Glitch'd - Ch.3 - Source Code (Patreon)

"The bright green hair's one of her trademarks," nil pointed out.

null countered, "Sure but it's not exactly unique. And the fact that it is one of her trademarks means every other wannabe poser uses it to try and imitate her."

NaN reminded the other two, "Most of them wouldn't know about the old-school HUD and deck though. And even if they did, odds are they wouldn't bother with the retro equipment. According to Wisp this Glitch wasn't just wearing that stuff, she actually used it."

"She used it to kick Wisp's butt!" nil grinned. "There's no way some poser could do that."

I looked up from the log files I'd been reviewing and grumbled, "Yeah thanks for the reminder nil. Why are you three so excited about some retro black hat anyways?"

nil and NaN rezzed in as soon as they dropped the call, then I had all three of them pestering me for more details until I finally told them the entire embarrassing story. That was a real sight too. Three identical catgirls sitting together on the sofa with rapt attention, watching me with six wide eyes, while six black fuzzy ears pointed my way and three black furry tails swished from side to side behind them in sync.

Meanwhile I was still sitting crosslegged on a chair, with my big floofy purple tail in my lap. And as much as I tried to ignore it I kept finding myself stroking the soft floof or just idly playing with it while I talked. I was also very aware of my own tall fuzzy ears moving around, they'd shift from angled forward to folded back or even drooped down depending on what part of the story I was recounting.

Then when I was finally finished the triplets immediately began debating various details with each other about whether or not the girl I met was the 'real' Glitch. So while they were doing that I decided to review the personal log file my HUD recorded. I continued to stroke and play with my tail while I scrolled back through the details of my day, searching for any clues as to how that delver forced this new avatar on me and deleted my purple smoke puff.

"She's not a black hat," null insisted. "Although I can see why you corpo types would think that. Glitch is pretty harsh on megacorps."

NaN nodded, "Kind of like us, you know?"

I frowned, "So she's a grey hat then? Anyways what's so special about her? And if she's such a big deal how come I've never heard of her before?"

nil replied, "She's got a big rep, but only in certain circles. Part of it is because of the mystery? She kind of appears out of nowhere and kicks some corporate ass then vanishes again."

"That and she's been doing it since forever," null added as their tail twitched behind them. "Like practically since the mesh went mainstream? The oldest hack I've heard attributed to her dates from about two decades ago. And like nil said, she comes and goes without a trace. I think it's been over a year since the last time anyone saw her."

"If she's been delving for twenty years then she's a lot older than she looks," I commented. Not that it was unusual, even folks with normal boring real-life avatars tended to idealize them at least a little. Almost everyone looked younger fitter and healthier in the mesh than they did out in meatspace.

NaN spoke up next, "Obviously none of this is confirmed, but that's no surprise right? Megacorps aren't going to publicly admit anything beyond whatever they're legally mandated to say. It's not like they'd come out and share the name of the delver that just cracked their latest encryption protocol or stole their CEO's bank accounts."

"I first heard stories about Glitch when I was in middle school," she added with a blush. "She's the reason I wanted to be a delver in the first place."

I felt my ears fold back again as my frown deepened, "So she's some kind of legendary anti-corpo crusader? And you heard about her in school? How come I've never heard of her?"

"I didn't hear about her at school," NaN corrected me. "My school was corporate-owned, they wouldn't even admit delvers were a thing."

Then nil answered my question, "Please don't take this the wrong way Wisp, but I think the reason you never heard of Glitch is because until you met us you mostly hung with the wrong crowd. And face it, even though you're straddling the fence these days you still tend to fall on the corpo side."

"Whatever," I grumbled, "I hope you three aren't going to use this as another excuse to bug me to quit my job and go full-time with you."

null shook their head, "Nah, we'll leave that topic alone for now. I'm sure you've got plenty of other things on your mind anyways."

"Plenty," I nodded as my attention shifted back to my log files again. Then I sighed, "It doesn't make any sense. My log documented the change to my avatar, but it's obviously been doctored because it claims I did it myself."

That left me with just one other thing to check. I had those two files Glitch gave me, and according to her the first one contained the source code for the attack she used on me. Assuming she wasn't lying, it was my last hope for an easy solution to my avatar problem.

I took all the usual precautions, and I made sure to open the file in an isolated sandbox that had code execution disabled. I was half expecting it to be some kind of virus or trojan, and was mildly surprised to see it really was just source code. There was an awful lot of it though, and I quickly lost track of time as I studied line after line of code while my fingers ran through the purple floof of my tail.

The first revelation was whoever wrote it was a true poet. The best word I could use to describe the code was elegant. It was clear and easy to read, concise in some areas and flowing in others. It wasn't needlessly convoluted or obfuscated either, this wasn't the work of someone who wanted to stump or trick the reader. It was written by someone who was proud of their work, and wanted it to be appreciated.

Once I got over the beauty of it and started figuring out what it actually did my eyes widened in disbelief. At the same time my tail shifted up off my lap and into my arms where I ended up hugging it against my chest.

"This shouldn't be possible," I muttered to myself.

The attack used undocumented subroutines and function calls that seemed to be part of the underlying structure of the mesh itself. Stuff I'd never even seen mentioned, let alone referenced. Never mind actually using it in a live application, that stuff wasn't documented anywhere.

If the file was for real then the attack that hit me was able to interface directly with my subconscious mind. There were some terrifying implications there, but the code didn't exploit any of them. Instead it accessed the low-level avatar editor functions without loading the UI, then it created a brand-new avatar from scratch by asking my subconscious mind what I really wanted.

When the process was complete my existing avatar was overwritten and replaced with the new one that my subconscious mind created. Which explained why my log files indicated that I was the one who edited my avatar. Because if this was true, then technically it really was me making those edits. Which also fit what Glitch said, that it wasn't her idea to turn me into this.

According to the source code, my subconscious mind wanted me to be a small purple anthro foxgirl. Except that didn't make any sense, because -

"Hey Wisp?"

nil's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and that's when I noticed my heart was racing while I hugged my big fluffy tail to my chest. I let my tail drop back down onto my lap as I quickly closed the file and pushed that other stuff out of my mind for now.

"Yeah nil, what's up?" I asked, as I tried to ignore how warm my cheeks had suddenly become.

She asked, "Everything ok? You were looking a little freaked out. What are you working on?"

"It was a possible fix for my avatar," I replied with a grimace. "But it was a dead end. Looks like the only way I'll get my smoke puff back is to rebuild it from scratch."

The triplets exchanged a glance, then NaN suggested "If that foxgirl av bothers you too much then why don't you switch to one of the default avatars for now? Or you could just open up the editor and swing the dial over to the masc end, be a purple anthro fox boy instead?"

I thought about that for almost a whole entire millisecond before dismissing it with a tiny shudder. "Nah. The default avs are awful, and anyways this isn't so bad."

"It's not me," I hastily added. "I mean obviously I'm not really a girl, but I can live with it. For now."

null shared another look with NaN and nil then commented, "I don't know what you think qualifies as a 'real girl', but you actually seem pretty comfortable like that. And you're even cuter now than you were as a little puff of smoke."

I suddenly found myself grateful that my cheeks were coated in fine purple fur, because it meant my friends weren't able to see how bright I was blushing. I hadn't realized they thought I was cute before, and it left me feeling some strange new emotions knowing they thought I was even cuter now. I remembered Glitch kept calling me that as well, and next thing I knew I was hugging my tail to my chest again with my face partially hidden behind it.

That left me feeling even more embarrassed as I pushed the floof back down onto my lap. As a diversion I tried to change the subject to something completely different.

"What was it you three were talking about earlier, when you mentioned bets and spreadsheets?" I asked. "I never did get an explanation about that. And what does hatching have to do with anything?"

A wide cheshire grin settled on NaN's face as she began, "Well -"

"It's a delicate subject," nil stated, cutting off her sister with a warning look. She sounded almost apologetic as she told me, "Hatching is a term we use for when trans girls figure themselves out, basically they hatch from their trans egg. And when we saw you in that avatar we all assumed you were trans and you'd just hatched."

"Oh," I mumbled as my eyes widened and I found myself thinking about Glitch's code again. Assuming that stuff was real then it basically said I wanted to be a small cute purple anthro foxgirl. At least subconsciously anyways.

Then I frowned as I peeked over the floofy tail I was hugging to my chest, "Wait that's what you were betting on? Just how long have you thought I was trans?!"

null shrugged, "Pretty much as long as we've known you?"

"That's why none of us were surprised to see you as a cute little anthro purple foxgirl," NaN added.

I had no idea what to think of that, and ended up just frowning into the white fluff at the tip of my floofy purple tail for the next few seconds.

Then nil broke the silence, "Hey Wisp? It's ok if you're trans, we should have made that clear from the start. And it's also ok if you aren't. I want you to know that the three of us are still your friends, whether you're a boy or a girl. Or both or neither."

"Yeah," NaN agreed. "I don't remember if we've ever actually come out and told you this, but all three of us are trans."

null blushed as they admitted, "That might be why we sort of adopted you into the group? We really honestly thought you were one of us, that you just hadn't hatched yet."

"Oh," I mumbled into my tail.

At least I finally had an answer to that question, now I knew why I was their only guy friend. Except maybe I wasn't really a guy after all. Or maybe I was and this was all just a mistake. I really didn't know what to think or how to feel.

After a few more seconds I sighed, "I'm glad that we're all still friends, and I appreciate you explaining this stuff to me. I don't know right now if I'm trans or not though? I need some time to figure that out for myself."

"Of course," nil nodded. Then she grimaced, "It's about time we all logged out anyways, gotta take care of meatspace stuff. Maybe some time away from the mesh will help you figure things out?"

I felt my cheeks heating up again as I mumbled, "Yeah. Maybe."

"See you later Wisp," NaN said.

null added, "Ping us if you need to talk. Even if we're not online we're always nearby."

"Thanks you three. Take care, see you again soon," I replied with an awkward wave.

We all went through the log-out motions, and a second or two later the three of them derezzed and the sofa across from me was empty. I was still sitting crosslegged on the chair though, I had no intention of returning to meatspace.

I decided I wasn't ready to confront those gender questions right away, so instead I distracted myself by having a look at that other file Glitch gave me. I went through all the same precautions as before, even though by that point I doubted it'd be anything dangerous.

And sure enough it turned out to be another harmless document. Instead of source code this one was an old scientific paper, called "Digitization: Technical Challenges & Practical Solutions"

The title was interesting but what really caught my eye were the names of the two authors. Desrosiers and Sachs were tech legends, they were the people who originally created the mesh. In a way they were to the mesh what Berners-Lee was to what they used to call 'the web'. Except Desrosiers and Sachs also invented the technology and developed the hardware that made it all possible.

They were practically famous, although very few mainstream publications or school textbooks bothered to mention that Sachs was a trans woman or that Desrosiers was neurodivergent. Most delvers and anyone with more than a passing interest in the mesh knew all about them though, which left me wondering why I'd never heard of this paper before.

It made me even more curious though, since Glitch implied that the file might somehow help free me from my reliance on Trodacorp for a regular salary.

The date on the paper was another surprise. It was written twenty-eight years ago, which put it just one year after the first mesh prototype went online at a couple universities. That was also about a year before the Collapse, when the climate finally gave up and everything began to fall apart.

Odds were the paper was never published, it probably got lost in the years of chaos that followed. It was also probably the last paper Desrosiers and Sachs ever wrote, since neither of them survived through that chaos either.

All that explained why I'd never heard of it before, but also left me wondering how Glitch found it. Either way, I was excited to see what it was about. I ended up laying sideways across the chair, with my head on one arm and my legs dangling over the other.

My big floofy tail wrapped around and I hugged it against my chest again while I quickly got lost in the text and illustrations floating in the air above me.

** This chapter was brought to you courtesy of Camille, who commissioned it! **