Perspective Engine One

5 - Memory

There was a small collection of exposed soaked bricks sitting alone on the edge of the construction site. I sat down in that wetness, which was immediately noticeable on my bottom as it soaked through my overalls.

I didn’t care.

I sat in the storm for a while, as seconds turned to minutes and minutes turned to hours. I passed the time by examining the progress of two growing structures as rainwater pelted the construction site. When I first started, I was surprised to see:

(Minor Surveillance Sphere progress: 7%)

As the new sphere charged it gave me something else to focus on. I took time to count just how many kids, or clients rather, there were. It took effort, but there were almost thirty clients evenly split between Jax and Victory who were moving frantically, working hard to help in some way. There were the brick gatherers, the cement collectors, and the structure makers. There were also a lot of kids, almost half of the workers, who were not helping at all. Ten or so had found their own places to sit and wait in the rain while others, with more mentally debilitating afflictions, were outright impeding the developments.

They’re all shitty like me.

I chuckled as I observed a girl stealing massive amounts of supplies, grabbing bricks, tools, even a few cans full of wet cement, and pilfering them away into her inventory. Lucky for the builders, new bricks and other necessities were generated by the VRAI system every couple of minutes. Damn. I hadn’t even considered putting the bricks in my inventory. Would have saved a ton of time transporting them that way.

(Minor Surveillance Sphere progress: Complete!)

(A Minor Surveillance Sphere has been added to your inventory.)

I pulled the pink, smoke-filled sphere from my inventory to examine it before I tucked it away. I thought about what Irene said regarding the spheres. With little effort I made a mental note: Smash it to cash it, Combine it to refine it, fill it to feel it. I began tinkering with my inventory, filling the two spheres in my active inventory slots. There were four total slots and I was interested to see how the spheres could play a role in the next part of the first phase.

The puddles of water in the site had become a shallow pool now, covering up to my ankles. I had my now nine-pack of AriZona’s Sweet Tea sitting on the bricks next to me along with two empty bottles. I pulled another free, tapped the plastic cap, then twisted it open. Guess I need to start figuring out which group I want to beg for a spot. I took a long sip of tea as I considered my options:

Jax’s group had the larger structure so far, with bricks stacked in simple horizontal rows. They were forming a wide thick wall for them to stand on. It seemed sturdy, might need that sturdiness with all this damn weight. They were all boys though, so I figured that might be uncomfortable. And, they’ll want my strength sphere. I held up my chunky middle finger.

Victory’s group seemed to struggle a bit more with building speed, but the attention to detail was evident in their meticulous development of an endless brick stairway with an intricate diamond-like pattern. Irene’s OCD must’ve been in overdrive. There were already so many steps…too many steps.

It felt shameful that I hadn’t been able to help them build much yet I would still take up a place on one of their walls. I did try to help though. I felt another part of me that didn’t want to return to either of the two leaders. I considered going to no place at all, just sitting here and waiting for the water to rise, until it swallowed me in it.

“Hey you,” a girl said from behind, “why were you staring at me earlier?” I turned to see the supplies thief crouching in a puddle. She had a mischievous face, a skinny girl with green eyes, and a shaved head.

“I just thought it was funny,” I said with a smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t rat you out and cause problems.”

“Well, here’s a tip. If you can lift it, you can lift it into your inventory,” she said with a smirk.

“Now I want to know. How did you know I was watching you?”

“I used my memory as soon as the phase started. It gave me a good advantage. Figured with my Big-Three affliction, kleptomania active, I would be screwed no matter what. Who trusts someone who constantly steals from them?”

“You’re a klepto? s**t, that’s brutal,” Madison said, looking at the girl differently. “I’m morbidly obese.”

“I noticed,” the girl said, “is that why they all kicked you out? I also saw you…trying to help those leaders, you’re hard to miss.”

“So how did your memory help you see me spying on you?” The thief gave me a wistful smile and I understood I would never know how the hell that memory helped the girl.

“I’m Rey, what’s your name?” She held out her hand. We were similar in some way, Rey and I, instantly untrustworthy to someone who didn’t understand how our afflictions made our lives difficult. Nearly impossible.

“Madison,” I said, shaking her hand. Rey’s palms were coarse, one step away from sandpaper. Strange for hands that belonged to a girl.

“Well Mads, I can call you Mads?” I nodded. First time for that nickname. Rey stood and then said, “You should use your memory.”

“I was told that I shouldn’t use it unless there was an emergency,”

“It is an emergency. I bet you’re doing exactly what you do in the real world when people treat you like s**t. Nothing, right?”

I felt flat-footed by the forwardness.

“These clients don’t understand what they’re doing,” Rey said. “They’re leaning into their afflictions like they do in the real world, trying to tackle a virtual problem. This whole experiment is about perspective.” Rey tapped her temple when she said the word. “You only have one perspective right now, Mads.”

“You’re right,” I said. “Thanks for the advice.” She nodded and walked away. I followed the girl with my eyes as she walked back towards the busy yard.

“Oh, and sorry Mads,” Rey said, “I don’t even like sweet tea.” Then with a smile, the thief sprinted off into the commotion of a group of Jax’s kids trying to stop some twitchy kid from operating the crane.

I frantically turned to my side. The eight bottles of sweet tea were gone. Even the bottle I had just opened that was half-finished was gone.

“Son of a b***h!” I yelled as I stood from the bricks. I searched for Rey through the storm but the damned thief was nowhere to be seen. I sat back down on the wet bricks and shook my head. Be calm. She can’t help it, she can’t help it. “But next time I see her!” I belted over the constant pattering of rain. I shook my head and considered what Rey had said about the memory. The Perspective interface always floated in the corner of my view, I’d done a good job to ignore it.

[ Beginner Class + Morbidly Obese ]

[Team: 1 of 3]

[ Remedies: 1 ]

[ Inventory: 2]

[m. str. sphere] [m. surv. sphere] [empty] [empty]

[ Memories: 1 ]

[ Missions : 0 ]

[ Time until Phase One completion:40:24 ]

View Memory.

The world around me peeled away, as the soggy construction site rippled into darkness. There was a moment of total nothingness. I floated in the void, seeing nothing, feeling nothing, being nothing. Then everything rebuilt itself, images piecing together like fragments of torn paper perfectly reassembled. It was a sunny day in Hopkins, Minnesota. The warmth of the day felt amazing in contrast to the wet yard I’d been sitting in for hours now. As soon as I saw the memory, I remembered everything about it.

It was my sixth birthday.

The view of the memory was distorted. I had a bird's eye view, floating above the scene, on the outside looking in. But if I focused, I could see the world from my six-year-old eyes, my childhood perspective. We were outside, Papa and I, as he guided me along on my new bike.

Damn it. I miss him so much. One heart attack changed a million things.

I examined myself, an adorable little girl who was closer in appearance to my VR self, rather than the pathetic version of myself in the real world. I was wobbly on the pink bike, scared shitless. Obviously way too big for it.

Okay, what about this memory matters?

I looked at my father, the large, wide-shouldered man smiling, walking in his t-shirt and slippers alongside me. Then I felt him too. I shifted into his worldview. There was no fear. No criticism. No doubts. He was showing his daughter how to grow, how to change, how to ride a bike. His smile was a wide and prideful one. Infectious. I felt myself start to smile hovering over the scene. Papa saw that his daughter was capable of doing good. She could do more with her life. He saw that she was capable of greatness.

That I was capable of greatness.

Even in me just riding this bike, I was more capable than he was at this point in his life.

Because he knew he had Stage IV heart failure and I didn’t have a clue.

Reality snapped back much faster than it left, I returned to the construction site, water dripping off my hard hat. My tears became one with the rain both falling together before I wiped my eyes.

He knew he was dying. And he was hopeful in me. Pathetic, worthless, me.

I blinked, taking a deep breath to refocus on the site. When I saw the clients, there was a noticeable difference. I felt for them the way my father had felt for me. My eyes widened as her mouth gaped open.

They’re not worthless pieces of s**t at all. None of them. They’re capable. Sitting on their unused remedies, memories, and spheres.

“They’re capable of greatness,” I whispered.

My vision flooded with a new green message.

[ New Mission - Connect with the Idle Clients - 0 / 10 ]

A mission? So Perspective must have enjoyed the intense memory of my dying father. I shook my head as I stood from the bricks and walked in the direction of those clients. Not the hard-working groups of Jax and Victory, but the clients who were wasting away, doing nothing to help.

Above there was a long beep.

Hello clients! We can see a lot of you are working very hard out there! While some of you seem rather…stuck. Perspective has informed us it will begin its first escalation. There are a few of you out there with Aquaphobia, also known as Fear of Water…At the forty-hour mark, you’ll have the chance to defeat your fears. We can’t wait to see how Perspective will manifest this Physma in the experiment! I’ll inform you now, that the greater the affliction affects you, the bigger it’ll be.