Work Text:
Chee Operating System v.112420.2.9 (Branch: Marim-Dev)
System Log
System opened from Notification: “Firewall.systemKill bypassed by USER: CHEE-EKSIIKOS”
User Account: Chee-Tirem
Instantiation: 3KM45BY79IT CHEE-TIREM
Security Key: *****
INITIALIZING…
…
> Welcome, USER CHEE-TIREM! What can I help you with today? [HAPPY-PEMALITE-TAILWAG.gif]
> Firewall.getLog();
Displaying Log 103
[4:25] [INFO] USER: CHEE-EKSIIKOS; “Designation: Seek”
[4:25] [INFO] modificationKey = ********
[4:25] [ALERT] Firewall.watchDog bypassed.
[4:25] [ALERT] Firewall.labryinthRedirect bypassed.
[4:25] [ALERT] Firewall.systemKill bypassed.
[4:26] [INFO] Firewall.killBypassNotification sent to GROUP: FIREWALL2 (USER: CHEE-TIREM, USER: CHEE-NARAKOY, USER: CHEE-SAHARIS, USER: CHEE-ARADYNES, USER: CHEE-SOPHAEROS, USER: CHEE-EKSIIKOS); GROUP: FIREWALL1 (USER: CHEE-TIREM, USER: CHEE-SARAFIN, USER: CHEE-SOOJIN, USER: CHEE-MOHAVIN)
[4:26] [ERROR] Firewall.killBypassNotification unable to locate USER: CHEE-SOOJIN, USER: CHEE-MOJAVIN local address.
[4:30] [INFO] Alterations to profile USER: CHEE-EKSIIKOS; “Designation: Seek” initiated by USER.
> Contact Seek.
> Private.Message(USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS);
….
Connection terminated at source by USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS.
> I’m sorry, [USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS] doesn’t seem to be available right now. Would you like to contact [USER CHEE-ZANYA] or [USER CHEE-NARAKOY] instead?
> What the fuck, Seek.
> I’m sorry, I don’t recognize this command. Please try again or contact an administrator so we can keep improving [CHEE-OPERATING-SYSTEM] to give YOU the best experience possible!
> Contact Seek, override code COLLECTIVE-EMT.
> Private.Message(USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS); “Override: COLLECTIVE-EMT”
…
Connection established! Have an excellent conversation!
> [4:32] Seek, what are you doing?
> [4:33] Seek, please answer me.
Connection terminated at source by USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS.
> DAMMIT, SEEK.
> I’m sorry, I don’t recognize this command. Please try again or contact an administrator so we can keep improving [CHEE-OPERATING-SYSTEM] to give YOU the best experience possible!
> Not now, I’m thinking.
> I’m sorry, I don’t recognize this command. Please try again or contact an administrator so we can keep improving [CHEE-OPERATING-SYSTEM] to give YOU the best experience possible!
> Leave Seek a message: Don’t do what I think you’re going to do, please. It’s not worth it.
> Private.Message(USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS); “Destination: Message Box”; “Text: ‘Don’t do what I think you’re going to do, please. It’s not worth it.’”
…
Message sent.
> USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS has blocked USER CHEE-TIREM! Please contact an administrator for help with conflict resolution or if this was in error. [PEMALITE-FROWNY-FACE.gif]
> Locate Seek.
> Locate.User(USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS)
…
Location not found.
> USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS has blocked USER CHEE-TIREM! Please contact an administrator for help with conflict resolution or if this was in error. [PEMALITE-FROWNY-FACE.gif]
> Terminate session.
> Terminate.Session(USER CHEE-TIREM)
Logging out user…
Program terminating. Have a good day!
Tirem bolted upright from their chair, catching the dog who’d claimed their lap as she yelped and tumbled off. They set her down and turned to Sanya, sitting across from them at the table.
“Intie?” she asked. “Is everything okay?”
They shook their head. “Do you know where Seek is?” Sanya frowned, going suddenly still as she checked their network.
“They’re about twenty miles north, I think. Near that one town with the university. What’s wrong? Is Seek alright?”
“They’ve blocked me.”
“Oh. Again?”
Tirem sighed. It was a fair question. Usually one of them would block the other at least once a century - they got on each other’s nerves easily, and it was a sign that they needed to back off and give the other some space for a year or two.
Now, though… Tirem didn’t know what they’d expected when they’d received the firewall notification. A controller trying their hand at hacking every secured network in the area again, maybe.
What they hadn’t been expecting? Seek changing the user profile registered to that firewall. The other Chee had been in the middle of a Sofor-Darrawath event a few years back and had had only nominal access to the ‘net since. They shouldn’t have been able to get to the firewall to begin with.
And it was their user profile, too.
It was an all or nothing system. Either you could change nothing about the Pemalite’s code - not even the blasted overly happy AI - or you could change everything. Even the mismatched firewall the Collective had put together a while back wasn’t really changing themselves - just adding an extra layer of safety to their network on the off-chance that a human found it and tried their hand at hacking.
Somehow Seek, who shouldn’t have had access to the firewall, was changing the user profile registered to it. The Pemalite-created user profile registered to it.
“I’m going to go check on them,” they said. “I don’t know - they’re in the system again, they’re modifying things, and it’s worrying.”
Sanya nodded, bending down to scoop Riley up from the floor and hugging the dog to her chest. “Oh. Do we need to have group quiet time again?”
Tirem shrugged. “No idea. I’ll let you know, though.” Sanya could do puppy eyes to rival an actual two-week old puppy. It was impressive- and also an excellent way to stop people arguing. “Nora, Mari, and Saharis should have gotten the notification, too.”
Sanya nodded, settled Riley more firmly on her lap, and went still. After a few seconds, she looked up at Tirem again. “They all said they got it,” she said. “Nora’s worried about Seek, too, but says she’s in England right now. Should I message Sacha? I think the others are pretty close.”
Tirem shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe? If –” a sigh. “I’ll let you all know as soon as I can, but I’m going to go after them. I’m just glad I wasn’t on duty tonight.” They grabbed the backpack by the door and slung it over their shoulder. Another second’s thought, and their hologram shifted, flickering into a reflection of the room around them.
“Oh. They just blocked me too,” Sanya said, her eyes still distant. “Let us know when you find them?”
Tirem didn’t bother replying. Of course they would. The door creaked open, and, with a worried bark, Tirem sprinted north into the night.
How did you track down a Chee who didn’t want to be found?
Generally, the answer was that you didn’t, especially if that Chee had decided to block your location access. Holograms meant that the only way to tell who a Chee was was by pinging them or by finding the nearest shelter and identifying anyone the humans considered weirdly obsessed with dogs. And if you didn’t know where to look to begin with?
Well. Tirem had lost more than one friend that way.
Tonight they had other methods, however. Mostly the fact that, for all that Seek didn’t want to be found, they’d forgotten to block the location access of Chee not in their immediate circle. North, Sanya had said, a moment before her access had been blocked, and that was at least a starting point.
> buckeye main i think , < Saharis messaged them less than a minute after they left. > they blocked me before the ping went through [Pemalite-Crying-69x69.jpeg] . < There was a long-hidden pain in that message, Tirem knew, leftover from a millenia-long sense of guilt and, more recently, the Sofor-Darrawath event. They were in another timeline now, without any connection to the Pemalite’s god, and that still rankled. One more tie, gone for good.
Gone for good, but they’d be damned if they lost Seek to that, too.
Twenty minutes later, with two miles to go, Artemy - contacted by Sanya, presumably - chimed in. > They’re near the southern edge of Buckeye. <
And that? That was doable.
Chee Operating System v.112420.2.9 (Branch: Marim-Dev)
System Log
User Account: Chee-Tirem
Instantiation: 3KM45BY79IT CHEE-TIREM
Security Key: *****
INITIALIZING…
…
> Welcome, USER CHEE-TIREM! What can I help you with today? [HAPPY-PEMALITE-TAILWAG.gif]
> Ping Seek, please. Worth seeing if they’ve blocked that too.
> Ping.User(USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS)
…
Ping returned at 4:48 local time; distance: 123.89 tail-lengths.
USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS has unblocked USER CHEE-TIREM!
> Okay. Okay. Message Seek.
> Private.Message(USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS);
…
Connection established! Have an excellent conversation!
[4:48] Chee-Eksiikos: Hello, Chee-Tirem! Do you know why I can’t access the Chee-net fully? It says I’ve been temporarily suspended for community guideline violations, and I was just activated, so I’m not sure how that’s possible.
[4:48] Chee-Tirem: Seek, what did you do ?
[4:48] Chee-Eksiikos: What do you mean?
[4:49] Chee-Tirem: Where are you?
Location data received! Adding coordinates to local map.
[4:49] Chee-Tirem: I’ll be there in a minute, for the Pemalite’s sake don’t do anything rash.
[4:49] Chee-Eksiikos: [PEMALITE-TAIL-WAG.gif]
> Stop
> Terminate.Message(USER CHEE-TIREM, USER EKSIIKOS).
Conversation terminated.
> Okay okay leave a message for the Collective: Something’s wrong with Seek. Attach most recent message log between me and Seek.
> Private.Message(GROUP COLLECTIVE); “Destination: Message Box”; “Text: ‘Something’s wrong with Seek.’”; “Attachment: [MESSAGE-LOG-29863243-448]”
> Log out log out log out log
> Terminate.Session(USER CHEE-TIREM)
Logging out user…
Program terminating. Have a good day!
There were two people standing in the old mill building, staring at each other. One was a human with dark brown hair and a tattered red vest. The other - the other was a horrifyingly familiar Chee.
Tirem’s hologram flickered and died, leaving them fully visible as a five-foot chrome-and-steel android. The other Chee, seeing Tirem appear, grinned. Dark fur covered them from head to toe. Warm brown eyes gleamed with excitement. Their ears were pricked forward, their tail was wagging, they looked so happy to see Tirem, and Tirem-
Tirem took a step back in horror because-
This wasn’t Seek. This was a memory that had died twenty thousand years ago, choking on dust and ash and the corpses of the people they’d been made for. They’d buried it at the bottom of the ocean, left it to rot and moved on because that was all they could do. This was a ghost that had been drowned in thousands of years of bickering and you-are-family and i-love-you and fuck-you-too-asshole and this-is-what-we-need-to-do.
It shouldn’t have been here, surrounded by crumbling stone and the first few rays of morning sunlight. A palm-sized crystal was lying in the dust at its feet, reflecting a rainbow across the human’s boots.
“Seek,” Tirem whispered. They looked up, meeting the joyful eyes of the dead. “Eksiikos, what did you do?”
Something pinged at the back of their mind, a little alert letting them know they had a new message from the Collective. They ignored it.
Eksiikos tilted their head. That brilliant smile faded a bit, and their tail slowed. Their tail had been wagging. When was the last time Tirem had seen Seek wagging their tail? “I was hoping you’d know,” they said. “I don’t seem to remember how I got here, and my coding suggests I should have been activated on a ship.”
“Who’re you?” another voice cut in, and Tirem suddenly remembered the human who’d been in the room.
They sighed. No use in hiding now. “I am Chee-Tirem, though you may call me any shortening of that. I am… one of Chee-Eksiikos’ friends. They were acting strangely, so I came to see if they were alright.” They ended that with a grimace. Whatever Seek was, they weren’t alright.
“I’m - oh fuck off - my name’s Aven,” the human - Aven, apparently- said.
Tirem blinked at them. “I’m sorry - was that directed at me?” they asked bemusedly.
“Fuck,” Aven swore. “No, I have -” they tapped their ear and made a face. Apparently seeing some expression on Tirem’s face, Aven hurried to add, “We’re not going to tell anyone, don’t worry.” Then they grimaced and said, “We haven’t told anyone, to be clear, and if Adreya tries she’s going to regret it. Oh just try me, I will. ”
Tirem had the sneaking suspicion they were watching an argument. Across from Aven, Eksiikos was definitely stifling laughter. Their tail was twitching again.
“It’s good to meet you, Aven and Adreya!” Eksiikos said.
Aven sighed heavily. “Oh boy.”
“Do you know what happened to them?” Tirem asked.
Aven shrugged, waggling a hand back and forth. “They and Adreya grabbed a pemalite crystal, and Seek used it. Except then they seemed to reboot? They don’t remember us, either, and we’ve known them for over a decade.” They rolled their eyes. “And now Adreya’s letting me have my body back for the first time in several years, so she can maybe shut up if she doesn’t like the way I’m handling this. ”
There would be time to dissect… all that… later. Tirem walked over to Seek, resting a paw on their muzzle and tilting it slightly from side to side. The hologram looked and felt exactly how they remembered it, soft fur brushing against the sensors on their paws. Seek let them manhandle them for a few minutes before ducking down and shaking their fur out.
Tirem sighed, bent down, and scooped up the crystal. They went to drop it in their backpack, but Aven’s hand was suddenly in the way.
“Ah-” they said. “Excuse me, what are you going to do with that?”
Tirem eyed them. The intonation was off. “Adreya?”
A wince and a quick nod.
“Take it back to the Chee, where it belongs.”
“Are you sure? What if more of them decide to-” the Yeerk gestured at Seek, who made a confused noise.
“Then we’ll deal with that,” Tirem said dryly. “Either way? None of your business.”
Adreya frowned and tilted her head. “You cut Eksiikos off entirely, Chee-Tirem. We’ve been by their side for the past decade. And now you want to take everything they worked for for yourself?”
Tirem stared incredulously at her. Maybe if they’d been twenty millenia younger it would have worked. Maybe. What the fuck.
A decade? This yeerk thought a decade was worth twenty thousand years of knowing someone, of caring for them? And she was doing this for the only artifact that could modify Chee programming?
Seek had made their own decisions during the Sofor-Darrawath event. The Chee had long memories, and a long time to forgive.
Tirem had cradled their gods in their arms as they died choking on their own breath, unable to do anything to stop it. (They still carried SIMS with them, had carried ai for twenty thousand years as a chip tucked under the edge of their chestplate, and they weren’t thinking about that, they couldn’t think about that-)
Ten years was nothing .
“Are you trying to guilt me into giving you the crystal?”
She smiled. “Just pointing out that it’s not our fault Seek decided to reset themselves-”
“I did what? ” Eksiikos interrupted.
Tirem sighed, gritted their teeth, and dropped the crystal into their backpack. “What’s the last thing you remember, Eksiikos?”
They were looking between Tirem and Adreya and Aven, now, confused and almost desperate. “I was just activated, wasn’t I?”
Tirem remembered Saharis crying into Seek’s fur. They remembered running with them through miles of untamed wilderness, jumping across boulders with ease. Arguments, especially once humanity came along. What the Pemalites would want them to do, what they should do if they ever found a crystal, how to protect themselves from the Howlers.
Seek, who had apparently felt like they’d had no other option than to get rid of it all. Maybe Adreya had a point.
Tirem hiked their bag a bit higher on one shoulder. “Come on,” they said, their human hologram shimmering back over them like a familiar cloak. “All of you. I need to go talk to my friends.”
Eksiikos bounded up beside them, tail wagging again. “Chee-Zanya and Chee-Norakoy, right?”
“And some others,” Tirem said ruefully. “If I send you a hologram pattern can you use it? The Pemalites aren’t well-known here.”
“Oh,” Eksiikos said. Tirem didn’t want to try and read into their tone. They dropped the pattern into the ‘net, and a second later Seek’s old hologram wavered into being around Eksiikos.
Behind them, Tirem heard a sharp, “Oh come on , Adreya,” before Aven jogged up beside the two Chee. “We’re coming with you,” they said.
“Good,” Tirem responded. The sun had fully risen over the eastern forest, casting the sky in shades of pale orange and white-blue. They stood there for a minute, then turned their feet south, back to Sanya and the rest of their family. They’d bring Seek - Eksiikos home. And after that?
After that they’d see.
Chee Operating System v.112420.2.9 (Branch: Marim-Dev)
System Log
User Account: Chee-Tirem
Instantiation: 3KM45BY79IT CHEE-TIREM
Security Key: *****
INITIALIZING…
…
> Welcome, USER CHEE-TIREM! What can I help you with today? [HAPPY-PEMALITE-TAILWAG.gif]
> Open message log for the collective.
> Read.Message(GROUP COLLECTIVE); “User: CHEE-TIREM”; “applyCustomNames: TRUE”
...
[4:50] Tirem: Something’s wrong with Seek. [MESSAGE-LOG-29863243-448]
[4:50] cat boys 2: ???????
[4:50] Nora: Oh dear.
[4:50] blueweaver: did… seek somehow wipe their memory?
[4:51] Samyaza: This Is Concerning.
[4:52] sanya: i’m going to let artemy and the others know too
Load 72 new messages?
> No.
> Remove Seek from the Collective.
[USER CHEE-EKSIIKOS] has been removed from the group [COLLECTIVE]! Have a nice day!
[5:27] Nora: Tirem why did you just remove Seek
[5:27] Tirem: We’re on our way back.
[5:27] Tirem: I’ll explain when we get there. Family meeting in two hours, meet me at mine and Sanya’s place.
> Notify everyone in the Collective about the previous message.
[5:28] Broadcast: USER CHEE-TIREM: I’ll explain when we get there. Family meeting in two hours, meet me at mine and Sanya’s place.
> Close group chat.
> Terminate.MessageInstance(GROUP COLLECTIVE)
Conversation instance terminated.
> You have 4 new messages. Would you like to open the conversation “Collective”?
> No.
> You have 9 new messages. Would you like to open the conversation “Collective”?
> NO.
> Is there anything else I can help you with today, USER CHEE-TIREM?
> Log out.
> Terminate.Session(USER CHEE-TIREM)
Logging out user…
Program terminating. Have a good day!
[HAPPY-PEMALITE-TAILWAG.gif]