>>5529615>>5529618"You know, I heard it's not good to do ERC after a big meal. Or swimming." Edith says.
"I just want to see." you say. "And maybe get some training in. I really, really want to try this CRS thing out."
"There' several CRS around the school." Sam explains as you get off the omnimover. "Back in the 40's there just one. They're great, not just for practicing fighting and rescuing, but for other classes. You know, they let the gadgetool kids build bombs without actually building bombs and the med kids operate on people without actually operating on people. You ask me, it's not us ERC kids that have the most fun. The detective kids, they get murder mysteries to solve. They get a body, and a city, and policemen to interact with, it's awesome, I'm so jealous."
"So is it all holograms or something?"
"No. That's old school, it being just holograms. It's powered by a team nowadays. Telepaths, special effects artists, magicians --both stage and real, and even some legitimate reality warping. They all work together to create a controlled reality simulation."
"But do they still use holograms? I want to fight something obviously a hologram. Like a big dragon made of vectors."
"Yeah. I mean, if you want."
"Sometimes it's just cooler when the video game looks like a video game."
The door to CRS-B is a big triangle.
"Why a triangle?" you ask. "I feel like I'm about to walk into a tv show for preschoolers. Like puppets are going to be on the other side."
"Because they got tired of students "accidentally" opening the door to rubberneck at the cool stuff happening inside. It's hard to say you accidentally opened the door when it's a big triangle.
"...It was an accident for me..." Edith mutters. "...I mean, for the time I got caught..."
You touch the door and are greeted by an eyeball with a hat.
"Hi!" you say. "I'm Izzy Skenazy, new student, can I come in?
Sam was right. You do get used to the weirdness over time.
"Hello, Izzy. My name is Thespian. I'm the computerized artificial in charge of running all the simulations in the school. I'm every cackling bad guy, every helpless victim, every plucky sidekick."
"You do them all?"
"Every one. I'm doing them now even while we talk. I don't mean to brag, but I'm a rather good actor. It's in my name, after all."
"Neat!"
"I was created by ARGO to serve as a hyperempath for new contact civilizations. But diplomacy seemed rather dull to me in comparison to an eternity of playtime with the best students in the multiverse! So here I am."
"I was on an island. Now here I am!"
"Well, welcome aboard, Izzy. Would you like to participate today, or just watch?"
>Watch. You're a little nervous.>Participate! Go for it! 