The Homo Norm - WattPride

forty - discover

BRYCE HAD A sharp intake of breath. "You tried to access the deep web?"

"I-"  

"Jules, that's illegal!" His face darted around as if to see if someone was listening, and his voice dropped into a hoarse whisper. "You can get tracked down easily. Do you even know how to go incognito on the net?"

"Inco. . . what now?" Jules was alarmed at the tone of voice he was using. "I don't understand . . . The Great Conflict was in the file you gave me, remember?"

Bryce sighed in a bid to compose himself. "Yes, I know Jules. That's why I gave you the file to read, not to look it up on the internet."

Her head pounded. "OK. I'm sorry. I just wanted to know . . ."

"I'll let you in on how to access the deep web," he was back to hoarse whispering again. "But you have to promise me that you'll never tell anyone, Jules. No one."

"OK. I promise."

"Cross your heart," Bryce was still giving her a piercing look.

"Cross my heart," said Jules. She felt as though she was entering into a blood oath, and the thought made her heart pound a little bit harder in her chest. "I promise. You have my word."

*-*-*

Later that evening, in Jules' bedroom, Bryce was hunched over her laptop while she was next to him. She listened keenly on how to access the deep web without leaving traces. Jules was in awe at how the theme colors of her screen changed to dark and imposing colors, as though it had sensed they were doing something wrong.

"Remember, the I.P address is the most important thing here," Bryce was saying. "If you don't change it, it's all over for you."

She nodded.

"Here," Bryce moved for her. "Type your username. And password."

"We're already in?" She asked.

He hummed in agreement. "I sent you an invite link to your email to access what I can."

Jules restrained her eyes from rolling. Of course, he was already a part of this deep web thing.

"Make sure it's a unique username, something that blends in with the rest and doesn't raise suspicion, and a password that can't be easily hacked from your username."

She stared at the list of users. They all had weird names. You couldn't tell who was male or female, because their display pictures were all animated non-gender concepts.

"What's your username, Bryce?"

"Conden," he said. "It means walker in the old tongue."

"The old tongue?" she asked. "Like some sort of fantasy RPG shit?"

He shrugged. "Perhaps. Most users prefer old tongue names because they're non-binary and quite vague when it comes to giving out one's personality on the deep web."

"I see," Jules thought for a moment. "What's the old tongue name for 'cake'?"

Bryce laughed, but he acknowledged her choice nevertheless. "Good choice, Jules. It's Qaato."

Qaato. Jules liked the sound of that. And so she used it.

"Alright," she slumped in her seat after creating the profile. "What next?"

*-*-*

whoops! sorry, this was way longer than I intended.