Jessica POV -
It had taken an hour or so for Sidnie to finally calm down, she was still sniffling and tears could be seen, though they didn’t fall anymore. She had also, splendidly, fallen asleep while clinging to me on the couch. The crying had tired her out, and I was glad for it. I was beginning to really worry about her having a relapse with the crying, and hiccuping attempts at breathing.
Stroking her hair gently, I sighed as softly as I could. How the hell was I supposed to stay mad at her? The simple answer was I couldn’t, though I really wished I could.
Shaking my head, I decided to ignore it. I picked her up as carefully as I could, and made the slow, halting, and temptatious trip to her room. She needed to get in her bed, and I wanted to get even a little in my own way.
Basically I held her a bit more closely than absolutely necessary, but it was worth every single second. I had no doubt I had a stupid smile, when I shouldn’t, but it was something.
When I finally reached her room, I did a bit of interesting maneuvering to get her under the covers and at least somewhat comfortable looking. Her tears were at least gone now, and she didn’t seem as upset in her exhaustion induced sleep. It made me happy to see that at least.
A soft snore escaped her, and I laughed softly, before moving a strand of hair from her face. My parents wouldn’t care much if I stayed, and I didn’t really want to leave Sid alone. Taking my phone, I sent a text to my Mom, the dickhead could deal with it, Mom at least tried to get me a bit.
So I crawled into bed, above the covers, and tried very, very, hard to get some sleep. The fact that Sidnie tended to become an octopus with anything warm and breathing in her bed made that extremely difficult after an hour though. The result was a covered, nuzzling, and lightly snoring beautiful girl, whom I loved, latching onto me and making adorable noises. The night was far from restful, to say the least.
Sindie’s Father POV -
Alright, move that...no no no. Ok, try again, new line of coding. Still nothing, it’s changing to fast, and rapidly for me to slow it down enough for the processors to cool.
I sat back, just watching the bloody screen and rubbing my eyes.
“Dear? What’s wrong? Did you manage to find the error in Leo’s base programming code?”
I turned toward my Wife, and bless her beautiful smile, she had coffee. I took the proffered cup, and shook my head while I sipped it. She sighed, and sat on in the chair beside me, taking my head and running her thumb along my fingers after I grasped hers in turn.
“You’ll think of something Dear. It was a shock though, that loud siren, and then your phone going off while we were finishing the Evolution map for the Angels later tiers.” She paused, and gave me a very level look. It made me uncomfortable.
“So, when were you planning to tell me that you had been using Leo as a Spy to watch over our little girl? Also, exactly HOW did you manage to create him with your Boss’ approval? He’s too advanced and willful to have been willingly allowed into the world, even for our Angel.”
I froze, the camera feed should have been hidden, how?..Garret, that sneaky little...I sighed, and flinched when I felt her soft hand reach my shoulder, her finger doing that tapping thing just before she decided if I needed to be smacked for doing something foolish again.
“Um….can I plead the fifth?” The tapping got quicker, uh oh…
“I..I just wanted to watch our baby grow up! She was so sick and..” I rambled a bit after that, but when I finished I hadn’t moved my loving, sweet, and Angelic wife one bit. Yes, must think sweet things, she knows when I call her...Her eyebrow twitched, um..Adorable? I didn’t want to know how she could read my mind!
“Be that as it may, it has been a while since she recovered. Why did those videos show her at school, or her daily activities? Also, I found the file...Explain.”
I gulped. Must. Change. Conversation! “Leo was pushed through when I reminded the Boss that he owed me, and as Sidnie’s Godfather didn’t he want her to have someone she could really interact with?”
The look she gave me was all sweetness, and I was afraid. But she let me off the hook for the moment at least. “So, you blackmailed him with the birthday parties and those pictures of her in the adorable puppy costume for halloween she loved to wear, didn’t you?”
I could only nod, and she sighed before leaning in and giving me a kiss on the cheek. Yay! Saved!
“Stop evading my question, the file. Why do you have pictures of every single boy she met at school in there, and why are some of them crossed out with a big red X?”
Or not...Damnit. Sweating a bit, I bit the bullet and began explaining to her everything. How I didn’t want my baby girl, my little Pumpkin who would always be so cute and innocent to be corrupted by the assholes, and that the boys with X’s were the ones that were inclined to doing bad things to their dates on the first night out together. The fact that really they were just...scared a little by a glitch or two I MAY have placed inside their Dungeon Worlds had nothing at all to do with it. That last bit earned me a smack to the back of the head, and a lecture on how I was not supposed to use the central station for monitoring any possible error, glitch in the systems to keep boys away from our Daughter.
Of course I knew I shouldn’t, but I would find another way. My Pumpkin would not be defiled by some hormone enraged Teenager! I remember what I was like as a Teen, and I remember all the things I did. My Babygirl would not be subjected to it!
I got another smack upside the head from my darling Wife, who was not smiling at me. Damnit…
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
From there I went into a bit of detail about Leo ‘him’-self. “Leo was a personal project, I wanted Sidnie to have a constant companion that literally grew as she grew. He started out with the base intelligence of a child around her age, though a bit more intuitive thanks to him being a Dungeon A.I.”
I paused a moment, taking a sip of my coffee, mana from heaven! Watching the Code in front of me, I continued.
“It was a task, each A.I has its own personality, and grows quickly of course, but Leo was created with the sole purpose to give Sidnie Human like interactions, for all I know Leo literally considers himself her real Brother, and while he sort of is, I can understand how that illusion can be seen as an issue. I thought it might become one, someday. But I wanted our little girl to have a friend aside from Jessica, or Franny who couldn’t always interacts with her because of her illness.
As the years went by, he did splendidly, he helped her cope better, from what I saw at least. I honestly believe he was one of the key factors that helped her recover, at least mentally. The fact I had him monitor her was because I couldn’t be with her like I wanted, and it was the best way I could feel close.
Imagine my surprise when he actually sent me a message stating that we should keep a watch out for the Boys in her class, she didn’t know her own attraction, which frightens me all the same. He did it on his own, his programming began to mutate a bit, not really outside of any parameters, but a lot sooner than it should have. “
I sipped my coffee again, pausing to allow most of what I said to sink in. I knew it wouldn’t make a lot of sense, an A.I mutating within parameters, or how he was designed to literally grow and age with Sidnie like a big brother for her. But I did the best I could.
“Hell, remember the fights we had about her being given the Demons? More so after that first episode? I literally had almost no choice. Leo’s programming rejected all the Races in the beginner, intermediate, and several of the Master levels as well. None of the Monster data stuck, he basically ate them. I don’t know what I did, but the Demons stabilized it a bit, so I think Sidnie will be able to have normal Races from now on. But in the beginning, the Demons were the only one that didn’t get deleted, I mean...I did it half as a bloody joke thinking I’d never be able to give him what It wanted. But it worked! Then she herself showed such a high aptitude with them, and raising her dungeon.”
My wife was nodding, we had both been surprised at how effective her methods of farming points were, without using the kill method, that we had actually published a purchasable guide with some of her Methods that was sold, the money set aside for her college fund of course. The fact it damn near crashed the system when all the higher end players realized the implications, as well as the resulting intensity of the tournaments spoke volumes on its own.
I mean, her damn class teacher, a colleague, was using more advanced methods to teach her and her class now! It made me proud, my little Pumpkin was a genius. I continued, before I entered a haze of praising my little girl.
“Then she managed to evolve multiple Tier 1, and Tier 2 Demons within such a short time frame, even if it was technically years, with literally the hardest Race to do much of anything with, with nothing but that outdated book I gave her access to.
Now we have this mess. Whatever she is doing, however she is interacting with those four oddities has changed the fundamental core of exactly what those Demons are. It is like she made them kinder, softer, though they are still rather fiendish. Not to mention she just had some odd artifact, which I know is generated in the area at random based on the species, and literally just had her favorite Demon force Evolved into THE Cerberus, it was meant to be a hidden evolution that couldn’t be reached without millions, upon millions of points and set conditions. Yet she, and that blue canine just tossed that conception out the door.
Personally, I think it happened in accordance with the odd advanced mutation rate of Leo’s coding. The fact he is, for lack of a better term, evolving himself means that his processors are being forced to adapt, and grow to match the massive boost that just happened. I honestly would not be surprised if it happened again, with the others that have their own artifacts.”
I sighed when I finished, patting my Wife's hand to ease the worry I knew she had. “It’ll be alright Dear, Leo is also entering the next stage of his A.I growth. So it will take a while. I checked the camera’s at home, the ones we had installed for when we left in case we needed to return if she got hurt. Jessica is with her, and they are both asleep, though I think she might be strangling Jessica, her cuddling habit kicked in….Jelous.”
Another smack, ignoring my rant my wife was more attuned to this stuff. Yea, I knew Jessica was a Lesbian, never bothered me. But I still don’t know why my Wife seemed to not want them in the same room, they were just really good friends afterall.
I rolled my eyes, she worries over nothing. I doubted Jessica would go after my little girl, the absurdity. She had that...Suzuki girl she liked afterall. So my little one was safe from her already. I smiled a bit at the genius of my plan, Jessica would keep the boys away, and I wouldn’t need to worry because she liked the little Asian girl. Now...to figure out how the heck I was going to fix this mess so my little Pumpkin wouldn’t cry.
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I decided to give this a day earlier than I planned. The regular release schedule will be weekly, on Friday, for those wondering. Also, I utterly despise this new set-up for RRL, it makes me glad I do not use tables often, if at all.
On a note regarding this chapter, and the coming ones. Yes, I know it is short, but I needed to get back into the swing of writing something cute and cuddly, it took a bit. The Chapters following this will be a good deal longer, unless they are meant as fillers.
The second note I have is that Sidnie will be entering a school hosted tournament in about three Chapters, and that will last a while. It will also tie up book two, to some degree. Maybe I will extend it into pure school life and Dungeon growth hi-jinks.
Much love and cookies