#cyanus

Aubergine: Do you feel like helping him?

Manticore Screamer: .....

Aubergine: Yeah me neither.

Hal was a revolution in design in Cyanus's opinion. A robot able to feel...the future really is now!

However, the problem was that Hal wasn't exactly perfect in his programming. Occasionally, he'd have system errors that altered his behavior in unusual ways; sometimes it even became dangerous for himself and others. And aside from that, he'd somehow been programmed to be able to get drunk, which also messed with his system.

Luckily, Cyanus was given a job; every once in a while, she'd sit down with Hal and go through his system and weed out the bugs and glitches that caused his behavior changes. It was an absolute blessing! But sometimes Hal nagged at her for her improper posture...it was just a minor inconvenience.

One day, however, something went very wrong.

Hal was pale, sluggish, and had difficulty moving around. He hadn't been drinking lately, so Cyanus was asked to look into the system for lags. When Cyanus saw him walk into her room and sit down, she had a feeling it wasn't lags; what lag could cause Hal to look this sick?

"Hal, you don't look so hot..."

"I don't...feel so...hot."

"Look, just lay down. I'll hook you up and get you fixed up."

Cyanus worked quickly to get her laptop hooked to the moniter; something in her gut told her there was a huge problem that needed to be addressed immediately.

She went through his entire system, but it wasn't until she got to the network that made up his mind that she saw something out of place.

A small square. It was purple in color, and it seemed out of place. She scanned it and her laptop immediately picked it up as malware.

"I think I've found your problem, Hal," Cyanus said.

Hal didn't respond.

Cyanus paid it no mind and immediately went to delete it, but then a pop up appeared.

Error: you can't delete me

"What the...?"

Cyanus tried again.

Error: i said you can't delete me.

Hal started to twitch erratically.

"Is...is this malware sentient?"

Cyanus decided to mess with the malware code, only to find it was too complex for her to understand. It was literally filled with gibberish and symbols she didn't understand.

Another popup appeared.

Error: i know what you're trying to do. i can feel it

Cyanus exited to coding and found that the purple square had grown a little. She looked over at Hal; his eyes were glazed over and his jaw was agape. Drool oozed out his mouth.

"Shit, shit, shit..." Cyanus realized she had an even bigger problem than she realized. This malware was sentient, and it was vicious.

The moniter announced another popup.

Error: you seem nervous

Error: do you really not know what i am?

Error: come on. think about it.

Error: you've heard of me before

Cyanus stared at the screen, dumbfounded.

Then, a message was starting to type itself on the screen.

S...T...R...I...

Instantly, Cyanus's mind filled in the blank.

Strings.

Cyanus pressed the power button at lightning speed. The moniter turned off and Hal went limp, falling asleep. Her heart was racing... "How did...how did puppet bitch get into Hal?!"

She went over to Hal. He seemed...okay. He was sleeping soundly and breathing regularly.

"Well, healthy or not...I gotta let the others know. There's been an infiltration...!"

She stood and ran towards the door, only to find it closed and locked.

...What the...

Cyanus sat back down in front of the computer, rubbing her temples. She looked at the screen and saw something...odd. A purple shape, growing in size.

She leaned closer to the screen raising an eyebrow.