Annie had been my best friend since - well, I barely even know. Around the start of high school, at least. It really felt like we'd always known eachother. I remembered so much about us growing up together - we'd been the same height, then she'd got a growth spurt and teased me endlessly for a few weeks, patting me on the head and leaning her elbow on me when she was bored. A few weeks after I'd hit my growth spurt and eventually ended up about a head taller than her, gleefully getting back at her for all the teasing from before. My point is, we've known eachother long enough to see eachother grow up. That was all changing now.
"You know the Internet still exists, right? It's not like I'm just going to dissappear into the void." She told me, grinning.
She was wearing tight blue jeans with a small back top that showed a little of her midriff and left her shoulders and most of the top of her chest exposed. She was going to a hot country, she reasoned. Her hair was dark and mildly curly with bright blue eyes that never failed to show a bright spark of imagination behind them. She was shorter than me, and though she was thinner than she was curvy her hips and chest cut a very womanly outline which I tried my best not to pay too much attention to, fearing being too rude.
"Yes, I know, but - you'll be on the other side of the planet. That's a lot different from being on the other side of the road." I pointed out.
"So? Video call me whenever you need. I always want to see you, it's not like you'll be getting in the way." She said.
I smiled for a second, looking around at the airport we were in. I looked at her for a second before curling my arms around her, taking in a deep breath while I still could. I could feel her laugh a little while I did it. Sure I was being a bit dramatic, but I didn't care.
Annie had got an offer from a University in LA all the way over in America specialising in specific types of micro-biology. All the stuff she said about it went over my head but as far as I could tell it was a big deal, and not many people got the marks to go there in the first place. She was kind of brilliant, my friend. The only problem was that left us with what was roughly an 8 hour time difference from our home in England. And, especially with the differences in the shifts I was working and when her lessons were, it roughly worked out we only had a couple hours when we'd both be up at the same time.
That hurt me in a weird kind of way - this person I'd known so long and been around so much, and now I was only going to see her for a couple hours, even if I was lucky? I couldn't count the amount of time I'd spent at her house, or she'd spent at mine. All the myriad times we'd both fallen asleep watching some TV show and awoken in some tangle of limbs, her legs splayed on top of my head or something like that. Falling asleep alone was almost weird now.
After a long moment I let go of the hug with a deep sigh. "I've got to board soon." She said with a hint of sadness. I knew she wasn't as bummed out about it as I was as she had the excitement of a whole new life - I just had the boredom of my old one without her.
"Before you go," I began, reaching around into my backpack, "Take this. It's a present. Kind of a going away gift, from me to you." I said, passing over a small cardboard package with a bow on top.
"You still have the interface app?" I asked.
I knew she would. It wasn't something I'd used properly before, but it had become a big thing recently. School had definitely made us try it in science lessons. A couple years ago the neuro-hack had hit the market for dirt cheap. It was like a small, black headset that had a tube going into one of your ears, but for the most part was lightweight enough to be hidden beneath your hair. It picked up brainwaves, plugging straight into the mind and let you control different devices. It had first been used by mostly private businesses - sending miners into dangerous situations in robot bodies while the people behind them were safe at home, and so on.
Lately it had hit the public and people were doing all kinds of crazy, extreme sports with it. Stuff like skiing down an active volcano, racing the lava so the body wouldn't burn up. Sure, you shared your senses with it. The human mind didn't react well to a body in which it can't access the five senses, so when people died in the body it still hurt, but there were various pain dampners and at the end of the day you were still alive.
I had a personal guilty pleasure. The governments of the world were worried about what this meant for privacy when someone could put their consciousness into a small, metallic insect and watch your life as a bug on the wall. There was still various legislature being passed to protect this kind of stuff, and products being made to block neural signals in specific areas, but the technology was still new enough most people were getting away with it.
What I enjoyed though was hidestreams. People would stream themselves, in their robot bodies, usually something innocuous like a fly but some were brave enough to try it as 1/16th replicas of human bodies (those were the really interesting ones, as they were more easy to spot and had to react like a real person to get out of danger) while they saw how long they could stay in another person's home, or the storefront of a business or something without being spotted. There were leaderboards for it as well, some people going weeks without being spotted. They all ended the same though. Sometimes there was anger being it, most of the times a dismissive smear, but it always came back to the stream cutting out after the sole of a boot or a rolled up newspaper crushed the body to pieces. That was always my favourite bit, though I'd never tell anybody.
Annie's eyes lit up when I mentioned the interface app. "You didn't." She said. I nodded, putting on the small headband and sending her the link on my phone.
"Just tap that link and you should turn it on. I should be able to see, hear, touch, smell and taste everything from there. It'll be like you never managed to get rid of me." I joked.
"Taste and smell?" She asked. "So, for instance, I could dump the thing into my dirty laundry and you'd have to feel the whole thing." There was a devious smile on her face.
"Well, yes, but you wouldn't do that." I bit my words. "Would you?"
She laughed. "Oh, don't worry. I wouldn't. I mean, maybe only for a few minutes to freak you out, but past that..." I scowled at her. She laughed at that, too. "Oh, relax! I'm only joking." She said, before elbowing me lightly and winking up at me. "Mostly." She said and laughed again. I sighed in exasperation.
I saw her fiddle about with her phone for a few seconds before triphantly tapping down on the large green button on the app. I instantly knew it had worked. If you've never used a neuro-hack before, I can tell you it's by far one of the strangest possible sensations for a human to have. I was simultaneously aware of the bright, expansive airport around me, Annie smiling up at me and my feet planted firmly on the floor while also being completely aware of being confined in a small, dark space with my hands and feet tied down so I couldn't move. Packaging, I realised. Though I couldn't move myself I was strongly aware of the gentle up and down motions as Annie held the world, no, the box, I corrected myself, loosely in her hands.
"So you're really in their right now?" She asked excitedly, holding the box up to her ears and shaking it. I immediately recoiled in both bodies, my human one taking a step back as I felt everything around me begin to move impossibly fast, banging around like the whole earth had been thrown into a twisted orbit, even though on the outside I knew it was only being jiggled by a few inches at the moment.
She saw my reaction and stopped immediately, holding the box tightly to her chest. I could feel a dull pressure from inside, but not too much through all the cardboard. "Sorry." She said hurriedly.
"It's okay." I replied. "Anyway, it's always more trouble trying to do both bodies at once. When you're settled in at your new place the time difference should work out that I can control the robot body while my human one is asleep. That should make it easier."
She nodded. Just then a large, booming voice came over the speakers announcing her plane was departing soon and that she should get ready to board. The voice probably sounded so loud because I was hearing it twice, I realised, the second time with much more sensitive hearing.
I took in one last, good look at her. This was ridiculous. I'd see her again soon enough anyway if this all went to plan.
"See ya, then." I said, pulling her in for a last hug and weirdly feeling my own body press up against the box, compressing even harder against Annie's chest. I tried not to think about that too hard.
"See ya soon." She joked, pulling away from. Me and gesturing with the box. I recoiled a little, but it wasn't too much as to be noticeable. I watched her turn and walk away, only shouting one last thing before she left.
"Please don't swing the box so much while you walk!" I called after her, her arms swinging in time with her steps. She looked back at me and stuck out her tongue, giving it a small shake before holding it tightly against herself again, slightly minimising the sense of seasickness I was getting. Even though it minimised it a bit I was still dimly aware of the motion of her steps in the back of my head.
Thankfully it was easy enough to ignore as the inside of the box didn't provide too much sensory information. I got into my car and took off the headset, sad as I was to do it so I could focus on the road. I promised I'd put it back on as soon as I was home.
Those tens of minutes felt like hours as I drove home from the airport and I dismissed my parents as I walked back through the doors. I really needed to find my own place soon, but that was a worry for another time. They left me alone, thankfully, probably reasoning that with my best friend leaving that I wanted to stew in my own feelings for a bit.
The first thing I noticed as I walked in was one of Annie's jackets strewn over the back of my desk chair. It was an old one, probably not one she'd miss, but I still cursed myself for not noticing it before and resolving to give it back as soon as possible. I picked it up and folded it, holding it against me for a moment before tucking it away in a drawer.
I lay back on my bed, scrolling through various social feeds, feeling the neuro-hack in the back of my pocket. The signal probably wouldn't work for a moment with the plane taking off but as soon as it hit a solid altitude the connection should be good enough again. Don't ask me how the connection still works with things like airplane mode - people much cleverer than me made it all function properly.
Nevertheless I put the neuro hack on, pointing the little tube down my ear ready to pick up on short range brainwaves. I tapped the button to connect but it was still unavailable. Probably still taking off.
I scrolled for a bit, checking out some pointless but nonetheless entertaining videos on YouTube - ooh, that hidestreamer had lost just before getting into the top ten for the house leaderboard. Crushed underneath an ass exploring the living room. It would have been bad enough but the death wasn't instantaneous and he had to end the link himself instead of being kicked instantly.
Finally, I tapped back to the interface app. To my surprise I started to see the loading wheel, meaning it was establishing connection and that it may take a moment with the long distance. I closed my eyes, blocking out the world with a pair of headphones, and got ready to see the world from a whole new angle.
The first thing I noticed when linking up to the neuro-hack was how peaceful it was. The body was still strapped inside it's plastic casing which I myself had packed into a cardboard box. Everything was dark and almost sleep-inducing. Sure, there were the noises of the plane from outside my box but they were so muffled it was almost like a lullaby.
I could feel my box shift every now and then and I tried to guess where I was. Had Annie placed my box in with her luggage, perhaps? I didn't think so. She spoke occasionally, maybe to the staff, and each word seemed to ruminate through my box implying I was near to her. Every now and then I shifted as the world tilted at some new weird angle. Had I been left at her feet with her bag, forgotten? Or had she left the box sat in her lap? Wherever I was, I knew for her plane had taken off by now or the neuro-hack would be working.
I could have tried sending a message through but her phone still wasn't turned back on and, quite frankly, I was rather enjoying where I was right now.
That was until I felt my box yank upwards and a tearing in my world vibrated through me. Light flooded everything suddenly and I realised my box must be opening. I tired to reach a hand to cover my eyes but they were still strapped to my sides so I just blinked slowly at the first light saw through these eyes.
It was almost angelic. Her face looked down at me, her long hair was outlined by the light behind her head giving her a nearly otherworldly look as her being took up all I could see. I was sure if she could see herself from this angle - head turned downwards, jaw pressed against her chin - she'd say it was unflattering and point out how you could see all the way up her nose, but I couldn't help but feel in total rapture.
My sense of awe began to mount as one huge hand came lower and lower into the box, the small fingers I had once held in my own hand now rapidly taking up my entire vision and they quickly came closer. Before I knew it her palm had pressed up against the plastic screen in front of my face and all light was blotted.
Then she pulled upwards.
It was almost like the world's most sudden and disorienting roller-coaster drop in reverse. She pulled my plastic shell out of the cardboard box with such casual speed I barely knew what to make of it. I was aware these things became easier over time as you grew used to the dimensions of your second body but that didn't stop it from being earth shattering for me in that moment.
I emerged out of my box before quickly being placed down again. This time I was definitely in her lap as I saw her drop the cardboard box without a thought to the floor. The blue floor of her jeans seemed to stretch on further than seemed possible. Even though I'd rested my head here - my real head - all the time before she'd gone it was much different from this perspective. There seemed to be so much more detail and I was sunk much further down into her thighs. Her body above me seemed to tower like a sky scraper of soft flesh, blotted out for a moment by her small tank top. All the way high above was her face. The same face that always looked up at me whenever we spoke.
It was after taking this in I had a moment to look around the rest of the plane cabin. It was exactly what I'd expected but huge. The ceiling seemed like miles away and her fellow passengers like indifferent gods and goddesses all looking at magazines or through their phones.
Her two brilliant eyes stared down at me like a bug she'd trapped in a jar, all inquisitiveness and curiosity. One hand reached out and gripped me. It was strange, like a hug covering my entire being. The world went dark again as her index finger pressed up against my eyes. It was soft however. As terrifying as it was I couldn't quite seem to be actually scared. It was all so... Soft.
Her other hand pinched the bottom of my leg, covering as little of me as possible as she stared. I began to feel sick as she turned me around in her fingers, soaking up every small detail of my new body. I almost felt embarrassed of myself, even a little exposed.
I snapped myself out of my reverie. I went to wave but found my arms weren't working. Was it a connection problem? I tried to kick outwards.
Nothing.
With a deal of concentration I tried to text her. There was no built in speaker - this body was too small and the feature was too expensive for me. However the neural-hack was able to translate what you were trying to say into text on someone's phone through the app. It did nothing. Fearing the neural link was broken I tried my phone in the real world, too. The call didn't connect. She must have set her phone to airplane mode.
Closing my eyes I saw through the neural-hack again. The world was rising up around me at a rapid state. Finally I collided against a grey floor, figuring after a few seconds it was one of the tray tables on the backs of airplane chairs. I didn't stay still for long. My vision was darkened again as her palm blotted out the ceiling. It didn't grab onto me for a few seconds.
Looking up I could just about make out her face past her hand. She was staring off into the distance, completely uninterested.
Slowly her hand descended down towards me. I tried to pick myself up, run, do anything but it was no use. The warm skin closed around me and began to twirl me. I mean, like, actually twirl me.
I should have felt sick but that didn't seem to work through the neuro-hack. Every so often I'd see a glimpse of light as I was twisted away from the flesh of her palm before being dragged into the dark again. I knew what she was doing - I'd seen her do it countless times in class when we were sat together and she was concentrating hard on some of the work. She'd twirl her pen around in her hands absentmindedly. Admittedly, even I'd barely noticed her doing it either, it had seemed that inconsequential. Now it seemed the exact opposite of inconsequential.
A flash of light. A glimpse of the world around me for just a moment. Then smothering, filling flesh covering everything again. It was dark and warm. And then, after a long moment, a flash of the world again.
The spinning kept going for god knows how long - time was weird when stretched between two perspectives. It became comforting after a while, like the moment on a boat where the swaying stopped being uncomfortable and started rocking you to sleep, no matter how strong the rocking was. That, along with the periods of darkness began to pull me into sleep. If it wasn't for the constant flashes of light I would have already been unconscious.
So, when the spniing stopped, I struggled to keep my eyes - my real eyes - open. My back was laid against her palm and although I couldn't move my head was bent towards the screen in the back of the seat. I remembered seeing them back when I was full sized and kind of struggling to see films in full detail due to how small they were. Now it was like having front seats to a cinema projected against a skyscraper.
The metal body was sinking into Annie's hand and, as she settled in to watch a film, she slowly rubber her thumb across the neuro-hack body. It seemed like a tree truck in that moment, rolling slowly alongside me. I melted further and further back in real life, getting more and more sleepy until I realised my real body had shut down. All I could see through now was the sight through the neuro-hack, permanently tilted slightly toward the screen with a large thumb slowly rolling over me every few seconds.
It was comfortable. I almost forgot how sad I was that she was going. But, all in all, things were good. That was until -
The hand picked me up again, filling the world with darkness before depositing me down onto the floor. Suddenly all I could see was two massive brown sandals, the soles on the bottom slightly worn. I could see small imperfections in them, cuts and flecks of dirt stuck to them. Inside the ginormous sandals were two giant feet, I could only just see the blue painted toenails at the angle I was laying at. The toes shifted ever so slightly, probably imperceptibly to Annie but it was all I could think of. After a moment one of the ankles shifted, the other foot straightening out before raising high into the sky. Had Annie left to go to the toilet? All I could do was guess.
I tried again to move or send a message while stuck on the floor bored but nothing happened. Then I tried to wake myself back up in my human body but I still struck no success.
One of the faded brown sandals returned, followed by the other, jiggling my body up and down a little. I was ready to be picked up again but nothing happened. I was still stuck on the floor. I shifted, trying to do anything as the time began to tick away and all I could stare at was my best friend's inanimate feet as they subtly shifted every few minutes.
Well, I got my wish eventually, even if it wasn't in a way I would've liked. I was beginning to go over the plots of old T.V shows in my mind when suddenly the two feet shifted. One pushed at the back if the heel of the other until it pulled back out of its sandal and did the same for the other until Annie was barefoot. For a second two massive soles lingered in the sky above me, the smooth bottoms of her soles revealed in incredible detail before me. Then time seemed to catch back up with me again and one of the soles collided down onto me. My face was shoved straight right underneath her toes, just below the pads where there was just a little bit of breathing room. My body was underneath the ball of her foot and parts of my legs hung free beneath her arch.
I tried to do anything. Pinch myself, think as hard as I could about waking up, anything to disconnect from my neuro-hack but I seemed stuck until my natural sleep had passed. For the next eight or so hours it seemed I was stuck here.
The toes caved inwards above me, grasping my head between her toes. Then it released. Then grasped, then released again. It seemed to drag on forever. I thought about just a few days ago when, in a way that wasn't unusual for her, Annie had propped her feet up onto my lap. They'd seemed tiny, only size five, and dainty resting on me. I'd made a joke about what I'd called her ugly bright pink socks and she'd gone so far as to point them up and give me a poke in the fave with her heel. I'd barely given it a second thought, pushing her legs back downards with ease.
Now they were like worlds to me as the longer they shifted and stared at me. I saw every small wrinkle, every blemish on the underside of her toes. It didn't quite compute in my mind - just when I'd come out of the box her giant face had seemed godlike and angelic, like a beacon of goodness. Now? It was like being cast down to the hot, dark underworld. Was this the same friend who used to fall asleep in my arms?
After a while they slowed above me, grasping and releasing slower and slower above me. Eventually they began to stop altogether and the weight above me incressed bit by bit until their entire weight rested on top of me. Had she fallen asleep as well? I was so giving Annie a piece of my mind next time I saw her.
I heard a slight jolt above me as she stirred. A push of pressure shoved down on me and I felt a sliver of response come from my real body. The pressure mounted - I woke up a little more. Was Annie standing back up o just stretching? My face was pushed harder and harder into her flesh, the warmth turning into heat as it mounted more and more. I, too, pushed further and further until I could move a finger, and then a hand. I reached out to my phone, blarily opening the neuro-hack.
The other half of me was still stuck underneath Annie's foot. The neuro-hack twisted underneath her as her foot rolled me back and forth. My finger hovered above the disconnect button. All I had to do was push down on it.
But then -
The grinding was getting worse on the other side, the world a blur of intense senses and small sparks of light. I couldn't bring myself to disconnect. I couldn't bring myself to leave her.
I placed the phone down, beginnging to drift away again. Even if it meant torture underneath her, I couldn't be without her.