MOOOOOoooooooooooooo! I suppose I didn't mention that there is no order to these. Well...there is no order to these.


...up

Because in the beginning there was only Jeremy, it never occurred to him that he needed friends. Even as a child he had always been on his own. His parents were rich, near wealthy; the large corporate type that worked at all hours to the point that one had to wonder where they had the time to go about making a child. At least Jeremy had, although not with bitterness. He didn't miss people that he never knew.

Up until he was five he was under the impression that his Nourrice was his mother, and his parents had not seen fit to disabuse him of that notion. Apparently, it was good for his emotional development to at least have a stand-in. Jeremy hadn't minded. Nourrice had a son that she brought with her as a playmate for her charge. She had felt bad for him and thought it best that he had some kind of interaction with a child near his age. Jeremy hadn't minded. In fact, he rather enjoyed the arrangement.

Of course, all good things come to an end, and so Jeremy found himself shunted off to boarding school, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Jeremy most definitely had minded that, but he went along with. There were, of course, the occasional cards exchanged between Jeremy and his pseudo-family, but it wasn't the same.

Jeremy had his own room, as requested by his parents, as to allow him his work and study without distraction. There was little interaction between him and the outside world. At first, he turned towards computers, (up until then a casual interest of his,) to take his mind off of the isolation from his peers. Yet, eventually, the technology became a pursuit of its very own, something he could lose hours in and still come back for more.

And then Jeremy met Aelita, though technically her program designate was Maya and Maya was not an actually person. She was an A.I. But she was the first friend Jeremy had made since his parents had shipped him off, and artificial intelligence was still intelligence.

A catalyst, a change, and things would never be the same. For better or worse.