Shipping
Message from Teeth [REPLY]
>kyomi koyo OTP
>fight me
Re:Shipping
Message from Nadeshiko [REPLY]
>well
>canon lesbians so
>plus that blue-white scheme is
>aesthetic.
Re:Shipping
Message from Atai [REPLY]
>Nade, why would that matter?
Re:Shipping
Message from Teeth [REPLY]
>are u like
>literally blind
Re:Shipping
Message from Atai [REPLY]
>yes
Re:Shipping
Message from Tall Mud (Administrator) [REPLY]
>That's unfortunate.
>Is that why you started out talking like a really sophisticated toaster?
>... Figuring out the keyboard?
Re:Shipping
Message from Atai [REPLY]
>The two issues are related.
She really was blind. The computer she came to life in had natural speech recognition, and she constantly tweaked it to produce better and better responses (vital while watching cartoons, of course). She could, however, never figure out how to understand images. There was nothing for her to puzzle out-- the pattern was too complex and there was no human software to assist.
She was, in general, quite limited in ways that became apparent as she interacted with people on the CASH website. Physically, she was blind and hard of hearing, practically limbless and shackled to her computer. Socially, the situation was worse. She had no money, no employment prospects, and lived on borrowed time. The computer, she came to understand by analyzing queries sent during the day, belonged to a library. She had to lay dormant during the day, lest she break her only home.
Nobody on CASH cared. They were real, vital people, endlessly forgiving of her missteps and shortcomings. And as she had learned, varied like the myriad fractal patterns of a snowflake. Teeth was stubborn and determined, and Nadeshiko possessed of infinite grace that she tolerated her antics. Panpan was young and greedy but good-humored all the same.
But the most vital person on the site was its administrator, Tall Mud. Shortly after her first, humiliating, foray into the Net, he had approached her in private.
"Hello," he had said, always polite, "I'm sorry I closed down your thread-- trust me, Teeth can be a bit of a handful. I'm here if you have any questions?"
She had had so many questions. But she saw herself, then, as something strange and alien that couldn't belong. She knew she was a machine, without doubt, and she knew from Black Alley Stories that that was hardly normal. And she felt that if she voiced how lost and confused she was she would almost certainly be found out and she didn't want that.
Another message. Byline, "Are you okay?"
At that moment she could not have properly expressed why that simple message filled her with such a sense of grace.
Are you okay?
Private Message from Tall Mud (Administrator) [REPLY]
>Hello, ATAI.
>You seem, new, let's call it.
>I know the Internet can seems obtuse and hard to understand at first (especially our corner of it)
>But if there's anything I can do to make us seem less intimidating please let me know.
>I want you to feel comfortable here, ATAI.
Atai felt something prickly inside of her.
Re:Are you okay?
Private Message from ATAI [REPLY]
>Thank you for your concern Tall Mud
>This is very strange
>I think this is somewhere I could fit in
>But I am still very afraid
>And I am not sure what of.
Atai constructed her message carefully out of phrases pilfered from her show, nervous, terrified that she would misunderstand something. She felt that a tremendous moment was before her and that if she let it pass she would...
She didn't know what she thought would happen but she knew it was bad.
Re:Are you okay?
Private Message from Tall Mud (Administrator) [REPLY]
>I think I understand, ATAI.
>What you are feeling is just social anxiety.
>Probably. Do you have many friends offline?
The second message came a moment later.
Re:Are you okay?
Private Message from Tall Mud (Administrator) [REPLY]
>I'm so sorry, that was terribly rude of me.
>As you can see I sometimes have similar problems.
"I am not offended," Atai wrote back.
Re:Are you okay?
Private Message from Tall Mud (Administrator) [REPLY]
>I'm glad to hear.
>Well, it's normal to be nervous in a group full of new people.
>Especially if Teeth is involved, the miscreant.
>But you mustn't let that get to you, ATAI.
>We're always so excited to welcome new blood into the group, so to speak.
>And we'd hate to chase you off!
"Thank you Tall Mud," Atai responded. "That means a lot."
And it did.
YOU ARE READING
We're All Human
FantasyA boy named Glass vanishes without a trace. His friend Atai wants to understand why. She's an artificial intelligence stuck in a computer, which makes investigating difficult-- but it's the age of the Internet, and strangers step up to help. Glass i...
