Kid Cthulhu
This is why you should never get a virtual reality program designed by the guys who coded Silent Hill...

Pinkiepie
When it finally clicks, it's gonna be great. But I'm still lost for now

steveha
I don't understand everything, but a picture is forming. I could be wrong but...
She makes this VR world or whatever it is, and she said she has always wanted children; suddenly she has a child. For whatever reason, he looks like a young version of the guy we've been calling "Chrono-Assassin" (the one who followed, abducted, and killed Charlie); for whatever reason, she's just acting like he's a child.
Now, for today's comic, remember that the sound effect when she fired the future rifle was "THOOM". And around the time she did that, the Chrono-Assassin shot her. Now we get dramatic lightning, an obscured THOOM, and she looks bloody as if shot. Also she's hunched over a bit, and we know that after being shot she can't stand upright anymore (legs don't work right anymore). Actually, I just looked at comic 384 and her posture was very similar right after she was shot.
If this boy, or VR entity or whatever he is, will in the future become the Chrono-Assassin, then he is seeing an omen of what is going to come in his personal future.
The fact that he could crack the security on a server behind an air gap (see comic 397) despite his seeming youth suggests that he is a computer-hosted entity, an AI who lives in the cloud and currently cannot leave the VR world (having no actual body yet). If so, likely he owes his very existence to her building the mysterious machine, and he won't come into existence if she doesn't build it. She builds it because around the time Chrono-Assassin shot Charlie, the plans flowed into her mind (I have no idea how that works). Now consider that in comic 382 she told Chrono-Assassin to "Stop!" and his reply was not "No", it was: "I cannot"
Now consider Hyperions comment (his one line): "Once more..." This suggests a time loop, where events have consequences that cause the events to happen (obviously only possible with time travel). Did Chrono-Assassin know he was stuck in a time loop?

Charidan
@steveha:
Actually, hacking behind an air gap has nothing to do with technical skill. As was mentioned in the comic commentary, it involves social manipulation of the actual humans who work with the servers, and getting them to compromise the system for you. That just means you're a methodical planner or highly charismatic, doesn't make him an AI.

steveha
He's somehow got Mad Skillz Yo that are far beyond what one would expect from a kid of his age. That, and the fact that he seemingly appeared from nowhere while Eos was in a sort of virtual reality, are why I speculated that he's an AI.
In comic 397 the explanation for air-gap hacking is "chip manufacturing bids, shell companies and social engineering." I sure don't know anyone under the age of 10 who could pull something like that off.

Amazing Thing
Gosh I still want a Thoom cannon!

Some Physicist Guy
@BayAreaBoy
Took the words right out of my mouth.
@Charidan
No, sorry, that's social engineering which is a huge part in hacking. Hacking an airgap, which is basically impossible with the current technology is using something like speakers and an active mic on another system to introduce foreign code. There has been some interesting research and tests done with this and one known (vary possibly a hoax) malware. The common idea is to use speakers on one system to send a message to a mic on another system, using audio to bridge the airgap; in the research done coders were able to introduce a very basic line of code into the firmware of the receiving audio card to allow it to receive more complex commands. I do understand the sound card they were using was specifically selected because of known flaws in the firmware to allow for introduced corruption to exist. Most computer hardware is not going to allow something like that to happen because of no primary link between the application layer input and the hardware gateway.

Deof Movestofca
So maybe she's trying to make the chrono-assassin not want to kill her by being his surrogate mother and showing him the consequences of his actions?
>confused

Opus the Poet
You know what they say, if you're not driving and you don't know where you're going, you might as well sit back and enjoy the ride.