11 Months Ago
James Marcel woke up to cheering. His household had always been a lively one, but even so, this was abnormal. He rubbed his blue eyes, still heavy with sleep, as he weighed the pros and cons of continuing his slumber. It was a school day, but it was only 7:15, so he had the time to burn. The cheers were distracting though. What could be so exciting this early in the morning? Driven by curiosity, James rolled out of bed. He winced slightly as his warm feet hit the cold, polished-stone floor. He hurriedly slid his feet into a pair of slippers before heading down the modern, white, marble staircase.
Reaching the kitchen, James was greeted with the sight of both of his parents struggling to pop a bottle of champagne while still in their bathrobes. Katy Marcel had shoulder length dark-golden blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. She was known for her energetic and friendly personality. Jeff Marcel was also known for his kind demeanor, though he was a fair bit more introverted than his wife. His dark brown hair was cut in a serious fashion, but his ochre eyes shone with playfulness. Despite their ages, both parents were still quite young-looking and James wondered to himself if they would ever grow old.
“What’s all of the commotion about?” James asked gruffly, still half-asleep.
Finally noticing him, Katy peeled herself away from the war with the champagne bottle and eagerly wrapped her arms around her son, kissing him squarely on top of his messy, chestnut brown hair while giggling wildly.
“They’ve finally fucked up beyond repair!” she exclaimed gleefully. Behind her, Jeff had finally managed to uncork the Champagne and the cork flew across the room, shattering a decorative ceramic vase. Neither of the parents payed the newly deceased vase any mind as they shoved their glasses under the stream of champagne that was now flowing from the bottle.
“Who fucked up?” James asked, reaching to pour himself a glass. He was still only sixteen, but he saw an opportunity to drink alcohol and took it. His instincts proved right as his giddy father happily lifted the bottle to pour for him.
“We just got the call! Look at the screen!” Katy exclaimed, gesturing emphatically at a small flatscreen television on the kitchen wall.
The window showed a news reporter covered in gaudy makeup wearing a sleek white dress sitting at a desk. A title bar flashed across the bottom of the screen as the woman began her report. It read, “Virtech Rejects Morphix Deal.” James’ jaw dropped as he listened intently to the flamboyant newscaster.
“After months of careful courting, Virtech- the company behind the first virtual reality game set to debut in a little more than a year, has decided to issue a third rejection to Morphix’s proposal of a collaboration between the two. Virtech will instead continue development of their in-house virtual reality gear. Morphix, the modest and secretive leader in virtual reality hardware, is well known for their lack of transparency regarding their technology and employees. Virtech has stated that they were unable to trust Morphix and that Morphix was unwilling to reveal many aspects of their technology and business practices, including the identities of the founders and developers. Virtech also claims that bringing in outsiders to work on their project this late in the game would be a logistical nightmare. Experts find this hard to believe though, considering Morphix’s claims that they have already adapted their hardware to run Virtech’s software.
A representative from Morphix states that Morphix is ‘disappointed’ with Virtech’s unwillingness to even attempt cooperation with anybody outside of the Vallimont family, claiming that “Nepotism has made them blind to talent.” As it is evident that Morphix has put a lot of effort into tailoring their product to be purchased by Virtech, many economic experts have expressed pessimism regarding Morphix’s future. How will this powerful little startup adapt to such massive setbacks? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.” The reporter quickly segwayed into another topic, leaving James’ mouth ajar.
“Holy shit,” James mumbled incredulously, “Do those Vallimont bastards even have eyes? What have they done?”
“I know! Isn’t it wonderful?” Katy giggled, her eyes glossed over with pure Schadenfreude-fueled ecstasy.
Katy and Jeff Marcel happened to be CEO and COO of Tripwire, a virtual reality company in steep competition with Virtech. Virtech’s misfortune was definitely Tripwire’s fortune. While they had both started out on equal footing, Virtech’s monstrous speed had led them to having an advantage over Tripwire. Tripwire had decided to put an even stronger emphasis on quality and completely forget about winning in terms of speed. Before they knew it though, Virtech had already announced their game, Solaris- Empire of the Sun, a fantasy MMORPG.
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Ever since the game was announced, Virtech was all that the industry had focused on. The title of First Virtual Reality Game certainly carried a lot of weight. Despite the excitement surrounding Solaris, there had been one bit of controversy. According to Virtech, Solaris would strictly prohibit Player vs. Player fighting. Virtech feared the possibility of violent tendencies cultivated in the game spilling into the real world. To avoid potential liability, they had decided to cut a feature that many players had been eagerly awaiting.
This was the first nail in the coffin. Suddenly, however, Morphix emerged. They were a virtual reality hardware company, but nobody seemed to know anything about their product. Was it a helmet like Virtech’s current model? Maybe a capsule? Did it just offer better graphics? What was it that made the beta testers praise it so highly? All anybody knew, was that it was lightyears ahead of anything else currently in development. From the moment rumors about Morphix’s godly hardware began to spread, Katy and Jeff had been infatuated. This was the leg up that they needed over Virtech. These hopes were quickly crushed though, upon hearing that Morphix had tailored their hardware to Virtech’s software. Shockingly though, Virtech had just rejected them. After a moment of stupor, James snapped back to attention.
“What the hell are you doing just sitting here sipping champagne like you’ve already won?” James demanded, snatching the glass from Katy’s fingers. “You need to get on the phone right now and arrange a meeting!” he exclaimed, grabbing a phone from the counter and shoving it into her hands.
Katy of course knew the number to Morphix’s office. She had been fangirling over them for quite some time, but had never actually called the number listed on their website. Her fingers flew across the keypad. She could feel her heart beating in her throat as she listened to the dial tone. She had no idea what to expect. Suddenly a voice rang out.
“Is this Tripwire?” a groggy voice inquired. The voice was female, and it had a low, sultry quality to it. Katy wasn’t sure quite how to respond. It could be surmised that the voice on the other end had recognized their family name from caller ID, but it was still such an odd way to answer the phone.
“Umm, yes! Hi! My name is Katy Marcel and I’m from Tripwire. I was hoping to arrange a meeting to talk about building a relationship between our companies. Would this be possible?” Katy requested politely.
“HEY! IT’S TRIPWIRE. I’M GONNA SET UP A MEETING.” the voice shouted on the other end, nearly blowing Katy’s ear off.
“THAT’S FINE! STOP SHOUTING INTO THE PHONE AND TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY,” a muffled male voice replied.
“Sorry about that,” the female voice replied, seemingly realizing her mistake. The tone was now significantly more professional. “We would be thrilled to arrange a meeting! I’m sure you’re a busy woman. When would work for you?”
“Oh, I’d like to meet as soon as possible!” Katy responded enthusiastically. “Whenever that is for you, I’ll make it work.”
“Today then?” the voice inquired. Katy was shocked. She hadn’t expected to be able to land an appointment this quickly. Surely there were other companies in the same position as her. Had they simply been first?
“Today is great!” Katy exclaimed, thinking nervously about all the rescheduling she’d need to do.
“We can come to your office then, if that’s fine. What time works best for you?” the voice asked without bothering to wait for an answer.
“I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about. Let’s do morning so that we know we’ll have time.” Katy suggested. “Does 10 work?”
“10 sounds great!” the voice replied. “I’ll bring some demo units and documentation.” Katy was floored. So far, nobody outside of Morphix and Virtech had seen the devices. Katy was practically drooling at the thought.
“I can’t wait!” Katy replied, cordially.
“See you then!” the voice responded, ending the call. Katy slammed the phone back onto its station and wrested her champagne glass from her son’s hands, downing it in an instant.
“Ten o’clock today and they’re bringing demo units!” she declared proudly, lifting her glass in the air.
“Yessss!” her husband exclaimed, lifting the entire bottle. As his parents began to awkwardly dance around the kitchen, James returned to his room to get ready for the day.