this is your fault j

[bluuprincewizard]

6

'i chose you for a reason.'

so this was my new reality, no pun intended. suddenly i knew something that only a few people in the whole world knew. chris and i shared something. a secret.

i know i should have had some kind of profound nervous breakdown about life and existence and the meaning of it all and whatever, but mostly my head swam knowing that he confided in me.

two days after the not date date, two days before the pirate hack, he walked me home. thinking about it now, it might have been the happiest night of my young life. this sweet, perfect moment of calm that i could almost hold in my hand. a world all to ourselves where everything seemed to feel new and fresh and exciting.

without even realizing it i'd taken the slow way home, and we had talked the entire time. chris had this funny way of walking where he weaved a bit, he would get ahead of you and turn around, walking backwards for a while to face you, then he might hop up onto a wall and pretend to walk on it like a tightrope. he was never still, but his focus was somehow always on me...

we were talking about the project, of course, when he said it, 'i chose you for a reason.' so casually, like it would make perfect sense and not need any more explaining.

'a... for a reason?' i replied timidly

'you're an amazing artist, that was clear from the start. it's why i hired you.' he spoke quickly and confidently, although for the first time all evening he wasn't looking me in the eyes. 'but when you started working, wow...'

his mouth and eyes went wide, then beamed with a soulful grin. it wasn't even for me, it seemed to be involuntary.

'you're more than an artist,' he continued, 'the way you work. i just fell in love with it -- well, you know. it had... an impact on me.'

he straightened up now, clearing his throat, and looked at me.

'no, yes, that was the right thing to say. i fell in love with it. your work. it's wonderful. and it... it showed me you were a person i could trust.'

i just stood there. i think my mouth was open, but honestly i couldn't feel any part of my face. before i could move he continued, trying to fill the silence before it became awkward...

'anybody with a... with a soul... that special. i knew that person could handle anything.'

i must have blacked out a little because i hadn't noticed him take a few steps closer to me. then i had to do a mental double take. i was further away from my front door than i had been a few seconds ago... it was me who had stepped closer to him! or did i float?

i was close enough now to see the flecks of color in his eyes. his lips a thin line, a nervous smile. i felt his warmth too, and his nervousness. i couldn't believe it, but it was true. and suddenly it all clicked into place: the restlessness, the run-on sentences... all this time i had been scared. scared of him, scared to show my feelings. but he was terrified of me.

so that's when i kissed him.

[bluuprincewizard]

5

weeks ago, before the pirate attack, we had dinner together.

it was a warm spring evening with a flowery scent on the breeze. he knew where i lived but i didn't really know... well.. anything about him, i realized as i stood on my front steps waiting. he pulled up in a bright yellow sports car that suited him perfectly. sleek, sure, but also slightly silly and embarrassing. unless you drive it with confidence.

i wore my second-sexiest outfit, hoping that it said 'i don't think this is a date, but i want it to be.' if he was surprised he didn't show it, and as he stepped out to greet me and open my passenger door he was the perfect gentleman.

later, at dinner, he told me about his life. growing up in london, and then the countryside, and going to school for film, and how his passion for technology only grew after that.

'for me, film making has always been the perfect combination of different technologies with artistic expression'

i nodded, and then murmured 'yes, i totally agree' because i was worried i hadn't spoken in too long.

'i'm sorry, i'm talking too much. you must be bored of me already and we haven't even got to the project...'

'no, no. that's alright. i love it. i - i'm enjoying it. really.'

as the hours ticked by and the other guests in the restaurant slowly filtered away his tone shifted, becoming more serious. he started explaining the process behind the virtual film sets we were building. some of it didn't make sense to me, but i caught little phrases that i tried desperately to memorize and write down in my notebook later. 'causal algorithm' was one, and something about a 'quantum bubble'.

i let out a little giggle at the word 'bubble' because i wasn't expecting it. that's how it stuck in my mind. i thought it was kind of cute, but then i saw his eyes looking back at me, deadly serious. i realised, mortified, that the mood of the conversation had shifted while i was busy trying to pretend i understood it...

this wasn't a date. no, it was an initiation. while i wasn't paying attention i had been transformed unwittingly from crew member to co-conspirator. he was letting me in on a secret, and he had waited until later in the evening, with fewer people around, to do it.

'the place we're building... it's real.'

he pauses for a moment, almost as if he expects applause. then i say, 'yeah, we're building a real alternative to a film studio. something that can be saved and changed and used an infinite number of times. it's going to have a huge impact on the industry. it's exciting!'

'no, it's real.'

this time i just pause and stare at him.

'the core we use, it's different. i don't even fully understand it, but i was shown how to use it,' he says in a hushed but excited voice.

'what do you mean?'

'i mean those props we're building, those places, the bodies we use when we're inside... they aren't saved to some computer server somewhere.'

and it clicks, finally, and i know it before he says it.

'they're saved to a physical place, in space and time. they're real.'

[bluuprincewizard]

4

i wasn't expecting them to be literal pirates, but there you go.

the set was thrown into chaos as scenery, bushes, trees, lights, and other rendered objects popped out of existence, one by one. i stared, dumb struck, for what felt like an eternity before i finally snapped out of it. chris was running back and forth, trying to calm down the team and mobilize a defense against the raid.

'we're being hacked, people! don't panic. get your personal firewalls up before anything else.'

i glanced down at the corner of my hud, i was secure. nobody was going to be able to kick me. but all my hard work, all the set design we had crafted over the last few weeks was being lost to digital oblivion.

and just when things seemed like they couldn't get worse, they arrived.

crashing through the fourth wall, an honest to god pirate ship appeared, glitching and distorting until it was fully rendered. the noise momentarily drowned out everything else and made my headset vibrate.

'well that's a bold choice', i heard chris say.

i smiled. even in the worst situation he was able to keep his sense of humor.

i made my way closer to him, ducking flying pieces of digital debris. i dodged part of a virtual bus stop i had helped design and saw it crumble and pixelate behind me.

'what do we do now!?' i screamed over the noise.

'we can't save the assets, they're lost. we need to get everyone logged out safely and then shut down the core before they can learn it's location.'

'i'll spread the word!'

'stay safe', he said, and his eyes stayed staring at mine for a few moments.

'i'll try my best.'

[bluuprincewizard]

3

i found this page in my diary, from the day before the accident:

am i destined to wait on the sidelines? i know i got a promotion but it doesn't feel like a promotion right now.... watching chris and the gang bring their superhero dreams to life while i tick boxes on a script sheet. my heart is fluttering wtf. oh god he's looking at me ok bye-

over the course of that week the camaraderie of friends became a bittersweet melody, a tune only i seemed to hear. with our vr sets on, building a world that wasn't real, the lines began to blur. i would daydream about being a part of his world in a way that transcended the bounds of friendship.

and it was during one of these daydreams i failed to notice the alert pop up in the corner of my vision screen. it wasn't until the first piece of scenery fluttered and glitched out of existence, and members of the crew turned to me, bewildered, that i snapped out of it.

we were being hacked.

[bluuprincewizard]

2

'i chose you for a reason.'

today was the start of something amazing. we wrapped our first vr film project and had a team meeting to decide on the next one. it had to be fresh and creative, and something we hadn't done before. i had some ideas, but i was so nervous.

chris was in charge of the meeting, naturally, it is his film company after all, but he let everyone else speak before him. i was sat next to him (i didn't plan it, i swear, i was just late!) so i had to speak last.

i stood up and cleared my throat. my heart was racing.

'i think....'

'speak up, dear,' he said. my heart rate doubled.

'i think we... we should make something about super heroes.'

there was a moment of silence, and then he nodded.

it all started moving so fast from that point on. we were repurposing sets almost immediately. our virtual production office hummed with activity, and i was promoted to creative director... there was no time to-

...

what you have to understand is that i'm sorry. nothing that happened later was my intention, but i do accept the blame for it.

later, when i stood in the street and the fire licked at my boots, spilling out of his apartment onto the sidewalk, i would think about that night he visited me. and the thing he told me that he shouldn't have.

[bluuprincewizard]

1

he turned to me, and the look he gave me said...

'have hope. this will work'...

stepping into the vr world with chris holding my hand and all these new friends was like stepping into my own personal video game, only now i wasn't playing solo. we had a mission: make a movie, with chris at the helm, directing us while we worked busily to build the backgrounds and the sets.

the head set felt heavy on my head, but i didn't mind because it was a mesmerizing journey. we made mythical creatures in the skies, we grew enchanted forests, we made swords and weapons and zombies that felt so real that it sent shivers down my spine. it went beyond visuals. i could feel the wind rush by and the warmth of the virtual sun on my face...

navigating this digital wonderland was scary at times, but when i got uncomfortable i just looked to chris. new puzzles tested our movie skills, it was so different to what we were used to! each scene was a testament to chris's creativity, both funny and sad at the same time, and kinda beautiful. we were going to win the prize, i knew it. they had never seen a film like this before...

that first day chris said he had to go, but the rest of us kept working late. i was helping paint the stars for a night time scene. i was so focused on my work i almost didn't notice the knocking... what was that?

it was coming from the real world. it was coming from my door.

taking off the vr set i nervously walked to the front door of my tiny apartment... the door opened, and standing on the other side was:

'hi, my name is christopher bingham. i thought it was time we met for real.'

[bluuprincewizard]

yall kept asking so i made a tumblr for my dumb fic smh =bluu=