Chapter 1
Computer Commotion
Chapter Description: A tech savvy mother and her 17 year old son seem to be disagreeing on how he lives his life. Can a mysterious command terminal command fix the situation?
Feedback is appreciated, even if I don't respond right away or if ever. This ain't my first writing rodeo, but my first official AR rodeo, so I'm trying.
Inside
a dimly lit bedroom sitting on a computer chair sits a glossy eyed
teenager, 17 years to be precise. In front of him glows a computer
monitor he’s transfixed on, eyes glued to the colourful
anime on screen. The sudden opening of the door brings in fresh light
from the outside world into the dark dungeon of a teenager’s room.
Mom:
Jeremy, I know it’s summer, but can’t you find anything better to
do than spend all day watching cartoons?
His
concentration is broken just enough for hum to pause and take out his
earphones.
Jeremy:
It’s not a cartoon. It’s anime, or Japanimation as they probably
called it in your day. I’m almost done with the latest season of
this series. Then I’ll come out and get some sunlight.
His
gaze never leaves the monitor as she puts a basket of laundry on his
bed.
Mom:
I expect your laundry to be folded and put away before dinner in a
couple hours.
He
nods before putting his earphones back in and unpausing his show. The
door closes, causing the same dim lighting to appear again.
2
Hours Later:
Both
Jeremy and his mom are at the dinner table in the kitchen, dishing up
bowls of the Asian inspired soup she made.
Mom:
Did you get your laundry folded and put away?
Jeremy:
…
Mom:
I’ll take that silence as a definite no.
Jeremy:
Huh? Sorry, I kinda zoned out.
Mom:
Jeez, can you at least try to pay attention? I asked if you got your
laundry folded and put away.
Jeremy:
I got started on it when you called me down. I only got a few things
done.
Mom:
Sigh, if you didn’t insist on finishing that cartoon or whatever
you call it then you’d have gotten your work done. Sometimes I wish
you would take the initiative and just get work done instead of
always relying on me to help. You won’t always have someone to help
you and do things for you. You won’t be able to always watch your
shows when you’re living on your own. I’m worried that you’ll
just be a lazy bum mooching off of others, watching your shows.
Jeremy:
I… I know. I promise I’ll try to get better about this.
Mom:
You said the same thing to me last week and the week before. You’ve
told me every week for the past couple of months.
A
look of confusion washes over his face.
Jeremy:
I have?
A
look of pure annoyance rushes over her face.
Mom:
Yes! You have! Jeez. Until you can learn to be a bit more mature, I’m
limiting you to only a couple of hours on your computer every day.
Jeremy
begins to feel a crippling wave of despair cascading over him as she
says that.
Jeremy:
You can’t do that!
Mom:
Oh, yes I can! I payed for all the parts for you to build that
computer, so I have the right to limit your access. If you got the
parts with your own money then I’d have no rights, but that’s not
what happened.
She
gets up off her seat and starts power walking towards the kitchen
entryway. Jeremy gets up, but a cold stare from his mom sits him back
down immediately. She gets up to his room and boots up his computer.
Mom:
If he really thinks that I can’t limit his time because I use a
different Linux distribution, then he’s crazy.
She
logs into her admin account to find she has an unknown, unread
calendar notification.
Mom:
Huh, what’s this?
The
notification says something about running a new command she learned a
few weeks back to help his son with his problems. It also says to
make sure his computer isn’t in the room when it goes off.
Mom:
This command doesn’t make any sense. And what is this whole “Age
Regression” thing it mentions?
She
decides to wait for tomorrow to try this command and in the mean time
sets up the timer on her son’s account. Afterwards she logs out and
waits for the next day to run the command.
Next
Day:
Jeremy
is busy trying to get the timer off his computer as his door swiftly
opens. He quickly closes the command terminal to make sure she
doesn’t see his, albeit failed, attempts.
Mom:
My laptop is acting up and I can’t get the printer to work with it
right now. I need to borrow your computer so I can print off
something I need for work.
Jeremy:
Why don’t you bring the printer in here then?
Mom:
Because I still need to move the file to your computer. I could get
in serious trouble if the document gets leaked because I sent it to
myself via email.
Jeremy:
Sigh, then take my computer and monitor.
She
takes the computer and monitor into her office room. It takes her
next to no time to move them to her office and set it up. She signs
into her account and reluctantly opens up the command terminal and
the calendar notification. She copies the command and enters it after
opening the root terminal. After entering the command and a bunch of
lines of code running an unknown process fill the terminal it tells her to enter a
number for age.
Mom:
I shouldn’t do this without understanding what it does. But
curiosity is getting the best of me.
She
enters 14 in the terminal and reluctantly presses enter. The terminal
then prompts her to confirm her choice. After confirming it, she
sneaks to Jeremy’s room and peeks in, cracking the door open a
little.
Jeremy:
Uggh, I don’t feel so good.
He
lays on his bed as his mom watches him lose about 3 inches and around 30 pounds. He loses his more mature features for his features right
before he started entering puberty. His voice becomes higher as well,
going through reverse puberty. Mom steps in as it finishes, his room
also changing similarly to how it looked when he was 14 and just
entering high school.
Mom:
I thought I heard you not feeling well and thought I’d check up on
you. Are you okay?
Jeremy
looks up at her, feeling his energy drained.
Jeremy:
Yeah. I just have a bit of an upset stomach and a headache and need
some rest. That’s all. Can you wake me up when dinner’s ready?
She
nods as she exits and goes back to the computer. Worried about what
she’s done, she retraces her steps and tries entering 17 to age him
back up. It only responds with “Error:Invalid_Number” as she hits
enter.
Mom:
I don’t think I can…
Suddenly
her brain starts to buzz around in a frenzy as if it’s real itchy.
If she makes him younger, she can mold her son into a better person.
To fix that itch, she enters 11 and hits enter. Again she sneaks over
to his room and watches him become even younger, his body becoming
even shorter and more like that of a prepubescent tween. All traces
of puberty or any signs of him ever looking like a teenager vanished
in less than ten minutes time.
Mom:
Alright, just a little more. Then I’ll stop. I don’t want to make
him too young. As it is, I wouldn’t have the time to take care of
him if I turned him into a baby. Even if I’m working from home
right now.
Reluctantly
she enters the command for a third time and sets it to 6 years and
fires the command. After another confirmation she quickly goes over
to his room. There’s no indication that even a 9 year old lives in
the room; only a cherubic 6 year old. His clothes even match, being
something that a 6 year old would enjoy wearing. He is peacefully
napping on his twin sized bed with cartoon bedding. She feels as
though she’s in a fantasy setting seeing his teen, almost young
adult, losing a little over a decade of his life to a program that can turn him younger and younger.
Mom:
Maybe just another year wouldn’t hurt.
She
quietly shuts the door and shuffles back to the computer. Right
before she finishes the command she heads to the bathroom. After
returning she finds her son in her seat, looking at the computer.
Mom:
What are you doing? I thought I told you not to play with mommy’s
computer.
Her
natural parental instincts kick in almost immediately. She walks over
to him as he presses a button on the keyboard.
Jeremy:
It asked for a number. I put 0.
She
looks worried as her son starts to get younger. She moves him off her
seat and gets to trying to stop it. First he becomes a year younger
as she tries canceling the command, but that fails. Another year goes
as she tries to kill the command terminal. Yet again another as she
tries to log out and shut down. After the third year his pants
disappear and are replaced with a pair of training pants. She starts
to freak out as he becomes 2 years old and his shirt disappears too.
Before he can lose another year she unplugs the computer, leaving
Jeremy as a 14 month old baby in nothing more than a diaper with
cartoon designs on them. She sighs as she looks over at him, not
knowing if inputting 0 would have made him disappear. A look of worry
washes over her face.
Mom:
Looks like I have to find a way to reverse the command.
She
starts to re-plug the computer and reboot it so she can try to fix
her mistake. Meanwhile Jeremy pops on the ground and starts banging
his tiny, pudgy, uncoordinated fist on the carpeted floor in boredom.
