside from Hinobi, the clear winner was Neozilla, whose alternative open source code and non-profit foundation nature meant that it was the ONLY browser that could be trusted to not leak data to someone, because as it turns out... dethGrr wasn't using an exploit. It was using a backdoor, created by Nudle because of the ruthless dragnetting which the CIA and the Chinese Communist Party both used at the time to try and get an edge over the other's nation. To operate in both of said countries, Nudle became Big Brother, and unlike the version in Gregory Orswell's 1974, Big Brother didn't win. It had only been a few weeks since Alphabitz Inc. had finally given up the ghost... They had just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy the same day Hinobi announced the global Hi-Texpo.

dethGrr was never captured, or even identified. It's unknown whether it worked as intended, or was simply designed to shift the balance of power over the distributed cryptoken system by removing major holders. Whatever the case, the Doglefox browser was still open source, and without Nudle other browser projects have been able to once again flourish, including an Xtended Reality browser created by Volpe which had licensed Neozilla Doglefox for its Xtended Reality systems in their upcoming Hiverse MMA FPS Tournament, The Finals.

Well, it was upcoming. According to the front page of the Swarm store, it had just been released and was now a hot ticket item among eSports fans. Unfortunately, due to 'Day 1 Platform overload', it was only just now that it had been released.

---

(( Will post more tomorrow. ))

"Huh. That looks neat. I think I'll try that out when I don't feel dead tired." Gadg8eer said, before minimizing the window, locking the OS, and passing out in his beanbag chair. Due to the RumblePack he couldn't take off being a feature of his PLixels, he bought the beanbag chair recently as a potential bed. Even though it was unlikely for him to have won the PLixelf, he already knew that however he obtained one, he wouldn't really be able to remove crucial components of his PLixelf like his RumblePack and would need it. In the meantime it would have just been a comfy piece of furniture he bought from Hopeful Souls Soup Kitchen (before the old City Council made a bylaw banning soup kitchens and homeless shelters in commercially-zoned properties) but was now coming in extremely handy.

---

"Very well." Gavin said as she drove off. "We'll do things the hard way..." he responded, and clasped his hands evilly as the window rolled up.

At that moment, Zoe felt a sudden jolt as something collided with her and her VR equipment in her real location, cutting off the connection between her and her robo-self in Grand Forks...

---

Arlington Metrobelt, TX, United States of America
2028/06/29 @ 344 Winks
As Zoe became aware of her surroundings, it became clear something serious had happened. She stumbled through the smoke and dust with her hearing temporarily disrupted, and realized that, fortunately, the issue was not within her home. However, the small outside window of her geek cave in the basement of the building was broken and there was clear evidence that the neighbors' house had been damaged.

She was about to go outside to see what the hell had just happened when she saw a small sticky note beside her VR rig with a logo on it...

View attachment 1161700

Say hello to your elderly neighbors. We'll see you and your new friends, Ms. Wingon, in the Finals.

Wade Watts would have been, in Zoe's opinion, correct about one thing; Just because someone's a bigoted asshole, she didn't believe they deserved to die.

Fortunately, this wasn't a complete cyberpunk dystopia like that of the world outside the OASIS "game" in that book. Zoe had rushed outside when she realized something had happened, along with many of her other neighbors (most of whom were unfortunately not very fond of "the neighborhood t-word" for completely unjustifiable reasons; it's Texas) who could only watch and hope due to the firebomb having apparently been in the garage and quickly spreading to the front door.

At the very least, the fire department arrived quickly and were able to confirm the only one home was the pet dog, who was safe in the backyard and well-fed and watered when the event occurred. The fire also didn't have much chance to spread, as all-time highs in Texan temperatures caused by the climate crisis and a recent accidental introduction of an invasive species of African termites via Houston's new container port had made building in anything but concrete and steel a bad case of termite infestation waiting to happen and the suburbs had undergone extensive redevelopment as a result. Both Zoe's and the opposite neighboring home were new, cheaply-built concrete boxes while the elderly couple were living in one of the last wooden buildings in the neighborhood.

Zoe would have gone inside to make sure nothing else was damaged than the window to her studio, when a vibration came from the off-brand but surprisingly powerful Chinese cell phone, of the kind that drove South Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese phones - including high-end Hinobi and Arasaka models - out of the market, in her pocket. These days, all the real money was in Xtended Reality due to the unpleasant amount of XR adverts. Grand Forks had yet to experience it, but in major cities XR meant that your device was an advertising platform, and the reason people put up with it was because it had been part of a major shift in government regulation; with XR off, there were literally less advertisements everywhere else than there had been in medieval Europe.

Which was why it was odd she had a notification, but then she wouldn't put it past that oily slimeball with the robo-body to taunt her or some shit.

However, the message didn't seem to be from IOI at all. It simply read "There's a car around the corner to your right waiting to take you to the airport. I'll meet you there, choom. - W"

That rang a bell instantly. ZoeIRL and Diamond had never actually met in person, as Zoe's garage had a few robotic arms that were used by Dee to repair or upgrade her fighting robot remotely. They'd agreed if they ever needed to meet, they would not use their normal Hinobi User IDs (various proxies like AdZap Cloud DNS or Neozilla Relay were used to create such identities) unless it was a warning to not try to communicate. However, they'd never agreed on a signal for the opposite, as actually needing to do so had never been an issue. Since Zoe knew basically nobody with a W in their initials except herself and her parents, and Gadg8eer ("Whiz") didn't use slang and was clearly indicated as "Asleep (AutoStatus by Hinobi SpyWear XR)" in the Swarm Chat options of Zoe's Swarm Store app, her only other guess was Dee. Aside from that the W was possibly code for the opposite of "Don't meet with me, bad shit going down. - D", which in its own way was pretty scary... actually meeting D for the first time was not what she was expecting when her manager/mechanic gave her an unexpected thumbs up to Hinobi's invitation... the only other person she'd ever used the term "Whiz" for was when she and Dee were first in contact over four years prior. Any online trace of that single mention would have long since been wiped from the internet, as it was originally posted on the now-defunct Discreddit Chat service (not even in the content aggregator Discreddit was originally built for).

The police only briefly communicated with Zoe, who gave them only the info Hinobi had advised her to give ("I have a remote tech support job.") and said she already had a place to stay that night before heading the direction she'd been pointed in by the message. Sure enough, an almost "stereotypical-looking Lyft OmniCab driver" guy with pink hair in a man bun was waiting in a Karin Dilettante parked just out of view of her home street.

"OmniCab for MissTerror?" he said, the window down. Clearly this guy wasn't a local, since that kind of hairstyle usually got people lynched in this part of town.

((Since you don't seem interested in the flashback parts, Moldoma, I decided to make something else to give you a more direct route to get Zoe some form of finding love. Hope that helps!))

 

[Lady Moldoma]

"Anyway, I've got another customer, and this was prepaid so... you're good to go?" the OmniCab driver asked as Zoe snapped back to reality. She wasn't sure why, but something about what she was physically feeling and the inability to keep from being dragged into vivid memories of the recent past was not right.

"Th-Thanks.. S-Sorry, I spaced out... Yeah, I'm good to go..." She stuttered, before stepping out of the car, struggling a bit to talk to anyone. She pulled down her hood from her head, revealing her chartreuse/seafoam cyan hair with pink spirals, and the piercings on her face. Yes, she was clearly assigned male at birth, but it was also clear she was trying to pass...

She had the mind to have brought her luggage with her. Her low end "burner laptop" with several exterior hardrives holding backup copies of her vods, personal files and passwords, and a "remote harddrive detonator" (not a literal detonator, just a method to fry her machine if her house was ever compromised. She never left the house without it.) Lied inside, along with a collection of vacuum-sealed and compressed black hoodies and pants, and a single yellow sweater, accompanied with a black skirt and black bra, white thigh-high socks, and a pink hair-bow.

She always had this luggage case ready, it was her panic case. There was one more thing she had brought. A plush lamb, the only possession that really mattered to her when she was younger. It was a gift for herself. And nobody could take that away from her no matter how old she got.

Zoe opened the envelope and found a ticket for a Transoceanic Airlines flight to Cape Town, giving her a check-in desk to visit...

As she stepped in, she waited in line briefly, before stepping up to the desk. "I-I um... Received these tickets for a Transoceanic flight to... C-Cape town, S-South Africa... Th-They redeem in 5 hours... I-I've never used paper tickets before... A-Am I supposed to put them in a repository of some sort?" Zoe asks. Normally she did this stuff digitally.