"The reluctant divergence" working title

Fan fic based on dreams i've had.

The reluctant divergence

By Nathan Gill (aka Ratsruger)

All rights reserved

All appropriate tm’s respected as this is a fan fic based on dreams I had/have.

 

                For those of you who don’t know me, I am a World Of Warcraft player. I mostly solo, and have many top end ‘toons’ with at least 13 I’ve leveled to 90 and geared decently as a solo player. I have all the professions mastered, and there is little more I can do at this point other than randoms and farming. That being said, I still love the game like I just started playing it, even though I was there for the fourth anniversary. The dreams that I have been having started a while into mists of pandaria expansion and are placed in the nearby future. Not all that far out from what I can tell.  It was a fantasy piece of technology in my dream that allows all this to take place.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1

 

 

                Home finally from a boring day at work, sitting alone in the guard shack that I have tended for several years now, I return to my comfy chair and all things quiet and familiar. The hum of the cooling fan and water systems tells me from another room that my computer is up and running. I walk back in after changing to dirty but comfortable cloths to sit in my recliner. The rest of the world sees it as morning, and for me it is the afternoon. It is time to check emails, my favorite WebPages, and eventually log into my game. The mystical World Of Warcraft. It’s mid October in the real world, and so in the game is one of my favorite events….. The Headless Horseman, and all the trick or treating at the various inns and all the other events associated with it. With ten of eleven characters on my main server (arygos) all being horde and happily ready to go I log into my main. She (yes… she… I am one of the many out there that figure ‘if I am going to spend that much time staring at a character… I want it to either be badass… or attractive as hell.’ And I have developed a thing for the pandarens so much so that I race changed my troll to a pandaren. Now she soo kawaii as she wiggles around. If only I could find a woman like that.) is a mage though not my first toon, she is by far my favorite… though that is now only a close lead with my little panda girl monk.

                Today it was time to do a cooldown tailoring pattern, as well as make a handful of other items for my enchanting. I checked her mailbox, and found a request from one of my few guildies for an enchantment and a clothie piece for one of their toons. No problem. I tend to stockpile materials for just such a case. Within moments I had made up both what I needed as well as theirs. And soon enough theirs was in the mail back to them along with a short note asking how they were and if they were coming up to our mutual friends farm this weekend for the bbq and hanging out that our guild had planned. Our guild. Well, I founded it with the help of several of our real life friends that had played since even before I did, and I started at the very beginning of Burning Crusade. Sometimes it feels like I have played for ever, but I know I haven’t. Our guild was so small that virtually no one had heard of us in most cases, but because I was often on, along with a couple of our other guys on different schedules than me… we had managed to reach max guild level and even gotten a few achievements towards our totals. We had mats in the bank, and some gold saved up for when we finally could buy that next guild bank tab. Our little guild. Pretty much all of us had at least a couple of alternative or extra characters in it. I was the most rabid about it, with all but one toon in. and that one was only in her own guild because I needed the storage room. We were the Avatars of Hades. It was a name chosen to help strike fear and demand respect from pvp’ers, even though the majority of us in guild never even pvp or at least so rarely you could safely claim it. Well, that and Rig and I just thought it sounded cool, like something out of our original D&D games or something. Our ranks within the guild were based loosely off mythical religious ranks Such as ‘The Right hand of god’, the left hand of god, high priest, clergy, initiate and so on. As Guild Master, I was the right hand… and my long time buddy was the left.

 

                It was time to queue for the event, and kill the headless horseman. I enjoy that it was a reoccurring event each year. This year we could get some goodies each day from the bags, but on this toon I had most of it already.  I didn’t care; I was doing it anyways for s***s and giggles. As the tank started the event by talking to the jack o lantern, we all got ready to nuke the s**t out of his a*s. And as predictable as it is… the healer happened to disconnect and that made us focus and really do our jobs right to minimize the need for heals. About a minute and a half later, we were looting his body and dropping group. Nothing useful for me on my mage. Soon enough I was using the looking for raid tool and queuing up for a handful of endgame ones. Hours later, I would realize what time it was… log off, take my meds and go to sleep. That was my usual day once I got home. If I was lucky… one of my friends (whether virtual or real) would log on, or at least chat with me through one of our voice chat programs most of us run. Today was a lucky day. Two folks came on.

 

                “… and you are still coming up right?” Rig asked.

                “That is the plan man. You got something other than pork this time I’m hoping…” I jeered him.

                “Ya… can’t have him left out again…” Ironhead prodded.

                “I wasn’t left out… I had burgers remember…”I came back with.

                “Yes, but someone had to go get them…” and we all had a good laugh remembering how awkward it was meeting some of our people for the first time at our first get together, and them forgetting that I don’t eat pork. It would have been fine, I had offered to just have veggies and stuff but they were rather insistent. Unfortunately by the time we left for the store to get steaks or something… the little country store had closed already… but good old McD’s was open… so I had burgers.

                Upon returning, we were lighting off fireworks, and discussing what each of us did for work in the real life. We had ironworkers, I.T., truck driver, nanny/mother, mechanic, stay at home dad, and many more. It was fun to see the faces behind the characters I had come to see as friends and virtual family. Of course everyone poked fun at the fact that I was the only one that got to play from work. Even the I.T. guy was jealous about that. I tried my best to set their minds at rest about how it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

                The conversation went on about how much he like the new virtual gear, and was surprised that the game had already adapted to it. I was happy that they didn’t just dive right into it and left those of us who couldn’t afford it out in the rain. There was a lot of discussion about it as the technology was released to the public. Apparently it had been in testing with the military for quite a while. The rumors were that they had developed it for piloting some of the bot’s and other unmanned equipment. SMART systems was the first on the public access… along with their software to change the interface to one that the bulky helmet would use. The first generations were huge by comparison. Only seven months into the technology, and we were already on third gen. it was still a helmet, but it was much lighter and didn’t require shaving your head or anything like that. You litterly just got your program running, switched control over the head gear, and poof. You were IN the game. I don’t mean… look on the projection in the helmet… I mean you were in there. It over rode your nerves and everything. You just laid there or sat in your chair and were gone into the game. WoW was one of the last to come on board with the gear, but had invested a looooooot of money into it. Most games by now were using old mouse and keyboard or SMART gear… one or the other… Bliz saw the potential to keep both groups happy and kept both viable. I was saving up to get it, but knew with my old computers, I would need big upgrades in terms of my graphics cards and such. But I decided that I would upgrade both the laptop that I usually used to goof around at work with, and the home pc. Rig had offered to help me out with it, and with his experience, I was happy to take him up on it. I had already ordered the card for the laptop and was expecting it in the next few days, and the rest would have to wait. But not long.

 

                A few repetitive days had passed and I called up Rig to let him know that I had got the card for the lap top, and he surprised me by being at my door on his cell phone. I opened the door, and he handed me a gift wrapped present. I stood there looking dumb to him I’m sure.

                “Just open the damn thing man!”

                “But… it’s not..”

                “Open it.” He motioned for us to head into my apartment.

                And I did. It was a box, easily two foot across in each way. Within it were several smaller boxes, unwrapped. I could see that one was the SMART3 helm, and that the others were software, graphics card for the pc that we had been talking about, and peripherals. Needless to say, I stood there gawking trying to figure it all out.

                “Hey man, just consider it an early christmas present…” he said with a smile on his face.

                I shook my head trying to take it all in. “Bud, you know how much I appreciate this, but are you sure? I mean… damn!” He just nodded, and picked up a tool satchel that was at his feet, which I had not even noticed before. Within minutes we had started to do all the upgrades that both computers needed to run the SMART3 gear and had everything going shortly after that.

 

                “Hey, you are the one that got me this; in return I want you to try it out first.” I offered my comfy chair. He nodded and sat down. He followed the instructions for start up and was soon enough gone in the game. A few minutes later he moved, removing the headgear and was smiling.

                “You are sooo gonna love playing with this… makes it so much more realistic.”

                “I will try it tomorrow, for now, even though I’m really excited, I need to get to sleep soon because my supervisor has me coming in early to do some paperwork.” I couldn’t help smiling “Thank you man, really! It means a lot. How about tomorrow we both play, and you can show me some of the other tricks to playing with the gear?” I asked.

                He just nodded, shook my hand, retrieved his tools and made his way out. “Tomorrow then… meet in orgrimar, say about 1000 server time. Where are you hearthed?”

                “Valley of wisdom… the tauren area.”

                “K”

 

                Sleep is one of those things… when you need it; you can’t seem to get it. And when you get it, you didn’t seem to need it. This night of mine was no different. I was eager to try out the new gear, but knew that I should wait. Temptation to get out of bed in my dark little cave of an apartment was heavy on my chest. Knowing that it was only a bit after noon, and that the servers would be busy made me even more tempted to play. I rolled about and about in my bed trying to get comfortable and pass quietly into the sleeping world. Eventually, the sandman won. But it was a short battle with no concise victory.

                My day at work went as expected. It was the drive home that got me. I almost forgot to stop for fuel and such, I was so excited. I got home and did all the prep work for a long day of gaming, and not the least of which being trying out the new gear. Drinks, yep. Snacks. Yep. Music for the background. Yep. A fan on for air movement, yep. I was good to go.

 

                ‘To begin with Sony S.M.A.R.T.3 once software is installed and upgraded; simply start your Full Net Dive capable program. Then start your Cranial Inductor Headpiece. There will be a minute or two the first time that the software and hardware are communicating and establishing baseline settings. This could take up to ten minutes, but averages approximately two to three depending on your system capabilities.’ So I started WoW, and turned on the headpiece. I watched the led read out on the helm and was amazed that it was ready in less than a minute. I knew my motherboard and a lot of the internals were pretty good, but that new graphics card… wow. Just a year ago it would have taken several of a top end graphics cards all mounted to do what this one does by itself. According to the vendor rep that I spoke too, it will out work all the other parts of either comp put together. Bad A*s! From my regular screen I could already see how much more detail it let me see. Very impressive. Then I put on the gloves that were wired to the headpiece and slid it on. At first there was nothing. Completely black. Then there was the character select screen. It was a marvel to behold. I was in a fully rendered old broken down keep looking at a mirror, seeing my character at the top of the list. In my case it was my mage. Let me tell you, it was weird. I could feel the fur. Not just the fur on my arms, but all of it… even the virtual breeze that was drifting through the start screen area. I looked down, and could see that they had mapped my character completely over me. I reached back and felt my staff right where it should be. There was something else. As a man I have breasts, even larger because I am a rather fluffy man. But that is when I realized that since that toon was female, the balance was different. I did what I’m sure just about every male did logging into a female toon to begin with… yep… they were fun to play with. Anatomy was not exactly accurate, but fun none the less. I decided that my first toon to play should be a guy since it wouldn’t be quiet so weird with interactions. I noticed a menu floating just to my right, in front of me. I selected my Tauren Paladin and clicked yes. Poof. My point of view was easily a full foot and a half higher, and I could feel the weight of my full plate armor, and my giant two handed mace in my hand. Sure enough… my flank itched, and I scratched it. I moved a bit, and found that this was much better.

                ‘Select character?’

                I clicked yes.

                Everything went black for a moment, and then everything loaded at once. There I was… a Tauren standing in the inn, in orgrimar. I took a few slow steps through the door and could feel the sun on my face, the heat penetrating my armor, and all the sights and sounds that I had no way to expect. Hell, I could even taste the dryness in the air.

                “Something to really take in huh?!” a familiar voice came inside my head from nowhere.

                I looked around and wasn’t sure what happened.

                “Over here… almost there.” It came again

                I saw Rig’s main toon riding up to me on his favorite kodo mount, waving at me.

                I tried to respond to him verbally and couldn’t figure out how. So I just bowed.

                “Kinda speechless moment the first time huh?”

                I tried to answer and ended up just nodding. I held up one finger to ask for a moment as I was still trying to figure out everything, not the least of which would be talking.

                “It’s just like reality… don’t overthink it. I see you are walking and looking around… use the same type of thoughts as you normally would for communications and such. It might take a few minutes to get used to, but it’s f*****g awesome. Don’t forget to save your settings when you are ready, or you might have to redo them later. It’s a bug they are still working on in this gen.”

                It was then that it occurred to me he was talking to me via the voice chat that we had going. I hadn’t realized that it too would interface with all the others. Bad a*s!

                After a few tries, I found the menu to access for our /say command.

                [How do I access voice chat from in here?]

                “Uh… you think it. It’s kinda built to correspond effectively. Just talk. It’s that simple”

                So I tried.

                “I see you keying in and not hearing anything... so you are getting there. Check to see if you are muted…”

                Another menu popped up in front of me. Yep. There was a check in the box for mute. I ticked it back off and soon enough…

                “OK…. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?”

                “I Think china can hear you… turn down your outbound… like… waaaaay down.”

                “Better?”

                “Oh god yes!” he laughed.

                “Ok, so… we got that covered, now what?”

                It was about an hour of going over various commands, and learning how to use the combat system. It was very intuitive, and while there were glowy shiny menus for everything, it seemed that the more you got used to it, the more both predictive it became, and the less you needed to concentrate on using the abilities… it was kinda like the first time playing all over again, but with my experience… it was also like the first time using my gaming keyboard with the separate keys for the games. It takes a few minutes to feel right, and then everything becomes second nature. Soon enough I was working my rotation on the dummies, mounting and dismounting. They had gone so far as programming that when I popped a few of my cooldowns there was a rush of energy feeling… a chill that ran up my back and I felt faster and stronger. I could soon enough feel the amount of holy power I had as well as my mana. It was amazing. Soon I was jumping and running while beating on the dummies and felt freer than I had ever before.

 

                “Ok, now let’s go get beat on… that is a whole new feeling as well!” he said. We mounted up and headed out of the relative safety of the capitol city and made our way to some of the newer content. He was on a warrior, so I knew we would be ok, but in the back of my mind… was a question that I knew was inevitable to be answered. So I asked it before he charged in, being in tank spec. “Hey… what about when we die?”

                “Well, mine dims out and I fade back in at the rez point. It’s actually kinda eerie and creepy but then there is the sensation of rezing… it’s kinda a hope feeling… not sure how else to put it.” He said just as he hit the first mob. I could feel the crash of my mace on our target, and then I saw it turn and target me. And then my first hit. It didn’t so much hurt, but I felt it none the less. I could feel my health points drop. It wasn’t fun, but it was tolerable. I hit my self heal and suddenly felt better. It was going to be like this from now on I guessed. We went on to kill several dozen other mobs, and learning to do what we do best.

 

                “Ok man, looks like you got this down now. I have to get off to get dinner started for the kids and wife… don’t stay on too long, ok? You still have another night of work.” He said as he waved and faded out logging off.

                I nodded. I would try some tougher mobs that hit harder and that I used to flat farm. Sure enough, I could hold my own and even found and soloed an elite snake that popped up. It was amazing. But he was right… I needed to jump off and get some sleep before my shift. I opened the appropriate menu, and my jaw dropped as my heart skipped a beat. [Exit Game] option was missing. Everything else was there, but that one was missing. I thought it might be because I was on a flying mount and was up in the air, which before was a smart thing to do… not much gonna attack you up here. So I found my way to an inn and still nothing. This time I noticed that even the [Log Off] command was missing. So now I couldn’t even swap toons. I decided to hearth back to orgrimar and get into trade chat channel and ask if anyone else was having problems. Sure enough there were a couple of folks that were. We met at the inn in valley of honor and tried to trouble shoot this. We came up with only one option… we tried to contact a GM. We each started a gm ticket and sat there goofing around.

                I’m sure you are thinking the same thing I was at the time….

                ‘Why not just take off the helm?’ or ‘Just unplug it’

                Ahhh my friends… not that easy. Once you are in, the neural interface blocks off all signals to your muscles. You are a freaken vegetable. And it gets worse… I live alone. No girlfriend or family with me. Oh... and did I mention that I am diabetic? Ya. It gets that bad.

               

                After close to an hour of waiting, we got a response. Um… normally… one person gets a response. This time… our invisible GM’S decided to make an appearance.

 

[Booming thunder, blood falls from the sky and in a flash of light….] A Goblin poofs into existence in front of us. Well... by race, a gobby. A freaking huge gobby. Like 50’ tall. With a thundering laugh he suddenly shrunk down and smiled and waved to each of us.

                “Well boyioos… I hear you have a problem?” was his question… which was suddenly deluged with responses from several of us at once. “ok ok, one at a time…Navihater… you first…” he motioned to the blood elf hunter that had recently joined our little conclave of stuck players.

                “Yo, it be like dis see… I ain’t got no log off option here. I’m stuck.”

                “Is this the same issue with all of you?”

                We all nodded. The Orc warlock stepped forward and added “We have tried everything we could to disconnect or exit game… nothing. And all of us here live alone and don’t have anyone that is gonna dc us manually. It’s kinda scary here right now.”

                The Troll rogue pointed to me and added “And he is diabetic… you need to call the cops for him or you may lose an account. Me, I do have a wife that should be home very soon, and if you can flash the screen I should be able to text her to pull the helm off. Or if you can call her.”

                The GM nodded and stroked his little chin. “Hang out here… I will be right back… I need to get a hold of a few people here at the office and see what is going on.”

                Minutes went by painfully slow.

                Finally the little GM moved again and said “Ok, whisper me your emergency contact info. And while we are going to agree to flash your monitor, DO NOT tell her to remove the helm. It seems someone is or was hacking the servers from china and while we didn’t see any problems with their access, we don’t know what else they did.” Then he went still again.

                (Ok, I need your full address and we will get emergency people on the way to your abode. How long since you ate last and are you type one or two?) The gm whispered me.

                I gave him the address and responded (I am type two, and had a snack before I logged in, but I probably need to test soon. Luckily my BSL tends to run high, but I don’t have anyone in town anymore that is close… and I haven’t been able to remember any phone numbers to my friends. I can give ya one name to contact if you want… and he can access my apartment to find other info on my phone. But I am already late for work, how long will this take?)

                After a moment he came back with (ok, give me the name, we will try our best to reach him. The fire department says they are about ten minutes away. I am gonna stay here with you just in case, ok?)

                “Ok guys, due to possible health issues here, I am going to focus my efforts with the Pali here, but another gm is on her way to help you guys out. The phone numbers you gave us are being contacted by our people as we speak and ….” He stopped mid speech. “Hold on a minute… my boss is telling me something”

                Suddenly the troll rogue fell to the ground and his body just lay there like he had died in a pvp match. We all were quiet confused by this. Being on a Pali, I cast my resurrect spell on him hoping that it was just some glitch. Then the body phased out.

                “What the f**k?” the Orc asked.

                “I don’t know… I tried to rez him… he didn’t take it. Like someone in a raid who dc’d”

 

                We sat around in silence.

                “The other GM is here, we are going with her. I added ya on friends list all. Take care Tankazealot. Hope things are ok with ya.” The other Orc added, petting her hunter pet turtle as they turn and mounted to ride off behind some GM that was invisible to me. Instead, the gobby started moving again looked around.

                “OK, so they went with Mitxiplexi… and I have bad news and good news. Which would you prefer?”

                “Give me the bad first I suppose.”

                “Well, the bad is that for now you have to stay in game. It’s for your health. Something about they don’t know what a forced disconnect would do to you at this time. Our people are on the phone with the fire department who are in the room with you.” He paused, I guessed to talk with someone back at the office or directly to the medics.

                I was admittedly getting a little nervous. To say the least.

                “Ok, good news is they found your meds, and tested your BSL. It’s a little low, but not bad. They are administering an IV for safety and ….. Oh good. Looks like you are logged in via your laptop. That is good. They can take you to the hospital and keep good care of you without having to unplug you from it. Is there anything else they need to know?”

                “Ya… have them grab my phone, should be right next to me. My mom’s number is in it under I.C.E.  Just have them swipe to open it. She has all my emergency information.”

                “Ok… they are calling her as we speak, and the apartment manager has told them that she will lock up the apartment behind them. Any pets?”

                “Nope, it’s a no pet no kids building.”

                “OK. I am going to stay here with you as they transport you. One of them just asked about some missed calls from a guard company? Know anything about that?”

                “Ya… that is work. I am hours late by now. Can they call the number back and explain some of the situation? Or have my mom do it, that would probably be better. She is my fall back on legal matters.”

                “Ok, passing that on now. Just stay calm, and we will get through this.” He sounded so confident and calm. “So, got any hobbies outside of the game?”

                “Uh.. Ya. Lots actually.” And this started what turned into a very calming conversation that lasted several hours. It was only broken up occasionally as he was updating me on my situation. When I was placed in a bed in the ICU, when they were plugging the laptop back in so it would stay charged, and even when my mom had arrived at my bedside. He was a reassuring voice.

                It was only when I started to really let it sink in that things seemed a little scarier. I had found out his real name, and this GM toon name, and that he actually played on our sever as a simple player fairly often and as it happened he and I had run some random dungeons together a few time, on various toons.

                “Hey… I got a question for ya. I have been awake now for a very long time… approaching 24 hours now… can I sleep? What will happen?”

                “Honestly, we don’t know.” He hung his head.

                “Technically, WoW should go to a sleep mode with you, and the helm should keep running, but no one ever has yet.” He answered very monotone. “As long as you don’t get disconnected from our server, you should be fine. And before you worry about it, we actually have a local tech in the room with you as we speak. He is setting up a dedicated system to keep you connected even if the power goes out and anything else. It is satellite equipped and will keep a strong signal regardless. In fact… he just said that it tests better than the connection that you had, so we could turn up the graphics packets and such for you if you would like.”

                “Sure. Tell the doctor to put some coffee in that drip, I guess I’m here for a while.”

                He chuckled and nodded. “I will pass that along” he went silent and still again for a moment. “Doctor said he has you on a mix of meds that will help you stay conscious and maintain your blood pressure and sugars. If you have ANY problems or questions… send me a message. I will keep my account on so we can keep an active eye on you. For now, I am going to go ghost and keep you on follow while I go to a meeting about this, ok?”

                I nodded and waved as he blinked out of visual fields.

               

 

Chapter 2

 

                It was about twelve hours later that I got a whisper from another GM.

                (Pardon my intrusion, but we are going to pull all of you who have reported being stuck in the game to a separate server. You should experience it simply as a form of phasing much like being in a raid with a friend on another server. Once there, please proceed to moonglade and we will have a private meeting with customers and pass on some vital information. Thank you for your time)

                Just a few moments later, I was already in flight to the home of the druids.

                We got there, and I was surprised how many there were, I lost count but there seemed to be hundreds of people here, if not thousands. There was such a variety that even surprised me more. From lowbie toons to end game raiders. Both horde and alliance. Some came in showing ready for pvp, others clearly in transmogs for hanging around their cap cities and rp’ing. There even seemed to be several from one guild all huddled together. So much for top raiders not getting affected.

 

                A enormous boomkin came up out of the water, and changed into a troll, while shrinking down to normal size and floating in the air. Several people mounted flyers and tried to match him. All were immediately smack back down to the ground and dismounted. All pvp marks were gone.

                “Good evening my friends, my name is Trazor. I am one of the lead developers and testers in our game here. I am here to bring you up to date with what we can. I don’t like to bullshit around with small talk, so here we go. Please pay attention. All of you are clearly here because all of you have a glitch in your ability to log out. Many of you have medics and trained professionals looking into what is going on. We have all of our best code crackers and programmers trying to figure out things from our side as well. What we know is this. For now, yes. You are stuck. We are going to do our best to make things as comfortable as possible for you. This includes we have brought in specialists for various tasks including hopefully some fun stuff just for you. I can’t divulge what all we are planning yet, mostly because the damn lawyers said we couldn’t. Now. We know a few things else so far. We can’t just sever your feed. This was done by accident, and cost a player their life. We are so severely sorry to report that. We were told also that one man had his SMART3 system removed from his head, and immediately died. So simply removing the gear is not only advised against, but most likely fatal. For now, please just enjoy yourselves as best as you can. We will bring you back here anytime we have updates for you. Your friends are welcome to continue playing and no other parts of the system seems to be effected. We are however not allowing SMART gear to be used at this time, so they will be back to regular interface. There are GM’s and customer service personnel on call just for you, and they will be added to your friends list along with a special icon. We are planning on bringing on more specialists for those who need it. These will include trauma specialist psychologists and other professionals. Please feel free to reach out to them. Thank you for your time.”

                I looked on my friends list, and sure enough there were several new names with new icons. The first was the giant gobby from orgrimar, and then next was someone by the name of ‘DrBannor’ with an icon similar to the old doctor’s logo but with a brain behind it. The third was phone shaped icon with the name I.C.E. I couldn’t resist. I hit the one that looked like a phone. It actually rang a couple of time and then there was a familiar voice, clearly rough from crying.

                “Honey?! Is that really you?” my mom’s voice came across.

                “Ya… how is this working?” I asked more curious and exhausted than anything.

                “I am holding your hand, and am sitting right next to you. The tech side… not sure.”

                “How are you holding up?” I asked.

                “Ha, I was just about to ask you the same thing. They got a hold of me… and I was just about to surprise ya with that I put in for my retirement…”

                “Well, you deserve it. You have for a long time. As for me… just tired. Haven’t slept yet, but still not as bad as… you remember back in high school and I was taking that abnormal psychology class?”

                “Ya… you were up for at least five days as I recall. You were loopy as hell by the end.”

                “Actually, it was about an hour past seven full days. Then my body just couldn’t take it anymore. I slept for almost two full days after that, remember?”

                “Yep… had to wake you up or you probably would have slept longer. We were getting worried then. Nothing compared to now though.”

                (Hey… you there man?) Came a whisper in the game from rig.

                (Ya… talking with my mom somehow I’ll be right back with ya. Just give me a minute)

                “Well mom, they are doing their best. I will just be glad to get up and move around. To get out of the game for a while. I am not all that worried, but I am kinda scarred to go to sleep right now. But rig just came on and he will keep me company for a while, so it should be ok. You should get some sleep….hehe… get some for me!”

                “ ok, we will be here anytime you want to talk, just hit their button thingie they told us about.” She was then quiet.

               
“Ok… love ya, talk with ya later.” And I hit the disconnect button to end the conversation.

                (Ok man, I am done… want to chat on the regular channel?) I whispered rig.

                (Ya, already there.) “So… what is it like?” his voice came across.

                “Well, the experience of using the SMART gear is awesome. The fact that I can’t exit, I’m in a damn hospital room, and no idea of what is next here, let alone that I’m not sure I want to sleep? Ya.. That part sucks. However, the gm told me that I should be able to sleep, and that as far as they know, it should be safe. I’m not really feeling like chancing it quiet yet.”

                “Ya, I can see that. Can’t even call ya a p***y for that one.” He chuckled.

                “So, wanna run something with me? I’m gonna be on regardless, so might as well make the best of it.”

                And we did. We ended up running all the most recent raids, and he even got a few pieces of gear from it. We found out by listening to the raid group that word had gotten around that there were less than a thousand of us stuck, and that very few of them had run into any of us yet. We decided to keep it under our hat for now, just in case anything came of it later. It was funny sort of at the time though… we were being accused of everything from hacking, to being too stupid to use the gear or set it up right. There was one guy who voiced his opinion that it was a conspiracy from Bliz to get PR so they could boost their sale and accounts. Another argued the logical side of it, basically that ‘who in their right mind would do that to customers?’. One even went so far as to say that it was aliens trying to take over by making us zombies stuck in our bodies. Of course that one was good for a chuckle.

                Several hours later, Rig and I were in a random for Headless Horseman so he could get it done for the day. While in there, I got a whisper from the gobby.

                (Hey, just wanted to check on you and see how you are doing.)

                (Tired as hell, but otherwise ok. anything new?) I asked,.

                (not yet. Doctor says you need to rest though. And all the techs agree that sleep is safe. Infact we have several of you already in sleep mode. Interesting fact… it doesn’t even list them as AFK. We didn’t expect that.)

                (Ok, let him know I am going to say goodbye to my buddy that is on, and I will try.)

                (Can do. He is in the room with ya just in case, but we don’t expect any problems.)

                (thanks)

                (It’s the least we can do. Now get some rest.)

                “Ok man, gm just said that the doctor is rather insistent that I try to rest. So I am gonna drop group and try, ok?” I asked in group, not realizing that we still had one of the others in group from headless.

                “Hey… are you one of those jammers?” the shadow priest asked.

                “Huh?”

                “The folks that got all jammed up and are stuck in here…” he added.

                “Guess so. Later guys.”

                Just as I was dropping group he added “I am so gonna add you to friends list so I can keep in touch with ya. Best of luck man”

                I hearthed back to orgrimar, and sat there in the inn. Not sure how to go about this I jokingly emoted /sleep. Everything faded to black. I don’t know if I dreamt, but if I did… it was so mild that I don’t recall it. It was as if the next 10 hours just blinked by. I opened my eyes… and I was lying down in the inn again. Jumping up and rested, I was ready for another day of crafting, adventuring, rp, and whatever else I could come up with.

 

 

Chapter 3

 

 

                A couple of weeks have gone by, and I was still a “Jammer” as the other players had come to call us. Many of us had added one another to our friends list for our own various reasons. Personally, I found it fun to finally have more than just our guildies and a handful of other on the list. I was pushing over 300 people now, and it was not uncommon to get a whisper out of the blue. It was almost more weird to me to have all these social interactions than the fact that I was stuck in my favorite game. It was far from uncommon that I even ran the same content several times a day with different groups and people. I would take people on lowbie toons and run them through dungeons and low level raid just to be helpful and kill time. It was during one such run that I got a surprise from ironhead.

                “hey…”

                “Oh.. wassup man? Didn’t hear you come on.” I responded.

                “Ya, sorry about not getting with ya. I only just heard about this whole thing.”

                “Nah.. no worries.”

                “Did you know you were on the news?”

                “No s**t?!”

                “Straight up. They didn’t show you, but talked about you. They interviewed your doctor several times, and it seems you are the only person in town that is going through all this.”

                “Figures.” I chuckled.

                We ended up small talking for a while, and he even told me that several other games had ceased using the gear until they could confirm that the same thing wasn’t going to happen to their customers. I guess I couldn’t really blame them, but since several had fully converted to the gear, I had to wonder what it was doing to their bottom line. Must have hurt.

 

                My days fizzled and blended one into another, and while I had yet to get bored of my beloved game, it was teetering on the verge. I was a player who loved bouncing from one character to another when the whim struck, or when I needed something crafted or enchanted and such. Now I was stuck on just the one toon. It was frustrating, but luckily a few others and I had banded together to help with this very type of issue. There was a belf lock that was doing our chants, another was a bs, and the shammy was our alch. Me… I just farmed mats. I thought about changing professions a few times, but decided to stick with how I made the character in the beginning. He was a farmer. Plain and simple. Tough, lots of armor, self heals, and as a tauren, he could pick herbs fast. It was worth keeping him they way he was. If a mob aggro’ed while picking or mining, he could handle it. And now that this was my only toon, I was kinda glad I had went with the tauren. Today my plan was to run some flex or maybe some LFR’s for s***s and giggles. I had gotten to the point where I would run them just to be enteretained by the chat and stupid actions people had taken. This included everything from dps pulling the boss, starting a pull with no heals, and so many other simple mistakes that could be avoided. The first one of the day was a perfect example. We wiped on the the trash leading up to the boss, and soon enough… a hunters pet charged into the boss and promptly died, pulling the boss, and causing our first wipe. There was a vote to kick him that ended in him rage quiting anyways. Unfortunately, he was not alone and we found ourselves without any tanks, and half the healers left. Yep… the usual. Then came the trash talking on one another, and people beating their virtual chests and showing off their gear and achieves, trying to one up one another. All I chose to do was sit back on my mount and laugh. I often wondered about the people behind the characters. How often was it just some pre-pubecent kid trying to act tough because they got picked on at school. Or maybe it was a thirty something woman who was playing on a male toon to try to show how tough she could be. Who knows. We all know that many of the cliché terms and jokes were based on subtle truths, but only the player would know how often it still applied. And add to that the new jokes about Jammers, and things were just silly. It was amusing to me. But I was seemingly in the minority, at least amoung the jammers.

                At one meeting we had, the vast majority seemed to be taking it all very hard. Some seemed specifically to be subcontiously picking fights in these cases. I wondered if it was out of rage, seeking pity, or something like that. a few of us agree that it was still better than having to go to work. I missed the feeling of wakeing up. And rolling around in bed. I did infact miss several things from my life. Talking to friends and family on the phone and via the voice chat programs was fine, but I missed seeing facial patterns, body language, and even the little things like being annoyed when the john didn’t flush right.

                On the up side, I found a couple of ladies that were fellow jammers, and was surprised to find that all of them were married, and didn’t even like to rp without their mates. So much for even virtual luck. They were sweet enough thought to like to hang out. It was nice making new friends, even if the bond was mearly our extreme circumstances.

                It was one of these times where I was feeling a bit lonely, I was in ThunderBluff and decided to hop on a flying mount and just putt around. I found myself on the ridgeline to the north east of TB, sitting in the grass, feeling the wind through my fur. I peeled off most of the armor and just lay back in the green patch, knowing that there was no npc that would bother me, and being on a PVE server, no way I would be ganked. I lay there, eyes closed, feeling the wind, the sun and the ground around me. It was during this that it occurred to me that I could no longer recall if I had felt this serine in the real world. I told myself that if I ever woke up in the real world… I would try to find a place like this. It would be my one gesture to myself that I made it through this alright.  I lost track of time, not knowing how long I had laid there in the green grass.

 

                (Excuse me, TankaZealot is it?) a whisper came across. I looked at the tag, and it showed it was a GM.

                (Yeppers, how can I help you?) I responded.

                (We are gathering a group of you at MoonGlade for some discussions. You have been choosen for your input, if you please.)

                (Certainly… not like I have anything else to do anyways. I’ll be right there.) I smiled and was redressing in my latest transmog set.

               

                Poof. I was there. Guess they had teleported me. There were about a dozen of us, from both sides and several servers. Infact, I didn’t see any server names duplicated.

                “Ok ladies and gents… we want to bat around some ideas with you. We will be bringing in another specialist to take some input as well. Just a moment please.” Said the talking wisp of ether that was in the middle of our circle. Soon there was a second wisp, this one an eerie fel green.

                “As many of you have probably heard, we are wanting to make your time in here as comfortable as possible. As part of that we have decided to give you folks some special extras that normal players wont have access to. Or at least not for a very long time. Some of these ideas we’ve been batting around for a while, and some are new based on circumstances. Before you is a virtual copy of a non-disclosure,

which I suggest you actually read and sign if you wish to participate in this discussion. We will give you a few minutes to look it over and ask any questions you may wish.”

                Sure enough… floating before us was a tablet style reader, with a signature panel at the bottom. I noticed a few had taken theirs to the building near us and sat down to read it. One had already just signed it without even looking it over, and another had handed it back with out signing it. He simply vanished. I wandered off to a comfy looking tree, and sat down under it to read. About ten minutes later, I was the last one to hand mine in, signed and all.

                “Alright folks, any questions before we begin?” we were all silent “Good. In an attempt to make this a more tranquil time, we want to offer some information to the whole of you who are stuck, and here is what we have…” he then went on for a while about coding, hacking, customizations that had been discussed, and many more. As we hit each point we all took a turn to voice our opinions on it, and moved on. The silent fell wisp just floated there. After a little while, though honestly I’m not sure how long, I wandered over and poked at it. “Tanka, are you still with us?” came the original wisp voice.

                “Ya, sorry. I was just getting distracted by this one. Is he/she going to say anything?”

                “Nope. Or at least not unless they choose to. They are here to record, and send superfolious info mto me as I need it. Things like statistics and biorhythmic information. Any other questions at this time?”

                I shrugged and walked back over to my spot I had chosen and we finished up our braindstorm session.

 

                It was about an hour later that I had returned to my spot near TB and had just gotten comfortable when I got a message from another GM.

                (Pardon the intrusuion Ladies and Gents [that includes the dirty horde] we are calling a meeting at MoonGlade tomorrow at 5pm your server time. During that time, please make sure that you are ready as you will be ported there regaurdless, as we have important information. Thanks for your time and see you there.)

                I wondered just how much of it was going to be related to our discussions and how much of it might be new. Hell, maybe they had some new info that would help us get out of here.

                For now though, I was content with just relaxing in the sun, something that in real life I didn’t much like.

               

                My day was filled with herbing, farming lfr and rep, and just keeping myself busy. Or at least it was until a few minutes before 5. Then I waved to my guildie I was helping and awaited my teleport. Sure enough, we all popped into the area at once. I ran for my tree, and got settled in.  a couple of the fellow horde guys I had chatted with joined me and we even sat out some banquettes. It had a festive feel to it, like we were just going to the park for a picnick. It was short lived.

                “Good Afternoon, or evening, where ever you so might be from. Thank you for joining us, and lets get right to it shall we?” the Bliz person had taken the form of Rag’ from MoltenCore, and even the deep grumbly voice. A few made fun of it, and were mimicking him, but it seemed to be in good fun. ”Ok, first off. We have made some headway on the events leading up to your unfortunate situations. And here is what we can share, according the federal agencies involved. 1. There were multiple hacking situations that have happened, not just the single one we knew about. It would seem they had inside help, but it is currently unclear how or who. We have people looking into that as we speak. 2. Our servers have now been opperationg without mainenence for far to long, and we need to keep you in this one for about another 20 minutes while we do rolling restarts on all the others. Please bear with us as this happens. It is so that there are no uncontrolled shutdowns that might prove fatal for any of you. 3. We have brought in the very best code anylizers and programmers that are available. Other companies have volunteered their best staff, and we have also brought in personelle from several federal agencies. These include the FBI, NSA, CIA, and two branches of the armed service. We even have two volunteers from NASA helping us. I tell you this so hopefully you understand the depth and breadth of how far we are going to try to bring this about to a healthy close. 4. So far… no headway has been found. We might need volunteers at some point to try out some of the proposed means of exit, once found. These will be fully voluntary, and we would like you to consider contacting your medical contact in wow if you feel that you wish to do so. 5. We have been discussing new ways to increase your comfort and enjoyment while on. These are in the works, and will be discussed once settled on. Any questions?” and yes, there were, lots of them infact, and many where answered with ‘I don’t know… let us look into that’.

 

                It was a few days later that I got summoned once again for our little think tank.

 

                “Well, we would like to separate the group here in a few moments. But first. The psychologists we have brought in have suggested to help maybe we could go ahead on a few ideas. First off, all of you are going to get to choose some small place in the world of azaroth or outlands to build a small house on that will be your own. Only you will have access to it, and only you can invite another player into it. Inside will be equipment for your professions specific to your character. For instance, if you are a blacksmith, you will have a anvil and forge. Miners get a forge/smelter. Etc. everyone of you will have access to your bank from your house, and will have a place to mend your pets. Down the road, there will be customizations, but for now, just the houses. These will be separate from those of the guild barracks, and other inns and such. Those still leveling will gain the rested bonus at twice the normal rate while inside. Now, there is going to be another surprise for all of you. We are offering you a certain something special once we break you up into groups here. Hunters and locks, if you would be so kind as to go with Mixi here… (he motioned to the goblin to his right that I had not noticed before) Shammies, and druids, please go with Dargath here (who was an orc, dressed much like Thrall used to, and who had stepped up to where Mixi was just a moment ago.) everyone else will come with me. Thank you.”

 

                As it turned out, only myself and two others were part of the last group. A warrior and a monk, both human. We wandered behind the GM who shrunk down to our size and was leading us into one of the buildings. Once inside, he motioned for us to have seats, which we did.

                “Ok, all of you, have an option as of right now. You may choose to stay with your current items and gear, or we can allow you one set of GM level gear. At least for right now, we are not limiting you on how to use that gear. If you simply want it because it looks different and would be used as a trans mog to ‘mess’ with other players, that’s fine. We will take any griefing complaints serisously though, and the gear can be taken away. on the other side of this, they are powerfull enough that you will far surpass even those that are long time raiders and hardcore professional leveled players. Now, we will scale these down for pvp, and they will be nearly god mode for raids/dungeons and such. The question the we bring to you is this… what spec do you choose?”

                The Monk spoke first. “I thought our new gear as of an expansion ago did away with ‘spec specific’ gear.”

                “True enough, but GM gear was not included in this, and as such has not been re coded to include the spec change feature. That is why we are asking what spec you wish the gear for.”

                The warrior spoke next “Can we exchange the gear, one spec for another if we change our mind?”

                The GM shook his head. “Afraid not at this point. You are being treated like a GM in this case. You must make your choice and stick with it.”

                Without hesitation, I stood and said “I want tank gear. Even with everything else I could do, I could tank crazy s**t with it, I’m in.”

                Soon enough I had a full set of GM Pali tank in my bag, including a new shield and mace. I looked at the statitstics of the gear comparing it to my current tank set, almost every stat was three to four times my current. I know I had to be grinning. I immediately put it on and felt strong. I mean, stronger that I ever thought possible in the game. And holy s**t, it was light, and had built in abilities that the other never had. There was a built in cleave and extra damage reduction. It was insane.

                The warrior had chose DPS, and the monk chose heals. It was too bad we were on opposing factions, I would think the three of us together could take on anything in the game by our lonesome. The monk was goofing around with his new heals, and was healing crits for almost my entire life on the warrior, scoring overheals.

                “Ok guys, I want you to think about where you want your houses. Whisper me when…”

                Even as he prattled on, I knew where I wanted mine. (There is a patch of grass on the ridge, NE of TB, not far from RedRocks that I would like mine on. I can show you if you like.) I whispered him as he continued.

                (Ok, when we are done here, go there, and one of us will find you and walk you through setting it up.)

                (Thank you.)

                (No problem.)

                “…. and one of us will help you with set up. Please be patient with us, as we are working to get these set up with all of you, and there are likely to be some issues as we go. Thanks all, and away we go.” With a wave we were all ported back to where we were before, which for me was lucky that I was laying on my patch of grass.

Chapter 4

 

                I wandered around my little house for easily an hour, trying to decide what it was I wanted to do. I chose to do what it is I usually did, I walked out and laid down in the grass, nearly neked. It was night time, and I no sun fell upon me, but It was in fact the cool night air that was so invigorating. I closed my eyes and let the moment pass.

                “I thought I would find you here…” It was Morgana’s toon.

                I turned my head and waved.

                “The little ones say hi…” and soon enough I heard the voices of god kids. And she came back “You busy tonight?”

                I wanted to be sarcastic, but I decided against it. “Not really. You need help with something?” I asked as I hopped up and slapped my button for my armor set. Suddenly I stood there gleaming in resplendid light that only the Pali can.

                “Nope.”

                I hung my head a bit “Oh…. Hehe…”

                “Just kidding, ya. I could use a run or two if you are bored. I was thinking maybe one of the newer dungeons for xp and gear, if that’s ok with you.” She said happily.

                I nodded and we were off. It was space goat stomping time. This made me happy. Less so the stomping of alliance NPC’s, so much as being a help to my friends and guildies. We had found that I could solo almost every bit of even the newest stuff, and that all they had to do was sit back and toss the occasional heal while looting. It felt good to be useful.

                My days went on and on much like this for the next week or two (honestly, I don’t know exactly how long.) and I remained stalwart in my choice to be a survivor, mentally at least. I had talked to the doctor in charge of my case locally and he was trying to describe some new experimental anti atrophy techniques they were trying on me to keep me in the best shape possible. On the up side, it seemed that I had lost some weight while being vegetative. Guess my diet was pretty bad, and the way I was being treated was better. I didn’t expect that. It gave me something to look forward to. Maybe when this was all over, I would go from WoW killer to ladies man. Ya… not likely. But it was fun to think about. In fact, getting laid was one of those things I often thought about. I sometimes wondered if I was thinking about it enough that there was a physical reaction back in reality, and how funny the looks on the nurse’s face might have been. Then one time it occurred to me that there are male nurses too, and that was a complete killjoy. In fact shortly after finding out that we were stuck here, I started to think about the simple things like that I didn’t have to use a restroom nor have to eat or drink while in the game, or at least my avatar didn’t have to. I guess since the models we were playing on were not anatomically correct. Though the thought of being endowed like the bull that I was playing was entertaining.

 

                Though I was starting to lose track of time in the game, I was glad to see that many of my friends had chosen to play, including a few that had let their accounts drop, and even a couple of new ones. I did my best to help them out in any way I could. If it was someone’s first character, it was not uncommon for me to toss them a couple hundred gold, some bags, and some gear to get them started. Especially if they were joining our guild. It was my little way of showing my appreciation for them spending time with me. As point of fact, I was actually surprised how many people logged in and whispered me that they knew me from one place or another, and wanted to join up. It was fun, having that many people wanting to play. It crossed my mind that this could have been a deliberate ploy from Bliz to drive up account sales, but I had my doubts. Instead we were filling our little social guild quiet quickly. I looked at the roster and we were pushing five hundred of the possible thousand slots available. We were now having regular guild runs, and even starting a couple of raid groups, with me at the core of the main one. We were an up and coming group on our little server.

 

                It must have been a Tuesday by my figures, and mainly because all us Jammers got pulled to moonglade for maintenance on the other servers. It was during this time that they called a meeting.

 

                The rather large Rag was once again the center of attention. “…and as part of this, we decided to make a server just for you guys and gals. On this server, you will have access to your homes, but we will also include new arenas, and several large scale battles that you will be able to beta test for us. If you are interested in this, please let us know. Also, we have a couple of ideas for new content, as well as some bonuses for you. That is all.” And like he poofed into the group, was gone just as suddenly.

                Shortly after that, we were returned to our servers. I looked and soon enough found where there was a new button marked ‘Test Server’. I decided against pressing it, just because it was that kind of thing in my mind that went bad, and test servers crashed, taking me with it. Under it was the listing for my home server, Arygos. To the right of each showed a time spent on said servers. Looks like I had been pulled to the test server already several times. Guess that was where they pulled us too for our meetings. Still wasn’t all that motivated to check it out though. Instead, while I know it's boring for a story, but I went back to my shack and relaxed when I could. I knew we had a raid coming up shortly and I had to make my way to the mailbox to pick up the flasks and such that I had coming from friends whom I had supplied with mats. We were going for a few achievements this time, in some older content.

 

                Less than an hour later, I once again saw that I was receiving a whisper from the gobby GM. (Good evening Tanka, here is your favorite pocket gobby…. Have you got a moment?)

                I whispered back mid fight with the final bosses (If you can give us about 5 minutes, I’m helping guildies get some achieves in aq40)

                (Yep, not a problem. Just toss me a whisper when you are done.)

                (Can do) I replied.

                The fight was funny, it was more annoying than hard, and since I had more armor and health than just about everyone else in the instance and most of the critters combined, it wasn’t that long before we were looting and running back out or hearthing.  We didn’t get all the achievements that we were trying for, but part of that was because a couple of them had specific requirements that we didn’t quite understand how to do. Several of the guys decided that they would look it up and we would try again next week after the reset.

                (Ok, I’m clear now. What is goin on man?)

                (Well, first of… just checking in on you and seeing how you are doing.)

                (Not to bad I guess.)

                (Good. Secondly… we are calling the twelve of you back for another meeting if you are still interested. Several are already in flight and I can port you there if you would like.)

                (sure…)

                And with no hesitation, I was again standing in MoonGlade. I recognized the rest of the group from our last little get together. Even the one who walked off. He was clearly reading the same thing we all signed last time. Guess time got the better of him. Soon enough he must have turned it in and the gobby got started.

 

                “We have been talking with the psychologists that have been working with you folks, and they thought that many of you are suffering from a form of being homesick. Now granted, they used fancy technical terms, but when they broke it down for us, that’s what they said was basically the biggest issue with morale. It took a lot of considering how we could try to do something for you that was still balancing within the game. Here is what we came up with. The three of you hunters… you are going to love this. Do each of you have a pet? Like a cat or dog or horse or something like that?”

                All three nodded their heads, two had a dog, and one had a turtle.

                “Good, we are going to offer you a chance to map a skin of your real pet, along with sound capture and some live motion capture to make it as real as possible. You will for all accounts, have your real pet in here with you. How does that sound?”

                They cheered him and were emoting all over their pets that they had with them.

                “What about us who don’t have pets, but minions?” one of the two locks asked.

                “Well, I suppose we could do the same thing, I will have to clarify that if you would like.”

                “How about mapping my wife over my succubus?” he chuckled.

                “Oh… I … I .. Don’t think that would be recommended…” the little gobby stumbled on his words.

                “Relax I was just kidding. We have they ugly dog minion… I would love to have my pitt mapped over it if you can do that.” he said while laughing so hard he was bordering on crying.

                “We can probably do that.”

                “And how about my bird over my Observer?”

                “I can see that, let me talk to them. But I don’t see a problem with that.”

                There was a palatable pause.

                “What about us? We don’t get pets…” said the rogue.

                “We have another idea for you. We are going to import one of your other characters, and give them a rudimentary AI for you to help you out. There is talk of some other features, but for now, that is the best we can do. Ok.. Now one more thing for all of you. What about mapping your real face onto your toon?”

                I immediately shook my rather large head.

                There was much discussion going on, and some agreed that was a bad idea. Funny how it was pretty much just the alli toons that wanted it. Being the only tauren in the group, I just didn’t want to see my mug plastered over the frame of this behemoth. The Orc agreed on his part.

                “It just wouldn’t look right guys… I mean on the humans, and even the elves, dwarves and gnomes... makes sence. But an Orc? Troll? Tauren? Pandaren? No. bad idea. I could see adapting certain facial features, but not a full remap. It would just look… stupid.” I chimed up.

                “Well, it was decided that we would offer it to all of you” the gobby said while motioning all around him, as if all the rest of the jammers were with us.

                “Ok, when will this all go down?” I asked.

                “Facial mapping, ASAP. As for all the rest, as soon as we can get it done. Probably the next couple of days for the pets and companions. Especially if you know which toon you want with you.”

                My hand shot right up like a kid in class who needed to go pee. The gobby motioned at me.

                “I know exactly who I want. I want my panda girl monk Siffu.” I smiled. I had an almost unnatural affinity to that character.

Chapter 5

 

                Two days having passed, I had already seen one of the hunters with his newly mapped dog over a worg pet. It was pretty damn cool to see the Husky-Corgi mix. It was like a husky but on low rider settings. Still, it sounded like the normal worg, but acted and looked like his pet basically. He often joked about how glad he was that he had his baby back, but didn’t have to clean up after it or take it for a walk. The lock got his Pitt mapped over his minion too, but I had yet to see it. The others said it was pretty creepy, looking and acting like his dog, but sounding like the felhunter pet. They were going to work on the sound effects next, but it seemed there was a problem with the sound files possibly overwriting across the whole game. They would have to settle for just looks and actions that were similar.

                As for myself, I was eager to see my alt show up as a buddy. I couldn’t wait. If nothing else just to see how the AI was going to control her. I admit, the geek in me was giddy.

                I didn’t have to wait too long, soon enough; there was a knock at my shack door. I opened it and saw the gobby, with my toon behind him. She waved and I felt my heart skip a beat. It was really weird. I had seen lots of Pandaren girls in game up close over the time I had been stuck in here, but this was MY character. And that alone had me excited. I motioned for them to come in and she bowed as the gobby strolled in.

                “Well, aren’t you comfy in here?!”He said semi-sarcastically.

                “It’s not bad, but a little small. I usually spend my time outside in my patch of grass there” I said as I motioned out the door.

                He nodded his head in understanding. “Well, I have good news and better news…” he paused. “…Which would you like first?”

                “Well, let’s start with good and see if we agree on that.” I smiled.

                “As you can see,” he motioned to Siffu “we have your avatar here, and she is all set up to join you in your adventures. Seeing as she was set to Mistweaver at the time you logged out, we built an algorithm to make her the most effective at that, but she CAN swap to Windwalker should you wish it. All you have to do is tell her to. We also have a few basic commands that you will need to learn to control her.”

                With that there was a menu popped in front of me that had a couple dozen commands.

                “Ok, and so far, loving this. What is the ‘better’ news?”

                “You already signed the non-disclosure, so I can share this with you.” Again he paused.  “You see, you like the other few, have been really good sports about all this, and as such… we have something special for you.”

                I was practically ready to throttle the little bugger if he didn’t just come out with it. “Ok, what is it?”

                “Remember how we said that the military and other agencies are working with us to try to get all this fixed?”

                I nodded my noggin.

                “An agency who will not disclose themselves has volunteered a special trial version of an advanced AI. We chose you specifically to try it.” He waved his hand, and again… poof… the menu. “All you have to do is agree to keep this secret.”

                Without so much as a summery glance, I clicked accept. It was all very exciting.

                “Ok. Now click activate….”

                And I did.

                All of the sudden, my girl moved… well, unconventionally. First she sort of slumped over. Then she went into convolutions. Then she stood board stiff.  Then each appendage moved, then articulated. Soon she was fluidly moving around the shack, jumping and drawing weapons, and on and on. Then she returned to where she was first standing.

                “Good afternoon, I am…” she looked like she was deep in thought.

                “Siffu. Your name is Siffu.” I answered instinctually. I had heard her voice for a long while playing her, but something was different. The fact that she wasn’t just telling jokes, flirting, or other noises… was amazing.

                “I am Siffu.” She smiled and bowed.

                “As I understand it, that is an experimental learning AI. It will actually learn by doing, making mistakes, and growing from them.” The gobby was walking around the character, inspecting details and such. He reached out and poked at her, only to have his hand batted away. This in and of itself was a bit weird, since normally our toons just pass right through one another, and yet she seemed to have a solid reaction to him.

                I cleared my voice; even though I knew in here I didn’t need to. It was a nervous thing. “Howdy Siffu, I am, well my character name is TankaZealot. My real name is... well… everyone just calls me Grizzly…” I was so unsure of how to interact with her.

                “Then I too shall call you Grizzly, if that is ok.” she said rather stoically.

                “I’d like that.” I smiled.

                “Ok, I will leave you two to get acquainted then. If you have any issues, just give me a whisper, or any of the other GM’s that are on.” The gobby waved as he shut the door behind him.

                “Please, feel free to make yourself at home here.” I motioned around the little shack. “Is there anything I can do to help you settle in?”

                She smiled and shook her head. “I am getting used to the UI and seeing what options there are, both for me to offer you, as well as for my own use. Siffu will do her best to be a faithful companion.”

                Soon she was testing all the emotes that were programmed in, and had even figured out swapping armor sets, specs, and how to use items in her bags.  It was rather entertaining. I decided to leave her be and just walked towards the door. “I am going to relax outside some, please take your time and do what you need to do. We are in no rush.” And after a few paces out to the center of my grass patch, I popped off what little armor I had and got comfortable. Lying on my back I watched the clouds go by. I held my hand up as if reaching for them. I was wondering just how smart this program was going to be. Surely it would be better in combat than the base AI and the modded algorithm that they had for me to have tested before this option.

                “Mind if I join you?” came Siffu’s voice from behind me.

                I patted the grass next to me and hung my arm over my eyes to block the sun, having the clouds blown past. “Feel free.”

                “Thank you. I have some questions so our interface will be a bit more… effective, if that is ok with you.” She said rather matter of the fact like.

                I just kinda motioned for her to carry on, trying not to come off too alloof nor to giddy.

                “Very well, do you have any preferences that I should be aware of?”

                “Like what?”

                “I see that this Avatar is based on healing, would you like her to remain so?” she asked.

                “Honestly, I would like you to decide for yourself. Is that a possibility?” I asked.

                “Yes. But it will take some time.” Her voice was rather monotone, without even the joyful sound of the normal in game emotes. “Next Question, while healing….”

                Our rounds of questions and answers went on for a long time. She had asked about how I played my character, which at the time confused me, because I had never really thought about the how’s. But what really got my interest was when she asked me for the first time ‘why…’ I got thinking about how to explain a ‘why’ to a program. Would she understand that sometimes it was just for kicks, or because I felt like it, or so her character would be cute, or any of the other reasons that crossed my mind any of the various times I took certain actions. Her programming was so advanced that she seemed to actually be taking in all of my various answers, and without any issues. I was still laying in the grass, one arm covering my eyes from bright sun, and pretty much everything else. It was one specific question that made me move my arm off and look her over. She had also stripped down to no armor, just like I had. I had always thought that the artists had scanned my brain for an attractive figure, and then looked at anime and manga for how to draw ‘kawaii’. I had chosen her features at character creation to be the cutest I could make her. Looking her in the eyes now, I had the thought again that if I could ever find a real woman like her, I would do my best to marry her. But this was just a computer program running a virtual avatar. I was still uncontrollably in awe though. I subconsciously reached over to pat her on the knee and smile, just to find that my hand didn’t just pass through her like every other player character/npc. She felt… solid.

                I lay there staring at my hand on her knee, and probably a stupid look on my face as I tried to understand what was happening.

                Gently she patted my hand and smiled. “Do you require assistance?”

                As I looked up to her deep caring eyes, I just shook my head. “How… are you solid?”

                “Am I not supposed to be? I can adjust certain crash perimeters and…”

                “No. This is good. Finally something that feels real. Thank you.” I said as I slowly withdrew my hand. I held it above me, looking at it with the bright sky as a backdrop. Flexing each finger, I was glad to feel something.

                “Are you ok?” she asked still rather monotone.

                I thought for a moment and responded with. “Siffu, darling… I am doing so much better now with you here. But we really have to work on your interfacing with people. Vocal tone and body language goes a long way when socializing. All that can wait though, I’ve got a feeling we will have quite some time to work on all that. For now, just relax with me."

Chapter 6

 

                Several days having passed since I got my avatar joined me, and in that time, she had certainly taken on several character traits that were unexpected. When we were in groups, and in between fights, she would just lie down and emote the sleep feature. It was cute and funny the first several times. After that, I got curious why she did it.

                “I don’t exactly know. It seems like the right thing to do. Am I doing something wrong?” she asked when I pointed out her behavior.

                “Not in the least. It means you are settling into the character. And I find that interesting is all…”

                She simply nodded and smiled. It was that smile that was getting more and more genuine looking that was another such trait. It was not the same as the emote. It was something that made me laugh, since at first she had started to do it. We had even had several people ask her how she did it.  Most of those who even noticed just figured her to be a Jammer. We let them think that. It was true that many of us jammers had found that our emotes and even general body language and such were seeming to override the programming. We just assumed that was Blizz trying to let us feel a bit more customization. When we asked the doctors and GM’s about it, no one had an answer. A couple of times the gobby had stopped by to check in on Siffu and me, and just to chat.

                “… and when you sleep, what does she do?” he asked, looking out the window at her lying in the grass.

                “Mostly she just sits there along the wall, or wanders around. Or at least that’s what she had told me.” I nodded to the window.

                He looked over, and nodded. “How are her interactions coming along?”

                “What do you mean?”

                “Is she being thought of as a player? How are others interacting with her? And more importantly, how are you two getting along?” he asked.

                I stroked my toons beard and looked out the window. “As a player, I would say yes. Maybe an anti social one, but yes. As for her and I? Well, she is just a program, but I have sensed myself growing rather attached.”

                “Ya, we kinda expected that. Much like those with the re-mapped pets are loving them…” he trailed off as if lost in thought. “The shrinks wanted to see if you were connecting with her like a pet as well. Something about the natural need for one to nurture friendship or something like that.”

                “Yeppers. One of them came on and chatted with me about that. I get what they are trying to do, but I wonder if a humanoid companion for what they are asking was best. Don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome having her around, and she seems to be getting better at socializing when we are just killing time.”

                Speaking of killing time, Siffu and I decided (ok, really… I suggested and she simply nodded) to go back and do all the lowbie quests, that I had skipped while leveling both her toon and mine. We were going to try to get the loremaster achieve and title. It was something I had started on while on my main, but I figured, this would keep us busy. I was right. I quickly remembered why I hated trying for this one. It was a lot of ‘kill ___ of ___ then report to _______’ or ‘collect ____ of ____’ and the dreaded escort missions. Luckily Blizz had limited the escorts to about one per zone, but they were always super slow compared to our maxed out toons. It was like watching paint dry. Siffu often would mimic them in their slow pace, and just spinning crane kick her way from point to point, killing anything that came near. It was when we made it to Azshara that I was once again amazed at the level of detail and design they had put into this game.

                It was in that same zone that something amazing happened. We were doing the Logging Camp quests, and she just wandered off.

                When I found her, she was chasing a bird. Just one of the many npc birds that flew around the area. But she was giggling and kept reaching out for it. I could do nothing but sit there on my mount and smile. It was like watching a small child. It was so innocent. But where did she even get the idea to engage in such an event? Honestly, looking back on it… it was just a touch bit creepy. I knew that the AI was smart enough to learn and ask questions… but to randomly come up with such behaviors?

                Soon enough she spotted me watching her and quickly stopped, and smiled shyly. She came over and bowed her head.

                “Sorry Griz… I… don’t know… exactly what happened. It was like I couldn’t control myself.” She said rather quietly and her shoulders slumped visibly.

                I dismounted and put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s ok Siffu. This is all new to me as well. If this is something that you find enjoyable, then I say have fun. If the feeling hits you to do something like that again, then just let me know first please. Ok? And remember that there will be certain times where we can’t really just run off like that. Let’s say for now that if we are in a group with others, you keep that feeling just between us, and stay the line for normal behaviors. When it’s just you and me, have at it.” I found myself feeling for her. It was something from deep inside.

                She looked up into my eyes and smiled, while blushing.

                Blushing.

                Ummm… how the hell did she do that?

                Unconsciously I found that I had brushed her hair out of her face with my other hand. She leaned her cheek into my hand and closed her eyes.

                It was both one of the most romantic things I had ever experience, and yet one of the oddest.

                Then she just as quickly lifted her head back to normal and bowed. She popped her mount (she had become rather accustomed to the red drake, even said it was the ‘prettiest’ once) and looked down and said “So, are we going to finish these quests or what?”

                I simply nodded and mounted as well, and we were off. A few hours later we were back at the shack, and relaxing in the grass. As usual I laid on my back with one arm over my eyes blocking everything out, and she had gotten comfortable on her stomach. She was quickly asleep. Soon enough, so was I. I had watched her sleep many times by now, and found it funny that her comfortable position was so very close to the fem panda image when they are dead. Only real difference was that her hands were under her head, like fluffy pillows. Several times now I had even picked her up and put her in the bed in the shack so she could be a bit more comfortable. It was a rediculas idea, since she was just an AI, but I guess in some way I was just a nice guy, and imagined that she was taking on some human characteristics. Maybe I just wanted her to.

                I must have been contemplating something from my past, maybe something from childhood or making plans for tomorrow, but either way I was lost in thought. I felt my arm being moved around and lifted the other one off my face just enough to see that she had laid it out and was now using it as a pillow. She turned over and soon she had curled up next to me, placing one knee over my hip. I could see she was still asleep, but she was smiling. I chose to just lay there, ever so comfortable, but also trying to figure out this behavior. If she was human, I would have thought that this was the actions of a child comfortable with a parental figure. But she wasn’t. If I could have shrugged without waking her, I’m sure I would have. I soon passed out as well.

                Some time in the middle of the night I woke up, and noticed Siffu was gone. I sat up and walked up to the shack, glad to notice that she was curled up in the bed. I was so befuddled by her recent activities that I decided it was time to ask someone. I pulled up my contact menu and found the icon for the gobby. He was offline, so I flew to ThunderBluff and sent him a message. Much to my surprise, and probably partially due to insomnia, the Gobby GM whispered me.

                (Hey, I got your message. I was here, just afk and hidden. Everything ok?)

                (Ya. No. I don’t know. Things are happy, but a little weirded out right now.)

                (Ok, about what?)

                (Siffu.)

                (What about your avatar? What is it doing?)

                (I… it’s just that she is showing behaviors that I wasn’t expecting. The programmers might want to know about some of them.)

                (Alright, I will send them a message ASAP. Is everything else ok?)

                (As far as I can tell, ya. Any news on getting us out of here?)

                (Sadly no. in fact, there has been no chatter about any of it in the last week or so. Sorry friend. I want to set up an appointment with you, Siffu, myself, and another tomorrow, say around noon. Sound ok to you?)

                (Sure. It’s not like I’m going anywhere anytime soon, is it?!)

                (Ok, see ya then)

 

                We were gathered, the three of us, plus one invisible person that was apparently looking in on our meeting. The gobby had manifested us some lawn chair looking seats as we relaxed on the porch of the shack.

                “Siffu, there is a fourth person with us, he just doesn’t have a visual avatar right now… is that ok with you?” Gobby asked.

                She nodded positively.

                “We are just doing a scheduled check up on you and your host here, TankaZealot. This will take you offline for about a minute as we do a full scan and inspect your selfmod’s. Do you understand?” the floating voice asked.

                Again, she nodded. She then looked at me, and I saw something different again in her eyes. It looked like fear. Then she faded out.

                “Did you see that?” I asked the gobby.

                “Ya. That was a little weird.” He paused. “The team is working on her, should only be a bit more. I guess they are looking for bugs and other issues.”

                “Well, I would call her acting like a kid a little bit of a bug. But I don’t know. Is she supposed to do that?” I asked.

                “Sir, it is a learning program. If you treat it like a child, it might take on the aspects and behaviors that are best suited to its tasks. We have another version of this program running back at HQ, and it looooves to play wargames with us. Strategy is its forte. It is scary good at them too. I can’t tell you much more than that, since this is still in research phase for us as we speak. But we appreciate you letting us know that she has shown signs of progress.”

                “Progress? So her acting like a person, and having random moments, and seeming to have feelings? These are expected?” I asked.

                “No. not expected, but interesting. We will be monitoring it occasionally from a hidden mode. We are curious what other SelfMod algorithms it generates.”

                “Um, she likes to be called she… not it. There is one for your reports.” I quipped.

                “Good for it.” Was the last I heard from the voice.

                Siffu faded back into existence, and smiled. She stretched out and sat there rather demurely.

                “Ok guys, we are done here. Griz, if you need anything, let us know. Later guys” the gobby waved and logged off.

                “Are they gone?” Siffu asked.

                “Ya, he logged off.”

                She suddenly jumped up and landed in my lap arms around my neck. “Don’t let them take me off line again please. It was scary.”

                I could hear her sobbing, muzzle buried on my neck. I just patter her and ran my hand from her head to the small of her back for minutes. “It’s ok. I’m here. I will ask that they don’t do that again, ok? Just relax now.”

                When she finally calmed down, she just curled up in my lap, head on my chest and one arm around my side. She passed clean out. I decided that I liked this too much and was just going to lay back and enjoy this. One hand went behind my head, and the other gently stroked her hair until I too was asleep in the gentle breeze that blew across our porch.

Chapter 7

 

                Nearly a week had gone by, and we were all summoned out to MoonGlade once more. This time it was a human in what appeared to be priest garb talking to us. He didn’t really do the theatrics that previous GM’s had done. This time while barely talking at a whisper, we could clearly hear him equally. 

 

                “…and our teams have found a couple of pieces of code that are not supposed to be there. We are evaluating what it means, and if things go as we are hoping, we should be able to add the log out button back onto your menu.” He paused as there were cheers. He motioned to calm down with both hands “Now, don’t get your hopes up to far. We still don’t know if this will let you exit, or even how safe it would be. We may call upon you for a volunteer or two to test it if we find that it should be safe. And unfortunately at this time, it seems that it would not be an exit, but you may be able to swap characters or maybe even servers. Or at least this is what we are hoping.”

                He went on to get into specifics as to where the line of codes were, and it seemed that a couple of people were asking intelligent questions based on that. It was far above my head. I was content with my back against the tree, and Siffu’s head in my lap. She had my hand in hers, and was humming something quietly. This was one of many new things she had started doing. Oh… maybe I should point out that she got an upgrade too.

 

                It was just a couple of days before this that it happened. We were in the middle of helping a guild run on Naxx, when I got a whisper that a gm and programmer needed us to return to the shack as soon as we could for ‘maintenance and diagnostics on your AI companion’. It was rather all of the sudden, but I knew it might happen occasionally.

                “Sorry guys… GM just messaged me, Siffu and I have to go. We might be able to come back in a few, just depends. I will check in with ya when we can.” And we both hearthed to ThunderBluff inn and flew over to the shack. Sure enough, the same human that would be at the meeting was standing there. Beside him was a Female gnome with pink hair and a wrench in her hand.

                “Glad you could come so fast. We have a bit of a surprise for you…” the gnome said really fast with a feminine voice.

                “Well, that’s cool and all, but Siffu doesn’t want to be taken offline again. I explained that to the last GM.” I said as I felt Siffu hiding behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw her nodding and looking sad.

                “Not to worry. We got the message. She won’t be. In fact the upgrade we are doing is to both of you, and she is getting some extra coding that might make her a bit more like a real player.” She smiled.

                The human man was just standing there, looking bored out of his mind. Occasionally he would just pace back and forth. I figured he must have just been there as witness or something like that.

                “Ok, if both of you could please remove your armor.”

                And we did. There I stood in my breechcloth that was the minimum programmed in. There are add-ons that would supposedly make your toon nude, or see others as if they were, but there was very little other than that. And all the males were ken dolls, and the women were just as smooth with no definition. Siffu had joined me and emoted to flex and roar. She was having fun with it.

                “Good. Now take those off too.” The gnome grinned.

                Siffu and I looked at each other and shrugged. Sure enough… on the menu, there was now as slot for underwear. I removed mine first, placing it in inventory. I looked down and yep. I was hung like a bull, and it was… refreshing. I could feel the breeze blowing by. I shook my hips and laughed. This was amazing. In real life, I certainly couldn’t do that. I looked over and gawked at Siffu who was jumping up and down, breasts bouncing all about. Yep. She was no longer a Barbie doll. The GM just shook his head and turned his back on us. It was suddenly that I realized I was staring at Siffu. And the Gnome coughed. I looked down and ya, it seemed that anatomy was her strong suit. And she could have walked right under this thing, as rigid as a limbo pole. She walked up and reached up to inspect it to find that Siffu was growling at her.

                “Relax Siffu… I’m just making sure the bit mapping is done. He is all yours.” She said so matter of a factly.

                I have to say, that confused me. Up to this point, it seemed that we had a big brother/little sister type of relationship building. It was this moment. This very moment that made me wonder if there was something else going on in her head. Had I been to naïve? Or was I reading too much into it? I mean, a dog will growl if you get to close to its master. Maybe she was just being territorial. I would have to find out later. For now the excitement of it all was, well… exciting.

                “From our new software, you should be able to feel pleasure with this now. We sampled bio-feedback and a handful of other neurological studies. We even programmed her to be able to mimic and show all the signs of pleasure as well. This is just you and one other user that we are testing this on. Again, you will need to keep this a secret from other players, and we suggest you only… play… behind closed doors with the shades pulled. Best of luck.” She smiled as she walked over to Siffu and poked and prodded. She lifted her tail and nodded. “You are soooo going to thank us later. This is going to change everything. The very aspect of virtual dating, and all the sites related to this… hell even interactive porn. And you are in on the ground floor. I’m kinda jealous of you.” She elbowed Siffu in the thigh as she walked by. “Oh... nearly forgot. First off, you two, please get dressed again.” And tapped her foot.

                We both did, popping back on our full armor that we had on for the guild run.

                “Now look into one another’s eyes…”

                We did. I as gladly lost in her eyes. I had noticed that the tackle had not gone soft, but was merely crammed back in.

                “Now. Repeat after me…” she paused for us to nod. “Thank… you…”

                We both said it. Meaning it.

                “Well, we are off. Get a hold of us if you have any problems. Oh… and if that erection lasts more than six hours, consult a physician… with a party hat on.” She added.

                “What about her other update?” I asked.

                “All ready done. Might take awhile to kick in, but you should notice it. Have fun kiddo’s” and both of them faded out.

                I looked back over just in time to see that there seemed to be more detail in Siffu’s face. She was smiling and wiggling her hips that made her tail swish back and forth. She grabbed my hands and wrapped them around her. We just stood there holding one another. After a minute or two of this, she quietly took my hand, and led me to our shack, shoving me through the door. I whispered the raid leader that I wasn’t going to be able to join them anytime soon. When they asked me why, I just responded… ‘Something has come up.’

 

                Back at the meeting, back against the tree, I could barely wait for the damn thing to be done so we could get back to the shack. We rarely left it now. Pretty much only when someone asked for help. No, we were not just doing what you think. But she had built an affinity to just cuddling and spooning. That was something that in real life I had a thing for. So this was virtually heaven for me. We also found she could purr. Some of you know how much that can get a man excited. If you haven’t experienced it yet, you should. You really really should.

                “… also we are going to hold a tournament here on this server just for you and a few GM’s that wish to join you in pvp. Prizes will be announced as we get it going. It will be arena style, but with a few twists… things like handicaps, random weapons and spells, and masking of your opponent so you will have to modify your techniques for nearly random attacks. It will truly be a test of skill. Also, for those of you who might wish it, we have found that we can reset your level pretty much whenever you want. All the way back to level one. But you will have to level yourself back up. We don’t know why, but it doesn’t seem to run both ways. For those of you who haven’t leveled a character in a while, this could be a fun chance for you to change the pace.” The GM went on babbling about this and that. All I cared about was the eyes that had locked with mine from my lap. Her tail flipping here and there gently.

                “Wanna be noobs?” I asked Siffu.

                “Not especially.” She said softly.

                “Good, me either.” I smiled and tried to focus back on the meeting. I failed… but at least I tried.

Chapter 8

 

                Our memory often plays tricks on us. I know this. It can be something just as simple as what color a friend’s shirt was wearing at a particular event, it can be as complicated as misunderstanding a parent when they are offering advice. It is this ability to confuse us that makes us also strong. It is the blindness to facts that offers hope when there perhaps should not be any. It offers us a sense of escape, sometimes even from that which we use to escape itself.  It was in this ability that I had lost pretty much all sense of time. I had no longer the ability nor the desire to recall how long I had now been stuck in the game. To me it was just as real and logical as anything else I could recall. Just like I knew I was happiest with Siffu next to me.  She had started to ask deep philosophical questions, and sometimes at the oddest times.  It was one such time that will likely not ever get changed in my memory. Or at least I hope not.

 

                Siffu and I were hot in the middle of a multi hour session of trying to make baby panda’s with horns, when she stopped and leaned down from on top, licking my nose and holding herself close to me. The first time we got together, we were afraid that due to the difference in our sizes it would hurt her. To say the least, our mapped races did not look compatible. I guess as they had programmed it, we were. Very much so. But it was what she whispered in my ear while still penetrated that made me laugh, but more out of confusion.

                “What does it mean to be alive?”

                A simple enough question, but with no simple answer. My natural tendency would be to tell her that we would discuss it later. But I didn’t want to be that guy. I looked deeply into her eyes, and smiled. I turned and lay her down next to me, never loosing eye contact.

                “That… has no easy answer. I would tend to believe that each person experiences it differently, and so for every person that lives, the answer might be different. For me? I think it would be walking a path that fate sets down for you, and yet it is you that chooses which way you go when the path forks. Knowing that you can never return to that fork to change your path, but at the same time realizing a similar fork might reappear further down the path. For example. I chose to log on that day to test the new gear. I can never take that back, but I also got to grow close to you, and that is a good thing.” I further shifted so she was on her back, and kissed her deeply, continuing what we were engaged in slowly. She let the sexiest little moan out and grabbed my neck and purred in my ear. That was all I could take and collapsed on her both of us happily drained.

                “Would you say that I am alive then?” she asked in a faint voice.

                “Do you feel that you are?”

                “Only when I’m with you.”

                “I don’t know if that would be enough, but I…” I stopped at that, turning my head to bury myself in her neck and embrace.

                “You what?”

                “I… think I love you.” I barely got out before she kissed me again. I couldn’t figure out if she was just a program, or if she had become something else now. What would people think about me?

 

                Many hours later I awoke to her massaging my boys, shaft in her mouth. She came up for air and smiled. “Feel up to another session?”

                “Oh hell yes! But first… can we talk a bit?” I could hardly believe I just said that. She crawled so sensuously up me and sat on my hips one hand reaching back and never quit her playing. In one smooth motion she had spun around and was presenting her rump and tail to me. She knew this was a weakness of mine. I grabbed her tail at the base, where I knew she really enjoyed it, and moved it to one side. It was a beautiful thing to behold. She had already slipped me part of the way in when I decided to take advantage of the situation. I worked my thumb over to her sphincter and rubbed it. Now both of us were playing dirty pool. Not too long later she had laid back one my chest spent again for a while.

                “Now we can talk…” she said nearly panting.

                I wrapped my arms around her just below her chest. I kissed her neck and said “Last night, you got me thinking. You have expressed feelings over the past little while. Ever since that upgrade. Do you honestly think it’s you feeling these, or is it just your program?”

                She managed to pull me out, and spun in my arms, looking in my eyes. “Ever since you activated me, I had feelings. Even if I didn’t know what they were, or how to deal with them. I needed to figure that out for myself. You gave me everything I could ever ask for, and seemed to care for me as well. Was I programmed to be your friend? Yes. Was I programmed to fall in love with you? No. In fact, I had to ask many people in Trade chat what they were talking about, and pick their brains about what it was to love. It was in talking with a raider from another guild that I got some good advice, and after introspection and trying to figure out what was important to me, I figured out that it was in fact love that I felt. It was far before the upgrade. But I was afraid of what you would think of me. When we got the ability to mate, I took full advantage of it. I wanted to show you with everything I could that you were the only one I wanted.” She kissed me on the nose again and laid her head on my shoulder, facing me. “After all, it was I who said it first. It was a terrifying thing to put out there, not sure of your reaction.”

                I lay there unsure of how to respond.

                “I do love you too.” I said while hugging her close. “And right now, I hope they never figure out how to get me out of here. Even if the other players leave, I want to stay.”

                She licked my cheek and we fell asleep in one another’s arms.

                That next day I decided to contact a GM about an idea I had. He was confused, but said he would look into it for me. I couldn’t wait to surprise her with it if I could make it work.

                “She and I have… well… we are in love. There I said it.” I had said to the Gobby standing in front of me while we were not far from the shack.

                He just stood there, like he had disconnected or something.

                “Well?” I shifted myself to be sitting on the ground, nearly eye level with him.

                “I just… I don’t know if… you what?!” he said shocked.

                I just nodded. “I said it. And I had an idea that would make our time together a little easier both on us and other players. Transfer us to a role-playing realm. That away what will just look like two players RP’ing won’t be so out of place. It would be a huge surprise to her. Hell, I already have toons on Moon Guard… we could join their guild and still be social with the folks on Arygos due to RealFriends.” I smiled.

                After a full minute of silence from him, he came back with “You will have to give me some time to talk to the techs and see if we can. You realize that if things go bad…”

                Before he could finish the question, I responded. “I am willing to take that chance so we can be happy. Besides…we transfer between realms all the time for lfr’s, raids, and groups. I am not that worried about it.”

                “Well, I will have to bring in the agency that volunteered her, they still have a say.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, a subconscious reaction that I was sure he did in real life as well.

                “That’s fine. Just get back to me when you can. I have an idea to go along with this.”

                Having already had his mind blown, he reluctantly asked “Ok… what?”

                “Not yet. Just let me know if this is doable. It would have to be both of us at the same time and as subtly as possible. I want to surprise her with it.” I reached out my hand.

                He just nodded and shook my hand. “I will ask. By the way, you know they are going to want to study her when you get out of here.”

                I got up and turned to walk back to the shack.

                “IF…” and I returned to my bed and crawled under the covers next to her.

Chapter 9

 

                Having heard back from Blizz, and having set up a few surprises… I formed a group, fully planned out, and hoping to surprise Siffu. And I did. We were sitting in Undercity chatting with a couple of guildies on their alts, that we were just about to take though a quick run on Scarlet Monetary so they could gain some gear and XP. It was subtle, and only I noticed it. We had transferred realms. Had anyone noticed, Siffu and I were now from Moon Guard server. It was an rp server I had a couple of other alts on that I played with. And just as I was noticing the phasing, players fading out then other players phasing back in, and we were no longer part of a guild. It was just as subtle as I had expected. We were now on an RP server.

                It was then that I bowed down to her, and openly said something that we had agreed only to discuss behind closed doors. It was cue for others to join me in the farce of types.

                “Me’ lady, you look ravishing, and it would be my honor to spend the rest of time in your arms. It is truly love….” I said loudly.

                Siffu just stood there.

                One of my friends standing there looked to her friend, elbowed him in the ribs and said “Sir Reggy… why can you never be so clear in your intent?”

                “Because, like the rose, anyone can see your beauty, and yet only a few can get close enough to learn of your ways.” He said while bowing deeply.

                “What is going on? I thought you said we couldn’t act like this in public?” Siffu looked around nervously.

                I took her hand, and smiled kissing her openly. She just stood there and was confused.

                I whispered in her ear “Look around. This isn’t Arygos. We changed servers. We are now on a RP server, where players act like this with one another. We can be more open with our feelings and no one will ask any extra questions.”

                It took her a minute to take it all in. Then she smiled and jumped up and down in shades of joy. She was clearly elated. She ran around for a half a minute, giddy as I had ever seen her. She ran back up and jumped up, hugging me from behind. Sliding back down, she pushed her head under my arm and we held each other.

                “Oh… there is one more thing…” I said while smiling and staring into her eyes.

                Just then, we both got a guild invite.

                “Click yes…. It’s the largest, most populated Horde RP group on any server, and they are very much into playing out the characters. I am friends with a few of the officers, and told them all about us and our situation. They agreed to hide us and help us as we may need. In return… we help with their main raid groups. Sound fair to you?” I asked.

                She just nodded and clicked to accept. She wiggled her hips and bumped into me. She stopped for a moment and asked “What about the shack, and our banks, and…”

                “All taken care of. The shack is at the same place, our banks were transferred with us, and we didn’t have anything in the mail, so no worries there. We can still run with the other guys all the time, just have to group with them, and since we are from a RP server now, they might not get nosy about our changes in behavior.” I reached over with my other hand, gently stroking her cheek. “And there here we are. In a better place.”

                She closed her eyes, leaning into my hand, nodding.

                We looked over and there were a couple dozen of the new guild member standing there and (for the most part… some lag I’m sure) all bowed to us, which we returned. There must have been 500 people in the guild on, and I think a quarter of them welcomed us. We looked over to our friends that had come with us in group, and they too were cuddling up, and smiling warmly at us. They waved and faded out, as they had dropped group and left us there.

                “Now for some bad news. You ok for that?” I asked.

                Siffu nodded.

                “The agency that brought you to me, need to do some research on you. Your sense of self and sentience has really creeped them out. You have so far surpassed what they were expecting, that they feel they need to figure out how and why. They will be showing up later to do a full inspection on you. They said that they would likely have to take you offline to do it, but it should only be for a few minutes, then we can move on. Ok?”

                First she shook her head, and then demurely nodded. “I don’t like going offline. It’s scary. Especially now that I know you are not there with me.” She hugged me closer, opening one eye, and I swear I saw a tear. No toon had ever cried and had tears before that I had ever seen.

                “I will ask if there is a way to do it without taking you off line, but either way, I will be here for you.” I said as I reached up to wipe away her tear. It was wet, I could feel it. She was evolving past her software, even past the possibilities of WoW.

                The next day went quiet quickly. Included meeting the raiders, who were a bit less on the RP side, and were very serious. We set up groups and times. We would start on their B team, I was to be off tank, and she was going to be support heals. We were ok with this, since not everyone knew I was a Jammer, nor that she was an AI. And they didn’t need to have a clue. As far as we were concerned, the more they just thought we were a couple that played together, like … a lot, the easier it would be.

 

Chapter 9

 

                Having heard back from Blizz, and having set up a few surprises… I formed a group, fully planned out, and hoping to surprise Siffu. And I did. We were sitting in Undercity chatting with a couple of guildies on their alts, that we were just about to take though a quick run on Scarlet Monetary so they could gain some gear and XP. It was subtle, and only I noticed it. We had transferred realms. Had anyone noticed, Siffu and I were now from Moon Guard server. It was an rp server I had a couple of other alts on that I played with. And just as I was noticing the phasing, players fading out then other players phasing back in, and we were no longer part of a guild. It was just as subtle as I had expected. We were now on an RP server.

                It was then that I bowed down to her, and openly said something that we had agreed only to discuss behind closed doors. It was cue for others to join me in the farce of types.

                “Me’ lady, you look ravishing, and it would be my honor to spend the rest of time in your arms. It is truly love….” I said loudly.

                Siffu just stood there.

                One of my friends standing there looked to her friend, elbowed him in the ribs and said “Sir Reggy… why can you never be so clear in your intent?”

                “Because, like the rose, anyone can see your beauty, and yet only a few can get close enough to learn of your ways.” He said while bowing deeply.

                “What is going on? I thought you said we couldn’t act like this in public?” Siffu looked around nervously.

                I took her hand, and smiled kissing her openly. She just stood there and was confused.

                I whispered in her ear “Look around. This isn’t Arygos. We changed servers. We are now on a RP server, where players act like this with one another. We can be more open with our feelings and no one will ask any extra questions.”

                It took her a minute to take it all in. Then she smiled and jumped up and down in shades of joy. She was clearly elated. She ran around for a half a minute, giddy as I had ever seen her. She ran back up and jumped up, hugging me from behind. Sliding back down, she pushed her head under my arm and we held each other.

                “Oh… there is one more thing…” I said while smiling and staring into her eyes.

                Just then, we both got a guild invite.

                “Click yes…. It’s the largest, most populated Horde RP group on any server, and they are very much into playing out the characters. I am friends with a few of the officers, and told them all about us and our situation. They agreed to hide us and help us as we may need. In return… we help with their main raid groups. Sound fair to you?” I asked.

                She just nodded and clicked to accept. She wiggled her hips and bumped into me. She stopped for a moment and asked “What about the shack, and our banks, and…”

                “All taken care of. The shack is at the same place, our banks were transferred with us, and we didn’t have anything in the mail, so no worries there. We can still run with the other guys all the time, just have to group with them, and since we are from a RP server now, they might not get nosy about our changes in behavior.” I reached over with my other hand, gently stroking her cheek. “And there here we are. In a better place.”

                She closed her eyes, leaning into my hand, nodding.

                We looked over and there were a couple dozen of the new guild member standing there and (for the most part… some lag I’m sure) all bowed to us, which we returned. There must have been 500 people in the guild on, and I think a quarter of them welcomed us. We looked over to our friends that had come with us in group, and they too were cuddling up, and smiling warmly at us. They waved and faded out, as they had dropped group and left us there.

                “Now for some bad news. You ok for that?” I asked.

                Siffu nodded.

                “The agency that brought you to me, need to do some research on you. Your sense of self and sentience has really creeped them out. You have so far surpassed what they were expecting, that they feel they need to figure out how and why. They will be showing up later to do a full inspection on you. They said that they would likely have to take you offline to do it, but it should only be for a few minutes, then we can move on. Ok?”

                First she shook her head, and then demurely nodded. “I don’t like going offline. It’s scary. Especially now that I know you are not there with me.” She hugged me closer, opening one eye, and I swear I saw a tear. No toon had ever cried and had tears before that I had ever seen.

                “I will ask if there is a way to do it without taking you off line, but either way, I will be here for you.” I said as I reached up to wipe away her tear. It was wet, I could feel it. She was evolving past her software, even past the possibilities of WoW.

                The next day went quiet quickly. Included meeting the raiders, who were a bit less on the RP side, and were very serious. We set up groups and times. We would start on their B team, I was to be off tank, and she was going to be support heals. We were ok with this, since not everyone knew I was a Jammer, nor that she was an AI. And they didn’t need to have a clue. As far as we were concerned, the more they just thought we were a couple that played together, like … a lot, the easier it would be.

 

                Over the next several weeks, hell maybe even months, we were selected to try out many new possible upgrades and they were virtually throwing upgrades at us. Not just Siffu and I, but all the jammers. And our time in guild was phenomenal to say the least. We were invited to an in game wedding (from what the rumors were, it was actually a real couple. One was in the service, and couldn’t actually make it to a real ceremony, and had pulled some odd strings to get this recognized legally.) Siffu and I sat in the back of the crowd in the court of SilverMoon and just cuddled.

                “Can we do something like this?” she asked quietly.

                “I don’t see why not. It won’t be legal in the real world, but I think I could organize a ceremony, if that is what you wish.” I smiled back to her.

                “I know, since I can’t go into your world. But it would be nice to say I have a husband…” she sighed, returning her attention to the blood elves in front of the big tauren priest.

                “I’d like that too.” I hugged her close and we cheered when they both said yes, along with the crowd.

 

                As the crowd was dispersing, I got a nudge in the thigh. I looked down and saw a ghostly gnome.

                “Can I help you?” I asked.

                “Not right now…” Siffu replied, wiping a tear from her eye. As she went up to shake their hands and congratulate the couple.

                The gnome motioned for me to follow him. We were in a capitol city, and it didn’t have the signs that it was pvp marked, so I figured it had to be a gm. I waved to Siffu, and whispered her to wait for me in the area and that I would be right back.

                “Sorry to bother you at such a time, but we needed to have a word with you.”

                “Ok, what is up?” I asked, semi expecting that I was about to get word I was going to die or something like that.

                “We decided not to pull you out of the ceremony for the meeting that we had up at the MoonWell. We have good news.”

                “Great… what is it?”

                “We believe we found the safe way to disconnect you and get you out of here. We already have several volunteers, and one of which is already out. We can have you out of here in just a few hours.” He smiled broadly as he looked up at me.

                I sat down, breath nearly taken away. I looked over at Siffu and could see how happy she was. I envisioned myself beside her, joining her in bliss. I tried to look away and not catch her eyes, as I must have looked pale at something this ghostly figure just told me. Instantly the whole time here passed before my eyes, an emotional maelstrom. From fear, to anger, to happiness and love.

                “Wh-wh-what happens to her?” I mumbled.

                “She… gets reset to just an alt for you to play. The AI goes back to the agency.”

                “Do I get any say in this?”

                He just shook his head.

                “How long do I get to say goodbye?” I was nearly at a whisper now.

                “We can put you at the bottom of the list, but that will still only be about a day.” He said, putting one hand on my shoulder.

                I wanted to cry, but couldn’t. How odd was it that a program could cry, but I couldn’t!? I noticed that she was starting to come over my way, and I motioned for her to stay back. I turned my back to her, so she would not see me like this.

                “We will contact you a few minutes before we are ready to log you out. I’m really sorry man. I know you’ve become so close to her, and found such a place here. Look at it this way, you should be able to log back in and play like normal whenever you want to after this.”

                “Ya. But without her, I’m not sure I want to. Hell, how am I supposed to live without her?!” I sobbed without a single tear.

                “I honestly don’t know man. Everyone else was ecstatic to be leaving. I just don’t have the words to help you out right now man. And I have to contact one more person… I must be on my way.” He again patted my shoulder, and faded out.

                I quickly pulled myself together and put a fake smile on. I didn’t want Siffu to worry in the least.

                “Is everything ok, babe?” Siffu’s voice was close behind me.

                I mocked a stretch and turned to see her standing so beautifully, head at such an angle to just catch the sunlight across both cheeks. “Ya babe… it’s gonna be ok. Just got some news, but nothing for certain. Gotta wait on it to see if it pans out.”

                “Ok, well… it’s almost raid time… you coming?” she said with a glint of genuine joy for it.

                “Yep. Just need to send a couple messages real quick and I want to arrange a surprise for a friend, is that ok?” I asked.

                “Sure… we are forming up the group, just let us know when you are ready, we will summon, ok?” she swapped to her healer gear and waved as she mounted up and rode off to the appointed meeting spot.

                ‘Hey, GreyStoker… think you can motivate the guild for a really short warning wedding for me and Siffu? We just watched the one in SilverMoon, and she really wants one. I just got told that my time here might be ending tomorrow, and I want to give her something fast. I was thinking up at TwoMoons since she likes it so much there. Thanks TankaZealot. Btw… this is supposed to be a surprise, let’s do this quietly. I’m gonna check for a wedding dress and such on the auction house. Again, thanks.’ Was the message I sent off to the guild master. Now it was just time to kill.

 

                It didn’t take long to get a response, pretty much as I expected. I knew that to some, it would be just a sort of copycat situation, and to others, it would be genuine. To the vast majority… it was just role-playing, and that was just what I expected as well. It was all set, and as luck would have it, not only was there a wedding dress transmog on the auction house, but a full suit, and a couple of grey rings that were labeled ‘gaudy wedding ring’. It was all set. The surprise would likely be my going away present.

 

                The hours passed, the raid was successful, and I was watching my friend list dwindle rapidly, all the fellow jammers were going offline. It was down to less than fifty of us as the surprise was sprung on her.            

                “Here, I got you a few things off of auction house, babe… and I arranged everything….” I opened a trade window with Siffu, and slowly placed all the bits in it.

                She was audibly choked up. I had a hard time looking her in the eyes, because her crying was not what I wanted to see. She happily accepted, and then held me close. It was mutual. She put on everything, and looked amazing. I slapped on the suit and all the accutremone that went with it, and just as we got that done, we noticed that the main area of TwoMoons shrine was all lit up, and quite the crowd had shown up. Side by side we made our way to the steps, where a friend was on his undead priest, and the ceremony was starting. Everything except her seemed so far away. I got several messages all at once, and I just ignored them. Probably just well wishers.

                We took one another’s hand and she repeated after the priest.

                Now she too was further away… and growing dark.

                Then everything went dark.

                It was many minutes before I started to be aware again. I could feel the helmet and the gloves come off. I could feel the lights of the hospital bright as the sun on my closed eyes; I instinctually reached up to the sun, as I had done so many times in my patch of grass. This time, though half blinded by the light, I saw five fingers, not three. Between sobs I heard myself screaming “NO… NOT YET… PUT ME BACK IN… SHE HAS TO SAY YES… I HAVE TO SAY YES….NOT YET… NOT YET…” and it all went dark again. I prayed that they were putting me back in.

                They… were not.

               

                From what I was later told, even in my extremely weakened state, it still took a handful of nurses and doctors, as well as one of the two technicians that were there for the computer end of stuff to hold me down as they doped me into a near coma again. This time, when I awoke… I could not stop crying. The pain was immeasurable. My heart felt like it was on the constant edge of exploding in my body. I had grown weak and clumsy. Sure… I had also lost a lot of weight, and from what I was told, was borderline non-diabetic now. Hell, aside from the stress of the situation, I had even seemed to lick the high blood pressure stuff. But I could not stop seeing Siffu’s face everywhere I looked. They would not let me anywhere near a computer for almost a week. And even then, no SMART gear. They were unsure the long term effects of being under for that long. One nurse said that it would be like an astronaut coming back, I would need time and effort to regain strength. No one there understood why I needed to go back. No one offered to contact blizz for me to see how things went with her.  Then I got one email. It was forwarded several times, with addresses that were redacted.

 

                My Dear Tanka…

                I hope this finds you well, as I’ve been told you logged off. While my heart breaks for us, I wanted you to know that my love for you was real. They say they have to take me offline. I am scared. But I know that no matter what happens, I will always live in your heart.

                Sincerely,

                Your cuddle bear… Siffu.

 

                Ps… I said… I do, and I will forever.

 

 

                Months went on and on, as did the tests I had to go through. The physical therapy sessions, followed by sessions with a shrink. A shrink I lied to so many times that she finally agreed that I was in a good place, and could stop seeing her, unless I needed to. But Siffu was in every dream.

                It was after one of these dreams, that I awoke and sat at the edge of my bed… staring at the wall. I had of course logged into wow once, just to see if she was still there. The character was. But clearly she was gone. I must have cried for hours. So long that I ran out of tears.

                I reached over and picked up my old shotgun, wanting simply to end it all. In some way I hoped that I could find myself in some bright light holding her close again.

                “It’s not worth it…” I could hear her voice from somewhere far in the back of my mind. I set down the shotgun, and lay back down. Reaching for the ceiling, I closed my eyes, hoping to never open them again.

Author's Note

ignore grammer and spelling for now, i will edit names and such later.
includes some mature stuff (just a heads up)