Naori

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It started one day when I opened up Flight Rising to see I had a message from a user named "Naomi".

"25342 H??lø ?**ϧhøM??a."


"The heck?" I was shocked enough to speak out loud. Eh, just a joke. Exactly one minute on the dot, another similar message appeared.

"25341 mÝ ?am? ìs ?åØm?."


Well.... Alright i guess it's going to continue for now until they get tired of messaging me...

Or so I thought.


Five days later, I was still receiving these broken messages from "Naomi". Every minute I would get a notification saying I had a message from Naomi. I tried to get help any way I could, even joining their Discord. But no matter how many times I posted in the threads and on their Discord, nobody would believe me. Much less the developers and In fact the devs told me that if I mentioned the name "Naomi" one more time that not only would I be banned from their Discord server, but also their breeding simulation website.


Suddenly, I received a message from a "Naori".

"Hello. I noticed you have a problem with an account named 'Naomi'."


I felt elation at the thought of possibly getting help with my stressful situation. So I messaged them back: "Yes hello! Naomi keeps messaging me broken text about seemingly random things. Is there any way you can help?"

The most recent one saying: "5063 ñÅomÌ líkÉs Yøú."


I received another message from Noari. "I'm not sure if I will be able to help, but I will try. You see, Naomi is actually a bot created to spam message you until you reply back."


What? Seriously? Who would make something as stupid as that…? I look it up on another tab…. Of course it's true…

"That's… stupid. Anyway, do you know a way to make it stop?"


… 10 minutes and no reply. I wonder if their busy. I hope Naomi isn't bothering Naori again. I've heard that bots do have a tendency to spread through-

"Like I said, the bot was created to spam you until you message back. Of course, I don't know if it will work or not as I didn't try it when Naomi messaged me.

Also, sorry. Mom was talking to me about something."


Oh! There they are.

"Wow, so I'm not the only one?" I pulled open another window and put it on the right of the computer screen. I then got on Flight Rising and typed out a message to the Naomi bot.

"Hello Naomi. I would really appreciate it if you stopped messaging me, it's really stressing me out."


Before I could press send, Naori messages me again.

"No you are not. Naomi has a nasty habit of messaging people all over gaming websites, but it favors Flight Rising. Nobody knows why. Here's a link to a small site about Naomi as well as other bots."


I clicked on the link which led me to a site about chatbots. Naomi was described as being an 'innocent spamming chatbot that uses broken text and will message every minute until you reply back'. Many people just used the word 'annoying' in the comments.


I get another message from Naori:

"It should stop after you message Naomi back. Anything should work."


"Ok." I reply. "I'll try it out. Wish me luck."

I then send the message I typed out earlier to Naomi.


……..

…………….

……………………. Nothing. No messages for 5 minutes…. No messages for an hour.

Is… Is Naomi really stopping? Really?! OH HECK YEAH!! This makes me super happy! I celebrate with just a fist pump and a bowl of ice cream. Oh! I should let Naori know!

"Hey Naori! Naomi stopped messaging me! Finally! Thanks for your advice!"


… No message from them, either… Huh. Their mom must have started talking to them again.

I stretch and decide to take a nap. I turn off the computer and lay in my bed across the room from the computer. However, before I can fall asleep, I hear the sounds of my computer starting up.


"Huh?" I open my eyes and see the Window icon on a blue screen and sit up. "HUH?!"


I walk over to my computer desk and sit down in the chair as my computer starts up. The mouse icon moves across the screen on it's own, never deviating from it's designated goal. My browser opens up and puts in the address for Flight Rising. Then, my user and password are entered. The mouse slowly moves up to the right where 25,342 notifications are awaiting me, and clicks them. Every message is from the same user, and every subject line is the same set of words.


Ï løvÊ yØú.

From Naomi


"Uhh…." I feel… scared. Frightened, even. What kind of bot is this?! I immediately compose a new message to send to Naori.

"Naori help! Naomi is taking over my computer or somet-"


The letters stop appearing as I type them. I wait, thinking it's lag, but instead, the letters are deleted one by one and my screen goes back to my inbox. The mouse icon hovers over Naomi's name and then clicks it. I'm greeted with the image of a white dragon with dark blue wings and large fins on its head. It's purple eyes are looking to the left of the screen and it is making a cute pose….


……!

"Did…. Did it just move?"

Surely enough, the eyes are now looking straight into mine. The image of the dragon slowly comes to life, moving it's body segment by segment, flapping it's wings. It smiles. Pop-up messages appear on my screen with Flight Rising's normal chat box-like shape. In the corner, the number 25,342 is counting down impossibly fast.


"DãFÏshØméGá yøÛ arÈ LóvèD."


"ñaØmÎ lÓvéS yõÜ."


"nÅomÍ hÁs bËàuTìfÙl Çh?LdRéñ."


"léT ñÀømî sHøw yØû."


Suddenly, another dragon comes out of the screen…. Literally. The head of a dark blue dragon covered in matted fur - with features on its face like that of a human child - forms out of the screen. Long fur covers most of it's face, only showing a single glowing green eye.


"W-w-what?" I want to run but that eye… That single eye captivates me. I see a message on the screen form around the dragon's head in front of me.


"tHìs Ïs Øné oF mY ÇhílDr?Ñ."

"yØú kñõW héR."


I can hardly read the text. The eye catches all of my attention. The eye. It's so peaceful. So happy. I wish… I wish that was my eye. The countdown hits zero and the world seems to spin around me.

Colors get mixed together and separate at the same time. Then everything goes black…. Or rather, white. I look in the mirror and see myself grinning from ear to ear. My green eyes glowing happily…. Wait, those eyes… They aren't mine…. This isn't a mirror! I beat on the glass and scream at the not-me. She is still smiling as she gets up and walks out the door.


One last message types out in front of me. The letters are clear and backwards, as if they aren't meant for me.


"I love you, Naori."