Warpatober 2023

The world around him glitched in and out, pixelating his numbing limbs that were feeling more and more disconnected from him. The body fragmenting, breaking apart and floating away in a steady manner. A block of pixels just there, existing in a world real but full of many that were.

“Doctor Ratti?” A concerned but professional voice called out to him, getting no answer as the monochromatic warpa seemed to exist but not mentally while in this void of space. “Jules!”

Snapping back into reality, or the reality of the current situations, the monochromatic warpa started moving. Their limbs reforming from the broken pixels to the whole limbs they were before. Small sparks formed as he came to life, to the voice that called to him. The vast online world around him started to gain color unlike him as he swam through the online streams in search for the exit that didn’t seem to exist anymore.

He had been here for days, his team members unable to find this exist and guide him to it. Their fears of the worst were kept quiet, even though Jules knew it was a strong possibility after all that had gone wrong. To his team, he was family. To the company that resided over him though, he was just another person to further research for the well off business man that wanted answers. Could someone physical have their genes altered to be able to go into the online world without breaking their body and soul.

The answer was yes, but not for long. Research was pushed on, Jules becoming more of a lab rat then one of the valued scientists as progress was shown. He knew what the outcome could be, and he was fine with the idea of never going back to real life. He had no family, no friends outside work, and in this digital world he no longer had this need to eat or sleep unless he wanted to.

“Jules...” The void called to him, starting to fade. Stopping his float through the world, he knew this was the end of his life outside the digital world. He could hear the worried voices, though staticy and fading.

“Listen, this is the final message I will be able to send to you.” The voices stopped, and Jules hoped it was just to listen. “Tell Caspian Lowell the outcome, don’t let them turn another one of you into the lab experiment I became. None of you deserved what became of me, the broken person I became in the end that lost their love for the world in the end. Promise me that.”

The silence stayed, a worry starting to grow until finally someone spoke. “Heard.”

With a loud ear piercing noise that lasted a moment, it suddenly stopped and the static was gone. SIlence hung, no voices calling of plea for him to be able to find a way now. Jules Ratti was left in the silence of the internet, his new home.