User visit: Guppy Sandhu

[a1enzo]

Enzo ushers Guppy into an upstairs room containing a massive bank of hardware, including lasers, monitors, and Big Red Buttons.

"Here it is. The digitizer." Beat. "And matterizer. And some other things. Maybe it needs a better name."

Comments

[guppy_sandhu]

"The... big machine with shiny things?" Guppy suggests, peering at it.

[guppy_sandhu]

"You ever heard of the Loch Ness Monster?" Guppy asks.

[a1enzo]

"It... pings a little bell?" Enzo says doubtfully.

[guppy_sandhu]

"... No, it's a made-up creature. Well, in my reality anyway."

[a1enzo]

"Okay?"

And?

[guppy_sandhu]

"Well people have shown all sorts of photos to try and prove it exists, and yet people still disbelieve."

[a1enzo]

"Well, do they have anything besides photos?"

[guppy_sandhu]

"Possibly not." Guppy says. "I think they tried to scan it at one point."

[a1enzo]

"I've been doing movie nights. Even if I could fake a whole movie of something as detailed as Users and Userspace, I wouldn't have time to make one, let alone lots of them."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Point." Guppy says.

The shininess of the place is really weird...

[a1enzo]

Enzo conducts Guppy to a ladder-fortunately with closely-spaced rungs-leading up to a trapdoor. He climbs up and raps on the panel.

"What's the password?" calls a younger male voice.

"'Open the crashing door'," Enzo replies.

The door is duly opened and two cadets, both a year or two Enzo's junior, jostle for space above the opening. The boy is lanky and pseudo-Caucasian, with long red hair; the girl is shorter and stockier, red-skinned with a shock of black hair.

"That's our VIP?" she asks, while the boy simultaneously blurts out, "That's a User?" The girl thwaps him on the back of the head.

[guppy_sandhu]

"I've been digitised." Guppy tries to explain. "I normally look... well more like you really. Hey Enzo, how come I ended up so round and you still look humanlike?"

[a1enzo]

"Some sprites have more complex code than others," says Enzo, shrugging as best he can while still clinging to the ladder. "Give us some room, guys, huh?"

The boy backs up, rubbing his head, while the girl moves aside and gives them a hand out into a huge room full of assorted vehicles, none of which have wheels.

"Thanks. This is Guppy. Guppy, this is my roommate, Joseph, and his third arm, Amy."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Hey Joseph, hey Amy." Guppy struggles up the ladder in his rotund form, nearly falling back down the hole.

[a1enzo]

"Nice to meet you," says Amy, steadying him.

"How close are we to ready?" Enzo asks.

"Soon," says Joseph. "Hugh took a while to get here, he's still setting up."

Enzo nods. "You'll be hiding out in here 'til we're ready," he tells Guppy. "Don't want to spoil your big entrance."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Okay, do you need me to do anything?" Guppy asks.

Damn, should have prepared some sort of speech perhaps?