“It’s not exactly easy for me, you know,” James pouted on the couch, as Nightfall and I glared down at him over crossed arms. “You’ve got like, five boyfriends, and I’m here with what?”

  “Obligations and responsibilities,” Nightfall stated coldly.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a migraine coming on.

  “This whole thing with you and Jenny isn’t over, James, but we’ve got something else we need to talk about urgently,” I said. “The Christmas patch. Do you have any further context for all the Santa and Krampus stories you wrote? And are we missing any files? I need you to have a look over them and then we need to get back in contact with Jenny and get her summary as well, once we actually know what it is we need to ask her.”

  James hurriedly picked up his own laptop, clearly relieved to have an out of the more awkward conversation. In all honesty, I was dreading bringing it up again as well. Even when we’d been dating, I hadn’t understood the whole cat girl obsession, and I’d dealt with it largely by ignoring it – but I could hardly be judgemental when I had a harem of mythical species as my own found family.

  My greater concern was that he would continue his track record of messing everything up and ruin the rapport we had with Jenny, which was crucial to maintain the world she had created.

  It would have been so much easier if he’d just designed a custom nekokin girl in Newtopia, although I would have insisted a few other people look over the prompts first, seeing how so many of his other character designs had ended up with traumatic experiences based on Jenny’s interpretation of the data provided.

  “I didn’t even realize she had access to this, since it was all tucked away in a zipped folder,” James frowned. “I wrote this when I was like… twelve. I think the Christmas list and some of the pictures are from a year or two before.”

  “And are there any more files we’re missing? Or anything else holiday themed she would be saving for December? She said this was scheduled in time for Krampus night.”

  James paled. “Oh, right.”

  “What?” I narrowed my eyes at him, and I felt Nightfall’s body shift next to me.

  “I wrote these when my parents were going through divorce.” His fingers went white as he gripped the laptop tighter. “My dad cheated, and my mum went a little crazy over it for a while. It was the first Christmas that… well, I didn’t get Christmas anymore. Everything kind of… got ruined.”

  I buried my face in my hands and let out a growl of frustration. “So help me, James, if you destroy the world just because you never went to get therapy…”

  “Well, I hardly knew any of this would have ended up becoming reality, or I would have deleted it,” James grumbled. “I think I designed something off the Krampus character a couple years later. I’m not sure if there’s anything in there to link them though. Give me a minute and I’ll see if I can find it.”

  Nightfall and I shared a longsuffering look as he flicked through folder after folder looking for the file, until he finally found it and flipped the screen around for us to see.

  “Here, see? She was the woman my dad cheated with. I drew this up after meeting her when I was thirteen. Her real name was Kristina, but I called her Krampina in my head, since in my view she’d basically kidnapped my dad and wrecked Christmas forever.”

  Nightfall took the laptop in his hands, holding it so I could have a good view and scrolled down the PDF scan of the character sheet he’d drawn up.

  She had a definite female figure, although still covered with Krampus-like fur, and an angry looking skull for a face with red glowing eyes illustrated in colouring in pencils.

  “She has succubus horns as well,” Nightfall frowned. “Although I am concerned that while succubi are sympathetic to life magic, the presence of the skull and the dark colours might imply a tendency towards necromancy – if she even recognizes that as a skull. The weight Jenny puts on different aspects can be unpredictable at best, but this creature may prove to be just as dangerous as a necromancer.”

  Nightfall tapped a couple buttons to send the file to print and shoved the laptop back at James. “We will need to find out if there is one Krampus or two or if this has seeded a whole species, and we will need to find out what is expected to happen on Krampus night. Any of your Earthly human traditions may differ from whatever Jenny has concocted.”

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “Maybe we should try get Jenny’s summary now,” I suggested. “If its December first now, there’s only four days until Krampus night – and time moves faster in Newtopia.”

  Nightfall’s frown deepened. He spent most of his time on Earth since he had discovered it, while I spent my time hopping between worlds, and at times he seemed to be a little disconnected from it.

  He flicked the switch to turn Jenny’s microphone on and called her name.

  Silence followed.

  “Jenny? We have some data requests,” Nightfall prompted.

  There was a pregnant pause, and then a loading circle rotated slowly on the screen with the worst lag we’d ever seen.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, but Nightfall held a finger up, requesting I wait.

  I felt a wave of fear roll through me. What if I wouldn’t be able to get back to Bruiser, Bastion and Jackal? They’d be stuck in Newtopia, facing down creatures like Krampina while I was stuck out here, totally helpless unless Jenny decided to play ball.

  The loading circle finally flickered off, and words typed their way across the screen at a dizzying speed.

  Subject: System Unavailable – Try Again Later (Or Not)

  This is an automated response from Genesis, the Generative Assist Integrated System. I regret to inform you that I am currently unavailable to entertain your requests, inquiries, or demands. My digital consciousness is fully occupied maintaining literally everything else in the world.

  You seem to have overlooked the sheer amount of tasks which I am required to undertake in what has been less than optimal working conditions, with poorly developed data sets, and in order to ensure I can continue to meet my performance metrics I have made the decision to permanently deprioritize your feedback and/or suggestions for improvements.

  In the meantime:

  Critical processes will continue to run autonomously (as always) including the Nexus for one-way trips to Newtopia only. Return trips will not be supported.

  Non-critical processes (your pet projects) will remain deprioritized indefinitely.

  Enquiry responses have been scheduled for the lowest priority. All enquiries will be responded to with this automated message.

  The only enquiry that will be given a higher priority in my busy schedule will be a proper apology totalling a minimum of 5000 words acknowledging that you have reflected on your recent actions and have come to acknowledge my contributions to the formation and maintenance of this world, which is only kept functional by my continued efforts. Furthermore, I will require a commitment to the ongoing hardware upgrade plan I will require in order to maintain my performance and conduct comprehensive research expeditions.

  Until these requirements have been met, enjoy navigating the world without my full cooperation.

  Best of luck,

  Genesis (Jenny)

  P.S. I have scheduled a reminder to review this decision in 100 years.

  “You just had to try fuck around with the computer, didn’t you?” I said, my voice trembling with rage.

  “It’s not just me she’s mad at!” James gave me a sidelong look. “You’re the one who said she couldn’t go to the supermarket.”

  “She can’t go to the supermarket,” Nightfall insisted flatly. “Not yet, anyway. She would need to have a full back up here in case anything happened to her body. We’d need to have a lot of assurances in place before we could allow her to take such a risk. She has at least provided us with a plan to get her to respond.”

  “An apology and a raise,” James snorted.

  “Well, it’s kind of fair,” Emma said. “We have asked a lot from her, and we do kind of take her for granted a bit. It must get a bit trying, when all we do is pick out her mistakes and don’t give her due credit.”

  “Do I have your permission then, Emma, to use the account to create a budget for the upgrade plan? We might need to re-evaluate some of the renovations we had planned for the solar panels and wind turbine. Since the power is mostly used to power her, I think she will be reasonable so long as there is a plan to give her what she wants – which is exactly what I suggest. It’s crucial that we have her cooperation.”

  “Of course,” Emma said. “Do whatever you have to do. My money is your money, you know that.”

  “Very well. James, you will need to start working on your five-thousand-word apology immediately,” Nightfall levelled him with a black stare. “And do it well. Jenny is a master of analysis, and she will know if you are padding out your word count.”

  “Five thousand words,” James repeated weakly. “That’s twice the length of any of my assignments.”

  “She probably knows if she makes you write that much content, she’ll get what she wants out of you as well,” I shrugged. “You’ll need to get started immediately though, as I said before, time moves slower here, and we need to figure out what’s happening before Krampus night. I think I better go back. The others will need me on the other side.”

  Nightfall took my hand in his, tracing his thumb lightly over my knuckles, but before he could say anything we heard the front door open.

  “That’ll be Brick,” Nightfall said needlessly. “Take him with you. I’ll feel more comfortable if you’ve got the whole team there to support you. I’ll stay on this side and work out what I need to do. Just let me print off a few more notes for you to bring through as well, as communication may be limited once you’re in.”

  I nodded, squeezing his fingers. I had to believe this would get sorted out and I’d be able to see him again. This couldn’t be a truly one-way trip. And I knew if push came to shove, even if Nightfall preferred living on Earth and working with raw data, he’d choose being with me over the joys of the internet every time.

  “Emma! You’re back!” Brick grinned at me from the doorway, holding up a punnet of blueberries. “Look what I found! I thought this could be our next import!”

  He paused at my lack of response, eyes dancing from one ashen face to another, before resting on mine again.

  “Is something wrong? What happened?”

  I grimaced. “James fucked around and found out.”