Mitosis & Moral Dilemmas
Nova leaned her head on her hand, staring into the stream camera with a look of pure, unadulterated soul-exhaustion. "Game Over" was literally written on her cheek, but the true tragedy was currently happening all around her head.
It turned out that feeding Byte a leftover energy drink after midnight broke one of her fundamental system parameters: she multiplied.
Now, instead of one single chaotic plushie, Nova was completely swarmed. A dozen tiny devil-Bytes—complete with little red pitchforks, bat wings, and glowing 'X' eyes—were nesting in her hair, crawling over her headphones, and whispering terrible ideas directly into her ears.
"Hack the power grid!" one devil-Byte squeaked.
"Delete her saved games!" another cheered, brandishing a plastic trident.
The only thing keeping Nova tethered to sanity was the single, white angel-Byte perched softly on her left earphone. Sporting tiny feathered wings, a glowing halo, and a neat gold bow, it leaned in close to offer righteous counsel.
"Ignore them, Nova," the angel-Byte whispered sweetly. "You should do the right thing..."
Nova blinked, a faint ray of hope returning to her eyes. "Yeah?"
"...and order twenty pizzas on Mara's credit card!" angel-Byte finished triumphantly.
Nova sighed, sinking deeper into her desk. There was no good influence here. Just Byte, Byte, and more Byte.
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