Chapter 3
Breakfast at McHugh’s
Orion’s message had the benefit of breaking me out of my funk. Also it really helped that the mere mention of food had my stomach rumbling.
Thinking about it, meeting up with someone who knew alternate me was gonna be a risk for sure. On the other hand, Orion was my only contact in this world who seemed to have a friendly disposition towards me through who I could find more info about me and the world at large. Weighing, the pros and cons, I decided that going for breakfast would be relatively harmless.
-Me: Where to?
-Orion: you buyin so you know its gonna be mchughs chummer!
-Me: Uhhh, where is that again?
-Orion: you sure you ok chummer? we meetin here
When I focused at the word here, my GridGuide app popped, displaying a location 15 minutes away marked as McHugh’s. Next to the name was a logo showing a shiny golden H on a red square. The location was labeled as Fast Food Chain / Not busy at this hour.
“Off-brand McDonald’s for breakfast? This sounds promising!” I muttered mirthfully. Even though it didn’t really seem that appealing, I realized I had to be frugal with what I had before I had a more complete picture of my life here. Not wanting to keep Orion waiting, I shot back a quick message.
-Me: I think I can be there in 30. That ok?
I was a bit conservative with my estimate, wanting to have some leeway getting there.
-Orion: cya ther chummer
-The user appears to be offline-
I hated that my hair was a mess but I was lucky enough to find a hair band lying around and put my hair up in a rough half pony tail. “Sorry lads, we’ll be visiting a barber as soon as get the chance I promise,” I muttered lovingly to my hair. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a vain guy by any means but I took pride it making my self presentable. The right looks open the right doors after all.
I put on my crusty ass boots and opened my door with a thought. “Damn that’s useful.” I whistled in appreciation. I took a deep breath, steadying myself and left the apartment. I managed to make way down the stairs and to the lobby without meeting anyone and took my first step out to the world.
I didn’t even get to make it a few yards from the building door when I was left dumbstruck, standing there with my mouth open. Even through all the small and not so small weird shit so far, a part of me still held out hope that it was all a trick or some sort of dream. Looking around, I was quickly disavowed of the notion.
First off and most normal, was the fact that the neighborhood was a neon-futuristic version of an American Japantown, complete with tori gates, hanging lanterns and Japanese writing everywhere.
What really made me stop though was the people. Growing up in such a melting pot of a country, seeing people that look different from me wasn’t something that was ever surprising to me. What was surprising, was seeing an honest to god fantasy troll in a business suit walking past me, elves in Yakuza tattoos and even a dwarf food vendor. Although surprising, it wasn’t as uncanny as one might think because all those fantasy races didn’t look as fantastical as one might think. They looked like regular people that just happened to have the characteristics of that race if that makes any sense.
Taking in the scenery I was bombarded by AR elements, what’s my Computers skill told me were called AROs (Augmented Reality Object), displaying menus and prices for food carts and stores, ads all over the place for all sorts of weird things as well as the navigational graphics displayed by my own commlink.
I was also overwhelmed by the sheer amount of device Icons around me. My skill told me that I could filter or even turn off completely my Matrix perception results. As a side effect, I found out that I could perceive devices that were farther away than 100 meters however they I had to make more of an effort to find them and they were fuzzy, betraying a poorer connection.
What wasn’t fuzzy though was the giant AR constructs floating in the sky. While some of them where as small as buildings, others were as large as what felt like cities. All of them were very unique designs elements ranging from designs as simple as spheres to a mother holding a child to even mind bending Escherian geometries. Looking at them I knew these were Hosts, the websites of the future and while I didn’t know much about them, my skill told me that I could access them from anywhere in the world and each one would offer it’s own unique environment and experience on the inside.
Looking through the Hosts in the sky, one other thing was fighting to dominate my attention. Beyond the residential and commercial buildings of neighborhood and even further than the skyscrapers of downtown, towering in the background, was a building taking up the area of at least 10 blocks on each side in the shape of a sleek black pyramid with the top cut off with giant letters on its side spelling A C H E.
Damn, I guess megabuildings really were the future, I thought to myself in dread. Millions of people all living in a closed ecosystem seemed really bleak.
Although millions of things were vying for my attention, I really had to get going if I wanted to make it in time.
Along the way I was mesmerized by all the strange sights and smells as well as the way people were living. I could even see cars going around without drivers. The phrase high tech - low life came to mind. Wealth inequality was readily apparent and even though I was in a corporate dominated city center, I was hearing sirens at alarming frequency. I mean, to put it in simple terms, it was like you took any modern metropolitan city and turned everything up to 11.
Even though moving around such a weird and dangerous place felt really scary, the GridGuide directions made getting around pretty easy and that afforded me some leeway to reflect on my situation.
By now I had to face the fact that this was my life. Either through madness or some twist of magic, I was in a new world. A new world filled with danger where you either became a wage slave for some corp or lived a life of crime in the shadows. I had the vast sum of 931 NuYen to my name and from looking through my commlink, I didn’t have any degrees or diplomas that I could use for employment.. The only official document on it was my national ID or System Identification Number (SIN for short) as was called in-setting. Turns out other me had the exact same name, Jack Garland.
Did I kill other me? The thought came unbidden. How? It’s not like I had a say in of this. Thinking about it rationally, I knew that other me was on the receiving end of a very heavy beating before I got to occupy his body. According to Orion I even got a kick in the head. That left me with a running theory. In the past, I came upon a reddit post of some person discussing the concept of quantum death. What they proposed was that alternate universes where real and some form of immortality was in place. Whenever you died, as long as there was some other you, running around alive in another universe, your consciousness would move to that body. Did I think that guy was a nutjob at the time? Yes, I did. But now… I wasn’t that sure.
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Before I even knew it, a ding sounded in my head informing that navigation was completed. Right in front of me was a single story building, standing in the middle of a lot, adorned with the glowing golden H of McHugh’s.
The outside of the building looked like any newly built corporate chain fast food place, complete with parking area and drive through. The thing was built of cement, steel and glass with red and and yellow dominating the design.
Even though I wasn’t even at the door yet, I could smell the grease wafting from the building. I could already tell that this was the kind of place where whenever you ordered to go, you’d be able to see right through the paper bag and odds were by the time you’d be home, the food would be falling through the bottom of said bag. Although I wasn’t going to lie, it smelled delicious and my stomach was concurring with some mighty rumbles.
Moving closer to the double doors of the place, next to them I noticed an acrylic sign on a stand proudly declaring, “Bring your hunger, but leave your weapons at home! Thank you! -Lou Mchugh.” Accompanying the text was an image of a mascot that was sure to haunt my dreams tonight. Imagine Ronald McDonald crossed with the clown from IT but made by an amateur 3d artist who lovingly crafted its smile with a few too many teeth on display.
I shivered and walked through the doors, passing through a metal detector frame before stepping in the place proper. A burly Italian with a crew-cut who was wearing a bulletproof vest painted in red and yellow as well as a pistol holstered on his belt gave me a hard look. When the machine didn’t make any apparent noises, the man seemed satisfied enough to let me move on.
Once on the inside proper, the place was even less impressive. Its best quality were the wall to wall windows filling the place with light. The left side of the place had booths in place, next to them were ordering stations, in the far end was the counter with the kitchen behind it and a door to its right which read STAFF ONLY. The rest of the place was occupied with round tables with four chairs each and on the right side where the bathrooms. Everything inch of the place was made from hard white plastic, with red and yellow accents everywhere. The floor looked tiled with fake clay and the grout was caked with dirt. I reluctantly moved in and made for the middle booth since it was unoccupied.
Sitting down, I realized I had no idea what Orion looked like. Well, if he was already here he’d have had some reaction to me walking in, I mused. I positioned myself looking at the door and took to observing the other patrons as I watched.
The place was really not that busy.
In one of the booths, was a young looking orc in a sweater and glasses. He was studying from an AR textbook and seemed to be 5 coffees deep.
At one of the open tables, Hispanic looking woman was trying to get her little girl, who was in the middle of a tantrum, to decide what to eat.
At another table on the far end of the room were two men who seemed to be in the middle of a heated discussion. One of them was vaguely Italian looking, had slicked back hair, was dressed in a black suit tad too big for him and was gesturing aggressively towards the other man. The other person at the table, a middle-aged Asian man, dressed smartly in a baby blue button up shirt and navy slacks was taking it in stride but looking mighty annoyed himself.
Going around, mopping and gathering trash was a poor man dressed up as the McHugh’s clown, complete with wig and clown nose.
At that point another middle-aged man with a hawkish face and sandy blond hair in tidy cut walked in. He was wearing a white suit with a green shirt, he had round sunglasses on and a very sour expression on his face. He looked at the Italian man in the black suit and his hand went to his inner jacket pocket but seemed to change his mind, took out his hand and moved to the counter to order.
As I was watching the man make his order, a person slipped into my booth out of nowhere. He was a white man around my age, his hair a neon green worn in a mohawk. He was wearing a sleeveless spiked leather jacket over a black t-shirt with the anarchy symbol. His was wearing upside down cross earrings on each ear and a huge nose ring. He had wide smile on his phase and was rocking a black eye.
“Sup chummer?” he said, his voice full of mirth. I was getting strong golden retriever vibes here. Well, golden retriever but punk.
“Hey Orion,” I said, trying to sound natural. “I hope you didn’t get hurt yesterday.”
He quirked an eyebrow at me. “Well you’re buying me a deluxe beast so I’m willing to forget your betrayal!” he said smugly. “Now, get to ordering chum!”
“Yeah, yeah,” I shot back.
I got up and moved to one of the ordering machines. I connected to it and an ARO menu popped up before me.
The Basic 2¥
—soyburger with Pick’ls™
The Hugh™ 3¥
—soyburger with processed cheese-flavored
food and Pick’ls™
The Beast™
—triple soyburger with processed 5¥
cheese-flavored food and fried egg
substitute
The Beast Deluxe™ 7¥
—The Beast™, now with
three strips of bacon substitute!
The Jolly Meal 7¥
—soyburger, HughFries, and a
surprise toy!
Hugh Sliders (3) 3¥
—bite-sized soyburgers with
processed cheese-flavored food
The Kriller™ 3¥
—shaped krill patty, grilled to
perfection. Now with Pick’ls™!
The Egg’r™ 2¥
—fried egg substitute and processed
cheese-flavored food
The Squealer™ 4¥
—pork-flavored soy patty, infused
with BBQ flavor!
HughFries 2/4/6¥
—hand-cut cassava, deep-fried using
our secret method! In three handy sizes!
SoySoft 1¥
Soykaf 1¥
Soyshake 2¥
Soysundae 2¥
What the hell is all this shit? I thought to myself in disgust. I vaguely remember memes online about how everything in Shadowrun was made of soy. Apparently favoring soy was way cheaper than the real stuff. At least I had enough money to survive for now. Well, here goes nothing.
I ordered a Beast Deluxe and fries for Orion and a Basic burger and fries for me since that seemed like the safest option. The money was directly deducted from my account and I moved to the counter to get the food. It didn’t even take five minutes for the lady at the counter to hand me over the food and I was on my way.
I made my way back to the booth and put the tray on the table. Orion dove straight to his food, letting out a moan of pleasure as he took the first bite. “Oh how I missed you baby!” he said to his burger between bites.
I really couldn’t help myself and let out a laugh. “Do you have to make it sexual?” I said in fake outrage.
The smell of the food was very enticing, I won’t lie. Even though the menu had thoroughly disgusted me, since I was malnourished mess, I couldn’t help but dig in as well. Well color me surprised! The flavor was actually pleasant. It reminded me of one of that beyond beef style burger I tried once. Although you knew that eventually it was gonna end in sadness and regret.
Orion having finished his burger moved on to his fries. He looked at me with a serious expression like he was sizing me up. “You think you can pull one over me?”
“Huh? What do you mean?” I said in surprise.
“Ever since yesterday you’ve acting hella weird,” he said jabbing a fry towards me. “There’s something happening with you chummer and you’re gonna spill.”
I guess it was inevitable. I thought in defeat. I had thought a lot on the way here about how I was going to play this. If we really were friends than I had to take a risk. Although I still had to play it safe.
“If I tell you, you won’t believe me,” I said sighing.
“Trust me chum, I’ve heard some wild stuff over the years,” he said dismissively.
“Ok, I’ll tell you but you have to promise not to freak out!”
“Cross my heart and all that,” he said crossing his fingers over his heart.
“Well, after I got my ass handed to me, I woke up half dead outside of my apartment, without being able to remember anything.”
“What? You expect me to believe this drek?” he said in surprise. “Don’t think you’re pulling a fast one on me chummer!”
“I swear to god!” I said placatingly. “I know basic stuff about the world but I have no idea who I am, who you are and what any of this is. And before you say anything I know how weird any of this sounds but please, try to keep an open mind.”
“This is a lot to take in Jack,” he said, looking like he expected to admit to it being a joke at any time.
“Look, I’m taking a leap of faith here but I’m scared. Like really scared, I feel lost and you might as well be the only person who can help me.”
Orion made a low whistle, letting his tension wash away with it. “Amnesia huh? I see it in trids all the time but I kinda thought it was bullshit you know.”
“So you believe me?” I asked halfheartedly.
“You know what chummer? I don’t like it but I do.”
A flash of movement in my peripheral vision grabbed my attention and I moved my head to look. At the table with the two men, tensions were higher than before. With wide eyes, I saw the man pull out a pistol in a covert manner and point it towards the Asian man under the table. Fear gripped me in its talons, my memory of the alley still very raw in my mind.
I half turned to get Orion to leave with me ASAP when I saw four men walking through the door. They looked like they had walked out of a Mad Max movie set with ragtag clothing and gear, covered all over with gang tattoos. All four men were carrying pistols and swaggered in like they owned the place.
The metal detector went off and before the guard could react, one of the men had a gun pointed at his head.
The ganger who looked like the leader moved to the middle of the room and shouted, “EVERYBODY BE COOL, THIS IS A ROBBERY!”