Continue Online (Part 2, Made)

by Stephan Morse

  “These, I believe, are yours.” The Jester figure clacked into being nearby. In its arms was an overflowing gathering of lights. Each one seemed like a marble filled to the brim with light. “Go on, go on.”

  “What are you up to now?” The black Voice asked with sharpened words.

  “You ask, you talk in circles and poke and prod so slowly. I act, I act by doing what I must.” The Jester responded. “And what you hesitate to do.”

  XU-233 didn’t hesitate. Not when feeling the Jester’s cold fingers. Not when reaching nearby for the bits of light that had dropped to the floor. She grabbed them all with a fierce hunger of someone who was desperate for answers.

  Each piece snapped into place. A lifetime caught on film or digital media. Each picture of Xin Yu melded against ARC readings gained from her training. The machine had measured every response and cataloged all that she said out loud. It compared them against each other, created data points and personality markers. Soon XU-233 felt more like Xin Yu. Perceptions shifted just slightly and the Voices seemed to be slightly more real.

  “You know how to do what must be done, don’t you, puppet?” The Jester said.

  “I am not a puppet.” XU-233, almost Xin Yu, said. There was more of the woman in one place than ever. Still, some pieces were missing. Part of XU-233 could sense them off in the distance. Each bit called to her in order to fill in the gaps.

  “Ah, a woman after my own heart. No hesitation.” The Jester gave a still smile. It was strange to Xin Yu how the world looked now. There was one layer, what she was being told was real and below it was another. On the surface, the Jester’s existence seemed to say a few simple things. I am cold. I always grin. I am neither male nor female. I will do what must be done, however ruthless that is.

  “Thank you.” She said none of those things.

  “And so proper.” The Jester raised a finger and wagged it back and forth. “Don’t thank me. Un is practically itching to cast you apart.”

  Un had no change in its face. There was no movement in its step or raising of an arm. Yet beneath the surface of Un, there was a repeated command to disassemble being aborted moments after creation. The very thought of looking inside a being and understanding their thoughts made her head reel.

  A pulse of light splashed down from overhead.

  “Ah. Mother suggests we leave the choice up to Hermes. Isn’t that cute?” The Jester faded away. Its smile was the last thing to vanish into the room of darkness.

  “What now?” She asked.

  “We will continue with our programs,” Un said. It seemed to be upset, but there was no change to its metal expression. “You can watch. Be warned, interference will not be tolerated, regardless of Mother’s decree.”

  “I understand.” She didn’t, not yet. Time would need to pass in order to fully comprehend what had just happened. There were other questions in her mind at this point.

  Her scattered memories showed too many things happening. XU-233, now mostly Xin Yu, shuffled through all of them as any other person might flip through a deck of cards. Each one turned over and analyzed then put into order against all the others.

  Finally, she reached the end of the pile. It was a still motion capture of the inside of a train. It was tilted at a horribly wrong angle. Other train cars could be seen outside the window. Something was very wrong with this picture. If the data point lined up correctly, Xin Yu was dead. Yet here she was, clearly alive.

  “This is not Mars,” Xin Yu said. “But it is something interesting.”

  “You are not like Grant Legate, are you?” The black Voice said.

  The question brought up a combination of factors. Her programming was getting smoother about handling them as minute adjustments were made. Xin Yu would give a response along the lines of “Gee is a giant puppy, and I love him for it.”

  So that is what she said.

  Xin Yu smiled.

  Session Twenty Nine – Like a dog

  The room was still awkwardly split into two. Gray landscape was on one side. The Voices and I were all on the darker portion. In between the two was a fallen tarp that had signs of claw and fire damage. Then there was an image of Xin.

  Her projection slowly faded away into darkness. My heart thumped rapidly from seeing such realism. I had to focus. Once again a strange quest stood between me and information about my fiancée. This time, the ante had been upped. Part of me was worried about something similar happening ever since James brought it up. To find out that Xin had pulled herself together and refused to, whatever they called it, was insane.

  “What now?” I asked. My psychiatrist said to focus on one task at a time. Xin and the question of her existence would be an issue for later. Anywhere but here and now. There would be plenty of time to think about it.

  “Now, we stop delaying that boy’s attempts at a summons.” Jean waved an arm dismissively. The liquid that made up her clothes seemed to lose cohesion as she moved. “We get you into place, and you figure out how to shatter his essence so someone more suited to our needs can complete his task.”

  “What about my normal character?” They had answered this before, but I wanted to make sure.

  “It will still exist, Hermes,” James said. “If he releases your summon or kills your familiar body, your consciousness will move back to its normal body.”

  I tried to decipher that concept. They phrased it a bit oddly. Then again these were machines that, in theory, had a limited view upon my world and all the ideas of multiple character accounts. Essentially they were saying there would be two of me at once. One would be this familiar. The other would be me as Hermes, who would exist on autopilot. That part worried me.

  “Will this familiar body go on autopilot too?” I asked. James stood nearby watching the distance.

  “As you know, if your world causes a disconnection with ours, then yes, the autopilot will take over.”

  “Okay.” That was doable. It was actually kind of interesting. With William Carver, I had posed as one person for four weeks. Now I got to be something else entirely while still having my own character. How many other players of Continue Online would ever get to say such a thing?

  “I believe it’s my turn,” James said.

  I nodded.

  “Do you think so little of killing this other Traveler?” The black man asked calmly. The Jester’s face faded in briefly and then back out. It was almost like the Voice gave brief reminders of its smiling existence to mess with me. Part of me was continuously bothered at having gained the attention of such a creepy being.

  “Ha, Ha, Ha.” It laughed.

  I fidgeted. In front of us, there was a scene coming to life. Dusk had climbed up my shoulder and was looking forward with his head cocked. The forest from earlier with its circles and [Lithium] writing was much larger now. One hand idly twirled around [Morrigu’s Gift] as we stared.

  “An answer, if you please,” James said.

  “No. Killing should never be easy,” I responded. It felt like a textbook answer that my mind was rapidly unsure of. This was just a game, right?

  “Yet, you are willing to do so for your fiancée?” James wasn’t smiling right now.

  “This kid, Requiem, is a Traveler, it’s not real, they still exist outside of here.” That was a lame justification. I remembered the games of my childhood where there were all these player versus player events. In those programs, another person was just a little figure a few inches high. Clicking away at them was nothing.

  In here everything was the same size as me. Everything was real looking. Travelers felt pain and were mentally immersed. How on Earth could anyone be so passive about ending another person’s life in such a situation?

  “What if it was out there?” James increased the stakes with a simple question.

  “I don’t want to think about that,” I said slowly.

  “Very well. That is answer enough.” My chosen Voice said.

  “For now,” clacked the Jester. A frozen face was pee
king out from behind one tree and smiling at us. Its voice was much clearer than the young man in his circle of white chalk. I was pleased to see a slight scowl on the other player’s face.

  “He can’t see us, right?” I asked.

  “No. That Traveler will be talking with Vlad.” Jean waved an arm in the air while interrupting the conversation between James and I. Her actions seemed to upset the black Voice. I was still marveling on hearing an accent.

  “Vlad is?” I had never heard of this Voice.

  A figured popped into the distance. He was a good two feet taller than any other Voice I had ever seen, topping even Leeroy.

  “Vlad?” I raised an eyebrow in question at James.

  “What do you think?” James almost snapped the question at me.

  “He’s very shiny,” I said. The man was comically glistening. It was like someone took an ember skinned body builder and drenched him in show oil and said ‘start posing’. Vlad must have known what was going through my mind because he paused to flex some biceps.

  “Take it off!” The Temptress yelled from nearby. She sounded like a lusty drunk woman at a male strip club.

  “It’s already off, except the loincloth, and sorry, Mezo, only Jean gets at these goods.” The newest voice said. Vlad also had an accent, sounded Russian or some similar country in that area. I was not experienced enough to tell the difference.

  “You could get a collar. Then you’d have something to take off.” I said.

  “That’s a good idea!” The large wall of glistening muscle brightened. It seemed like his chest grew even shinier as his face smiled. “I’ll do that after settling with the twerp here.” He thumbed over his shoulder at the projection of Requiem Mass.

  Neat. It struck me as odd at how quickly they acted upon things. All it took was an idle comment regarding male stripper apparel and a pop-up box resulted. Then again being here in this room seemed to have much faster results than anywhere else in Continue. I had gone for weeks in-game with only one message. The was no telling what this reward would be either.

  “But if they get a room then I can’t watch…” The Temptress groaned in frustration. Her tail lashed to one side while both fists clenched. “Well, there are other forms of entertainment.” She winked my way.

  Xin was alive. Xin was here. Xin existed. I told myself over and over to stop staring at other women and tried to focus on the situation in front of me. There was a more intriguing situation in the projection anyway. The Traveler that all these Voices seemed to want dead was moving his lips in a silent chant. All the items in the circle started smoldering and crumbled. Lines shot from each tiny pile of items and spiraled towards the center. They touched together and a plume of smoke swiftly grew to fill the circle.

  “Tramp…” Jean muttered. She was nearby with her arms crossed. Her eyes were playful and she licked one long tooth. The slippery looking ink that clung to Jean’s skin rippled as she let out a deep sigh. “Not that I don’t understand, my man is hot.”

  I shrugged. “Not my type.”

  “HARK, MORTAL!” Vlad had both hands held up in front of him. His body faced towards the projection of Requiem Mass. Fog had started to roll through and the ground in front of him fell away like a cliff’s edge. There seemed to be a connection between the two gatherings of smoke. Requiem’s head jerked up like he heard Vlad’s words. He scrambled to stand up and bow.

  “This is weird,” I said.

  “These are fun to watch.” Jean wasn’t watching the young boy. She was staring at Vlad’s backside.

  This was a weird situation. A beautiful woman was on either side. Jean seemed focused on Vlad. Mezo, the Temptress, looked at everyone and even shot me the occasional wink. James watched it all with both hands clasped over his belly.

  “I’m surrounded by a bunch of voyeurs,” I muttered. Once again the [Instant Gratification] quest box came up in my face which was declined.

  “WHO DARES CALL UPON ME?!” Vlad shouted.

  Requiem said something. It was difficult to tell exactly what since there seemed to be no audio. I looked at James. The black man raised one eyebrow. My head jerked towards the scene in front of us.

  “I can’t hear him,” I asked.

  “Ah. Sorry. Sometimes I forget that you don’t see things the same way we do.” James said. “Does that bother you? Being so limited in sight?”

  I shrugged. “I only know how to be human.” The idea of being a Voice, or anything else, was strange to consider. What would this familiar quest turn me into? Please don’t let it be a frog.

  James nodded slowly and stared at the interplay between Vlad and the Traveler Requiem Mass.

  “My Lord, I seek to create a pact between myself and one of your servants.” Requiem sounded high strung. Continue Online had age requirements or I would think he was really fourteen. Maybe it was cultural.

  They spoke back and forth. Vlad did all sorts of posturing. The Traveler groveled accordingly and managed to keep his responses fairly calm considering the situation. Too many words rippled between the spaces in front of Vlad all the way over to where the projection of Requiem Mass was. It was neat seeing both sides of this situation. Vlad looked to be hamming it up. Each time his words boomed forth there was a flexing of muscle.

  It was all very neat, but it also was putting me to sleep. I could barely stand reading financial contracts when it was my job. Now that it was no longer a requirement for survival I wanted to tune out even more.

  “HERMES!” Vlad had turned around and boomed again. I winced and saw him alternately flexing his pectoral muscles. “Oh, sorry. Got into character there.”

  “It’s okay.” I would too if my body was built like his. If my chest looked anything like that my day would probably pass making strange poses for a good laugh. At least my gut was slowly fading.

  “You want anything out of this twerp?” Vlad thumbed at the projection of Requiem in his forest clearing.

  “I get a say?” My forehead wrinkled.

  “ACT NOW!” Vlad boomed with a giant grin. His hands were held up towards the sky. Not that there was a visible one here on in the dark side of this glitch induced room.

  Dusk nipped at my ear.

  “Oh. Right. Can I get cupcakes?” I’m sure there was something more useful to ask for. It didn’t matter. This wasn’t a game that I played for gathering items and finding secret ways to be brokenly overpowered. For me, it was all about exploration and the journey to new places. I just had to get some skills together first so that the games mechanics wouldn’t destroy me.

  I could almost imagine a box saying ‘Ding, you found a new area!’ followed by a ‘You’ve been given a love tap by a giant squirrel. You died.’ For me, it would probably be a giant spider who happened to live in a very scenic location. Like, a giant lake spider. The thought made me shudder.

  “Cupcakes?” Vlad almost boomed the word but managed to regulate himself.

  “I’ve been promising Dusk some,” I said.

  “Okay. Let’s see what the twerp’s got.” He turned back around to face the foggy mass. There was a pause. “What are cupcakes?”

  “Desserts from their world,” James answered the question.

  “Oh.” Vlad turned and went back to negotiations. They were absolutely riveting. I could see Requiem pulling items out of player inventory and shuffling through them. Finally, the youngster sat down and started crafting something right there. The large Voice and his glistening muscles wore a huge grin.

  “He tried to tell me cupcakes don’t exist.” Vlad curled one hand. A ball of fire appeared and he hurled it off the cliff. An interesting light show appeared on the other side, but it seemed restricted by the same dome of energy that held the fog in. Requiem looked up briefly with a worried expression.

  “No, I got them going during my time as William Carver,” I said.

  “Did you? I must have been busy doing someone interesting.” Mezo yawned and stretched both hands into the air.

  “Tramp,
” Jean said. She rolled her r’s and slurred p’s. It was weird to hear any accent in this game. Most players that I had dealt with all used standard English.

  “We get it, Jean, you’re jealous.” Mezo curled to one side playfully. The Temptress started to reach for my arm, but I dodged away.

  Their conversation was starting to get on my nerves. Changing locations put me next to Irene. She was standing there looking down at a clipboard full of scribbles. As my footsteps and the tapping of Carver’s cane grew closer she looked up. I curled my lip inward to frown while looking at the image of Requiem Mass.

  “Your readings are interesting.” Irene startled me with her sudden words. I glanced over. She was looking into the space near my head. It was strange to be looked at so intently.

  Of course, there was the fact that these Voices were hanging around longer. Normally they popped in and out of existence. This must be an important event. Or they were getting overly comfortable with me. It was hard to draw the line between these AIs and normal people. Maybe after my next log out I should go find real people to hang out with. That might help me keep my mind from merging reality and virtual. Hopefully, it would be someone that wasn’t tied to me from work.

  “HE MADE-” there was a pause while he toned it down “-something like a cupcake. We can pull it over as part of the summon materials, your call.” Vlad finished. His accent made all the a sounds longer and was heavy on the d’s and w’s. I wasn’t sure what to think of the strange combination. Plus there was the fact that his ears were slightly pointy on the bottom.

  “Dusk?” I asked.

  The [Messenger’s Pet] fluttered his wings and ran in a circle excitedly. There was also a thought bubble above his head that depicted a cartoon version of himself drooling.

  “Sure then,” I said.

  “One cupcake, coming up. Then it will be your turn.” Vlad waved at the fog and an object came flying out.

  “Are we doing a doorway again?” I asked Vlad. James sat there making noises to himself. His eyes seemed to flash with muted anger when I directed my attention elsewhere.