It's a quality of the gods

to see a creature with it's back broken

And be unmoved.

-Suniti Namjoshi, "It's a quality of the Gods"

"Be careful, ok? I don't know how many bugs I've already weeded out so far without us even running it, so if something starts look off, let me know ok? No need to chance it." Damian fiddled with a few more wires before handing her the headset.

"I know, new tech, new risk," the company's safety motto sounded almost catchy coming from her mouth, her voice pitching into the over-dramatic falsetto of the spokeswoman of Britta, the developers of the new, fully immersive gaming software she was about to take for a test drive. Everyone in the office had drawn straws and she won.

"Brianne, I'm serious, keep your comm on ok? This thing is seriously twisted in some spots so I might have to talk you through some immersive repair, ok?" Damian come over to the table she' was sitting on, papers and blueprints pushed to the side to make room for her improper conduct, and adjusted the body suit's sensors again. "Talk to me, even if it's stupid stuff. I want to hear everything that's going on."

"What are the odds that this thing is going to crash one me?" She threw her long hair over her shoulder so she could see the headset better, familiarizing herself with the design. Kicking her legs, she poked him with one of her toes. "Surely they wouldn't be testing it on people if it wasn't safe."

Rolling his eyes and giving her a look, "Yea, sure. What could go wrong? I'm dropping my little sister into a violently unstable algorithm of coding that's suppose to look like a VR game mimicking everything from combat to house life. You just jinxed yourself and I'm now expecting check-ins every five minutes, ok?"

"Yea, yea," She moved to the gaming pod and slung herself into the padded interior, feeling the wiring in her suit and headset connect to the systems, "Five minutes, twisted coding, alternate gameplay, I get it. Now, light it up."

The start menu flared blue, lines of coding and bright overlay advertisements for the game's developers covering the bright white walls of the simulated lab like room.

"Brianne do you read?"

"Loud and clear! So far everything looks like its where it's suppose to be, eye watering ads included."

A sigh, "Keep your eyes out for any blurring or pixels, they aren't that important in small doses but too many can stall the systems."

"In that case tell the bosses to double check the ads, some of them are barely legible,"

"I think that was actually intentional, Something about aesthetic." She rolled her eyes. Of course

The floating menu read New Game only, which makes sense seeing how this is her first rodeo. She slamed her hand on the lettering as she walked forward, the game shifting around her and coalescing into the lab white character design room, a featureless creature of robotic origin standing at parade rest on a pedestal.

"New Game button works, the room's shifting to my steps and moving around me, I can't really get too close to walls. I'm assuming that coding is going to be a bit of an issue," She kicked her bare foot on the floor, white tile giving for a second.

The environment glitched, pixelating and freezing the bright advertisements. Her steps hitched and she had to steady herself on the holo screen while the disorientation passes.

"Brianne?! Systems just lagged, what did you do?"

"Kicked the floor, the same program on the walls is attached to floor and the whole thing kind of fritzed, looking a little better now but we still have some pixels out. Disorientation noted," she taped the command prompts a few times, finally getting the screen to start reacting.

"Are you ok?"

"Yea just surprised, no big deal."

Character Design

Name

Stats

Grining as she selected character design and started sliding the options around, her fingers barely brushing over commands before they come to the fore, playing out on the character blank.

"This is so cool!"

"Are you ok?"

"Yesss, I just think this is really cool, you can do so much wi-"

"Are you ok?" grinding, glitching vocals.

She stoped ogling flight frames for a minute, frowning at the sound, "Damian?"

"Somebody get a medic!" Thump. thump. Thump. Thump. The lighting dimming in time with the sound, machinery revving up, systems glitching out. Neon colored words blaring across the walls, shifting into new sentences.

"Wha-?"

"Hey, hey bro? What's going on?"

The ads flickered out, the ceiling dripping in black pixels. She steped away from the screen to avoid some, off balance when the floor bowed under her, the black spreading like-

"Rise up! Rise up!" The roar of a crowd, metal slamming into metal, wailing keens into the void. A planet groaning under the weigh of it's children. Of their pain, their anger.

"Damian! Damian it's lost stabilization! Pull me out! You have to pull me out!"

"Are you ok!?" her brother's voice this time, distorted.

"NO! NO I'M-"

The walls flickered to black, leaning and falling inward like a wave cresting toward her, the floor giving out and rising up to meet it. She could see the screen flicker off and on, red alerts spamming across it, the character blank dissolving in the rising darkness.

It felt like treading water, her fingers barely skimming over the holo screen, words flashing on repeat, pixelating into the black.

'YOU ARE BEING DECIEVED'

'YOU ARE BEING DECIEVED'

'YOU ARE BEING DECIEVED'

'YOU AR-'

"Are you ok?" a voice she didn't know, a language she didn't understand but she knows.

The screen sliped into the rising tide, the last bit of light swallowed. She went under.

There was nothingness.

"Are you ok child?"

Giant hands came around her, cradling her in the dark, the world dimly lit by glowing balls of light, zipping by, moving like stars in the black of space.

"They aren't stars, but they thank you for the compliment, little one."

She tried to look up at the source of the sounds, words, but she felt limp, weightless. Something in her chest burned.

"It's gong to be alright, you're just changing right now. Soon I'll set you free."

In the distance the keening she'd heard earlier rang out, making the heat in her chest ache.

"There's your dani, little one. He thinks you're gone. Gave everyone a scare, you did, when you flickered out. Well, not you, but you, if that makes sense. I'll give you back in a minute."

The hands, fingers bigger than her whole body, why couldn't she feel her body, lifted her up toward the voice. The glow let her see the fingers color, glossy blue, metal. This thing-person-god is metal…

Primus

She could hear it's his vents, cycling in the background, the only noise beside the humming of systems.

His name is Primus.

Two eyes optics captureed her attention, staring down at her and he smiled, face lit by the million of lights sparks flickering and flowing around them.

"Everything is going to be ok, child."

Voice like rolling thunder, temple bells and acid rain on the roof of the great cathedral. Like the roar of victory and the steps of armies.

"There you go. It's time to wake up now, don't you think?"

Hands closed around her and the darkness came again.

GAME START