Daemon Rising, part 4b

[a1enzo]

[Due to the wonders of Millitime, this takes place the morning after this thread, yet at the same time is happening right now. Whoa.]


Contrary to his own expectations, Enzo slept pretty well last night. No nightmares, although he did have a weird dream in which Hex turned into a pile of nulls with Mike the TV's voice. At any rate, he's well rested and ready for some world-saving.

But first, breakfast. He's at the Bar, eating a large waffle with far too much Maple syrup. Frisket has a bowl of something you're probably happier not knowing about.


[Leading to a supply run, mass digitization and mission briefing, and divers excitement and alarums.]

[First two subthreads are plotlocked. Enzo, at least, would welcome greetings in the third.]

Comments

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Yes it did," Mary counters, flatly. "You look awful."

[a1enzo]

"Didn't happen to me. Happened to Bob."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

Well, clearly it involved him somehow, Mary thinks, from how tired he looks, and how depressed.

But he might just be sad because something happened to Bob - like she is about Wellard. And Lucy.

"Well, what was it?"

[a1enzo]

"They had to decompile him. So they can fix his code. He's gone."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"What?"

Mary folds her arms, staring at him.

"Who is they? You cannot just -"

She knows what 'decompile' means, at least. "You cannot just take people apart!"

[a1enzo]

"Th' doctors. They had to. Couldn't fix his code otherwise. He was too unstable, it'd kill him."

He's not crying. Just... staring.

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

Mary shakes her head, frustrated.

"If they were going to kill him anyways I do not see the difference it would make!"

[a1enzo]

"They can recompile him. If the code's fixed right." Oh man, oh User, they've gotta fix it right.

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"- you mean he is coming back?"

Mary sits back against the bar, letting her arms drop from across her chest.

Well, she's glad for Enzo. It is good for him that he did not lose his friend. And Bob seemed like a perfectly good person when she met him.

(But it does make it scrape all the harder against her nerves that Lucy is not coming back - not ever.)

[a1enzo]

"He's gotta. They're gonna get married."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Well," Mary says, decisively, "then he will."

And that, as far as Mary is concerned, is that.

You don't admit other options.

[a1enzo]

He nods slightly. Not much, since it's hard to nod when your head's lying on your arms.

"At least Daemon's gone now."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

Mary frowns.

"Demon? What demon?"

[a1enzo]

"No, Daemon." He pronounces it Day-mun. "The virus. The one who was taking over the 'Net? I told you about her."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"- oh, her."

Mary tries to remember what she's heard about Daemon. The trouble is that she's only ever had a shaky concept of the Net anyways; it's all jumbled together with people who aren't people and computers and viruses and information.

She seizes on what seems to be solid information: "She is dead, then?"

[a1enzo]

"Yeah. But we weren't able to kill her." He gives a small, humourless laugh. "We tried to blow her up but it just made her mad. She's only deleted 'cause she self-destructed."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Witches are like that," Mary announces. "And she sounds like a witch - even if what she does is different."

[a1enzo]

Enzo shrugs; he doesn't know much about witches. "She was gonna destroy the whole 'Net 'long with herself. But Hex took the cure we made and spread it all over the 'Net. But she got totally fragmented to do it. So now she's deleted too."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Why would she want to kill herself too?"

Mary shakes her head. "That is only stupid - or mad."

[a1enzo]

"Oh, she was mad. She's always been totally random. Well, except when Bob cured her, then she was kinda sane, and she was really sane when she turned into a sprite, but then she became a virus again to fight Daemon and then she was crazy again."

He shrugs. "But someone had to distribute the cure before the countdown finished, and only a virus could do it fast enough, and there still wasn't a way to get it everywhere 'cept by fragmenting. If the infection didn't get cured everyone'd die anyway."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Oh - I meant that Daemon was mad," Mary explains. "Because she was going to destroy it with herself too. But Hex you said had to pull herself apart to get the cure everywhere - and that is not mad. That is brave. It is being a hero."

[a1enzo]

"Oh. I don't think Daemon was random. It was just her function."

It's not a good thing, it's a terrible thing, but still, the necessity of following one's function is something every cyberspatial resident understands. Even if someone's function is horrible, it doesn't mean they're crazy.

"Yeah. Hex was brave." He smiles. "But she was still crazy." But now, after everything, he can say it fondly.

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Sometimes," Mary says - thinking about Duo, and Han Solo, and several other people she's encountered in-bar - "crazy is not bad."

[a1enzo]

"Sometimes," Enzo agrees. "Depends on the kind of crazy, I guess."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Yes. There is crazy that is funny - and there is crazy that is mad, and only doing things that do not make sense - and there is what people say is crazy because it does not make sense, only it is just that nobody else understands it."