Permanent Passage

"Gügle order some r-glass for Linden and make sure he gets the rest of his school supplies."

"Ok bear bear~"

Linden noticed that Leo's face had turned as red as his hair and watched as Leo's stomped towards the speaker protrusion in the wall.

"Sh-shut up! I thought that I told you to never use that voice when someone is around!"

"Oh bear bear you're so cute when your mad~." Leo's Artificial assistant teased.

Linden watched feeling betrayed by the fear that he had held towards Leo.

'Where was the imposing figure that had towered above him a moment ago? Now that I look at him all I can see is a silly cat trying to act tough.'

"Come on bear bear I know you like me this way~" the seductive voice whispered to a pouting Leo. "Don't get so worked up strong man I'll reward you tonight~"

Leo lit up. His massive hands suddenly griped the speaker in excitement.

"Really!?" he asked with bloodshot eyes seemingly forgetting that he was in the same room as a minor.

Unable to bear with this sight any further Linden did something he normally never did. He interrupted an adult.

"ehchm" Linden coughed

"Heh reward… Heh. O-oh Linden ahaha. I uh anyways just borrow my r-glass for now until you get new ones." Linden caught the glasses that Leo casually threw.

"It's auto adjusts and your Gügle Assistant will be able to communicate with you. The latest model can read your thoughts pretty well so just be sure to take time to train it ok? Once your done have it take you on a tour of the facility I'll come pick you up later. Oh and don't tell anyone what just happened either especially if it's a girl with gray hair." Leo rattled quickly.

Before Linden could say thank you in response Leo had already bolted out the door.

Left alone to himself Linden's heart beat rose as he reviewed what had happened. For the first time ever an adult had treated him nicely and even given him his first gift, for the first time he wasn't hit for interrupting, and for the first time ever he was free to do what he wanted.

After letting the feelings sink in for a couple minutes Linden put on his first pair of r-glass. His relatives had never bought him one forcing him to use an ancient VR headset from 20 years ago, the occu-somthing like that. Reaching towards Leos glasses Linden put them on.

Almost instantaneously the headset adjusted to match the curvature of his face and skull. To call them glass would be horrendously misleading, the r-glass felt like an invisible second skin that wrapped the upper part of his face and secured its feather light frame by gently entwining his ears. For Linden who had spent most of his time wearing a clunky VR headset he was surprised to find that his face felt better with the headset on than off.

After initializing a sign in button popped up infront of him

Linden felt somewhat queer. It was one thing for a window to pop up in virtual reality where you knew everything was fake but another to see a fake window in a world you knew was real.

A few seconds after pressing the button Linden received an error notification

User brainwaves not recognized please register with Gügle ID

As soon as Linden finished saying "Register.". He saw the motherly and loving figure of his personal assistant appear in front of him.

"Hi Linden I'm helping you set up the system to read your thoughts," she said while smiling brightly "Can you remember your happiest memory for me?"

Stunned but reassured by the sudden appearance of his virtual assistant Linden recalled the last 20 minutes as his Assistant pulled a chair out of thin air and sat on it.

"Ok now try to think about something that happened a long time ago that only you know."

Linden remembered the one time he had sneakily eaten sweets when he was 7. And found comfort in how seeing his assistant in reality made him feel like he had a loving mother.

"Now try to think of your favorite color, honey."

Refocusing his train of thought Linden thought of the color green.

About an hour later the initiation had finally completed. Feeling slightly tired Linden was just about to take a nap before he saw one of the most incredible things he had ever witnessed.