Chapter 13 - Shock
Year 3001, Sunday 22 days until classes start. Simulator.
“Hey. Kaiser. You good dude?”
My eyes shot open as I coughed a loud dry cough. Wait. Dry? What the hell was happening? David’s face was right above me, “He’s not dead. I don’t think so. Do dead people cough air?”
“I choked on my saliva.”
David’s eyes narrowed has he gave me a skeptical side eye, “Yeah sure. You for sure weren’t screaming a few seconds ago about how you were drowning.”
Sitting up I blinked as the world spun and flashed a bright white and black, “What? What happened?”
I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Athena towering over me, “I think he’s back.”
“Huh… what the.”
Athena scrunched her eyebrows, “Shit. He’s in shock.”
Off to my right I heard David’s voice being distorted by something, “Shock? Isn’t this just simulated?”
She shook her head, “But your head and consciousness think this world is fully real.”
With a snap of her fingers a small pillow appeared in her hands. Putting the materialized pillow under my legs she stared at me, “Hey. Kaiser. Deep breaths.”
“What… What huh?”
She looked around and then pointed at David, “Hey, can you try to calm him down? If this continues we might need to get pulled out.”
The world flew past me like a blur as bright lights seemed to fly past me. I looked to my right and saw David, “Wuhh- “
David’s face seemed to distort and morph into someone else’s face. Who was this? I stared at the smudge, “Where am I?”
A black circle appeared on the smudge. I heard David’s voice reverberate through my skull sending a splitting pain into the top of my head, “You’re in the simulator.”
“Simulator?”
Wait. Simulator? What? Oh.
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I opened my eyes to see myself standing in the middle of an endless field of grass. Wait what. What just happened? I looked behind me and saw Athena and David giving me a weird look. What. What the hell was that?
David looked at my eyes, “Hey. Kaiser. You good dude?”
I looked down at my hand. It was shaking. Shaking as if I was freezing, “Uh… yes?”
Athena stared at me, “Are you sure you’re alright? Hey, what’s the data on Kaiser’s chamber?”
Dr. Monday’s voice boomed in our ears, “Erm.”
We all flinched as the sound pierced our skulls. Athena shouted, “Lower the volume!”
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“Ah, apologies. Let’s see…”
The face sun of the simulation shined into my eyes and I let out a sneeze. David smirked, “He’s not dead. I don’t think so. Do dead people sneeze?”
Wait. That was almost identical to… what? What is happening?
I stared at my shaking hands, “Um. What is happening? What did I see?”
Athena’s eyebrows raised, “You saw something?”
“Yeah.”
Athena frowned, “What’s the status of the stasis chamber.”
Dr. Monday’s voice echoed through the open field, “Ether resonance with some equipment happened. To summarize, Kaiser got connected to Prophesy.”
Athena’s eyes widened, “How long was the exposure to Prophesy?”
“Less than a millisecond.”
“What’s the damage?”
“I can’t tell. This model of Prophesy is incomplete.”
Athena glanced at Kaiser, “Do you feel fine?”
I looked up at her, “Uh… I think? What’s Prophesy? What did I see? What happened? What- “
“Hey. Kaiser. Deep breaths.”
“What… What huh?”
She looked around and then pointed at David, “Hey, can you try to calm him down? I gotta figure out what the hell is happening.”
Wait. That was different. But the first part was the exact same as… what? What is happening? I flinched as a thought popped into my head. What if I saw the future? But that couldn’t be the future. At the end of that I… what. What happened at the end? What was that blackness. That ink. That…
SNAP
My eyes shot open and suddenly a bright flash of white filled my eyes as everything was flooded in a bright white. I stuttered, “Huh… what the.”
Athena scrunched her eyebrows, “Shit. I think he’s in shock.”
Shock? That couldn’t be. It was just a simulation. This was all fake. What just happened was all fake. Not real. Nothing that could harm me. No danger. Plugging your consciousness into a machine couldn’t be dangerous… right? Right?
“If this continues we might need to get pulled out.”
Shit. Another line. I turned my head to look over at David. The grass seemed to fly past me at different angles as I collapsed to the ground from nausea, “Wuhh- “
David’s face seemed to distort and morph into someone else’s face just like the thing I saw earlier. The thing. No. What happened at the end of that? Black? Shock? Does that mean I died? I couldn’t have died to shock. Shock of what? What? What was happening.
A head grabbed my forehead, and I felt words through a vibration that came through the fingers, “Sense.”
My eyes shot open as I rolled onto my back. Sense? That was a command for druids. Did they want me to try to use the command? But how?
I heard a faint voice speaking, “Make prophesy guide Kaiser through sense.”
“That’s a little dangerous.”
“This might be an opportunity. Hey. Kaiser? Try using sense until something changes.”
An opportunity? What kind opportuni- ugh.
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Well. Shit. So does that mean this isn’t real? What the hell is even happening anymore. Well, I guess none of it is real. It’s all in the simulation. But which simulation is real? Is one simulation more real than another simulation?
If you think about it, could it be that all simulations are on different levels of realness? How could the simulation hurt me in real life if it’s just a simulation? And if that could hurt me, how does a simulation in a simulation not hurt me? That doesn’t make any sense. What the hell is Prophesy? It sounds like some kind of prediction thing. People have some really creative naming sense.
I opened my eyes. I assumed it was Athena that told me to try using sense. What does that even mean? Well. I guess I’ll give it a go.
Sense
Nothing. Well. What was I expecting. Urp. Blech. Looking down at the grass was a pool of red and brown something. What was it? The edges of my vision turned black. Ah. Was I going to die in a simulation again? What the hell is even happening?
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So I guess I try it again now. Sense is probably like my ether usage earlier where I imbue something with a will to enhance it. So maybe I enhance my eyesight.
Sense
Splat
Ugh. What happened to my eyes… wait. What happened to my eyes.
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Well that didn’t work. Let’s try the ears.
Sense
Sqltch
I tilted my head as a painful needle like feeling struck the side of my head along with a high-pitched noise that clouded my vision. A small pool of red was on the ground. Huh. Well, that didn’t work.
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So, what is sense? Why would Athena make me do this? There’s gotta be some reason. And it’s gotta be pretty safe if she threw me in here. Hmm. What if sense wasn’t sight or hearing but touch? Ether is a wave. What if sense was about feeling the residual waves in the environment? If that’s the case… sense isn’t a command. You couldn’t emit either sense. You’d have to take in the ether. But then… why do commands exist?
Yo. We got another shout today! This one is a little different from this genre but is a pretty neat idea and humor is quite good. Do check it out :D
In other news, I gotta drop that these next 2-3 chapters will be... wacky. Very wacky. This kind of weird stuff is what I was known for in Wyrm In The Brain. Part of the reading experience is figuring out what all of this means. Every line I put into the story has been thought through and is there for a reason. No line anyone says is a mistake. I've taken multiple passes through this story after all. If you see a reference to something earlier in the story IT IS A REFERENCE. ID numbers, names, ect all matter. Obviously, if you don't want to piece it all together you don't have to. The story is plenty enjoyable without paying attention to it but I hope some of you have started to notice the references and callbacks to the recordings and events. I put a lot of work into tying it all together. When I said "no fluff" I really mean it. Everything and I mean everything I put in the story has a place.
In case you missed it, let's do a short recap of the recordings!
The blood demon recording shows Gaius and Blake. These happen to be the fathers of Kaiser and David. Coincidence? Not really. It also mentions David's mother Grace who shows up as Councilor Monday in these chapters.
The Luna recording depicts Dr. Monday in his younger days on the frontline during the Lunar war also referred to as the third war. There will be more calbacks and references to these as the story progresses.
Really, this note is just a reminder that everything is written for a reason. When I say "no fluff" I mean it. If the connection isn't clear, then it means it's coming in 2-3 chapters or I just did a bad job making the connection apparent to you. If it is the latter, a comment or something would help. Stuff like this can usually be fixed with small paragraph edits. It would be very helpful for my writing.
Anyway. Next chapter is gonna be Chapter 14 - Recording No. 82: The Oracle Project
