Before we went any further, I insisted that he send me some representation of what was happening on his screen. Print screen was no use, because we didn't dare quit out of the game. Eventually, he ended up taking a shitty photo of his computer screen with the camera on his phone. I had the photo open on my phone, and I was trying to understand it. "Okay, so we don't know how this creepy camera thing is working, but the rest of the game must be just a straight sandbox game or something. I don't know. Just - just try one of those buttons up there. Let's see what the meat of this brilliant game is like," I said.
"Roger that. Let's try just going into 'select' mode - okay, my cursor changed." "How so? If it's a crosshairs, don't click," I said. That got a chuckle from Robert. "No, it's just this blocky 3-d version of the logo. I'll tell you if anything interesting happens. Meanwhile, why don't you try contacting Derek? If he's got his copy already, he'll probably let you play server to him," he said. "Dude, he's your friend," I said. Robert didn't say anything.
"Hello?" "Yeah, nothing's really happening. Your bed is lighting up green. Like it's highlighted really closely," he said. I gawked. "Like the exact outline?" I asked. "Mhmm." "Goddammit, I need to see this thing! I thought that kind of CV was years away!" I said.
"You can play if you want to, dude. Just talk to Derek," he said. "I don't even know Derek-" I took another look at my monitor, the mockingly cyclical spirograph animation filling my screen, spinning in and out. "Let's play around with this a little bit first. I'm still really not sure about this thing. The hidden cameras and everything," I said. "All right. Let's just see what happens when I-"
I was facing towards my computer at that moment, facing away from my bed. Behind my head, I heard a little /swish/ of air. I felt it ruffle my hair for a split-second, only a little stronger than the breeze that had been blowing in through the window. And then a split-second later, I felt that internal sense of weight and power, goosebumps and the instinctive knowledge of enormous force, and danger.
And just half of a second later, I heard the enormous, terrible crash; bits of drywall and larger pieces flew towards my face, terrible danger and I threw myself to the ground, knowing that my life was in danger. Dust started to make my eyes water, I felt like choking and crying. Much louder than I needed to, trying to match the calamitous noise I had just heard, I screamed "/What in the/ hell /was that!/"
The phone had skittered away from me, and I tried to grab for it from my prone position; I failed. Then I remembered that Robert could just see me - he knew what had happened. And this couldn't have had anything to do with him, could it?
Rattled, I slowly sat up, then stood up, grabbing up my phone as I stood. On the other end, Robert was already talking. "-had no idea, oh my god, I'm so sorry, dude! I thought that-" "All right! Enough!" I practically shrieked into the phone. He stopped talking. Slowly and deliberately, I asked "Do you, have any idea, what the /hell/ that was?"
"I- I think I might have done that. I don't know. It's this fucking game again, first the cameras and now this-" "What, exactly, did you do?" I asked. "Well, I was messing around a little bit with the select tool, and I clicked on your bed. It lit up outlined in green, like I told you, and so I figured I'd just try clicking and dragging. And then - well, you saw, I don't know, I wasn't trying to do anything, I swear! I'm so sorry, dude," he said.
When he mentioned my bed, I had turned around to look at, maybe survey the damage, if there had really been some kind of explosion. But what I saw was worse than that. It hadn't been an explosion. My bed was gone.
I saw a trail of dust and crumbs on the floor, the pillow lying like it had slammed into the wall beside where the bed had been. And the trail of debris led directly to the opposite wall - which was punctuated by a massive, crumbling hole.
"Oh my god..." I said. Gingerly, I walked over to the half-destroyed wall. Peering through, I could see the wreckage of a sudden impact, as the destroyed bedframe lay in splinters on the sidewalk outside. It had smashed against the concrete, tearing apart the sheets and leaving scraps of cloth and wood splinters all over the ground. The bare skeleton of the frame was still intact, although broken and collapsed in places.
"Are you sure that you did that? It could've been some kind of - I don't know. Something. How could that possibly have been connected to what you did on the screen?" I said. "I don't know, dude, but I'm positive I did that. I can test it again- don't worry! I'll be extremely careful. Just turn around and watch that pillow," he said. The pillow against the wall. A smart choice. Worst case scenario, something would just get slammed with a soft pillow.
I locked onto it; I wanted to see this. And as I watched, right before my eyes, that dusty pillow slowly rose up into the air. "You're- you're doing this? You're lifting the pillow right now?" I asked. "Of course I am. You can see it too, right? It's not just some genius visual simulation on my screen, right?" he said.
"Of course I can see it. Holy shit," I said. It really was just floating there, hovering in the air. I reached out and touched it. It felt completely real, the same soft fabric as always. There was a little bit of dust from what had happened to the bed, but I could see the particles streaming down through the air, settling down on the ground beneath it. The corner of the pillowcase flapped slightly in the breeze. "Holy shit," I said again. It was really floating. Experimentally, I grabbed onto the corner of the pillowcase and gave it a sharp tug. It gave just a little, like a levitating magnet, but only by a couple inches. When I let go, it bobbed back into place. "That is so weird. It's like you're tugging on my mouse. Here, I'm letting go now," he said. The pillow immediately dropped to floor with a little pumf.
I stood for a moment and just stared at the pillow, inert on the floor in front of me. "That is completely unreal. How much can you do with this thing? Can you, like, lift anything?" I asked. "Well, I could sure lift the bed, and that's more than I could take on my own. I- I don't know. God, dude, this is so surreal. It's like a fucking dream or something. None of this makes sense." he said. I nodded emphatically in agreement. "I'm not sure I want to keep playing. This game is dangerous," I said.
"I don't think it'll be dangerous if we just stay in control. I'm operating all this stuff, I'll just be very careful. I mean, look, dude, I don't know how this stuff works, but it does! This is happening! I mean, aren't you even a little curious about what's going on here?" he said.
"This is way too much, I don't understand it and I can feel that it's dangerous. I can't even see the controls, I'm the one who's being controlled. I'm just flying blind, and for all I know I'm two seconds away from getting my head bashed in with a piece of furniture. That bed could have killed me, you know. It must have flown, like, three feet from the back of my head!" I paused for breath. This was frightening me more than I was letting on. I was having trouble thinking straight. "You trust me, don't you?" he said. "I trust you. But I want to do something, at least. Could you- could you contact Derek, and tell him to install his Client disc? I'd like to get a good look at these controls."