[FWC 17] - Experimental Realism [NSFW]

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[FWC 17] - Experimental Realism [NSFW]

#1 Post by Jam »

I was quite time crunched to write this in a month, since I was busy working on another project, *cough* Shamless Plug https://youtu.be/yH_iBK8bSIU *cough*, but I managed to get it completed just in time. I apologise, it ended up being 24k words.

Experimental Realism: Chapters 1 & 2
Spoiler!

Experimental Realism
By Jamie Williams

Chapter 1 - Choices


This story begins in a pretty mundane way, in a bar, with Jayce, a man too young to be his age of 25, and his best friend Dave, who shares the same years but is a more accurate representation of the age. Dave is standing at the edge of the bar counter, whilst Jayce is leaning over it excitedly trying to get the bartender's attention. “Two Glasses of your cheapest vodka please”,The bartender unfazed by the request begins pouring, “A glass of vodka? That’s not exactly how I wanted to start my night.”, says Dave, deciding to chime in. Jayce gives him a squirrely look back, “Either you’re joining me, or I’m just going to drink them both.”, Dave reluctantly grabs one of the glasses against his gut instinct, and pays for both the drinks with a slight sigh, Jayce shoots him a smile.

Immediately taking generous sips of his drink, Jayce doesn’t even grimace, Dave trying to think of a way to delay the fate his friend has chosen for them asks a question he knows will distract, “What do you think of those activists who tried to give us pamphlets out the front?”, Jayce’s expression immediately gets quite a bit serious, “You mean the Yang guys!?”, Dave proceeds cautiously, “yes? I believe that’s what their shirts said.”, Jayce, replies immediately, almost as if it was a life or death situation, “Man, those guys are bad news! They may put up a peaceful front, but I've done my research, they’re crazy!”. Dave realising he might of just opened his own personal version of pandora's box, that isn’t going to close anytime soon, bites the bullet, “Well what do they even do?”. Anticipating the question Jayce replies even faster than before, “Yang’s are just modern day Amish, maybe they’re not against all technology, but they hate the more extreme stuff.”, Dave slightly intrigued asks, “What do you mean extreme?”. Jayce thinks for a second while taking another sip, “Stuff like the CERN Large Hadron collider, you know the one that smashes particles together and such?” He pauses until Dave gives a knowing nod, ”Well they are convinced stuff like that is somehow gonna tear holes through reality or something”. Dave raises an eyebrow, “Well sure that makes them a little obnoxious, but not crazy?”, Jayce concedes, “Well maybe that doesn’t, but recently I've read they’re sending death threats to people, and are planning to carry out attacks on research labs and such”, Jayce has clearly lost Dave. “I don’t know if I believe that.”, replies Dave, “This is starting to sound like another one of your conspiracies”, Jayce, quite animated, snaps back, “Hey! They’re not conspiracies if there is proof, and I know for a fact there was a price on that Dukes head!” he finishes of his vodka then slams the glass down on the counter, and prepares to go into detail, but Dave stops him, “I wasn’t even referring to that one.”.

After several minutes of listening to assumptions and leaps in logic, Dave is becoming increasingly disinterested with the conversation he started with Jayce. Unable to find an out and hoping for a saviour, Dave’s mind is seemingly read, When Jayce is pushed aside mid sentence by a woman who has clearly been listening in for a little while, She has a powerful quality to her that silences Jayce without a word, she focuses her attention on Dave and speaks, “Hey, I hate to interrupt your wallnut of a friend here.” she shoots a quick glance at Jayce, “But he’s talking nonsense and you look bored with it,” Her accent is ever so slightly Upper class giving each word a more official feel, “I thought I might rudely interrupt him, and ask if you wanted a drink?” Dave looks down at his still full glass of Vodka, then hands it to Jayce, and agrees to the strangers request. Jayce is offended by the whole interaction, but quickly realises he is now a third wheel and walks off inaudibly mumbling something about nuts to himself.

“Thank You for helping me out there, my friend can sometimes get a little too into his… theories.” says Dave, the woman smiles at him in reply then gestures to the bar, Dave quickly adds on “Oh, right, yes of course, a drink is the least I can do, order whatever you’d like”, “What a gentlemen.” she replies then quickly turns to the bartender who is already prepared to serve her “I’ll have a Pina Colada with ice cream instead of coconut cream” the bartender gets started, Dave curiously requests a second for himself “That’s an odd drink, something you order often?” he asks, “No, not at all, infact it sound dreadful, I don’t even like Pina Coladas” The woman replies, noticing Dave’s befuddled expression she continues, “I have this theory, that the perfect drink is out there, and I just haven’t found it yet, so everytime I order I make sure to try something new”, “Have you had much luck?” inquires Dave, “No, not at all, but you’ll never succeed at something if you don’t keep trying” she says gleefully, Dave Smiles at this sentiment. They Grab the drinks and both take a sip, almost instantaneously the pair of them let out audible gags followed by laughter.

Jayce not having his friend with him anymore decides to make his own fun, he spies a group of people starting to meet up at a table, and immediately focuses in on the jug of cider in the center, he gulps down the second vodka he got from Dave and proceeds to his goal. Jayce struts as confidently as he can manage up to one of the guys in the group, a man a little younger then him, “Hey, sorry I’m so late.” Says Jayce, pretending to be older than he is, he continues, “I haven’t seen you since you were about this big.” he says holding his hand about half a metre off the ground, The man positively bewildered replies, “This is actually my first time at a Yang meeting, do I know you from somewhere else?” Jayce trying to get out of the situation fakes a laugh, then rapidly shuffles through everyone and pours himself some cider from the jug he was eyeing earlier.

After some conversation with the woman, Dave Realises they haven’t introduced themselves yet and proceeds to give his name “By the way, I’m Dave.”, He waits expectantly, After a few seconds the woman replies, “Oh no, I’m not giving you my name that easily.”, Not for the first or last time that night Dave looks perplexed, She continues, “Where’s the fun in life if you know everything from the beginning? Don’t you enjoy a little bit of mystery, maybe i’ll tell you next time.”, Dave’s eyes light up a little bit, “So what I’m hearing, is that there is going to be a next time?”, she rebuts “That’s entirely up to you, but in any case you need something to call me for now, so how about “Ellie”, that’s my nickname.”. Finishing their drinks they proceed to order another one of Ellie's creations.

Jayce has been pretending to be part of the Yang meeting for quite a few drinks by now, generally tuned out of what’s going on whilst everyone else is listening intently to a woman, seemingly in charge of the event. With the meetup apparently coming to a close, Jayce attempts to quietly get up and leave, but fails miserably in his state, tripping over the leg of a chair, and drawing the the leader's attention, causing her to raise her voice and direct it at him “It has come to my attention that we have some new members, so I would like them to introduce themselves.”, She motions to Jayce who now resembles a deer in headlights, and the new guy he talked to earlier.

Dave and Ellie have since moved away from the bar and are sitting at a table, with new concoctions in their hands. “So what exactly do you do for a living?” asks Ellie, “I Set up computer networks for various clients.”, Replies Dave, He gets motioned to continue, “Well I’m a freelancer, it pays well enough, certainly enough to support me and my perpetually broke friend…”, As if summoned, Dave notices Jayce charging towards him. Running at breakneck speeds with a stumble every other step Jayce eventually reaches Dave and grabs onto his arm pulling him from his chair while continuing to run towards the exit of the bar yelling incoherently at first until he finally gets the words right, “We gotta go, bring your girlfriend if you must.”, Ellie not exactly sure what’s going on, but wanting to keep up with Dave decides to go along leaping out of her chair in an almost choreographed manner, and begins to run, easily keeping pace with Jayce’s drunken bolt, and Dave’s still not correctly placed feet.

The three of them burst onto the street and continue to run, Dave tries to look back to see who's following them, but Jayce yells at him not to and adds on something incoherent about them not getting recognized. After a few blocks of running Jayce spots another bar and drags Dave in, Dave is mildly out of breath, whilst Jayce looks as if he is on death's door. Looking around Dave questions “Where’s Ellie? I thought she was right behind us.” he looks a bit concerned, Jayce gestures with one arm for a second to catch his breath before he replies, but before he can Ellie runs in through the door, “Sorry about that,” she says “I lost you two for a minute back there.”, Dave smiles at her. He asks Jayce “What was all that about anyhow?”, Jayce finally having caught his breath replies “I was involved with this meeting thing with Yang, but don’t worry I wasn’t listening, so they couldn’t poison my mind, I was only there for the free cider,” Dave doesn't look surprised, Jayce continues ”but when they found out that I was somehow immune to their brainwashing they came after me.” The other two look at each other puzzled, and then begin to laugh, Jayce feels frustrated “I’m not joking,” he says, “they were after me, right behind us! I’m actually not sure how we even managed to outrun them.”, Dave takes pity on his friend stops laughing. “Well whatever happened they aren’t after us now,”, he says, Jayce smiles, Dave continues “anyway there’s karaoke here, You’re pretty good at music stuff right? I mean you do it for a living.”, “I’m a DJ not a singer!” Jayce snaps back.

Over an hour has passed, Ellie and Dave have since moved to a table where they have been talking again clearly having a good time, while Jayce is singing karaoke on stage clutching the mic in one hand, and a drink in the other. A woman approaches Ellie and taps her on the shoulder “We’ve been looking all over for you, come on you’re already late”, the woman pays no notice to Dave, Ellie gestures the woman to wait for a few seconds. Whilst waiting she notices Jayce on stage singing and scoffs at him, presumably due to him slurring half the words. “I’m sorry, I really should've left earlier but I was having such a good time.”, says Ellie, then thinks for a second, “How does coffee tomorrow sound?”, Dave can’t contain his smile and replies “That sounds great, and also means I’ll get your name too right? So I can contact you?”. The woman waiting on Ellie is trying her hardest to ignore the conversation going on in front of her, but is clearly agitated by having to wait for the exchange to conclude. Ellie slides Dave a napkin with her number on it, “Maybe you’ll get the name tomorrow, but this will do for now.”, Dave thinking for a second asks “When did you write this?”, Ellie smiles, “If I told you that, then you’d know when I made up my mind, and I’m not letting you think too much of yourself.” she gets up, turns to the woman and nods, they walk off, Dave gives a little wave even though he knows Ellie can’t see it.

After sitting for a few minutes thinking to himself, Dave’s concentration is broken by chanting, he turns to look what’s going on. Somehow Jayce is still singing karaoke with the mic but has gotten off the stage onto the bar counter and is dancing, half the patrons in the place are cheering him on with a chant, whilst the bartender is yelling at him to get down, suddenly he slips landing face first onto the counter, a chorus of “ooooooooo”, and sharp breaths in, can be heard by the crowd that was previously chanting, they quickly disperse. Sensing he should intervene Dave runs over to collect Jayce.

Helping his half drunk, half concussed, incoherent friend walk back to their House, Dave is in a surprisingly good mood, Jayce finally says something Dave can understand, “I was such a good dancer, I should be like one of those Russian guys who do the crouching thing.”, “A Russian?” Dave says back, “You’d have to be able to hold your liquor a lot better.”, They both share an amused chuckle. “That girl you were talking to?” asks Jayce, “What of her?”, replies Dave cautiously, “Well, I think you two looked good together, even if she did call me a cashew.”, Unsure what his friend is on about, Dave thinks for a few second then says “Walnut, Jayce, She called you a Walnut.”, Jayce somehow appears more disappointed with being called a walnut. In his best impression of a sobre person Jayce replies, “Well in any case, no matter what type of nut she called me, I still haven’t seen you that happy in a long time, especially since you’ve been jobless.”, Dave shoots him a slightly annoyed glance, “I’m not jobless, I’m a freelancer, how do you think I pay for all your drinks,” he mellows down a bit before continuing, “but thanks.”. they arrive at what would be a nice looking house if it wasn’t so run down. “Looks like we’re home” Says Dave. Jayce whilst still using one arm to support himself off Dave swings himself around to the mailbox, pulls out a letter, and reads the name it’s addressed to, he looks to Dave and says, “you’ve got mail”, in a robotic voice, they head inside.

Dave is putting Jayce down on the couch, he immediately slumps into position, “just get comfortable right there, I’ll get you some water.”. While Dave is is in the kitchen, Jayce begins to open the letter and read, after a few seconds of intense concentration he yells to the kitchen, “Yo Dave, what’s a…” he re-reads the sentence a few more times, then with a slur says “...Senior Network Engineer at Global OS Tech.”. Dave not knowing Jayce is reading his letter replies back, “It’s a highly prestigious job that’s almost impossible to get for starters, I didn’t know you were into that stuff?”, Jayce still trying to comprehend the letter yells back much louder then he needs to “I’m not, but this letter of yours says something about final round interviews happening tomorrow or something”, Dave quickly heads back into the room. “Are you sure you read that correctly, remember when you misread Santa as Satan?”, Jayce seems offended, “That didn’t hurt anybody!”, Dave shakes his head, “Except for the kids at the christmas parade you were DJ’ing for.”, Jayce’s eyes roll up as he remembers the event, after a few seconds he laughs “Oh yeah, that one parent was so...”, Dave cuts him off by taking letter off him and begins to read, gesturing to Jayce to be quiet.

Upon finishing the letter Dave immediately gets ecstatic, “Holy crap Jayce, I've never been so happy that you were right.”, Jayce looks surprised while Dave continues, “I actually got into final round interviews, it's tomorrow in the city, it’ll take me all day to get there and back, how did I miss this letter?”. Suddenly Dave’s excitement dies down, “If I get the job I’m going to have to move.”, he says as a his smiles fades away. Jayce doing his best to console his friend replies, “Well it’s not like I've got much going on around here, I’ll move with you.”, Dave appreciates the sentiment but continues with his train of thought, “Thanks Jayce, but that’s not what I mean.”, he takes a seat, “It’s just, I felt like I was getting on really well with Ellie tonight, but there's no way I could convince her, or even expect her to move with me after one night.”. After a few seconds of silence Jayce gives his solution, “Well, why not just decline the job?”, Dave looks unsure, “It’s not that straightforward, that job is a once in a lifetime opportunity, it could make me a millionaire in under a year.”, Jayce quickly replies without much thought, “Well you could get lucky and not even get the job, or this Ellie girl might not even like you?”, to Jayce’s surprise this doesn’t make Dave feel better, he lets out a sigh, “Really comforting words there Jayce.”.

While Jayce is passed out on the couch, Dave is in his room, lying on his bed, in deep thought. Two pieces of paper sit on his bed side night stand, both with a lot of potential, one a napkin with a phone number on it, and one a letter with an address. Unsure of what he wants Dave falls into the clutches of sleep restlessly.

Suddenly, Dave is within an empty space, with no walls, or ceiling, and despite the fact he is clearly standing, there doesn't even appear to be a floor, he begins to wonder what such a space would be referred to as? A room? Surely not since it doesn’t have walls, Nowhere perhaps? he quickly dismisses the entire train of thought as it seems trivial. “Where am I?” Dave asks himself. He feels a presence behind him, he quickly turns to meet the gaze of another man, he was sure no one was with him a second ago but he must of been mistaken. The unknown man begins to speak, “I apologise, this must all be quite concerning to you, but I assure you it is standard, and before you ask, no, you are not dreaming.”, Dave isn’t quite sure whether to believe the man on that last point, but he decides there would be no point to questioning it anyhow, the man continues, “At least not technically, but I’m not here to argue semantics with you.”.

Dave begins to question the mysterious man, “Alright then, assuming I’m not dreaming, which I’m still not sold on, then who are you?”, the man takes this opportunity to make a joke, “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”, he says in a cold voice, his humor is clearly lost on Dave though who immediately continues his line of questioning, “Alright, you’re the second person today who has refused to give me a name, so how about you just give me something to call you?”, the man laughs about something then responds, “Well I can’t tell you who I am so just call me Dr. Y, but I can tell you why.”. Dave unsure of if the name was supposed to be taken seriously or not proceeds cautiously, “Why? Why What?”, the Dr laughs a bit, “Well I can’t tell you why I can’t tell you my real name of course”, Dave still cautious motions the Dr to go on “Alright then, I’m listening”.

Dr. Y seems to of already planned out the whole conversation in advance “Well, you’re part of an experiment.”, sensing Dave's next question he quickly adds on, ”which you volunteered for of course”, “Because I’d just volunteer to be abducted into a white… whatever this is?” remarks Dave sarcastically. “This place is simply a product of my own laziness, I’ll admit I didn’t feel there was a need to create a detailed physical space for our meetings.”, Dave ponders for a second, “Meetings? Have we met before?”, Dr. Y again seems to have his answer already planned out, “Yes, but you wouldn’t remember, for this experiment we had to erase some of your memory, but you opted to have a bit more than needed removed, in fact a whole year's worth, very specifically to an exact date.”, Dave raises an eyebrow, “I’m not willing to believe this just yet, I mean, I have a very important job interview tomorrow, and a… meeting with someone, why on earth would I give up a year of my memory?”, Dr. Y smiles, “Actually that meeting, and that interview would of been a year ago as of now.”, “Well how did they go then?”, asks Dave eagerly. “I’m afraid I can't tell you that.” says Dr. Y somewhat defeatedly, Dave begins showing outward signs of annoyance, “What! Why not?”. Dr. Y looks at his watch, then gets intently focused, “Dave, just let me explain. You are going to have to make a choice, you’ll know what it is very soon, all I can tell you for now is that you have a week to make this choice, or two, depending on how you look at it, I really do wish I could say more, but our time is running out.”, “What do you mean, why do you keep only giving me half answers?”, replies an agitated and lost Dave, Dr. Y just smiles, “I’m sorry, our time is up.”. An alarm begins blaring, Dr. Y looks up, turns and begins to walk away, Dave tries to speak, but his words make no sound.

Chapter 2 - Monday A

Dave throws himself up in bed, yelling, “No wait! Come back!”, very confused Dave realises the alarm he had just heard was his phone, he checks the time then turns off the alarm, unsure of why he would set his alarm this early he decides to go back to sleep. Upon turning over he sees another figure in his bed, he lets out an inaudible gasp. The figure speaks in a familiar but tired voice, “Oh Dave, I told you setting your alarm to this time would mess with you, you don’t have to wake up early for me, just go back to sleep.”, the figure turns over, it’s a woman he can’t recognize, she shuffles towards Dave and attempts to grab him, but Dave, fully awake now, jumps back away from her in response, almost falling off his bed in the process. The woman speaks again in a more alert voice, “Honey, what’s wrong?”, Dave now recognizes her as Ellie from the bar, he decides to probe for more information, “Nothing… So what happened last night after the karaoke bar?” Ellie replies confused, “The bar? We stayed in last night, are you sure everything's okay?”, “No I ah… I just had a bad dream is all, hey what day is it?”, Ellie is starting to become concerned, “Gee, that must of been some bad dream for you to be that confused, it’s Monday, Dave.”.

For the first time Dave notices that the room he is in isn’t familiar, he notices two doors, one open leading to what seems to be an en suite. “Hey Ellie, I’m gonna gonna go have a shower.”, he says, before jumping out of bed and running to the bathroom, he slams the door behind himself, and immediately turns on the shower. Dave begins to talk to himself “Alright, so what exactly is going on?” he turns to the mirror, and looks at himself, he notices his hair has grown and is in a different style, he touches it just to test that it’s real, “So I had a crazy dream in which some… Dr. Y tells me that I’ll wake up missing a year of my memory, and now apparently I’m dating the girl from the bar that I don’t even know the actual name of, and I’m in an unfamiliar house,” He pauses and looks around the bathroom, noticing a lot of his stuff, “I think I can safely assume I live here, I don’t think I’m in the city, so I guess I didn’t get that job, so overall I guess this situation is both good and bad.”, he pauses and looks at himself some more in the mirror, “Has a year really passed since that night? I have to call Jayce.” He looks around for his phone, after not seeing it he attempts to search his pockets, at which point he finally notices that he isn’t wearing pants, or any other clothes. After a bit more though he remembers putting his phone down after turning off the alarm, “Well that’s fine, I’ll just go and get it, she doesn’t care whether I’m dressed or not… Unless we are the type of couple who likes to have the lights off.” He pauses for a second, “No she’s far too attractive for that.”.

Dave steps out of the en suite, trying to stealthily hold a bottle of shampoo in front of his privates, Ellie is giving him a very strange look, but she’s not quite sure what to say as Dave strafes sideways like a crab towards his phone. “I just forgot my phone.” says Dave, “you need your phone to shower?” quizzes Ellie, “Yes… I read an article last night about...” Dave looks down at the bottle of shampoo he is holding, and gestures to it, “a new way to apply shampoo… but I forgot it… the article, that is.”, he spends a few seconds unplugging his phone from its charger with one hand, then starts scuttles back to the bathroom. “If you need me to drop you off at a doctor's before I head out, I’m more then willing to.”, offers Ellie, “I think I’ll be alright.”, replies Dave before jumping back into the en suite and shutting the door.

Dave begins looking through his phone's contacts, and continues talking to himself “Alright, I need to know her full name, that could be awkward, I’m sure it will be in here.” Dave comes across two names that Ellie could be a nickname for, “Alright so her name is either, Elizabeth, or Amellia… I guess there’s only one way to find out”. Dave opens the door a bit and yells out to Ellie, “Amelia, could you get me a towel?”, there is a silence for a few seconds then Ellie replies, “As in my friend Amelia?” she sounds a bit offended, “What?” replies Dave trying to cover up his mistake, “I didn’t quite hear that Elizabeth?”, Ellie goes silent for a few more seconds, but then hands a towel through the crack in the door, “sure, there you are.” she says, “you really have to start remembering to bring towels in with you.”. Dave safely concludes that Elizabeth must be her real name.

Dave dials Jayce’s number, his voice mail comes up, “Hey it’s Jayce here, if you’re looking for my wicked DJ skills drop me a beat, and leave you message after the beep, hey I just realised my message bank rhymes.” Jayce can be heard chuckling in the background before the phone beeps. Dave hangs up the phone, “Dammit Jayce!” he says, “Wake up already!”, after a few seconds of deliberation he decides to actually have a shower since it would look suspicious to come out dry.

After his shower Jayce enter the bedroom again, and begins to get dressed, “I think I’m going to head over to Jayces house today.” He says to Elizabeth, “Alright,”, she responds, “just make sure you’re not back too late tonight, I have something special planned.”, “I’ll see you tonight then.” Dave replies, then gives Elizabeth a very awkward kiss before doing a stifled walk to the door. It takes him a minute or two of exploration before finding his way out of the house.

Upon leaving the house Dave looks out to the street and immediately recognizes the area, but then realises he doesn’t know where Jayce lives. After some thought he comes to the assumption that Jayce must still live at their old place, knowing Jayce wouldn’t have the motivation to look for a new house. Dave puts the address into his phone and is pleased to find out it’s only a few blocks away, considering the weather seems nice he decides to walk.
He arrives at their old place noting that it is even more unkempt than he remembered, and spots Jayce’s run down car in the driveway “Well,” he says to himself, “I guess I don’t need anymore proof that he still lives here.”. He begins banging on the door, “Jayce, it’s me, get up we need to talk.”, he hears the rattling of some empty cans, followed by Jayce's voice yelling back from inside, “Alright, alright, just give me a minute to find some pants.” they begin to yell a conversation to each other through the door, “Come on man, I don’t care if you’re wearing pants, this is important.”, says Dave, “I don’t either,” replies Jayce, “ but I’m also not wearing any underwear.”, Dave represses the thought that comes to mind, then replies, “Trust me, you’ll want to hear this.”, “Are you finally ready to believe me about Yang?”, “No, even better.” he hears Jayce running, then the door is flung upon. Jayce looks incredibly disheveled and is wearing a dressing gown, “Even better you say?” Jayce tries to hold eye contact, but it’s clear the sun is blinding him, so instead he just ends up doing an awkward squint, he ushers Dave inside then slams the door shut.

Dave is sitting awkwardly on Jayce’s couch, it’s surrounded by empty energy drink cans and half finished bottles of various spirits. A digital clock reads 8:30am, Jayce clearly isn’t used to being up this early, because he is grabbing a few energy drinks from a the fridge which he appears to have relocated to the lounge room, he offers one to Dave, but is declined, “Oh well, more for me then.” says Jayce with a smirk on his face. “Do you do this every day?” asks Dave, “It’s not my fault you got me up so early, the life of a DJ leads to late nights.”, says Jayce, “So you had a gig last night?”, asks Dave, Jayce replies defensively “No, but I could have, so what was so important you had to interrupt my sleep cycle?”. Jayce sits on the couch opposite Dave, legs wide open, Dave avoids looking down, realising Jayce never had a chance to find any pants. “You mentioned whatever you had to talk about was was a bigger conspiracy than Yang being militant, naturally I’m insanely curious.”, Dave shakes his head, “Jayce, those guys aren’t militant, and what I’m about to tell you isn’t a conspiracy.”, Jayce’s eyes widen, and he leans in, “That’s how all the best conspiracies start.”, At first Dave is annoyed by this statement, but quickly realises that his friend is probably right.

“I've had a year of my memory removed.”, begins Dave, “Apparently by choice, and the only person who seems to know why is a man from my dream last night, named Dr. Y.”. There is a silence as Dave and Jayce stare at each other intently, it is finally broken when Jayce begins to laugh, after a few seconds of laughter Jayce notices that Dave hasn’t broken his intensity. “Oh come on, you can’t expect me to believe that, even I have my limits.”, Dave becomes a little defensive at this remark, “Well alright, maybe I didn’t realise how it would sound out loud, but I didn’t have time to practice this, my first thought was, I’ll tell my best friend, he’ll believe me.”, Jayce’s chuckling dies down a little, “A man who comes to you in your dreams? Whose name is Dr. Y? That’s the best name you could come up with? I know you can do better than that.”. Dave still on the defensive snaps back, “Hey hey, I didn’t come up with it, it’s not his real name anyhow, and besides, I think it’s cool.”, Jayce chuckles a little more, “Oh come on, even I know it’s not cool.”, Dave frustration peaks, “Fine, I’ll just find someone else to help me.”.

Dave starts to get up, but Jayce motions for him to stop, “Woah you’re serious aren’t you?”, “Yes!” replies Dave vexed. Jayce takes a breath in “Alright I’m sorry, I thought you were just messing with me, I mean, for real, what kind of name is Dr. Y?”, this makes Dave smile and chuckle a bit, “Yeah,” he says, “I suppose it is a bit ridiculous.”. Jayce now somewhat believing asks “So what’s really up?”, “That’s just the thing,” says Dave, “I really don’t know what’s up.” Jayce strokes his stubble, “Well you said you had a year of your memory missing, so what’s the last thing you remember?”, “It was the night we went to that bar and I met that girl who is currently in my house, or her house, I’m not really sure on that, and I also got that job offer for Global OS Tech.”, Jayce nods, “I remember, that was around a year ago, and you mean Elizabeth?”, Dave is struck a little to have confirmation of the time gap, but quickly shakes his head and continues, “Yeah that was her name, at least I’m pretty sure… it’s definitely not Amelia.”, Jayce is a little confused by this remark. Dave continues, “Anyhow, all I know is I went to sleep last night or last year, and I didn’t dream, I mean, it was too lucid to be just a dream.”, Jayce interjects, “And that’s when you met this Dr. Y?”, Dave nods, “Yeah, and he explained to me that apparently I had a year of my memory voluntarily removed, and I would have a week to make a decision, then I woke up next to Elizabeth very confused.”.

“I don’t trust her.”, says Jayce, as he takes a sip of his energy drink “who Elizabeth?”, Replies Dave, “Is it because she called you a walnut when we first met her?”, Jayce clearly doesn’t recall the event but explains himself, “No, it’s just a personal rule, that I don't like people who don’t like me.”, Dave curious asks, “Why don’t you think she likes you? Or are you just jealous that I apparently spend more time with her then you?”, Jayce gets a little defensive, “No, I don’t see what that has to do with anything, she just always shuts me down whenever I bring up my theories.”, “Conspiracies you mean.”, Jayce sighs, “Right, conspiracies, Anyhow what’s this choice you have a week to make?”, Dave is amused for a moment by Jayce’s response, “I have no idea, but Dr. Y told me I’d know soon enough.”, there is a silence for a few seconds while they both think, Jayce breaks it “Well as long as nothing bad happens to me, I’m okay with it… But just out of curiosity, you wouldn’t make any decision that could hurt me, would you?”, Dave raises an eyebrow at Jayce, “No, At Least I think not?” Jayce is somewhat shaken by this response, Dave laughs, “Relax,” he says, “I doubt the choice even has anything to do with you.” Jayce laughs nervously back, and takes a massive swig of his drink, “Yeah, so what are you going to do?”, Dave just sits back on the couch in silence.

“I don’t know,” says Dave, “In a weird way I was kind of hoping you’d have answers, maybe I should go back and explain the whole thing to Elizabeth.”, “No,” snaps back Jayce, Dave jumps a little, Jayce takes a second to catch his cool then explains, “You’ll only freak her out, I've already told you how she reacts to my conspiracies, and none of those even affect her, where as you’d just be telling her that you don’t remember her almost at all. Besides, she’ll probably be at work by now.” Jayce looks at the clock again and shakes his head in disbelief. “Speaking of her work,” begins Dave, “do you have any idea what she does?”, Jayce shrugs, “I’m not really sure, you’ve told me she doesn’t really like talking about work, but I know she’s been really busy the past few weeks, because you’ve been hanging out with me a bit, I think that’s about all the information on her I can give you, is there anything you wanted to do today?” Dave shakes his head, “I’d say I need a drink, but I suppose it’s too early.” Jayce smiles, “It depends on your perspective,” Dave looks confused, “It could just be really late.”. Jayce tosses Dave one of the energy drinks, Dave reads the label, and notes the alcohol content, “I thought these were just energy drinks?”, “I never said that.” says Jayce with a smile.

Dave having been persuaded by Jayce is biting into a lemon slice after having done a shot of something much stronger than he anticipated, “Holy crap, Jayce what was that?” he groans through clenched teeth, “I’m not really sure.” replies Jayce, “I buy it off some guy who owns a farm, I never thought to ask what was actually in it.” Dave would be laughing if his throat wasn’t burning. After a few more drinks of various things Jayce has around his house they both begin to mellow a bit, Jayce is attempting to show off his DJ skills, whilst Dave is trying to tell him about computer networking, neither aware that the other isn’t particularly interested. Some time later they are both planted on the floor in front of Jayce’s TV playing some games, “Wait,” Dave says, “what time is it?”, Jayce tries to look at the clock but is too drunk to focus on it, “I dunno.” he says, he looks out the window and continues, “Probably like 7 at night.”, “I better go then, apparently Elizabeth has something planned for me.”, Jayce thinks “Well I mean, you’ve been dating her for like probably a year apparently, so I can’t imagine it’s anything to important.”, “Oh crap!”, replies Dave he spends almost a minute trying to get to his feet, then quickly stumbles to the door, Jayce just smirks at the whole ordeal.

Dave throws open the door to his house, and hears Elizabeth calling out to him from the other end of the house, “Is that you Dave?”, he briefly shakes himself into being more sober and replies, “yeah, it’s me.”, “Great, you got back in time,” Says Elizabeth as she begins to walk over to the door, “remember how I said I had something special planned this morning?”, Dave replies simply “Yes.”, “Well,” she says, “as you know, it’s been a year since we met, so I thought maybe we could go out for dinner, I got us a reservation at that fancy restaurant I know you’ve always wanted to try, but we have to….” Elizabeth enters the room, and immediately notices Dave is anything but sober, “...leave soon.”. Dave having had plenty of time to think of what he would say on the way home decides to explain, “This may look bad, but I’m sure I can…”, Dave is interrupted by his stomach, as he suddenly vomits all over the floor, then collapses.

Dave begins to get up off the floor, but notices that he is no longer in his house, but the white space from his dream last night, as he looks around he notices Dr. Y approaching him. “It appears you’ve had quite the party.” comments Dr. Y with a bit of a smirk, Dave quickly jumps to his feet. “Forget about me,” says Dave, “You've got some explaining to do, let's start with your name.”, Dr. Y looks a little confused, “I thought I already told you, I can’t tell you my real name.”, “why not?” snaps back Dave, “Now that’s the right kind of question.” says Dr. Y with a smile. half asking, and half demanding Dave says “Alright, go on then.”. Dr Y as per usual has the conversation planned out, “You have a choice to make.”, Dave doesn’t look impressed, “You already told me that.”, Dr. Y waves the comment off, “I know, but last time you interjected so much I didn’t have time to tell you anything more, you see, the choice you have to make, is a choice between two different realities.”, “Realities?”, “Or universes if you will, but the name is inconsequential, point is they are two identical versions of history.”, “If they’re the same, then why do I have to choose?”, asks Dave. Dr. Y was waiting on this question, “They were the same,” he starts, “up until a year ago that is, when you made a critical decision in your life.”, “what decision?” asks Dave, for once Dr. Y is the confused one, “Perhaps you didn’t realise it was a decision?”, Dave frowns, “What are you talking about? Just be straight for once!”. An alarm starts sounding, “No, not again, not yet!” says Dave while looking around him trying to locate the sound, “I’m afraid our time is up again.” says Dr. Y.

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Jam
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Re: [FWC 17] - Experimental Realism

#2 Post by Jam »

Experimental Realism: Chapters 3, 4, & 5
Spoiler!
Chapter 3 - Monday B

Dave sits up suddenly, “Elizabeth I’m so sorry! Please let me explain…” Dave looks around and realises that again he doesn’t recognize the room he is in. This room is significantly bigger, and nicer looking, with wood paneled walls with intricate carvings where the wall meets the ceiling, and maroon carpet “What the hell is going on?” he says to himself. Jayce throws open the door, he is eating a bowl of cereal, “Well it’s about time you got up, you know something's wrong when even I wake up before you. It’s one in the afternoon, you should be glad you have such a late start, or you’d of been fired long ago.”, “Fired?” Dave begins, “I’m a contract network programmer, I work whenever I want, and I can’t get fired?”, he stops for a second, then asks “what day is it?”, “It’s monday?” replies Jayce cautiously, then continues “Are you missing it already? I thought you liked work as the Senior Network guy at Global OS Tech, or whatever?”, this stumps Dave. He begins to talk to himself under his breath, “But… it was monday yesterday? With Elizabeth, wasn’t it?”. “Elizabeth? Who's that?” asks Jayce, Dave is about to answer when Jayce continues, “Wait, don’t answer that, I don’t need to know what kind of girls you sleep with at the office.” Dave replies defensively, “But she’s not from…” Jayce cuts him off with a shushing motion, “As I said, I don’t need need to know.”.

“Why are we here anyway?” asks Dave, “Well you’re here because it’s your room, as for me, I've been waiting for you to get up all day, I wanted to thank you.” Jayce gets a little more subtle than his usual over the top personality. “Thank me?” replies Dave, Jayce takes a breath in, “Well it’s been a year since you moved out here to the city, and the company provided you with this awesome apartment, bigger than most house’s, and I just wanted to say thanks for taking me along with you, I know I’m not easy sometimes.”, “So, you live here? With me? This is my house?”, asks Dave, “You don’t have to be a dick about it man!” replies Jayce, “No sorry, I’m not trying to be, it’s just…” Dave looks down, not sure what to say. Jayce walks in closer, “Yes?” he prompts, “You’re not going to believe this,” starts Dave, “but… this is my second Monday, this week, and you’re the second Jayce I've talked to…” Jayce looks very confused.

Dave and Jayce are sitting across from each other on leather couches, in the lounge room of the apartment. Dave has just finished explaining everything he knows to Jayce, and Jayce is staring at him intently. Jayce speaks, “So you expect me to believe all that, but you won’t believe me that just maybe Yang could've become slightly militant?”, Dave sighs, “I already told you yesterday… I mean the other you, today! That that’s just ridiculous, they’re just a crazy activist group.”, he pauses, “But Jayce, I swear on our friendship, which apparently holds true in any universe, that I’m telling you the truth!”, as Jayce takes in all the information he lets out a long exasperated sigh that puts Dave’s previous one to shame. “Alright, let’s just say I believe you, but only because it’s too intriguing to pass up.”, Begins Jayce, Dave smiles knowing that he is already convinced, Jayce continues, “the choice that Dr. Y mentioned, is it about universe you want to stay in or something?” Dave thinks, then nods, “That would make sense, and I can’t think of anything else it could be.”. Jayce pauses for a second, and strokes his stubble, “That would mean you get to pick between a reality where you have your dream job, you’re rich, and live with your best friend, or a reality where you’re nothing special and all you get out of it is a girl?”, “Are you only phrasing it that way because you’d prefer to live in a reality where you haven’t given up so much that your fridge is next to your couch?”, Jayce avoids making eye contact, “Maybe.”, he says, before opening the armrest of his couch to reveal a mini fridge inside, from which he takes an energy drink, Dave laughs, but the irony is lost on Jayce. “That is just a normal energy drink, right?” asks Dave, Jayce quickly changes the topic, “So what happens to me if you pick the other reality, do I cease to exist? Because if so, pick this universe, I’m obviously the better Jayce, I mean you said it yourself, my house in the other universe was trashed. There can only be one!”, Jayce takes a sip with his last word. “I don’t know about that.”, Says Dave, “The way Dr. Y phrased it makes me believe that they both already existed, and will continue to exist after I’m gone.”, Jayce replies, “In other words, that’s what the man of your dreams told you.” he chuckles at his own joke, Dave shakes his head, “if that’s how you want to phrase it, then yeah.” Jayce’s chuckling dies down upon a realisation, “What about you though, if you pick the other Jayce and that girl over me, then do you disappear from this reality? Do I lose my best friend?”, Dave get’s sombre, “I… I honestly hadn’t considered that... But I can ask next time I fall asleep.”.

Jayce, sensing that he has damaged the mood of the room quickly takes a sip of his drink, then jumps up in an energetic fashion, “Forget about it,” he says, “no matter what you decide, I’m sure I’ll be fine, both of me, anyway looks like it’s about time for you to head off to work.”, Dave smiles at Jayce’s optimism, “Right yes… Where is that? Can you show me?”, Jayce smirks, “I was afraid you’d never ask, I've always wanted to drive your car”.

After a terrifying car ride with Jayce at the wheel somehow both him and Dave make it to Dave’s work in one piece, a massive tower with the company name “Global OS Tech” in massive letters suspended in front. Dave and Jayce enter the building, Dave is wearing a suit, whilst Jayce is wearing a long sleeve shirt that says, “I’m with him” on it. They head towards an elevator, the front desk receptionist, a young woman, waves at Dave as he walks past, he awkwardly waves back. Jayce whispers to Dave, “Oh man, tell me you went there.”, Dave replies simply, “How would I know?”. He looks at Jayce’s shirt, “Anyway, why are you wearing that? And are you allowed to come up with me?”, Jayce explains, “To answer your first question Mr. Insecure, so no one needs to ask me what I’m doing here obviously, and to answer your second question, you’re the head of a whole department, I think they’ll allow you to have a friend over, plus I want to see how you make so much money.”, “Apparently I’m a senior network programmer, I don’t think it’ll be much fun for you to watch.”, “Okay you got me, I just want to see what kind of women work for such a boring company, if the receptionist was anything to go by, then fine women, the kind who usually wouldn’t give me a second look.”, Dave shakes his head.

Jayce and Dave step into the elevator they’ve been waiting a few minutes for, Dave presses the floor button marked, “networking staff”, it’s right near the top.Just before the door closes a man comes running up waving his hand for them to hold the elevator, Dave holds the door open so he can get in. “Thanks for holding the door back there.” says the man, before giving Jayce’s shirt a quick glance then pressing his own floor button, “No problem.” replies Dave. After riding in silence for a few seconds Jayce taps the man on the opposite shoulder from what he is standing beside, the man is fooled for a second, but then quickly catches on and looks back at Jayce with an unimpressed look, Jayce pretends not to notice. The elevator stops and the man gets off, Jayce immediately starts laughing, “had your fun for the day?”, queries Dave, “Oh come on man.” replies Jayce with a bit of a slur, “We’re just getting started.” Dave looks at Jayce with a shocked look, “Wait… are you tipsy? Damnit Jayce, you drove us here, and you were drunk!”, Jayce quickly replies, “Am I tipsy? It depends on your perspective, mine personally is a bit wobbly, as for your accusation of drunk driving, it didn’t hit me till after we got out of the car.”, Dave stares at him displeased. Jayce continues, ”Don’t worry no one will know I’m drinking here.”, he points to a tube coming out the end of his sleeve, then lifts his shirt to reveal a plastic bladder filled with some kind of blue liquid, “I knew I shouldn’t of let you come along.” Yells Dave, the elevator arrives at their floor, Jayce winks at Dave then steps out of the elevator, Dave whispers aggressively to him so no one else here, “No way Jayce, you’re not going in, I’m driving you back home right now!”, he snaps his fingers and points to the floor in the elevator, “Too bad you’ll have to catch me first.”, says Jayce as he power walks off down a corridor, “Damnit!” says Dave under his breath.

Dave is trying to stealthily chase Jayce down the corridor, they are both doing a walk on the verge of a jog, Jayce is singing “Safety Dance”. Others in the corridor have stopped to watch what is happening. An employee slightly distracted by what’s going on greets Dave, “Good morning Dave, I was wondering if you could...”, Dave cuts him off “Sorry I’m a bit busy at the moment, need to to get to my office for some important stuff, um Gerald I guess?” the employee replies, “Well your office is that way, and my Matt, are you feeling okay sir?”, Upon hearing where Dave’s office is Jayce starts walking backwards toward it while making a truck reversal sounds and doing finger guns to Matt. “Thanks for the info my main man.” he says, Dave adds on, “you’ve been most helpful… Matt.”, “Ah no problem,” says Matt, he continues, “Dave, are we still on for the arcade next week?”, before Dave can reply Jayce does, “Your mother goes to the arcade.” he says, then laughs.

Dave ushers Jayce into his office, then shuts the door behind them, “Well I guess all my apparent co-workers have seen you now.” he says in a hushed but angry tone. Jayce replies, “So that means I can stay? You’re in charge of this whole floor, so it’s not very likely you’ll get in trouble.”, Dave thinks for a second, before ultimately deciding jayce is right, and nodding. Jayce goes to drink some more of his alcoholic fluid from the tube in his sleeve, but stops upon Dave giving him a strong glare. “I've always wanted to see where you work.” Says Jayce, “You mentioned that earlier.”, “Nothing wrong with re-iteration, hmmm, I gotta admit, I’m kinda disappointed with how everyone dresses around here, I mean I imagined all the suits and business shirts being super flashy.”. Dave is a little lost, “But you saw my suit though?”, “ Yeah.... But I just thought you were kinda a stiff or something.” admits Jayce. Dave clearly takes some offence at this remark, Jayce sensing this quickly changes topics, “Anyway,” he says with great exaggeration, “What is it you do here?”, “Well the title if senior network programmer, and there is a computer in my office, so I’m gonna assume it’s something to do with computer networks… and you know… programming them… or at least the protocols.”, Jayce sighs at this response.

“Well log on then.” Says Jayce, starting to get impatient, Dave suddenly realises something, “Uh oh.” he says. Jayce clues on, “You don’t know the password, do you?”, Yeah... But.”, “But what?” queries Jayce, “I don’t see why I couldn’t hack into it?” says Dave with a little bit of uncertainty. “isn't that illegal or something?” asks Jayce, Dave quickly replies, “It’s my own account, how illegal could it be? but could you watch the door… just in case?”, this catches jayce a little off guard, “Alright,”, he says with hesitation, “if you’re sure?”, “I don’t see what else we can do, not exactly like I would write my password down somewhere.”, Jayce is confused by this, “why not?” he asks, “I do it with all my important passwords and pins, so I don’t forget them”, Dave just shakes his head in response.

reaching into his suit pocket, Dave pulls out his key ring, it has a penguin shaped USB storage device attached to it. Jayce picks up a chair then heads over to the door, he puts the chair in front of it, while keeping an eye on what his friend is doing. Feeling nervous he takes another sip of the blue liquid through the tube at the end of his sleeve while Dave is distracted by the computer, “There we go,”, he says, “now no one has to keep watch.”. Jayce brings another chair over next to Dave and sits down, so he can see what’s happening, “What are you gonna do? Try to guess the password? You should have a fairly good shot considering it’s your own password.” says Jayce. Dave shakes his head, “Not really,” he says, “I like to use a different random string of characters for all my password.”, “I just use the name of my childhood pets as my passwords, makes them easy to remember, if I can’t find where I wrote them down that is.”, Dave just stares at him blankly. Jayce pulls out his phone and obscures it from Dave's vision, “Well, I guess I don’t anymore… great.” Says Jayce under his breath.

Dave plugs the penguin shaped USB device into the computer, then turns it on and begins mashing the F11 key on his keyboard. “So what are you doing?” Asks Jayce, “I’m going to boot this computer into another operating system, that I have stored on this USB.”, he points to the penguin, “Once it has started up I’m going to run a script I wrote in…”, Dave stops talking when he notices the blank expression on Jayce’s face, he sighs and In a defeated voice says, “We’re gonna hack the mainframe.”, this gets Jayce’s attention, “that sounds wicked.” he says. The computer boots into a command line screen, in which only text can be entered, Dave begins typing in some commands, Jayce isn’t quick enough to read what is written but he catches various words and phrases such as “Sudo” and “password-crack.sh”. After Dave hits enter on the keyboard, the screen starts scrolling vertically with more text at a high speed, and eventually a list of passwords appears on screen, Dave memorises one, then quickly reboots the computer and takes out the penguin USB so it boots normally. A logon screen appears on the computer, Dave inputs the password he memorised from earlier, it works.

“Wow, so it’s as easy as that to hack into their system?”, Asks Jayce in an amazed look in his eye. “Any computer is easy to break into when you have physical access, now let’s see what’s on here.” replies Dave, the amazement on Jayce’s face has disappeared “Probably boring stuff.”. Dave opens a calendar, “Well, the digital calendar on here should be able to tell me what I’m supposed to be doing today.”, They both lean in closer to read what it says, Jayce seems confused, “Apparently you have lunch tomorrow with the CEO of another company? That seems a little odd.”, A worried look has appeared on Dave's face, “Jayce…” he says, “I've messed up.” Jayce replies cautiously, “How so?”, “This isn’t my account.”, “Then whose is it?”.

Dave presses a combination of keys on the keyboard, a profile screen pops up on the computer with information on whose account it is. Dave recoils a bit upon reading it, Jayce takes a few seconds longer to catch on but finally realises, “Is that?” he begins to ask, “Yes...” replies Dave. he lets a few suspenseful seconds go by before continuing, “It’s, Kelly Welsh’s account.... the CEO of Global OS Tech”. Jayce gets a little agitated, “Why the hell did you hack into her account, and not yours?”, Dave is trying to remain calm, but there is a slight look of worry on his face. “I just assumed I would only be able to get into the accounts on this floor, so I selected the highest level account thinking it would be mine.”, Jayce still unsettled asks, “Well can anyone find out what you did? I mean it’s a little suspicious that the one day you hack into the CEO’s account, is the day you have a friend in your office, no way I won’t be a suspect.”, Dave tries to calm him by putting a hand on his shoulder, “No they can’t trace it back to me, well maybe… But I think we’ll be fine, no one is going to notice some random logon to her account as long as we haven’t done anything suspicious on there. So I’m just going to log off, and it will all be okay.”, Jayce starts to relax a little, “Well we haven’t done anything suspicious…. Right?”, “Correct.”, Jayce breaths a big sigh of relief. He leans in closer to Dave, and in a low voice asks “What’s considered suspicious?”, Dave unsure where Jayce is going replies cautiously, “Deleting, modifying, or creating files, why?”, Jayce smiles, “So we can look at, or read files?”, Realising what Jayce is about to suggest replies rashly, “Jayce!”, Jayce makes a shushing motion, in a low voice Dave says, “Jayce, what you’re suggesting could not only get me fired, but could get us thrown in jail if we’re caught.”, Jayce replies calmly, “But you said we wouldn’t get caught, just think of what we could find in a CEO’s account.”, “What could you possibly want to look at on her account anyway?”, Jayce smiles, “I’ll tell you, but you have to promise to listen to me for once.”.

Dave thinks for a second on Jayce’s proposal, “Okay.” he says, “But I’m not saying I’ll agree with whatever it is you suggest.”, “It’s Yang..” replies Jayce, but before he can elaborate, Dave cuts him off, “Not this again Jayce!”, Jayce snaps back, “Hey, you promised to listen!” Dave sighs then makes a gesture for Jayce to continue, “Thanks… Okay, now I know you think they’re just an activist group, but do you know what they protest against?”, Dave rolls his eyes, “Advanced technologies research, you’ve told me already.”, “yes,” replies Jayce, “but what specifically?”, “I can’t remember.”, “Well,” begins Jayce, “physics research.”, “what’s your point Jayce?”, Jayce continues, “Well what does your company do?”, “Global OS Tech? We make custom operating systems for various companies, usually in the science field”, Jayce smiles. “Exactly.”, he says, Dave is clearly still lost. Jayce continues, “Computer operating systems for people studying physics.” Dave looks unsure, “Okay Jayce, but I still don’t know where you are going with this.”. Jayce still trying to persuade Dave, decides to bring up an anecdote, “You remember the story of the Trojan Horse?”, Dave sighs, “Of course, the Greeks couldn’t get inside the walls of Troy so they built a giant wooden horse, and hid inside. The people of Troy thought the horse was a gift and took it in, inadvertently taking the Greeks inside with it.”, Jayce replies, “Yes, and I recently read that Global OS Tech may be linked to Yang, and may infact be a way for the people of Yang to keep an eye on what’s going on in the world of physics research.” Dave sighs yet again, “You think this company, apparently my company, is just one big Trojan Horse?”, “Exactly, with the operating systems they make being the gifts for Troy… or in this case whatever's happening in the world of physics.”.

Dave isn’t very convinced by Jayce’s argument, but figures the best way to convince his friend that nothing sinister is going on is to show him. Dave types “Yang” into the computer's search bar, Jayce gets excited, “You’re not going to regret this!”, Dave replies under his breath, “You say that now.”. The computer initially lists thousands of results, but they start disappearing rapidly, until only one file remains, with the title “Yin”, Dave looks at it with surprise, and Jayce with Awe. “Every good has some bad.”, Says Dave, “And every Yin has some Yang.” Replies Jayce, he continues, “Well what are you waiting for? open it.”, “Are we sure we want to do this?”, says Dave in a worried tone, “Yes, a million times yes.” replies Jayce excitedly.

Dave opens the file named Yin, a loading screen appears on the computer, the tension in the room builds, as both Jayce and Dave stare intently at the loading bar filling up. It quickly reaches 80%, but before it completes a knock is heard at the door, both of them jump at the sound, with Jayce letting out a slight gasp. “Do we answer it?” whispers Jayce, Dave replies with the same volume, “We have to.”. A voice is heard from the other side of the door, “If it’s still not a good time for you Dave, I can come back later?”, “Oh it’s just mark.”, says Jayce relieved, “Matt, his name was Matt.” says Dave, he calls out to Matt. “I’ll just get the door for you.” Dave gets up and begins to walk over to the door, when Matt replies, “Oh, that’s no problem, i’ll open the door.”. Matt swings open the door, pushing the chair Jayce had put behind it earlier into Dave’s shins, it impacts him with so much force that Dave is flung up into the air, and lands face first onto the ground. The sight of Dave falling sends Jayce into hysterics, whilst Matt upon realising what he’s done quickly goes to check is Dave is alright, between laughter Jayce manages to say “Are you okay man? That was great!”, Dave’s world begins to fade to black as he passes out.

Again waking in the white space, Dave sits up from the floor slowly while holding his head, “Dammit, that hurt!” he says to himself. Dr. Y approaches Dave from behind, Dave looks around upon sensing his presence and then gets to his feet. With a bit of a smirk Dr. Y asks “How’s the other guy look?” Dave does a mock laugh, “Ha! I wish I had of been in a fight, that might of hurt less, but forget that, last time I was here you were telling me how I had to make a choice.”, Yes?” replies Dr. Y, “Well I think I've figured it out, you want me to pick between, a reality in which I took my dream job and subsequently became rich, and a second reality where I went out with Elizabeth and we ended up dating?”, Dr. Y smiles, “Well it’s not me who wants you to pick, it’s you who wanted the second chance, but otherwise good job on figuring that out.”. Dave has a question prepared, “Well since that’s the case, why can’t I just choose a reality in which I have both, I mean, if it’s so easy for you to make me hop between universes like this?”, Dr. Y shakes his head, “Because no such universe exists.”, Dave raises an eyebrow,“You’re telling me I never tried that in any version of events?”, “No.” replies Dr. Y, “You tried that in many realities, in fact the one you came from you tried exactly that, but whenever you did, you always ended up losing both.”, Dave looks frustrated, “Well that’s not fair, how am I supposed to decide something like that?”. Dr. Y makes a motion with his hand and two seats appear, he gestures for Dave to take one, while he sits in the other. “What you just have the ability to make chairs now?”, asks Dave, Dr. Y replies, “As I told you previously, this place is only empty because of my own laziness.” he gets comfortable then continues, “I don’t know why you have to choose.”, says the Dr. in a sombre tone, Dave looks defeated, “I suppose I’ve come to expect that answer from you.”, Dr. Y shakes his head, “You misunderstand, for once it’s not because I can’t tell you, but because I simply don’t know the reason you can’t have both.”, Dave looks at him inquisitively. Dr. Y continues, “I've peered into countless universes and followed others lives, and there are always critical decisions that no matter how hard people try, they never get everything they want.”, “If you can just peer into anyone’s life across whatever universe you want, then have you looked at yourself?”, Dr. Y looks down, “No… truth be told, I’m too scared to see what wrong decisions I’ve made, though I’m sure there is some version of me somewhere that has the courage.”. After thinking for a while Dave asks, “But with my life, you aren’t just looking, you’re actually changing which reality I’m a part of, can’t you just do the same for yourself?”, “Maybe one day,” replies Dr. Y, “but you are special Dave, you’re the first person this has ever been tried with.”, “I have a few more questions Doctor.”, “you’d better make them fast, I can feel our time here is coming to an end.”.

“So you said I have a week to decide which reality I want to live in correct?”, Says Dave, “Correct.” replies Dr. Y, “So is that a week in both, or a week in one?”, “7 days in each, 14 days total.”, Dave nods “Alright, that’s good to hear.” he thinks for a second, “What about the other reality I don’t pick? What happens to that one?”, Dr. Y ponders the question for a second, “I’m not entirely sure yet, you are the first after all, though I do have two theories on that.” Dave looks intrigued, and motions for Dr. Y to continue, “The first being that you’ll be replaced by the origional version of yourself that occupied that universe, with the addition of your memories from it, but excluding the memories you hold of other universes.”, Dave smiles, “That doesn’t sound too bad, what about the second theory?”, Dr. Y gets a little more grim, “The universe begins to destabilize, then eventually collapses in on itself.”, Dave looks shocked, “So everyone in it just dies?”, “more like they never existed in the first place.”. An alarm begins to sound, Dave has learned what this sound means and quickly tries to get in one last question, “Wait, I need to know, why did you have to erase my memory?”, Dr. Y smiles, “I believe that question will have to wait until next time, you know where to find me.” Everything begins to fade out of Dave's view.


Chapter 4. - Tuesday A

Dave wakes on his couch, Elizabeth is sitting in a chair across from him, fast asleep with her phone alarm going off. Dave smells something horrid, upon another sniff he grimaces and realises it’s himself, he remembers what happened the night before in this reality, he looks across to where he vomited by the door, no evidence that it was ever there remains, except a range of cleaning supplies. Elizabeth yawns, the sound of the phone alarm finally waking her, she silences her phone and then smiles to Dave. “Finally, you’re awake.” says Elizabeth, “I’m so sorry,” replies Dave, he clarifies “about last night that is.”, “It’s alright Dave, I imagine you already feel awful enough without me rubbing it in.”, Dave smiles, “I appreciate you trying to make me feel better about what I did, but I understand that yesterday was a special day for you… for us I mean.”, Elizabeth shakes her head, “I won’t lie you might of ruined the day, but there will always be more, as long as we are both willing to try.” Dave smiles, “Let me at least apologise by taking you somewhere, like that restaurant you thought we should go to last night.” Elizabeth smiles back. “That’s exactly what I was waiting for.”, she says, Dave looks surprised, she continues “My mother always said, you’ll never get a worthwhile apology by starting a fight.”, she laughs, Dave playfully throws a pillow at her upon realising how he was manipulated.

Dave grabs his head in pain and furrows his brow, “My head is killing me, getting up is going to be a nightmare. I think I almost drank myself into a coma last night.” Elizabeth frowns, “Well luckily you didn’t, but I can't say the same for Jayce.” Dave looks at Elizabeth curiously. she continues, “Seeing the state you were in last night after coming back from Jayce’s, and knowing how Jayce always has to outdo everyone when it comes to drinking I went in to check on him.”, “I don't remember this?”, Elizabeth shakes her head again, “You wouldn’t, after I made sure you were okay I left you here. Anyway upon getting to Jayce’s house I found him passed out and unresponsive, so I took him to the hospital.”, Dave looks at Elizabeth unsure what she is going to say next. Elizabeth looks back at Dave, “Jayce had to be admitted for severe Alcohol poisoning.”, “Is he going to be okay?” Dave asks with severe concern, Elizabeth replies grimly, “Well they did all they could, then put him in an induced coma to make sure he got plenty of rest, and to avoid any potential brain damage. They’ll wake him from it at the end of the week.”, Dave looks at the floor in horror, “I don’t remember him drinking much more then me?”, “I found him next to two empty bottles of some kind of clear alcohol.”, Dave realises she is talking about the stuff Jayce had him take a single shot of. Elizabeth continues, “Dave, I don’t remember the last time I saw Jayce sober for more than a few hours, do you?”, Dave simply shakes his head in reply, still trying to process all the news. Elizabeth gets out of her chair and walks over to Dave, “Besides the fact that the drinking is probably contributing to Jayce’s annoying habit of seeing conspiracies in everything.”, begins Elizabeth, “His drinking problem is affecting his health adversely, I want you to talk to him after he wakes up. I don’t think he likes me all that much, but I’m pretty sure he’ll listen to you.” Dave let’s out a long sigh, “I’ll give it a shot.” he says, “On another note, would you be able to get me a glass of water?”.

Elizabeth returns with a glass of water for Dave, “It seems you’ll be spending a lot more time with me this week.” she says, “I think that’s exactly what I would like to be doing,” starts Dave, “but don’t you have work?”, he takes a gulp of water. Elizabeth replies “After how busy I've been lately, they’ve given me the week off, before unveiling what we’ve been working on.”, “And what’s that?”, “You know I can’t talk about it.”, “Are you under some kind of NDA?” Dave replies hoping to learn more about her. “No,” she replies, “I just don’t like talking about work, you know that?”, she smiles. Dave looks around for a clock, “what time is it?” He asks, Elizabeth looks at her phone “It’s six.”, she replies, “AM?”, “Try PM.”, Dave doubles his efforts to get up, “Well I suppose I don’t have anytime to feel sorry for myself, that is if we want to make a booking somewhere for our belated anniversary dinner.”.

Dave is sitting across from Elizabeth at small Mexican restaurant, “I wonder where our food is.” says Elizabeth, “I’m sure it will be here shortly,” replies Dave, “I’m sorry again I couldn't get us a booking for that place you wanted to go last night.”, Elizabeth shrugs in reply, “I never particularly cared for that place.” Dave is confused, “Then why did you want to go?”, “Because you wanted to go of course.”, this puts a big grin across Dave's face, “Well why did you want to come to this place so intently then? It seems kind of...”, “Cut rate?”, “Exactly.”, Elizabeth is surprised Dave doesn’t know the answer. “You should know,” she says, “but if you need a reminder, it was the first place I saw that we haven’t been to.”, Dave suddenly recalls Elizabeth's method for ordering drinks. “Of course, you’ll never find the perfect place if you don’t try them all, right?”, she smiles, “Exactly.”. A unimpressed looking waiter with a sombrero on, heads over to Dave and Elizabeth carrying their plates of food. Dave is served a burrito of dubious quality and Elizabeth a sloppily put together quesadilla, after the waiter has left Dave makes a comment, “Well, as Jayce says, the worse put together a burrito, the better it tastes.”, there is a hint of concern in his voice.

After finishing their meals Dave and Elizabeth get back to talking, “So, was it as good as you expected? Would you like to get dessert here to?”, asks Dave with a smirk, “Oh god no.” replies Elizabeth, “Too which question?”, “Both!” They laugh, but it quickly subsides, “What’s wrong?” She asks, “Are you worried about Jayce?”, Dave let’s out an elongated sigh, “No…” he begins, “Well, yes, but it’s not that. Just some things on my mind.”, Elizabeth grabs Dave’s hand from across the table, “You know you can tell me anything.”, Dave stares intently into Elizabeth’s eyes, not entirely sure with how much he should tell her. He decides to gauge her reaction to the concept first, “Do you ever wonder what it would be like if you could change past choice’s you made in your life?”, “I think everyone has at some point.”, Daves thinks for a few seconds, “So hypothetically, if you could, would you?” Elizabeth shakes her head, “I don’t think so.”, Dave is a little surprised by this answer, “What if it was a horrible decision that left you with nothing though?”, “It wouldn’t matter I still wouldn’t change it.”, she locks eyes with Dave. She continues, “It’s my life, I might fail sometimes, and I might not be successful in my choices, but they are my choice, to go back and change them would be to change me, I’d prefer to learn from my mistakes, and try to fix them myself, or at least improve on them for next time.”, Dave can no longer match her gaze, and looks down at his plate instead, this intrigues Elizabeth, she tries to focus hard on Dave but he just turns towards the nearest waiter, “Can we get the bill please.”.

Dave shivers a little whilst walking back, Elizabeth notices and grabs his hand, “I hope you remember the way back.” starts Dave, “because I certainly don’t.” Elizabeth smiles, then teases, “Luckily enough for you I happen to have an excellent memory.”, she laughs. “Would you like to maybe stop somewhere and get some ice cream?” offers Dave, Elizabeth is a little surprised, “I thought after the night you had last night you’d just want to go home and get some rest?” she says, Dave shakes his head, “Forget about me, this is my apology for all that remember, we can stay out for as long as you’d like.” Elizabeth stops walking, Dave stops after a few more steps and looks back at her, “What I’m saying,” begins Elizabeth, “is I really think you might enjoy an early night.” Dave ponders for a few seconds as to her meaning then realises, “Oh… Oh! Well when you phrase it that way I guess I am a little tired.” Elizabeth smiles, Dave walks over, stares her in the eyes, touches her waist, and gives her a slow passionate kiss.

Panting can be heard from Dave and Elizabeth's room, as Dave rolls off to the side of the bed, they both look at each other and smile, “I’d say I love you,” begins Elizabeth, “but I’m worried it might come off as a bit to cliche to sound sincere right now.”, “I love you.” replies Dave.” they both laugh, and Dave quickly drifts off into sleep.

Dave wakes up in the white space again, he immediately begins searching for Dr. Y, “I know you’re here.” he calls out, somehow Dr. Y still manages to approach Dave from behind, Dave turns to meet his gaze, “I take it from your expression this night was more preferable from the last few times we met.” Dave smiles, “That’s one way of putting it.”, After a brief glare Dr. Y quickly changes the subject, “Have you come closer to a decision yet?”, Dave’s smile fades. “I’m not entirely sure yet, but I still have till the end of the week right?”, Dr. Y nods, “of course. Dr. Y waves his hands and the same seats from their last meeting appear, he sits and motions for Dave to to do the same. “Now if I recall correctly at the end of our last meeting, you had a question for me.”, Dave thinks for a second, “Oh, yes, right, why did my memory have to be erased, and is that something I’m allowed to know the answer to.”, Dr. Y smiles at Dave's second question, “Yes, in fact I’m surprised it’s not the first thing you asked me”, Dave takes a seat. Dr. Y continues, “It’s to do with the fact that you’re visiting other realities and switching between them so frequently.”, Dave confused, prompts for more information, “How so?”, “Well we don’t have time to go into the technicalities, so forgive some less than accurate liberties with the explanation.”, Dave getting anxious for him to explain motions him to continue, “It’s as if your body and mind become connected with every reality you step foot in.”, Dave is only more lost now. Dr. Y elaborates, “The more time you spend in any one reality, or universe, or the more you know about them, the more you are drawn to them.”, Dave clearly still isn't quite sure what Dr. Y means, “Drawn to them how?”, “Well given enough knowledge or experience in any particular universe, you will be drawn to it so strongly that you will be pulled into it.”, Dave’s eyes gleam a bit as he begins to understand, “So I had to have some of my memory removed to prevent me being stuck in my own reality?”, “Precisely!” Replies Dr. Y slightly proud of his own explanation.

Dave clearly has another question, sensing this Dr. Y motions him to talk, “Well,” starts Dave, “you mentioned that I opted to have more of my memory removed then required?” Dr. Y nods, “Correct, you would of needed maybe a month to be removed, two to be safe, but you elected to have a whole year, apparently to make your decision easier.”, Dave frowns, “Apparently I have a poor understanding of the word easier.” Dr. Y chuckles at this. Dave asks, “Well since I had more removed than needed, can you tell me a bit of what my original life was like?” Dr .Y looks unsure, “I’m afraid not, you gave me very specific instructions not to, and if you asked, then to tell you this instead,” he leans in closer to Dave, “Some memories, are better left buried.”, Dave laughs in frustration, “I guess I’m just going to have to take my word on it then.” he shakes off the laugh, and continues, “So is this also why I can’t know certain things, like your name?”, Dr. Y raises his hand and tilts it slightly, as if to gesture “Sort of.”, he replies, “Close, but not exactly, you can know them, just not from me, otherwise you might gain too much knowledge originating from this reality, and it’s not wise to have too much knowledge of too many realities you’ve been in at once, that’s also the reason you only have a week in each reality to make your decision.”, Dave unsure if he really wants to know the answer to his next question or not, asks it anyway, “Why exactly can’t I know too much about too many realities at once?”, Dr. Y takes a breath in, “Well as I said you get drawn to realities and eventually pulled into them.”, Dave cautiously gestures him to continue, “To put it mildly, imagine two people, one pulling on each of your arms, except… Well, they both have infinites strength.” Dave’s expression goes blank. Dr. Y tries to reassure him, “It’s not as bad as it sounds, it would be entirely painless, I think, but you can understand why I’m a bit apprehensive to tell you anything you don’t need to know?”, before Dave can answer an alarm starts sounding, Dr. Y sighs, “I believe it’s goodbye again for now.”

Chapter 5 - Tuesday B

Dave sits up suddenly out of pain, “Ow!” he says out loud, before grabbing his head and realising it’s bandaged. He looks around and realises he is on the couch in his apartment in the city. “Oh good, you’re finally awake.” calls out Jayce from another room, before entering the lounge room. He looks at Dave for a few seconds and chuckles to himself remembering how he got the bandages before saying, “I think you are allowed to take that bandages off now.”. As Dave begins carefully removing the bandages from his head, he asks, “What happened?”, Jayce chuckles again, “That guy at your work, mark, knocked you out with the door, remember?”, “Do you mean Matt?”, Jayce’s smile grows, “So you do remember, man it was wicked, I wish I had it on video.”, Dave lets out a yell of pain as he accidentally touches a sore spot on his head/ “It’s coming back to me… Thanks for helping me out when I hit the floor by the way.”, says Dave. Jayce shakes his head, “Oh don’t worry, I helped you out eventually, how do you think you got back here?”, Dave sighs, “Please tell me you didn’t drive?” Jayce quickly diverts the conversation. “Anyway, bad news.”, “What happened?” asks Dave with a sense of urgency, “Work has given you a week off because of your injury.” Dave raises an eyebrow, “How’s that bad news?” he asks and gestures for Jayce to continue, “Well they haven’t just given you the week off, they’re making you take the week off. I’m guessing they’re scared you might get sue happy.”, “It’s still a non issue, I’m probably better off avoiding work until I've learned more about my life here anyway.”, Jayce shakes his head. His gestures get erratic, “You’re not seeing the bigger picture! Do you remember what we were doing before Matt knocked you out cold?”, Dave thinks for a second. Shock hits his face, “Oh crap, we were illegally trying to open a file, that you thought might be linked to one of your silly conspiracy theories, something about terrorists.” Dave locks eyes with Jayce, “Please tell me you logged off?”, Jayce nods, “Of course I’m not an idiot.” Dave isn’t completely sold on that statement but allows Jayce to continue, “Anyway, it’s not a stupid conspiracy theory, and you were interested when we found that file. Point is, according to you, you only have a week here, so we may never know the answer.”.

After throwing out the bandage previously rapped around his head, Dave begins pacing, “Alright.” Dave says, then paces a bit more before following it up with, “We did find that file, you’re right, I mean, I guess there’s a chance that you’re right about Global OS Tech being linked to Yang somehow.” Jayce smiles then frowns, “That’s great and all, but we still can’t get a look at that file while you’re stuck here.”, Dave shakes his head. “Give my memory more credit than that.” Jayce looks confused, Dave continues, “Global OS Tech uses networked accounts, and I still remember Kelly Welsh’s, A.K.A the CEO’s password. There’s no reason I can’t log onto it from any computer connected to the internet.”, He takes a seat back on the couch. Jayce’s eyes light up, he runs over to a draw and retrieves a laptop from it, “Will this work?” he asks, Dave nods, Jayce hands the laptop over and joins him on the couch. Dave starts logging into the CEO’s account, Jayce begins some idle chatter “So did you find out what happens to the universe you don’t choose?”, “Kind of.”, “Well, what happen then?”, Dave takes in a breath then faces Jayce, Jayce sensing the mood says, “Oh boy, I’m not gonna like this.”, “Well I can’t say.” Dave almost laughs a bit at his own statement realising he unintentionally mimicked Dr. Y. He continues, “From what I was told, there are two possibilities, one in which I’ll just be replaced, and everything continues on as normal.”, Jayce a little scared asks, “And the second possibility?”, Dave looks down, “I’m paraphrasing a bit, but, the universe will become unrested and cease to exist, as if it never did.”, Jayce trying to lighten the mood replies, “Then I suppose I better hope you like being rich then.” he laughs nervously.

Dave has found the file named Yin on the CEO’s account, he calls Jayce over who has has gone to another room, he returns with a plate full of watermelon slices. Jayce takes a seat next to Dave, “Are you ready to find out what’s behind door number one?” asks Dave jokingly, Jayce replies in a similar manner, “I hope it’s a boxed set of Stargate SG-1.” Dave looks at Jayce oddly, Jayce takes the opportunity to change his answer, “Or you know, proof of Global OS Techs connection with Yang.”. Dave opens the Yin file, the same loading bar him and Jayce saw in Dave’s office comes up, as they intently wait for it to load Jayce picks up a slice of watermelon then offers one to Dave, upon taking a bite Dave immediately spits it out, “What the hell is wrong with this watermelon?” Jayce shrugs, “Nothing, and it’s a vodka melon.” he takes a bite of his own slice unphased. Suddenly a question pops into Dave's mind, he looks to Jayce, “What does Yang mean?”, Jayce looks at him for a few seconds, “Did you honestly not know?” Dave nods, Jayce sighs, “It’s an acronym.” Dave gestures him to continue, “It stands for You Are Not God. It’s in reference to people trying to effect the world in quote unquote unnatural ways.”, Dave lets out a small gasp of understanding then thinks for a second, “Well if that’s the case, what do you think Yin stands for?”, Jayce puts in some intense thought and takes a few more bites of his melon. He finally suggests an idea on what it could be, “Maybe, Young Infertile Nonconformists?” Dave just sighs, “I guess if there is any connection to the group, then this file will tell us what it stands for, if anything, soon enough.”. The loading finally completes and a password entry screen appears, “Damn!” says Dave as the anticipation he’d built up is pulled away suddenly, “Just try the same password, or do the password hacking thing again?” Jayce says semi confidently, Dave shakes his head, “It won’t be the same password, otherwise they wouldn’t of had it separately protected, as for your second suggestion, I can’t, that was a system password, this one will be more heavily encrypted, and harder to get to, especially since we no longer have physical access.”, he sighs. Jayce tries to raise his moral, “So that’s it? We just give in? If it’s heavily guarded like this it has to be something important!” Dave smiles at Jayce’s efforts, even if they had no effect on his spirits, “I’m not saying we have to give up, but what if we go to all this effort, and it just turns out to be Kelly’s secret AA meeting notes or something?”. Jayce takes a massive bite of his vodka melon slice, and swallows it whole in an almost unnatural manner as he leaps to his feet. “Dave! This is too much of a coincidence, I can’t accept that this Yin file has nothing to do with Yang. You must have some idea of how to get through?”, Jayce gets to his knees and feigns begging “Come on buddy, I need you.” Dave sighs again, “Alright.” he says, “I guess we could brute force our way through the password.”, “Which means?”, “Basically we let the computer try every possible combination of characters until it finds the password.”, Jayce thinks for a while, “That’s at least a few thousand combinations! How long will it take? a few hours?” Dave shakes his head, “This is a 6 character password, so try a couple hundred billion combinations at least.” Jayce is awe struck. He takes a seat “Well how long will that take?”, Dave thinks for a minute, “Well since I have access to Global OS Tec’s servers, probably anywhere from a few hours, to a few days.”. Dave opens a windows on the laptop, he types a few commands into it, that Jayce misses, “There,” says Dave, “It’s begun.” Jayce smiles, “It appears we have some time to kill then?”.

Jayce opens the armchair fridge in the couch, and takes out a drink. Dave recalls what happened to the Jayce in the other universe, and feels compelled to stop Jayce from overdoing it, “Jayce,” he begins, “maybe we shouldn’t have a drink right now.”, Jayce looks at Dave not sure what to think, “Why? Are you worried because you got that concussion yesterday? Because I’m pretty sure it’s better by now.”, Dave awkwardly avoids eye contact with Jayce, “No, it’s not that.” he pauses for a while, “It’s the Jayce from the other reality?”, Jayce smiles, “Ah my brother from the same mother except in a different universe?”, Dave nods, “Yeah, see, he got alcohol poisoning.”, Jayce laughs, “I see me and him have a lot in common, tell him to walk it off, I’ve had that a heap of times.”. Dave takes in a really big breath, “Jayce, it was really bad, they had to put him into an induced coma, and I guess… I’m just worried about your drinking habits.” Dave immediately feels the tension levels in the room ryze. Jayce becomes defensive, “You mean you’re worried about him, not me, he may look like me, but he can’t be the same person, because I’m not stupid enough to do that. I know my limits! Now are you done comparing us?”, Dave not wanting to offend Jayce lowers his voice, “Jayce, I’m not trying…”, he gets cut off, “I know what you were trying to do. This is my life, it’s nice of you to have concern, but I don’t need anyone telling me how to live it, especially since I’m not the one in the coma, go give your lecture to that Jayce.”.

An awkward silence has fallen over the room, neither party willing to break it, Dave looks down not sure what to say. After several minutes, It’s who Jayce finally talks, “I’m sorry Dave.” he begins, “Anyway, we have up to an entire week to kill if you're correct about how long it will take to hack that password. I vote we do something fun.”, “Such as?” Dave feebly replies, Jayce smiles in response.

Dave and Jayce are at a theme park in a cart, on a haunted house style ride, Jayce is taking sips from a flask he had hidden in an inner jacket pocket, Dave is giving him a glare, that Jayce is completely unaware of. Jayce suddenly puts his flask away then points up to the ceiling with his right arm, “Ghost, ceiling…” he begins to count, “3…” he gets more intense, “2…” he grabs onto Dave arm with his left hand, “1…”, potentially the fakest looking ghost prop of all time falls from a trap door hidden in the ceiling, suspended by a frayed piece of string, Jayce jumps, “Man, even when I know they are coming it still gets me.”, Dave clearly isn’t as bothered, Jayce suddenly shouts, “Incoming ghoul from the door on the left!” and sure enough a ghoul prop come out from the door on the left held up by a metal arm, and sure enough Jayce jumps again. Dave stares at him blankly, “Come here often?” Jayce shrugs, “Occasionally.” he points ahead, “Spooky scary skeleton dead ahead!”, Jayce’s prediction again happen, as a decrepit plastic skeleton moves past in front of the cart, Jayce takes another drink from his flask, “Do you always drink in here?” asks Dave, Jayce nods, “No one monitors the CCTV in here, either that or they don’t get payed enough to care.” he thinks for a second, “I’m gonna bet it’s the latter.”.

As the ride comes to an end, and Dave and Jayce are ushered out of the cart into the rest of the theme park. “What else do you want to do while we’re here, the roller coaster is pretty intense.”, asks Jayce, Dave shakes his head, “I dunno.”, Jayce starts making a whimpering noise, Dave looks at him with the weirdest stare but after a few seconds is forced to crack a smile, “See! Admit it, you’re enjoying yourself.”, says jayce, “Maybe.”, replies Dave. “The best part about this universe, is you’re rich, and you’ve got the week off work, so you can do whatever you want.”, says Jayce, Dave nods, Jayce continues, “And in the other universe you are just jobless, so try living it up in both realities, and you’ll know which one you should pick.” Dave raises an eyebrow to him, “I’m a contract network programmer in the other universe.” Jayce smiles, “that’s what I said.”, he continues, “point is you’ve got a week to do whatever you want in two different versions of reality.”.

After a long day at the theme park with Jayce, Dave let’s sleep take him over. Dave wakes in the white space, familiar with the routine he decides to not look for Dr. Y and just wait for him to appear. As expected Dr. Y approaches Dave from behind, and Dave turns to meet him, “I feel like I have a sixth sense in this place.” Says Dave, Dr Y. nods, “Well this is your mind, usually you’d be dreaming but I’m manipulating it, even so, you are bound to have certain privileges or abilities here.”, “Is that so?” Dave replies, Before staring intently at a spot in space. Dr Y is confused, “What are you trying to do?”, “I’m trying to make a pair of chairs like you always do.”, replies Dave, Dr. Y laughs then waves his hand, and two chairs appear, “It takes a lot of practice, I spent years learning about lucid dreaming on my own time to master it.” Dave sighs, then takes a seat. “Do you have any more questions for me?” Asks Dr. Y, after some contemplation a question does come to Dave mind, “Why are you doing this?”, “Excuse me?” replies Dr. Y genuinely, Dave continues, “I mean I know... or at least you’ve told I volunteered, but how does this help you?” Dr. Y nods understandingly, “Well I have my own reasons, but mostly it’s to do with furthering my research. I can’t really tell you more than that.” Dave looks at him suspiciously but decides to drop it. “Anymore questions?”, asks Dr. Y “Not really.” replies Dave, “Well, actually there is one, but I doubt you have the answer.” Dr. Y, curious, takes a seat himself. He motions Dave to continue, “Well, what would you do? I mean, how do I know what reality to pick?”, Dr. Y shakes his head, “I can’t tell you what to choose.”, Dave chuckles to himself getting the response he expected but not the one he wanted. Sensing Dave’s disappointment Dr. Y decides to try and give some input, “My advice is to enjoy yourself in both universes, hopefully you’ll find you have more fun in one then the other, making the decision easier.” He smiles, Dave looks at him, “That’s pretty much the same advice my best friend gave me.”, Dr. Y looks at him concerned, “Well I guess I didn’t tell you not to tell anyone about this, but try to not tell anyone else if you can.” Dave nods, “Right, sorry I hadn’t considered whether I was allowed to talk about this.” Dr. Y waves his hand in a wide gesture, “It’s alright, It’s okay if a few people know, I just didn’t want this going public quite yet.” Dr. Y pauses, “As for the advice your friend gave you, I agree with it.”, Dave smiles. An alarm begins to sound.

Following the advice of both Dr. Y and Jayce Dave began enjoying his days in both universes. In the reality in which he was rich, Dave would do things such as, buy enough plush toys to fill an entire room, and play indoor paintball, whilst in the reality in which he had Elizabeth he would go sightseeing, visit galleries, and have dinner at a new place every night. Eventually after many sleeps and conversations with Dr. Y, the time for his decision grew close.

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Jam
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Re: [FWC 17] - Experimental Realism

#3 Post by Jam »

Experimental Realism: Chapter 6, 7, 8, & 9
Spoiler!
Chapter 6 - Saturday B

Slow to wake, Dave is feeling hungover, but unsure if he was drinking the night before in this universe or the other one. He eventually makes his way out to the lounge room where he sees Jayce sitting on the couch looking at the laptop, which is still running the brute force program for cracking the password needed to access the Yin file. “No plans for today? You know it’s my second last day here? I expected better from the one and only Jayce.... Well two and not only, if you count the other universe?” Says Dave, Jayce looks up at him, “I Might not have anything planned for right now.” he smiles manically, then continues, “But I do have something planned for tonight.”, Dave a little concerned cautiously asks, “Go on?”, “Well,” Begins Jayce. Dave takes a breath in, preparing himself, Jayce continues, “I've invited all your work friends around for a party, under the guise of it being to celebrate one year with the company.”, Dave exhales in relief, “So it’s just an excuse to party here isn’t it?”, Jayce nods. “So how’s our brute force password hack going?” asks Dave, Jayce looks down at the laptop, shrugs, and replies “Well as you can see it’s still going, so…. How long did you say this thing would take?”, Dave thinks, “Well it will definitely be done by either tonight or tomorrow.”, “So even if for some reason you don’t choose to live in this reality you’ll get to see the answer and no longer be curious?”, asks Jayce, “Yeah?” replies a confused Dave, Jayce whispers some kind of curse word under his breath, Dave smiles, “So what about this party? I would guess fancy dress, but I know you don’t like wearing suits.”, “Oh, I've got something planned.” replies Jayce with a devilish smile.

Standing in his lounge room, Dave feels uncomfortable amongst a group of what appear to be strangers to him, but he is sure another version of himself knows them all by name. everyone is dressed in costumes, and there’s various remixes of mid 2000’s pop hits playing on a massive set of speakers. Dave sees Jayce approaching him, “Well it certainly is quite a party Jayce.”, He says with an unsure smiles, Jayce takes a massive gulp of whatever drink he has, Dave takes notice, “You know it.” replies Jayce with a slur. Matt, the man who accidently knocked Dave out at his work approaches, “Dave, I’m so sorry.” he begins, but before he can continue Jayce cuts him off, “Mark, don’t apologise it was hilarious.” Matt looks at him blank faced, “It’s Matt!” Jayce laughs, Dave addresses Matt, “Matt, it’s alright, it wasn’t you fault, someone else had put a chair in front of the door.”, He shoots a glance at Jayce, who decides to leave, “Well, I better go get another drink.” Says Jayce before taking a final sip. Dave tries to stop him heading off, “No wait, Jayce!”, but it’s too late, he has has disappeared into the crowd. Dave turns to Matt, “So… Matt… Have I known you long?”, Matt appears slightly offended.

After a lengthy conversation with a woman at the party, Dave begins to stop paying attention to her, as he overhears Jayce drunkenly talking to someone about Dave being from a different reality. Dave looks around and quickly spots Jayce, “Sorry, I’ll be right back.” he says the woman. Dave heads over to Jayce, who quickly notices him, “Hey man, I was just talking about you.” Says Jayce in a pitch that fluctuates at an incredible rate, “So I heard.”, replies Dave, “Maybe you might like to discuss something different though?”, Jayce laughs, “Dave, you know no one is going to believe me, come on let’s go get some drinks, I’m almost out.”. Jayce goes to head off. Dave grabs his arm and holds him back, sensing a mood change, the man Jayce was previously talking to backs away. “What are you doing Dave? Let go of my arm.” Says Jayce, Dave does, but says, “I just think maybe you’ve had enough Jayce.” This clearly irritates Jayce, “This again? I told you before, I might look like that other Jayce, but I am not dumb enough to drink myself into a coma!”. Wanting to avoid a scene Dave mellows his voice and tries to calm down Jayce, “Jayce, I’m just worried about you, you matter to me.”, Jayce scoffs, “This isn’t about me at all.” Dave raises an eyebrow. Jayce continues, “You actually think people will believe me about the whole alternate universe thing don’t you!”, Dave shakes his head, “No, that has nothing to do with it.”, staring into his Dave’s eyes, Jayce says, “I’ll prove it to you, that your little secret is safe.”, Jayce starts to head off. Dave tries to grab him again, but Jayce seems to of become faster. Jayce turns off the music, then gets up on a nearby table, “Hey everyone!” yells Jayce in a stern voice, with the music gone everyone immediately looks towards him, “Thanks for letting me have your attention, I have some shocking news to tell you all, this guy right here!” he points to Dave, who by nows has his head in his hands, “He’s from an alternate reality!”, everyone looks at Jayce strangely. Jayce resumes the music and jumps down from the table, taking a drink from it, before going back over to Dave, “See!” he says, “No one believes me.”. Jayce goes to take a sip of his recently acquired drink, but Dave takes it from him, “I’m doing this for your own good.” Dave pleads. Jayce goes to snatch the drink back but Dave moves it away, “Give me the goddamn drink right now!” demands Jayce, “You have a problem.” Dave replies, “I’ll leave and go drink in some dirty bar in the city if you don’t give it back! Is that what you want?”, says Jayce. Dave frowns, Jayce continues “You don’t think I have any cash of my own? I don’t need you around to enjoy myself!”. Shaking his head Dave replies, “You don’t have to go, just admit to me you have a drinking problem, and I’ll give you this drink back.”. Jayce begins demanding quite loudly, “I don’t have a god damned problem Dave, now give my [censored] drink back!”, Quite a lot of people hear this outburst and the room falls silent, Jayce notices this and yells at everyone, “You all think you’re so much better then me, just because of your jobs, well I don’t need anyone here!”, he turns to Dave, “Especially you!”.

Jayce leaves the party slamming Dave’s front door behind himself. Dave turns off the music and addresses everyone in a mellow tone, “Can you all go, please.”, No one moves, he yells, “Now!”, people begin leaving quietly. Dave leans against the closest wall, and just holds his head in his hands. After the last person has left he begins saying some curses under his breath, then throws a nearby glass at the wall, it shatters into tiny fragments of glass, Dave stares at them for a few minutes, in contemplation.

Dave’s laptop makes a sound, he heads over to check what it is, “So you’re finally done.” he says, then adds on “Great timing.” in a sarcastic voice, before taking a seat, on the couch in front of it. “I guess it’s about time I find out what this Yin file is about.” he types in the password that has appeared on his screen. Upon examining the contents of the file he realises it’s a diary of some type, he clicks a link in it to the newest entry and begins reading. Dave sits back in horror upon finishing the last few entries in the diary, he can’t believe it, Jayce’s fears are confirmed, Yang is indeed planning assaults on a physics research lab named, Experimental Realism Labs. Dave begins talking to himself, “So if Yang is militant, Jayce was right, and Global OS Tech is in on it? No, he wasn’t just right about that, he was right about everything.”, Dave leans in to continue reading, he spots a name in one of the entries, matching the name of the file, “Dr. Alex Yin”, it says, he clicks on it bringing up a profile page, he immediately recognizes the picture on it, causing him to jump up from the couch. It’s Dr. Y, Dave begins to curse, “Mother…” but slips on a shard of glass, and smashes his head on the side of the coffee table, his vision goes wavy before he passes out.

Dave wakes up in the white space, his vision still blurry, but he quickly remembers what he just saw, and swiftly jumps to his feet. “Come out, I know you're here!”, he calls angrily into the void. “What’s with the angry greeting there, Dave?” Says Dr. Y as he approaches Dave from behind, “Stop it!” says Dave as he turns to face him, “You can end the charade now, how do I even fit into your plans? Or am I just a pawn?”, Dr. Y raises an eyebrow, and uses his upper lip to covers his lower, “Dave, I assure you, I do not have the slightest clue what you’re on about. As I've said before you volunteered for this experiment.”, Dave shakes his head, “How do I know that? I’ll tell you what I do know though Dr. Y, or should I say, Dr. Alex Yin.”, Dr. Y shrugs, “It’s impressive you found my name, but what does that have to do with any of this?” Dave shakes his head, “That’s not all!”, “What could you of possibly found out that would explain all this aggression towards me?” replies Dr. Yin, “Jayce was right.” Dave mumbles to himself before dropping to his knees, arms limp, in reflection. “Excuse me?” replies Dr. Yin, Dave looks up at him with a fire burning in his eyes, “Yang, the activist group, you’ve heard of them?”, Dr. Yin nods, “Indeed, in fact, I probably know more about them then you could imagine.”, Dave gets to his feet, “Oh, of that I have no doubt!”, he starts aggressively approaching Dr. Yin, “You and Yang are pretty heavily connected!”, Dr. Yin nods as he backs off slowly, he replies with a nervous break in his voice “Yes, unfortunately.”. Dave stops, then starts pacing back and forth. “Unfortunately?”, says Dave, “Why? Do you not agree with their impending militarisation, and planned attack on Experimental Realism Labs.”, Dr. Yin starts to get annoyed himself, “Of course I don’t agree with that!”, Dave forces a laugh for a second, “Ha! Well that’s exactly what you signed on for!”, Dr. Yin sighs, “If this is about me not telling you, you know I couldn’t.”, Dave shakes his head, “I don’t know if I should even believe you on that anymore.”. An alarm starts sounding, “Oh, looks like we are running out of time.” Dave says in a mocking voice. He continues, “I’ll give it to you straight. I know you are working with Yang, I saw it in the Global OS Tech CEO’s diary, they’re just one big trojan horse.”, Dr. Yin begins shaking his head and tries to say something before the world starts to fade out.


Chapter 7 - Sunday A

Dave wakes up suddenly next to Elizabeth, who is already awake, “You were fidgeting a lot in your sleep, is everything okay?”, She asks with a concerned tone, Dave shakes his head, “Forget about it, what did you want to do today?”, Elizabeth sighs, “To be honest with you Dave, I’m a little tired, we’ve had quite a full week, and I've got to start work again tomorrow. I was thinking maybe we could just spend the day at home?”, Dave smiles, “That sound perfect.”, Elizabeth smiles back, “Our wallets could use a rest too.” she laughs, Dave kisses her, “I bet you wish you were rich?”, says Dave, Elizabeth shakes her head, “Not at all, in fact if you were rich, I probably never would of gone out with you.”, Dave looks at her slightly puzzled, “Really?” he asks, “Yeah.” she replies, “Rich guys always tend to lose sight of what’s important… at least from my experience.”, “What if I became rich now?” Dave asks curiously. Elizabeth laughs, “Well Of course I’d give you a chance.” she begins, “But the second I started to sense it was becoming more important than me, I'd give you a hell of an ultimatum.”. Dave thinks intently for a few seconds, Elizabeth speaks, “Anyway,” she says, “forget about that, I know you haven’t won the lottery or anything, you’re terrible at keeping secrets.” Dave feels a guilt deep down upon hearing those words. “I’ll cook for us tonight.” Dave says, in an attempt to absolve himself, Elizabeth smiles, Dave continues, “Just one thing first.... What day is it?” Elizabeth stares at him inquisitively, “That’s not the first time you’ve lost track of the day recently, are you okay? And it’s Sunday.”, Dave feigns a smile, “Yeah I’m fine.” he says, “We can talk about it at dinner.”, Elizabeth feels concern deep down, but doesn’t let it show.

It’s late morning, Dave and Elizabeth are sitting across from eachother at a table in their kitchen, with bowls of cereal in front of them, Dave feels apathetic, creating an uncomfortable silence. Trying to break the silence Elizabeth speaks, “Have you heard anything about when Jayce might be out of the hospital?” Dave nods, “They called earlier today, they said he should be awake later tonight.”, Elizabeth smiles, “You’ll have to go visit him then?”. Dave simply grunts a sound a sound of agreement, whilst taking a bite of his meal. Elizabeth ponders for a few seconds, “You’ll talk to Jayce about his alcohol problem too?”, Dave sighs, “I’ll try, but I don’t know if it will go so well.” Elizabeth just stares at him, “What’s bothering you?”, she asks. Dave looks up, “I don’t know if I should tell you.”, Elizabeth shakes her head, “Well now I know something is up, so you’re going to have to tell me.”, she smiles. Dave thinks for a second, “Alright, I’ll tell you what’s going on, but it’s going to sounds crazy.” Elizabeth gestures for him to continue, “I really don’t want you to think this is a joke.”, “Okay, I promise I’ll try to believe you.”, Dave takes in a massive breath. “Remember at that cheap mexican restaurant when I was asking you about whether or not you would change decisions from your past if you could?” Elizabeth remembers after a second, then nods, “Well.” begins Dave, “It was more than just a hypothetical question.”, Dave starts explaining the entire situation to Elizabeth.

After Dave finishes up his explanation to Elizabeth, the room falls silent for a while. Not sure if Elizabeth realises that he is done, Dave adds on, “...That’s pretty much all there is to it.”, another few seconds of silence persists. Dave again breaks the silence, “I know this is all hard to take in, but I swear it isn't some kind of practical joke.”, Elizabeth finally responds. Without making eye contact she says, “I believe you.”, Dave feels puzzled, “Then what’s wrong?”, Elizabeth looks up at him, “Why didn’t you tell me this?”, Dave begins to explain, “Jayce said it wouldn’t be a good idea…” but he is cut off, “I don’t care what Jayce said, you know you can tell me anything, or do you? You’re not my Dave, can I even get him back?”, Dave recoils a little, “I’m not sure, but we are the same person.”, Elizabeth stands up. “No, you’re not him, he made a promise to me to always be honest, did you make that promise?”, she says angrily, Dave shakes his head, “Not yet, but I can.”, Elizabeth slams her hands down on the table, “You’re basically a universe hopping stranger, who kills people and takes their places!”, Dave becomes defensive, “It’s not that simple!”, Elizabeth screams, “I trusted you!”, “I’m sorry Elizabeth, if you’ll just let me…” he gets cut off again, “People like you are why I have to do what I do!”, Dave stares at her, “What?”, he says with genuine confusion. Elizabeth gets more solemn, and sits back down again, “Just leave.” she says as her head falls into her hands. Sensing the fragile nature of the situation, Dave gets up and heads out quietly, he hears sobbing as he heads to the front door.

Dave is aggressively pacing back and forth out the front of his house, unsure about what to do. His phone rings, he answers it, immediately snaps as the person on the other end “What!?”, there is a nervous response from the other end of the call, “Oh, ah, sorry if I've caught you at a bad time sir, but we have you listed as the emergency contact for Jayce.”, Dave feels silly, “Oh, sorry, Yes I am.”, “Well, we thought we should let you know that he is awake now, and should be out by tomorrow. You can come visit him if you would like.”, Dave is not entirely sure how he feels about the news. “Alright, thank you.”, he says before hanging up, and heading to his car.

Arriving at the front desk of the hospital Dave approaches the receptionist, “Excuse me.” He says, the receptionist is on the phone, and holds up a hand to gesture for silence. It doesn’t take long for Dave to realise it’s a social phone call with lots of smiling and laughter. After waiting for what feels like an eternity, the receptionist finally get’s off the phone, but before Dave can ask anything, the receptionist immediately starts typing on the front desk computer and puts his hand up for silence again. Dave catches sight of a social network running on the computer through a reflection on a particularly shiny metal file cabinet behind the receptionist, and decides to give up, instead looking for Jayce's room himself. Dave heads down several hallways doing his best to identify them from signs eventually, landing himself in a restricted area in which he just acts as confidently as he can as if he supposed to be there until he finds his way out. Dave finally finds the room he is looking for, upon hearing mid 2000’s pop music coming it, with a very recognizable voice with no regards for volume singing along. Dave enters, before even seeing him Jayce says, “welcome to my humble abode.”, “How are you doing?” replies Dave, Jayce turns down the music, “Well I have a pretty bad headache, but according to the doctor I’m lucky enough to have not suffered any brain damage, so I’ve got that goin for me.”, Dave scoffs, “Your headache can’t be that bad with how loud you were just singing.” Jayce shrugs, “Sound never really bothers me when I have headaches. I think that’s why I make such a good DJ, anyway what’s up with you?”, Dave let’s out a sigh, “I wish I could tell you that everything is working out well.” Jayce looks concerned. “What’s going on? Is everything okay with you and Elizabeth?”, he says. Dave shakes his head, “Not really, and it’s nothing I can fix, at least not this version of me.”, Jayce looks at him confused, “Version of you? What are you? A toy line?”, Dave has a moment of realisation, “Right of course, this version of you doesn’t know everything yet.”, Jayce looks on scratching his head for a few seconds. He finally replies, “Am I a toy line?”, Dave raises an eyebrow, “What? No, neither of us are toy lines Jayce!”, Someone walks by the door, Jayce leans in to ask Dave another question, but Dave replies preemptively, “They aren’t a toy line either Jayce, No one is a toy line, just let me explain.”, Jayce looks mildly disappointed.

Dave finishes up his explanation of events to Jayce, while Jayce is finishing up some jelly he got with a hospital meal, “...So essentially, the you in the other universe hates me, Dr. Yin is probably a terrorist, and in this reality Elizabeth thinks I’m some kind of murderer.”, Jayce rubs his stubble, which is now starting to resemble a beard. After a few seconds he replies, “I seem to remember me telling you not to tell her anything, back when all of this was a lot simpler.” Dave sighs, “yeah, but I thought maybe I had gotten close enough with her, that she wouldn’t mind.”, Jayce stabs his spoon into some ice cream, “Well you thought wrong!” Dave snatches away the ice cream for that comment. “Hey!” says Jayce, “that’s like the first thing I've eaten in a week!”, “And whose fault is that?” replies Dave. Jayce sighs, “Point taken.”,”I actually wanted to talk to you about that.”, Jayce looks puzzled, “About what?”, “I think you should quit drinking.”, “Isn’t that how you got the other Jayce to hate you?”, Dave nods, “yes but, I’m hoping your recent almost fatal alcohol poisoning might of persuaded you.”, Jayce laughs, “Lucky for you it has, I’m already considering going to get some help.”, Dave feels a sense of relief over this, “That’s great, if only I could’ve gotten the other you to see it that way.”, Jayce shakes his head, “He already does.” Dave doesn’t follow. Jayce continues, “I know you don’t see it often, but when I’m under stress I act angry, because it usually makes people back down.”, Dave slowly nods. He gestures for Jayce to continue, “He doesn’t hate you Dave, if he’s anything like me, he’s just stressed about the idea of change.”, Dave smiles, ”Jayce… thank you.”, Jayce attempts to wink, but just ends up closing both eyes, “Anytime, as for your other problems, you’re on your own, but you’re welcome to crash at mine, i’m stuck here for the night. You should have a spare key for the place on your keychain.”.

Dave pulls into the the driveway of Jayce’s house, he sits in the car for a few minutes in thought before getting out. After getting inside Dave heads towards his room, and opens the door, but instead of his bed, he finds a room full of Stargate merchandise, he quickly remembers that it’s no longer his room, and instead goes to the lounge room. Dave grabs a cider out of the fridge next to Jayce’s couch, then sits, and just drinks it in silence for a while. Lying on the couch Dave has a hard time falling asleep, constantly thinking about his troubles, and dreading his meeting with Dr. Yin, but eventually with enough persistence he manages it.

Waking up in the white void Dave doesn’t want to face Dr. Yin, but upon spotting a pair of chairs, he reluctantly heads over and sits in one. “Dave we have to talk.” says Dr. Yin in a solemn tone Dave turns around in his chair to him, “You may talk, but I have nothing to say to you Dr. Yin, or Yang, whatever it is.”, says Dave passive aggressively. Dr Yin nods, then walks over and sits across from Dave, “I’m not working for of with Yang.” Begins Dr. Yin, Dave looks up at him. He waits for Dr Yin to continue, “You said you read the diary of the CEO of Global OS Tech, or as I know her Kelly Welsh?”, Dave nods, Dr. Yin continues “I don’t know how you got a hold of that, but I think I know what you might of read, and you completely misinterpreted it.”, Dave raises an eyebrow, “Go on.”, “Tell me Dave, do you know what Yang stands for?”, Dave sighs, “It stands for You Are Not God, in reference to advance physics research.”, Dr. Yin nods, “But doesn’t the use of the personal noun “you”, seem a bit odd for something so broad?” he asks, “Of course, but like with any acronym they had to make it fit.”, replies Dave. Dr. Yin nods again, “And why would the acronym have to be Yang?” Dave begins to reply, “Because your name is….”, a looks of realisation appears on his face, “Exactly!” replies Dr. Yin before smiling, “Because my last name is Yin, they aren’t against physics as a whole, just my personal experiments.”. Dave ponders for a moment, then asks, “How does Experimental Realism Labs fit into all of this? How did you know about Yang’s planned attack on it?”, Dr. Yin sighs, “Because it’s my research facility.”, Dave feels like a fool.

After letting out his biggest defeated sigh yet, Dave asks, “Alright, let’s say I believe you, why did you have to talk to me so urgently?”, Dr. Yin smiles knowing Dave is on his side again. “Tomorrow is your last day to decide what reality you wish to reside in. I have to give you instructions on how to choose which reality you want to live in, and you’re going to have to decide soon. I just peered into another universe, and confirmed that Yang is indeed planning to attack my Lab.... this afternoon.”, Dave wants to take a moment, but realising the urgency ignores the desire. “What do I have to do?”, he asks, Dr. Yin takes in a breath, “You must go to Experimental Realism Labs, where you will find that universe's version of me, he should already be aware of the situation. He will put you in a machine that will fill your mind with your missing memories from the past year of whatever reality you have decided on.”, Dave nods, then responds, “Right, you said previously that having enough knowledge of a universe will pull me into it?”, “Precisely.” replies Dr. Yin. Dave starts to get concerned, “What happens if I don’t make it to your Lab before Yang gets there?”, Dr. Yin reassuringly shakes his head, “I see no reason you shouldn’t be able to, and I’m sure my identical counterpart will wait for you as long as he can.” he begins, “But, Yang will surely destroy the place when they get there, so if you don’t make it there first, any hope of your survival will be severed and you will be torn between multiple universes.”, Dr. Yin has a grim expression as he ponders the thought, “So essentially don’t be late?” Says Dave trying to lighten the mood. Dr. Yin smiles at this, “yes, I hope by now you’ve had long enough to make your decision?”, Dave shakes his head, “I thought I had, but I’m pretty sure I don’t deserve that life, and I messed things up pretty bad.”, “Well whatever you decide, just be sure that you can live with it in the long term, don’t let a short term problem decide your future.”. The void starts shaking almost throwing Dave off his feet, Dr. Yin looks up and smiles, “It’s come to an end for the last time Dave, we may never see eachother again, at least these versions of ourselves.”, Dave smiles, “Goodbye…. And I’m sorry for doubting you!” Dr. Yin smiles, and waves before fading away.

Chapter 8 - Sunday B

As if an earthquake hit him, Dave is awoken by Jayce shaking him, not realising he is awake yet Jayce slaps Dave, “Wake up dammit!”, Dave let’s out a howl of pain then responds, “Jayce?”, Jayce breathes a sigh of relief. “Man, you had me scared, I saw the glass, and you lying on the ground unconscious.”, Dave sits up, suddenly remembering everything that happened the night before in this reality, and his slip on the glass. He shakes his head clear, and focuses on Jayce, “You had me scared too Jayce, last night that is.”, Jayce shrugs, “Yeah well… just be glad I came back or you might of been out for quite a bit longer.”, Dave smiles, “It’s okay man, I know you were just scared last night.”, Jayce’s lip quivers ever so slightly, “What?”, Dave ignores the question and continues, “Don’t worry, you were right by the way?”, Jayce smiles, “I’m right about a lot of things, what in particular though?”, Dave sighs, “Yang becoming militant.”, Jayce’s face lights up, “So you got the file open? What did Yin stand for? And what’s the connection with Global Os Tech?”, Dave smiles, “All questions I can finally answer, but first what’s the time?”, Jayce looks at a window, “I’m guessing it’s around 3PM.” Dave looks shocked, “We have to go now!”, Dave jumps up and starts heading towards the door, “What about my questions?” asks Jayce, “I’ll answer everything on the drive, you coming?”, Dave grabs his keys from a bowl near the door. “Are you sure you should be driving? You might have a concussion still?” asks Jayce. Dave sighs, “Well, I’m assuming you went to a bar last night, and I’m not sure you’d be fully sober yet, I just don’t want a repeat of last time I let you drive.”, Jayce smiles, “Actually you’d be wrong.”, Dave raises an eyebrow at Jayce, “I thought about what you said to me last night, but I didn’t feel like coming back, so I just got a cheap hotel room where I could blow off some steam.” Dave smiles and throws his keys to Jayce.

Jayce and Dave pull up to the front of Experimental Realism Labs, they are getting out of their car, to find a large crowd gathered around the building, being held back by police tape. A police officer with a megaphone is yelling into the building, “Dr. Yin, we need you to evacuate the premises now!”, Dave runs over to the cop, and Jayce follows, “Excuse me what’s happening?” asks Dave, the cop puts the megaphone down and turns to Dave, “Sir, I’m going to need you to stand back.”, Jayce interrupts, “We are associates of Alex.”, the cop sighs, “Alright, here’s the deal, Yang has planted bombs in the building, we don’t know where, or how powerful, but thanks to a tip off we do know they are set on different timers. Very shortly the bombs will begin going off without warning.”, Dave looks worryingly at the building, and thinks about his fate if he doesn’t make it inside. “Different timers?” asks Jayce, “Who sets bombs too different timers.” The cop stares at Jayce then exaggerates his reply, “They’re terrorists, what do I look like a psychologist?” he mumbles something under his breath, Jayce recedes a little. The cop composes himself and asks Dave a question, “Would you mind trying to talk Dr. Yin out of the building? he isn't listening to us.”, he offers Dave the megaphone. Dave considers it for a second, then decides instead to just run towards the building, the cop tries to grab Dave but just misses, “Damnit, the Chief is gonna have my head.”, Says the cop. He brings the megaphone to his mouth, “Come back, Please?”, he turns to Jayce, “I hope you know people like your friend are why I hate my job.”.

Entering the building Dave immediately calls out, “Dr. Yin, where are you? it’s the alternate universe guy!”, he hears a voice coming from down the hallway, “Down here, hurry!”. Dave immediately starts running towards where he heard the voice coming from, but just as he reaches the door he is cut off. Elizabeth is standing between Dave and the doorway, “Elizabeth? Wait you’re involved in this?”, Elizabeth raises an eyebrow, “Do I know you?”, Before Dave can answer she continues, “Well, that’s not important right now, what is important, is I can’t let you get Dr. Yin out of here, so because of you I now have to stay longer in this building, and I don’t know when these bombs are gonna go off, I really didn’t plan on dying today!”, “Why are you doing this, Elizabeth?” Dave asks with urgency. Elizabeth smiles, “Well if it will delay you from attempting to rescue the Doctor I see no reason I can’t let you know. That man in there,” she points into the room where Dr. Yin is located, “he thinks he is a god, changing how events unfold because he feels like it, no one should have that kind of pow…” before she can complete her sentence the door she is standing in front of swings open violently, shoving her to the floor, and knocking her out cold. Dr. Yin steps out from the doorway and looks down at Elizabeth, then breaths in through his teeth “Ooooooo.” he exclaims, “I honestly didn’t mean to do that.”, he turns to face Dave who is in shock looking down at Elizabeth, “Quickly, get in here, we don’t have much time.” he says frantically, before grabbing Dave by the arm and pulling him in, Dave is still in shock.

Dr. Yin rushes over to some kind of control panel, on the other side of the room there is a chair with a helmet suspended above it by some cable, and a monitor to the side. Dr. Yin briefly glances at Dave who is still standing near the door, “Get in the chair and put the helmet on.” he says, Dave doesn’t move, “Now!” shouts Dr. Yin. As he slowly walks towards the chair Dave asks, “But what about Eliza…” he is cut of by Dr. Yin, “I don’t think you understand how close you’ve cut it! You literally only have half an hour at most before you are torn to pieces. That is if the bombs in this place don’t get you first.”, Dave suddenly connects with his life threatening situation and picks up his pace to the chair, “Is this the device that will let me choose which universe I want to stay in?” he asks, pointing to the helmet, Dr. Yin nods, “Yes, but it must be controlled from here.”, he points to the control panel, ”We have to do this now, it will only take a minute. Have you made your choice?”, Dave sits down and begins putting on the helmet, “I…” he begins, but he is cut off by an explosion from a bomb going off, the blast knocks Dr. Yin across the room. Dave runs over to him, and kneels down to check if he is okay. “Dr. Yin!” cries Dave, “Alex!” Dave check his pulse, it’s still there but faint, “Damnit!” Says Dave under his breath. After getting up, Dave runs over to the control panel, and begins studying it, there is a touch screen, and a button, he reads the text labeling it, “Activation safety switch, hold to use.”, Dave holds down the button, and notices the helmet near the chair start to whirr, and the monitor turns on, rapidly flashing images. Dave let’s go of the button to run over to the helmet, but as soon as his finger is off the button, the helmet powers down. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Alex!” he yells at the unconscious Dr. Yin.

Sitting in the chair, Dave is attempting to reach across to the control panel with his leg, the attempt is clearly futile, as his leg is several metres too short. Another bombs explodes in a nearby room making the power flicker for a second and Dave flinch. Suddenly Jayce enters the room, and looks to Dave “What’s up with the sleeping chick in the hallway?”, he then looks down at Dr. Yin, “Oh, another one.”, he exclaims before lightly kicking the Doctor to make sure he is alive. Jayce looks at Dave and suddenly becomes more serious, “We’ve gotta get outta here, Dave.”. Suddenly particles of light starts coming off Dave. Dave sighs, “Thank You for coming to my rescue, Jayce, but I think this means I’m not getting out of here.” he gestures to the particles of light floating off him, Jayce looks worried, “Is there anything I can do?”, Dave thinks for a second, “That panel over there, determines what universe I end up in, I need someone to control it for me, but you’d need to stand there for a minute, I can’t ask you to do that”, Jayce runs over to the panel and studies it, “Yes you can, besides this doesn’t look too hard.” he exclaims. Another bomb goes off, momentarily throwing off Jayce’s balance, “Are you sure you want to do this for me Jayce?”, asks Dave, “Yes!” yells back Jayce as he realigns himself, “Now put on the damn helmet before I change my mind!”.

Dave puts on the helmet, and looks towards the monitor, while Jayce looks more closely at the control panel, “Have you decided on a reality yet? I want you to know I’m okay if you pick the one with that girl, I don’t mind really, even if this universe might end up collapsing on itself.” he says, “No, I don’t think I belong in that reality.” replies Dave, Jayce’s face lights up a bit, “So you want to stay here?”, Dave shakes his head, “No, sorry Jayce, I've decided I should go back to where I came from.”, Jayce is a little surprised, “you’re sure?”, Another bomb goes off, this time closer to them, they both jump a bit, “Yes!” cries Dave, “Now, do it quickly so you can get out of here!”.

Jayce gives one last look at Dave and then holds down the button, Dave screams, “AAAAAGGGHHHHHHHH”, The light particles coming from Dave start emitting much faster, and Dave starts to slowly fade, over the course of about ten seconds, but to him it feels like an eternity. Eventually Jayce is left standing by himself in the room, next to the control panel, he looks to where Dave was, waits a few seconds and sighs, “No replacement, I guess there’s no point in me trying to escape this building then.”. Jayce retrieves a flask from his pocket and begins to unscrew the lid, when suddenly another Dave fades into existence in front of him, “Jayce! What are we doing here?” he asks, “Oh my god! I’m going to live.” Jayce screams into the ceiling. A bomb goes off closes by knocking them both to the ground, “Correction, we might live.”, Dave raises an eyebrow, Jayce throws his flask to the ground, then picks up Dr. Yin, “Dave, pick up that girl.” he points to Elizabeth, Dave looks over to her, and is about to ask who she is. predicting what Dave is about to ask, Jayce preemptively replies, “I don’t know, but we have to get out of here.”. As they run down the hall Dave asks, “But seriously, what are we doing here?”, Jayce tries to laugh but is already too out of breath.

Dave is running out of Experimental Realism Labs, holding Elizabeth, with Jayce shortly behind attempting to run while carrying Dr. Yin, after they get to a safe distance they both turn around, “Stupid thing is supposed to dramatically explode while we are running out.”, says Jayce, almost as if to spite him the building blows up as he finishes his sentence causing him to drop Dr. Yin. “That’s more like it!” Says Jayce. The police officer from earlier looks on with horror, and mumbles something under his breath about, “Fools”.

Chapter 9 - Choices Again

Waking up in an orgy of trash, Dave hears the metallic sound of empty cans as he moves his hands before sitting up. He immediately recognizes the dump as a degraded version of the house he shares with Jayce. Feeling dizzy Dave forces himself to get out of bed, and starts to stumble out of his room and down the hallway. As he enters the lounge room he finds Jayce watching TV, a news report is on, it’s about the attack on experimental realism labs. Jayce is dressed in a bathrobe, trying to pay attention to the TV, whilst simultaneously clipping his toe nails. Happy to see Jayce, Dave yells “Jayce, you’re alright!”, upon hearing Dave’s exclamation Jayce loses concentration in the middle of clipping one of his toe nails, making the loose nails flick up and hit him in the eye, he grimaces and immediately grabs his eye. Dave laughs to himself, “I mean of course you’re alright, this is a completely different reality.”. Blinking his irritated eye rapidly Jayce turns to Dave, “What?” he says, “What are you on about?”, Dave shakes his head, “Oh right, of course, you don’t know what I’m talking about, why would you? I never explained any of this to you” he replies maniacally. Jayce frowns, then picks a nearby water bottles and starts pouring it into his eye, while awkwardly tilting his head back, and frustratedly replies, “You are correct Dave, I don’t know why you aren’t making sense, or what has you so excited.” he sighs, “But I guess haven’t seen you this happy in a while, which is good.”, with the bottle empty Jayce throws it into a pile of other empty bottles on the ground, then motions to the TV which has images of the burning experimental realism labs on it, and continues, “Kind of the opposite of what the people who are worked there are feeling right now, I’m sure.”. Dave tone changes, “I suppose Dr. Yin was caught in the blast?”, Jayce raises an eyebrow to him, “Did you know someone who worked there? The city is ages away?”, Dave nods, “We should check out the hospital there, see if he’s okay.”. Jayce sighs again, “Besides the fact that I don’t even know these people, I’m not exactly prepared for an all day trip.”, Dave nods understandingly , “It’s okay if you don’t want to come.”, Jayce shakes hi head, “No, no, you have the wrong idea.”. Jayce runs into the kitchen. Dave here’s a lot of rummaging and short snippets of Jayce talking to himself, “Oh there it is… Ow, why do I always… Ah! can’t forget that.”. Dave waits anxiously, finally Jayce returns the room with a crazed look in his eye, holding a basket full of junk food, “Road trip!”, Dave smiles, “Thanks man! I’ll explain everything on the way, I promise.”

Dave’s pulls his car into the hospital parking lot, and whilst turning to the passenger seat to wake Jayce up, turns off the car and slips his key into his pocket in a well practiced maneuver. “Wake up, man!”, he says, Jayce stirs, “Look! A venue in need of a DJ!”, Jayce monas but doesn’t open his eyes, Dave changes strategies, “They have half price shots too!”, Jayce suddenly snaps awake, “Do they pay well?”, Dave smiles, “Sorry, I just needed to wake you.” Jayce seems puzzled as he looks around, until he notices the hospital, “Oh right, I hope your friends are alright.”, Dave nods. They both sit in silence for a few seconds, before getting out.

Approaching the front desk of the hospital Dave prompts the receptionist, “Excuse me.” the receptionist looks up, Dave continues, “I’m looking for a Dr. Alex Yin”, the receptionist types something into her computer at an inhuman speed, then points points down a hallway, “He’s in room 36, just take the elevators down that hall to the third floor.” Dave’s thanks her, she quickly adds on, “Just be respectful it’s a shared room.”. As Dave heads down the hallway, Jayce only just gets to the front desk and leans over it to the receptionist, “Hey there Miss…”, he says with a raised eyebrow, Dave quickly runs back and grabs him by the arm before heading down the hallway again.

With just himself and Jayce inside, Dave hits the third floor button on the elevator, once the doors shut Jayce turns to him, “So let’s just go over the details one more time, quickly.” Dave nods, Jayce continues, “You’re originally from this universe, in which you are so bad at making choices, that your life sucks?”, Dave shoots a quick glance at Jayce then nods concedingly. Jayce continues, “And this Dr. Yin, guy, gave you a chance to go live in either of two alternate realities, both of which your life is infinitely better?”, Dave attempts to interject but is cut off, “But again your apparent weakness, making bad choices, has landed you back in this crappy version of your life.”, the Elevator door opens. “It’s not that straightforward…” replies Dave, Jayce shoots him a look, Dave sighs, “Well at least I learned a lesson or something.” he says in a pathetic attempt to feel better.

Jayce see’s the sign for room 36, “Looks like we’re here.” Dave, looking at the floor, gives a slight nod of acknowledgment. They enter the room, and walk to the center of it, Dave looks up, and see’s Dr. Yin, but before he can go over to him he notices another patient. Dave suddenly has a shocked expression on his face, blasting away the sadness that resided there moments before, Noticing this Jayce says, “A wild guess here, but is that Elizabeth next to Dr. Yin?”, “Yeah”, replies Dave stunned, “Why was she in the building?” asks Jayce, Dave thinks, “I think she was in the building in the other reality to stop anyone trying to prevent the explosion, so of course she would of done the same in this universe too.”, Jayce nods, “Alright, well surely now knowing her involvement, we should turn her in, I mean I doubt even Dr. Yin there doesn’t knows she was part of YANG.”, Dave doesn’t respond, Jayce catches on, “Well… it’s your choice I guess.”.

The End.
Thank you for reading :grin: , I hope you enjoyed!

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