Welcome to Gaia! ::

Dean nods his head, blushing as he's offered a seat by them. "Okay," he says quietly, moving to an unoccupied chair near the group. As he sits, he grasps the strap of his laptop case with both hands and lifts it over his head. He then sets the case to the floor beside his chair. Dean sits tall and straight, using correct posture. In the car accident that took his eye, he'd hurt his back and neck as well. Slouching would just make him sore.

Dean places both hands to his lap, fingers tapping against each other as he works up the nerve to speak again. "Hackers," he mutters quietly to himself. Raising his voice, he states, "I don't know how I could have caught something on my laptop. It's a Macintosh. I've NEVER had a virus on it before."

Bowing his head slightly, his left hand moves to the back of his head, idly playing with his hair. Dean frowns, his eyes glazing over as he stares to the floor blankly now. Must be a nasty virus to affect both PCs and Macs. And this girl... If it's really that bad of a virus, can she really get rid of it? His head turns toward the others, left eye focusing on Adalia as Dean studies her appearance and demeanor further.

Melee's eyes flickered to Kristian as he made an oddly aborted noise. He didn't seem surprised by her question at all. Could he have experience with the creatures already? Tucking this bit of data away, she listened to Dean's concerns and offered a sympathetic look. Her Dell had been immune to anything remotely buggy from the get-go, and now it was glitching impossibly, a chunk taken out of her work folder - and that was just what she'd noticed.

Blushing as Adalia rebuked her gently for apologising, Melee gazed down at her hands, now drawing idle patterns on her skirt. Hackers seemed more and more like parasites... But if Adalia suggested making friends... She cleared her throat after assimiliating the new information, realising that the other woman hadn't said anything about removing them. "You are saying... that we cannot get rid of them?" she queried. "Even so... I am not certain- that is, I have not seen anything resembling this sort of being on my laptop." She reached down to unzip her case and slid out the tiny, mauve machine. "Would you like to take a look?"

Unbeknownst to her, a gold and bronze speckled egg was nestled deep within her registry.

Dean tilts his head to the side, listening intently as Adalia explains what hackers are. His eyes widen as he realizes how high tech the AI must be for these creatures to actually grow, eat data, and interact with people. "They seem quite complex for mere data," he says with an interested tone.

He turns his head toward Melee as she speaks her concerns of getting rid of the hacker and of never seeing anything of the sort. He looks down to his own laptop case, recalling the object that's been sitting on his desktop. "So... The icon that sits on my desktop that doesn't do anything when I click it... It looks like a little yellow egg. Is that the hacker on my computer?"

Before his question may be answered, his attention is stolen by the other boy as he rises. He'd seemed timid before, but had now apparently worked up some nerve. His left eye watches the boy's hand as he removes a palm pilot to show to them. He grins as he watches the little creature, reading her text bubbles. "Wow..." he says quietly, amazed at how it could actually see them watching her. "That's awesome," he says a bit louder, now wanting to test how complex the creature is. He gives a slight chuckle and replies to the last text bubble by saying, "Hello, Aiko. My name is Dean." Quite odd, but he seemed more interested in interacting with a hacker than a human.

"I... Cute?" Melee blushed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, bemused but not entirely displeased. "I..." Noticing Adalia's distraction, she peered down at Kristian's palm and unconsciously gripped the laptop more securely in her outstretched hands. She didn't react, but the boy's halting speech made her a little less self-conscious.

The hacker - Aiko, her mind supplied - seemed to have the intelligence of a young child. "Amazing," she breathed, craning her head to get a better look. Adalia was practically bouncing in her seat beside her, chattering excitedly as though the tiny black and purple creature could understand perfectly what she was saying. Melee had heard of AI of course, but to such an extent...? And she apparently had one of these? She looked down at her machine with renewed interest.

"Is- Ah, supposing that I have an egg like Dean's..." She looked over at him, smiling slightly. "Is there some way to - to-" What was the word? Reget? Rescue? "To retrieve what it has eaten? I have important things... Disappeared." She stopped before she could embarrass herself further, turning to Adalia with an imploring expression.

Dean smiles softly, moving back to take a seat for a moment. Leaned slightly forward with his hands on his knees, Dean looks toward Adalia and recounts what he believes to be the basics, "So, they eat data and once they hatch, you can teach them what you want them to eat... Apparently, they're very advanced." He looks to his laptop case and smiles. This might be fun... and maybe even useful. Dean gives an awkward smile, moving a hand to the back of his head as he stands up. "S-s-sorry," he stutters a bit. "I have work shortly, so I'll need to leave. I think I understand and I'll come back when it hatches, if that's okay?"