Approval: Here
“First thing you’ll need to do,” The old mage had told him, “Is go and get yourself one of those iLac things. For kids, usually, but they have simplified versions for us geezers.”
———
The building, as he had been told, was a storage depot from the major facility, which called itself the LacStore. Strange name, he thought, but what did he know about it?
Stepping onto the grounds, he could feel the energy draining from him. A small part of him wished that he could stay here.But it was too late to go back to the days before he had become a wizard. You cannot un-answer a phone. Speaking of phones, as he looked around he noticed a young woman heading his way. This registered only on a base level as he was fascinated by the facility around him. Coming from a small, nearly nameless village, the bigger cities still confounded him. How one could come into a place like this and work was incredible.
His home had been his shop, his shop his home, for at least three and a half decades. This was a building, dead and lifeless when the lights turned off, until it was needed again.
“—said can I help you with something, sir?”
He almost jumped as he turned his attention to her, fully registering her as also being on this plane of existence. “Ah, sorry.” The man responded, “Yeah, I’ve come to pick up one of those You-Lack things. No that’s not right… iLac?” The upward inflection indicated that he was unsure of the accuracy of his second guess.
“Ah yes, of course, sir." She motioned politely for him to follow, then returned her hands to a resting position at her navel level. It couldn’t have been comfortable. “The iLac is free to all wizards of D-Rank or higher. Are you interested in the iLac, iLac Prime, iLac Lite, iLac Plus or iLac Supreme?”
Brow furrowed as he had not understood the language in which he had been spoken, the man responded, “What’s the difference?”
“Well the processor of the iLac Prime is our top of the line 5.2GHz, boosting up to a 6GHz if overclocked. Perfect for high end gaming. It also sports a maximum 5TB Li-Fi up/down, great for broadcasting live—“ Seeing that what she was saying couldn’t possibly have been getting through entirely to her client, the woman rephrased herself, “Pardon me. The Prime is fastest, the Lite is thinnest, the Plus is best for entertainment. The Supreme is the best of all but of course requires a premium monthly maintenance fee as it is constantly undergoing improvement.”
The middle-aged man stopped and pressed his palm to his forehead. He took out a cigarette and pointed his finger to it. Nothing happened. Remembering the limitations of his magic due to the environment, he fished around for a lighter until the young woman said, “No smoking on the grounds, sir.”
“Right. Listen.” The cigarette hung from his lips like a deflating balloon, “I don’t know anything about any of this. I heard there might be one that was a little easier to use?”
——————————
Hours later, the aging man was walking from the grounds, pressing the final few buttons to turn on the necklace hung around him. It brimmed to life, first with the iLac logo, then showed a surprisingly cute little face, “Hello, new friend! My name is OPTIX. I’ll be your personal iLac assistant. Optimized Personal Tech-Assistant iLac. Optix.” Popping out from the device on his neck was a small holographic 3D figure which bobbed from side to side. It was round with small ovals for feet and matching ones for hands, wobbling as it moved. Its eyes were large, round and light blue, and its orange-slice shaped mouth only opened when it moved, only vaguely matching what it said.
The man squinted his eyes at the little AI, his new companion. “What’s the X for? And why isn’t there an A in there?”
“The X is for Xtreeemely helpful! And because research shows Optai doesn’t sound as good. To complete registration, may I ask your preferred name?”
“Kameyama. Raiji Kameyama. Use the surname.”
TWC: 695
“First thing you’ll need to do,” The old mage had told him, “Is go and get yourself one of those iLac things. For kids, usually, but they have simplified versions for us geezers.”
———
The building, as he had been told, was a storage depot from the major facility, which called itself the LacStore. Strange name, he thought, but what did he know about it?
Stepping onto the grounds, he could feel the energy draining from him. A small part of him wished that he could stay here.But it was too late to go back to the days before he had become a wizard. You cannot un-answer a phone. Speaking of phones, as he looked around he noticed a young woman heading his way. This registered only on a base level as he was fascinated by the facility around him. Coming from a small, nearly nameless village, the bigger cities still confounded him. How one could come into a place like this and work was incredible.
His home had been his shop, his shop his home, for at least three and a half decades. This was a building, dead and lifeless when the lights turned off, until it was needed again.
“—said can I help you with something, sir?”
He almost jumped as he turned his attention to her, fully registering her as also being on this plane of existence. “Ah, sorry.” The man responded, “Yeah, I’ve come to pick up one of those You-Lack things. No that’s not right… iLac?” The upward inflection indicated that he was unsure of the accuracy of his second guess.
“Ah yes, of course, sir." She motioned politely for him to follow, then returned her hands to a resting position at her navel level. It couldn’t have been comfortable. “The iLac is free to all wizards of D-Rank or higher. Are you interested in the iLac, iLac Prime, iLac Lite, iLac Plus or iLac Supreme?”
Brow furrowed as he had not understood the language in which he had been spoken, the man responded, “What’s the difference?”
“Well the processor of the iLac Prime is our top of the line 5.2GHz, boosting up to a 6GHz if overclocked. Perfect for high end gaming. It also sports a maximum 5TB Li-Fi up/down, great for broadcasting live—“ Seeing that what she was saying couldn’t possibly have been getting through entirely to her client, the woman rephrased herself, “Pardon me. The Prime is fastest, the Lite is thinnest, the Plus is best for entertainment. The Supreme is the best of all but of course requires a premium monthly maintenance fee as it is constantly undergoing improvement.”
The middle-aged man stopped and pressed his palm to his forehead. He took out a cigarette and pointed his finger to it. Nothing happened. Remembering the limitations of his magic due to the environment, he fished around for a lighter until the young woman said, “No smoking on the grounds, sir.”
“Right. Listen.” The cigarette hung from his lips like a deflating balloon, “I don’t know anything about any of this. I heard there might be one that was a little easier to use?”
——————————
Hours later, the aging man was walking from the grounds, pressing the final few buttons to turn on the necklace hung around him. It brimmed to life, first with the iLac logo, then showed a surprisingly cute little face, “Hello, new friend! My name is OPTIX. I’ll be your personal iLac assistant. Optimized Personal Tech-Assistant iLac. Optix.” Popping out from the device on his neck was a small holographic 3D figure which bobbed from side to side. It was round with small ovals for feet and matching ones for hands, wobbling as it moved. Its eyes were large, round and light blue, and its orange-slice shaped mouth only opened when it moved, only vaguely matching what it said.
The man squinted his eyes at the little AI, his new companion. “What’s the X for? And why isn’t there an A in there?”
“The X is for Xtreeemely helpful! And because research shows Optai doesn’t sound as good. To complete registration, may I ask your preferred name?”
“Kameyama. Raiji Kameyama. Use the surname.”
TWC: 695
