“Jessi, I think you need to see this.” Bahliah was sitting in the Antique Horizon console playing with the settings. Their game timer had just gone up.
Jessi looked up from the kitchen island. He was preparing a croque madam. It was the Michelin star version of grilled cheese, with ham, gruyere cheese, browned bechamel and an egg on top. Bahliah’s didn't have ham, of course.
He grabbed both plates and brought them into the living room. While neither cared for the dinning table, he made the point of setting the plates on the coffee table. Jessi was slowly training her to eat away from her electronics.
“I gotta get ready for that hangout at Alex's cousin's sister's what the fuck ever…” Jessi said before digging into his sandwich with a fork.
Bahliah pointed at the screen of the console and read it aloud for him.
“Profile synchronization complete. Shared Profile history detected.
Would you like to play Co-op in Momento Smorgasbord?” She continued:
“One time period available
The Dinner”
Jessi stopped just before he took a bite and frowned at the contraption Bahliah sat in. He could see the screen from his place.
There was a description that Jessi skipped over, instead focusing on the picture to the right. It was Bahliah's parents’ dining room. The long ornate table was surrounded on three sides by floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the bay area. Jessi and Bahliah were seated to one side with Bahliah's parents across from them.
"The fuck?" Jessi stated.
Bahliah quoted part of the description for him.
"Quests available in the hub: Bahliah Kavya Devi Ganesh comes out of the grand closet. Decide how to change your past."
Jessi set his fork down as she continued.
“The date was set to November 15th, 2045.”
“Shiiiiiit. How is that in there?” Jessi said, his sandwich forgotten.
Bahliah pulled her phone out and starting furiously tapping the screen. “I'm looking this up. Does everyone get this mission? What. The. Hell.”
After a moment, she slowed. “There's no mention of Momento Smorgasbord, profile history, none of this shit. The closest it gets to reliving the past is the library of arcade remakes.”
Despite the situation, he couldn't help but smile at Bahliah's pronunciation of the word “shit.” It was so cute with her accent.
"This thing is older than your dad. No way it has that weird memory tech. Didn't you just pre-order that last month?"
Bahliah rolled her eyes. Jessi kind of listened to her, but only a bit. Then she pulled up a different app. She went to a bookmark and pulled it up. It was a text file.
“You mean that creepypasta I found where a guy wired himself into his VR system? And his printer started printing off his life story before it fried his brain?”
Jessi snapped his fingers and turned it into a pointing finger. “Yeah, when will it come out?”
“Never. Because it is a creepypasta from 2012.”
He rubbed his hands over his face in defeat as Bahliah furiously clicked on her phone.
“Hey, research here with your lunch.” Jessi reminded her and turned back to his own food.
He grimaced at his bite. It was cold now, but he was going to finish it anyway.
Bahliah came up from her seat to the sofa in front of the table. She got a bite ready with her own fork, but kept having to put it down to use both hands to type.
After several minutes, she finally ate it, but naturally it was cold by then. She put the fork down and pushed the plate aside.
Jessi continued on silently eating, despite the congealing sauce. Croque madam was an ephemeral thing, he thought morosely.
Sighing in disappointment, Jessi broke the silence by collecting both plates.
“So, why does this console have the day we become contractually obligated to uphold the picture perfect family your mother demands?" He asked, rinsing off the scraps and loading them in the washer. "That's weird, boo.”
Bahliah's typing stopped abruptly. As Jessi came back in the room he saw her frozen, thumbs hovering above the touch screen.
She flipped the phone where he could see and pointed to a link.
“This wasn't here before, I just had this search pulled up. It's an article about a social media hack that went big.”
Jessi, puzzled said, “So what? Maybe it just happened.”
“The article is dated last week. The day we bought this thing. And I heard nothing about it. Apparently millions of accounts had their timeline information leaked to parts unknown.”
“Okay, so I guess that's what happened,” Jessi said. “They got that data and built this level?”
Not paying attention to his question, Bahliah continued like Jessi never spoke.
“i wonder if there's any new options. There's apparently a hub we can visit now. That's what the customization was for earlier.”
Jessi nodded, wondering if he'd ever get an answer.
“So what are you gonna do now?” Jessi stressed the “you".
“We are going to explore the hub. Then the mission!” Bahliah finally made eye contact with him. "Cause anything with Alex doesn't even start til midnight. You've got hours to do your glow up.”
“But… we passed out last time we use this thing. We'll be out for hours.”
“Then you'll be fashionably late and artfully ruffled.”
Feeling like he was losing this battle, Jessi said, “But I was about to get really high, pre-party and stuff.”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Bahliah made a shooing gesture, and said “Well go on, take your hit and your shot and get back here.”
Defeated, he diligently filled up a shot glass with bourbon and got some feni for Bahliah. Then Jessi grabbed his pipe, making his way to the kitchen window.
“How can I get pussy whipped if I'm not even getting the pussy?” He called back before he blew his smoke out.
Ignoring him, she waited for him to finish his drink, then selected the new option for the hub. They sat down in the console seats, then inserted their keys.
They were off.
Once the game settled in around them, Jessi was surprised to find himself standing in front of a mirror. Before him was a version of himself, though with a more cel shaded look.
He reached up to feel his short beard and the figure in the mirror made the same motion.
A dialogue box appeared.
[
Confirm appearance?
Accept/Cancel/Edit
]
Jessi frowned, shaking his head. His avatar was simply wearing a Grey sweatshirt, sweat pants, and sneakers.
That wouldn't do.
Selecting edit, Jessi pulled up the clothing options. The only free options were white, grey, or black sweats. It took a few minutes, but he purchased himself a nice three piece suit, matching shoes, and a sweet pair of shades. He snagged a nice watch too that was his most expensive purchase.
[ Confirm purchase;
Swanky suit set - 10CC
Wanna-be FBI - 1CC
High Roller - 15CC
Total: 26CC
Jessi: Accept
]
He got a brief loading screen and then he was standing next to Bahliah. She was dressed in a short high fashion dress, earrings down to her neck, and the same shades he'd bought.
The world around them has an interesting aesthetic. Everything was somehow abstract. Even the way shadows moved. There was no obvious source of light, but everything had a kind of neon bloom effect. The sky was studded with strange constellations, each connected by visible lines of light.
Taking note of their surroundings, they were standing at a crossroads. There was a building in front of them that sat at the center of the roads. All four walls looked the same, having a single door with a small window to the left. In a sans serif font, its sign read, “Momento Smorgasbord”.
Before either could say anything, Morty appeared in front of them. The odd paperclip had the same look as them, but was 3D and floating in the air. Instead of a player chat, Morty spoke out loud.
"Welcome to the Junction. It's the hub of this little universe of ours. Here you'll find many interesting things that I won't be telling you about. You'll unlock more as you level, but for now you're stuck here with the other hopefuls. The only option for now is Momento Smorgasbord.” Here he gestured to the building. “Try it out! This new mode is a grand playground of life. We've all got moments in life we'd love to change. Well, now's your chance! Enjoy!"
Morty disappeared in a puff of smoke just as fast as he had appeared.
Jessi made to start toward the building, but Bahliah stopped him with a touch.
“Let's explore a little before following the obvious breadcrumbs.”
They looked to the sign that pointed in various directions. The road was a four-way crossing. The signs are Eon Path, Temporal Trail, Chrono Avenue and Infinity Way.
Bahliah started towards the path marked Infinity Way, but a transparent blue wall blocked her way
"Damn! Invisible walls? So old school.” She protested as a message appeared.
[
Progress to Initiate rank to gain access to this area
]
Temporal Trail and Chrono Avenue had a similar message for different ranks. They finally got somewhere with Eon Path. The road curved through the trees. From one step to the next they were teleported off the path to a clearing. There was the sundial, like they'd seen in the beginning.
"Guess it's the breadcrumbs then?” Jessi quipped.
Bahliah just sighed and led them back to the crossroads and entered the building.
It appeared to be a pub of some sort. There were some tables, a bar, and people drinking various things. The people looked odd, they were blurry somehow. Only two figures at the bar looked real. One was a man, the other a woman. They looked rather familiar.
Daisy's unmistakable voice rang out as she turned around and waved at them, “Look Willie! It's a sheba and a heba! Get over here you dolls!”
“Gorblimey! How long's it been since the last new people?” William replied drunkenly.
“Positively years. Last ones was these here stiffs.”
She took her empty glass and threw it at one of the odd blurry people. It passed right through and shattered. A moment later it appeared back, full of clear liquid. She took a long sip and gave a satisfied sound.
At this point, an oddly textured bartender came over. His uniform looked crisp and nondescript. His left breast had a name tag that said “Sullie". His face looked stylized, yet poorly textured.
He seemed a bit peeved at Daisy.
“Fastest way to get a refill around here,” Daisy said with a shrug.
The bartender ignored her, turning his full attention to his new guests.
"Hey there! Welcome to Momento Smorgasbord and, yeah, it's a mouthful, but I promise your stomach will be just as full!” He greeted, then motioned to his name tag. "Name’s Sullie. Come have a seat, I'll get you First Timer Special ready while y'all take a peek at our menu.”
Sullie moved quickly to the bar and placing down two menus for each of them before turning to the extensive selection of bottles behind the counter.
Jessi came up to the bar pointing a finger at Daisy's drink. “Can I get what she's having?”
Daisy proffered the glass, “All you had to do was ask, darb. This stuff is basically tap water around here.”
Jessi shrugged and drank a sip. His face became noticeably redder.
“Was that just pure grain alcohol?”
“Nothing like a little ‘shine in the afternoon!” She said cheerily.
Bahliah came up to stand next to Jessi. “If the alcohol is free, what is he talking about with one free drink?”
The bartender cleared his throat, returning their attention to him.
“I offer experiences. If you simply desire getting drunk, why come all the way here?” He gestured to indicate the room, or perhaps the world.
“Well I would like to experience a different taste in my mouth at the moment. What's on tap that's not straight ethanol?” Jessi asked, wishing for the taste of his bourbon shot before.
A coy smile appeared on Sully's face. He bent down and pulled out a bottle and two glasses. He uncorked it and poured it for them, generously filling each glass and placing the bottle down between them.
Jessi sniffed it suspiciously. “That's not on tap.” Jessi said, taking an experimental sip. Then his eyes went wide. He looked at Bahliah.
“Holy shit! It's that wine your parents served us. I've been looking for this stuff ever since.” He gladly drank more.
Bahliah asked, “Is that what you meant by providing experiences?”
“Oh no,” Sullie said. “That's just a preview.”
He went back to preparing their original drink. It was pretty involved, several kinds of brightly colored liquor and syrups followed by a bottle of something bubbly. It was a fishbowl with two straws. He needed two hands to put it in front of them.
The liquid seemed to pulse different colors. Bahliah and Jessi eyed it while they finished their wine.
“What do you call this?” Bahliah asked.
Sully smiled, “I thought you knew already. It's called The Dinner.”
“You mean this is how we get to that misson?”
“Indeed. You'll need to drink it together to experience it together.”
Bahliah put aside her wine in curiosity. Jessi had already finished his. They both took their straws and drank.
“Is this what a rainbow tastes like?” Bahliah asked. It was hard to describe in terms of food or drink; it tasted like nothing she'd had before. And it was different every sip.
It wasn't long before they'd finished it, despite its volume. Then when both straws started making sucking sounds they felt a familiar pulling sensation. They were sucked down through their straws and into darkness.