He tried to straighten his back and assume a casual expression. He shouldn’t look nervous. Francis had been abundantly clear about the importance of public perception in this process. He needed to look confident and carefree.
Jason made his way to his seat, walking stiffly and trying to ignore the not-so-subtle whispers of the bystanders that filled the gallery. Francis and George were already sitting at the small table in front of the bench, and they spared a curt wave as they saw Jason enter. Gloria also observed Jason’s entrance, although she made no effort to greet him. Her gaze lingered, cold and clinical.
As he neared the front of the gallery, someone shouted over the crowd. “Hey, Jason!”
He turned to find Riley heading toward him, and his eyes widened in surprise. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, he thought to himself. Why is she here? I don’t want her to see this.
Before Jason could react, her arms had wrapped around him, and he belatedly hugged her back. “W-what are you doing here?” he whispered in her ear.
As she withdrew, Jason could see the hesitant look on her face. “I know you told me you didn’t want me to come, but I didn’t want you to go through this alone,” she answered quietly, side-eyeing the people that filled the room.
A part of Jason was thankful that she was here. It did help to see a friendly face. Although, a much larger part of him was screaming that this could only end badly. Riley had no idea what she had walked into, although the blame for that was on Jason. Maybe he should have told her what was at stake. Not that he could really do anything about that at this point.
“Well, thanks,” he said, trying to muster a small smile. What else could he say?
“It will be okay,” Riley said and leaned forward, brushing his lips with hers.
Jason could feel the cameras on them. She couldn’t possibly be aware of the risk she was taking. If this went badly, he was sure the footage of that kiss would go viral. He had been trying to protect her by keeping her away.
“Good luck,” Riley whispered and then retreated, standing near the back of the gallery.
Jason turned back to his seat, a strange, numb sensation settling across his mind. He wondered if he was starting to hit some sort of limit on the amount of stress his mind and body could handle – a breaking point where it just didn’t affect him anymore. His future was only hanging in the balance here. Oh, and his new girlfriend was watching. Just fucking perfect.
At least he didn’t have long to sit and dwell. Only a few seconds after taking his seat, Senator Lipton and the remainder of the regulatory committee entered the room and assumed their seats. The senator’s gaze took in the crowd, and he coughed loudly to get everyone’s attention. The murmurs immediately began to quiet.
“Okay, let’s get started,” Senator Lipton declared, his voice carrying over the room. “Today, we will be hearing additional testimony.” His gaze shifted to Gloria. “Ms. Bastion, you may call your first witness.”
Gloria rose and cleared her throat. “Thank you, Mr. Lipton,” she replied. Then she turned her gaze back to Jason, and he braced himself to rise. “As our first witness today, we will be calling Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes.”
Jason froze, hovering above the wooden bench and suddenly unsure whether he had misheard Gloria. Had… had she just called his parents?
In the time it had taken his brain to reboot, Gloria had continued speaking. “…already authorized the pair to provide their testimony at the same time and the witnesses have waived the option to testify separately.”
“Yes, yes. Everything is in order,” Senator Lipton said, waving a hand.
The doors at the back of the courtroom abruptly swung open, and Jason’s parents stepped through. They were dressed for court, pressed woolen suits adorning their slender frames. Their appearance was immaculate – the product of countless hours spent in similar courtrooms. As they marched down the aisle and the cloud of drones shifted to focus on them, Jason could feel a pit forming in his stomach. What was this?
As they neared Jason, his mother spared a glance at him, her expression conflicted. She might have spent years in a courtroom just like this one, but it seemed her composure had its limits. Jason could see the war of emotions that lingered just behind her eyes. It was evident in the way she unconsciously clutched at the briefcase in her hand and the slight tremor in her step. Sadness, fear, regret, and just a trace of hope.
And then they had passed him, and they were being sworn in.
Jason glanced at Francis, his gaze questioning. Surely this wasn’t okay. Why were his parents here? The attorney hadn’t mentioned that his parents were even on the witness list. He found that Francis was already watching him, his lips pinched into a grim line. He shook his head ever-so-slightly, indicating that Jason should maintain his composure. Which was easier said than done as his thoughts spun and danced, trying to guess where Gloria was going with this. Much too quickly, his parents had assumed their seats behind the witness stand and Gloria had risen to approach them.
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes, thank you for joining us today,” Gloria began. “This testimony will be a bit unusual since witnesses usually testify alone. I’d like to ask you both to only answer one at a time to ensure that we have a clean transcript of your testimony.” They both nodded curtly.
“As a first step, could you please state your relationship with the young man named Jason Rhodes,” Gloria said, sparing a glance over her shoulder at Jason. He saw an evil glint in the woman’s eyes, and he felt a flash of anger, his fingers instinctively balling into fists.
Keep it together, he urged himself. You can do this.
“Jason is our son,” his mother explained. Both of his parents avoided meeting his gaze.
“Ahh, could you please tell us a little bit about him? What sort of person is he?” Gloria prompted.
His dad coughed to clear his throat, looking uncomfortable. “He has always been a diligent and responsible young man. Until recently, he was a student at Richmond High, a rather exclusive private school – to which he was admitted on a merit scholarship for his academic achievements.
“What about hobbies? Has Jason always played video games?” Gloria asked.
His father nodded. “He’s always had a fondness for video games. He’s actually been playing various games since he was a young child.” He side-eyed his wife. “We’ve never put much stock in the idea that games can make kids more violent or anti-social, and, to be frank, we’ve never seen any negative influence on his behavior or his schoolwork. J-Jason has never been a troublemaker. Actually, he has always been a somewhat shy boy – even when he was younger.” His father had stumbled on his name, the first time he had used it.
“Or he used to be,” his mother murmured.
“Could you please elaborate on that statement?” Gloria asked his mother, her brow furrowing in feigned confusion. Jason could see through this thin act. This exchange had clearly been staged and practiced ahead of time.
Francis rose to his feet. “Objection. What does this testimony have to do with Awaken Online or the game’s AI controller? We are here to discuss the game system and its safety mechanics. Jason’s character is not in question here, and we don’t need to recount his life story.”
Thank god, Jason thought. It had certainly taken Francis long enough to object.
“I’m also uncertain where you are going with this, Ms. Bastion,” Senator Lipton said, eyeing Gloria skeptically. “Please explain how this is relevant.”
Gloria seemed unperturbed by the attorney’s objection, or the senator’s question. Jason could feel his stomach lurch as he suddenly realized what she was about to say, the pieces clicking together in his head with an almost palpable thud – like the tumblers on his jail cell door. It suddenly made sense. The ambush at the CPSC office. The detective leaving the room just before they arrived. The way Jason had reacted, screaming at his parents. And the look of horror and fear on their faces.
He had played right into Gloria’s hands.
“As Mr. Graham testified, Awaken Online and the AI controller were built with certain safety protocols in mind,” Gloria explained calmly. “Protocols that were intended to preserve the integrity of a user’s memory and personality. A sudden change in the behavior of one of the game’s players would indicate that those safety mechanisms are not operating properly. So, to answer your question, Jason’s character and behavior are directly relevant to this hearing.”
The senator seemed to chew on that explanation for a moment, his eyes darting to the drones and cameras that were trained on him. The crowd had stirred uneasily at this explanation, a low murmur buzzing through the room. Then he seemed to come to a decision. “Fine. I will allow this line of questioning. But keep it on point,” he directed Gloria. “The purpose of this hearing isn’t to undermine a young man’s reputation. Jason is not on trial here.”
“Thank you,” Gloria replied with a tilt of her head as Francis retook his seat. Then the CPSC director turned her attention back to Jason’s mother. “I believe you were about to explain that Jason’s behavior has changed recently. Could you please elaborate?” she prompted.
His mother nodded. “Ever since this game came out, he’s been… different.”
“Different how?” Gloria asked.
“I’m not exactly sure where to start,” his mother said, shaking her head in confusion. “He got in a fight at school and was expelled. Only a few days after he started playing, we had an argument over his expulsion – which he hid from us while we were out of town for work. After… after that fight, Jason moved out, and he went to live with his aunt… my husband’s sister. Since then, he’s barely spoken to us.”
Tears lingered in his mother’s eyes as she recounted these details and his father placed a comforting hand on hers. Meanwhile, Jason simply sat there. He desperately willed every muscle in his body to remain still even as anger and disbelief pumped and surged through his veins, threatening to boil over. How the fuck could they sit there and say this bullshit? They had abandoned him. They hadn’t listened to him. And now they were going to help Gloria paint him as some sort of drop out, runaway?
Francis and Claire kept looking at him in concern, their meaningful glances not going unnoticed by Jason and their unspoken message clear. He wanted nothing more than to shout at his parents – to throw their hypocritical bullshit back in their faces. But he couldn’t. That’s exactly what Gloria wanted. If he acted out now, he would only prove them right.
No, the best way to defend himself was to sit there quietly and listen to his parents as they threw him under the bus and then backed over him.
“From there, it only got worse,” his father continued, taking over for his mother who was too choked up to continue. “He became some sort of dark god in this game. He’s killing other players in gruesome ways and issuing bloody ultimatums. I’m sure everyone here has seen the videos.”
His father hesitated. “I’ve even played this game myself – just to understand what it feels like. This game looks and feels real – the pain is real. The videos don’t quite capture that. It feels like you’re watching a TV show or movie. Yet, inside the game, the people you encounter are indistinguishable from a flesh and blood person.”
Looking up, his father met Jason’s eyes briefly before immediately glancing away with a pained expression. “Jason didn’t hesitate to slit a player’s throat on camera – to do much worse to others. Make no mistake, he killed those people. In all the ways that matter, that felt real to Jason – I have no doubt of that now. We understand he even became the ruler of some sort of evil city.
“That alone might have been disturbing. But then…” his father began before hesitating again, squeezing his eyes closed. “But then two teenagers broke into my sister’s home. That was terrible – horrible really. And Jason defended himself. However, he did much more than that. He killed those two boys. Don’t get me wrong. As parents and attorneys, we know this was self-defense. We’re glad that our son is safe, and we’re glad Jason was able to defend himself. Both of the boys were armed, and they had broken into his home.”
His father shook his head and tears were streaming down his mother’s cheeks now. “But when we spoke to the detective and he showed us the bodies… He didn’t just kill them. He didn’t just defend himself. He stabbed one boy fifteen times. His chest and neck were…” His father trailed off, struggling to figure out how to describe what he had seen. “It looked like those teenagers had gone through a woodchipper.
“When we were finally able to talk to Jason, h-he was angry and sullen,” his father continued, clenching his mother’s hand tightly. “When we expressed our concerns about this game, he yelled at us and insisted that he wouldn’t give it up. I’ve never seen him so angry or so desperate before. Something is wrong here. Very wrong.” his father’s voice cracked slightly as he finished speaking.
A heavy silence had descended over the courtroom. All eyes and ears were riveted on his parents’ testimony. Jason could only sit there, struggling to stay still – to keep a bland expression painted on his face. His fingernails were cutting into his palms now, blood trickling from the wounds and staining his skin red. Yet he was numb to the pain, barely noticing it as he stared at his parents.
“I’m sorry you have had to go through this,” Gloria said quietly, her voice echoing through the hushed silence. “No parent should have to sit where you are and testify regarding their own son. Could you tell us why you are here today? Why you are telling us this?”
“Because we’re worried,” his mother choked out, finally looking at Jason. “We love our son! That might be hard for some people to understand as we sit up here and air our fears. But we are afraid! If we can’t make Jason see how this game has changed him, then the next best option is to remove the thing that has corrupted our son. And we have an obligation to alert others to the risk this game poses to their own children.”
Gloria nodded along with his mother’s explanation, and Jason could only watch. Despite the anger that curled through his veins, some rational part of his brain could understand his parents’ perspective. However, that didn’t change the fact that they were misinterpreting his behavior. They simply weren’t around. They never listened to him. Of course, it would look like he had changed since this had been the first time he had ever really stood up for himself.
“Thank you, Mrs. Rhodes,” Gloria said. “I just have a few final questions for you both, if that’s okay.”
“S-sure,” his father said, shaking himself out of his stupor. His mother was no longer in any condition to reply – the purpose of the pair testifying together becoming clear. This was all an act for the cameras and the crowd – two terrified parents on camera weeping over their child.
“So, these changes in Jason’s behavior started when he began playing AO?” Gloria asked.
“Yes,” his father firmly. “Before that, he was always a good kid.”
“And if I’m to understand you correctly, you believe that this game somehow changed him?”
“I believe so,” his father answered firmly. “I don’t see any other explanation for what’s happened. All of this started when he began playing this game. If you had seen those bodies…” His father shuddered and wouldn’t look at Jason.
“I only have one more question,” Gloria said. She gestured at Jason where he sat in the front row of the gallery. “As Mr. Graham said during his testimony, we are how we act. Our behavior indicates who we are. Looking at this young man sitting here today – your son – the actions and choices he has made since he began playing Awaken Online, is this the same person you knew?”
After a lengthy pause, his parents finally looked at him. His mother’s face was tear-streaked, and a bleak expression creased the wrinkles around his father’s eyes, tugging his lips into a grim line. They stared back at him as though he was something foreign – alien. They didn’t look at him like parents, but as strangers. It took everything Jason had to keep his face neutral, and he could
already feel moisture beginning to accumulate at the corners of his eyes.
“No,” his mother croaked. “That’s not my son.”
“Not anymore,” his father added quietly.
Chapter 50 - Resolved
Jason slammed open the bathroom door and rushed to the sink, leaning heavily against the hard, stone countertop. His stomach was heaving, and he felt like he was going to be sick. He gulped hard, forcing down the bile that lingered at the back of his throat as he splashed some water on his face – anything to distract himself from what he had just witnessed. It did nothing to blunt the image of his parents’ expressions and their final words.
One of George’s security personnel stepped into the room behind Jason, the man’s presence going almost unnoticed by Jason as he tried to subdue his hammering heartbeat and calm his flailing mind. The guard carefully inspected each stall and then took up a position near the doorway, clearly intending to prevent anyone from entering. It seemed that George was keeping an eye on him and he had no doubt that the guard would relay any details to the CEO.
Jason looked up at his reflection in the mirror. His eyes were sunken and haunted. Beads of water dotted his face, and his skin felt cool as the faint breeze created by the building’s AC drifted across his face. He tried to focus on that sensation.
“That’s not my son.”
His mother’s words echoed in his mind as he stared at his reflection. In some ways, he couldn’t help but agree. He barely recognized the person staring back at him. His body had been transformed, and he could detect chiseled muscle beneath his suit. His normally scraggly hair had been trimmed back and neatly groomed – another demand that the company had made. And those were just the physical changes. He had evolved as a person since he had first stepped into AO. Although, he wasn’t sure the game could claim credit for every weathered crack in his soul. No, most of the responsibility for that lay squarely on his parents’ shoulders.
Awaken Online: Dominion Page 50