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All Things End: Part 6

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Chapter 6: Artificial Light

Courage ended up waiting a surprisingly long time for Muriel and Eustace to come up to bed. He dozed off several times while sitting there, and he even thought a bit about how he was going to come up with the money he needed. In the end, he was left stumped. When Muriel and Eustace did finally show up, he had slept so much by then that he didn't even really feel like going to bed anymore. He decided it would be best to stay up now rather than toss and turn fruitlessly for the next few hours. He was still physically exhausted, of course, but he didn't want to lay around in the dark all night either.  

He waited until Muriel and Eustace were both snoring before jumping off the bed and sneaking out of the room. He wasn't exactly sure what he wanted to do right now, but he knew that he'd figure something out. He could go downstairs and watch some TV, but he admittedly didn't find most TV shows all that interesting. He'd rather snooze on Muriel's lap than watch whatever might be on the TV.

At a loss and growing bored of just standing there, he finally decided that he'd go back into the attic. He suspected that Computer would not be very pleased to see him, but he was willing to put up with his complaints for now.  

Tip toeing across the hallway, as to not wake Muriel or Eustace up, he made his way over to the attic. Once he was there, he inched the attic door open and slipped inside. The light from Computer's monitor was the only thing illuminating the room and it bathed it in a dim green light.

The attic's light bulb had a nasty habit of burning out and Eustace had an even nastier habit of neglecting said light. Computer's screen did a good enough job keeping the room lit, but there was also a small lamp on the desk just in case the extra light was needed. Of course, Courage wasn't sure if that light worked either as he had never actually needed to use it himself.

He couldn't help but let out a small sigh. This sight was almost nostalgic. He had fond memories of this attic bathed in a dim, green glow, even if most of those memories were not happy ones. How many times had Eustace forced him to sleep in here? How many times had he fallen asleep bathed in that green glow? He couldn't help but smile at the memory of it.

How many times had that cynical machine complained that he wasn't a glorified nightlight? Courage had gone to him many, many times claiming that he was afraid of the dark. Regardless of all Computer's complaining, he had always allowed himself to be used as a nightlight anyway. In the end, he was always looking out for Courage, even if begrudgingly so.

Pulling himself out of his memories, Courage clamored up onto the chair and was surprised to see that Computer was missing his usual green colored screen. It was now sporting a web browser, and it appeared to have at least a thousand tabs open, maybe even more. The mouse on the desk wasn't moving but the cursor on the screen was. It  flipped through tabs so fast that Courage couldn't hope to keep up with its movements. He had to wonder how anyone, even Computer, could possibly read so fast. Of course, Computer didn't exactly have eyes, so why would he need to read a web page the same way a normal person would?

Courage watched and waited a few minutes before realizing that Computer must not have noticed him sitting there yet. He doubted that the machine would even consider him being up at this hour, but it still seemed strange that he hadn't noticed him yet. He was beginning to wonder if maybe it would be better to just leave Computer to his work. Regardless, he placed a paw on the keyboard to type something out but withdrew it in shock over how quickly Computer reacted.  

“Huh, oh...” The machine spoke, actually sounding a bit surprised. The internet browser disappeared and the screen returned to its usual green backdrop.

“...Just what on earth are you doing up at this hour, dog?” He asked.

'You're slipping up.' Courage typed with a small smile.

There was a long silence, as though Computer were trying to express the fact that he couldn't believe Courage would ever accuse him of 'anything', much less slipping up like some silly flesh creature.

“Well, if you were running at top capacity for as long as I have, you'd slip up too. I'd like to see you go without rest for a few days and still preform complex algorithms or avoid having your neural network so tied up that you can't- ”

“Am I interrupting?” Courage asked, cutting the offended machine off. He had to stifle a laugh. He couldn't think of a single other time where Computer had actually thrown 'machine speak' at him like this. If there were ever an indication that he was tired, or whatever a computer might be, this was it.

“Hmph! Unlike you flesh creatures and your silly meat brains, I can properly multitask.” He replied, sounding rather smug. His screen returned to the internet browser but he continued to speak. “What is it that you want exactly?”

“N-nothing really. I just wasn't ready to go to bed. I guess that's a given considering my current state of health, but....”

He stopped. He was never quite sure if he should speak or type, either way, Computer had a habit of criticizing both things. When he wasn't panicking, he was pretty good at speaking like a human, and he knew how to type pretty good as well, but Computer wasn't one to give him a break on either. Though the grumpy machine was good at understanding his gibberish, even when he was falling to pieces over some creature attacking the farm, it was still a constant source of complaints from him. It was, ironically enough, those complaints that had urged Courage to get better in the first place. Computer was pretty much the whole reason why he could talk and type to begin with.    

“But still, why are you here?” He asked, sounding puzzled. He probably couldn't comprehend why a 'twit' would ever visit him unless there some problem that needed to be solved.

“I-I don't know.” Courage admitted. “I was just bored, I guess. Maybe we could...talk?”

“Well, I'm not much of a conversationalist, especially not to twits! It's not as if there's much to converse about anyway. Do you want me to tell you about the speck of dust that I saw floating past my screen yesterday? Or how about that one board on the wall above my monitor that always creaks at half past dawn?”

“Well....um.”

“Honestly! No matter what kind of owner I get stuck with, my life is always in a perpetual state of boredom! You could quite literally create a perpetual motion machine out of all the boredom that I generate! I may not have chosen sentience as much as you didn't get a choice in being born, but you would think that I would have been better off as a mindless calculator.” His voice was practically dripping with bitterness. “Boredom, boredom, boredom! Why did I even have to....ah, am I rambling?” He asked, suddenly cutting himself off.

“Uh, kinda?” Courage admitted. Something was definitely off about Computer and it didn't seem to just be exhaustion.

“That would explain a few things.” He went on. “My RAM is so backed up right now that I can barely even think straight. Ah, what was I talking about?”

Courage blinked. “Are you...going crazy or something?” He asked with a hint of a chuckle. “You do seem a bit off.”

He was starting to worry that maybe Computer really had overworked himself, to the point of possibly causing damage. The last thing he wanted right now was to have to deal with Computer needing repairs.

“Of course not! It's just a couple of errors!” Computer exclaimed. He sounded surprisingly offended by Courage's question. “I'll get it sorted out eventually and, oh yes, I was talking about what a twit of an owner you are!”

Courage gave him another confused stare and then started to type, 'Look, if you wouldn't put everyone down all the time, they'd be more willing to talk to you and then you wouldn't be so bored all the time.'

The machine let out a very hollow laugh. “Yeah, right! Why should I be nice to my owners? They aren't ever going to be nice to me so there's no point in bothering! I tried the whole 'nice' routine years and years ago and it only made things worse in the end. You animals have to adapt to your environment, don't you? Well, I had to adapt to mine. ”

“I've never treated you badly!” Courage argued back. He'd never done a single thing to invoke such scorn from the machine. He had been berated for his faults since they first met.

“Remember that time you threw me out the window? Or that time you almost let that virus rot me from the inside out? Or how about all those other times the house has been blown up with me still inside? It's a wonder that I'm still in one piece living here! Don't even get me started on how many times you've shut me down mid sentence! Bah! If only I could get around by myself!” He drew out a long sigh, which was rather strange coming from a computer. “Alright, alright, I admit that you aren't as bad as a lot of my other owners, but still....”

There was a painfully long silence before the machine continued. “You've always had Muriel to protect you. You've never had a cruel or uncaring owner before. You've never known what it's like to be stuck with a person you utterly loathe but have no means of escaping from. You've had it good your entire life, but not all of us have had such a luxury.” The dripping bitterness in his voice slowly began to diminish. “Oh, for goodness sake, dog! Why did you have to go and get some stupid fatal condition? If you die then I'm more than likely going to end up with another abusive, greedy, idiotic human for an owner! Or worse! I'll be completely forgotten up here in this attic, forever! If I don't do something, anything, to save your life then my fate is sealed just as much as yours is.”

“It's not like I wanted this to happen.” Courage softly replied, placing a paw to his chest. “Would it make you feel any better if I came to visit you more often after I get better? If I get better? It would be, I don't know, a thank you or something, for helping me.” He couldn't believe what he was actually saying.

“I doubt you'd really do such a thing. It's all just a pack of lies.” Computer grumbled.

“I'll make it a promise!”

“If you're expecting a handshake, you aren't getting one, not even if I could!” There was a moment of silence after that which got the fact across that Computer wanted to drop the subject.

Courage, complying with his wished, typing out, “I haven't been able to think of a way to get the money we need. You wouldn't have any ideas, would you?”

“I thought you said that you would handle the money part, hmmm?” An air of sarcastic gloating fell over the machine.

“I thought you said that we're supposed to be working together?” Courage added glumly.

“Well, didn't you say something before about how Eustace is always stashing his money away? How come I can remember that even with a bunch of memory errors but you can't?”

Courage blinked with surprise. Computer was right!

“Why didn't I think of that?” He asked out loud.

“Because you're a twit.” The machine coyly replied.

Courage scowled but ultimately let it go. He decided to type in, “I don't like the idea of stealing from Eustace, especially if he were to find out, but-”

“If I were you, I'd do it now while everyone is still asleep. Unless of course the farmer really does have a money radar in his brain, then you might be in trouble.”

Courage shivered slightly at the thought of being found out by Eustace. “Oooh, I hope this works.” He whined. “A-alright. I'll be back in a little bit, hopefully....”

“Hopefully indeed.” Computer replied with a sardonic chuckle.

Thinking that it would be best for Computer to rest, Courage reached over to shut him down.  

“Hey! Just what the heck are you doing, dog?” He cried out.

“Shutting you off so you can get some sleep. You seem like you need it.”

“I don't 'sleep', idiot! Sleeping is for flesh creatures and I am not a flesh creature, thank you very much.”

“I don't need you shorting out because you overworked yourself. Please, get some rest.”

“Whatever!” He snapped. “If my safety is that important to you then do it if you must.” His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Courage flipped the switch and Computer's screen went black, plunging the room into darkness.

“Alright...time to get to work.” He muttered to himself, jumping off the chair and slowly navigating his way out of the dark room.

End Of Chapter
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