The clock's red digits counted the minutes to midnight, as I gazed at the screen of my computer. The app almost seems to smile warmly at me. The bright, giant blue play button, the button that creates the portal into the fantastic world of Azeroth, flashes invitingly at me. With a sullen sigh my sight turns to focus on my latest experiment. Its prototype predecessor lie burned out, heaped in the corner, a tangled mess of components and wires. I had just returned from my best friend's wedding, feeling empty, and broken. I sought to end this misery in some way, some form, just for a chance to escape. My sodden skin grows cold in the frigid air, and the thunderous cascade of rain falling across the rooftop of my top story apartment sounds like the drums of the executioner.
I take my project into my arms, caressing the copper nanofiber weave gently, my fingers running along the millions of tiny sensor electrodes and capacitors soldered to the exterior and interior. I let the glistening object unfurl in my hands to reveal a full body suit. I had engineered the suit using my computer programming knowledge from college to record my every thought, muscle spasm, and carbon atom and convert it to a binary format. I set it down on my desk carefully, then with a long sigh start to undress myself. I peel the soaked apparel from my skin, and cast it away from me. I slip into the suit, tight fitting and covering every inch of my skin, including my fingers and toes. I plug a thick cord into the control unit in the front of the suit, then dig the other end into the side of my computer, nestling g it in a USB port. I press the blue play button on my screen, pull up the copper hood, and jab a red button on my control panel. 12 volts of electricity course through me, flooding my body at the speed of 500 milliamps. My muscles lock up, and my body is rigid. I clench my teeth, trying to ignore the pain as the amperage begins to acclimate. At 750 milliamps, my body collapses to the floor, and my limbs jerk around erratically. My mind is screaming as my body feels like it is on fire. The pure force of the shock was enough to make my heart speed up to double what it should be pumping, and darkness crowds in at the edge of my eyes. I struggle to close them, but my eyelids feel locked in place, unable to move.
After 30 seconds of enduring this torture, my sight darkens over completely, and my mind goes numb. My life flashes before my eyes, muddled and foggy at first. As recent events draw nearer, the images grow clearer. An image of two figures, holding each other close, grows sharper. The two figures appear to be humanoid with lupine features. The larger one holds out a small box for the smaller being, and the she gasps. She opens the box, and the large lupine mouths something unintelligible. The other figure, a feminine form, nods vigorously, a smile on her muzzle, and she throws her arms around the larger being.
The shapes blend together, to paint the scene of a wedding. Three figures, all human, stand upon the stage. I
The view is from someone standing to the left of the groom, most likely the best man. The preacher says those famous words, and the two figures leap into the others embrace, sharing the one kiss that they had dreamed of for many years. My brain remembers the feelings of happiness, jealousy, and sadness all conflicting within the mind and the vision fades away to the after party. Again, from the best man's view, the groom proposes a toast, and a glass is raised in front of me. The man turns to me, and says something. I look out among the gathered crowd, and see dozens of wine glasses raised in my direction. Almost simultaneously, all of them go down at once, and I see the glass in front of me raised to unseen lips. The lips somehow smile, but deep within, intense sorrow swelters and boils. The image fades away again, and is replaced by a vision of a man walking into his apartment. He is soaking wet, having walked from the wedding all the way home in the rain. The sadness bubbles over, and tears start to well up in the corners of the vision. The person collapses on a small couch in a messy living room. He pulls out his phone, and begins to write a message.
"My friend, I am terribly sorry for this, but I have been overcome with intense grief and misery. I know you two did your best to find that perfect someone for me, and I am truly grateful. But there comes a time when the loneliness begins to sink in. Having no one else to turn to, I leave the apartment to you. Do with it what you like. My one request is that you leave the computer running. Farewell, my brother."
The man hits the send button, and collapses on the couch, huddled over, attempting to comfort himself. The vision flows away, and blackness consumes.
The disembodied consciousness floated through the black nothingness, without a care. It wondered when the effect would start, or if it was doomed to drift here forever in this eternal hell. Just as these thoughts came to be, a small, pulsing green light faded into view. Suddenly, the consciousness had a body of pitch black. Its feet touched solid ground, and it stumbled. The shadows became solid as the figure crawled towards the light. As it shuffled closer, the light grew into a tunnel of swirling characters that made themselves clearer as chains of binary sequences. The character stood to its feet and walked amongst the swirling green lights. A white light began to shine at the end of the tunnel, and the figure started to run to it. It grew in size until the figure thought that it could see through it. But as it drew closer, the ground vanished below its feet and the character began to fall into the black oblivion. The lights went out, one by one, until it could see nothing. Just as it was about to hit the ground, the figure opened her eyes and landed on the hard stone floor beneath her. She blinked to adjust to the lighting, and saw a familiar face looming above her. A black, bearded face, with a zebra print fedora.
A/N: Alright. This is the better of the more MAJOR projects I'm about to work on. I post this as a sort of prologue into what's going on, whats going to happen, yadda yadda. I will only continue to upload chapters and write provided there is an interest in the story. I currently have multiple parts just scattered on a document, waiting to be fleshed out and worked on. So without further ado, I present to you Project Reality.