[Writing Prompt] Life is a simulation and someone just updated the graphics card
Driver Update
James couldn’t remember passing out.
In fact, he wasn’t sure that he had. He just had an inkling that some small piece of time was missing, as though a shutter had briefly closed and then opened.
What James knew, for certain, was that every single thing just looked…better. He wasn’t sure how to characterize the change, even for himself.
He looked down at his shoe and saw that it’s “shoeness” was somehow enhanced. The brogue of its supple brown leather gleamed gorgeously in the light. And what incredible light!
James looked up at the old, hated halogen bulb above his cubicle and marveled at its astonishing, almost otherworldly glow. Everywhere the light touched became more truly itself.
James had experienced this before, exactly this, although he didn’t remember dosing today. He looked over at the coffee on his desk suspiciously. Mannie had made it for him this morning.
“Son of a…”
Running over the Mannie’s desk, James was ready to start screaming. He even got so far as to say “Dammit, Mannie, you can’t keep doing this,” before he saw that Mannie himself was laying on the floor, staring, astounded, at everything around him.
James looked down at Mannie and shook his head. “Dude, this is not cool.”
Mannie responded as if from a dream. “This is fucking awesome.” He made eye contact with James and looked at him wondrously, “man, your eyes are so beautiful!”
James was just thinking that Mannie’s skin was particularly vibrant today. Even the carpet beneath him, the cheap, synthetic blue material, just exuded an all new life. James laughed.
“Mannie, whatever you put in my coffee was some good shit.”
Mannie didn’t even look up, busy as he was staring at a stapler. “I just put milk and sugar in your coffee.”
James was nonplussed. “You didn’t dose my coffee?”
Mannie just shook his head no, his attention being drawn to a stray pen he found under his desk. James caught sight of it and had to admit it was a pretty awesome looking pen.
Breaking his gaze from every single little thing around him, James tried to get a sense of the bigger picture. He looked around the office, walking from cubicle to cubicle, and without fail, every single person was sitting, flabbergasted by their surroundings.
“Jesus, it’s like a hippie terrorist attack or something.” James went back to his desk and turned on the radio and placed the dial to the new station. The host was just drawling on, about everything and nothing.
…it’s not like I haven’t seen the cue cards before, it’s just, you did a remarkable job preparing them today. I don’t know, it’s…is anyone else seeing these cue cards?
Everywhere James looked, everything just blew him away. The radio newscaster still commenting in the background, James decided to take a look outside. He rode the elevator to the lobby, taking long breaks to stare at the incredible texture of the cheap metal and plastic fixtures.
When he stepped out of the elevator, into the glass-doored lobby, the sun bathed him, and everything else, in the most perfect light imaginable. Looking outside, James could see bystanders walking around, mouths agape, like they were seeing the world for the first time.
James had no idea what had changed exactly, but he was incredibly excited to find out. He walked out the rotating doors, taking four or five full rotations to appreciate their new doorness, and then, very methodically, set out to see the world.
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