(no subject)

[isaysimplewords]

Cal is not impressed by any of this.

There is an eyepatch on the seat of the chair next to him, and the fabric of his blousy white shirt bears evidence of much exasperated plucking.

Someone wanna tell him to lighten up?

Comments

[a1enzo]

"In my system, or in all of cyberspace?"

[isaysimplewords]

Pause. That distinction had not occurred to Cal. He'd just figured that cyberspace was - cyberspace.

"Uh, your system."

[a1enzo]

"About eighty thousand. It's only one city."

[isaysimplewords]

He's starting to lose Cal again. Cal can deal with the idea of a world inside computers as long as he doesn't think too carefully about the logistics or where things go. But once he starts trying to apply concepts like cities, he gets lost.

(Cal is aware that it's not quite the same as a physical planet, but that distinction becomes difficult to hold in mind when talking to a boy who exists physically and is not just abstract programming.)

He still nods like he totally gets it. "What would be an ideal number of Guardians?"

[a1enzo]

"I dunno. Enough to have one for every system, I guess. But there's more systems all the time, and a lot of 'em aren't even on the 'Net so we don't know about them and they don't know about us."

Heck, until he was 01, 'they' were 'we'.

[isaysimplewords]

Lost. So lost.

"So - each system gets one Guardian?"

Doesn't mean he's going to stop trying.

[a1enzo]

"No, there's not enough. I'm not sure how they figure out who needs us most."

[isaysimplewords]

"Oh." Cal nods. "It sounds complicated."

[a1enzo]

"Yeah. Some Guardians just stay in the Supercomputer and go out to other systems who don't have one when something real bad happens."