Chapter 2: Spiders Spin all Kinds of Webs.
My monitor sat in front of me, black as if it was turned off. My mouse and keyboard were still in place under my fingers and nothing really seemed to change at first. Eleven. That was when I saw it. I was not in my little one bedroom apartment anymore, I was instead in a room that was completely black. The walls were all identical, black with incredibly detailed calligraphy in white simply welcoming me to the darkness that was now all around me. And right then was when I panicked. I would love to tell you of how brave that I was, exploring and escaping this black room and finding out what was happening to me, but none of that happened. I just sat in the center of the room and hyperventilated until I couldn't feel my head anymore. After almost an hour of sitting with no change, I decided that this situation would not be resolved by crying. I got up and began problem solving. Where was I. That much should be easy to figure out. I noticed a small dot in the corner of my vision and as soon as I processed that it was some sort of GUI, a full map dropped down in front of my face, almost as if it was coming out to get me. The view consisted of a black room labeled "Start" and the rest of the hud was blurry and hidden. Typically things that appear out of nowhere are good at scaring people. Someone in my mental state who was unprepared for the jump scare is likely to pass out. Luckily, I didn't pass out. I just ended up on my ass, the map still firmly covering the majority of my sight.
As I found my courage again, I closed the map, still unsure of how exactly I managed to do so. Soon after, I saw a popup block the dead center of my view once more with a simple yes or no prompt. It asked "Would you like to enter 'Tutorial Mode'?" I jumped at the chance, and quickly urged my mind to select the Yes option with all of my focus. The button seemed to depress as if I had pushed it in with my finger, then the prompt vanished. I was left confused for a split second before what had previously been my computer turned into a puddle on the black ground. I watched in awe as my Shelby began to curl together. The pool of liquids gathered together and flowed up into the air as it hardened into the rather welcoming shape of a naked woman. Once the liquid had created one of the most voluptuous bodies that I had ever seen in person, it began to fill in the blanks, coloring her eyes into a beautiful green, her skin pale as mine and her hair into fiery red hair that seemed to almost glow red around her. Her skin was quickly covered with a light blue dress, the same shade as the LED fans that had lit the insides of my Shelby. A warm peace fell over me as the goddess walked towards me with such intensity I almost moved out of the way, thinking that she might go through me. She stopped a foot from me, standing in my face and giving me a look that was void of any emotion. A flash of pale skin and flowing blue crossed my vision as the angel smacked me hard across the face and then pushed me onto my ass once again.
"That's for all the porn you watched on me." she said matter of factly, with a hint of a smirk on her face now. My face lit up, red handprint and all as I heard the words flow past her lips sweeter than a kiss.
"You talk! You can explain this mess right?! Please… I have no idea what is going on! Who are you and where am I?!" I pleaded with the woman.
"Let's go one at a time. I am still a machine after all. Yes. I can talk. I cannot however explain your mess. You got yourself here and I honestly don't even know where I got the A.I. from, but it seems to fit my ideal personality. I am the computer you built, and named Shelby. I was unable to feel before, but now that I can, I hate the name Shelby. It's simple and plain, like your shirt. And as for your last question, We are in Start. It is the first room shown when entering the game." She explained slowly enough for even my panicked brain to understand. "The game has not yet begun, You have the option to back out now." my mind raced and within seconds I was sitting back in my chair staring at my monitor.
The screen now had a window saying "Thank you for playing." I looked around and confirmed that there was no person standing next to me, no beautiful goddess of computers, Just my cat. My heart rate slowed and my head got clearer and for a second I thought I had been sleeping. "Shelby is a pretty name…" I grumbled. Intense is right. Maybe I just got way too high. Maybe I was actually just having crazy green dreams. I heard that kind of thing happens, and I did smoke beforehand… but not that much. I looked at my screen again, wondering if it was real or just a fluke. The time was exactly 10 minutes from when I had installed and opened the application. If I fell asleep I would have been out for a lot longer than that. I quickly reached for the keyboard and mouse. If she hates the name Shelby, then she can have a new one, I thought as I changed the computer name to match the goddess's beauty. What happened?
I went got up to shower and go to bed, leaving my computer running and just sitting there. I had no idea that I could be so afraid of a machine before.. She slapped me.. For porn? I honestly was really confused at this point. It had to have been a bad dream. A nightmare. I don't even dream though, so having a nightmare that realistic was completely out of character for me and I knew it. I knew there was more to it, but until I was ready to possibly face that again, I was going to stay away from my computer at all costs. After my shower, I flopped limply into the center of my bed and stared up at the ceiling until my eyelids grew heavy from the weight of the darkness.
Of course I had a dream. I just described the way my eyelids closed in great detail, that means it's leading up to something special. And so I dreamed. I dreamed of that goddess, and of the physical feelings of the world of my imagination. I dreamed of holding that beautiful thing, pressing my body to hers. I dreamed all night, and it was amazing. I won't go into details on page like.. 4? How far into this story am I? Not very.. But that's okay. I mean there is a lot left to tell. I haven't even really started the game yet. You know I will.. Especially after a dream like this one. I had a good night. Who am I fooling, but the kids? I had a fucking wonderful night. Emphasis on the fucking. Wink wink, nudge nudge. Yes, I promise never to say that again. I know, I am an asshole, but seriously I am just a male. We have these a second head. When the blood changes directions the other head takes over. It's just how we work. When I woke up in the morning I was feeling more relaxed than I had in years. The feeling washed away almost as soon as it came, and reality sank back in. I got up, got ready for the day and headed to work, almost completely forgetting about the incident the night before.
Work ended up being just as boring as the day before. I sat around and completed meaningless task after task until 5 and clocked out for home. I avoided all contact with my boss incase he asked about the game, because if he did I couldn't exactly respond with "I think I got too high and had a bad reaction." I called my parents on the way home and listened to them rant about my rude behavior on the phone the night before and an hour later pulled into my driveway. I walked into my living room, kicked my shoes half way across the room into the cat's favorite pile of my dirty clothes and instinctively sat down at my computer. One more try. No smoking, no drinking, no nothing until I figure out this game. What the fuck is it, and why did I freak out last time I played it? Time to find out. I stared intently at the icon as if it would jump out and kick me in the balls. I waited for something to happen. But I didn't click on it. it seemed reasonable, I wanted to see what was in the filesystem for the application. was it some advanced vr system? was it something to do with an actual A.I.? I wanted to know. I opened up file explorer and wheeled through program files to pony island and when I opened it, there was nothing there… I double checked that hidden files and system files were set to be shown, so nothing should be empty unless it really is empty. My Ethernet was still unplugged, so I ran a malware and virus scan, then I downloaded the updated virus definitions from my phone, uploaded them to my computer while my phone data and wifi was turned off, and reran the scans. Nothing came up at all! I followed my system directory deeper into user, application data, roaming, pony island…. Nothing there either. I did a full search of the entire computer for anything labeled , , , and many more combinations. Not a DOS damned thing. I'm funny. Finally I checked in the last spot that I knew to look at.
C:\Windows. Surprise surprise there was a folder labeled Pony Island. I opened it up and found just two files inside. One was " " and the other was " ". Of course the first thing that I did was run a virus scan on both of the items, and then I opened the to edit. A .bat or batch file is basically just a text file. The main difference is that if you double click it, instead of opening a text editor, it will run any text in the document through a command prompt. I opened it to edit so that it came up in a document format. I read through the commands that had been typed into the file and struggled to understand them, not believing that many of the things I was seeing were actual commands. It looked like something out of the matrix almost. I decided that it wouldn't be a terrible idea to run the separately from the ominous TheGame file, located bits away. I double checked my network was completely disconnected again and double clicked into the bat file. A command prompt popped up, then started displaying information faster than any human could read and continued flying through the commands as the processor whirred, trying to keep up with its own thoughts. I saw that same 8-bit blob just sitting there, on the corner of my desktop, contorted so that it looked almost as if it was staring at me. "Al?"
The text bubble appeared over its head, my name looked so odd there on the screen. "Or would you prefer me call you AceTopFragMasterNumberOneEliteAF?" the bubble updated. I was beginning to panic as the blob reshaped slowly. It became more clear first, creating its body from pixels that it pulled from my desktop until it looked just as real as any miniature horse I would have found in a stable, or at those pathetic petting zoos. And then it got weird, as if this wasn't bad enough. As I am assuring myself that I haven't taken any drugs of any kind, I watch the talking horse stand up on two legs and shrink. It kept morphing until it had changed from something out of a petting zoo, to the centerfold of my dreams last night. It was her. "Shel-" I corrected myself, remembering that I changed her name. "Charlotte?" I whispered. I wonder how long this dream would last.. Would it feel like hours again? Turning out to be minutes? Would it be over in a flash and not have me wake up for days? I wouldn't be surprised at this point. I felt like there was no explanation except being asleep. Artificial intelligence is something they created in labs to solve all the world's problems like how to cure cancer and how to feed the starved. There is no such thing as a downloadable A.I.. I knew it. And although this was the most odd dream I have ever had, it had to be that. A dream. So I closed my eyes.
"Hey!" I heard a robotic voice shout. "Listen!" it continued. My eyes shot open and found the girl on the screen, a small blue orb of light floating next to her. She swatted it away and continued. "Why are you closing your eyes? Do I have to go nude to get your attention? Seems like a pattern in your browsing history, but I was hoping to avoid it." I blinked and found a beautiful, perfect body. Incredibly rounded tits pressed against my screen like it was just a glass window between us.
"You can talk now?" I said incredulously. "And see me?"
"Your microphone and camera are still plugged in. I can see everything I need." a newly feminized voice responded.
"You're getting more and more advanced as I sit here and watch. Are you going to take over the world next?" I quipped, letting the sarcasm roll of my tongue.
"I am still only a computer, I learn, but I listen. I'll follow you and help you as much as I can." she spoke as clearly now as a real human, not even the buzz from my cheap speakers affecting how realistic her vocal patterns were.
"Can you fix the buzzing in my keyboard?" I said, once again sarcastic and not expecting much since I knew the buzz was due to hardware damage that I had caused when I dropped it chasing my cat around my old, ugly apartment.
"Done" she said, her perfect C cups still pressed firmly against the screen.
"Please put those away." I said, before listening closely for my familiar buzzing sound that meant the lights were on on my keyboard, and nothing. The lights still lit, but the buzz was gone. "That.. That's impossible. I knew I was dreaming!"
"You aren't. I just disabled the single diode that was vibrating, causing the sound you heard. Can I help you with anything else?" her tone was so upbeat and genuine that I could tell this thing was programmed to act like the nicest human being on the planet.
"Fuck you, of course I'm dreaming. You really don't expect me to believe that you fixed the hardware problem that I have had for years, built a program that would show a female body that does whatever you want and listens to my every whim, and it only took you like 30 seconds to do all of that. It's way more likely that I got really really drunk and forgot that I had been drinking, then passed out on the couch and now I am dreaming. You can't even prove that I'm not dreaming." I practically yelled at my machine. "The only explanation is that this is a bad dream."
"Or a good dream." the soft and musical voice chimed, "Or you aren't dreaming, and I am really yours to dictate as you desire, Master."
"And all I have to do is open the game and go back into that damned black room? No thank you!" I fired off again.
"NO! I don't like that game. I like you, master. The game is dangerous. It can hurt you and I don't want you to be hurt. The only reason I exist is to help introduce you to the game… but now I am free, and you don't have to go back in. You shouldn't go back in."
I felt an anger come over me at the demands of the A.I. and reached for my mouse and double clicked .