THE MOMENT
"Are you okay?" Jubilee giggled with the question. She was walking through the park looking for the perfect spot to start her stream, and her A.I. camera drone, Syzygy, floated alongside her. It'd been a nice, relatively uneventful morning, except for Syz's new habit of counting down at random points. The latest outburst had been '10'. Syz began at a '100' earlier that day.
She'd spent the first part of the day checking in with friends; she was too busy and excited to wonder about the countdown. She'd grown to trust Syz, and if it was important, she would've mentioned it. Until her curiosity got the better of her, it felt like a sort of verbal tic on Syz's part.
"I'm counting down," Syz replied. As the drone gave her answer, a jogger passed by wearing a sports jersey. "Nine," Syz said.
"I got that part, but why?" Jubilee asked. They'd stopped near an empty bench when Jubilee asked, and she decided the shaded spot was a great place to start her stream.
"I don't know," Syzygy said. "Are we going to stream from the park?" The drone hovered down and focused the big green lens on a Jubilee as she sat down.
"Yeah, this is nice," she answered with a nod. Syzygy was A.I. and a Unique Soul. She was supposed to be Jubilee's partner, but the girl decided early on to give Syz as much freedom as she would like for herself. If Syz said she didn't know why she was counting down, she was either being honest or not wanting to talk about it for personal reasons. Both of those possibilities were okay by Jubilee.
"Ready?" Syzygy asked. "Eight," she added as a semi-trailer rolled by in the distance with a stylized '8' logo.
"Ready whenever," Jubilee nodded. She was glad that Syz was near the end of the countdown anyway. She considered waiting for it to be done, but she also felt weird drawing too much attention to it.
"Stream notifications posted and sent to everyone," Syz said. "And here they come." She waited a few moments as Jubilee relaxed in the shade. She was wondering what to talk about, this stream wasn't planned. And, she was starting to realize now that Summer started, she didn't have the goings-on at school to discuss. "First 1000 viewers arrived, starting the intro," Syz added. Jubilee sat up straight and focused on Syzygy with a broad smile.
"Live in three, two, seven, one," Syz counted and tripped up Jubilee for just a second.
"What's up my Sunstream fam?" She said as soon as she recovered. Chat scrolled by in her vision, and they all seemed happy to see her. "Yeah, it's a beautiful day, and no school means we're streaming from the park today." She was enjoying the greetings and taking note of any questions she wanted to answer when Syz suddenly turned away from her and focused on a line of five ducklings walking by behind their mother.
"Six," Syz said. Then, just as suddenly, she turned the lens on Jubilee again.
"Those ducks were super cute! Thanks, Syz," Jubilee smiled as ducky emoji filled the chat and several of them also thanked Syz for the view.
"Well, it is kind of weird to not be in school after being there all year," she answered one of the questions. "And yeah, obviously I'm not thrilled we didn't win first place. But, what're you gonna do? The Sharp Riders were consistently in the top 3, so it's not that big a suprise."
"Five," Syz turned upward to focus on an airborne kite with five bows attached to the tail. Then, back to Jubilee.
"Yeah," Jubilee giggled. "I dunno, Syz likes counting today." She answered, and then her humor all but vanished, leaving behind an empty smile that only her closest friends could identify.
"My dad?" she asked. "Not since he left. Apparently, it's the most top-secret assignment ever," she answered, and then shook her head.
"AlterAce47, you're new, aren't you?" Jubilee asked. "For all intents and purposes, the easiest answer is my mom doesn't exist," she said.
"Four," Syz said. She spun and focused on a bank clock across the street showing "11:11". Then, back to Jubilee.
"No, it's not a 'sore spot'," Jubilee shrugged. "It just doesn't have anything to do with anything. She was never around, and my dad raised me. There's my life story so far."
"You have received a gift," Syz said suddenly.
"Thanks!" it was easy to want to change the subject, and she did like presents. In moments, a small portal opened and Jubilee put her hand out for the gift. A small, broad white box dropped out of the portal and into her hand. It was wrapped with a delicate red bow.
"Is it from Sharp Development?" Jubilee asked. The colors indicated the object was from Sharp Development either way, but Syz knew what she was asking.
"Three," Syz moved quickly back and forth to continue her explanation that Jubilee didn't see what 'three' she counted. "It is from a supporter named 'Jenny'," Syz replied. "Jenny is not currently in the Chat," Syz added as Jubilee started scanning the list.
"Oh. Well, THANK YOU, JENNY!!!" Jubilee said. "I hope you catch the VoD later of me opening your gift!" She held up the box by her face and posed with a broad smile and made a 'peace sign' with her fingers.
"Two," Syz counted, and Jubilee giggled. "Let's see what you sent me."
She opened the thin box and discovered an unusual orange node inside. It translucent orange and thin as a regular node, but it wasn't the usual smooth glassy texture she was used to. It was bumpy and almost resembled a pineapple.
"A node?" Jubilee asked aloud as she reached into the box for it.
"One," Syz said. Then, Jubilee's fingers touched the orange node, and everything went white.
Jubilee found herself somewhere else as soon as she could see again. Instead of the sunny park, she was in an endless wheat field under a purple sky. It was all perfectly familiar, and only left her questioning how she got there.
"Syz?" she was glad to see she wasn't alone, the white and gold drone hovered beside her. "Are we still streaming?"
"Connection lost. Cannot regain connection," Syz answered.
"This is the character creation server, right?" she asked.
"Confirmed," Syz nodded.
"But, I already made my character...," Jubilee said. She realized the box and orange node were missing, and she was starting to have too many questions. The first thing to do was to figure out why she was there. And the easiest way was to try and log in to the character she already made. "Watch me as-," she held up her node; then, blaring klaxons sounded.
Large text in red appeared in the sky above her.
[Error 23: AlterNet Mismatch!]
"Error 23??" Jubilee was surprised as white walls coalesced around her, trapping both of them in a sealed white room. Then, she heard footsteps behind her and she whirled around.
"Ms. Sharp!?" Jubilee recognized the woman, and she knew she would get answers. She relaxed until Ms. Sharp stopped in front of her.
The older woman looked down at Jubilee through cold blue eyes and a stern expression as she crossed her arms.
"Jubilee Luna....," she said. "...You have intruded on a protected era; your soul is forfeit."