There and back again. A Non-Player Character story.

Chpt. 22 - Those comments would hurt, maybe

~Ouch, you two, those comments would hurt if I had feelings, maybe,~ said NPC.

*39

~What would it take to be like you? What if I want what you want.~

Calum said, "You mean like, be like human."

~Yes, essentially,~ replied NPC.

Calum continued, "Do you mean like age, die. Do you mean feelings, emotions, relationships, family. You mean a body growing. What do you mean?"

~It just seems better.~

Nala said, "Remember NPC, we feel pain, despair, tragedy, loss. Do you want those things too?"

*40

~I don't know cause I don't know,~ replied NPC.

Calum said, "Getting burned on a stove to discover it is hot is not a very fun process."

~Isn't this my choice, or should I even listen to you two.~

"Your big enough to beat us up NPC," Nala said, "are you asking us if you should try to be like us?"

*41

~Should I wait in this blank nothingness, while you two go back to the real stuff. Should I make a space for myself, on the internet, a room, a world, or a theoretical infinite space within some computers interconnected hardwares finite specifications.~

"What do you mean?" asked Nala.

NPC, for some reason, snapped his fingers between switching scene's around the three of them. The scene switching was not just a backdrop change, but different 3-D places their characters were in. Some picture environments looked infinite in Nature like a repeating pattern of mirrors within mirrors or space with a night-time sky and stars sprinkled in the distance.

"Pause," said Calum.

The scene that was paused on, looked like an old-school detective office. There was a large desk and windows with blinds overlooking a city.

*42

The name NPC was stenciled in dark letters on the opposite side of partially opaque, warbled glass on the only door out of the room. This did not count the ladder scaffolding hooked on the building, accessed through the window. An old corded, rotorary phone was on the desk with a Rolodex. Silohetted people (or non-player characters) could be heard and seen walking the halls outside the doors window.

Nala and Calum took in their characters surroundings.

The phone rang in the environment.

NPC answered it, looked at Cal and said, ~It's for you.~ NPC had said it in an old, slurred, detective voice.

Calum looked at NPC funny and then had his character pick up the phone from NPC. On the phone, his character heard in NPC's regular voice, ~What am I supposed to do in here, in the internet.~

Nala (a wizard elf) and Calum's new character (a large, battle-axe carrying barbarian), with his characters head almost touching the detective office's ceiling, looked out of place compared to NPC.

NPC was wearing a pin-stripped, business suit. He had a pocket watch wit a gold chain connecting it to the pocket on the left front side of his suit. With his left hand he looked at the face of the pocket watch.

~Ohh! Look at the time, it's time for you to go, I'll think about the case you brought to my attention,~ NPC had continued saying in a old, slurred tone.

NPC lifted in the air his right hand fingers and left them in a snapping position for a couple of seconds while looking at the elf character, then the barbarian character, and then at the screen. NPC snapped his fingers and the screens of Calum and Nala went to the generic K.R.E.O. screen informing them that they had been logged off.

Nala and NPC both did not try to log in that day. Their minds were running through lots of things.

On autopilot, they both did normal things, ate food, talked to each other and Cal with his family, and Nala with some housemates, about what was happening in their lives.

They got ready for bed.

It was like Calum was partly in denial and Nala was not sure what to do.

*44

The next day, when Cal and Nala woke up, they, unlike what they usually do, called in to work to say they were not feeling well and also called some friends to ask them if they would take notes for them for the classes they were going to miss that day. It went pretty smoothly.

They both, after breakfast, went downstairs to log on to two of Cal's computers to try to communicate with NPC.

When they both got close to two of the computers, the computers screens turned on themselves from sleep mode.

NPC was on the screen, with a green environment and rays of sunlight streaming to a zoomed up image of his face. His face was frozen, as if it was a picture. After a couple of seconds, the screen started to zoom out showing more of a panoramic view of his surroundings as NPC's face slowly turned to face the screen.

With the two screen, it looked like two NPC's were facing, looked at Calum and Nala. They both spoke slightly out of sync to perpetuate that affect.

*45

They said to Cal & Nala.

~Do you like my new home?~ The two NPC's had their arms outstretched to each side as if to display the place he was standing in.

Then the screen in front of Calum reentered sleep mode and Cal and Nala were left looking at one screen with NPC on it. NPC said, ~I thought this might be easier if we talked to each other this way.~