Day 2: Mindscape
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"Ughhh," Jeremy groans, face red with embarrassment. He ducks into his seat, slouching over. The Squip sends a quick pulse, jolting his back up right.
"That was painful to watch."
"You think?" Jeremy raises an eyebrow at the projection in front of him covering his view of his teacher. "I fully panicked. Said all the wrong things like I normally do! Then, I made myself look like a freak. Its just-- the worst habit and impossible to break!"
"Now, now, Jeremy, don't be so harsh on yourself." The Squip flashes a perfect smile. "Progress takes time. You won't get the hang of this immediately."
Jeremy turns his face away to stare out the window.
"Pouting there won't help you achieve your goals. Now, find an opportunity get into the bathroom," the Squip directs.
Jeremy scrunches his face in defiance. "Why?"
"I'll show you something."
Jeremy does just that and manages to slip out the classroom and dart into the nearest bathroom which luckily happens to be empty.
"So what did you want to show me?" Jeremy says, hunching over as he sits down in one of the stalls. "Seems like just a dirty high school bathroom to me."
"Yes, but it also serves as a quiet location. Now, close your eyes." The Squip speaks within Jeremy's head, almost indistinguishable from his own thoughts. Thanks to a lack of physical manifestation in the close stall, Jeremy almost feels like he's hallucinating it all. Getting the hang of having a squip still is a struggle.
"You're not hallucinating. Close your eyes."
Jeremy exhales and does so. Within seconds a huge dark blue expanse with a grid patterned floor surrounds him.
"Wh--" he chokes on his breath, forcing his eyes back open. The expanse disappears partially, merging with the real bathroom stall like a bugged out texture in a video game. A wave of nausea flashes over Jeremy and he shuts his eyes again. Both the expanse and the bathroom vanish. "What was that?"
"Working out a few bugs, hold on a moment. Whatever you do, don't open your eyes yet."
Jeremy frowns, keeping them closed. In a moment, the expanse reappears, opening up more gradually, giving Jeremy a better look at it.
"How can I see, well, whatever this is, with my eyes closed?"
"Simple hacking of your visual cortex. Think of it like dreaming. What you saw a moment ago was the start up of the program. There were couple of bugs when it booting up, since its an artificial process."
The Squip appears in a flurry of glitches, hands crossed behind its back. "Everything should now be in order. Feel free to open or close your eyes, the visual should be synced."
"Right..." Jeremy shakes his head taking a step forward. The floor beneath him lights up and a branching path of circuits spreads out from his footprint. "What is this place though?"
"Your mind."
"My mind?" Jeremy steps back in shock, almost tripping over himself. He glances around, brows pressed firmly together. "But how? And why is it so... blank?"
"I should be more clear. This is more or less a visual representation of how I interact with your mind. I've currently cleared the clutter of neural activity to let you adjust."
"That's so cool!" Jeremy grins. "So what is it you do here?"
"That's what I wanted to discuss actually." The Squip gestures out, a screen appearing before it. "You believe you cannot break a habit or change your behavior. I'm here to tell you that you're wrong."
It scrolls on its screen, adjusting a bar. A once clear sky becomes a distant night of tangles of red and blue lines. The Squip looks up, tilts its head in calculation and pulls its arm down, bringing a red line along with it. With another gesture, it separates it from the hoard, leaving the small link floating above them.
"Reach out."
Jeremy does as it instructs and watches as the link gently falls into his hands.
"How can I hold it? This is like weird really VR."
"I'm activating your sensory information in response to your activity here. Thus, when you feel a sensation in your hands, you will feel it in reality.
Jeremy nods along, more focused on holding the link in his hands like he's water bending.
"Its a finely tuned process. One misstep and you may break something."
Jeremy suddenly feels perspiration on his hands and swallows uncomfortably. He stops his motions and holds out his hands, forming a plate carrying the link.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine." The Squip gestures dismissively. "Now, that link there controls your habit of flailing your hands whenever you get anxious. If you simply remold it, it'll get rid of your muscle memory's history of the action entirely. Of course, relapses can occur-- that's why spinal stimulation is so important-- but smaller actions can be easily reprogrammed."
"That seems like a lot," Jeremy pauses, uncertain. "How do I do it?"
The Squip smiles, taking the link out of Jeremy's hands and untangling part of it, turning the red into blue. "Like this. Here, try."
Jeremy gives it a shot, untangling it into a crooked, yet blue line. "This good?"
The Squip nods. "Perfect. Now, why don't we return to class and give it a shot? See if the habit remains." It smiles one last time and snaps its finger. Suddenly, the expanse containing Jeremy's mindscape jarringly vanishes.
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