gf3/WAT — comment on commit 5f1dc029ef174c44779211bb46f7bafa8493ed13
File:  line 0
By SlexAxton:

Axe was the first to say something.

"Hey Pep, it's alright, we'll get one next year..."

Pepto wanted no part in this. Christmas was ruined.

"Everyone wanted a tree this year. They just haven't been able to make enough to keep up with all the people." his father added.

Pepto hung his head but walked slowly back to the house with his Dad and brother. He was in such a hurry to get out the door before that he didn't even tie his shoes. This was proving to be a challenge since moping involves so much feet dragging, but he managed.

He got home and didn't ask anymore questions and just went up to his room. Really it wasn't a room, though. His Dad didn't make enough to have rooms for everyone so they put up dividers in the attic and he split it with Disney, the second youngest Belton.

He didn't cry or complain, but in his mind, this was the end of his Christmas celebration. It wasn't the same as in the stories, and it just wasn't worth the let down. He hopped onto his Tab. He was always good with Tabs compared to the other kids his age. He was the first to find information on the semantic web (even though it was still in beta) in class, and he even learned a lot of cool tricks from his older siblings about how to make the Tab do special things that weren't built in.

His brother Canon was the best with Tabs and was even going to a special school for it. He spent all of his time talking with friends. Unfortunately for Pepto, the SOPA act of 2014, and it's 2120 addendum for 4D piracy were still hindering his ability to fully explore.

He was blocked from all the normal hangouts. His parents said he was too young to be talking to strangers and most of the other entertaining websites were being blocked by the 30yr Viacom Takedown trials. They were just myths to him, even though he had seen a few of the sites through a tunnel that Canon had showed him a few months prior.

He needed to vent, but he didn't want to hurt his Dad's feelings so he started digging. He knew a few of the tricks that Canon had showed him. He tried different ports, and he tried Tor9 and he tried VPN2, and eventually, it came down to something much simpler. He realized that going through all these technical hurdles was probably not going to get him very far. He thought for a moment and remembered that his teachers have 'extended access' to the web for 'research purposes.' It didn't take long, he eventually realized that he knew just about everyone of his teacher's passwords.

He had always been more gifted at using the Tabs than his teachers, and he was commonly called in to help with problems that he thought were easy, but the teachers couldn't figure out.

"Pepto! Can you help me print these Adobe Acrobat Reader License Agreements again? I need to sign them and fax them back in for the new updates today!" his math teacher would say nearly once a week.

He started with her.

`$> fssh mrsatler@bz.tabsc.zedu`

Wait. Wait. Wait.

`$> please enter password for mrsatler:`

`********`

Wait. Wait. Wait.

`$> tunnel created. logging access.`

He hoped they didn't check those.

"Oh well... too late now," he thought. His fun began.