Broken Cradle

[Findingacceptance]

Hi Everyone! My first attempt at a story on this forum and in this genre. Let me know what you think. Parts one through 3 posted below.

Broken Cradle

Part 1

He turned up the volume on the earbuds. It was the news he had been waiting for. The Premier Group was making the big announcement they had been teasing all month. Full Dive Technology was in the hands of the masses. “We’ve all had fun with Virtual Reality. Since the late 80’s, we have toyed around and experimented with connection to the digital world. Each year, we get closer and closer but have fallen short of the Grail: The Complete Immersive Experience.”

Rion sat down on a bench as his mind ventured off listening to Clint Bryant, Premier’s CEO, introducing their new tech.

“imagine, taking a trip to Hawaii on your lunch break. 30 minutes in the sun, feeling the surf, and then, you come back and finish the workday. Instant vacations. Doctors, what if you could dive into an MRI and look at it from all angles. Families, keeping in touch just got easier.”

What Bryant was saying was the stuff of science fiction. How could it even be possible?

Aall of this and more can be possible with this..”

Rion heard the audience gasp and “Ooooo” and he couldn’t help but do it as well though he had no idea what they were looking at.

“The Dot is a revolutionary device, one that requires no surgery, no permanent changes. Attach it when you want to, detach it when you are finished, and it charges inside the case.”

Rion could not believe how they put all of this intense tech into such a small package.

“All you need to do is attach it to your temple like so, and give it a tap.”

Rion heard a thump, and the audience gasp. He jumped up, and ran inside to the nearest public building. It was a coffee shop with tiny table tents that read, “Looking for Wi-Fi? Ask me about it.” Rion plugged in his barely alive phone and searched the available networks, racing against the clock. He couldn’t find the name of the shop anywhere. He signaled a passing barista. “Umm, sorry to bother you, but can you help me log in to the Wi-Fi?”

“Sure, she said. It’s right there on the Table tent in front of you.”

“I saw that. That’s why I asked you.”

“No silly, pull up the networks.”

Rion thumbed open the available list, and scrolled to where her finger had pointed. Right there were the words, a network named “Looking for Wi-Fi?” Rion groaned. She said, “I think you know what the password is.” She smiled and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder before going back to her work. Rion tapped “Ask me about it.” Into the blinking box on his phone and clicked on the Breaking News section of his Home Screen. They were streaming the press conference live. Rion saw Bryant on the stage talking about specs and information transfer, but nothing about what had happened in the time it took Rion to pull it up. He opened a new tab to one of his favorite tech blogs where they were analyzing the information and showing highlights. There was a bright blue link that read, “Click here for the Body-Dropping Demo”. Rion clicked the link, and his phone enlarged the video. He saw Bryant show the Dot on the giant screen. It looked like a cufflink or a doorbell buzzer, a chrome ring around a pearl colored disc. Bryant attached it to his temple and tapped it. Bryant was in mid sentence when his body suddenly dropped to the stage.

It was a jump scare that took Rion completely off guard. Suddenly, Bryant appeared larger than life on the big screen. “seamless transition between the Material world and the virtual world.” The image of Bryant moved to walk on the screen. “Some of you may be thinking that this has been pre-recorded. Allow me to prove otherwise. Now, understand that my consciousness is directly inside this server. My brain cannot receive any input from my body what soever. Now, I would like the young woman sitting in A2 to stand and walk to the microphone in front of the stage.”

All eyes turned to a seat up front as a young woman rose up presumably from seat A2.

“Now, many of you will not believe me, but what I am about to share comes from my own observations during my time on the stage. Young lady, I couldn’t quite catch your name tag from up here, but you do use a very creative J. Could you please tell me your name, and speak into the microphone?”

“J-j-janine.” Came the nervous girls response.

“Janine. Beautiful name.” Bryant began to write the letters, J- A-N… He was spelling her name in the empty space and Rion could see the letters form as though from a marker. With a gesture, he flipped the name around for our comprehension. Rion and the crowd marveled at the display. Bryant explained how the Dot had connected him to the venue’s network. He could see through and access all devices connected to the network. “How did I spell your name right, Janine? Well, let me just recognize this as a teachable moment regarding unsecure wireless access points.” Bryant said with a smile. He then made another gesture and touched some invisible point in front of him, and then disappeared. The screen went black and Bryant’s body, prone and still on the stage the whole time, began to pick himself up. He brushed off his designer slacks and rubbed the areas that made first contact with the floor. “My recommendation: Never use the Dot out of range of a soft surface.” He started to laugh. “You may not feel it on the trip there, but you will once you get back.”

Rion clicked off the video. He sat in stunned amazement. It was real. Total Immersion and Connectivity, the ability to manipulate your environment, to access information, and feel sensations. While the rest of the country began to realize the implications, this would have for devices like Prosthesis and Digital Interaction, Rion had only one desire for this tech. It just had to be created first.

 

Part 2

Gosling: Attention All Bigs, mids, and Kids. I need some help.

Fractured_Prune: What’s up, Goz?

Gosling: Anyone seen Cat_Noir? She’s not responding to my DM’s.

AnarchyTabloid: I think she’s doing some server maintenance.

Gosling: Awesome! What about Clint? I don’t see his username.

Fractured_Prune: Bro, he’s a work. You know that. It’s midday. Not all of us can live a carefree slacker style like you.

Gosling: Prune, shut up. Your giving me the shits.

Fractured_Prune:……well done, my friend.

Gosling: Well, you do bring it out of me.

Fractured_Prune:..okay

PhreekAmerica: Feeling like #2 suddenly, Prune

Fractured_Prune: are you done?

Gosling: I’ll take things asked outside of Prune’s bathroom for 100, Alex.

<Fractured_Prune has logged out>

Rion put his phone in his pocket and laughed. He would have to wait till he got home to share his ideas.

Rion booted up his laptop, and logged into Cat’s Cradle. It was a forum created by Cat_Noir and was populated by many likeminded others like Prune, Phreek, and a global cast of characters. They were all united together by a common interest. They all had a unique way of coping with struggle.

Rion sent a message in general chat that asked for all members to join at their earliest convenience.

Slowly, the members logged in and acknowledged their presence some way. Some were general (“here”), and some were explicit (“Asshat”), but soon everyone was online.

“Let’s move this to voice chat,” typed Rion.

He got right to the point. “Everyone, I want us to adapt the server for Full Dive.”

“What!?” said Prune.

“I think we should upgrade the server and give ourselves a way to actually be Here in Cat’s Cradle.”

“Impossible.”

“Not anymore,” responded Rion, “Premier Group made their big announcement. The Dot is available for mass market consumption.”

PhreekAmerica shouted “Yes, First Person Shooters for real.”

Rion said, “yes Phreek, it’s going to change gaming. But it can also change us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about it before? All the conversations we have? Playtime? Cuddles? What instead of imagining it, we experienced it.”

Everyone was silent.

There were no more words to be said. Each of them knew in that moment that this was something they had all wished for, dreamed about, since they found each other.

“So, where do we start, Rion?”

Part 3

It took many nights and weeks. It was a labor of love, and became an obsession for the group. Each of them in their own way needed this to happen. Each of them worked in whatever roles needed to be done. Some learned new hobbies like coding. Others committed their drawings and creativity to the endeavor. But after long days and sleepless nights, the day arrived. Each of them had their Dots in hand. They followed the email directions, and when the hour struck on the appointed day, each of them attached their Dots and tapped.

Rion opened his eyes and took in the soft glow of the room. It was a dome shape with soft glowing white walls and a light in the center that shone like a full moon on a winter’s night. Rion felt the soft cushions beneath him, and looked at the circle of similar chairs around the room. There were no hard edges, just softness and comfort everywhere you looked. He looked at the other bodies that began to slowly arise from the reclined seats. For the first time, they looked at each other, saw each other, after a year of speaking sight unseen.

It was Cat who finally broke the silence, “Hello all of you beautiful people. Welcome to The Cradle.”

They went through some technical items first. Cat told them how to operate their displays. Each of them had to swipe down with an index finger and a menu with options popped into their field of vision. They walked through the different roles of the group, and how to change them. Each member excitedly starting looking up options, clicking madly, but nothing was happening. Cat explained, “This is just our landing pad. We will always look here as we are, based on our own cognitive perception of ourselves. The settings will activate on the other side of this door.”

Everyone’s eyes darted to a pale white sliding door, like elevator doors, that seemed to appear on one side of the room.

Cat explained a few more rules, and had everyone go to their menus and look at the same rules and welcome and documents that they had transferred from their original forum. Each one signed their name with a digital imprint. “This contract, while possibly unnecessary, binds all of us to the terms. If anyone breaks any part of this contract, your digital self will be banished from the server.” Everyone sat stone faced. “Understand this,” Cat continued, “We are about to embark on something we have never done before. We are placing ourselves in a position of high vulnerability. While we may have shared things before, it was always through the proxy of our computers and phones. Through those doors, we will be feeling and interacting in ways could not have before imagined. This contract is protecting all of us. We each came here because our coping mechanisms made us vulnerable and untrusting of others. I will protect each and every one of you here, even from within. Is that clear?”

Cat’s eyes shone with an intensity as she spoke. It made them all shiver slightly as if a cold wind had just blown through, or each of them were an antelope that had just witnessed a lion stare them down and walk past. It spoke to each one of them a feeling of, “Your life is mine for the taking.”

But, in truth, it made each of them feel safe, protected, as if nothing could happen to them in here because of Cat.

“Now, one more thing we need to do, kiddos. Let’s start this by finally introducing ourselves. I’ll go first: Hi everyone, I’m Kathleen, but you can call me Cat.”

“so we’ve been calling you by your actual name this whole time?!” said a girl from across the room.

“Yeah, it made this a lot easier on me than it will be on you. How about you, princess?”

“Okay,” said the girl, “Hi everyone, I used to log in as Paci-Fi, but here you can call me Eve.”

In turn, each of them introduced themselves to these others that they had spoken with daily but realized that there was still so much they didn’t know about each other.

“Hi, you all know me as Gosling, but my name is Rion.” There was a pause, and Rion heard someone say, “Wait a minute, Rion Gosling?!? That’s amazing! Why didn’t you share that earlier? It’s a great pun.”

Rion blushed and mumbled a thank you, and Cat clapped her hands, “Well kiddos, what are we waiting on? Let’s go.”

The friends rushed to the door, and listened to the gentle whoosh of compressed air. The doors slid open to a large open room, one that they all marveled at at the same time.

In the center of the room was a recessed square with the bottom two steps down from the main level. There were wooden cribs stained light brown, and changing tables with changing pads in every color of the rainbow. There was a small library with puffy pillows and bean bags for reading and tents for sitting in, and there was a art area with easels and smocks on hooks. One entire wall was nothing but stuffies and toys, and there was a kitchen area with high chairs and a bean shaped table with seats set in it around the outside. There was a single chair that allowed one person to feed each kid at the table.

It was perfect, down to the last detail.

Each one of them ran into the room, and then had to stop to adapt to the changes. For some of them, the room seemed to grow larger. Others found it harder to move. Rion found himself on his hands and knees. He was wearing a onesie over a cloth diaper. He looked at his hands. They looked the same as before. He looked aaround. Even the others looked like they did before, just their sizes changed. Others also gained animal features. Over each head, Rion could see their roles and pronoun preferences. There were Bigs, Littles, Mids, Furries, Sissies, and then there was Cat. Above Cat’s head was written, “Rocking the Cradle of Love.” It was a perfect title.

Smiles slowly crept across each face as they felt every detail of the experience. The bigs ran their fingers over the furniture and looked in drawers to find each one fully stocked with care supplies. The kids and mids began sifting through the toy chests, and the infants flopped happily on their backs and grabbed their toes laughing.

Nothing else happened. There was no conversation. Each one was content in this form, reveling in the sensations afforded to them.

Rion was the first to discover a new sensation. He felt a spot of warmth spread across the front of his diaper. More and more issued forth until Rion felt himself in a warm puddle of his own creation. His eyes were half closed, his face a smile, and even without the flashing label, the other Caregivers knew what had happened.

“Rion, do you have a wet diaper?” Shannon asked.

Rion blushed and squirmed in his spot. “Nooooo…”

“Are you telling me a fib, baby?”

“Noooooo, Shannon.”

“Well, little one, you don’t know this, but all of you littles have a special addition to your labels.” She bent down, and looked him in the eyes. “It tells us if your wet, hungry, and everything else.”

Steven spoke up from the kitchen area, “I wonder if it can tell us anything else,” and she smiled at Shannon as if hiding a devious secret.

She smiled back, “I guess we’ll find out.”

Shannon picked Rion up under the arms and carried him over to a purple changing pad. She bucked the waist strap and booped him on the nose. “Don’t want you to take a tumble, do we?”

Rion giggled. The feeling was indescribable. Shannon unsnapped the crotch of his onesie and undid the snaps of his cloth diaper. When it reached the cold air, Shannon noticed a sudden stiffening. She looked at Rion again and then turned to call to Steven, “Hey Steve, you were right! It can tell us that, too”

Rion blushed. “Don’t worry, baby. We won’t take care of that publicly, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to do that now. Let’s just get you changed, and we can all explore this place together.”

[Marebear8705]

I love it!! I like all the puns. Lol!! Can’t wait for more!!

[kerry]

This place would be even better than a Con. ?

[Wannatripbaby]

Wow! This is gonna be something! Everything seems so perfect. Which begs the question...

what will happen to ruin this dream?

[CDfm]

Awesome! For your first story this is fantastic. I am hooked on the story itself and beyond that it is very well written. I couldn’t be happier to be giving it a like. I am looking forward to reading more. 

[Crinkleybutt]

Great story! I can hardly wait to read further!

[Sarah Penguin]