Because I don't seem to be able to hold my post-a-day idea, and I've been ill for the last week, I've decided to make my daily update a section of whatever I happen to be writing. Today, it's Subreality (a scifi NIP).Enjoy!
* * *
* * *
"So, what time's this
meeting?"
Mandy looks up, surprised
that Kai has not chosen a different time to ask this rather important
question.
Mrs Pumpkin answers before
Mandy has a chance to. "Five fifteen, and thirty two seconds.
The Council does love to be
ridiculously precise."
Kai rolls his eyes, tips his
head back to stare at the ceiling and swears under his breath. He
wonders whether agreeing to this in the first place was a good idea
at all. But agreed he has, and he doubts the option to fall
mysteriously ill will be available with a girl like Pumpkin in the
room.
It is unclear why Pumpkin is
a Mrs; she's certainly not married, being only thirteen. But for as
long as Kai can remember, which to be honest isn't as long as he'd
like, she's never been anything else. Perhaps it's because Miss
Pumpkin or Ms Pumpkin don't sound right. He'll never know, as he's
too afraid to ask her. He doesn't like her mismatched unnaturally
coloured eyes, one of which is a deep vivid orange colour, and the
other a velvety black. He isn't too keen on how she speaks, either,
though he's less concerned as to how a teenager has the vocabulary of
several above-average adults than he is about his own wishes, which
mostly consist of food and trying to beat the final levels of Portal
13 and a remastered version of Highly Responsive To Prayers.
They are interrupted by the large digital display clock bleeping
loudly, flashing out the time to remind them that tomorrow is the
dawn of a new ma, and they are required to attend the parade in the
Virtual Town's central area.
Mandy blinks from behind the frames of her SmartLenses and tells the
clock, "Display time and location."
The screen flickers while it brings up both the time - displaying
every unit from year right down to nanoseconds - and a realtime map
showing their position in relation to the rest of the generated
world.
Pumpkin's phone begins to buzz at her, and she looks at the screen to
decide whether she wants to answer it or not. The caller is unknown,
so she presses the button which will send a message to the caller
telling them to come see her in person.
"I'm going to go take a nap. Don't disturb me," she
says, glaring at Kai. He pretends not to notice and continues to wait
for the computer to load the X and Z keys, which are currently
missing. Last time he had attempted to disturb Pumpkin when she was
sleeping, he had found her hanging from the ceiling by her neck,
apparently dead. Although it's impossible to actually die in the VR,
he still yelled like all hell had broken loose, waking most of the
neighbours but surprisingly not Pumpkin. He had found out later that
her generated self reacts to whatever she is dreaming about, and that
if she doesn't want to be woken up it is virtually impossible to do
so.
Mandy continues to stare at the screen, flicking things around with
her eye movements, and waves slightly, not really concentrating.
Mrs Pumpkin disappears off to her slightly creepy bedroom and Kai,
seeing that the keyboard has finally finished loading, starts up
Highly Responsive To Prayers and begins shooting.
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