dothack: HELLO MY LOVE, a .hack/sign fanfic

.hack//HELLO MY LOVE

April 2003.

Writing in your diary is a sacred thing. Some people are secure enough of themselves to write entries into their journals and share them with friends; they are lucky. Others are very private about their own thoughts, and would rather not share them with even people they trust to prevent embarrassment.

Miss Alyssa Calabria was a lucky one.

During one of her breaks at the M Company's phone support station, Alyssa quickly penned an entry into her diary about what the clouds that appeared in the sky that morning meant to her. As if they were a heavenly inkblot test, she described what she saw, and what feelings these early morning clouds brought about.

I thought they kind of looked like an old picture of me and my brothers playing kickball. It was bright in the picture, so maybe it was bright that day. It's bright this morning too! If you wanna see the picture, just look at my picture album! The red one! XOXO Alyssa

This was intended for her loving boyfriend "Raven," so named because, like a bird, he would come at a moment's notice to sweep her away from all the troubles in the world, in a deus-ex-machina-esque display of affection and surprise. Her boss, with a nametag reading "Mr. Gordon" peered over her cubicle, and could not help but smile.

Kids. He showed his encouragement of her writing, bubbly-minded as it is...by merely saying nothing. Soon, five minutes to the next hour, Alyssa was on duty again. Proudly picking up her headset, with a sense of optimism infused after the written account of the bright, inviting clouds, Alyssa screened the next call with an unmatched enthusiasm.

"This is Alyssa Calabria of M Company! How may I help you?"

Too bad this enthusiasm really was unmatched. The man on the other line was panicking, irate, and loud.

"DON'T YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO GET THROUGH TO YOU DAMN PEOPLE?! AN HOUR AND A HALF, THAT IS HOW LONG!" Alyssa bounced back from this failure of an anger management class, immediately popping off the headset in fear. She could hear him quite audibly with the headset on the floor; not a good sign. She stomached all the bravery she could in one clean lunge for the device, in an attempt to communicate with the man.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but I have ... no ... control over that. So, I'd really appreciate it if...you weren't as loud?" she said in a way that sounded as if she was asking herself a question.

"WELL...MAYBE YOU CAN ANSWER MY QUESTION? WHY THE HELL IS MY M-EXPRESS ACTING UP?!" The caller referred to "M-Express," the M Company's premiere e-mail client.

"You mean you can't get it to work properly? Did you restart your computer yet?"

"WAS I BORN YESTERDAY?!"

"Well..." It could be a virus was the first thought that came across her. She received a photocopied notice at that moment, and when she stood up to grab it, she could overhear several conversations that resembled hers at the moment. "Sir: it appears that a virus known as 'Hello WNC' has contaminated your computer. The only option left for you is to reformat your hard drive immediately." That's the way! I sound all professional and stuff! Miss Calabria was very proud of herself.

"REFORMAT MY HARD DRIVE?! ARE YOU INSANE?! I HAVE YEARS WORTH OF HARD WORK STORED ON MY COMPUTER, AND YOU EXPECT ME TO REFORMAT MY HARD DRIVE?! YOU UNHELPFUL LITTLE BITC-" Alyssa began to sob in shame when Mr. Gordon immediately grabbed her headset.

"SIR! I would like to inform you that the generous time you've spent HARASSING my employee has provided us with all the information we need to trace the origin of your call...Mr. Elijah Sans!" Alyssa looked at her boss from above, appearing to her like an omnipotent guardian sentinel (albeit balding and middle-aged).

"..." the other end of the line was silent. A click was heard, and the line went dead.

"You don't have to take that crap Miss Calabria! You have to put your foot down and stand for yourself!" Mr. Gordon left with a frown o his face, but still appeared as a strong man. Alyssa looked down at the floor for a few minutes, depressed that there were mean-sounding men out there who would resort to calling people names when they were angry.

***

The rest of the day did not fare much better. More calls came pouring in, albeit these customers were less harassing; but what they lacked in their harshness, they made up for in their quantity. Repeating the statements read on the photocopied notice became tedious, and later, exhausting. Alyssa could feel her body begin to explode. Her callers became more annoyed as time went on, looking for answers; not notices.

"It's best to reformat your hard drive because you can't save what's damaged on it," Alyssa uttered in dreary monotone.

"You don't sound too enthusiastic there miss." The voice on the other end of the phone this time sounded a bit warmer.

"Getting inconsiderate calls all day doesn't leave me very happy," once more uttered in a similar manner as the whimpers of a beaten-down dog.

"Oh. It's all over the news. The Hello WNC virus is an interesting type of terrorist attack. They were wondering whether or not this was against American capitalism, the United Nations, or just the M Company itself," the voice informed.

"...A terrorist attack?" Alyssa was a little interested, but still depressed.

"Well, not any terrorists like you or I would imagine. More like, Internet terrorists. They're saying that it might just be some hackers who want street cred' for taking M Comp off the map...and I'm sorry about hearing that you had your chops busted by all those calls. People on the phone can be real assholes." The man on the other end of the line smiled; it could be heard from his voice intonations.

"Wow. You sound like you care..." Alyssa droned, still half-paying attention.

"My problem isn't too difficult. I'll just reformat my hard drive any everything should be good as new. As far as those harassing callers are concerned, don't worry about them." Alyssa did get the caller's last words: "don't worry about them."

"Hey. What's your name?"

"Horatio." Alyssa grabbed a soda from under her desk and splurged on it.

"That's a nice name."

***

It's unfortunate that the story couldn't end on Horatio's call, as more, and more frustrated callers began to harass employees. Alyssa picked up a call and did nothing but cry; that was how bad it was. At this moment, a man walked through the glass door leading to the call of cubicles and entered Alyssa's, lifting her from her chair and walking off.

"Raven?" she asked under her whimpers.

"Sssh...I heard about the virus on the news. I knew you worked at this place, and I figured you'd be stressed out from the calls. I called up your boss and asked if you were alright. He told me you were getting some harassing calls, and that he had traced all their addresses; he's gonna fine every single one of those bastards. I asked if he could let you off early, and he said you had done more than your share of work today." "Raven" walked out of M Company with Alyssa in his arms, saving her in yet another deus-ex-machina-esque fashion.

***