So, I guess the best place to start is I hooked up to my SynSystem and I think I am stuck in game. I am not sure how interactive this place is or if there are other users here or anywhere. If you know what I am talking about then you know. I just need help.
Pandora is crazy. All the ads about ‘A better world, a better you’ were not lying about realism. The Synth is awesome, every time I jack in and I can almost forget that it is just a synthetic world, a game. Life has been hard and dull ever since everything happened. I think this place has saved my life.
It is not some crazy adventure synth to forget the real world or a shoot’em up to take out my rage but something else. Most of the time I just walked around for a bit. Found a park that I like and I just sit on a bench, watching the people. It is relaxing. The kids playing, the joggers, the couples, hell even the birds and squirrels. It’s amazing, a whole world just existing like this. Not affected by the ugliness of the real.
The NPCs never remember me, no matter how often I pass by. It’s like I’m a ghost in their perfect, synthetic world. Sometimes they will pause, like they are waiting for me to talk. I just look down or away and they get this look of confusion in their eyes before moving on. I guess it’s a feature but I don’t come here to talk to them. What would be the point of talking to an AI anyways.
The last time though, the time before this session. It was like the NPC’s were toned down. Everyone seemed to have a blank stare as I made my way through the city. Still I made my way to the park again but it was already evening and even though it was pretty empty, it was nice at first. Then the bench under me felt too hard, too cold, like the one at the bus stop where I last saw her…
There are the small things too, like random Easter eggs I guess. Like the stop lights. Green? I mean I guess it’s so close that whoever chose green figured no one would notice. I mean Blue means go, so I just don’t get why such a common thing is off. The rest of this synth is so detailed. It’s weird. And don’t even get me started on how weird the toilets are.
But that’s the thing. I had to use the bathroom. Why? God I just hope I am not laying there in a puddle of my own piss. But I just went with it. You know? Might as well go all in. I am all for that. Until the creature appeared. I ran. Leaving the Headset in the other room, and just dashed to the first door I found. It was the bathroom.
I guess it is luck, dunno or maybe it is all scripted but I had one of those old types of phones in my pocket. The type my parents used to have before Hilos existed. Still, I had to try calling tech support, and of course 1-2-3 is not a thing here. I had to search for an emergency number. It’s so weird, I don’t get why they would change it, I mean who does not know of “Got a glitch, in a bind? Just dial 1, 2, 3, find peace of mind.”
At least the internet still works the same in Pandora. I wonder if it’s cloned data or real time. I am hoping for the latter. Maybe someone will see this if it is. But it is not all there, definitely curated.
Anyways after calling 911, the man on the phone sounded bored. Took my info and said someone would be by shortly. I told them I did not need them to come but just to solve the problem. Apparently that is not an option. I had to wait almost half an hour with that creature. Waiting. Clawing and making those crazed noises on the other side of the door.
The police officers that showed up were a bit, I don’t want to say jerks but they were very abrasive and a little rude. I had left the front door open apparently so they came right in. I heard a grunt and a female voice. Garcia or Garsa or something called for me to open the door, they had the creature.
I opened the door and she was just holding the feline so nonchalantly it took me a couple of seconds to realize the “Cat” was still in my house. You know what I mean.
This virtual house. Pandora can really read your deepest fears and project a world based on that but this was not it. I mean it was not a phobia or anything. I reacted like any other person would when an animal with claws and teeth like that got into their house. Who owned cats? They were feral, wild and sometimes rabid creatures. But apparently I did. At least in this synth I do. The officer showed me the tag on the animal’s collar. “Pika” was carved on one side and my contact info on the other. That and the look they gave me when I asked, “So you’re not tech support?”
Their insistence felt off-script. In what game do the NPCs push back this hard? ‘You’re breaking my immersion,’ I wanted to scream, but something in their eyes kept me silent. It did not matter. I just went along with it. I apologized for the confusion and eventually they left. Maybe this was a “lesson” Pandora was teaching me. It was stupid.
I don’t know. I should have logged out then and there, I guess I was just fascinated, it was like being at a zoo or being so close to an animal that could attack you at any moment. There is no way I would be able to or want to do this in the real world. After everything settled down and I was alone again I did something crazy. I don’t know, I just could not help it. I stroked its fur. It was only for a bit but it was so soft. But I only did it for a little bit because it started growling at me. A low constant rumble. I am not an idiot.
Now it just sits there, watching me. It was rubbing on my leg before, and I guess it was probably just asserting dominance. I just did what anyone would do. Stay still. Did not move or try to fight it. This thing could probably rip my throat out. Eventually it stopped but just went to lay on the sofa to glare at me.
It was too much. I was just going to do my routine and head out for a walk and saw a note taped to the inside of the front door.
The handwriting on the note was sloppy, rushed, just like the scribbles my sister used to leave on the fridge. ‘We need to talk.’ Hadn’t I seen those words before, scrawled on a post-it the day before she… No, that was just part of the game, wasn’t it? I laughed. Classic game setup for the next quest, right? But why did my hands shake as I read it?
I don’t know. I felt frazzled? That’s a word right? It was an anxiousness that came over me. Maybe the synth was going to actually do something, help me I suppose. I wish it had just let me go on my walk though. I wish I had not hesitated.
So, I know Pandora is the latest and greatest. Helps people conquer their fears, pain, and the past. It has great reviews and is so detailed. I needed it. I don’t know. I guess it makes it easier to write about all this in a fake world. I have not even been able to talk to a psychologist about it. I even tried that app “BetterAssistance” but I just could not get into it.
It all started two years ago, everything just went sideways. Jason, my best friend who was practically family, showed who he really was. We grew up together, inseparable. The last time I saw him wasn’t us hanging out, but in the courtroom. He was crying, but it wasn’t sad—it was pathetic. He was a fucking monster, and I wanted to just take him out right then and there wishing I could bash his damn skull in.
I was out of town when it happened. My little sister, Cristy, decided to visit the apartment. He claims that she and Jason had been sneaking around behind everyone’s back for over a year. Strange how I had not known about it, I knew them both, I thought I knew them both, I did love them both though. He claimed they were in love too. That it was an accident, that it was all a tragic mistake. So why did he beat her to an inch of her life? Why did he… why did he use her body like that? Why the hell did he take her from us, from me? This guy, this absolute piece of trash, was supposed to be locked up, rotting away. He was supposed to be behind bars getting what he had done to my sister done to him. So why did he just walk in like nothing had changed?
I don’t know, I guess it was just instinct and I grabbed the first thing I could get a hold of and swung with every ounce of hate and pain. I could not stop, my arms are still sore and I would have written this sooner but my hands had gone numb. I can’t even tell that there was a head there anymore. I guess I got my wish.
This is what Pandora’s Solace is for, I felt amazing. Free. I don’t know why I did not just try logging out then, I guess I just wanted to live in that moment for a little longer. I got up and just made my way into the shower. I took off the bloodstained clothes standing under the water, crying, sobbing, just getting it all out.
I would never get Cristy back but I think part of me could finally move on. Boss battle conquered. I expected… I don’t know, fireworks? Achievements? Not this silence. Not this emptiness.
The thought of my mother got me up. I knew it would not matter and that it would just be some random NPC but I wanted to call my mom. To tell her, to tell someone that at least in this world, Jason had paid for what he did. For someone to acknowledge what I had done.
But when the call connected, it wasn’t my mom who answered. “Hey, sorry, mom left her phone here. She’s trying on some shirts. What’s up?”
It was Cristy’s voice. It’s been years, and I thought I’d forgotten it, but the moment I heard her, I knew. Everything just came rushing back. Her laugh, the way she would always sing to fill the silence in the car, How she would call me Ted instead of Barry because she nicknamed me teddy bear when we were kids.
I couldn’t speak properly. I think I managed to mumble something like “That’s fine” and “I’ll call back” before I hung up.
She texted me a simple, “You good?” but all I could do was reply with a thumbs up.
What the hell is happening? How did Pandora know what Cristy sounded like? I am freaking out here. I tried slapping on the VR gear I had on when I first came into this game, but it’s like a toy here. No SynConnectors, no ports, nothing. I can’t figure out how to get back. I don’t have any ports on me either. I checked at least a hundred times.
Mom and Cristy keep calling, their names popping up on the screen and even Jason’s phone has started ringing almost every couple of minutes now.The ringing, the cat with bloody paws, the thing that used to be Jason.
Any relief I found, any solace, it’s all gone. This—this feels way too real. I get that the haptics can make my muscles sore but why does my head hurt? Why would they program in a headache?
If anyone out there is reading this, tell me how to hit the reset button. There’s got to be a way to start over, right? To fix everything. Better yet, how do I log out of here and make it all just… go away?