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Luca Creste sat with his back firmly pressed against the backing of a hard wooden chair. His jaw was set firm and his pale, almost translucent blue eyes scanned the cafe whilst the fingers of his right hand tapped on the table top. He was sent here to meet with a customer who had reported some strange findings on her electronic device. Normally someone like Fiach would do this, but with Fiach being out of commission right now, it was best he do this.

From the young man's pocket a PDA buzzed. Luca stopped his slightly frustrated scanning of the area to pick it up. A pale pink Hacker, a female, flitted about the screen. Below her, a message.



The honey blonde smiled a bit to the machine and the Hacker inside.

"I can only hope Au'ret, I can only hope."

Luca placed the PDA back into his pocket with some minor protest from the Hacker inside. His hand automatically began the drumming as soon as it was placed on the table again. He sighed a bit, wondering what sorts of things he could be doing in place of sitting by the window of a busy cafe.

His eyes began their scanning again falling on individual people with electronic devices out. None of them seemed puzzled or displeased by the devices save for a man in a corner having a lovely conversation with someone called "you idiot". Luca smirked a bit, he couldn't help it. His head turned toward the door as the bell over it chimed. A harried looking girl with a laptop under her arm strode in. Luca observed her looking around for what seemed like help. Another passing smile.

"I do believe I've found who we were sent to meet Au'ret."

Luca stood up and stretched, his muscles ached from sitting so long. He walked between tables and through small spats of people towards the auburn haired girl. A small grumble escaped as some fool knocked his elbow with the back of a chair. The only way to get towards the girl was to end up to the right and behind her, so he took that route. Luca ended up where he planned he would, to the right and behind, and reached out to tap the girl's shoulder. She seemed oblivious to his presence and doing so might cause he to scream out in alarm.

A faint buzz from his pocket. He could already imagine the message. Luca shook his head and decided to bite the bullet. A soft sigh and then, finally, words.

"Having computer troubles are we?"

A polite smile ghosted over Luca's face. He nodded.

"Certainly. Let's go back to my table, it's easier to work with a surface to put things on."

The man passed through the crowds and grumbled as the same man knocked his elbow. Rubbing it, he sat back down at his table and pulled out his PDA, placing it to the right of his hand. Luca motions at the chair across from him. Waiting for the girl to sit, he busies himself in opening his bag that was sitting on the sill, looking for a USB cable. If the girl's computer did in fact have a Hacker, Au'ret would be able to communicate with it and lay some ground rules. Poor girl, the Hacker, if in fact one, must have eaten a lot of her files by now. Luca scowls looking for his cable, but remembers his formalities.

"I'm Luca buy the way. Luca Creste. I'm an associate at .Net Hackers. Judging from what I've been told, you've been having some strange anomalies with your laptop, correct? If you can tell me about the things that have been happening, I just may know the answer to your troubles."

Luca shook his head.

"They only told me I was to meet a person who reported problems with their computer. Nothing more. This actually isn't really my job, I run a shop within the shop as it were. And-Ah, here it is." The man pulls out a pink USB cable from his bag. As he turns, he looks at the girl over the laptop.

"I didn't choose this. She wouldn't have any other color besides this." Luca nods in the direction of his PDA as he sets the cord on the table. "And I can tell you it was a pain in the a** to find."

The device buzzes as a message pops up. Luca barely glances at it.

The Hacker floats around looking huffy. Her owner shakes his head and turns to inspect the item Raina pointed at.

"Well well. It is a Hacker. And you are right. It is an AI program of sorts. Sometimes an anti-virus will mistaken it for a malignant program in your system and in some aspects they are. They eat files, as you've already noticed. Their appetites do get in the way of their reason sometimes, and they eat important files. Now," Luca takes his PDA and inserts the smaller end of the cable into it. "I have a Hacker of my own. With your permission, I'd like to insert her into your computer by means of the USB cable. Don't worry, she knows better than to devour files other than the ones I lay out for her. But she'll be able to communicate with the one in your computer and help lay down some rules as to what is edible and what isn't."

Luca stopped himself from smirking as the woman saw Au'ret.

"Miss, they are more alive than you think." His pale eyes ticked over to the linked PDA. He nodded at the acceptance and plugged in the other end of the cable. The screen brightened as the connection was recognized by both machines. "Au'ret, give the Hacker at the other end a little introduction and some rules to live by, please."

A messaged blipped.



After the text left the screen, the Hacker too vanished. A soft ping from the PDA said 'File Transfer Complete'.

"Well, there she is." Luca motioned towards the screen where the pinkish Hacker had appeared. Au'ret twirled about the larger, spacier area with giddy joy. "Now. Calm yourself Miss. Hackers are not what you think they are. They aren't a program made by someone trying to steal your credit card numbers or anything of the sort. They are computer based AI programs. It's...hard to explain. My comrade Fiach knows more about them than I do, but I can assure you that that little fellow will not steal your identity. He has one of his own."

Au'ret continued her twirling.



"Au'ret..."



"As you can see, they can be...A bit of a handful."



"But once you have one on your hands, you're stuck with them. They can be quite loyal once you understand one another and give them rules about what is and is not edible. Once we're done here, I'm sure everyone over at .Net Hackers would be glad to have you and your Hacker as an addition. Oh, and by the way, what is his name?"

"I'll gladly try to set up an appointment for you to speak with him. He's a bit...Under the weather as it were at present. But thank you all the same." Luca folded his hands together and placed his elbows on the hardwood table, resting his chin atop them.

"It's more of a shop than a society. Fiach and his sister Adalia own it. Fiach doesn't have a Hacker currently, but he's quite knowledgeable. In truth, I only learned what Au'ret was after I was hired."



"Hush now Au'ret."

The pink Hacker turned to Svenn as he posed his question. She rotated at the odd symbols of the screen.

Luca squared his shoulders into a shrug.

"I think it's gratuitous amounts of stress that have made him indisposed. He works too hard and doesn't take breaks. Plus he has OCD in the worst way. Oh, which reminds me, if you do in fact stop by make sure you aren't filthy or anything. Fiach takes the whole 'cleanliness is close to godliness' thing extremely seriously."

The man briefly reflected on the time he had appeared at the shop door for his interview for a job. Fiach had a look of almost having a heart attack when he laid eyes on Luca. Damn buses...

Watching Luca from the screen Au'ret popped up a message.



"Knock it off Au'ret."

< razz >

The pink female spun back to Svenn.

razz >

Au'ret put her small hands to her mouth as if to stifle a laugh. Luca rolled his eyes and looked annoyed.

"Get on with it already."



"Au'ret!" Luca's voice rang sharp at the monitor. Instantaneously, the man whipped his head around to see if anyone was looking over at his outburst. None. Good. He turned back and faced Raina. "I apologize. She's extremely...Blunt." Luca shook his head, putting his right hand on his forehead, shielding his eyes.

"But she speaks the truth. All the data Svenn devoured will have to be re-written. And in order to keep him from eating them again, because hunger for a Hacker is an extreme circumstance, I suggest that when he's hungry, make some thing in Paint or Word or what have you and send it to the Recycle Bin. It doesn't have to be much, but just keep him designated to the Bin so the rest of your computer isn't affected like this again."

"He is until he starts twitching violently. That's when you run. Very fast."

Au'ret's friendly chime sounded frightening underneath her happy expression. She spun around the screen some more.

Luca shook his head. "Just some small scraps of forced fiction. It was terrible anyways, so no need for worry."



"She's right. Can you remember what you did before, during, or after you ate those files?" Luca's eyes turned to Svenn as he posed his question. The click of the USB port brought the pale eyes back to Raina. "That was a smart move." His voice had some approval in it. "I should have thought of that, but I was a bit poor when Au'ret happened."

He nodded at the comment about Au'ret. "She's quite spunky. Blunt, but spunky."

The message blinked on the screen before another popped up. A wide smile morphed on the Hacker's face. Her owner rolled his eyes and scowled at the screen before turning back to Raina. The man sighed and shrugged.