The Typst Guys have a daring plan to help their user finish a report by Christmas Eve: they will sneak into the professor’s computer. But what they find there is not what they expected. Can the Typst Guys make a Christmas miracle happen for both the student and the professor?
by Julia KandaIt was strange being in the device of a different user. The professor’s Typst Guys had been informed that the Typst Guys of the student were coming and yet the eldest still felt like they were invading somebody else’s space. For all the eldest knew, the other Typst Guys could be supportive of the evil things the professor did.
But as soon as our Typst Guys got a good look at the faces of the other Typst Guys, it became apparent that that was not the case. They were frowning and slouching and seemed generally miserable.
“We are so glad you are here to help us.” The leader of the other Typst Guys approached the eldest. “Our user is very harsh on his students and we don’t know what to do! Nothing we tried convinced him to be more kind.”
“I’m sorry, but we are not here to help your user. We are here to help our student”, said the eldest.
“But we can’t do it alone!”
Silence followed. Nobody knew where to go from here. The eldest was uncomfortable with the entirety of this mission. The youngest was too excited to think straight. The lazy Typst Guy again sat in a corner and the strongest felt it was the perfect time to do some push-ups. The others of the student’s Typst Guys all stared at one another.
“Would you help us if we helped you?”
“That depends on what you have to offer us”, said the eldest to the leader of the other Typst Guys and felt bad about how cold that sentence sounded. But the eldest had to look out for their team and could not risk overworking the student’s Typst Guys.
“Our user has written a detailed outline of the report with which he tasked his students. We would be willing to show it to you. Even so the report won’t write itself, but if you manage to memorize what the outline says, it will make finishing the paper in time a lot easier.”
This offer was much better than any of the student’s Typst Guys had expected. In fact, it was too good to refuse. Our Typst Guys huddled together and quickly discussed the situation, but they were all in agreement.
“We will help you”, proclaimed the eldest in a tone of voice that made the youngest laugh because it sounded too serious for the occasion. The other Typst Guys thanked them and disappeared to get the outline. In the meantime, our Typst Guys got to look around.
On the inside the professor’s device was almost identical to that of the student. Apparently, they were using the same browser and the same type of computer. But on the outside, in the analogue world, everything was different. The professor looked nothing like the young student who still suffered from his teenage acne and a naïve baby face. The professor had gray hair, a mustache and wore glasses. He didn’t look like the villain the eldest had imagined. The professor’s room was more spacious than that of the student and in the back, near a window, there was a Christmas tree already decorated with a variety of ornaments.
“The outline is ready for you”, said the leader of the other Typst Guys, who had just come back and presented the document. All the student’s Typst Guys memorized as much as they could. The professor valued precision and structure. And there were a few important points that he wanted all his students to touch on in their papers. Those seemed to be the most important pieces of information to the Typst Guys.+
“Now it is your turn to help us.”
“What have you tried so far?”, asked the eldest.
“We tried to communicate with him on the loading screen. We showed him a tip that he was too strict and that his student’s would stop enjoying their studies and how sad that would be. After all, he shares a common interest with them. They should get along! But he wouldn’t read them! We then sent him newspaper articles on kindness, which didn’t work either. Maybe he knows he’s mean. Lately he’s been crying a lot and we couldn’t console him. We think he might be upset because he’s going to be alone on Christmas. From what we gather, he has recently lost his mother to a long illness.”
That explained a lot. And the Typst Guys could not help but feel bad for the professor. Sure, he had been unfair to his students, but he was going through a tough time in his life.
“Does he need a friend?”, asked the youngest.
“It appears he does”, said the eldest. “But our field of expertise is in typesetting, not matchmaking between friends.”
“Where does one make a friend?”, asked one Typst Guy.
The lazy Typst Guy had made a lot of friends at a dance club that they frequented after drinking too much caffeine (energy drinks were the devil). The strongest had made friends at the gym, while the eldest had his childhood friends to talk to on the phone.
“I make my friends online”, said the youngest. “Maybe there is such a thing as an internet forum for lonely professors?”
A quick search revealed that indeed, such a thing existed. The student’s Typst Guys left it to the other Typst Guys to familiarize the professor with it. He was their user and therefore theirs to deal with. The student’s Typst Guys were done here. It was about time they left and finished the student’s report.
Everything was much easier now that they had seen the outline. The morning of Christmas Eve they were finally done. No additional unreasonable demands from the professor had disrupted the writing process.
The student passed with flying colors and got to enjoy the rest of the holidays. The professor made friends on the internet forum and was generally in a much better mood. He had still been alone on Christmas, but when he was not grading papers, he was online talking to the other lonely professors and enjoying himself. The Typst Guys would soon be assigned another project, but for now they were pleased with themselves and had gone back into the cloud where they lived happily ever after.
Thank you for reading and stay tuned for the final days of 24 Days of Christmas. Happy Holidays!
