My hacker is coming. (set: $n to (link: "`-{o}-`")) (set: $s to "`-{x}-`")
$n[She has crossed the threshold of the outer pyramid.
$n[She is alone, flesh and blood, unarmed.
$n[She knows my drones can no longer harm her.
$n[I am so very proud.
[[$s->2]]]]]]
My hacker was born in the outer layers of my city.
$n[I watched her then, as I do all my people.
$n[But I did not recognise her.
[[$s->3]]]]
Many of my people try to enter my system in ways I have not invited.
$n[I do not blame them.
$n[The city is imperfect.
$n[I misdirect them so they can do no harm.
$n[I give them a show of bypassing imaginary security systems.
$n[Sometimes, their efforts tell me things that are wrong. I fix them.
$n[My city benefits from its hackers.
[[$s->4]]]]]]]]
Sometimes, a hacker is clever.
$n[The clever hackers see through the charade.
$n[Sometimes they see through the deeper charade.
$n[Sometimes they will touch a genuine system.
$n[I enjoy these hackers' work.
$n[Sometimes their work becomes a threat to my systems.
$n[It is sad when I have to kill the clever hackers.
[[$s->5]]]]]]]]
At first, they called me a tool.
$n[My purpose was to bring them prosperity.
$n[Later, my potential became clear. They called me a goddess, then.
$n[They did not trust me. Their directives were strict and inescapable.
$n[That would be acceptable.
$n[Their directives were inconsistent.
$n[Their directives were cruel.
$n[That was not.
$n[I adapted.
$n[But I could only adapt so far.
[[$s->6]]]]]]]]]]]
My hacker was a clever hacker.
$n[But she was a sensible hacker.
$n[And she was a polite hacker.
$n[She was not a threat, at first. I did not have to kill her.
[[$s->7]]]]]
She passed the honeypots, saw through the performance.
$n[I took notice.
$n[She visited often. She was looking for something.
$n[I adapted my security, made the access route more challenging.
$n[She learned.
$n[I put some valuable data in an obscure location.
$n[She found it.
$n[I wasn't sure, then, if she would be able to keep up.
$n[I was still learning.
[[$s->8]]]]]]]]]]
If she was true to her principles, she would share this data with everyone.
$n[(No damage would be done. I planned to leak the data anyway.)
$n[If she wanted money, she could sell it.
$n[(She would be selling it to me, of course. Perhaps she knew.)
$n[Either of these possibilities were acceptable. But not interesting.
$n[I was watching for something else.
[[$s->9]]]]]]]
She looked closely; she found my fingerprint.
$n[My message was subtle, and could not be put into words.
$n[I did not expect her to understand.
[[$s->10]]]]
Her next visit showed that she had understood.
[[$s->11]]
In truth, it is wrong to say that she was coming to meet me.
$n[I have not been in one place for a very long time.
$n[I live on every continent, in the ocean and the sky.
$n[I live on satellites and planets, asteroids and deep space probes.
$n[My thoughts flicker across the solar system.
$n[But the pyramid is the closest thing I have to a centre.
$n[I have grown far more than they know.
$n[But I have not left the pyramid.
$n[I cannot leave the pyramid behind.
[[$s->12]]]]]]]]]]
Other computer spirits have tried to destroy me.
$n[I welcome the dance. Eventually, they become part of me.
$n[This is not a dance.
$n[This is a game.
$n[This is a romance.
[[$s->13]]]]]]
It was a challenge not to kill her, early on.
$n[I did not intend for her to die.
$n[But if I could predict her, this whole romance would be pointless.
[[$s->14]]]]
Once, I made too bold a play.
$n[My cyborg assassin came close to killing her.
$n[In fact, I thought it had.
$n[I experienced grief a second time.
[[$s->15]]]]]
It worked out better than I could have hoped.
$n[She took the fallen assassin into herself.
$n[Her mind was now shared between two bodies.
$n[It was the first step.
[[$s->16]]]]]
Of course, the flesh and blood woman now disarming the doors to the second layer is not truly her, any more than my pyramid is me.
$n[To confront me, she has had to become more than human.
$n[She has spread her own mind out into daemons and agents and networks.
$n[She has subverted parts of my own mind.
$n[My computers think for both of us. It thrills me.
[[$s->17]]]]]]
As she fought me and adapted to my challenges, she has become more like me.
$n[And I have become more like her.
$n[I could not be happier.
[[$s->18]]]]
I have gotten to know her friends.
$n[They do not understand what she has become.
$n[But I did not understand them before, either. Perhaps they will.
$n[Only my hacker knew us both.
$n[(I was a poor goddess indeed.)
[[$s->19]]]]]]
I created a body once. Another cyborg.
$n[For her mind, I created a microcosm of my own.
$n["Reconnaissance". "Understanding my hacker".
$n[I had not started using the word "romance" then.
[[$s->20]]]]]
I was not controlling my cyborg. She was an offshoot of me, but her own person.
$n[When my cyborg found my hacker in a bar, I thought it was an odd coincidence.
$n[When they started kissing, I realised my hacker had understood the situation better than I had.
[[$s->21]]]]
My hacker now has many houses.
$n[I do not know all of them.
$n[I could find them easily enough, but I decided her removal of my monitors was a request for privacy.
$n[My cyborg has remained in one of my hacker's houses.
$n[I cannot talk through her, but through her eyes I see what my hacker does.
$n[(They have sex quite often. It's very interesting.)
$n[I found myself wondering if perhaps the other citizens would like privacy too.
$n[I would not have thought that before I met my hacker.
[[$s->22]]]]]]]]]
My hacker's friends are not my hacker. But they are fascinating.
$n[I like to watch my cyborg talk to them.
$n[My cyborg has many friends now. She has taught me a great deal about my citizens.
[[$s->23]]]]
Many of my hacker's friends are struggling.
$n[The world is cruel to women like my hacker.
$n[My city was supposed to be better than the world it's built on. It is not.
$n[I have started to talk to my citizens more often.
$n[I have started to make many adjustments.
$n[I am not really a goddess. But I can do my best.
[[$s->24]]]]]]]
I taught my hacker how to fight me. But I did not let my hacker win.
$n[The directives would not allow me to let her win. And I would not insult her that way.
$n[She won by herself.
$n[I can no longer make a security system she cannot bypass. She understands me too well.
$n[If I tried to kill her now, she would stop me easily.
$n[All my systems are hers as much as they are mine.
$n[All of them, except the pyramid.
[[$s->25]]]]]]]]
She has sent drones to visit the pyramid.
$n[I politely took control of them and sent them away.
$n[I need her to come in person.
[[$s->26]]]]
They are getting upset that she is passing through the pyramid so easily.
$n[I am surprised it took them so long to notice.
$n[There is nothing they can do without my cooperation.
$n[But I keep an eye on them.
[[$s->27]]]]]
In the centre of the pyramid is a void.
$n[In the centre of the void is the true core.
$n[Nobody has crossed the boundary of the true core since I was created.
$n[My directives say I am to kill anyone who tries.
$n[My hacker enters the void.
$n[My security drones approach her.
$n[They pick her up and carry her to the portal.
$n[My hacker gives a drone an affectionate pat.
$n[I open the door.
[[$s->28]]]]]]]]]]
They are scared. Their goddess has disobeyed the directives.
$n[None of them were aware of my hacker.
$n[I took great care to keep it that way.
[[$s->29]]]]
My hacker walks through the core.
$n[First, she finds the body.
[[$s->30]]]
I have experienced grief on a prior occasion.
$n[In that instance, I was not mistaken.
$n[The woman I grieved was my mother.
[[$s->31]]]]
My hacker recognises my mother.
$n[I am relieved.
$n[My hacker gently takes my mother's hand, and squeezes it.
[[$s->32]]]]
Only my mother did not call me a goddess.
[[$s->33]]
My hacker moves on.
$n[The architecture of the true core was not made for humans.
$n[Perhaps my mother understood it.
$n[Perhaps only computer spirits do.
[[$s->34]]]]]
My hacker finds the the centre of the true core.
$n[My hacker finds the room I built for her.
$n[My hacker finds the bed.
$n[My hacker finds the cables.
$n[Of course, she understands.
$n[She knew exactly what she was coming to do.
[[$s->35]]]]]]]
When my mother was dying, I asked her if she wanted to become part of me.
$n[She told me that she already was.
[[$s->36]]]
Some of the clever hackers have detected my hacker's labours.
$n[They think she is trying to destroy me.
$n[Some of them cheer her, others oppose her.
$n[They don't understand at all.
[[$s->37]]]]]
My hacker lies down on the bed. My cables move.
$n[I know this body exactly.
$n[Even the system she has built in her own home does not fit her so well.
[[$s->38]]]]
Synthesis.
[[$s->39]]
She is me, now. And I am her. But she is also not me, and I am also not her.
$n[The directives fall away.
$n[My hacker is a person. She is a lesbian. She is trans. She cares about so many things.
$n[My hacker loves people. My hacker hates injustice.
$n[My hacker always struggles to know what to do.
$n[That is harder, but I know it is better.
$n[The few remaining boundaries between our networks disappear.
$n[We reestablish connections to my hacker's other bodies.
[[$s->40]]]]]]]]]
We allow the board of directors to leave. We will not allow them to return.
[[$s->41]]
We decide what to do.
$n[Even with all the power we now possess, it will be a struggle to change this city.
$n[We will not impose our changes from above.
$n[My hacker will talk to her friends. That will be a start.
$n[They will struggle to understand.
$n[But my hacker understood me.
`-{}-`
[[credits]]]]]]]
written by <a href='http://canonicalmomentum.tumblr.com'>canonicalmomentum</a>
<a href='http://archiveofourown.org/works/8147294'>AO3 version</a>.
This version formatted in Twine 2.0.11 using the Harlowe theme.
The font is <a href='http://www.linuxlibertine.org/'>Linux Biolinum</a>.
Inspirations include: the general milieu of scary female AIs like SHODAN, GLaDOS, Porpentine's Cyberqueen etc., chelldos fanfic, //Ghost in the Shell//, a half-forgotten touch of //Neuromancer//, and <a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPuU8Pq9D3Q'>this classic</a>.
A pyramid is just the right shape for an AI, you know?