Look me in the eye and tell me that this is more important than my sleep.

Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 3rd Generation
Current Date: August 23, 2058

Character: Kimberly Storm
Race: Halfling – Human / Strife
Age: 47, physically about 25
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
 

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I am not a late sleeper. Even if I like to go out on walks after the whole world has gone to sleep—preferably with Dem—I’m not one to sleep in late. I don’t like the idea of wasting away my day when I could be doing something so much more with said day. Sure, there are days when I’ll still be lounging in bed after seven or eight but it’s rare. I feel as though eight tends to be my latest wake-up hour.

I suppose it might not come as much of a surprise that I’m closer to my niece and nephews than I am to some of my other family members. We were born around the same years, we went to school at the same time and all of that stuff. I’m not saying I’m not close to my older siblings or my younger ones, but more time was spent while growing up, with those closer to my age, so that’s a bit of a given, I think.

Every so often, I’ll get together with Jasmyn because, you know, girls will be girls and all of that rot though we have so little in common that this thought actually makes me smile more than not. Jas has always been a bit more the tomboy one—though she has a plenty feminine side—but between her love for all things parkour and the fact that for a while as we were growing up, she really did favour more masculine or unisex clothing, I’d like to think that calling her a tomboy isn’t that far off.

We still got along fairly well, same family, similar nature, even if I already was more of a skirt-and-make-up type to her parkour-and-outdoor games. We just got along well.

And we still get along well unless she somehow decides that waking me up at five in the morning for an outing that we’d planned for later in the day is a good thing. Now, I don’t go all rage-and-murder on her, that’s moot, but I’m not above staring at her with a deadpan look and asking her if she really thought that getting up that early for our hike was more important than sleep.

As it had turned out, though, she’d been right in waking me up when she did. I hadn’t really taken the day’s potential temperatures into account and man, going early, even while the sun was still just barely starting to look up beyond the horizon had been worth it. By the time we were coming back down the hill from our hike, it was so hot that it made me wish to jump right into the pool at home and forget we were ever outside, to begin with.

If we’d gone any later, I know that we’d have probably been at the top of that hill at the hottest point and I’ll be honest, I don’t know that either one of us would have been able to make it back down without having to deal with a heatstroke. It was so hot that by the time we got back to the main streets, there wasn’t a single person outside. The flowers and plants were droopy, and I was glad that we’d brought a pale umbrella to at least help with the sun a bit. We had our hats, but hats wouldn’t have protected the rest of our exposed skin.

The umbrella didn’t help with the heat, but it provided a small amount of shade that I’m glad we had as we came back down. Though I’m not gonna lie, I did roll my eyes at her as she gave it to me to clip to my small day pack for our hike. I thought she was planning for us to somehow get caught in the rain or something and, well yeah. Leave it to me to not pay attention to these things but you know what, it’s fine.

When we do go out this way, I know she’ll always keep track of the weather as need be. She always spends so much time out there that I guess it makes sense for her to know what kind of weather she’ll be spending her time in. As far as I’m concerned, I could get wet while on a walk and it’d be fine. I could get a little hot while on that walk too and I’d deal but I’m still not really used to going out on longer hikes though we go every so often.

In the end, I leave it to her to be prepared as best as we need to be but I’m still going to complain and fuss a little about being woken up as early as I had, even if it was for a good cause.

Final Word Count: 800

You’re not allowed to leave me out here. It’s dark, it’s scary, and I refuse to be used as bait for cryptids.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Kimberly Storm
Race: Halfling – Human / Strife
Age: 46, physically about 25
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
Final Word Count: 840 words
 

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I’m still not sure how it is that he managed to convince me to try the full immersion again, though, I don’t think it’s so much that I was convinced more as I was tricked into it. I suppose it’s somewhat okay. He’s with me, there at my side, seeming to be trying to gauge my reaction. It’s been two decades, and I know that, technically speaking, there have been more leaps and bounds done since that day when I was twenty-two and even more bugs have been fixed. I don’t know how long I spent going to the doc. I hated going, I stalled every time, but I still went.

I do still go once a year, we all have to, the subject isn’t usually really brought up because it’s a part of my life that I’ve tried to leave behind. It left no real lasting marks on me, I mean, other than the fact that I’ve refused to do full immersion again, but I don’t think that’s something that’s really life-changing. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t go in there so it’s not that big of a deal.

But yeah, here I am today.

This isn’t a jungle setting. The heat isn’t oppressive. There are no sand pits though I know that in setup, there might still be mud traps but that’s okay. Dem is with me, though I feel a bit like I could sulk him for this change in our plans. When we talked about a near-midnight walk—don’t give me that look, taking walks out after dark with the moon for company is weirdly soothing—I had expected us to do as we’ve done before. Pack up a few things and head out not, well, stay in.

I put on a brave face when I realized I could feel that bare little difference between proper reality and virtual reality. I don’t think I could tell up until the incident but since then, it’s like there’s something in me, a sort of low hum that I can usually ignore. It’s there whenever I enter the virtual reality room, even when it is set to its dormant state.

My main defence mechanism that comes up when I end up in a situation that I don’t want to be in is akin to… well I’m not sure. I don’t know how to really explain what happens in my brain and how I react. All I know is that it’s as though my mind is trying to turn the tables. It’s like, hey, yeah, you know what, you brought me here, well I’m going to leave you here all on your own in the dark, ready for whatever cryptid might be waiting because that’s totally a mature thing to do.

And my mind was flickering between trying to remain calm and panicking, even though he was right there beside me. So, at that point, I don’t think my brain even realized the implication that came with the fact that leaving him on his own in this dark and, to me just then, scary place would mean that I would also be on my own in there.

I only took three paces away before I was right back at his side, noped right out of the mindset that had come over me and that was that. His presence right next to me, his hand in mine, eventually they managed to calm down the racing of my heart. I’ve been in the virtual room before, just not in full immersion. I’ve been in the room in partial immersion, usually in displays that only made use of the walls and part of the room but not all of it. These I can manage because I can tell that the door is right there in case I need anything.

I’m not sure how long it took before my heart settled, by the time it did, his hand still around mine and secure, I had managed to take in the full moon, the brightness of the night around us due to that full moon. The fact that, sure, there were trees behind us and a long, winding pathway beneath our feet that seemed to go as far as the eye could see on either side of us. There was a large lake—ocean, I later learned—in front of us and just, it was beautiful.

So, I made myself walk and, eventually, I guess I managed to enjoy myself. A full-immersion visit had been part of the plan at some point again in my life. I just didn’t know that I’d ever be ready again. His reasoning, at that point, was that it had started pouring by the time we’d been ready to head out. How I hadn’t noticed that is beyond me but considering how muddy our yard was the following morning, I believe him.

It wasn’t a terrible outing. I’m not sure I’m ready to repeat it just yet, but I think that if he’s with me, I should be okay.

You can’t possibly think that I can’t recognize when someone is trying to stall for time.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Kimberly Storm
Race: Halfling – Human / Strife
Age: 45, physically about 25
Final Word Count: 733 words
 

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I still think about the incident with the AI and the full immersion I’d gone into. I don’t think about it often, but whenever I’m looking through the pad to change something slight in the house or when I’m looking through the system for a potential getaway and I fall onto something that screams, ‘jungle, heat, sand!’, the memory crawls back to the surface and I wish it wouldn’t.

After that particular incident, I had nightmares for a long time. Only being near Dem made my nights bearable and I know I exhausted him by trying to stall when it was time for me to head in for a head check. I didn’t want to go in to talk to anyone. The idea of talking about what had happened felt like it would threaten to bring everything back to the surface and, well, the rest is history, isn’t it?

So yeah, sure, I did lie to him plenty about what I was doing just before every single appointment to the head doc. Totally not trying to stall, really not. I did end up going, just as I did end up talking about the whole experience and it was at that point that they also told me that they’d found a huge bug in that setup though they hadn’t yet found out what had caused the bug.

They did block access to that particular outing for close to two years until they fixed it. I never did ask to know if it had been something in the AI, something in the setup, or something in my make that had created the bug. I don’t want to think about it, even now.

This thing about stalling for time, though, it did come in handy in a sort of playful way last year when I had prepared a special outing for the two of us on his birthday. I admit that I had waited up until the very last minute but that’s because I just hadn’t known which destination to choose and, by the time I had made up my mind, I’d needed a bit more time for everything to be ready so I did what I’d done back then to avoid going to the doc.

Yeah, he got suspicious about halfway through my stalling but when I take into consideration how he reacted when we finally stepped through and all of the little bits and extras I’d set up were there? It was so worth the half-arsed lies because, well, that’s what they’d been.

I can’t lie to Dem, even if it were to save my life. I used to be able to before. When we were younger, when we were just friends. It actually felt a bit natural to lie and that feels weird to admit to that now. I want to say I can blame my genes for that and maybe I can but I’ve outgrown this thing. It’s not like I’m a terrible person and I lie constantly. I didn’t even lie constantly back then though I did have an issue with authorities but can you blame me?

I really do try to not keep things waiting until the very last minute. Stalling for time is an actually exhausting sort of thing for me to do and it does bring me back to a time in my life that I wish I could just forget.

Once in a rare blue moon, I’ll fall into a nightmare that’s a pretty close repeat to the event that triggered it all and to just feel myself becoming slowly more trapped as it all happens? As I slowly sink into that sand with no way out? It’s terrifying.

One of the things I’ve discussed with the doc, back then, was that, just maybe, I could try a full immersion trip again but with Dem. It would be safe in case something completely out of the blue was to happen, I would be able to be drawn out of it and I know they have a point. I know it’s true. I know it could work out that way but I can’t bring myself to.

Just the idea of going back into full immersion makes my heart rate spike, it makes my chest tighten and you could honestly think I’m having a panic attack and I don’t do panic attacks so let’s just not, okay?

Okay.

Do you ever feel stuck?

 
Timeline/World: Atheria – 3rd Generation
Characters: Kimberly Storm
Race: Halfling – Human / Strife
Age: 42, physically about 25
Final Word Count: 728 words
 

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I’ve never been a very big fan of virtual reality. At least, not the completely immersed kind. The kind where you step into that room in your house and set up the play out and then it’s like you’re there. You can smell the grass; feel the wind, the heat of the sun, the whole thing. I’m not comfortable in these for a reason that I personally find very valid but that I know isn’t all that valid but I suppose I should start at the beginning before anyone asks any stupid questions like why would you be afraid of something that’s not real?

Why? Because I’ve read stories of people dying in virtual reality but that is beside the point.

When I was twenty-two, I signed up for a day’s adventure out into a foreign land. Sure, all lands are foreign when you grow up as I did, as we all did but this one promised heat, humidity, jungle adventures, beasts and the rest. It seemed interesting and why would I say no? I do have an adventurous side and I did want to try so all in all, why not? At least, that what I’d told myself. I still wish I hadn’t and I’ve not done much more than basic walk-through since.

The AI guide was interesting; she would ask genuine questions about how the outing so far was feeling as well as what I felt were leading questions that did just that, they lead to her giving me more information. I liked that, until her query was a simple ‘do you ever feel stuck?’, it didn’t seem like such a bad question at the moment it left her mouth, I figured she was going to talk about sand pits or something else so I stopped, we’d stopped briefly every time she’d asked a question so we could discuss the point.

Bad idea. I went to shift my weight and I found out that I couldn’t lift my feet, not enough for comfort and when I looked down, I realized I wasn’t going to get out without some help.

The thing is I wasn’t going to get any help from her. While we were both completely tangible here in this VR, she was giving me this look, I can’t explain it. It’s like she was congratulating herself on a job well done. It was terrifying.

I didn’t mind at first, every single session has a time release and a safety net that shuts everything off if it senses that our vital signs are off the charts, if it senses that we’re in danger. It wasn’t that way in the first years, I’m told, but after a few bad incidents, it was included into the protocols and I was just waiting for everything to go dark as I was sinking. I didn’t think to call off an end to the session and I was sure it wouldn’t have worked because I’d turned that feature off. My session was on a time release because I’d been so sure I’d be fine.

The sinking was slow, I felt like I spent hours just sinking with her looming over me. I didn’t want to struggle and sink faster, that was even more terrifying.

By the time the sand was up to shoulders, my panic had gotten out of hand and I was screaming and crying and… I don’t remember the rest. I just remember having to stop screaming because the sand was up to my mouth and after that there was darkness.

Dem got me out of the room. It’s all I know. I’m still not sure if he’s the one who shut the session down or if my partial strifeness had something to do with it. I just remember waking up some time later—hours, as it turned out—and curling up against him to cry my heart out. I don’t know how long I cried, I just cried until exhaustion pulled me back under for a few more hours of sleep.

The techs were told about the session and as it turns out, there was a huge bug in it. They don’t know whether it was the AI itself or the session but both were taken apart for safety’s sake. I don’t really care. I’m not going back in a fully immersed session, I just can’t.

Nothing was out of place.

Timeline/World: Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Kimberly Storm
Race: Halfling – Human / Strife
Age: 41, physically about 25
Final Word Count: 563 words

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I admit that I do have a slight perfectionist side, that coupled with just a bare hint of what they’d called ‘obsessive-compulsive disorder’ back then, and there were certain things that bugged me. I say a ‘bare hint’ because it’s just about right. I don’t need to wash my hands every time I do something, I don’t need to open or close doors, lights or anything else a set number of times, I just like my things to be placed perfectly so, otherwise it bothers me.

It also doesn’t really apply to everything; it’s mostly things on shelves, things that are out on display. So books, because I have a pretty big collection of hardcovers and paperbacks I love to read, compact discs, because I’m old-fashioned but everyone still has those despite the fact that it’s easier to just get music on thumb drives nowadays but I like to be able to look through my collection and just, things like these.

Thing is, the way I need these to be, the order, tends to change now and again, not often but often enough that it gives me something to do, usually when I’m sick—a pretty rare occurrence—and I guess that you could say it actually soothes me to fix these things. I’m not the type who’ll go haywire because someone didn’t place the book back in its spot or perfectly aligned but it will bug me and I’ll just take it from where it is and place it back where it should be, at least in my mind’s eyes.

This particular habit has led to funny, at least to me though I’m sure he’s found them funny later on, situations with Demetrius. I’m an orderly soul. Considering my lineage, I suppose that could be worth a chuckle. Keys? Bowl in the entryway, magazines, because yeah, we still get stuff and it’s interesting to read, in a particular rack. These don’t need to be in order or anything but I like them to be in the area they should be at; it just makes sense to me. So I admit that often enough before, not as much now, if I’d spot his or my keys—not everything works with key cards after all but most things—elsewhere than in the bowl, I’d take them, bring them back and most of the time, not long after, I’d get a ‘where are the keys?’ out of him. I found it hilarious.

It was a little hard at first, this living together thing. This whole thing about getting used to his habits and mine. Getting used to who was placing what where and how we’d set things up. I might have a bit of a hard time adapting to major changes but I’ve worked on that in the years we’ve been together and I’d like to think that I have adapted, that I’ve changed and it’s all thanks to him. I’m glad, I really am and I wouldn’t change a thing about how our life has panned out since we first met.

I would be a very miserable soul if he hadn’t been there with me from the start and my life would be pretty meaningless, so even if I have to go through all the changes I did for us to be together, I’d do it all over again if it meant being with him.