(no subject)

[a1enzo]

"Mail call!" sings Balun, bounding into the room. Enzo instantly perks up and pushes away his Network Geography homework. (Sort the following networks by scale and functional relationship...)

Hugh, hanging by his knees from a bar run between the top bunks, straightens to look at Balun upside-down. "Anything here?"

"Nada."

"So unloved..." He shrugs and resumes doing crunches.

"You said it, not me. Letter for Enzo and a package for Caret." He flings the letter discus-like toward Enzo, who just catches it, and moves to chuck the parcel at Caret.

"Please don't. It's probably biscuits."

"You think?" says Balun, crossing the room to hand it to him instead.

"Of course. It's probably from my mother. And if it's from my mother, it's probably biscuits. You can have some if you like."

"Alphanumeric!" cries Enzo, staring at his letter. "Bob's moving in with Dot!"

"Hey, right on!" Hugh pauses in mid-crunch to shoot Enzo a thumbs-up.

"Ain't they gettin' married anyway?" Balun inquires around a mouthful of cookie.

"Yeah... but still!"

Caret rises from his desk and, after handing a biscuit each to Enzo and Hugh (who takes his with his teeth), goes to put the rest away in the cupboard.

Enzo returns to his letter, munching. "Awesome, an attachment from Dani!"

"She still in Mainframe, then?"

"Uh, yeah. For a little longer." Oop, better let Dot know to send Dani's letters separately.

"What's she say?"

That Mikey's mind is still stuck in the Bar... "Nothing much. Same stuff Dot said."

"Hey!" Hugh hauls himself up again with a grunt and grabs onto the bar. "You don't pry into a guy's private correspondence, Balun." He winks at Enzo. "Not kosher."

Enzo blushes. "I... it's not..."

"What're you doing, Caret?"

Caret is still standing at the cupboard. He's not moving, just staring intently at Enzo's frame. "Shhhh."

They all fall nervously silent.

Quux!

Caret straightens up and nods in satisfaction. "Thought so."

Hugh flips and dismounts. "What the..."

Quux!

Enzo giggles in relief and waves a hand. "It's just the duck."

"What duck?"

In reply, Enzo rises, goes to the cupboard, and accesses a small red box. He opens it, and a small black rubber ducky with a red bill hops out and lands on the floor. Quux! it squeaks.

"Oh, neat!" Caret crouches down and pokes the ducky. Quux! "Where'd you get it?"

"Hex made it for me. Um, before she fragmented."

"Your chaos virus?"

"Uh-huh." He automatically looks up at the serene white mask on his wall.

"Dude! It's viral?" Balun stares at the duck with trepidation.

"It's okay, we scanned it." They did, too, very thoroughly. Even after she saved the 'Net, even with her new Guardian code, even though she's technically dead, the instinct not to trust anything viral is still strong. "It's not programmed to do anything but run around and squeak."

"Oh. Okay."

Quux! The duck, which has been sitting still all this time, suddenly darts at Balun. He squeaks himself, but it zips between his legs, continues a few pixels, makes a sudden sharp right, and proceeds to tear around the room with no apparent goal or pattern.

"See, that's why I gotta keep it in the box. It'll get out of the room if I don't." He lunges for it and misses. "You can't tell where it's gonna go, but it always gets into stuff. I think it's a chaos thing."

"Looks like it to... whoop!" Hugh narrowly misses catching the duck, which disappears under Balun's bunk.

Balun drops to the floor and squirms head-first under the bed. "C'mere, you... hey! It's running up the wall!" He raises his head to watch the duck and bangs it on the underside of the bed.

* * * * * *
Amber pokes her head out of her room. No, no mistake, there's a bunch of shouting and crashing coming from... of course.

"What are you guys doing in there?" she calls through the door.

"DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!" comes the chorused shout, followed by Caret's more polite shout, "Could you bring us a net, please?"