52 Short Stories

Really kid, are you sure  you want me to give you a unicorn? They aren't as great as you think they are. They're quite dangerous really and... UNICORN, UNICORN, UNICORN! I want a sparkly, pink unicorn. "And then," I said, "in a matter of minutes there was little kid blood everywhere." My boss did not look up from his paperwork. "I just, I think it would be better if I could be assigned a different object to inhabit. You know, not a shiny pink unicorn statue. Something more ominous like a bent and twisted pewter candelabra or a even something boring like a lichen covered stone." "What's wrong with your current object?" "I just told you. It's getting kids killed. All these little girls, they see my statue and instantly have 'unicorn,' on the brain, and when they pick me up, that's the only thing they wish for." "We're in the business of wish granting, McClaighleigh, not saving ...

To begin with, you must know that Virtual Reality didn't work out as planned. In fact, it went horribly wrong. Everyone started out very excited about their over-sized virtual reality goggles strapped to their heads. Eventually, someone was able to port the technology into more normal sized glasses. Then, came contact lens. And then came the day of the great fusing. No one is really sure quite what happened, but something went horribly wrong. By this point, basically everyone was using virtual reality contact lenses. So when they fused onto the corneas of the human population, on that day virtual reality became reality. It didn't take long for folks to forget what life was like not being an animated avatar running through a pixelated world that became increasingly more lifelike after every update. In fact, people began to worry that if they had children who didn't have "reality" lenses fused onto their corneas, the parents would not be able to relate ...