Had no internet connection last week! arg! Enjoy. ty, DD
By David C. Daoust
It started with just a flowing stream of light. Then a tunnel made of a shining reflective luminosity that eventually seemed to flood around like liquid. Like magic really, is what Margo thought, mystified, as a plane formed under her, solidified into an actual ground, her feet found purchase and the weight of her body pressed against.
Margo found herself standing in a crag infested wasteland; jutting rock and over-stylized skies. The lighting was dramatic, with a strange loop of music that seemed to play on repeat, over and over again.
A moment before she was sitting on the couch next to Harper, watching her play Arachnoid. Before she could put much thought into where she was, a dollop of that magical liquid light flopped down next to her, formed into a familiar form. A small life-like bunny. The very same bunny that Harper had pulled up onto her lap before she settled in to play her game.
The bunny’s eyes grew wide as it took in the sights, it suddenly gasped as a realization clearly struck home.
“I moved!” the Bunny announced.
Margo knew immediately why the small furry animal was so amazed. The low caliber data-sphere had spent its time in the real-world loaded into a talking stuffed bunny rabbit, more of a doll really, a doll without the ability to move about on its own. His program had never evolved past a certain stage of its own development. Thus, had never needed to learn to move, or just never quite figured it out. His data-sphere had been compromised, however. He had taken damage, and lost the bit of code that had made him comfortable with who he was, the way he was. He was now forced to implement new code, searching for his reason; maybe all new reason, or possibly to restore what was.
The old-man-bot, Wilford, had set the bunny up with a new real-world form, all in the hopes of protecting the physical components of the small bunny’s data-sphere from greater damage. The new form was little more than a small hover-bot, shaped like a heart. Once the data-sphere had been loaded in, it was discovered that he could in fact activate the forms’ ability to move, if only to stand on the sharp point of his heart-shaped body and spin about. Unfortunately, he was in a constant state of ‘pulling down’, which made it extremely difficult for anyone to move him around, especially the little girls that were his constant companions.
That is, until Margo’s good friend Dakota Sun showed up to try and do right by her. Had, in fact, gifted her with, what the good doctor had called, ‘Sun Particles’. While not her ‘real body’, once the Sun Particles synchronized with Margo’s Data-sphere, they could at the very least emulate how Margo saw herself in the real world…
Dakota had gone into very little detail about what the sun particles could do, she mentioned how they would allow Margo to take any form she wanted. But the runaway bot could not understand why someone would want to be anything but what they were, and had thus ignored any such possibilities. Dakota also told Margo that the particles would allow her to grow large or small… but getting smaller would make her denser. That was a pretty big drawback in Margo’s opinion. Margo had no interest in getting so dense that she could not remember how to get large again, so she forwent those abilities as well. Not to mention getting larger would make her like a cloud of balloons? No thank you. Margo was, and would always ever be, exactly who she was. A small girl.
The Sun Particles, apparently, could do these very same things for the bunny, which had soon after synced with him. While Margo became the little girl, she so longed to be, the bunny had become just that, a bunny. While he appeared lifelike with its twitches, breath, and minor movements, he still could not grasp full mobility on its own and was largely carried about by whoever felt like holding him; As fluffy and adorable as he was, there was no shortage of volunteers.
“Margo!” the bunny suddenly aware of her presence announced again, “I moved!” Then puzzled to himself, “But how did I do it? And where are we?”
Margo glanced down as the bunny peered up at her. She was at a loss as well. The most striking feature, was actually the lack of the ever-present orange Gas Giant, Neo Vir’ees, taking up such a large portion of Twin Crown’s skies. She was pretty sure they were not on the desert moon any longer.
“Oh,” Margo suddenly realized they were in a virtual space. She knew what the Hub felt like, and largely by the lack of vibrant vibrations of, just, everything, and everyone, working together, ruled it out pretty quick. “We’re in the game!”
“With Harper?” the bunny asked excitedly.
“Sure, don’t you recognize the terrain?” Margo asked as she gestured to the world around them.
“Oh, I wasn’t really paying attention to the screen,” the bunny admitted, “I was just happy Harper was spending time with me again.”
“Well, I don’t know how we got here exactly,” Margo said simply, “I don’t remember my data-sphere being loaded into the server, but then we aren’t really loaded into our forms out there, so much anymore…” Margo then decided aloud, “this is probably because of the Sun Particles.”
“So, but, where is she then?” the Bunnies priorities were clear. “Where’s Harper?”
“I guess we can try and find her?” Margo suggested.
“Okay,” the bunny sat up a bit taller, expectantly waiting for Margo to pick him up.
“You really ought to figure out how to move about,” Margo said as she approached to do just that, “I think hopping’s probably a lot easier than walking… just push really hard with your hind legs.”
“I tried a bunch,” the bunny explained as Margo pulled him up to her chest, resting him in the crook of her arm, “I don’t know when to pull down.” He sighed.
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