A whole world on a single page!
The short story morsels of One Page Worlds are flash fiction adventures of all flavors. Every Wednesday will feature a complete story in one page, or the first page of what could be a novel or novelette.
Sharing the fun and geekery is the best part of writing! Please tweet or comment with your guesses on what genre, character, and job is central to each tale. Enjoy touring new universes each week with One Page Worlds!
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Identity Investigations
3314 Bleeker St. Suite 901
Duel Cities, PV, 81188
13 November
Ms. Rina Melosi:
Your reputation precedes you even into the server racks of Reanimosity Games. I write this letter having been stranded in the slums of the Duel Cities, not far from where my game was created. Your reality’s Ninety-Nine Percent Electronic Communications Ban, and the inherent violence of my pursuer, has forced me into writing to you on paper. It seems text messages, chat rooms, and IMs are now luxuries allowed only to the one percent. I am not even certain of the address of this condemned building, as the façade has collapsed due to her most recent attempt on my life. She, being Typhora, villainess of Reanimosity’s newest MMO, HexWar.
The Reality Engine my creator was working on appears only to have been activated twice. Once in crossing me and my cast over from the servers, and again when Typhora and her cast crossed to this side. I’ve no inclination as to why the Engine could run a second time without the extensive testing my creator programmed me with. Paranoid bastard didn’t even code his/her name into me.
No employee at Reanimosity was supposed to be allowed access to the Engine until Federal testing on your side confirmed that characters’ control and will belonged to their in-game creators. In my only day on your side, I’ve come to understand that your one percent have removed all communication except telegraph and writing for humanity’s continued existence.
When all can kill and all can pursue their reasons for doing so, bodies become the new autumn leaves.
As an investigator, you must be among the one percent. My creator must also have been, as he or she fired up The Reality Engine to begin with. Perhaps he or she grew sick of waiting for government approval. Perhaps there was an ex-lover involved. I cannot know the motivations of the living. Characters carry out their controller’s will or their own programming, and the person who programmed Typhora to kill me could kill with any character that illegally crosses over through the Engine.
Please meet me at Cabal and Tenth tomorrow. Death and unemployment will be easier for me and you to avoid if we work together. And don’t stare.
In good faith,
Veleus, Necromancer.
Playable Character, HexWar.
First To Cross.