Fenrir realizes something as he’s walking toward the Hermetic Scholars’ office. If he is able to feel how Nell is feeling at all times now, then doesn’t that have some scary implications? The technology to share the feelings of somebody’s heart through virtual reality is a serious deal. Couldn’t that same technology be used in law enforcement? Business? One would probably be able to tell whenever somebody else is lying.

Though, he figures that such a thing is only possible because of how the virtual assistants are essentially “installed” inside of their brains. The assistants probably read how their humans are feeling and then upload and share that information, so feeling what somebody else is feeling is only possible through virtual reality and when both parties have AIs more or less installed inside of their brains that are communicating through a virtual medium.

“Am I right?” Fenrir thinks to Saya.

“Pretty much, Onii-chan! It’s explained as magic here, but it’s really just science and programming,” Saya answers.

“Still, it’s scary to think about. What if one of those crazy groups calling for everybody to ‘transcend’ with AIs – actually, now that I think about it, you wouldn’t even need both parties to have an AI in their heads. Only one person would need an AI, and that AI could just send all of their information to whoever wants to know it. What if criminals all had AIs forcibly installed in their brains to monitor them as part of their punishment?”

“Well, Onii-chan, stuff like that isn’t really illegal, so maybe it’ll happen!”

“You know all of my thoughts, feelings, and memories, right?”

“Right!”

“You don’t share that with anybody or anything, do you?”

“Correct! Since you didn’t actually read the terms of service, there was a part in there that said all information like that will not be going to any third parties or stored anywhere! Some of that stuff can be accessed in-game, but the only stuff that anybody else would ever be able to see is all stuff that has happened here in this world. Even then, us assistants will closely monitor all information being shared and are responsible for protecting anything that might be too personal.”

“Why do I have a feeling that some governments have totally gone and asked Clark for access to all this information?” Fenrir asks, standing outside of the office now waiting to finish his conversation with Saya.

“They have! It’s been in the news, Onii-chan. The good news is that Jenson Clark has, as you would probably put it, ‘fuck you’ money. Being the smartest and richest man in the world means that governments can’t scare him! I mean, he’s even got his own private space station!” Saya explains.

“I wish I had a personal space station.”

“Maybe someday, Onii-chan.”

“Alright, thanks for the information. Now, let’s hope that Thelmes is working today,” Fenrir says.

“Good luck, Mr. Fish Armor!” Saya teases before going silent.

With a sigh, Fenrir walks into the office.

“Fenrir!” Thelmes happily shouts as soon as he sees Fenrir.

Something looks different about the cat-goblin-thing.

He no longer has the “cat” part to go with his goblin and thing parts.

Instead, he… has the lower body of a pig? Before, he was just standing on two cat legs. Now, he is like a pig-centaur-goblin-thing as his body turns into that of a pig’s at his waist.

“Change of style?” Fenrir asks.

Thelmes looks down at his body. “Ah, yes! How splendid for you to have noticed,” Thelmes says. “Now, what brings you here? More experiments, perhaps?”

Fenrir holds out Rod. “I figure you might be interested in getting to experiment with a partner gem, so are you feeling up to running some tests while helping me bond with him? I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Splendid! I can already see that gem is shining much more brightly than it was when you first brought it here. Wait, did you refer to it as a he?”

“Ah, yeah, I did. I asked him if he’s a boy or a girl, and he said boy.”

“You can talk to it already?!” Thelmes asks, practically jumping up and down from excitement.

“Kind of? I told him to pulse his light once for yes, two for no. Watch.” Fenrir looks at Rod. “Are you a fishing rod?”

Rod pulses its glow once.

“Are you a boy?”

Another single pulse.

“Are you a secret lizard person in disguise trying to take over the world from the shadows?”

Two pulses.

“See?” Fenrir looks at Thelmes.

Thelmes looks at the Rod with wide eyes and an opened mouth. “How did… how did I never consider such a thing? I. Have. So. Many. Questions. Fenrir!”

“Yeah?”

“I will help you with him, but in exchange, you must let me have one hour of asking him as many questions as I can think of!”

Fenrir nods his head and Rod pulses once. “Looks like he agrees to it as well, so let’s get some training done.”

“Splendid! Come with me, come with me,” Thelmes says, leading the wolf and the fishing rod into the usual combat testing room.

It’s empty, fortunately. That means that no matter what sort of odd tests they may be doing, nobody is going to be around to see.

“Alright, so what are you going to have us do?” Fenrir asks.

“Talk,” Thelmes says.

“Talk?”

“Talk.”

“About what?”

“Yourself! Share your life with your partner. Talk to him about your feelings, your dreams, your memories – talk to him about himself, even! In the same way that you would bond with another person, you will bond with him. While it will not make up for the natural bonding to be had through shared experiences together, it will still increase your bond by a noticeable amount. I think.”

“I guess that makes sense. Uhh,” Fenrir looks at Rod then at Thelmes. “Could we… get some privacy, maybe?”

“Ah! I need to stay present to watch how the gem reacts. Worry not, anything you say will be strictly confidential.”

“Alright, then, I guess… I’ll just start talking,” Fenrir says, sitting down with his back to the wall and placing Rod in front of him.

Fenrir starts off talking about topics that he doesn’t mind Thelmes knowing about. He talks about his time spent in-game thus far, his friends and girlfriends, his favorite stuff such as food and colors, and more basic topics like that. He thinks that he notices a slight change in how Rod is glowing, but he isn’t sure. However, he does notice Rod occasionally pulsate once or twice with what he says as if he is agreeing or disagreeing with Fenrir’s opinions.

This helps Fenrir realize something. A one-way conversation isn’t going to properly grow a bond. Bonds can be developed when two people are sharing their opinions, understanding each other, and treating each other fairly. Right now, Fenrir is just having a selfish, one-sided conversation.

“Do you have favorites, Rod?”

One pulse.

“How about… Thelmes, do you have something I can write on? Maybe like a whiteboard?” Fenrir asks. He isn’t sure if this world has something like that, but if anybody is going to have it, it’ll be the scholars.

“I do! One moment, please,” Thelmes says, rushing off and then returning a few moments later with a whiteboard, eraser, and what appears to be a pen with a tiny, black rock on the end of it. “It works just like a marker, I assure you!”

Fenrir takes the supplies and starts writing on the board. Surely enough, it works just like a marker if not a bit bumpy at times which makes it difficult to draw straight lines.

He holds the board up to Rod after writing on it. On the board are a couple of dozen colors with a number next to each one. Black has one next to it, white has two, blue has three, and so on.

“Pick the color closest to your favorite and then pulse as many times as the number next to it,” Fenrir explains.

Rod pulsates its glow twice.

Just to make sure that Rod understands what to do and isn’t just pulsing twice to say no, Fenrir changes the number next to white from two to seven.

“How about now?” Fenrir asks.

Rod pulses seven times.

“Really? Awesome, we’ve got the same favorite then.”

“Splendid! This is a great idea, Fenrir,” Thelmes says, reminding Fenrir that the pig-centaur-goblin-thing is still sitting next to them and watching everything.

Fenrir goes through a few more questions with Rod such as whether he has a favorite food, drink, or anything else like that. Of course, Rod signals no to most of those questions.

Wait, thinking about it, Fenrir could probably try to figure out some of Rod’s history. He still really wants to know who made Rod, why Rod was left in a random fishing shop, and so forth. However, those are probably personal questions. Fenrir hasn’t said anything too personal about himself yet, so he needs to open up about that first if he wants to learn about Rod.

“I’ll let you ask him two hours of questions if you give me some privacy,” Fenrir says.

“Don’t worry about it, Fenrir. I only have enough questions for one, probably, and if you really want privacy then I do not mind giving you some. Please do come and get me as soon as you’re done, though! I want to be involved for as much are you are willing to let me be,” Thelmes says.

“Thanks, Thelmes.”

Thelmes returns to the front of the office, leaving the wolf and the fishing rod alone.

“He’s eccentric, but not a bad guy,” Fenrir says.

Rod pulses once.