A340 and the Secret of the Infinity Tones: The Dogwalkers Part 4.0
This is a followup to:
Where A340 realizes his place in the universe in unraveling the secrets of the Infinity Tones; not to be confused with the comic book series of movies the Infinity Ones or the Nintendo entertainment game series the Infinity NES released in the year 2100.
This knowledge comes from a very unusual dog walk, a very usual dog walk indeed.
A340 finds himself thrown into the fleshbox of of 20-something female with no particular dog walk mission on his assignment sheet. He assumes it is a typical piss and wash up and begins to look for a local bathroom. When none is to be found he screams in terror. This is an action he did not volate himself and he immediately tries to disengage from the gig. This is allowed per the dogwalkers handbook as it clearly specifies when and where gigs can be disengaged.
He finds he cannot disengage and this puts him into a momentary panic. This is illegal hacking as forcing a consciousness into a fleshbox violates the code of the Adventual.com. Sinners be present. He checks his log and finds he should be inside SHE1970, his current fleshboix, in Springfield Virginia… in 1983?
Now he knows this is a hack, someone is playing a time travel joke. Could it be the Shoeman, Mr. Chips or Mr. Graff? WSR1970 has warned him this might be possible. In any event he decides to explore his environment.
A340 finds himself in a basement at 6374 Shaundale Drive in Virginia, He sits down in front of a Commodore 64 computer and reads the old crt television positioned in front of him. It spells out in resounding ntsc color, “You have been chosen to solve the mystery of the Infinity Tones. Stop.”
“This mystery will not be solved on this computer as the sid chip built into isn’t capable of nearly that many tones. Stop.”
“Whatever you do don’t stop. Stop.”
“Hit F1 to continue”. He searches for F1 on the computers old school Commodore 64 keyboard.
“To finsih this quest you will be required to locate a copy of 1991’s Tome Quest and it’s 2020 follow up Tone Quest. A copy of the source code which has not been released to Git Hub. The adventual himself lived at this location and touched these very keys. You will now interact with his fleshbox brain included and ask him questions about this mystery he doesn’t know the answers to.”
“Hit the PI key when done, as in this timeline computers used a full character set and keyboards even included a PI key.”
He here someone coming down the stairs of the townhouse and into the reck room and hits the PI key on the Commodore 64’s keyboard.
“Too early”
The television system speaks to him and he is enshrouded in light.
He opens his eyes still trapped in this fleshbox but his Dog Walker’s log says he is in the year 2019. He is in a scant apartment somewhere in Arlington Virginia. A 40 something man is sleeping in a bed. His log tells him this is Steve Riley, aka the Adventual aka WSR1970.
The man wakes up seeing the dogwalker and asks what she wants or would like.
A340 identifies himself and the fleshbox he rides in and says he has questions supposedly related to the Infinity Tones.
Steve grabs a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal and they begin to talk about the Adventual and things as they stand in 2019.
Steve and A340 both agree that he is probably caught in a virus virtual world in 2150 that is at best a joke. Steve reveals that the Infinity Tones bears a homonic resemblance to a simplistic comic book sequence of movies popular for bad plots and loads of special effects in the early 21. He hopes the similarity is in name alone as anything more would be boring trope and he trusts the future is better than that.
Steve says,
“I certainly feel real at this moment — which unfortunately is one axe to grind in the theory that this is a virus from the year 2150.” He guesses his meds have somehow played tricks on HIM. He is bipolar and has used many medications as inspired by Elric Of Melnibone of Michael Moorcock fame. Sometimes they have creative consequences and turn his 166 iq into something to be watched very carefully. Very carefully indeed.”
A340 checks his log and finds he is being given $10,000 in CO1n for this dog walk. Ironically at this point his fleshbox needs to use the restroom and so he is lucky enough to be allowed by WSR1970 to use his.
He just needs to pee but is a little put off by the toilets broken seat and legacy setup.
“These are much nicer in the 2150.” A340 signs from the bathroom something he occasionally likes to do.
“Do tell!”, Steven implores talking at her through the door.
“What do you know of me in the future.”, Steve asks.
“Not much outside of what is posted at adventual.com”, A340 goes on. “You might also check we81.com” he adds.
“I will indeed”, Mr. Riley suggests.
A voice is heard opening the aspartments front door. It is Phi, Steve’s girlfriend.
A340’s view goes white again and he is released from his dog walk and once again back in 2150 in his own head in the vault near Washington DC in a virtual white room waiting for his next instructions.
