Blood and Cupcakes Read online

  SUPER SKEEVE!!!! He is not going to be easy to get along with.

  …..

  The library was a well-lit room filled with immersion pods and a few tables. Not a book was to be found here. The library’s AI would help to gather any information the students would need for their projects and transmit it to their pod or MemCrystal. Most of the pods were already humming softly and showing locked symbols on the door panels. She logged herself in with her MemCrystal and retinal scan at one of the empty pods. The librarian’s voice spoke, "Hello student 435-qbk, how may I help you today?"

  "Protocol thirty-three, with music, please," She responded.

  "Accessing... Protocol thirty-three in place. Access to the music libraries are being prohibited by advisor control," the melodic voice chimed.

  "Shaztastic!!!" The new teacher had cut off all privileges for the music library. It’s one of the best things about the library. I'm starting to dislike this Mr. Weathering even more, she thought. The deepening frown on her face was likely to become a permanent fixture at this rate.

  Mayah would come here sometimes during lunch or free period and read and listen to music. She probably spent more time in the library than anywhere else on campus. It was her haven from the budding romances and testosterone fueled tomfoolery that unbounded in the halls of the school.

  No matter how intelligent they are, they can't control hormones.

  She climbed into the pod. It had three levels of use: desktop, full surround, and immersive. She didn’t even want to be here for an hour, so immersive was out. The 3-1 time dilation would only extend her own personal hell. Her CadMod project was so close to finished, that two extra hours of study time wasn't needed, or wanted. The same went for full surround. Without her access to music it was wasted.

  Besides, I gotta get home for Majesta. Desktop it is.

  She pushed the appropriate buttons, and her 3D desk formed in front of her as she synced her crystal. It stored over a petabyte of data, and it immediately began to continue working from where she last left off.

  A holographic representation of the CadMod grew out of her desktop. Mayah began adjusting the values to change her printing specification. She loved working with the CadMod. The CadMod was a revolutionary Nano 3D printer that printed and assembled the projects it built out of the actual physical materials. She could load concrete, sand, and carbon dust, resulting in a miniature skyscraper covered in glass, with Nano carbon tubes and diamond reinforcements throughout the structure. It would also print the sidewalks.

  She loved the way it would print anything. It could print everything from girders to sheetrock, paint, and even murals on the interior walls of a model building. She laughed at the thought of the class, crapping themselves when they saw her project and realized there was no hope for them at this summer’s science fairs.

  She wasn’t sure how she would have retained her sanity If not for the CadMod. It was so precise that it could print out a luxury Travwing at 1/250th its size. She remembered watching the video where they did just that.

  Mayah remembered watching the holo-stream, where they took a sleek, twelve-foot-long air car, ground it up into dust, poured the dust into the CadMod and in an hour, there stood a fully functional air car. All of the belts, hoses, screws, and bolts were in place. No construction needed.

  She had watched in awe as they ground it up again and printed a fleet of miniature Travwings. Each fully functional, miniature replica was under a half centimeter. It could fly with the same precision as the original, zipping around until the fuel ran out, stopping on a dime. The metals and polymers were so delicately thin at that scale that you could crush the vehicle like tinfoil.

  Mayah thanked the gods when the scholarship to Eustace Greenthorn Academy came through. She ran through the house jumping on the beds and couches until her mother finally told her stop. Normally, these projects were astronomically expensive. But the EGA, as the students called their school, had been granted a printer and the resources needed for every senior design class to show off their skill. The corporate colleges loved the science fairs that ran like a tournament over the summer, offering scholarships to those that showed promise. Those scholarships usually ended up turning into lucrative positions afterwards.

  She turned to her notes screen to look up the tables on spinner ratios. She quickly found the numbers she was looking for. She only used her notes to double check herself, the tables had been memorized long ago. There would only be one chance to use the CadMod and it had to go perfectly.

  ..…

  Finally…

  The pod dinged letting her know it's was time to leave this world, a world of classes and vapid monotony. Now it was time to shed her skin and become her first self. The one she was born into.

  She picked up her belongings, swiped the end session button, and emerged from the pod like a butterfly from chrysalis, only the metamorphosis was internal. She had yet to unfold the wings of her consciousness. That would take time. The time of the Magnorail ride home. Back into the boxy and cramped house her family lived in. Back to where anything was possible.

  As she walked out of the school, she pulled in a deep breath, the air crisp and clean. She stepped to the end of the lineup of some luxury Travwings and boarded the shuttle to the Magnorail. There were only the usual seven faces on it. No…., there were eight, and the new face was sitting in her favorite spot.

  She grumbled, irritated at the annoyances of her day. Starting with almost missing the 6:45 am Magno, which would have made her late for school, up to and continuing through the loss of her favorite teacher. Today was certainly grating her nerves. Now this interloper took the best seat to watch the pretty houses on the twenty-minute ride to the Magno. The seat right in front of the back doors of the shuttle. Like a mobile nook, she would use that seat to unwind after leaving school. This was her moment of Zen and it was already gone, stolen from her by this stranger. She eyed him as she walked down the aisle to find another seat.

  He was about thirteen and wore a baseball cap, backwards. Red ear pods barely visible outside of his ear canal except for the hair-slim red cord that went around the back of his neck to keep him from losing the small things. They matched his red and yellow jacket. He wore a yellow Glashers hoodie underneath. The Glashers were the Philly Gladiatro team. Just imagine American ninja warrior, football, and paintball without the guns. TV turns your brain to mush, she thought disdainfully as she rolled her eyes.

  Mayah took the seat directly in front of him as it offered the same view but none of her familiar comforts. She pushed in her ear pods. Hers were large compared to his. She had painted the concave black surfaces with pink skulls and crossbones, because it makes me feel pretty. But she wished she could afford the new models he wore.

  She peeled open the cover of the MemCrystal wristband and tapped it three times. A holographic browser bloomed above her wrist and she searched the CrysWebs for the news she wanted. There it is.... yesterday’s release of "Ruins of Majesta." The reviews were through the roof. All of them were 8.9s to 10s. Her ride home was getting better. As immersives took hours to expand all the coding and parameters, she had decided to install it this morning.

  Her father had not been happy when he found her in her pod still in her comfy pajamas. She was making lightning fast keystrokes as she looked up at him with her most innocent, begging eyes. She had a lathered-up toothbrush in her mouth.

  “Whut…?” she mumbled around her toothbrush, flecks of foam breaking free. Her father tried not to laugh, but still chastised her and told her to hurry.

  She read a few quick reviews, but didn't want to spoil it for herself, switching over to look at features again instead.

  "Ruins of Majesta” was created by Attactus games. They were the largest producers of immersives in the world. A fact that was most likely because they made the best capsules as well. They literally changed the game. Their patented Neuro-transmission systems revolutionized gameplay. Instead of just feeling a homogenous touc
h in an area like haptic systems, it bypassed your skin and interfaced with your brain. It sent and received signals directly from your brain and brainstem. The system could perfectly replicate the touch of an individual bristle in a hairbrush on your scalp, a feather traced across the skin, or even the impact of a piece of shrapnel into your flak jacket. Attactus was the hallmark of immersive.

  Ruins of Majesta was revolutionary in its gameplay because of two new features. Feature one, if you had any Attactus game immersion level three or higher you could load your character’s save file into Majesta but you could only have one character at any given time. The company had released very few details about character progression, as they were well aware of the meta-gamers they were going to attract. They had done their best to level the playing field.

  So, any character can be anything? She chuckled to herself for a moment as she tried to think of her Level 239 Rock Troll as a thief. Too twisted.... so much fun.

  The second reason was the money. There was an in-game bank that would let you exchange Majestan dollars to any world currency. Attactus had created a system of credits that would transfer digitally to any nation it had a bank in. They had worked for the past three years to establish those banks in almost every country. Since their bank was multinational with branches or kiosks in every major gaming metropolis, players worldwide would be able to trade freely for bits of digital data. In return, Attactus bought and sold commodities and made investments in every world market. They had already backed the world of Majesta with cold, hard cash; now it was up to the players to mine that cash.

  The seat stealer leaned forward. "Majesta, huh," he said, "I didn't take you for a VR kinda girl."

  "You didn't take me at all." She frowned, not even looking at him.

  "Jonathan, but my friends call me Atari," he said extending his hand.

  Mayah’s eyebrow rose, "Like the old video game system?"

  "Yep, it’s because I collected all of my father’s old gaming systems. That one was my favorite as a kid and it’s the oldest one I have."

  "Mayah," she said, ignoring his hand. She would've ignored him completely but her mother had always told her to meet manners with manners. But the streets told her not to trust anyone she didn't know.

  His hand dropped. "What do you think about the infinity build of Majesta? There’s gonna be years of game play and events to follow. Smart move by Bannon, to build money into the game."

  Mayah thought about the “Buy-In.” After you reached level 10, you could give your character money, up to 300USD. This was no “Pay-To-Win” situation. It was a one-time thing so you could give your character enough money to equip themselves for whatever lay ahead. It was called, buying into Majesta. That money would fund the operation alongside the subscription fees. What made Majesta different was that you could buy out as well.

  “The trade-out is more interesting,” Mayah said to the seat stealing Atari. “I can’t wait to see what happens on the stock exchange.”

  “Yeah, linking the game currency to real world commodities was ingenious. A drop from a mob will be the digital representation of a small percentage of a shipment of widgets,” Atari explained. “And you get a higher trade-out if the widgets sell at a higher price,” Atari said matter of factly. “looks like I should get into some penny commodities and follow the Majesta lead.”

  Mayah looked at Atari with new found respect. The Majestan gold was already listed among the top ten currencies to trade. With players being able earn real money, Majesta was getting attention from more than just your normal players. And there were going to be a lot of players ...like in the billions of players. If the player waited until the market was right, they could receive more in real world currency.

  “So, what do you think about Josh Bannon’s amalgam sandbox approach?” she asked, curious to see what he had to say.

  “I think it’s the gnarlzetab!!! Everything, from every world, thrown into a blender and aged for a few thousand years??? What’s not to love. Plus, the rumors of portals and locked territories just fuel the imagination, right?” Atari asked, trying to gauge her level excitement. “But the best part though, is it’s rendered three points higher on the realism scale than anything ever on the market before, a whole 11 out of a possible 12.

  “It’s gonna be closer to earth sensations and physics. The attention to detail looks unbelievable,” Mayah agreed. But she looked annoyed as she continued, "I still think they should've added level 2 save files."

  "What? Your heart still aching for some Soul Thrash?"

  "Definitely," she said, finally letting some sunshine through her clouds in the form of a slight smile.

  He may steal seats, but he knows his games.

  …..

  Josh Bannon was founder and CEO of Attactus industries, and unlike most CEOs, he still had a lot of irons in the fire at the firm's R&D department. Today he was in his private office in the research branch, also known as the Head Office. The AI assistant updated Josh’s files on his MemCrystal then continued its monologue in its smooth, gentle voice.

  “So far, everyone is more than satisfied with their new product. In fact, most were ecstatic. Positive reviews are constantly being uploaded to forums along with videos of game play. Some were confused by the weakness of their level 170 barbarian in this new world, but we’ve assured them that they should just continue leveling.”

  One review caught Josh’s eye and he read it aloud. “Majesta is the new Smash Bros., a 2D platformer video game from over 30 years ago. It was the most revolutionary game at the time, letting characters from different games fight each other on a level playing field.” Josh smiled as It had been one of his favorite games in the early 2000s and a major inspiration for Majesta.

  He looked at another screen that showed a blogger talking about the game structure and banking. He pointed it out to his assistant who read it aloud, “In Majesta the characters, who are called Paladins, have their strengths leveled to a beginner status. This, supposedly, allows them to rebuild their character with an infinite variety of modifications. There is also the amazing, banking feature. It crosses economic boundaries with a thought.” The assistant paused, Letting Josh take it all in. “Should I add the blogger to your follow list?”

  Josh waved it off.

  He turned inward for a moment, reviewing his aspirations. He hoped his game was so fantastic that new markets would develop, ones that would give the everyman income beyond taxes, corporations, and oligarchies. Fractional banking had destroyed the economy years earlier. Josh created this currency because taxation, while useful, had nearly taken his life when he was just out of college.

  He sat back in his chair, fingers templed. His thoughts ran back to being nearly destitute and in need of medical attention for a cancerous growth on his spine. With no money to pay his taxes, his health insurance was suspended. He had languished in a non-profit hospice waiting to die. That was until a philanthropic health grant saved his life by paying for his treatment. It was a well-known story. He had made very sure of that by donating to that hospice triple their operating costs annually.

  It was only money, he thought.

  The only thing that kept him sane during his years in hospice were his studies of the nervous system and virtual reality. He went looking for a way to bypass the brain's ability to feel pain so that hospice patients could get a good night's sleep. But what he found was a way to reroute the brains sensations, not only to block physical pain, but also to influence its perception.

  He started his first company after recovering and getting some capital from a rich, family friend of a friend, who golfed with a buddy of theirs, who knew he was looking at something spectacular. He created the prototype and since then, his stocks were off the charts. He left that business in good hands and balanced profit margins with charities that assisted those in need. The stocks, like the good the company did, kept growing. He felt good about his work there and even more so about his controlling share in the company. There was no
way he’d let an Evilcorp get their hands on it.

  Attactus, though, was his baby, made to grow and learn. He wanted the whole world to enjoy the abundance that he had tapped into. They made the first fully immersive VR pods for use in scientific studies; the household models followed the next year. The second and third generations were still too pricey for his liking, but worked better than ever. In late 2039, the 4th generation was released. A beautiful balance between quality, functionality and affordability, it was a masterpiece. Its functionality was higher than previously hoped for and the prices were cheap enough for a middle-class family to have two or three of them.

  It had changed the way the world worked. People could oversee factories half a world away or control the digger bots on the Moon’s mining colony. The communications array for the Mars colony build crew was almost finished with living quarters next on the build list. The crews were all at least 90% remotely manned. Conferences, meetings, and even romantic dates could take place with any number of people from their own homes. It was truly breathtaking. The effect that he had on the world was immense, but now he was more interested in how to give the people of this planet a push to get out from under their masters. Those horrible Masters, the ones that brokered wars and killed their fellow humans in the name of money, government, or god. They didn’t deserve to be in control. This was humanity’s escape to freedom. And he was swinging the doors wide open right under the noses of the powers that he hoped didn’t notice him.

  …..

  Mayah's father, Gyasi, was waiting for her in the Center City Magnorail station. She had wound up talking to Atari most of the way home. She actually found him enjoyable to be around. He was smart, not genius smart, but intelligent enough to debate her on some of the finer points of gaming. They had exchanged crystal prompts and were added to each other’s contacts.