Hacking Existence - 3

At the sound of a single loud knock, Tommy answered his door. A lanky, unkempt young man who looked to be in his early teens but was probably much older stood there, holding a box, and grinning. He entered without waiting for an invitation.

"See, I told you I'd finish them by Monday. Oh, wait, maybe I didn't tell you, but it's Monday, and they're finished."

Tommy still stood, holding the handle of the door, and staring at the young man. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to deliver the implants. They're done. I didn't shower, and I barely ate or slept, but they're done."

"Yes, you mentioned that. But you could have shipped them."

"Oh, well I wanted to show you the improvements I made." He walked over to the counter, and shoving the remnants of Tommy's breakfast aside, he set the box carefully down. He rummaged inside the box, speaking as he did so. "See, I made some changes." He held up one of the implants, pointing to a small red button on the side of the clear plastic casing. "See this? You press it, and the implant automatically initiates a smooth offload." A shadow seemed to cross his face. "No more getting stuck in a flawed environment."

"That's good, an excellent improvement. I didn't think you could finish them at all, much less improve on them in the time that you had. I'm very impressed."

Continue reading "Tommy Xiang"

We were sitting, our backs against the smooth trunk of a sycamore, clouds sailing overhead. I was thinking. I wouldn't have thought that possible. If you had told me that I would be able to sit next to her, and still have coherent thoughts, I don't know if I would have believed you. But that's exactly what I was doing. I was thinking about something that Night_Watcher had mentioned to me that morning before I left for school.

Night_Watcher[7:22]: Have you ever noticed that she's never here during the day? She only enters the environments at night.

Fair_Weather_Friend[7:22]: It could be that you just don't know it when she's there during the day. I mean, you still haven't figured out how to log her entrances/exits, have you?

Night_Watcher[7:23]: No, I haven't, but have you ever seen her in an environment during the day?

Fair_Weather_Friend[7:23]: No, but I'm not in them very often during the day myself.

Night_Watcher[7:23]: Still, it's a little bit weird. I mean, you two are almost always together when you're in the environments, right?

"Where are you?" Her voice cut like a knife through my thoughts.

"Here, now. I was off in the clouds a second ago. What's up?"

She raised her gaze skyward, looking thoughtfully up at the clouds. "It looks interesting up there. Can you take me back with you?"

Continue reading "Macon Craig"