Without the Will

Thing 2

I wake in bed without the will to leave it. Although my clothes pinch the skin in all the wrong places, my limbs numbing due to bad positioning, my eyes clenching as the constant beam of sunlight only grew more and more strength, I simply can't be bothered to move. Laziness? No, it's more of a lack of urgency, Why should I get up?

A counter argument presented itself to me in the form of the door squeaking in protest to someone attempting to open it silently, along with the "Oh shit." of that someone.

"John?" Vivian's called, presumably from the door frame.

God damn it.

"Yo John, grans wants to talk to you." she said at a considerable distance closer.

"Okay."

I could hear my grandmother's shrill voice through the small plastic device that rested on my face.

Holding conversation with my grandmother in my current state was easy enough, as most of what she's said were simple yes or no questions. Thus I droned onward repeating them.

Then she asked something relevant.

"Did you get her the game she wanted?" Grandma Jessica ask.

Oh yeah, Christmas exists.

"Yes," I replied with a slight stutter, dragging myself from bed.

Just as soon as stood I realized another thing exists: food.

"I gotta go, love you." I said, ending the call abruptly and heading to the kitchen.

The scent only grew stronger as I approached, there awaiting me was Vivian zoned out and deep into the art of pastry craft. Pancakes were sure to be had this fabulous morning.

"Food?" I inquired as though I were asking God himself the nature of existence.

"Yea." She responded like the herald of perfection she was and wetly spattered more batter into the crucible of greatness.

"Stuff?" She asked like the serpent himself, as though this was an exchange of for one's very soul. A deal I would accept nevertheless.

"Yeah. after food, though."

She set aside a plate and began stacking pancakes onto it. "MasChrist merry." She said whilst gifting them to me.

Food was had and was consumed over the course of twenty or so minutes, after which Vivian asked again. "Stuff?"

I nodded and we sauntered over to the living room where Vivian picked up and threw my stocking in my general direction. When I recovered the sock I took notice that whatever the contents were, they're only about four maybe fiveish pounds.

I attempted to dump the innards out one by one, but was surprised when it all came out in one chunk, a bag of gummy bears brandishing the words "sugar-free".

"You're Staten, aren't you? Anyway, check yours."

She ruffled through hers and discovered several boxes of actually edible candy. "Aye, not poison, thanks."

"Unlike you, I'm not trying to make other people bathroom-bound." I stated, my sentence devolving into a lighthearted laugh.

"Wait here, I'll go get the cool stuff." I went to my room and gathered both boxes then haphazardly wrapped them.

With one grotesque box under each arm, I returned to Vivian, who was on her phone. She looked up to me with the largest smile I've seen in a long time. "Dude, you suck at wrapping. Regardless, from what people are saying in the forums this is pretty cool stuff." she said while getting up to grab her gift.

Her and I skittered away to our rooms soon after demolishing the wrap paper. I opened and reviewed the contents for myself and found a rather large and bulky helmet thing, which was surprisingly comfortable, also has a USB port, a single switch next to this long ass cord with some new type of connector at the end. In a smaller box inside was found something resembling a graphics or audio card, a pretty low profile thing only housing a single port that connects to the headset.

Getting all setup was as simple as plugging the card into a spare PCIe slot, downloading the drivers and the game, then answering a few questions about my measurements. When the launcher said it's all ready, I went to go check on Vivian to see if she's ready.

Her door was already open so I just waltzed in unnoticed and witnessed Vivian trying in vain to push her bed closer to the desk. "Do you need help?" I asked, condescension all but literally oozing out of me.

"Why yes, I would, great savior." Protocol #3: Snark Overload Engaged.

"I'll lift, you push." I went to the side of the bed facing the desk and did as I said, Vivian did her end of the deal and we scooched the piece of furniture closer to her setup.

"Christ Jesus!" I thought to myself while surveying the spot her bed used to occupy; a carpet of clothes, boxes, and trash.

She caught onto my awe of this glorious display of slothfulness.

"Just go and boot yours up, I'll find you ingame." She huffed huffily.

When her huffiness finally reached my brain through the layers of mesmerization, I discovered that I was unconsciously moving out of her room already for the better part of a minute.

"Yeah, I'll go do that thing you said." I spun on a heel and went directly towards my room, put on the headset and laid down on my bed.

The launcher bound the play button to the switch on the helm, which was very considerate of devs.

One flick of a button, one press of the finger, one conscious decision to abandon this reality and substitute my own for a short time. Questions buzzed through my mind, questions about what to expect? What should be unexpected? How one can expect the unexpected if unexpected is unexpected? Far more pressing issues philosophical in nature arose, is a person considered half of a being if his mind and body are experiencing two realities? Is the landscape of the mind anymore real than the one before your eyes? Has a man the right to choose which world he live in? Altogether, I deem these matters unimportant and meaningless dribble that is unproductive in the effort of achieving momentary entertainment, so as quickly as they came, they were discarded.

I hit the switch and dug myself further into my bed and began to wait.

After a few seconds, nothing was happening, which I thought was weir...