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We killed ourselves, sold ourselves, begged, borrowed and debased ourselves for this moment. And there it was the treasure we rightly deserved. They held the promise of untold worlds. Their mere presence meant we had arrived. Who cared what rich people had? We had these. And we had earned them. You bet your ass we earned them. But moments can be fragile and even a victorious army can get wiped out by a storm. And that storm was of course Amy.
We watched like human statues as she lost her footing sending the Jack Daniels flying. And there was only one direction out of 360 it was going to go. Straight for the VR headsets. Thankfully it only landed on one of them. It let out a wretched sputtering sound and then the light went out. I think I know whose headset that will be.
Dead silence except for a feeble “nooo”, from Amy.
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I knew she was a heartbeat away from a full meltdown but Jared beat me to it.
“I hope that headset wasn't planning on driving … because he's going to be plenty ripped tonight”, Jared said with an exaggerated look on his face.
“David I'm sorry”, She said with a pleading look in her eyes.
“No way don't sweat it Jared and I can fix it. Just you wait.”, I said “Hey … Family remember?”
Family they both cheered back. Hey it may be a family of misfits but its ours.
I wasn't at all sure we could fix it but as it turns out transmitting ultrasound waves was an important part of the design. And the Transducer was the thing that was fryed. No biggie I had a spare Piezo speaker. So we Frankensteined it in there. Her headset looked like a satelite had crapped on her head but it was probably going to work.
“Ok guys where shall we go, who shall we be and what is our mission?” Amy asked with renewed energy.
“I always loved West World how about we have the program recreate that and go on a crazy adventure there?” I said hopefully. At least West World was something I as a little familiar with.
“oooohhhhh nice”, Jared voiced “But how about we up the ante and we are ship mates aboard the USS Bounty arrrgggg”.
Amy and I spat out laughs. Jared had a boundless adventurer inside of him. Then Jared and I looked at Amy to see what her imagination was telling her.
“I was thinking a little more like third class housing on the Titanic.”
Jared and I howled at that one. Ok that was damn good. So we rock papered sizzored our way to a third class voyage on the Titanic.
Now I was genuinely afraid. What if I turned out to be a coward, or what if I fell in love like that damn movie. Or what if I …
“Hey wait a second. If this is perfectly life like then what is drowning like because sign me out of that.” I said sincerely.
“ No I read up on that.”Amy said soothingly. “ You will be afraid up until a mortal injury or death and feel mild irritating sensation then you just kicked out of the game. So don't wuss out … ahhhh lil baby it'll be ok don't worry we will be there to hold your little handsies”, she said in a baby voice.
“Fine lets do this”, I said trying to believe the bravery in my voice.
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We put on the headsets and went into the group assembly test environment. Now I could really feel my heart beat racing. This wasn't a game. This was real. If you mess up here you own that. And then I noticed a glitch in the visual especially when I was closer to Amy. Maybe this could be a way out of this.
“Looks like the short is transmitting”, I said.
“Well maybe it'll go away when we are fully immersed. Or maybe we wont even notice it”, Jared said dismissively.
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He wasn't having any of it.
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And so we launched. Sure enough we were on the titanic and for several seconds it was just another night on the ship. Like every other night it was our routine to walk to the bow to watch the ocean slip away behind us. I thought nothing of it till my vision was ripped in half by a brief warping right down the middle. And just like that I remembered this was not my reality but was in fact a game. I knew instantly by the looks on their faces that they knew it too.
“Holy Shiiiiiiiit …. Amy just glitched us off grid”, Jared said with excitement.
“Uhh … I guess this is my fault I'm sorry”, She said but with a hint of excitement as well. We made it to the bow and kept our voices down like spys in enemy territory.
“Ok does this mean we can just leave now?” I said trying to sound normal but it came out nervous.
“Whattt”, Jared hissed “This is brilliant we could do something crazy now like save the ship, get married to one of the doomed passengers or get an early lead on one of the lifeboats and sell the remaining seats”.
“That's horrible but kinda funny”, Amy said half laughing.
“Well I don't want to be a party killer but what happens now if we drown?”, I asked.
“Well there's nothing in the writings about this because … THIS … is not supposed to happen.” Amy said still excited but a little concerned.
“My plan of commandeering one of the life boats is starting to look good no?”, Jared cracked.
I had other concerns and was about to raise them when one of the ships crew approached us.
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“Are you here for normal evaluation or is there a problem?”
Amy and I looked at each other like he was a sea horse that had just spoken. But Jared jumped at that opportunity because well. Thats Jared.
“Damn straight there's a problem. And we might have to take some drastic action if we don't see these problems fixed”, He proclaimed out of the deepest recesses of his anus.
“Oh dear that is unfortunate I thought that ANP13 was a bit off script. Do you want to take him to the corridor?”
“Of course but first we want to check the quality of the food and drinks and so we need the best table and service immediately. And by the way your future depends on it” Jared said threateningly and convincingly for the man ran for his life to do Jareds' orders.
“What the hell was that about”, I asked.
“ I have no clue but it seems we are going to party tonight .. on the house.” Jared boasted. “Hey we are off grid role with it I say”
“That's not very nice you scared that poor man to death.” Amy said scolding Jared.
“Uhhhh thats not a man that is a program and if anything I gave him some excitement.”, He said grabbing each of us by the arm and marching in the direction of the dining room. “Besides we're just in the nick of time ANP13 is messing everything up … who ever that is”.
“Wait a second” Amy said “Thats not a job description thats an asset code I bet. Think about what he was saying are we here to evaluate. And ANP13 means non player … or Artificial Non Player maybe”.
We all got quite at that thought. But we didn't have much time to think about it as we were ushered in like royalty to the captains table. We walked past all the rich people in our peasant clothes. I decided I might as well go all in and try and act like I'm somebody important.
“No waiter we are not inclined to sit at the captains table as we have private matters to discuss that are too important” I said arrogantly.
People within hearing distance gasped. There were murmurs. Now everyone was looking at us and there was fear on some, confusion on others and condemnation on still others.
We sat down as ceremoniously as possible trying to convey importance. We had the best meal, the best time and the most excitement ever. Even Amy began to just slide right into our new role. Whatever that role was. But after a couple of hours the whole charade wore us down. We began to feel excitement fatigue if thats a thing. Jared as usual just seemed to know how to play a situation. And so he called the crew member over that first approached us.
“We've seen enough for tonight. We will deal with this in the morning but for now we are going to need new accommodations. We will need a very large room for all three of us so that we can compare notes”, He said as if it was nothing.
“Of course Sir I shall see to it right away”, Said the crewman hurriedly.
Amy kicked Jared under the table hard enough that I felt it and she motioned at the scared crewman.
“Ahhh Crewman come hither please” He commanded. I was about to crawl under the table and I think Amy was about to slither there ahead of me.
“I want you to know that all three of us think very highly of you and you will be marked accordingly in our reports”, Jared offered graciously.
“Thank you sir … thank you … Im so glad to assist you. ANP13 was from a previous version and wasn't updated I believe thats the problem sir” He said a little lower.
And with that we were led to our new accomadations. Finally we could take a break from this chaos … or so I thought.
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