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It was a beautiful day in Castle Town. The cars were crashing, the Swatches were posturing with the Zappers, and Ralsei was attending to his princely duties – currently involving arbitrating a quarrel that had broken out between Clover and Cap’n.
“But it was my turn you don’t even LIKE him!” “Shut Up! You don’t know anything!”
Or maybe between Clover and Clover…? Ralsei wasn’t so sure; Cap’n kept trying to get a word in though while Ralsei tried to get an explanation from the third Clover head.
Amongst all the squabbling Ralsei didn’t notice Lancer enter till he heard his distressed voice – “Peachboy! Help!!”
Alarmed, Ralsei left the lovers alone and approached Lancer. “Lancer? What’s wrong? What happened?”
“Something happened to girldad! I think she’s sick!” The top of his head was drooped in despair, eye-slits furrowed as he pulled at Ralsei’s sleeve.
“Sick…? Can Queen get sick?” Ralsei wondered aloud. Then he shook himself. Whatever was wrong, it was best that he checked it out. He turned back to the pair who had stopped fighting to look their way by now. “Well, Clover, Cap’n, I think I really should go check this out, will you two be alright?”
“Is Queen sick? Will she be okay?” Cap’n asked anxiously.
“Why should we care?” one of the Clover heads scoffed, and started the fights afresh.
Ralsei was about to reassure them when one of the Pippins came up to him. “Leave it to me, Little Prince, I will help them quarrel while you’re away!”
“… Thank you.” Ralsei would just have to prioritise. “Please make sure they settle down a little. Maybe Sweet or Cakes would know what to do, go to them if it escalates; I really need to go now.”
Without waiting for a response, Ralsei let Lancer drag him upstairs to Queen’s room.
Something was definitely off about Queen. She was sat against a wall, looking a little spaced out with her face screen blank. Over her, strangely, Tenna of all people was standing wringing his hands behind his back, looking unusually nervous.
“Mr Tenna?” At Ralsei’s voice he jumped a little and stood up straight. “What are you doing here?”
“Ralsei! Nothing! Nothing at all! Haha. And yourself?”
Ralsei was about to dig more into that very suspicious response but was interrupted by Queen suddenly letting out an almighty sneeze. Released in the sneeze were half a dozen Virovirokuns scattering around in a frenzy.
“Woah Mama Bless Me!” Queen was alert again, though her screen now had odd glitches smattering it.
Ralsei knelt near her and tried to get her attention, “Queen? Are you okay? Lancer came and got me, he said you were sick. Is it the Virovirokuns, were they bothering you?”
“No Lol,” Queen got back up and looked around. “That Is How They Are Born.”
“… Pardon?”
“I Birthed Them From: My Nostrils.”
Well, that was news to Ralsei. “Ah, that’s… I see. Just a moment.” It would be best to get them out of the way in any case, so Ralsei got to work lecturing the Virovirokuns till they were tired enough to be pacified safely away.
“Uh, Ralsei?” Tenna approached him, voice dropping to a stage-whisper. “I think the kid’s not doing too hot.”
“Oh My Dear Big And Beautiful Ant What Are You –” a little zap interrupted her, “GET YOUR FAVORITE ICE-E’S P’E’ZZA FLAVORS 3 FOR 1!!!”
An awkward silence settled on the little gathering. Lancer shifted from foot to foot.
“I guess she can get sick…” Ralsei muttered.
Well, it was time to find a solution. Ralsei would need to get hold of a manual, talk to these Virovirokuns and maybe other Cyber World denizens who might know how this happened and how to fix it.
“Queen, do you know how you got sick? How can we help you?” He started there first.
“Running Diagnostics,” she said cheerfully, three dots appearing on her face.
Then there was a whirring noise and she sneezed out a couple more Virovirokuns. “Error: Not Detected,” she helpfully supplied.
“Right, I will send some Ambyulances up to clear out the viruses while I try to find a solution… Maybe the Lightners will know what to do?” Ralsei started walking away. “Ah, Mr Tenna, could you stay with Queen for now? Get me if anything gets worse. I’m taking Lancer along to ask around for information.”
Tenna perked right up and grew a few sizes. “You got it buddy boy! I will keep Her Majesty nice and comfortable. No Problemo at all!”
Reassured as he could be, Ralsei left them there and started delegating tasks to Lancer. Clover and Cap’n will just have to sort themselves out for now.
--
Tenna was freaking out Big Time.
When he heard tell of Queen next door acting weird he had been a little uneasy but remained optimistic. He had made some excuse to go visit her to ease his mind anyway, but seeing the state of her there was no denying it: Tenna had done this to her.
It was no secret around town that Tenna isn’t exactly tech-savvy. The Cyber folk made him highly self-conscious of the fact, so he tried his best to avoid them. It wasn’t easy with Queen’s little fascination with him though, treating him like a particularly interesting bug to prod and stare at. She was always ‘running into’ him, starting conversations he tried to gracefully bow out of, and – in her latest attempt at bonding – gifting him with a big screen for his room connected to her network.
“The Twenty-First Century Has Arrived In Your Room,” she had said. “I Have It Tailored Just To Your Cool Retro Tastes But You Can Do Anything On It Lol. Check Out This Messenger We Are Friends Already.”
Tenna had entertained her while trying not to betray how little he understood about this screen or how she was doing all that with it, or that he felt a little miffed at being upstaged by a fancier screen. He knew he probably won’t be able to use it regardless.
That is, until he saw something pop up on it that looked awfully familiar.
It was an ad for an automobile, all flashy and red-and-white, with a silhouette behind it that reminded Tenna of him. Was the mailman still around somewhere, trying to reach out? It had to be! Thinking no further, Tenna had quickly clicked on the helpful link saying ‘Click Here!’ waiting in excitement.
Unfortunately, it soon became clear to him that it wasn’t what it looked like, as several more windows started popping up with all sorts, faster than he could close them. The cursor started moving slower too, and odd whirring noises erupted from the screen. Tenna had done something he wasn’t supposed to because he didn’t know how computers worked because he was old and outdated and now everyone would see his fuck-ups on the screen that kept freezing and flashing warnings.
Wishing to cause no further damage he had simply turned the screen off.
That should do it, right? Right.
He had closed the damn thing and the problem was solved.
Except when he had gone next door to check on Queen the little card kid there had looked quite worried and Tenna quickly understood why when she started spouting the kind of ads he had been desperately blocking just an hour ago.
“Hey! TV Time!” she said when she noticed him. “Come Here Often?”
Now Tenna wasn’t sure if that was random nonsense or deliberate nonsense spewing from her. He tried not to give away his nervousness though. “Queen! Well, no, I don’t suppose I do, but I just –”
She zoomed close to his face. “Well Would You Like To?”
“Uhh…” What does he say?? “Why, yes! Thank you for the invite. And how are you this fine evening?”
“TV Man!” spade boy called to him, “Girldad is sick! She was sneezing and I think she has a fever.”
Yes, Tenna had 100% fucked up.
“A fever?!” He tried to pass off his alarm as simply surprise. “Well, is it indeed? Don’t we all get hot sometimes? I know I do haha.”
“She is overheating! This isn’t good for her,” the boy was frowning. Tenna had better start clearing the mess he made before anyone finds out he made it.
Gently slapping a hand onto the side of Queen’s face he said, “Oh, hmm. You are getting hot…”
“No You,” Queen said, her screen flashing ‘TRUE’. Tenna felt his own screen heating.
Just as he started removing his hand from her though, Queen’s hand shot out and clumsily smacked into the middle of his screen. “Wow!” She sounded delirious. “Hot And Fuzzy. I Like That In A TV.”
“You flatter me kid,” Tenna took her wrist and moved it away. “You’re not doing too well though, anything I can help you with?” Oh please, please let her have the solution to this herself.
“Yes,” Queen said, and then promptly blanked out, swaying into Tenna who cautiously lowered her against the wall.
“Girldad! What happened to her?!” Spade boy had to be settled before he alerted the whole town.
“Hey! Uh, boy!” Tenna scrambled to get his bearings.
“It’s Lancer!”
“Lancer, yes of course! Lancer my boy. Why don’t you go get Ralsei here? I’m sure that walking encyclopaedia has a way to help Queen!” Lancer was nodding before Tenna was even finished and rushing out of the room.
Alone with Queen now, Tenna tried turning her head this way and that, hoping for a clue to help her. With the anxiousness of people realising he is responsible for this fading to the back of his mind for a moment, the guilt started to settle in. If Tenna had actually listened to some instructions or tried to understand the screen more maybe he would not have fucked this up immensely.
But no, he was too busy marinating in his own self-doubt and ruminating about how everyone must be seeing and mocking his inadequacies. Truthfully Queen never had done that at all. She had shown him all sorts of new-fangled tech, been a welcoming if overenthusiastic neighbour, and Tenna had filled in his own insecurities into their interactions for no reason. She was a good kid, maybe it was high time Tenna got his head out of his ass and started paying attention to what the new Darkners in this town were actually doing and saying. They were all simply offering him olive branches that he kept setting on fire.
Not finding anything on his inspection except a few glitches on the screen every so often, Tenna started to really get worried. He heard the whirring get louder though so he precariously took his hands away from her, puffed himself up again, and stood a little away with his arms folded back, just in time for Ralsei to enter to do his own inspection.
A few sneezes later it became clear enough that Ralsei did not have a solution off the top of his head either. This was going to drag on for a while…
Tenna saw the princes off, welcomed the Ambyulances that had arrived to clear out the viruses, and turned his attention back to Queen whose screen now flashed ‘HAHA’.
“What’s got you laughing, kid?”
“Reading Lightner Drama Lol. Best Part Of Video Sharing Platforms.”
“Are they fighting about the videos?”
“They Fight About Everything. There Are Two Idiots Fighting About A Third Comment That Is Now Deleted. I Will Try To Retrieve It But I Want To See If I Can Guess What It Said From The Argument First.”
“That’s fascinating!” It actually was. She had access to a lot more of the world of the Lightners. Mail man had told him once that on the ‘Internet’ you could find almost anything, but he hadn’t explained it very well. You couldn’t even [[20-20 Vision]] it Trash Heap! he had said. But if one could really access all possible knowledge there… “Say, Queen, you can learn just about anything on the Internet right? Maybe you could try to find what we can do to make you better?”
“Make Me Better From What I Am Already: The Best.”
“You sure are! But you are sick, how shall we heal you?”
“I am?” Her screen flashed ‘BRO?’
Confusion around sickness was to be expected, right? Tenna would just have to jog her memory. “Yes, Ralsei just left to go get help, remember?”
“Accessing Memory File.” She froze up for a few seconds. Then her screen flashed ‘ERROR’ and she released a pleasant jingle, before looking at Tenna like she had just noticed he’s there. “Hello There Ant Dear What Brings You By?”
That did not bode well. Hoping he hadn’t truly damaged her memory, Tenna tried again, gently telling her, “Queen, you are sick.”
“Sick As Balls!” She sounded incredibly pleased, screen now reading ‘TRUE’.
“Ahaha, they really are quite lax with the censors over on the internet, huh? But I meant that you have a fever, Queen, your boy Lancer said you’re overheating. Anything we can do about that?”
“I Can Lay Flat,” Queen provided, and lay flat on her back on the ground. She sneezed again, but Tenna wasn’t worried about the Virovirokuns now with someone else handling them.
What he was worried about was how her entire screen suddenly went blue and left her eerily silent.
He wasted no time in kneeling next to her head, hands hovering uselessly over her body wondering what to do. “Queen? Hey kid can you hear me?” His voice had lost its forced composure but this was hardly the time for poise. Receiving no response, he grabbed one of her hands and tried rubbing the palm of it. Did that work with computers? What worked with computers?? Maybe if Tenna knew how to operate those big screens he could look it up himself? Or would that make it worse since the problem started on the big screen?
Just as he was standing up to give it a try anyway Queen shot up.
“H-h-h-OT SINGLES bzzzzsfsf,” she sneezed again, then jerked out to catch Tenna’s hand, vibrating intensely and frowning for the first time Tenna had ever seen. “Mr Tenna, I Am Sick,” she bemoaned.
Though caught off-guard at first, Tenna quickly recovered and helped her sit up against the wall.
“Yes, my dear, we are working on it. Anything you can tell me, anything I can get you?”
She looked away into the distance, getting more maudlin by the second. “My Browser Has Crashed.”
What did that MEAN?? Was that bad?? Was it FATAL?
“Can we… get it back running?” he tried.
“I Am Trying,” she said, still looking towards the other side of the room. “Can You Get Me My Battery Acid?”
Happy to have some instructions, Tenna obliged her, going towards her supply of toxic green sludge.
“With The Bendy Straw Please Dear!”
“You got it honey!”
Yes, that’s it, keep her mood light. A sad Queen was just wrong, and Tenna was quickly realising her sadness was just as infectious as her joy had been. Tenna sure hoped her illness was not. Whatever will he do if he caught a virus from her?? He didn’t even know what the prognosis was for a CRT suffering from a virus.
He helped Queen drink while asking the Ambyulances if they knew how to work the big screen. “We just do clean up,” they told him. Another dead end.
Queen lay there hiccupping and getting hotter by the second though, looking more and more out of it as she stared at Tenna.
“Am I Not To Your Liking Mr Tenna?” she finally asked.
“What? Of course you are!” he tried to pat her gently on the arm. “Whyever would you say that? You’re wonderful, Queen! You said it yourself, didn’t you, you’re the best!”
She looked at him mournfully, her screen flashing ‘:(‘ which just made Tenna’s own antennas droop a little for how inept he was at cheering her up.
“That I Am…” she said. “You Are, Though. To “My Liking”. I Want To Be To Your Liking Tooooo fOR ONE SPECIAL ON OUR ghsushdah –”
She erupted into hiccups again and Tenna gently rubbed her back till the glitches faded out. Then he sat beside her and let his hand rest on top of hers. “Look, kid –”
“I Am Not A Kid I Am: A Computer.”
Tenna chuckled. At least that got her pouting all affronted instead of just being mopey.
“Well, you are a top of the line new model to an old CRT like me, kid, nothing personal.”
“I Think You Are Hella Cool Too, Old Man. Vintage Is Hashtag ‘Built Different’.” ‘DAMN’ her screen read.
“And so are you, Queen,” he sighed. “I owe you an apology. And the rest of the Cyber lot too, but mostly you. You have all been so nice and welcoming and I feel I have not responded in kind. That ends now though, alright kid? Once you’re all better I’m taking you down to the café and we can get to know each other proper!” He flashed her a winning grin, deciding at last to embrace this new beginning for real.
Queen leaned her head against Tenna’s arm, her surface hot enough to fry an egg on. “It’s A Date?” she asked hopefully, and Tenna felt all warm inside.
“Yes, I think I’d like that kid,” he bumped his nose against her head once.
She let out a drawn-out sigh then. “Tasque Manager End: My Suffering.exe.”
No sooner had she spoken than thundering footsteps were heard fast approaching them. The door quite literally exploded off its hinges into nothingness and Tenna jumped back, taking Queen along with him.
Stood amongst the debris was the cat lady he had seen around town a few times.
“Tasque Manager!” Queen popped out from under Tenna and crawled towards their new guest.
“Queen! Oh what a state you are in!” Tasque Manager kneeled next to the two of them and seemed to glean a lot more from her inspection than Tenna ever did.
Tenna cleared his throat a little. “I don’t think we are acquainted? I am Mr Ant Tenna, New in Town, haha. And you must be Tasque Manager! Great to meet you!! Would you happen to know how we can help Queen? … Or perhaps operate that screen?”
Tasque Manager had finished checking on Queen and was typing away at one of the big screens now. “Helleow – ahem, hello Mr Tenna. Thank you for looking after her, if you would please keep her resting while I manage her processes.”
Someone who understood the situation, finally! Tenna only too readily flew back to Queen’s side and got her laid back down.
“Tasque Manager Is My Right-Hand Girl Man Friday, She Got This,” Queen informed him happily, going for another sip of her acid before Tasque Manager snatched it away by the end of her tail.
“No more of that for you, my Queen, it is only increasing your temperature.”
Tenna made a note of that and cringed internally.
Queen huffed but sat back down. Then gasped suddenly and cried, “My Browser!”
Alarmed, Tenna looked her over, asking “What happened?? What happened to Your Browser?!?”
Her screen flashed ‘OMG’. “It Has Been Force Stopped!”
Tenna looked anxiously at Tasque Manager. “Madam, how could you!”
“Please relax Mr Tenna, I need to shut these down before I can identify the problem. She was just watching car crash videos on it.”
“Ah, I see…” he turned a little red. “Carry on then, I – I will keep Queen entertained!”
So Tenna got to work pacifying Queen and trying to make her comfortable. “Are you comfortable there, Queen? Maybe I could offer you a doily?”
“What Is That?” she inquired.
“You can put it on top of you to stay cosy, I had a beautiful one myself! I am sure we could procure one for you.”
“Yes, That, I Want You To Install That,” she said – ‘NICE’.
At once, Tenna went back to his room, about to ask one of his employees to fetch him a doily when he ran into Ralsei.
“Tenna! What is going on, how is Queen?”
“Ralsei! Good timing, Tasque Manager showed up and is On! The! Case! I was just getting a doily to cover her up and keep her toasty.”
“No, Tenna, we have to keep her temperature down! I ran into the – well that’s a story for another time. Come along, I think I have some information for Tasque Manager.”
Quickly saved from his mistakes again, Tenna followed bashfully while Ralsei relayed the information to Tasque Manager.
Queen looked at him expectantly.
“Sorry, kid, that’s a ‘No’ on the doily. Doctor’s orders.”
She looked genuinely morose at that.
“The Hacker didn’t even know what he was doing really, he just sent the ad to that system –” Ralsei was explaining, “he does not seem to understand what exactly it does or how to solve it, just that ‘this is what hackers do’ … but from what he told me I was able to find some information on Queen’s servers that could help!”
Everything he was saying sounded like gobbledygook to Tenna but so far he had not heard his name be implicated into the matter. However, with them being close to a solution, Tenna felt like he should give them all the help he could.
“Hey! Uh, Everybody? I have… haha, just a little thing to admit!”
All eyes turned on him, Queen’s flashing glitched-out question marks, and he started shrinking under their stare.
“So I may have clicked on something on the screen Queen gave me and it made the screen go haywire! Full haywire, I say! and I had wondered if maybe Queen was doing badly because of that, but well, I wasn’t sure, but really I should have said something, I just – I don’t understand these Damn Internet Windows and I really am so very full of remorse and I pro –”
“Tenna – Mr Tenna! Please calm down,” Ralsei had a patient smile though his brows were still furrowed. “It’s alright, she will be fine. We know what to do now, thankfully. Though, of course next time I’d rather you brought something like this up earlier?”
“Y- yes, of course!” he tightened up his tie and stood a little straighter. “Lesson learned, you can count on me.”
Queen had gone silent all this while, and Tenna looked back to find her gone blue again. As soon as she came back to awareness though Tasque Manager got to work, guiding her towards a ‘Safe Mode’ which Queen seemed particularly miffed about, but still went along with.
Once the other two had left them alone again, Tenna deemed it appropriate to ask, “So what was that all about? This ‘safe mode’ some sort of bitter medicine for your ailments?”
“It Is Wack,” she explained in all seriousness. “I Am In Boring Mode This Is Worse Than The Time I Lost The Internet.”
“You can lose the internet?? I thought that is what you worked on!”
“No Lol I Can Do So Much Without It Too, I Have: Games And Archives,” she moved as if to show him something, then sat back down. “I Cannot Play Games On Lame Mode. This Sucks Chat.”
“Hey, cheer up, kid! I am something of a beloved entertainer myself! How about we play some quizzes?” Finally having an excuse to use his own skills, Tenna arranged for some quick quiz questions to flash on his screen. “Beware! The Quiz will be timed. Fail to answer before the clock runs out and there Will. Be. A Penalty!”
“Woah (Wowzer)! What Kind Of Penalty?” her screen flashed ‘EPIC’. Of course the somewhat explosive Queen was more taken by the penalty than the game itself.
“How about a fair exchange since this is a friendly match? For every correct answer you get to choose an activity we do on our day out after you’re better. For every answer you get wrong…” he paused for dramatics and her mouth gaped in anticipation, “you must teach me with utmost patience how the internet works?”
“Ha!” she shrieked. “I Would Have Done That Anyway Gang. Someone Needs To Teach This Old Dog (You) New Tricks.”
“Don’t get cocky, kid, there is plenty I could teach you a thing or two about, you know. Can’t beat experience!”
“You’re On, My Fuzzy Pal! Hit Me!”
Exhilarated, Tenna did indeed ‘hit her’ with question after question, keeping score on one side of his screen. Queen did not seem to be able to find a lot of answers to questions about the Town or some Lightner trivia without access to her ‘Browser’. She did, however, have him easily beat at any and all calculation-related quizzes.
“That Is What Computers Are For Mr Tenna, I Can Compute Circles Around You All Day. Admit Defeat Now And I May Spare You (Also I Am Bored Now LMAO).”
“Ha! You got it, kid, let us watch shows for a while, I have quite the catalogue for the whole family, every genre every format you could think of!”
They circled through show after show. Queen had a clear preference for the action-heavy stuff as long as there were guns. Romances often proved to be too slow-paced and she lost interest so Tenna quickly switched from there to good old reality TV where Queen delighted in all the disaster. Soon it became clear though that this was much too passive and Queen was growing restless while Ralsei was still away looking for more help on some ‘forums’ online. She was also starting to get sneakier about procuring her battery acid and Tenna was now forced to hold it away above her head so she would stop reaching.
“Stop Being Mean Laptops Run On Batteries I Need That!” She got up to try and flail towards the drink.
“You will not fool me again honey, Tasque Manager already told me your batteries do NOT run on battery acid! Your ruse is up!!”
“Aw Shucks,” she looked down disappointed; then leaped up again to reach the glass once Tenna had lowered his guard.
He caught himself just in time though and grew three sizes, leaving Queen scrambling somewhere around his midriff to claw her way up while swearing up a storm.
“Please calm down Queen,” Tasque Manager off-handedly called to her. “Mr Tenna is just trying to look out for you and you need to be resting up.”
Exhausted at last, she did sit back down but looked up adoringly at Tenna.
“I Like It When You Are Big,” she exclaimed, screen flashing ‘HOT DAMN’.
Tenna chose not to shrink back too much, not looking too deeply into the reasons for now.
“And how would you like me when I’m small?” he asked intrigued.
“I Would Like That Too, I Swing Both Ways (Wink).”
Tenna coughed and busied himself with setting up a game for them to play, blatantly avoiding looking at Queen. He did mutter through his flush though, “Well, that’s… ah – good to know.”
Handing Queen a controller Tenna explained the video game he had set up for her. “I understand the style is a little old but it can be fun to mess around with you know!”
“Wait Why Aren’t You Playing?”
“Would you like me to? I can set up something else, do tell!”
“Yes, I Want To Play Against You Like A Cool Fighting Game Haha. Single Player Is Boring.”
Tenna got to work remodelling what old games he had on his system to create a fighting game he could play with Queen. “Well, nothing wrong with wanting to play with friends of course! I suppose single player can get lonesome.”
“The Only Thing More Boring Than Single Player Is Co-op.”
Tenna’s antennas perked up in surprise. “Why would you say that! I think they are so quaint and wonderful, the Lightners have enjoyed many a co-operative style game with me before!”
Queen was fiddling idly with buttons on the controller while watching Tenna work. The heat and the sneezes had already calmed down a while back thankfully. “IDK I Just Don’t Get The Point If There Is No Competition Then Who Am I Supposed To Leave In The Dust With My Awesome Gaming?”
“Hmm, well look at it this way: you can play together to defeat the game! That becomes your common enemy then, and you get to be a team overcoming those obstacles together!”
“Processing Sentiment…” she pondered a while. Then her face lit up with ‘COOL’. “Aha! That Is Freaking Sweet.”
Tenna chuckled and set up a small sampling of levels for them instead to get a taste of everything. Keeping her company was no big ask at all. After unwinding with her and learning from each other he was really starting to enjoy Queen’s company. Maybe even already planning what they could do on their outing. He should probably start with an apology gift though, for putting her through this ordeal at all.
“Marvelous!” she exclaimed while crashing her car repeatedly in a racing game. “This Is Poggers.”
“You think so?” Tenna rode that high into the next several rounds.
Soon enough, they ran out of games to play too, and Queen seemed tired of them anyway. Ralsei came back into the room a while back with a manual and told them it will be only a little more of a wait. Tenna would have to get the prince something for all his troubles too.
Out of other options, Tenna started telling Queen about his ‘physical challenges’ for them to try out while they wait, and she was more than excited to try balancing sticks with plates on the end on her head for a while before Ralsei shuts them down with a stern word. (“You CANNOT be playing physical challenges, Tenna, you were supposed to keep her AWAY from strain!” he had said, his fur so frazzled Tenna felt bad for it.)
“Sorry!” Tenna called to Ralsei and got rid of the plates and sticks but winked at Queen over his shoulder.
Queen grinned at him and her screen flashed ‘THUMB FIGHT?’
“We will be calmer now, my assurances!” he said to Ralsei, then turned to Queen and stage whispered, “What is a thumb fight?”
If Ralsei heard he let it lie, and they proceeded to play many a battle of ‘thumb wars’ to pass the time. Queen, dirty cheater that she is, did shock him a few times through the thumb, but after the initial surprise he just liked the feeling of it. “Joke’s on you, Queen, your sadistic buzzes are but pleasurable jolts to me,” said coyly.
“Pain Or Pleasure, I Just Like Seeing Your Antennas Do That,” she throws back, flashing ‘TRUE’.
When Tasque Manager and Ralsei finally emerged from their efforts Queen was asked to sleep it off for a while before they run their check.
Tenna is only too happy to volunteer to keep watch over her, and – on Queen’s insistence that it’s “A Sleepover” – to fall asleep there too.
--
The next day, Queen was wandering the streets of Castle Town in search of something. She had her new lime green doily wrapped around her shoulders.
It was a beautiful gift from Tenna who had offered it to her earlier as recompense for clicking on an ad that brought her the virus. Queen had graciously forgiven him but accepted the sick doily. To be worn “outside of overheating incidents”, she was instructed. It was covered in a flowery pattern with the vines replaced by electric circuits in darker green and yellow.
And it wasn’t the only gift that would exchange hands that day. Ralsei appeared asking Queen who she was looking for, keeping her stride and nodding towards the gift box she was carrying.
“Where Is That Hacker Guy You Said Sent The Link?
“Uh, just over to that side, Queen,” Ralsei guided her but sounded nervous. “Why are you taking him a gift?”
“I Am Feeling: Magnanimous. Me And Tenna Are Now Relationship Status: Together.”
“Aww! Congratulations to you both! That’s great news.”
Quickly locating the Hacker, Queen advanced on him and handed over the gift. “A Token Of Appreciation For Your Services.”
“Wow, I knew one day –”
The box let out a little explosion when opened and cut him off. “Queen!” Ralsei said, appalled.
“Never Send My Pookie Malicious Adware Again Or You Will Be “Winning” Even “Bigger” Next Time,” Queen said pleasantly. “Toodles!”
Hacker said, seemingly to himself, “Never trust what you see on the internet.”