💾 Archived View for emisocks.com › stories › vr.gmi captured on 2023-11-04 at 11:37:45. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A young human sits by themselves at their desk. Their foot taps at the floor impatiently, the rhythmic sound breaking the otherwise complete silence of the empty house. They're leaning back in their chair, while their mind is racing with thoughts, way too quickly to focus on any one of them. After a few minutes, finally, the buzzing of a phone on the desk snaps them out of it, and they quickly pick it up, unlock it and check the notification they just received.
[quaaaartz] all checks are done, looks like we're good to go!!! you ready?
They smile to themselves. They quickly write a message back, with some difficulty because of their trembling hands.
[RadiantBlade56] Okay! I'll get to the dock and call you in a sec
[quaaaartz] waiting! ^^
They barely have time to see the last message before putting their phone down, getting up from the chair and walking out of their room and into the hallway, then down the slightly too long flight of stairs. As the automatic door to the VR dock opens, they take a deep breath, trying to compose themselves before walking in. A sterile-looking white room lights up around them. Without missing a beat, they walk to the center of the room, standing right in the middle of a treadmill, and they bend over to pick a slightly heavy, fancy-looking headset from the ground. Another deep breath, this time with their eyes closed, and they place it on their head, completely obscuring their vision and covering their ears.
Finally, they reach up and press a button on the right side of the headset, which is currently blinking with a green light. A subdued calling tone plays in their ears for a few seconds, before they hear a clicking sound, followed by a cheerful, bubbly voice greeting them from the headset.
- Blaaaaaaaade!
They wince slightly, and reach up further to slightly adjust the volume dial right above the call button, chuckling to themselves.
- Hehe. Hi, Xiana.
- You ready to do this then?
- All ready. How about you? You've tested everything out, right?
- Yup! Well, I've run the automated tests, at least. You're going to be the first person I actually try the program with.
- Oh. Are you... totally sure about this?
Xiana laughs on the other side of the call.
- It's fiiiine! I have friends who have already tried this with other people. It's totally safe, and I have a switch to immediately kill the connection at any point.
They nod, without realizing that she can't actually see them.
- Plus. We've been friends for a long time now. I trust you, Blade.
They can't stop a wide smile from forming across their face.
- I'm glad to hear that. Okay, then. I'm ready.
- Alright, let's do this!
A quiet whirr signifies both the headset and the room around them coming to life, and slowly, a blurry image appears on the internal screen of the headset. Blade blinks as their eyes slowly adjust to the vision, and, slowly but surely, the bottom of a shelf against a light blue background comes into focus. Turning their head to one side and seeing the world sideways, they realize that they're currently lying down. With a quick movement, they get up from the bed, finding themselves in an unfamiliar bedroom.
- I think it worked?
A voice resonates in their head, as clear as it was before.
- Nice!! Try walking around, see if you can move comfortably.
They nod and take a few steps around the room. The shelves are filled with some electronic components they recognize as robotic parts, some they don't recognize at all, and most notably, never before seen amounts of plush toys. Their body seems to slightly drag behind their movements, as if they're trying to walk underwater.
- It works, but it feels kinda, uh... sluggish?
- Latency problems, huh? Well, we are pretty much in opposite sides of the world. Let me look through the settings and see if there's anything I can do though.
Barely two seconds later, her voice speaks again.
- Oh wow. Okay, yeah, I'm streaming at a resolution six times higher than what human eyes can see. Lemme tone that down.
The change is immediate. Their movements now feel perfectly sharp and precise.
- Woah! Yes, okay, that's much better!
- Perfect!~ Alright, there's a full body mirror on the door by your right.
They turn their head towards the door and immediately gasp and freeze when seeing their reflection. They take a moment to reposition themselves so they can see their whole body in the frame and simply stand there, stunned.
- S-so this is... you?
The reflection of a humanoid robot girl stares back at them. Her skin has a slightly unnatural green-ish blue tone, and her eyes are a deep green. Her skin is almost entirely made of curved metal sheets, and at several points around her body the places where two plates meet is very visible, like the two lines running down across her cheeks from her eyes. There are even some bolts visible in places, holding the plates together. The metal is clearly flexible enough to let her make distinctly human-like facial expressions, though. Her red "hair" is similarly made from mostly rigid plates, simulating the shape of a ponytail that follows the movements of her head instead of swishing. She's not wearing any clothes, but the metal plates bolted on her body are coloured in such a way as to simulate the appearance of human clothes. Her belly and chest are a deep black and the lines around her shoulders where it transitions into her skin tone gives the appearance of wearing a tank top, and similarly her legs are a darker blue down to her ankles, as if she was wearing jeans.
- Of course it is, silly! We've done video calls before. You've seen me.
They don't respond, and instead simply stare at the reflection, still too stunned to move.
- But yeah, that's me. And for the next hour or so, it's you as well!
They take a couple steps forward, mouth still agape, towards the mirror, and extend a hand forward towards the mirror. The blue hands of the robot girl and the reflection slowly come closer together, until they touch, and...
... nothing.
Blade snaps back into reality. Of course they wouldn't feel anything. The VR headset only transmits video and audio, not touch. They quickly retract their hand back, embarrassed.
- Uh. S-sorry. I just... uh...
A soft giggle plays through their headset.
- Hey, it's fine. I know how badly you've been wanting to try this. You can take a little longer to look at yourself if you want.
They smile and nod.
- Still, something looks off. Is this really what you normally look like?
- Well, mostly. Except for the legs. I normally just hover around.
They stay silent for a moment, and then burst out laughing. Of course. She doesn't normally have legs. How could they miss that?
- Right! Of course. You put on a pair of legs just for me, huh?
- Haha, I thought it would be kind of awkward if you had to try a new method of transportation your first time piloting this body.
They pause for a moment, then shake their head.
- Do you think we could try anyways?
- Oh! Hm. Are you sure?
They nod, smiling and looking at the reflection.
- Alright then. Sit down on the bed and take off m- I mean, your legs!
They notice their cheeks growing a bit warmer; luckily, the VR headset doesn't pick up on that. They walk over to the bed and sit down, legs hanging off to the side.
- Uh, how do I...
- There's a button on the inner thigh. Just hold that and pull.
Blade fumbles around with their hand until they finally find the button, then hold it with their index finger while they wrap their other hand around their leg and tug on it. To their surprise, it comes off very easily, leaving a mostly flat surface with some connectors on it. They leave that leg on the bed by their side and then repeat the process with the other one.
- Okay, I'm going to turn on the levitation now. Don't panic, alright?
Before they even have a chance to reply, they notice the floor slowly moving away from them as they start floating off the surface of the bed, higher and higher.
- Woooooooah...
- Heh, you're enjoying this, aren't you?
They simply nod with their head, unable to stop looking down at their lower body and thinking about how, wow, they don't have legs. And they don't NEED them.
- Just lean your body in the direction that you want to move. I can control the height, but uh, I couldn't think of any way of letting you do it directly. Just let me know if you want that.
They nod again, and quickly float over to the mirror, barely even thinking about it, like levitating in mid air had always been second nature to them. They instinctively smile even wider than before at the reflection of the hovering robot girl looking back at them.
- This is amazing...
Xiana simply stays quiet for a few seconds, letting her friend enjoy the view. It doesn't take long before she speaks again.
- Oh, hey. I just had an idea. What's your favourite colour?
- Wha? Oh, uh. Yellow, I'd say
- Alright. Check this out.
Right before their eyes, a strip of lights down either of their arms lights up, giving off a soft yellow glow. Their jaw drops as two more strips of lights down the sides of their torso also turn on, one light at a time.
- Xiana, you're amazing!!
- Heehee. Come on, it's only a few LEDs. But I'm glad you like it so much!
- Are you kidding? This is incredible! If I could... just...
Their voice trails off, lost in thought. Xiana giggles again.
- I'm assuming this has convinced you to try it out for yourself?
A moment of silence, before they close their mouth and nod, a determined look in their eyes.
- Yeah. When we hang up, I'm going down to the clinic and asking about it.
- Good, good! I'm glad you've finally decided to take the step.
Another moment of silence.
- It's still, uh...
- You're worried about the procedure, right?
- A... a little.
- That's understandable, I was worried too. There's nothing to be concerned about, though. It's completely painless, and the people at the clinic will guide you through the whole thing. And hey, if you have any questions at all, I'm here, okay?
They smile into the mirror again.
- Thank you, Xiana. You're great.
- Hey, that's what friends are for~ Oh, but one more thing.
- Hm? What is it?
- Have you decided if you're going to change your name? I mean, I don't know your legal name, but most synths change it when they get uploaded. You can totally keep it, of course, it's just something you should think about if you haven't already.
They look to the side and shyly bring one hand behind their neck.
- Well, this is going to sound kinda silly...
A slightly awkward pause follows, as they try to find the words for it.
- I actually kinda like the name Blade. Like, yeah, RadiantBlade is a silly internet name that I came up with when I was, what, twelve? But hearing you call me Blade out loud... I actually kinda want to try telling others to call me like that too.
- Oooooooh! That's awesome! Blade is a great name!!
They chuckle, a bit embarrassed, but enjoying the sound of it.
- Seems like you got things mostly figured out.
- Well, kinda. I still have a bunch of questions and all...
- That can wait until later. For now, wanna try on some of these cool parts I got?
Blade nods enthusiastically and floats over to the shelf, their eyes lighting up at the endless possibilities in front of them.