By the 23rd century, life on Earth has changed drastically. Virtual reality is not just possible but ubiquitous. Most people live primarily online, in fantasy worlds called "lairs" that fit anybody's desires, from Space Opera to fantasy to "some kind of crazy happy Super-Deformed anime style."
Telly is a 14-year-old girl of the Elysium lair, who has only two friends in the world: Nekokat, and the eponymous kimmie66, a genius of high caliber. The latter, however, has just sent Telly a note — a suicide note. As she doesn't know anything about who kimmie is offline, she and Nekokat are left in the dark before kimmie begins mysteriously appearing all throughout the network.
A short 2007 graphic novel by Aaron Alexovich, the author of Serenity Rose. Part of DC Comics' Minx imprint aimed at teenaged girls, Kimmie66 is an intriguing look at the future of society and its effects on regular people.
This comic provides examples of:
- Ambiguously Brown: Nekokat in real life.
- Big Brother Bully: Wade is this to Telly. He mellows out completely after he's traumatized by the destruction of his lair.
- Brain Uploading: Kimmie's mother tried to do this to save her. Unfortunately, Kimmie was already dead.
- Came Back Wrong: Kimmie. Her mother tried to permanently upload Kimmie's mind after her suicide attempt. The problem was that Kimmie had been dead for too long, so the thing that's been haunting the lairs is essentially a corrupted copy with the powers of a virtual god and a broken mind.
- Department of Redundancy Department: As is pointed out, "Nekokat" means "cat cat."
- Digital Avatar
- Goodbye, Cruel World!: kimmie66's note, the only indication that she may be dead.
- Goth: Telly's subculture.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Nekokat's name. Thankfully this does not extend to her dialogue.
- The Hecate Sisters; Though Telly and Kat both share maiden/mother traits:
- Telly: Maiden.
- Nekokat: Mother.
- Kimmie: Crone.
- Inside a Computer System
- Internet Jerk: Nekokat a.k.a. Rebecca. Online she's loud, over dramatic, and honestly kind of rude to Telly. When we see her real life self at the end of the comic she is much calmer and sweeter.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Coil. Barely on the "gold" part.
- Mind Rape: What essentially happens to people who are in their lairs when they get destroyed. Telly comes home to find her brother Wade sitting in the dark, looking absolutely traumatized. He's only barely able to explain how kimmie66 appeared in his lair and did... something that destroyed it all. It's implied if Coil hadn't pulled Wade and some others out just in time, the damage Wade suffered would've been far worse.
- My Greatest Failure: Coil ends up deeply ashamed of what happened when Kimmie destroyed his lair, lamenting that he could've done more to prevent it from happening if he hadn't been treating the situation like a game.
- Nanomachines: None of those lame goggles in the future.
- Only Sane Man: For as meek as Telly is, she's far more grounded in reality than most of the people in her life. She's willing to ask questions about where lines between real life and fiction blur, like questioning if she really knows anything about her friends or only knows their backstories created for the lairs. This is best exemplified by how her digital avatar is identical to her appearance in real life, unaltered compared to Nekokat, her brother, Coil, and numerous others.
- Playful Hacker: Most of the "Drifters" seem to be halfway between this and The Cracker.
- Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Averted. Characters interrupt each other and stumble over words.
- Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: Destiny (Enlightenment), Elysium (Romanticism.)
- Shrinking Violet: Telly is not terribly social, and her narration is filled with nervous words.
