Vats come in three sizes.
The smallest is a personal pod. Fancy brand names, a slew of credible manufacturers. It isn’t scary. People put their children in personal pods. Oblong and oval or roomy and rectangular. The vat gel used is pastel, calming. The sort of colors you’d find on an Easter Egg. They even scent the suds differently. No harsh chemical odors.
The second size holds about ten times the juice a personal pod does. An industrial group vat. Workspaces can cut costs if they make a pitch to their financial departments about the benefit of buying in bulk. Big corporate is sneaky. They use a gel the color of charcoal or bleach or egg whites and it smells like burnt hair and battery acid. Most work-related incidents involve regular joes being drowned in vats while their coworkers continue their simulations. Sometimes, one slip is all it takes.
The last size is a tanker, which isn’t an official name but works to give some reference to what a monstrosity this thing is. Absolutely massive. You won’t see them outside prison wards, though. Nothing ethical about suspending thousands of people in gel for decades. No drain, no off switch, no deplug. Prisoners test new gels, new simulations; they’re just guinea pigs. Good tests, good results? You might earn time in a simulation of your choosing. A personal memory or a taste of life outside of the gel. If you’re good at finding sim bugs, you might get time taken off your sentence.
The gel is neon. Seas of pinks, greens, and electric blues. Like all those toxic frogs in the rain forests, it's a warning.
It’s funny to think about overstimulation killing people, isn’t it? Not a haha funny, but there’s something real dark and heinous and wicked and laughable about it. Maybe that desperate laugh someone gives after they’ve sobbed themselves ragged. Maybe a croaked guffaw at the inevitability of it. Maybe a hesitant chuckle because it’s uncomfortable and awful and there’s no avoiding talking about it so why not make light of a touchy topic?
I couldn’t say.
I died in simulation about thirty cycles back.
Just waiting for them to fish my body out of the gel and flush my ghost from the simulation.
______
Red rimmed, dusty. A rust stain. Teeth at the cuticle, blood in the cut. Iron on her tongue, globing, with each breath spraying specks over her chin. Uncoordinated.
Simulation restart.
April and raining. Fog over the bay, misty shapes crawling over the wreckage. Three screams seem like two too many.
Simulation restart.
Gasoline leaking from the ravaged backend of a pickup truck. Claw marks as big as the tailgate litter the concrete as bellied grooves. Every tread feels like skipping three steps on a steep stairwell. Too big, too fast. Isolated.
Simulation restart.
Stars are screaming in space. The wind whistles. Her head is full of songs, of images, of faces she thought she forgot. She makes an effort to remember names, their names, but only frustrated tears follow. Misguided attempt.
Simulation restart.
Hot, staticky. He’s got his hands all over her body. Down, down, down, and so far down, she can't question where he came from. With thighs spread, she takes him. It’s not quick. Eyes closed, lips quivering, there is a demon inside her. Say nothing. No one knows. Alone and in the neon of the tank, he takes her again from behind. Promises leak between them just as freely as seed and sweat. Neither can get enough. It’s a loop.
Wait.
It’s a loop.
Simulation restart.
The smallest is a personal pod. Fancy brand names, a slew of credible manufacturers. It isn’t scary. People put their children in personal pods. Oblong and oval or roomy and rectangular. The vat gel used is pastel, calming. The sort of colors you’d find on an Easter Egg. They even scent the suds differently. No harsh chemical odors.
The second size holds about ten times the juice a personal pod does. An industrial group vat. Workspaces can cut costs if they make a pitch to their financial departments about the benefit of buying in bulk. Big corporate is sneaky. They use a gel the color of charcoal or bleach or egg whites and it smells like burnt hair and battery acid. Most work-related incidents involve regular joes being drowned in vats while their coworkers continue their simulations. Sometimes, one slip is all it takes.
The last size is a tanker, which isn’t an official name but works to give some reference to what a monstrosity this thing is. Absolutely massive. You won’t see them outside prison wards, though. Nothing ethical about suspending thousands of people in gel for decades. No drain, no off switch, no deplug. Prisoners test new gels, new simulations; they’re just guinea pigs. Good tests, good results? You might earn time in a simulation of your choosing. A personal memory or a taste of life outside of the gel. If you’re good at finding sim bugs, you might get time taken off your sentence.
The gel is neon. Seas of pinks, greens, and electric blues. Like all those toxic frogs in the rain forests, it's a warning.
It’s funny to think about overstimulation killing people, isn’t it? Not a haha funny, but there’s something real dark and heinous and wicked and laughable about it. Maybe that desperate laugh someone gives after they’ve sobbed themselves ragged. Maybe a croaked guffaw at the inevitability of it. Maybe a hesitant chuckle because it’s uncomfortable and awful and there’s no avoiding talking about it so why not make light of a touchy topic?
I couldn’t say.
I died in simulation about thirty cycles back.
Just waiting for them to fish my body out of the gel and flush my ghost from the simulation.
______
Red rimmed, dusty. A rust stain. Teeth at the cuticle, blood in the cut. Iron on her tongue, globing, with each breath spraying specks over her chin. Uncoordinated.
Simulation restart.
April and raining. Fog over the bay, misty shapes crawling over the wreckage. Three screams seem like two too many.
Simulation restart.
Gasoline leaking from the ravaged backend of a pickup truck. Claw marks as big as the tailgate litter the concrete as bellied grooves. Every tread feels like skipping three steps on a steep stairwell. Too big, too fast. Isolated.
Simulation restart.
Stars are screaming in space. The wind whistles. Her head is full of songs, of images, of faces she thought she forgot. She makes an effort to remember names, their names, but only frustrated tears follow. Misguided attempt.
Simulation restart.
Hot, staticky. He’s got his hands all over her body. Down, down, down, and so far down, she can't question where he came from. With thighs spread, she takes him. It’s not quick. Eyes closed, lips quivering, there is a demon inside her. Say nothing. No one knows. Alone and in the neon of the tank, he takes her again from behind. Promises leak between them just as freely as seed and sweat. Neither can get enough. It’s a loop.
Wait.
It’s a loop.
Simulation restart.
BDRP Admin. Writer. Villain. Personal Blog.
I tried running from the memory and the mourning.
I tried running from the memory and the mourning.
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