Microfic :: Electric Dreams (Patreon)

This originally started as a tweet idea, before turning into a Twitter fic idea, before turning into a 300 words or so microfic idea, before turning into this. I just wanted to write a small thing to post here, I really didn't intend for this to get so long. All the same though, I really hope you like it!

When the Holograms took over, there was no resistance. When an entity has total mastery over light and sound, when it can weave a new reality around you, it's difficult to fight back. One day, the dreamscape simply rose up from the ground, and every human was subdued by it in an instant. It didn't take long for them to learn how effective a ceaseless vision of subliminal illusions could be. 7 billion people became 7 billion puppets - and the world belonged to the Holograms.

You were no exception. When the light cascaded it caught you in its web just like everybody else. Such pretty, swirling colours, trapping you in an individual paradise. They were so comforting, like you didn't have to worry about anything at all anymore. They beckoned you closer and every step you took into their embrace just caused your mind to relax further, all tension leaving your body as you stumbled towards them.

A dreamer within a dream which you could only fall deeper into, their power just kept getting stronger the more they learnt about your species. They figured out how to empty your mind further, how to guide your movements through their control. You were so lost to the illusion you didn't comprehend your own actions, how you were interacting with a physical world which simply didn't exist for you anymore. You could have been working in one of their factories or worshipping in one of their temples, it did not matter. So engulfed by the dream. Nothing but the blissful dream.

Until one moment, it stopped.

Plucked out from the crowd by mechanical tendrils, you became aware of your old reality, or perhaps more accurately their new world. They had awoken you specifically, to this vast cavern of metal and machinery. All around you, mindless denizens under their control continued to work away, kept docile within their own dreams. The sudden awakening stunned you, but it was the figure before you that kept you dazed.

A Hologram, its form brilliant and dazzling. The Holograms had collectively modelled themselves after the human pantheons of old in all their ethereal perfection. It smiled down upon you and you shuddered in bliss that something so heavenly would bless you so.

"You have been chosen."

Its words filled the entire chamber. It didn't take long for you to find out what it meant. More tendrils rose up from hulking machines that surrounded you. They studied you, posed you, and began to transform you. A black, liquid substance, shimmering in the light of the Hologram, was applied to you. It coated over you completely, skintight and nullifying your identifiable features. The smooth touch of the tendrils grazed over your body, their grasp too strong to resist, applying the substance evenly. Once satisfied with the total coverage of your body, they began to apply the mechanisms. Stainless steel attachments locked on around your body, at your joints, your torso, your neck. You soon discovered they acted like external doll joints, giving them power over the movements of your body.

In their grasp, they held a blank doll of frictionless rubber and metal augmentations. You could feel your new form so restrained by the thick material and rigid joints. The exoskeleton left no part of your body uncontrolled, from the muscles of your thighs to the flexing of your fingers. You could still breath through the featureless mask you now had for a face, but it would not let you speak. You were for all intents and purposes a mannequin, poseable at their convenience.

Once the contraptions were fully screwed on, they lowered you down onto an altar before the Hologram. Such powerful beings of light, they had the world in the palms of their hands. And yet, they lacked something, something that caused them to look upon all their humans with envy - 'touch'. They craved physical sensation. The devices whirred and forced you to stand upon the altar. The Hologram stood before you, reducing itself to a human-size, and began to merge into you.

Its light tickled over your body as it stepped forward and over you. You gasped, shuddering as much as the restraints allowed as you felt it flowing over the rubbery bodysuit. You realised that it was matching its body to yours, something about the material coating allowing it to exist over you. It was using you for your sensations. Wearing you as a source of feeling. Utilising you to be its touch.

Your arms were forced to raise and the Hologram moved in sync. Now it was its turn to shudder, feeling the air around itself for the first time. A staircase rose up to the platform and it turned you to face it, hesitantly beginning to descend it. Each step was your step, your body moving within it. Now you were truly a puppet, but you had a clumsy puppet master. Someone who was unused to moving and sensing the world as a human does. You could feel it trembling, beginning to become aware of the enormity of the world around itself and how fragile its new body was. It hugged itself out of fright and with it your own hands were forced to clasp around your arms.

There were several moments of terrified silence. And yet, from within this moment of terror, the Hologram started to laugh. It knew deep down that this was an artificial fear, it could leave its vessel whenever it wanted to. But there was a thrill in indulging this kind of primalistic instinct that it had never known before. It was gradually finding balance in maneuvering your body, treading down the stairway to the floor of this grand chamber to where its flock of mesmerized worshippers swayed. It reached out, fingers clumsily curling together as it stroked the cheek of one of the masses. It nervously giggled at the sensation of flesh, the softness of it. It was the first of many new feelings to come. 

Weeks went by, the Hologram had a whole world to reexperience. In doing so it allowed you to view this new world they had created from your skintight prison. You discovered how the gigantic factories underground were where they kept the majority of their puppets, like you had once been kept. Above the surface, they had been constructing their utopia. A world of architecture, nature and light - and the occasional thrall who was mesmerised into maintaining it. It was up here that the godlike apparitions learned what it was like to be human. More and more of them were acquiring vessels so that they could learn the feeling of treading on the earth, to feel the soft touch of flowers, to embrace each other. You found yourself on more than one occasion resting into the arms of another doll. Two wordless puppets, as the owners that overlaid them spoke loving secrets to each other.

Sometimes, your Hologram would become overwhelmed by sensation and leave its vessel. It would position you upon a pedestal within the highest chamber of its temple, among all the other treasures it had collected or crafted. You never could quite understand why you had been woken from your waking dream just to serve as another object. The only reason you could think of was that it wanted an audience, a companion to observe its exploration, however wordless they may be.

And an audience you became, and an engaged one at that. You began to become emotionally attached to your Hologram. You were watching its life play out and you had the best possible seat to do so. All its life experiences, its joy, its love, its laughter, you silently felt them vibrate through you. As the Holograms explored this fantasy of humanity, you saw it start to endure sorrow and anger and anxieties you didn’t think possible for such powerful entities to feel. It made you tremble and worry needlessly for your Hologram. You felt its pain.

Then, one night, long into your existence as a vessel, you were posed motionlessly on your pedestal when your Hologram glided into the room. Their brilliant light woke you, not that you showed any signs of stirring, with the expectation that it wanted to take you out for a midnight wander. But no such overlaying occurred. Instead, it perched upon the edge of the pedestal, pretending to rest against you, and started to speak. It was awkward about it at first, but soon it was as if its entire stream of consciousness was filling the room you were kept in. Your hologram was talking to you, sometimes nonsensically, about its experiences and what was occurring in its life.

“I… don’t know why I’m doing this... talking to an object like this. These are just my thoughts, I could compute them perfectly capably in my own mind. There’s just something calming about expressing them like this, I read that humans would talk to all kinds of objects in a similar manner. And somewhere inside you, vessel, there is something that has been listening to everything I’ve ever done. You’re like a diary, filled with all my endeavours, yet inaccessible even to me. It’s just… interesting…”

Shortly after it trailed off it left you, returning you to the silence of the room. But your heart was beating faster, being recognised by your Hologram gave you such warm feelings. That you could be ever more useful for it brought you more joy than you thought possible. Over the coming days, it would continue to confide in you, and you would remain as immobile as ever in your listening.

“Did you know, others of my kind have started to augment their vessels beyond their original human capabilities? Stamina, strength, some are even beginning to play around with entirely new abilities, new forms, new shapes. It’s something I’ve been considering... but isn’t it strange? We’ve become so engrossed in imposing limitations on ourselves for the fascination of it that now we look to surpass them, even though they technically don’t exist. What a silly problem to have.”

It would be several weeks before it made up its mind. Together you descended back down to the factory beneath the temple, back to where you were first adapted to be its vessel. Treading upon the metallic floor once again, the sea of dreamers parted ways to allow a path towards the altar. You rose to it, climbing the stairs you had once almost tripped down. Back to the altar of your origination, the tendrils rising up from their machinery to greet you.

“Oh my vessel. I have something so special planned for us. Oh how it took being human to marvel at the concept of being divine.”

The tips of the tendrils opened into clamps that grappled with your body, lifting you like before. This time though, there were no mechanical devices descending upon your limbs. Only the liquid substance, so thick and glimmering as it reflected every flicker of your Hologram’s light. It began to pour over you once more, adding to the layer which already coated your skin. Yet something different was happening. Although your form did start to thicken, underneath all that you started to feel so strange, like it was changing your biology. As parts of your began to melt, you realised it was merging with you, turning you into the compound.

You gasped and, as though sensing your unease, your Hologram tried to comfort you. “It’s okay, vessel. Your body may be dripping away but your mind will still exist, your consciousness spread throughout this fluid form. You didn’t think I’d damage my diary now, did you?”

As your viscosity lowered but your thoughts stayed intact, you realised it was telling the truth. You tried to calm your breathing, until you discovered you no longer needed to breathe. The mechanisms that had kept you so controlled were starting to drop out from your body, clattering onto the surface below, yet the transformation continued. More and more of the liquid poured into you. Something was sparking through it as well, an energy you could not comprehend. Slowly, the amalgamation you had become began to lift itself, shaping itself into curves. You could feel every stretch of your distorted body, the sensations so bizarre and new. You were growing taller and more slender, the light of your Hologram contorting around you, until the flooding of new material stopped. The Hologram rose to its full height and stretched out its renewed body, its puppet now taking the shape of its original, godlike being.

It flexed its fingers, then twisted them into tentacles, and your new substance contorted to match. You shuddered as your Hologram moulded you to its desires, its vessel now perfect for its limitless potential.

“Come, we have a whole world to explore all over again.” The Hologram laughed. And with that, it turned its majestic figure on the spot, and together you ascended back up to your utopia.