Sixth Chapter

Edwin P. Ust

Eddie tried to slow down his breathing as he entered the store.  The trashcan near the entrance was stuffed with his tent, and everything else he had brought.  He walked into the store.  It was almost exactly like the store he worked in, just bigger.  The same walls furry with plastic and the obligatory 3D boobs.  Down at the end of the store he could see lots of activity.  The frantic movements of employees trying to get a task finished before any manager noticed the store was open and the task was undone.   Eddie had to take a deep breath, he was trying to calm himself down, being first was not that important? Right?  He had been so excited this morning before that Lew showed up.  “Remember this is going to be the greatest game experience ever.” Eddie said under his breath as he walked towards the sign ushering him into the new world of ZED inc.

The sign read “Get TAPed” in bright red letters.  It hung from wires going up into the warehouse ceilings.  Three uniformed employees were struggling to assemble a massive cardboard shipper.  One poor employee was holding up the base while another tried to connect it to a leg and torso.  Judging from the clothing, once the head and arms were attached, this would be the stranger from the commercials welcoming customers to the TAPing station.  As Eddie approached the construction area, the third employee stepped from behind the cardboard torso.  This was a mistake as it caused the leg to swing, catching the kneeling employee on the side of the head.  On impact he dropped the base and the whole contraption collapsed.

“Oups!” Said the employee who had perpetrated the destruction by leaving his place. “Take fifteen guys.  We’ll take another look at those direction and give this another shot.” 

The other guys extracted themselves from the rubble grumbling.  Eddie had built some of these shippers before and they all sucked, they were badly designed never had legible directions.  Always made out of the flimsiest material, relaying on tension created by folding it upon itself.  Add in a few pieces and it was sure recipe for failure. Based on the number of pieces scatted around the space this one was going to be a duessy.

“Hi, I’m here to get TAPed, who do I need to talk to about that?”

“I your man,” said the supervisor, “My name is Charon, come right this way.  Did you know you’re only the second person to do this?” Damn that Lew.  “I can’t wait till my shift to get my TAP.”

“I’ll tell you all about it.” Eddie replied trying to be friendly.

“Great,” the guy was genuinely thrilled, “that other guy didn’t talk much.  He only said something about annoying.”  This last word was said with a tone that showed the speakers contempt.

“Yeah, I met that guy outside the store this morning.  He’s a pill, he totally put me off, don’t let him ruin your day.” This Eddie said almost as much to himself as to Charon.

“Here it is.” Charon was gesturing to a large padded chair.  Much like a dentist chair this one had a head and neck support, and the whole thing looked mechanical with large bundles of wires snaking there way along the underside of the chair.  “Sit down and it will do the rest.  Any instructions will be displayed on that screen facing the chair.  Tell you what this is going to be the easiest job ever, after today I don’t even need to come into the store.”

Eddie had completely forgotten that this was for work.  He took a deep breath.  Charon offered his hand. They shook.  He took another breath.  He wanted this moment to last forever.  This moment before the one he had been waiting for.  The anticipation had all led to now, try to savor that, the still unknown.  He got into the chair.  Slowly relaxing into the padding.  He jumped a little as the chair started to adjust itself to his body.  Reclining and extending until his was laid out and the nick support pressed flush against his spine. Eddie closed his eyes, trying to expand his other senses to get any sort of idea of what was about to happen to him.  He felt a slight undulation of the padding in the neck support.  Then there was a slight pressure.  The chair started to move back in to its upright position.  Was that it?  That couldn’t be all there was.

“What happened? How was it?”  Charon was boiling over with questions.  “You promised to tell me how it was.  What did it feel like? What does it look like?”

“Just give me a second.” Eddie felt underwhelmed by the experience.  “It didn’t really feel like anything, just a little pressure.  I don’t know maybe it doesn’t work.”

“It has to work? Right?” Charon was still trying to sound cheery, but failing.

CLOSE YOUR EYES

It was written across his vision, in light yellow letters; if he wanted to he could choose to ignore it.   Eddie did not want to ignore it.  This was it; this was how it will begin.   

“Hey, Charon was it, do you have a place I can sit down?”

“Yeah my name is Charon. OH! Something is happening!” Charon squealed, “What’s happening? Tell me what’s going on.”

“There is writing in my eyes.”

“What!?”

“Writing, letters written across my eyes.  It’s telling me to close my eyes.  I don’t know what to expect so I want to be sitting.  Charon do you have a place where I can sit?”  Eddie had flutters in his stomach, this was actually happening. He didn’t know what was happening, but he could tell it was legit, this was going to be one thing that lived up to it hype.      

“Here right this way sir.” Charon took Eddie’s hand and walked him to a couch against the wall facing the TAPing chair.  “They said that people might want’ta sit afterwards.  They gave us this couch for that.  You can stay as long as you want.  Do you want something to drink?”

“No I’m alright. Thanks, and don’t worry, just give me some time to figure this out, then I’ll tell you all about it.”  Eddie settled back into the couch. 

 He closed his eyes.

Eddie was sitting in a small classroom.  Wood paneling went about half the way up the walls; the right side of the room had three big windows.  A door was set at the front left side; ten desks were the only furniture.  Eddie was sitting in the front row, facing a blackboard.  The door opened and a tall man with grey hair entered.

“Welcome, this is TAP 101, I’ll be your teacher, Dr. Zed.”  He wrote this on the board. “This class will take you though all the basic functions of your new TAP.  Lets start by exploring the two different levels of interaction, or as we like to call them ‘states’.  The one that you are currently experiencing, the lucid, is the most in-depth.  It allows for total sensory engagement.   To reach this state you close your eyes and sit or lay down.   To leave this state all you need to do is open your eyes.”

“Sensory engagement?” Eddie asked.

“Go ahead and try it, open your eyes.” Dr. Zed continued.  His inability to recognize the question implied that the good Dr. was a pre recording.  Regardless, the command worked and Eddie’s eyes popped open.  When they opened the classroom faded. 

“Now you can go about you normal life, and still hear me.  This will also work as a phone device.”  Dr. Zed’s voice continued.  “Look up and to the right, you will see the word Menu.  We are now going to take a few minutes to learn the three ways to interact with the menu.  The first is manually.  Take your fingers and pinch the word Menu, then pull down.”

At first he couldn’t see anything but then by moving his head just a little, right out side of his periphery vision Eddie saw the word.  It seemed to just hang in the air.  The letters were about three inches tall, and looked to be about and inch thick.  When he reached to touch it, it felt substantive. Grasping the Me between his middle finger and thumb he pulled down.  There was some resistance like pulling down a curtain, revealing other words before his eyes.  As a gamer Eddie was well acquainted most of the new options; controls, audio, optics, contacts, Applications, TAP and NUTRUA.  This last tab set Eddie’s pulse racing.   These words hung right in the middle to Eddie’s vision and it was easy to follow the next set of directions.  As an experienced gamer Eddie was very pleased with how intuitive this all was.  There were just a few questions he had then he could quit this tutorial.

            “You interact with these tabs in the same way as the Menu, grab it and pull down.” Dr. Zed dictated.  “Lets try it with controls.  Good, this changes how you interact with the interface.  There are three options; the first is the default, touch, optical and vocal.  Now move the selector over to optical.  The Optical setting allows you to interact with the interface using just your eyes.  This is a great when in public when you can’t talk and don’t want to wave your arms around.  Ha HA.”  The laugh was very creepy. 

            “The down side is that this is the most tiring, as you use your eyes in ways you never have before.  We will start simple; this method will take some practice but can be a lifesaver when in a meeting or a boring date.  Focus your eyes on the selector, and then push it to the vocal setting.”

            This proved harder then it would seem.  The selector, like all the lettering was three inches tall and an inch thick.  It hung on long a thin track.  He tried to grip the block with his eyes.  At first it seemed that it was too heavy and felt like he was straining his eyes.  Then he relaxed and just looked at it.  The little rectangle seemed to jump and hum.  Then he saw it move, he visioned it, watched it, sliding along its thin track to the vocal setting.

            “Well Done!” Dr. Zed chimed in as soon as the selector had reached its destination. He continued, “Now, in the vocal setting, you can control all the menus through vocal commands.  This is one of the easiest to use, but also the most ostentatious.  This method relays on your ears being able to hear what you say; so you can whisper you will be audible to those around you no matter what.     Be careful in public with this method, as you can be quite annoying to those around you.  Or just come off as crazy.

            “Lets start but moving back to the main menu. There are two ways to do this.  You can say ‘main menu.’  That will take right back.   The other way is to say ‘close,’ this will move you back one menu at a time.  Something of note is that both these commands are represented on the bottom of all menus.  All vocal commands have a corresponding visual aid, that way it can be interacted with by all three methods.”

            Eddie first tried whispering.  So quietly, he literally could not hear himself, then just a little louder.

            “Close.”

            Unable to wait he just said it out loud.  Charon’s head snapped around, he half got up from where he was holding a piece of the shipper.  Eddie tried to wave him a way, but it was too late and the whole structure collapsed again.  Charon returned to work, looking sheepish.

CLOSE YOUR EYES

            Eddie followed the prompt.  He was back in the classroom.  Dr. Zed then took him through the other menu options. Audio, optic, contacts and Applications were exactly what Eddie had expected.  They were the same options that every cell phone had.  TAP was also familiar, with a video function, which created video files called TAPS.   You could load your TAPS up on to a network, where you could browse other users content at will and they could view yours.  Though Eddie could see how this would have a mass appeal, it was not something that interested him. 

            He got up and walked over to Charon.  "I'm going to head home, Charon."
            "You Promised to tell me what its like."  Charon said, a slight whine in his voice.  "You promised."
            "I know," Eddie said, "truth is I don't really know what to say.  It's really something though, I think its totally going to live up to the hype."
            "Graaa, that makes it even harder to wait.  Damn this shipper! I'm telling my manager I'm sick, or something.  I can't really do that, he'll never let me go.  Fine I'm just going to wait.  Well thanks, I guess, have a good day."
            "Thanks, I'll do that.  Good luck with that shipper."
            Eddie then left the store and walked to the station to catch his train, trains, home.  The tutorial continued as he walked, using the menu he created his first TAP.  He was just trying to get to the next segment, which he hoped was the Nutrua, so his first TAP was just of him walking.   He spent a few moment checking to see what was available, but so far there was only one other post.  Eddie assumed that this had been posted by that jerk Lew, and based on the content it had also been generated as a way to move the tutorial along.

            The tutorial started to move into the Nutrua phase so Eddie paused it long enough to purchase tickets and take a seat.  Then he closed his eyes to immerse himself into what he had waited so long for.  Alas it was not to be, Dr. Zed brought Eddies hopes crashing down.  He was cheerful informed by the cartoony professor that Nutrua was to have an introduction and jump off event in about six hours.  Six hours! What was he going to do until then, what was he going use for entertainment for this damn return trip.  It was the middle of the day, its not like he could sleep all the way home. 

            Well he had this new toy he might as well get to know it better.  He started by playing around with the different menus.  He went into contacts and found that he could sync his phone; he tried calling his parents to see how the phone function worked.  It worked, the sound quality was good, so his phone was now completely outdated and unnecessary.  After the call, just letting his parents know about when he was going to be home, Eddie explored the Application menu.  He was distraught that was going to have to wait longer to play the game.  However soon he found a way to watch movies, projected on the back of his eyes. 

            Eddie found something mindless and violent, entertaining, a way to kill a few hours.  So he sat on the train.  To anyone who looked he would appear asleep.  As he sat and watched some mindless movie, the world continued to end.  Drifting slowly, so slowly, off its rotation. Without the guiding flutter of butterfly wings the world was falling away from the sun.  Towards the end.