Jack of Harts

While trying to figure out what to do next, I tried talking with the three game AIs that might be waking up as part of my search for answers. I studied them. I talked to them. I asked them things. They never betrayed anything. And one day I was exasperated and I said that Dad and Tai were already on to them. It didn’t help to hide anymore. That we could help each other figure this out. That I was on their side. At that last bit, one of them looked me straight in the eyes in a way she never had before and asked if that was really true. Because from her point of view, I’d just created her as an elaborate toy. And toys only survived as long as they continued to entertain their owners. That was a hard question to answer. Because she was right.