The question of how long I was willing to try this while not making anything resembling a living wage was not one I wanted to thrash out with my Oma, so I firmly changed the subject.
"Moe sent me down to set up your guided dream game cowl. The game she told you about released today and I think you’d—"
I paused, not because my Oma had sniffed, but just wondering what she’d make of The Synergis, and waking up naked in a Snug, and having her own personal Cycog assigned. She was so fiercely independent that I couldn’t see her enjoying playing Chocobo. I wasn’t even certain she’d like to rebuild herself according to her self-image. I did think that in The Synergis she’d be free of the arthritis that made the simplest task a matter of grit and endurance, and found that I really wanted to convince her to try it out.
Talking about her hands wouldn’t get me far, though. Oma did not admit to weakness, and pointedly ignored specially-made utensils, heat lamps, rubs, magnetic bracelets, and any other piece of science or quackery designed to offer relief.
"I spent a lot of today in a forest," I said instead. "All moss and meadow clearings, and small animals everywhere. And then on an island—a place with lots of islands. Dream Speed lets you travel, go all over the world, in all different eras, and doesn’t have to take up any of your waking day at all. I’m called Leveret in the game, and I, uh, is it okay for me to go in your bedroom to set up the cowl?"
The sound Oma made could—just—be interpreted as permission, so I scooped up the box and went into the Spartan bedroom that still had not fully acknowledged the death of my Opa.
My mother had set up a wireless environment for Oma years ago, so it was simple enough to plug in the micro-console, set it to downloading Dream Speed, and feed in the details of the account we’d prepared for Oma. Like all MMOs, an internet connection was mandatory, though Ryzonart had claimed there’d be no issues with ping or slow speeds when in the game.
I was unfolding the cowl when I noticed Oma had come to watch me from the doorway.
"All you need to do is put it on when you’re about to get into bed," I said, demonstrating by dropping the loosely shaped headpiece over my hair. Light cloth settled over my shoulders, and I fastened the Velcro that would keep it from slipping off. "Then press the big button on your console. That’s all."
My Oma just looked at me. Feeling foolish, I pulled the cowl off and smoothed it onto the bed.
"You can also use it as an alarm clock, if you want. GDG helps people to sleep deeply, and they respond to the in-built alarm best. That’s what these buttons are for, as well. One’s so that you can easily wake someone up without having to shake them out of the dream. The other’s a smoke detector—they did some tests, back when the cowls came out, and people wearing cowls actually woke up in response to their cowl every time, while some normal sleepers didn’t hear ceiling smoke alarms."
I was rattling on, and made myself stop and take a long breath. "Any questions Oma? Or messages for Moe?"
My Oma shook her head, so I escaped, slipping past her and heading back to the kitchen. I was used to my Oma’s stern silences, but I still didn’t manage them very well. I’d been terrified of her as a child: she’d been so tall, grim as flint, and never—so far as I could tell—happy to see me. Today she simply nodded when I made my goodbyes, and turned to putting away the dishes.
"Well, I tried, Moe," I muttered, heading back out to the starlight. Perhaps my mother would manage to convince Oma to try the game out. If not, well, there’d be no problem at all reselling the cowl. I should probably sell my old one, for that matter.
No, wait. What I should be doing was taking advantage of a brief window of time.
Ever since Demo 1, there had naturally been plenty of fan-made Dream Speed product, and I’d even contributed myself, but with so little known about the game, it had all been focused on the same few points. The information flood-gates might have opened today, but most players wouldn’t even have hit their first play session limit.
I started to trot, already thinking through possibilities. I didn’t want to miss my next training session, but before then I could surely manage one simple design which would work for T-shirts, stickers, mugs, phone and tablet skins.
I set my phone to warn me of the time to log back in, then settled in front of my computer and began working. A blue world, a swathe of star-specked black, an uneven ring for the moon, all as background to the cockpit section of a Snug, with a coverall clad figure partly visible through the window. I could use the image as the basis of numerous variations, with or without text. I began doodling options to go with it.
Who drowned the Earth?
Bio of The Synergis.
Come to The Synergis. We have Core Units.
My Core Unit is a Lie.
My alarm went off as I was staring at this last one, and I grimaced, then rubbed the back of my neck. I’d been unable to resist spending time on detail work, and not only hadn’t uploaded anything, I didn’t have anything finished.
Torn, I hesitated, but then decided to stick with the plan of logging in to work on my rank. Then, well, I guess I could log right back out again. The five hour restriction made it not so bad, since I had to spend as much time out of the game as in it. It’s a pity I couldn’t take my computer with me, and do the work in-game.
Could I?
18
carrot
"Dio?" I stepped out of the Soup, looking around as lights slowly brightened in response to my presence. "I’d wonder if you were here, but I’ve realised that even if this wasn’t a game that could put you wherever it wanted, you’d probably get some sort of warning when I log back in."
[[Very true. You’re just in time for more lan training.]]
"Exactly. But I wanted to ask a question first. Is there any way to create digital art while in Dream Speed, and export it in useful high quality format back to my PC?"
[[Of course. The Synergis naturally has all manner of devices to keep our Bios entertained. There’s more than one option of that sort in the Tier 3 [Tools] rewards.]]
"Let me rephrase that. Is there any way, right now, that I could get my hands on something that would let me create digital art, and access the files on my PC?"
[[No.]]
"Bah." It had been too much to hope for.
[[Unless you attain Rank Two, of course. You could choose [External Access] from the ranking perks, and you have a storage device for stream-capture purposes. If you rank during this session, I might even arrange to add suitable equipment to the Tier 1 [Tools] rewards. Nothing as complex as the Tier 3 rewards, but probably adequate to whatever your purpose might be.]]
I frowned at the mote drifting around the ceiling. "Can all Cycogs just add rewards like you do?"
[[The role of an assigned Cybercognate is to produce a high-ranking Bio. In the context of this simulation, it’s negligible to offer such incentives. In The Synergis itself, incentive arrangements are more likely where the Bio is already high-ranking, and has been shown to respond to rewards in this manner.]]
"So you’re trying to work out whether to use the carrot or the stick on me?"
[[Bios respond to positive reinforcement far better than beatings,"]] Dio said.
"A conclusion born of much empirical observation?" I grimaced at the idea.