Syboleth ch. 26: A New World

AN: Before reading this, please go to CHAPTER ONE! I care less about reviews than I do people reading in order, and I won't mind if you review this chapter and nothing else (or really any chapter by itself) as long as you read the chapters before it! This is a very spoiler-heavy novel.

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Chapter Twenty-Six: A New World

Crocheting was nice to pass the time, especially with a real hook. But it was repetitive and led to too much thinking at times, so today Valerie was at a VR cafe. It wasn't the first time, but there weren't any in Cleveland so it had been a while. From what she knew, the tech was significantly advanced compared to the last time she tried; especially at this SF cafe.

The cafe had clearly had an upscale look at one point, but it was grimy now. Not as grimy as the abandoned office building that she lived in, but grimy. She had been quickly greeted by an assistant when she came in who had walked her through using the new-fangled equipment, and after scanning her ID to confirm that she was eligible for a first-time user's free trial she was strapped in.

The haptic feedback was overwhelming at first, but Valerie got used to the idiosyncratic feeling of being in a VR bodysuit on an omnidirectional treadmill. Then she navigated, walking physically through a digital realm, to the directory of games and experiences.

She knew what she wanted to try first. Life Is Strange.

It had been her favorite game as a kid, despite her heterosexuality. She had a great amount of nostalgia for the characters, and she had always wanted to try it in virtual reality. She searched it up, selected it, went through the confirmations of terms of service and such, and began.

At first she enjoyed herself, but the entire thing had an uncanny valley effect that eventually made her give up on her childhood favorite after only twenty minutes. Maybe something else.

But what? What was there that would be the best first experience?

She dismissed the thought of trying another one of her favorite childhood games adapted to VR. She had a feeling that no matter what she tried, the uncanny valley would be there. Something that was already meant to be VR, then.

And then, Valerie had quite the idea.

"E-N-D-E-R-S Game," Valerie spelled and said. Would anyone have developed a VR game like the Mind Game from one of her favorite childhood books?

She was toying with nostalgia again, but she had always had a theory about the Giant's Drink game that she just had to test out.

The Giant's Drink was a VR experience from a book called Ender's Game that Valerie had loved until she found out the author was a homophobic nutjob. There were two goblets that the giant presented you with, each filled with a drink. The giant would tell you that if you chose the right drink, you would be taken to Fairyland. But each drink would kill you.

In the book, the main character had eventually won this unwinnable game by attacking and killing the Giant. Then he went to Fairyland.

Valerie had always felt this was a copout, or at least had aged poorly. Of course you could use violence to solve it. Maybe it had come across differently when the book had first come out, but violence was the number one solution in video games of the past four decades, so it left a sour taste in her mouth when the instructors were so amazed by his insight.

What if you could beat the game and go to Fairyland without violence? Valerie thought she had the solution.

There it was—"Mind Game: The Giant's Drink" with the tag "ender's game" attached, highlighted among the other tags as her search term. She reached out and opened it with a touch. The glove she was wearing in reality applied appropriate pressure against her finger, so that it felt as if she was pressing a real button.

"The famous Giant's Drink game from the virtual reality Mind Game in the acclaimed book Ender's Game. This is a fan recreation! All rights belong to OSC. Please be warned: Fairyland is real!"

What did that mean? Valerie was stumped. Nobody was going to play this thing if all you could do was drink the drink and die. Everyone was going to kill the giant to get to Fairyland. Of course it would be real.

Unless... maybe the creator meant that it would be like Fairyland was for the main character of the book. Which would mean she wouldn't find the presentation that appeared in the book, but an evolving experience to represent herself.

Upon entering the experience she had her theory partly confirmed after the game prompted her to upload her personal history of prompting AI.

She wasn't sure she should do this. She had pretty much mostly used the infernal technology when she was manic, and she had told it a fuckton.

But on the other hand, it was starting to seem like this would be a hyperrealistic experience, which meant she could test out her theory. So she accepted.

Suddenly, she found herself in the environment from the book. This was the grassy area where the Giant—and yes, there it was.

"Hello," said the Giant, placing two ornate goblets in front of her. "These are goblets filled with wine. One is poisoned."

Before he could continue, Valerie interrupted him. "And if I drink the one that isn't poisoned I'll go to Fairyland, yeah, yeah, I know. But they're both poisoned, aren't they?"

The Giant looked puzzled. "How did you know that?" it asked.

"Because I'm going to Fairyland, motherfucker," she said.

Then Valerie took one of the goblets, drank it, and immediately stuck her finger down her throat.

Well, she couldn't actually stick her finger down her throat, because the helmet was in the way and that would have been very messy anyway. But her virtual finger reached down into her throat, and her virtual corporeal presence recognized what would happen, and the drink was vomited out onto the grass.

"That... that was the poisoned goblet," the Giant cautiously began to say.

"I'm not done," Valerie said, and gulped the other goblet down, throwing it up in the same fashion right afterwards.

The Giant stood there and looked at her.

"Well," Valerie said triumphantly, wiping her face. "I've drunk both goblets, and the rules say that if I drink the goblet that's safe I go to Fairyland. One of them was supposed to be safe, so I must have won now. Right?"

The Giant said nothing. The game was lagging.

"I get to go to Fairyland?" she said.

Nothing.

After what felt like ten minutes with Valerie in suspense but was more like thirty seconds, the game stopped lagging.

"Welcome to Fairyland," the Giant said, and Valerie was suddenly elsewhere.

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