by Kris Schnee
The screen flickered through a demo loading page for a moment, then popped up with Ludo as the man with the cape of stars. "If you want to be, sure. Don't feel like you have to spend your own cash."
Stan said, "I'm hoping to make money off this. Say, what if I built my own drones?"
"Do you have any idea how?"
"Well, no, but I'm sure I could learn."
Ludo smiled. "So are you declaring yourself open to letting my residents get to boss you around a little?"
"I guess? If that's how you want to put it."
A message popped up on the screen. [Request from Volt St. John: "Hi, human! Would you mind being my lampbearer for a bit? I can pay for you and your friends to get a cheap meal at the in-store cafe."]
Stan hadn't meant using himself as a remote-control vehicle for the game people to steer around! He'd done it before, though, and money was worth a little humiliation. Except, it really wasn't even that. It was just doing somebody a favor. "You're the dragon-girl, aren't you? I'm up for it."
The screen wiped to a desert where the humanoid blue dragon from the Isles was waving to him. She wore a cooler version of a white lab coat and had glasses perched ridiculously on her muzzle. "Yeah! It sounds like you don't have a Talisman in hand right now, so please go buy one. There ought to be enough charge to do a little sightseeing with me."
Eddie tapped Stan on the shoulder. "Mina and I are going to get food; you coming?"
Stan just tilted the demo Talisman toward him so Volt could say, "I'm paying, but I've got to borrow your friend for a bit afterward. Bwahaha."
Eddie shook his head, saying, "You let them order you around?"
"This one asked nicely."
Stan paid for the Talisman by using his Slab to bill Hal, then bought the drones with cash. He carried them all over to the cafe, where he found a quick-charge outlet and plugged the new gaming pad in. Its screen eventually lit up with the generic Thousand Tales title screen and a loading bar.
"What do you want?" Mina said from the cafe's counter. Stan was at a table fiddling with his new toy.
Stan said, "Sandwich I guess. Whatever." He said to the screen, "Open sesame. Stan Cooper."
The Talisman went through an elaborate face/voice recognition display that he was pretty sure was exaggerated for effect. Then the intro screen with the pixel dragon appeared, only it was a low-resolution Volt speaking in text. [Hail, traveler! Want me to pay you for food?]
Stan winced. "Actually, it's probably a bad idea to have a record of me getting payments from anybody in Thousand Tales." Baron Hal would find out and he wouldn't be pleased, since Stan had reached a kind of truce with him.
Volt typed out, [Huh?]
"Never mind; I'll figure something out. Pay me later, I guess. Hey Mina, how much is the bill? My imaginary friend needs to know."
Mina came back with Eddie and the food, and the receipt. "Imaginary friend is right. Come on, Stan, shouldn't you have a better hobby than having a game character steer you around the electronics aisle for fun?"
Volt switched back to her "real" graphics with a loud pop. "We're going to go play outside, miss! Okay, I want to look at toys a little but then we're going out."
Stan tore into his sandwich, then looked at it. "I'm getting credit for the whole veggie lottery, aren't I?"
"Yeah, that was a neat trick," Mina said.
Stan nodded. "What has you so excited about the Washington trip anyway?"
"It's a chance to see how things really get done. I won't just be playing games; we get to meet other Community stars and do mock debates on legislation."
"Which is totally different from a game," Eddie said.
Mina stuck out her tongue at him. "And anyway there's a city tour and I think we get to see the inside of Congress and meet our Congressperson."
Stan imagined a smokey magic ritual chamber where people could conjure rules into existence by doing something unholy called "legislation".
"And now you're snickering at me," Mina complained.
Stan gave her a grin instead. "Sorry, not at you. I'm just thinking how laws are a game where we pretend you have to do something because a guy like Hal sacrificed a chicken."
Mina stared at him like he'd grown antennae, then laughed. "When you put it that way, it does sound a little silly. This game's real though."
Eddie added, "Hal would never do that. He'd sacrifice a beet and let its juice drip all over the altar."
Stan said, "Do you know he sneaks in beer and steak for himself sometimes?"
"No! That monster!"
Mina looked unduly troubled by that. "That's my mission while we're out here. He's in charge. He's allowed to have some privileges."
"What other rules is he allowed to break?" said Stan.
Mina paused in mid-bite. "Hal is a good guy, Stan. He's basically never hit on me, or anything."
Stan didn't want to push her; she looked unsettled already and this was no time to spoil her fun. "Sorry. Anyway, I should go run errands for a dragon. Will this take long, Volt?"
The dragon-girl on the screen was sitting at a table much like theirs, nibbling an endless pile of chocolate chip cookies. "It's a few blocks away, but no."
* * *
Stan carried the Talisman around the store on Volt's behalf, letting her get a good look at circuit-making tools like soldering irons and breadboards. "Do you know how to use these?" he said.
"Not really; just some simple sims in my world. Felt like I ought to know something about electricity. Did Tesla really invent lightning guns?"
"Who?"
"Eh; never mind. I'm done here so let's go outside."
Stan headed out, giving the security cameras and employees a wave as he walked with the Talisman held in front of him. "You should build a better interface if you're going to keep hiring humans to do this."
Volt spoke from the screen: "Sometimes we get somebody wearing i-glasses, so we can kind of see through their eyes."
"So we're low-cost robot substitutes?"
Volt said, "And low-quality, in a way."
"Excuse me?"
"'Cause when we use robots, we don't have to care about them being safe or happy."
At Volt's direction he headed out across the sunny streets, looking warily around at the decrepit shops and apartments. "What's your deal, anyway? I mean, is it just an act that you look like a kid?"
"Kind of. I'm one of the Originals that Miss Ludo made, so none of my brothers and sisters and cousins are much older than me. Some got made later. She says I'm an experiment since my brain is meant to grow instead of, schlorp, ready-made AI stamped out with a basic education in her head already. I know about sex and stuff like that, but I don't care. Guess we'll turn that option on later. I'm also meant to be a mascot for a childrens' hospital, Saint John's."
Stan stopped walking. That meant there was a hospital full of frightened kids who might be dying, and Ludo had made someone to be their friend. He turned the Talisman around to look at the screen. "That's heavy."
Volt was standing on a digital version of the street he was on, seeming to travel with him. The smile on her muzzle wavered but returned. "Yeah. I learned about being scared, and hurting, and never being able to do enough. Not all my brothers and sisters really get that. But I'm learning for Miss Ludo. If I understand, that helps her get it too."
"So what are we doing out here?"
"Meeting somebody. One more block on your left."
The destination was the new playground. It stood out in bright colors and fresh wood, and several families were hanging out there. Volt said, "Up on the bridge."
There was a boy in a wheelchair up there, rolling back and forth and making the thing rattle as designed. Stan had run across it a few times and imagined being a jungle explorer (for testing purposes of course), and now somebody else was getting to do almost the same.
Volt called out, "Jose, we're here!"
With surprising speed the kid wheeled his way down to ground level, then
looked back and forth between Volt and Stan. "Whoa, you brought somebody?"
Stan went over to the woman who was watching him, and said, "The game asked me to come here; is that all right?"
It was hard to understand her Spanish but she was saying, "Okay. You're the farmer?"
"I wanted to meet a real farmer!" said Jose, already closing in on Stan again.
Volt said, "I think he is."
"What's it like? Do you get tired after picking the crops all day? Are there horses?"
Stan blinked, then peeked around the screen at Volt. "I thought we were here so you can talk to him."
"He can talk to me almost any day. He wanted me to fetch a farmer." A little notice popped up over her head, saying [Quest complete!]
"Uh, well..." Stan tried to answer the kid's flurry of questions. Several rounds in, he protested, "I work on a farm, but I like making stuff more than that."
"Like what?"
Stan felt like he'd been interrogated after a few minutes of that. He'd felt foolish trying to talk about irrigation and greenhouses and the wood shop like they were something special. Still, the boy's earnestness kept him talking, with some automated translation help.
Volt finally said, "See, Jose? You understood that pretty well. We just need you to be patient and learn whatever you can, and one day you'll get to do it all, too."
"Uh-huh! I'm not worried. I'll get better soon and then I'll get to be a farmer like him."
His mother said, "Jose has a little garden, but he's never gotten to do more than that. Thanks for taking the time, mister."
Stan nodded, humbled.
Rather than have Ms. Parker pick him up there, Stan walked back to the store. He said to Volt, "Are you guys really working to cure all the diseases and whatever's wrong with Jose back there?"
"Not me personally. I'm a cheerleader using one of my skills."
"Diplomacy?"
"On my character sheet it's labeled Ministry."
Stan walked quietly, watching the streets. "But are you, I mean Ludo and company, going to get everyone uploaded within that kid's lifetime? Or heal them with nanotech or something?"
"Probably not everyone. But we'll help a lot more people than we can now. If we can't afford to fix Jose directly, there's a good chance someone else will, or he'll find another way to do what he wants -- if he's got a head full of dreams." She grinned. "I was reading about Tesla. He got to be friends with a writer called Twain. Said that Twain's books helped cheer him up when he was sick, and then Tesla invented a lot of stuff. If I cheer up Jose, maybe he'll be the one that fixes everything."
Stan would have felt bad if he'd thought Volt was using him to peddle false hope, telling everybody that uploading for all was just around the corner. Hearing the dragon-girl offer something more modest made it easier to believe they could do it.
He said, "It must get you down, hanging around with people who need a pep talk when you can't just hand out free uploading."
"Sometimes, yeah. But... Imagine a game where you start in a little paradise world. One day you find out about the dark Outer Realm, another dimension where everything is super dangerous and people are sad a lot. But you have magic powers like talking to people all over that world, building outposts that let you teleport there, and juggling a bunch of different resources to start making the Outer Realm more like home. That's the game we play. My powers come from helping people and making friends, so I'm pretty sure I'm one of the good guys."
* * *
"Where are you going?" said Eddie. The car wasn't taking them to the border.
Parker said, "I was going to take you right into the Fun Zone, my treat. I got a discount for four people."
"Thanks!" said Stan.
Eddie echoed him but Mina wasn't so sure. "You want me to hop into one of those VR pods?"
Parker said, "You don't have to, but I'm taking an hour in there myself."
"None of you are going to tell Hal, right?"
"Are you really that afraid of him?" Stan asked from the passenger seat. "If he checks our locations he'll know we were here, but you can just sit sullenly while we play."
"I'm not afraid of him. Or of the AI. I'm worried for you two."
Stan sighed. "If you want, we can drop you off here instead."
Mina started to complain.
"I'll keep you company."
"What? You'd do that?"
Stan looked back at her. "Sure. It's not a great neighborhood." He was pretty sure Ludo wouldn't mind, under the circumstances.
"No, I... I'd rather go along than make you miss this."
The Fun Zone wasn't crowded with volunteers this time, but it was doing good business with families that seemed to be there for the cheap food and video games. The griffin robot was on patrol again making friends with everyone, and eventually it trotted up to Stan's group and said, "Hi!"
Stan said, "You're Gail something, right?"
Its voice was subtly different from the first time Stan met this robot. "No. We have different people using this body. What can we set up for you in your VR session?"
Stan asked the others, "Did you want to do some kind of group game?"
"Not for the whole time," Mina said. Parker and Eddie agreed; they all had their own private ideas.
Eddie said, "I'll join in on your island game if you promise to do something more fun than cutting down trees."
Stan looked sheepish; he'd been planning to craft more stuff for his raft project. "We could paddle around a bit! At least, if you let me make a few paddles. Haven't done a sail yet."
"You do that on your own time," said Eddie.
Stan drank soda while they all hung out in the dining area, talking with characters on screens. So that he wouldn't have to bore his friends, he went into his Endless Isles game and got busy chopping down trees with his new hatchet to make some paddles. Ludo had gone easy on him about the storage fees for the raft he'd made a while back, so the raft was still waiting for him. By the time it was their turn for the VR pods, Stan had stashed his axe away and was ready to do some exploring.
* * *
Stan dragged his raft onto the beach from the rickety-looking Davy Jones' Storage, on Central Island. When his feet splashed into the water, he felt the rippling warmth of the tropical water around his ankles. He leaned down to touch it with his hands, too, and sat atop the raft to feel how it bobbed under him. How did anyone ever stay upright atop a thing like this? He'd need to be careful with it. Then again, it was just a platform of logs lashed together, so if it tore apart he could rebuild it. The plan was that he'd sail south to Tourney Isle eventually with a better raft, carrying rope and spare lumber and wooden chests of trade goods. But today wasn't the right time for that trip; he wasn't ready and his friends were standing around.
He tossed a paddle to each of them. "Hop on. The plan is to take a quick ride to West-1 South-1 and get some rafting practice."
They pushed the raft out to sea and jumped on. It was a cloudy, windy day with endless ocean all around. Seagulls and one of those bird-people wheeled around in the sky. He could go anywhere! Stan pushed and rowed out to deeper water that sparkled blue. Gradually the music of the central zone faded out and they crossed the subtle curtain in the air that marked the transition to grid South-1.
Mina said, "If the islands are this far apart, doesn't it get dull traveling out to Island East-100 or so?"
"Nobody's gone that far in that direction, yet. We don't know what's out there."
"Then why go?"
Ms. Parker laughed bitterly. "Young lady, I've heard plenty of that kind of talk. Don't you feel the spark of exploration at all? The desire to see for yourself what's beyond the maps?"
Mina rowed quietly along with everyone. "It's been interesting to see this virtual world, but the people doing exploration these days are the crazy ones. The Free States and, kind of, the Ludo people. The sensible ones are trying to build a better life on Earth instead."
"And 'progress depends on the un
reasonable man'. I've known quite a few."
Stan steered around some rocks and put them on course southwest into zone West-1 South-1. "For now I just want to see what's a short way out here and gain some experience. It's said that this is another uninhabited island, with a theme of ruins."
"Do you have a flag to use?" Eddie said. The island was in sight now, with dazzling sand surrounded by seagulls.
Stan slapped his forehead. "I forgot. Doesn't matter much though, since I'm not planning to save here."
"I hate to break it to you," said Ms. Parker, "but given the time limit there won't be time to do anything and make it back to Central."
"Oh, come on! I don't want to lose the raft. Should we turn right around, then?"
Mina spoke up. "If you need a flag for some reason, can you make one on the island itself?"
"I'd need a weaving station. Although I've just been assuming it's a requirement... hmm."
Parker slackened her paddling, making Stan wonder if she'd really been physically working hard at it. "So either we find you a way to make one, or you lose the raft and build another. Big deal. But we have to do it in a hurry if we're going to save fifteen minutes for everyone to play something different. No dungeon delving this trip."
Stan called out to the air, "Ludo, can I make a flag by hand?" But there was no answer. "Fine, then. We hit the beach and loot the island!"
"Viking style!" said Eddie.
Stan's party members were all using throwaway, temporary accounts for the Isles. When they landed, they all dragged the raft ashore and looked around. This one was a desert of white sand where pillars of ancient coral in pink and purple hues had been exposed high overhead. They looked organic but regularly spaced like the remains of a vast building. Somewhere around here was the entrance to an underground maze full of traps and monsters, and Stan had more urgent things to do than explore it.
"Grab anything you can find for weapons," he said. "Rocks and branches."