IRL Console 7 I Love Coc! Part 1

Dave woke the next morning feeling refreshed for the first time since he could remember. Trying to establish a new habit, he immediately hopped into the console and saved his progress. He hummed happily as he took a leisurely shower and had a careful wet shave. Today was going to be a great day. After dressing himself, Dave hopped into his car and made his way to work. He had a busy day ahead of him.

Whilst driving Dave thought about about the seemingly limitless possibilities that his newly found abilities could afford him. There were many regrets in his life up until this point. This was mainly due to the fact that Dave felt like, until now, it hadn't really been 'his' life at all. If there was a way to go back - to start from the beginning again, Dave was all in. He still had limited knowledge of the console but had been struck by an idea when he came across the 'Wait' command.

"What if the command could take negative numbers? Would I be able to s.h.i.+ft back in time?"

This was something that he couldn't do lightly though. For example, would he actually slide back through time in his own body or would he remain in his current body and loop back on himself so that the younger him would exist in parallel with him? It would be so much easier if he could just load a saved game but his first save was only yesterday. Better to think about what he could do to improve his future rather than fret over the past.

He did wonder about lottery numbers though. Was the future fixed? If he waited until the lottery was drawn on a Sat.u.r.day night and then reloaded to Friday morning and bought a ticket with the winning numbers he had witnessed before... Would they be drawn in the same order or would the minutely different actions he took in the run up to the draw change the result? Would the b.u.t.terfly effect thwart his plans? Well, this was something that could only be discovered through experimentation. Another form of lottery, however, was the stock market. Fluctuations in the stock market were the result of many factors and not just one random event so Dave thought that they should be less p.r.o.ne to change from the b.u.t.terfly effect. It may be time to find himself a broker.

The reason Dave didn't want to just sp.a.w.n cash was that he had no idea how it would sp.a.w.n. From what he could tell, the console sp.a.w.ned copies of a base item that existed somewhere in the 'memory' addresses that the console was using. Where the h.e.l.l that was was something Dave didn't even want to try to think about. It would only make his head hurt. If he was to sp.a.w.n stuff with a serial number then would the number always be the same? As it turned out, yes - if he used the same hex code to sp.a.w.n it. Anyway, creating money from thin air should be something left to the fiat bankers as far as Dave was concerned. The system of fractional reserve banking may not be anywhere close to perfect but many people relied upon it. Dave didn't want to destabilize it for his own benefit. He'd only be sowing bad Karma if he didn't have the resources and influence to provide a better solution as a replacement.

****************

Dave arrived at work a little earlier than usual. This surprised Valerie, his receptionist, greatly.

"Good Morning Valerie!" said Dave as he walked over to the front desk. "How are you today?"

"G-Good Morning Dr. Mercer" replied Valerie with a somewhat awkward smile. Steadying herself, she said "I'm very well, thank you. You're here early today. What's the occasion?"

"Oh I just couldn't wait to see you my dear!" Dave said with a wink. It had been his habit for the last few years to playfully flirt with the ultra mature former cougar. Valerie may have been hitting her late sixties but it still made her feel good to have someone to flirt with. She had been quite popular with the men, and even a couple of women, in her youth. Sadly for her, age pulled no punches. She had no want for money as her previous husbands had left her with far more than she could ever spend in her remaining years. She chose to work reception for the clinic happily as it was a good source of human interaction for her. Old age could get lonely.

"What have you got for me today?" asked Dave.

"Oh, you... I got plenty of things for you but I'm a.s.suming you meant your patient list for the day. Boring as always." Valerie responded with her usual coquettish manner.

"You have a full day but you're not gonna like the end of it. You have four back to back heartsinks." Valerie said that last part with a cheeky smile and watched Dave's face lose some of its color.

'Heartsink' was a slang term in Dave's practice for patients that would make everyone's hearts sink from merely seeing their names in the booking system. These were the hypochondriacs, the constant talkers, and worst of all, the amateur 'healers'. There were always people who thought that they had 'gifts' in healing others and loved to talk about chakras, crystals, angelic meditation groups and such. Dave cringed every time he remembered his first encounter with an extremely camp (yet self professedly straight) male amateur healer named Billy. He had endured his entire twenty minute session trying to actually treat Billy's back pain as he was bombarded with chatter about 'acid' in the joints, 'toxins' seeping out through the tongue, Billy's budding career as a football player before he hurt his knee... Worst of all was that Billy just loved to touch him when he was making a point. It made Dave really uncomfortable! Even when the treatment was over and Dave tried to shuffle him out the door so he could see his next client, Billy just wouldn't shut up. Dave spent that day running thirty minutes behind for the entirety of his afternoon session.

"Well b.a.l.l.s... Valerie, why you gotta do this to me? Aren't we dear friends?"

"Ha! Absolutely! And as your 'dear' friend it's my delight to make sure you have a full day so you can make the best money. I wouldn't want you to struggle with rent or anything!" Valerie couldn't help but let out an evil cackle as she said so.

"Haaaah... Alright, on with the show then I guess. Later Val." Defeated, Dave turned and walked to his clinic room.

"Dr. Mercer!" Valerie called after him.

"What?" said Dave without turning around.

"That suit looks good on you. It's nice to see you make a bit of effort for a change."

Dave couldn't help but crack a smile. "Thanks!"

**************

Once Dave reached his clinic room he sat down on the plinth and figured that since he had twenty minutes to kill, he may as well experiment with the console a little more.

*~*

Time stopped and the now familiar console interface appeared.

[help "NewYork" 4] *return*

[----VIEWER STRINGS NOT AVAILABLE--------

----OTHER FORMS-----------------

LOC: (000080046FD0083600A0B2E) "NewYorkNewYorkUSAExterior"

...

...

Dave reigned in his excitement as he hit *Page Up* repeatedly until he reached the top of his search. Dave had been itching to try this out since last night. The first step was a success! There were, in fact, real world locations in the console system and that meant that a certain command might just work...

[help "TimesSquare" 4] *return*

[----VIEWER STRINGS NOT AVAILABLE--------

----OTHER FORMS-----------------

LOC: (000080046FD0083600A6C8F) "TimesSquareWestExterior"

...

...

[coc TimesSquareWestExterior] *return* *~*

"Oh holy f.u.c.k! I'm having bagels for breakfast! I LOVE COC!"