Turn 2

--- Maya ---

It wasn’t until she was a fair way into her programming that she realized that with the number of programs she needed and the sheer amount of space all of them would take up far exceeded what her COMP was currently capable of managing, and as such she decided to go ahead and piece together some additional storage space to fit into her relatively small machine.

(Actually, have you figured out how we’re fitting so much data into such a small space?)

“It’s got something to do with creating an imaginary array space.” She tried explaining to herself. “Basically, we’re using an initial function to create the space of the greater function, but that function require space of its own. Then we have to apply additional sub-functions to fill in this artificial array, by-”

(I’m going to be honest, I quit understanding after you lied about this being basic.)

“Aren’t you me?” She paused as an important question occurred to her. “I mean, shouldn’t you be able to understand everything I understand?”

(I think it has something to do with us representing pieces of yourself. Ergo we only get pieces of your knowledge, including the bits you may be ignoring.)

“I guess that makes sense…”

(About as much sense as half the stuff we build anyway.) Her simpler side agreed.

---

After installing the upgrade to her COMP memory, she decided to take things a step further and try and compress the data of her Generator () program since it was the largest of any of her current program. Of course, given how little she understood about this program, this basically boiled down to her removing bits and pieces of the program and then seeing if it still ran.

A rather hap hazardous method all things considered.

“Oh, come on! It’s not like we’re risking anything” She waved off her own concern as she highlighted another section of the absurdly complex code.

(I believe we’re risking a fair amount by messing with the limiter safety protocols!)

She paused before skimming through the data on the screen, slowly running the math behind it through her head.

“Huh, so it is.” She admitted with a blink. “Delete.”

(Why would you do that?!) Her saner self-screamed.

“Because if we remove the safety limiter then we’ll start getting more power out of the function. I mean it’s what a fifty-fifty chance of making everything explode right?”

(That sounds about right.)

(Are you mad?!)

“No, I’m an M.A.D.” Her bat-shit psychotically insane primary personality laughed in a way that made her other personality fear for their sanity.

(The ship’s kind of sailed on that one.)

(Why are we like this?!)

---

(You know we really should take a break.) Her inner logic commented. (It’s not healthy to run so many projects together without a break.)

“I have to work though, what if those guys attack us or something?” She asked, a hint of desperation bleeding into her tone as she continued to work. “I need to be ready if they attack…”

(Burning ourselves out on a dozen half-finished projects isn’t going to help anyone.) Her saner self-reminded, not bothering to add the fact that they were currently working on a function that if they messed up would likely kill them.

She rolled her eyes, as she ran another test on her program. “I’m not going to get us killed.”

As if to immediately prove her wrong, her comp began sparking as it produced far more energy than it should’ve been able to contain. Completely deep-frying the test-battery her more intelligent self, had convinced her to test her functions on instead of the COMP’s actual battery.

“Okay, no need to rub it in.” She told herself, pinching the bridge of her nose.

(I do if it’ll keep you from killing us.)

“Oh, come on!” She groaned. “It was one mishap. We have like seventeen of those with each program. You’re just being a whiny bitch about this.”

“Uh… should I be worried?” A voice asked from behind her.

A glance behind over her shoulder revealed her elder sister Viviana, a tall young woman who like her took more after their Latin mother with their dark hair and tanned skin.

(Quick, meatsuit, say something!)

“What? No. I’m just talking to myself.” She admitted, needing the little voice in her head to remind her how bad that sounded, before she hastily added that, “It helps me think.”

(Nice save.)

(Shut up!)

“Sure…” Vi nodded, her status as a loving elder sister the only reason she was looking over Maya’s inherent weirdness. “Anyway, I was coming to see if you were joining game night.”

“That’s tonight?!” She cried.

“Uh-huh. So, hurry your butt up, hermanaita.” Vi told her as she left.

Maya’s eyes darted between her computer and the unfinished projects there, before darting to her where her sister had just been.

Under normal circumstances she wouldn’t think twice about canceling on whatever event her family was doing in an attempt to double down and finish one of her projects. The thing though, was that game night was the one night a week all of the Williams kids gathered together and played a number of games together, be they card, board, or video.

Now the reason this was so important was due to the fact that she had several… issues, when it came to connecting with people on a fundamental level. As such once she discovered her love of games, and the fact that other people enjoyed playing them with her, these games became a way for her to feel like a member of whatever group she played with rather than the weird outcast that she was usually designated as.

And in that vein game night was the one night a week where she actually felt like a fully-fledged member of her family, rather than the odd outlier.

All of this information circled through her mind as she tried to decide whether to continue working on the projects that would help her protect her family, or actually taking the time to enjoy the fact that she had a family to enjoy.

(Just go already!) Her more passionate side prodded.

Not needing any further encouragement, she undid the few wires that could’ve caused a fire before heading down to the living room where her four siblings were gathered.

Vi stood to the side, setting the console up for whatever game they were going to play.

Her elder brother Tommy was slouched on one of the couches his legs crossed as he scrolled through his phone, headphones around his neck playing a faint song.

On the floor was Izzy corralling their younger brother Seamus as he tried to play the game before everyone was ready.

“About time you got here, squirt.” Tommy told her as he caught sight of her.

“Yeah, I just had to take a project off of the power.” She explained, “So what game am I kicking your a-” her eyes darted to Seamus, “butts at tonight.”

Vi gave a snort of amusement, handing her a controller. “Deviant’s Masquerade: All out combat. And no, you’re not kicking our butts at it tonight, hermanita.”

She pointed at her younger sister. “Izzy what’s my butt-kicking score right now?”

Izzy pulled out a notebook from under the table, “You’re in the lead by five points, followed by Tommy, me, and Vi.”

“Sounds like the odds are in my favor last place.” She laughed in her totally normal, not at all maniacal manner. (Which wasn’t as fun!)

(At least it keeps them from realizing how insane we really are.)

(Eh, we’re not that bad.)

(We’re having an entire conversation without our main personality.)

(That just means we have more personality than all of the posers!)

(That’s not how that works…)

“Enough talking, it’s time for gaming!” She declared, as she and Vi began to pick their characters for their fighting tournament.

And as the Williams kids played through the night, she once more held her lead as her team of scrappers tacticians dominated her sibling’s teams, until only she and Izzy’s team of bruisers and blasters remained.

Of course, this meant that while she had the advantage of speed and debuffs, her sister had the advantage of tanks and ranged DPS, as shown by the fact that her best character was downed by a bullet to the head.

(Fucking bullet spamming bitch! Get over here damn it!)

(We need our own ranged attack…) She thought, part of her regretting picking an all melee team of fighters no matter how badass.

(Actually, that’s a good idea in general.) Her logical side pointed out. (If we’re going to be doing this hero thing, we really should come up with some ranged options.)

(Huh, that is a good idea.) She realized with a pause just long enough for her little sister to kick her character’s ass.

“Wait, what?!” Her eyes darted to the TV just in time to watch her character be torn apart by one final combo as she flutily tried to break out of it. “No. No, no, no!”

With one final blow the screen shifted as the announcer called out, “K.O.”

“Yes, I win!” Izzy shouted as jumped to her feet.

“So much for kicking all of our butts.” Tommy laughed, having been the last butt she kicked and thus the one she’d most recently beaten into the ground with complimentary trash talking.

(I feel like shooting something.) She thought bleakly as she stared at the screen.

(We need dakka.) Her wilder half agreed succinctly.