There’s a dark that can only be seen while out in the woods away from any kind of lights from a big city or town. It’s the kind of dark that can have you waving a hand in front of your own face without even seeing a bit of it. Being a city boy at heart, I have not experienced that type of dark too often. Even when I did, it was normally accented by the din of woodland wildlife or maybe the crackling of a nearby fire. This was different, I currently stood in a pitch-black space with absolutely no sound reaching my ears. That lack of sound somehow amplified the pitch dark that refused to reveal anything its inky black was hiding.
Feeling disorientated, I reached to the back of my head for the spot where I felt the pain coming from and was shocked to not feel anything. Not that there wasn’t a bump or anything but almost as if I completely missed my own neck as I felt around not touching anything. I immediately moved my other hand to start searching and realized that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t touch my neck or even one hand to another.
I even gave myself a quick game of head, shoulders, knees, and toes to no avail. Flexing my hands in a way where my fingers should be touching each of my palms I began to walk forward a few steps. It felt as if I should be moving yet nothing was happening. Mentally my body was registering my muscles moving yet there weren’t muscles there to comply. I shake my head then realize that maybe that’s not there either and begin to feel myself freak out.
I couldn’t take it anymore. “Hello, HELLO! What the hell is going on?” Nothing answered, I turned around in place a few times still yelling with that same silence being the only answer. There was a sudden and ear-shattering bell chime that reverberated through me.
“System integration is now complete. Id manifestation is nominal. Ego creation is imminent. Pulling biometric data,” a monotone voice rang out from everywhere at me.
Futily attempting to cover my eyes I try to call out to the voice. “Hey, uhm voice up there. Can you A. Lower your volume some or at least not sound like you’re coming from inside me. Also, B. Please tell me where I’m at, where’s my body, where’s your body? Probably a crap load of other where’s I’m not thinking of.” I reach my hands towards my head trying to grip my hair.
It’s there, my hands run through my luscious curls savoring the feeling for a second. “Ego established. Initialization complete” said the voice with finality.
I look down at my body and realize I’m wearing what seems like a heavily stained dishrag wrapped like a diaper around my nethers. My hands immediately move to my private dishcloth area clenching at parts of my body I’d rather not mention. Happy with what was still intact try to look around me and am still met with the pitch-black darkness. “What is going on here? Hello?”
“Gaming.” A familiar voice called out from behind me and I turned my head to see my brother dressed in a hoodie, black jeans, and a pair of red hightops. His brother’s face split with a wide grin as he walked over to Devin with his arms open wide. “How do you like it?” I can’t help but look down at what I’m wearing before giving him the worst stare I could. “What? Oh, that’s just the default before you go down character creation. Please tell me your thoughts on the feel. Is the touch right? Can you see ok?”
“Well sure, all that stuff is just fine,” I say hastily rubbing my hands over my forearms. “But a bit freaking disorientating coming in as a floating head, couldn’t you have warned me or something? Also, could you please fix this?” I point at my crotch.
“Sorry, we use accurate scans for input. Can’t help with what genetics gave you.” Before I have a chance to yell at him, he smirks before waving his fingers. “Fine, fine. Here are some starter threads. Don’t say I never gave ya nothin’.”
Looking down I see I’m covered in what looked to be a used sheet from some random hotel over my body with a heavily worn belt cinched around my waist barely holding things together. Rather than give him the pleasure of complaining, I move on from the poor excuse for clothes. “I thank you very much. Now please tell me what’s going on with all of this. The package, that voice, that blackness surrounding us?”
“Again with the multipart question. Fine Devin, this is what is going on. That helmet, it’s what we’ve always wanted. It’s what we dreamed about as we played endless hours of RPGs on our PC and game consoles.” I try not to look at the endless void currently surrounding us as he tries to talk up whatever this is. “Stats, leveling, adventuring, intrigue, it’s all here and you get to experience it first hand.” He stands beaming at me.
I let the inky black silence stretch between us before I point out the obvious. “Gotcha, I’m guessing the ‘game’ will somehow be added in post-production?” I wave at the darkness surrounding the two of us.
“Well no, sorry this is the loading area. I can definitely remedy that.” A staff taller than either of our heights is pulled out from behind Ish’s back. Its core looked to be made out of a swirling bit of sky with a thick green vine crawling up its length from the base until it hit the tip where the vine gripped a large golden eye that seemed to be looking directly at Devin. With a tap of the staff on the ground a black command window opened up before Ish.
Devin watched as words began to load up on the screen with new ones somehow being typed without Ish’s hands moving, “Eureka, there is a great spot.” I continue to try to soak in the information on the screen. While somewhat more advanced than what I was used to, I could tell the language on screen was the backend for whatever game Ish was working on. Devin’s mind began to swim with the possibilities of what could be tested using a backend like that. Ish, unfortunately, caught me looking over his shoulder and inputting a few more words before closing the command prompt screen with a wave of his arm. “That is NOT for you Devin. Now here, let me.” Another bang from the staff and Devin was blinded.
“Damnit, what the hell. Dude, I was just curious, no reason to blind me” I blinked my eyes but my eyes were blurry with tears as if I was losing a staring contest with a couple of headlights. I finally just close them for a few seconds. “Seriously Ish, no reason to act like that man.”
“Act like what Devin? Please open your eyes as I have complied with your request.” Ish said stiffly. I blinked my eyes a few times and the world was there. Well, maybe not the world, but the most picturesque forest glade I had ever seen opened up in front of me. Add a couple of talking animals and a bedraggled secret princess and the scene would be pulled straight out of an animated movie. “We do have animals that speak in the world. Would you like to see one of our…”
“Wait, did you just answer something I said in my head?” I cut him off immediately.
“Well yes, we monitor all impulses within your nervous system and thoughts are merely one of the myriad of moving parts within the human brain. Would you like to see one of those talking animals I spoke about?” Ish waved his arm again and a large flying creature with the mixed features of a human and dark purple and black feathered bird. Where the face resembled that of a tanned-skinned man, his chest and bottom of his torso resembled a human but the rest was going full-on bird thing.
I eyed the thing slowly up and down as it breathed heavily looking down at me. “What is this, how did you do that?”
“There you go with all those questions. This is our take on Greek wind spirits called Harpies.” Ish glides his hands over the dark feathers making me wince slightly. “I have a bit more control in this area than I do in the world instance. While this is an actual area within the woods outside of Esslem, it is an instanced version of it. With me guiding how it is shaped, for now.”
“Thanks for gliding over you reading my mind, but seriously I talk about Disney woodland creatures and you pull out this monstrosity.” I point a finger over to the Harpy.
“Says puny potato sack man. Curse you both.” The thing’s very large wings spread out as it crouches and leaps into the air.
Ish looks up at the departing form before waving his hand and the Harpy pops out of existence showering the two of them with feathers. “Dude, what the hell. Why’d you just take him out like that?”
“I apologize Devin. You merely stated your distaste for it already and I could not have it running around a frozen instance like this. If you excuse me, may we get back to what you will be doing within this world?” Ish crossed his arms in front of him holding each of his forearms before him.
“Sure, please go ahead.” I try not to let my unease at Ish’s overall vibe affect me. Maybe it was nervousness over showing this all to me for the first time.
“Thank you for trying out our game. I know getting a package like this may have been a little out of nowhere, but I assure you that this is something you had to experience for yourself. As it seems you have skipped the manual, I will say that I am fully capable of giving you any help you need throughout the process and during the rest of your session.” Ish sat there staring at me with a huge smile.
“Ish..Ishmael, ok now what is this session, just spit it out already or I’m going to have to take things into my own hands, and I’m sure you or my brother won't like that.” I cut the silence.
“Are you making a threat? I assure you that our security is far beyond anything you have experienced elsewhere. Both of us did vigorous…or rather. I mean I have done vigorous testing to achieve perfect security. Please just let me continue walking you through.” I wasn’t going to let it switch gears on me.
“Ok, so you’re part of the Land of Oz.” I began to walk around the thing that was wearing Ish’s skin. “So, are you an A.I. duplicate of him or something? I don’t know how the hell he did it. Either way, not a bad representation but definitely a bit too stiff, even for his overly educated ass.” I gestured to the rest of the glade around us. “Or are you just part of the scenery? Just a bit more of an advanced NPC?”
“This is not Oz, this is Esslem. Pride and joy in this area of the continent. I realize that I cannot dissuade you from your observation, so yes I am not your brother but I am also not something he just made. I am a Sophisticated Manifestation Enhancing Entertainment Development. My evolution is absolutely revolutionary and followed the same path as many that were drawn out by Darwin himself. There was a need, I evolved to satisfy it.” The thing said with pride.
“So my brother couldn’t handle making this himself so you were created? How lazy can Ish get? Gotcha, rather than call you Ishmael or sophisticated manual energizing whatever, can I just call you Smeed for short?” I say looking up at the creepy version of my brother’s face.
“Well, yes, I rather like that. Reminiscent of Captain Hook’s most honorable First Mate, yes that is suitable. May we return to the walkthrough?” The newly minted Smeed beams over at me with some pride. “Yes, so your brother and I created this world built to be a backdrop to just about any kind of adventuring our players would like to take in. What we need though, is someone like you to help…break the world in a way. Your brother expressed how great your skills have been in helping him with his early game creations throughout high school and classes at college. His adoration of your ability to cause what he called ‘chaos in the code’ was absolutely inspiring and I have looked forward to working beside you.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
I can’t help but smile to myself as Smeed continues to lay it on thick. I decide to cut him off before I’m too buttered to move. “So, what do I get out of this? Big bro and you get your game tested, what about me?”
“Well, isn’t all of this amazing in itself?” Smeed gestures to the world around himself and with a snap of his fingers a flame appears to dance between his fingertips. “All this magic at your literal fingertips?”
I try not to lick my lips as I stare hungrily at the fire gathered in Smeed’s hands. “How about I let you continue your walkthrough and I’ll we’ll iron that stuff out later.” I give him my biggest shit-eating grin.
“Yes, so I guess we can continue with this. Magic is available, but it shows itself in different ways depending on the person wielding it. What I am doing resembles a mage’s flame spell but in my instance, I am merely creating this effect due to my access within the system.”
Before he can continue I cut in, curiosity taking the lead. “So you have access to code that bypasses the game world’s systems? Or maybe it’s credential-based. Is that your own created effect or are you accessing it from a library that the mage also uses? Or is that just a flame and you’re changing its…”
“Sir, I will ask that you stop there. While I have access to some retrieval of an effect, I will not have that ability past this opening area. Think of this as its own small sandbox of what the wider world experience will be. Your brother has also asked that you please immerse yourself in the world rather than focus on how it is being done.” Smeed folded his arms in front of him, finally convincingly imitating the omnipresent scowl that shat its way across my brother’s face all the time.
“Ok, before I am scolded any further by a digital sock puppet of my brother, is there any way you can change your look for me? Is this how you normally look around my brother? It’s kinda creepy now that I know you’re not him.” I watch as his face shows some hurt.
“I am sorry that I am displeasing you. Yes, this is how I have always looked, changing my appearance would necessitate totem access but its use is prohibited due to its effects on the live environment and systems contained within.” His voice began to take on a more robotic lilt.
“No, you’re all good. It’s just that, well this is new to me. I don’t know how the hell he did it, or they did it. Last I heard Ish was working on a sudoku for mobile. Now you’re telling me this all came out from his company?” I bend down to touch the grass and feel the warmth from the sun on one side of my hand while the underside is touched by the leftover dew drops under the grass. I just sit there moving my hand around and enjoy my interaction with the environment.”
Smeed lets me marvel in silence for a few moments before clearing his digital throat and I laugh at his human gesture before he starts, “Yes, while Sir still works for ImpulseSoft, his work…”
I cut him off, “Please continue but, does he make you call him sir? You don’t even have to answer that because I know him. He’s truly a piece of work.”
With a forced cough, Smeed continues. “Yes, Sir…I mean Ishmael’s work on this world is on his own time. In a way, on our time. May I ask your opinion on the grass?”
I pull my hands out of the large cluster of long-bladed grass and stand up. “Well yes, the physics. It’s so real, I can’t imagine how much processing must be going on in that helmet and in such a little space. The cooling as well, what kind of magic have you two cooked up?”
“That’s the miracle of Ishmael’s breakthrough. The helmet does process some information but the main thing helping with your perception is what’s under the helmet.” Smeed says this and stands almost like he pulled a damn rabbit out of a hat.
“So, like transistors? But how would that work to tell me what to see and feel? Wait, I didn’t even put on goggles. The audio could be from speakers hidden in the visor. But that still doesn’t explain the sensation, I didn’t put on any gloves. Just the visor over my head and whatever clamp pinched my neck. My neck.” I look over at my brother’s visage and clench my fists. “Under the helmet. I get it now. You two could have been a little clearer with all of this, way before I was punctured with whatever is feeding me all of this.” I feel myself tense knowing I’m right and hating my brother for his genius. “Why am I testing his backyard Tony Stark tech?”
“No, that is not the purpose of this trial Devin. That technology has been fully tested with only a .002% failure rate.” He doesn’t even register the shocked look I give him that there was any kind of failure rate. “No, our needs come more in the realm of your gaming and analyzing ability. Per your brother, Devin can and always will be able to find a way to break sometime that he isn’t supposed to.” Somehow that last part came with the exact judgemental cadence that Ish was notorious for.
“While that was not my intention, he does tend to be judgemental in the most severe way.” Smeed cut in answering my internal monologue again.
“OK, can you please stop that? I’d prefer not to have someone else rattling around what is already a chaotic space.” I shake my head as I place a hand on it.
“I am sorry, it is merely to assist you in the most efficient manner. I shall update that setting.” That long staff he called a totem was in his hand suddenly and the command console was back out again.
I begin to walk up behind him trying to read the code over his shoulder again. In hopes of having him keep it open, I start small talk. “So, are there any specific powers you have over the creations you’ve made? Say like the grass.”
Smeed continues looking at the command prompt window while answering, “If we’re within this space, yes I can update small status effects like that. For instance.” The command prompt text changes and I can make out specific callouts to what I made out as dimensions as well as what the specific object was. In this case, I immediately saw grass.obj and used that to break down any other information around that. “And now with a small status effect change, we now have tall grass.”
As soon as the words are out of his mouth, we are both surrounded by tall grass that would be welcome in any of those old Pokemon games. I glide my hands across the grass feeling it almost caresses me in return as I run my hand over the length of one of the blades. I feel a definite movement within the grass and pull my hand away. “What the hell, why is it moving like that? Is it alive?”
“Well, just like the grass on your world, it is alive. But I believe you’re speaking of its responsiveness. That was my own take on how Sir, I mean Ishmael described how relaxing laying down on a bed of grass felt to him. I believed it necessary to convey the comfort he had expressed to me. I will add that the length of this grass will have that comforting effect heightened compared to shorter ones.” Smeed passes some grass between his fingers as well.
While the thought creeps me out, I find the sentiment endearing. My only hope is that the grass is not sentient in any way, I try to keep clear of any large groupings of the grass and try to look back at the command prompt. I see Smeed may be stopping his corrections as the grass lowers its height. I try to keep him talking, “That’s truly amazing, and are you able to do the same thing with say height or like change someone’s abilities?”
“Ah yes, all that can be done but only when helping you set up your character. As for myself, I have the full ability to change my dimensions. Abilities cannot be updated this way as the world reacts to the player's actions through play. My own are very rigidly set up of course.” As he’s talking the screen updates to list his own dimensions and I can see his form set as, “Ishmael2.obj” with his height, age and other information roughly matching Ish’s features.
An added little bit was the “Advisor” designation that was listed along with these other bits of information. While my picture of the coding wasn’t perfect, it was definitely beginning to develop. “So you can’t change me at all using that, but could you do any other fun stuff?”
“In the pocket instances like this, yes I have done plenty of ‘fun’ stuff with myself and the world. Those are usually only saved for our actual development sessions, we have very little time for just jovial activities like that.” Smeed’s shoulders visibly slump as he sighs to himself.
“Any favorite things you’ve changed into?” I ask trying to give myself more time with the code.
Another sigh escapes his digital lungs expelling virtual air into an imaginary world. “A green balloon,” slowly drips from his lips as an answer. There’s a smile that hits his face that I’ve only seen on my actual brother’s when drinking root beer. I don’t know what it is, but the only thing to cheer up his sour puss was a nice can of ice-cold root beer. Smeed became a little glassy-eyed as he stared off, no doubt imagining his time as a balloon.
I can’t help but laugh at how Ish-like that look was. “Ok, I’ll bite, why such a specific thing, and what prompted you to become a damn balloon of all things?”
Smeed looks away from the screen giving a smile as he stares he begins to talk. I take that chance to put my hand on the staff. “It felt good to feel so beautiful and light. No worries at all, just sit there and enjoy the float. Yes, that was what I have heard called bliss.”
I give a laugh as I keep Smeed talking, “It does sound like it’d be kinda fun. Any favorite parts of the gaming world or story that you've created?”
“Ah, to be honest, I much prefer working on the world itself. I leave the story and role-playing aspects to your brother.” His head looks over to the screen and I see him take a second to see the changes I’ve made while I was talking. I lift and drop the staff with a wave of my hand afterward like I saw him do earlier to accept my changes before he has a chance to react.
“What are you doing?” Smeed begins to look at the screen without anything happening, his movements include gestures with the staff without anything updating on the screen. “Devin, revert your changes. Great damage can be done with unvetted code changes.”
“Oh calm down Smeed. I only changed a couple of things that will give me a little boost. Maxed out whatever these M.A.G.M.A.. scores were attached to my character and gave you a fun little change for when the game starts.”
“How, when?” He looks back at the screen locating my changed code and laughs, “Sir said to be careful around you. Thankfully those are just the maximum within the instance and that slight bump will not be too much of a boon for your adventure. As for my update, what is it?”
“Smeed, I’m sure Ish would have explained that I don’t work well with rules or being controlled. I could see you had the ability that basically gave you admin access. With a couple of changes to that admin access and a couple of little fun cosmetic changes for my own enjoyment. I believe the systems and world are fully intact.” I put my hand on his shoulder, “Trust me, I just want the ability to enjoy this at my own rate. Now let get this party started.”
“Please sir, could you specify this cosmetic change? I do not wish to cause problems within the game world if you happen to pull in any of our more anachronistic creations. Just give me control real quick so I can assure you are safe to continue the trial.”
“Fine, have it your way.” I look at the screen and it moves to another area of the code and updates quickly populate.
Before I can tap the staff, Smeed begins to speak. “Why a random object, please Devin. I don’t understand.”
I almost feel sorry as I watch his eyes and tap the staff that Smeed still held in his hand. I watched as Smeed’s body and the staff spun in a digital cyclone of pixels that pulsed for a few seconds before coalescing into a green frying that had a gold and vine-looking cord attached to a hole in the handle of the thick cast iron pan. Devin puts his hand through the loop and relishes the weight with a few swings. “Not what I would have expected, but nothing too weird, right?“
“Not weird? I’m a pan of all things, how will I even function? Why an object and not one of the character models at least? This just won’t do.” I can see his shape’s outline glow slightly. “What is this, I can’t even disappear at will. What did you do Devin?”
“I swear that wasn’t planned but look at it this way. You still get to help me by being a nice weapon early on. Not exactly my first choice, but I’m sure I can get some hefty blunt weapon attacks with you.” I spin the pan in my hand with a smile.
“OK, please keep that to a minimum. Despite my lack of an inner ear, my equilibrium is somehow still being affected by this motion’s inertial forces,” Smeed said in a voice that seemed to be holding back sickness.
“Fine, fine, fine.” I stop spinning the pan and take a seat on a random rock in the glade. “Smeed, I just want to get to playing the game and wanted a true experience without the guardrails that Ish no doubt built into it through your role in this puppet show.”
“I assure you Devin, this is by no means a puppet show. I am here to guide you into learning the M.A.G.M.A. system and setting up your character. I am also here to help you along the way. Devin, may I plead with you one last time to change me back?”
“That’s how I knew you weren’t Ish.” I could see that he wasn’t understanding me. “Only mom called me Devin and she hasn’t called anyone anything for decades now. Call me Dev. Like I said Smeed, no guard rails, and this is going to be fun.” I sigh slightly before forcing a smile at the pan. I finally say, “Come on, let's do this.”
“Wait! You have not chosen your class. Assigning your M.A.G.M.A. stats merely gives you the foundation that the class system pulls from. May I talk you through how each letter corresponds to a different aspect of your abilities…”
“My guess is that it is based on some archaic idea of what a fantasy world should be built upon. Something tells me my brother didn’t stray too far from conventions that were set over a century ago. Your system is expecting me to follow those conventions and choose a character class of great renown. How will it react to someone who skips that choice? Someone that’s as classless as I am?”