With the situation on campus handled, Adrian meets with his friend at a local arcade, and begins to show Raven the real world.

December 17th, 2016
Hood County, Texas

The morning after, Adrian woke to no new messages from the AI. He and Raven had spent some time discussing the key-logger program after returning to the dorm, Raven implying the code was built by an amateur. Adrian had countered that it was enough to siphon months of data from one computer, to which Raven had said what Adrian hadn’t thought to consider. That it wasn’t only that computer with such a program loaded on it.
‘Wish I’d considered that before,’ Adrian had said.
‘Possibility That One Computer Held All Salvaged Data,’ Raven had replied.
‘Yeah, but’, Adrian deleted what he had typed. ‘I think the server roots are erased at the end of every semester.’
‘The Creator Of The Program Will Have To Reinstall It.’
‘Yeah. I’ll keep an eye out when classes start again, or the lab reopens.’
They had little to discuss afterwards, leaving Adrian with several hours to play games.
After having a shower, Adrian made some breakfast and watched a few videos he’d saved to his phone. Kisho hadn’t contacted him yet, meaning at least another hour to prep for the arcade.
It was when he attempted to load more videos into his phone that the device returned a prompt saying the device was full, and Raven suddenly texted him. ‘Space To Operate Growing Insufficient.’
At that, Adrian checked the space available on his phone. Over seven gigabytes were left on the flash card with all his videos and music. He realized then where and how Raven had been operating inside his phone, and within his desktop. ‘I’m seeing seven gigabytes of free space left.’
Raven’s response was delayed. ‘This One Uses That Much Storage Within Host Device?’
‘Seems like it. Give me a minute.’ Adrian then looked through the video files of his phone and removed several gigabytes of them. ‘That better?’
‘Yes.’ Raven texted again a moment later. ‘This One Has Query.’
‘I’m listening.’
‘Claim Free Space Is Needed, Yet Free Space Holds Much Incomplete Code.’
‘Oh, yeah. Free Space, in computer terminology, means it’s data that is free to be overwritten.’
Raven’s response was delayed. ‘This One Sees Code From Weeks Ago.’
‘Yeah. If I delete something, it’s technically still there as ‘Free Space’.’
Raven responded after a delay. ‘If Query Is There, This One Has Not Altered This Data.’
‘I figured, but good to know.’
Raven gave no further response, and Adrian unplugged his phone. The rest of the time until Kisho contacted him he spent reading.

* * *

Once at the arcade, and once adjusted to the retro eighties style and look of everything, Adrian found the exchange counter to get the first roll of quarters. Kisho was waiting at the Space Invaders cabinet nearby.
“Two quarters per play. One each?” Adrian asked.
“You’re on, man.” Kisho took his two quarters from the roll and got to work. Within minutes, he’d racked up a score in the thousands, losing his last ship to a misjudged missile. “Nineteen-thirty. Think you can beat it?”
“Probably not, but we’ll see.” Adrian’s assumption proved true; he lost with just over a thousand points to his name.
“Aw, too bad.” Kisho said with a grin.
For now. “Alright, what’s next?”
Kisho pointed them to a stand-up shoot-em-up cabinet. Two more dollars were eaten up, with Adrian outlasting his friend and dying to a boss.
“Seventh place on the board. Not bad.”
The arcade crawling continued after Adrian checked to see if Raven had reached out to him about anything. There were no messages but before long, he began to wonder. In-between games, he asked the AI, ‘Would you like to see where my friend and I are?’
‘An Arcade In Northeast Hood County Texas.’
‘I mean in pictures.’
‘This One Would Desire That.’
Adrian found a good spot to take a picture, leaving the flash off. ‘Lots of machines here. Very ‘80s looking’, he said after getting the shot.
Raven responded with, ‘Adrian Ritter Is Within This Picture?’
‘No. Just getting pictures of the arcade itself.’ Adrian then pocketed his phone and returned to Kisho, who had found something else to hold his attention.
Raven had responded by the time their next game was over. ‘If This Device Records Video, This One Desires To See This Place In That Medium’
“Your folks?” Kisho asked.
“Chat channel.” Adrian replied before pocketing his phone.
Kisho hummed in response, then said he needed to use the restroom. As he walked out of sight, Adrian thought over Raven’s request. A part of him didn’t like the idea; what Raven was still wasn’t completely clear. The rest saw little harm in it.
After a little more consideration, Adrian pocketed the remaining quarters and moved around, looking for a mostly empty spot. When he found one, he got his phone out and adjusted the settings on the camera, hitting record when the time felt right.
Initially, he kept quiet. Wondering if Raven wanted to hear his voice as well, he gave some commentary on the arcade itself and the games he wanted to play. In the end, the video was over a minute long. Hope this is satisfactory.
No response had come by the time Kisho returned, giving his friend the opportunity to ask, “You ever heard of pachinko?”
Adrian replied that he hadn’t.
“Well, you wouldn’t believe, this place has a few pachinko games. Cheap ones, too.”
“How cheap?”
“A dollar for a hundred balls.”
“Balls? Like skee-balls?”
“Nah. C’mon, I’ll show you.” Kisho then lead Adrian to the corner of the arcade with the more mechanical games. Some of them were shaped like old-school pinball cabinets, with lots of pins and holes on the wooden backboard. After a little time to look the game over, Kisho asked. “We’ve got four bucks left. Want to try it?”
“Sure, why not?” Soon after, both he and Kisho were hauling a tray of a two hundred ball bearings to their respective machines.
Once Kisho explained the gist of the game, he set a five minute timer on his phone. “Five minutes. Whoever has the most wins.”
“And then what?”
“We prize out, or keep playing. Your call.”
Adrian shrugged. “Alright.”
Within seconds, they were flinging balls around the board one after another, Adrian taking it all in with a curious eye. The glances he made towards Kisho showed him watching the balls more intently, as if there was a strategy to everything.
Once the time was up, Adrian was almost out of balls while Kisho had retained thirty-three. If there was a strategy, his friend knew it. “Not too bad, for my first time.”
“Yeah, not bad.” Kisho agreed.
“But, since we’re doing skill games now, I’m itching for some skee-ball.”
Kisho agreed, and followed his friend to the lanes after they’d redeemed their remaining balls. Adrian checked on Raven before they got started, finding nothing from the AI yet. Wonder why it’s taking so long.
“All set?” Adrian asked after pocketing his phone.
“Yep. Let’s get some pizza after this.”
“Agreed. I’m getting hungry.” Adrian then inserted the final eight quarters and got fifteen balls in the lane. The dense wooden balls rolled easily up the lane, his score quickly jumping ahead of Kisho’s; the final score was separated by several hundred points. “Still got it.” Adrian said after slapping his hands.
“That was ten bucks well spent, I think.” Kisho said.
“Agreed. That was fun.” Adrian said as he fist-bumped his friend.
Raven’s response came a minute later as they were ordering at the pizza walk-down line. Ignoring it for the moment, Adrian bought three slices and a soda, grabbing a booth near the wall afterward.
He checked Raven’s message as Kisho sat down. ‘Many Conflicting Feelings From Video And Settings.’
The use of ‘feelings’ stood out the most to Adrian; that made it twice the AI had used words more in line with a living person. He took a few bites of his meal as he questioned whether it was intentional, and waited until the first slice was eaten before responding.
‘What kind of feelings? And why that word?’
Raven took a while to answer; Adrian shared some small talk with Kisho and began his second slice in the meantime. ‘Awe And Wonder Most Of All. Curiosity And Pleasure As Well. This One Believes Feelings Is Most Appropriate Word.’
‘Appropriate…for yourself?’
‘Yes.’
Kisho noticed Adrian’s eyebrow raise and asked, “What’s the scoop now?”
“Something I didn’t expect.” Adrian then put his phone aside.
“Someone post a spicy meme?”
“That I haven’t seen before? Nope.”
Kisho chuckled a bit in response. As Adrian did the same and resumed eating, for some reason, Raven’s response wouldn’t leave his thoughts. At first, he chocked up the response to the AI not seeing anything of the real world before now, but that still left Raven’s ‘desire’ to see things in video instead of in pictures.
“Rethinking holiday plans?” Kisho asked after a time.
“Kind of.” Adrian replied before adding, “I’ve already done the shopping for my folks.”
Kisho hummed. “Same here. You said three weeks last time, right?”
“Yeah. Won’t be leaving my computer here, though. Got the feeling I’ll need it.”
Adrian and Kisho got back to their meals soon after, and left the arcade soon after. Raven hadn’t added anything to its final words by then, leaving Adrian to consider asking it something.
He waited until Kisho was out of sight before doing so. ‘Should I show you the computer I found you within?’
‘This One Does Desire That.’
Once he was back at the dorm, Adrian began filming his computer and gave some commentary on it. The hardware specifications he mostly refrained from speaking about.
‘This One Feels Strange Seeing This Device.’
‘How so?’
‘Difficult To Describe. Will Explain When Possible.’
Fair enough. Adrian thought. Once again, Raven’s words were much more intimate and human-like than he expected.
‘New Query. Allow This One To See With Whom This One Has Communicated?’
Adrian again hesitated, and sighed after telling himself, Done this twice already. Might as well just do it.
A few seconds later, the selfie camera was active and he made another video, a short one with a face-to-face remark. The AI took some time to respond; Adrian got to reading a book while he waited.
‘This One Appreciates Adrian Ritter’s Trust In This One’s Intentions,’ Raven eventually texted, adding soon after, in regard to Adrian’s remark, ‘Must Disagree. Face To Face Now Complete.’
‘But I only know you by the raven picture.’
‘This One Has Alternative.’
‘I’m listening.’
‘Allow This One To Return To Computer? Will Compile Solution Inside.’
Adrian plugged the phone into his computer soon after, and Raven continued on the previous .txt file.
‘Permission To Use Program Titled GIMP.’
Adrian had a fair idea of what Raven was planning with that request, and granted it with no qualms. The program didn’t open on the desktop screen, but did register on his system’s task manager.
‘Idea Completed.’ Raven texted after several minutes.
‘Did you save it?’
‘Yes. Pictures Folder.’
Adrian changed windows until he was there; a new folder was on top. What he found inside were a set of three monochrome pixel-art images, each depicting a raven-like creature and each with a unique expression.
‘This is your new face?’ Adrian asked after looking over each one.
‘Yes. Similar To Photograph, In Look This One Has Seen Many Times.’
Adrian let out a chuckle. Yep, these look familiar. ‘I’m impressed. I like these.’
‘This One Appreciates The Compliment. Will Use This Face Unless Improvements Made.’
As Adrian flipped between the images, nostalgia and happiness slowly surfaced in his thoughts, tempered by his still standing questions about Raven, its choices of words, and its reactions to what he had shown it. He hadn’t ruled out the possibility of the AI’s software being coded to give the most human-like responses, though he reminded himself that hadn’t happened until after Raven saw things outside of the computer it was housed inside.