Ai Era: Castle Locleaze

Author note: This is my entry for the

"2024 AI: A New Era" Author Challenge

.

The rain was coming down so hard that I couldn't hear any difference as I turned the key in the car's ignition to switch the engine off. The moment the windscreen wipers ceased their motion the glass was just a mass of blurry water, and I made sure I had everything in my hands before I got out: coming back to the car was absolutely not an option, especially because I had stupidly forgotten to bring a coat. I had my phone, my overnight bag and my lukewarm, half-drunk coffee cup. I was ready to get drenched.

"Oh, my word, this weather!" Kati said, sheltering on her porch as I made the mad dash across her driveway from my car to join her. Despite my hands being full, she pulled me into a quick, tight hug, the kind of hug that came more naturally to Europeans than Brits but which I thought we really should adopt.

"So good to see you!" I said, shuffling after her as she led the way into the house. Even my brief few moments in the rain had left me damp all over, and I paused on the doormat to thoroughly wipe my canvas trainers and brush raindrops off my jumper.

"It's been too long," Kati agreed, opening the kitchen door and catching Leon, the dog, by the collar with a practised hand before he could leap through the gap and charge at me. He barked, once, but Kati made a noise at him which quieted him.

"Hello Leon," I said, putting my bag, phone and coffee cup down on the floor and dropping to my knees. Satisfied that I was prepared and that the front door was closed, Kati let Leon go, and he ran over to me, hopping up on his hind legs as I rubbed his head and his ears with all the attendant squeals of delight that a small, enthusiastic dog creates in us.

Suddenly torn as Kati stood up, Leon charged back in her direction, then realised it was his usual owner and charged back to me. I gave him one more cuddle, then stood up, wiping dog slobber off my hand and onto the back of my jeans.

"John is just upstairs doing some last minute packing," Kati said, and I rolled my eyes.

"I'm yet to meet a man who can pack before the last minute," I joked, following her through to their neat, bamboo-wood and green-succulent themed kitchen. Leon's water and food bowls lived in a tidy corner and he barreled over to them, quenching his excitement at the new visitor with a long drink of water.

"To be fair to John, he's had a work thing," Kati said, shifting a suitcase which stood by the door so I could get past. "It seems like whenever we plan a holiday, some game studio 'drops' an unexpected release and he's supposed to just cancel everything to sit at home and play it."

I nodded along, but in reality, I knew very little about the arcane world of John's video game reviewing job.

"Jas!" I heard John say as he walked past the kitchen, suitcase in hand, waving at me with his other one. He put the case down near the door then came back, looking harassed but happy. "Thanks so much for coming this weekend, but isn't the weather awful?"

Kati nodded. "It's supposed to be like this all weekend," she said, sourly.

"Not the ideal time for a hiking getaway in Wales, I suppose," I laughed, and Kati shook her head vigorously this time.

"Work's been a nightmare about it but I'm free and clear now, you'll be pleased to hear," John said, turning his attention to Kati.

"That's good," Kati said, Leon fussing around her legs. She and John exchanged one of those looks of love that couples do and I felt envious, so I focused my attention back on Leon and soon had him over with me, getting his tummy scratched as John took the last suitcase through towards the front door.

"You know where everything is?" Kati asked, having an attack of about-to-leave anxiety as she slipped her feet into shoes.

"So long as you haven't moved it since last time," I reassured her.

"We'll be back before six tomorrow," John said, cheerfully, peering out at the rain. "Don't worry if Leon gets wet on his walk, he'll dry off soon enough."

"I might hang on and see if it relents a bit before I take him anywhere," I said, laughing. "He'll be like a drowned rat in all this."

John laughed in turn, but Kati was frowning as she fussed around making sure she had everything before they left.

"If the weather doesn't improve, you're welcome to any of the books or games or anything," John reminded me.

"Tell her about the virtual reality thing," Kati said, pulling on her coat.

John's face lit up for a moment with the kind of enthusiasm that led a man to dedicate his adult life to playing computer games. "It's upstairs in the spare room," he said. "Really easy to use, pretty much self-explanatory. You just need the headset and the feedback suit, then load up a game as usual and go from there."

"Sounds a bit complicated," I told him. "And anyway, I'm not much for these cutting-edge games as it is."

"No, no, it's brilliant, trust me. There's a tennis game up there somewhere which is really well worth trying," John said, warming to the topic. "If you want, I could go up and show you where-"

"No, John, we're going," Kati said, firmly. "The roads will be busy enough with all this rain."

"Okay. Anyway, I highly recommend it," John said, finally. "Have a good weekend."

"You too," I said, standing on the nice dry porch as I watched John and Kati dashing to their car to load luggage, in a welcome role reversal since my arrival. Although Kati seemed to be quite relaxed about leaving Leon and the house in my hands, I knew there would be an entire folder of detailed instructions somewhere, probably on the coffee table where I couldn't miss it.

"Bye bye Leon, be good for Auntie Jasmine," Kati said, her coat dripping as she came back to the house to give Leon a final scratch behind the ears.

"He'll be a darling," I assured her. "Have a great time away."

Kati gave me a tight smile which clearly said

'we'll see'

, then we had one more quick hug and she was gone. John flashed the headlights of the car at me as they drove off and I waved back, watching them go down the long, wet street until I couldn't see the car any longer.

After all the bustling around, the house felt quiet, and after a couple of whines which either meant he knew his owners were going away, or that he wanted to go for a walk but knew it was too wet, Leon took himself through to the living room and settled down in his basket. I closed the front door and resigned myself to going and finding Kati's folder and giving it a read. She was well-meaning, after all, just a little bit too thorough. John had been a good influence on her, I thought, reining in her tendencies to over-think with his easy-going nature.

The rain continued, without interruption, all day. It did ease off into more of a heavy drizzle after lunch, and I seized the opportunity to take Leon out. I borrowed a coat, presumably one of Kati's, but it was loose on me and rain leaked in somehow. Leon didn't seem to mind getting wet very much, though, and happily trailed through puddles and muddy verges getting thoroughly filthy. Following Kati's instructions, I mopped up his muddy pawprints and gave him a bit of a bath when we got back, which he accepted with good grace, and by mid-afternoon he was sound asleep in his basket and I was looking out of the window, watching rain streaking down it and questioning how it could possibly have got heavier again.

The rest of the day was mine to kill. I'd brought a book with me in my bag: a historical thriller set in 1920s Canada. It was no doubt well-researched but the plot left a lot to be desired and I was fairly sure I'd lost track of who was who. There was nothing good on TV, just the usual daytime fare or reruns of American sitcoms, although I did spot a listing for

Night of the Blood Sun

, a cheesy-looking horror film from the 1980s and thought I might watch that later. In any case, I was bored, which is what led me to climbing the stairs and poking my head into the spare room, willing to give John's virtual reality game a go to pass an hour or two before it was time to cook my dinner.

One corner of the spare room, which was spartanly decorated and clearly used as a bit of a dumping ground, was given over to camping gear, which John and Kati used in the summer, all tents and gas stoves and complicated-looking packages containing lightweight beds or ingenious ways to get a full-size barbecue in a tiny backpack. The other half had a treadmill in it, from which a VR headset was hanging, and I took that to mean the treadmill was part of the system. As soon as I saw it I knew it was too complicated and I was ready to retreat back downstairs and watch a cooking programme on TV while I scrolled through social media, but I spotted something called

The V-Gamer Easy Set Up Guide

sitting on the top of a pile of boxes, bright red and having reassuringly few pages. Scooping it up, I flicked it open and got drawn into the instructions, pressing the colour-coded buttons on the side of the treadmill to switch everything on and then hearing it whirr into life.

The next page had the title 'wearables' and had instructions about how to adjust the headset properly, followed by a section about the feedback suit. This was the missing link: I couldn't see a feedback suit anywhere in the room. I poked around, under the camping things and down the side of the treadmill, but there was nothing. I discovered that the pile of things the set-up guide had been resting on were boxed games, the topmost of which was labelled 'TENNIS', and I surmised from the low production value of the covers that these were probably advance review copies. Despairing of ever finding the feedback suit, I was about to give up again when I spotted that something was hanging on the back of the door, which, as I'd left it wide open, was hidden from view. It wasn't just one feedback suit but two; some further examination revealed that there was a male suit and a female one.

Returning to the instructions, it said that the feedback suit should fit fine without adjustment so long as you were wearing the right size. They were made out of a thickish material without much give, rather like a wetsuit, and came in a top and bottom half, plus gloves. Feeling silly, I put on the female suit, and as I did it became clear that this one was in Kati's size. She was top-heavy, with a big bust and narrow hips, whilst I was the opposite, with wide hips and a big arse but not much chest to speak of. Squeezing into the bottom half was challenging but the material was just about stretchy enough to allow it, however the top half was hopeless. My boobs just weren't big enough to fill it out, and the set-up guide warned that any baggy or loose sections could cause the games to malfunction.

I'd come this far, though, and I wasn't about to give up. My determination to actually use this machine had increased now I'd jammed my bum into the suit. I reached down and slipped my feet out of my fluffy thermal socks, balled them up and shoved them into my bra. That made one side large enough to fit the suit, so I went back downstairs to get tomorrow's socks out of my bag and use those for the other side.

'You're a genius, Jasmine,'

I told myself when my bra was filled to maximum capacity, examining myself in their hallway mirror. Yes, my boobs were uneven and lumpy, but that hardly mattered. I was proud of myself for manufacturing a solution. I zipped the top half of the suit up and examined it again. It looked absolutely fine, now. And as for the bottom half... Well, somehow it was actually really flattering. The tight fit had lifted my bum up and squeezed it in, so I looked like I'd just done a year of squats at the gym. It was very tight around the crotch area, but not uncomfortably so, no worse than a pair of leggings, but I admit I spent a few minutes examining my legs and my arse. Could I buy one of these suits to go under my clothes so I could look like this every day?

Feeling more confident, I returned to the treadmill. Next I put the headset on and fiddled with the settings to get it to fit comfortably, but it was quite intuitive. Then I tentatively stepped onto the treadmill, the rubbery material comfortably warm under my bare feet, and followed the last instruction in the start guide: engage 'Calibration Mode'. This turned out to be a deeply uninteresting series of movements and steps which I'm sure were absolutely vital for getting everything set up, but ended up making me feel like I'd just spent ten minutes at the doctor's being poked, prodded and examined. It was in virtual reality, at least, which was novel. At last, then, the home screen of the V-Gamer appeared, a whirl of purple and gold, and it asked me to insert a game disc.

I crouched down to extract 'TENNIS' from its case, unsure whether I needed to be extra-careful with an advance review copy in case it ended up in a museum one day, or whether it was worthless and John would be throwing it out by the end of next week. But I paused: underneath 'TENNIS' was 'GOLF' and then 'POOL', but nearer the bottom of the pile were some more interesting titles. My attention was particularly drawn by

'Castle Lockleaze'

, the only box which had any art on it. The front cover showed a CGI drawing of a mansion, lightning flashing behind it, and the silhouette of a woman in a long gown. The back said 'A breathtaking VR adventure taking on the role of a Vampire Hunter, seeking their darkest desires, drawn into a dangerous feud with the notorious resident of CASTLE LOCKLEAZE'.

I had to admit that

Castle Lockleaze

sounded like a more fun way to pass a couple of hours than 'TENNIS', especially as I'd never been good at any sport in normal reality and I suspected virtual reality would be the same. A bit of time swinging a sword and sticking a stake into vampires seemed a bit more up my alley, so I opened that box instead and pushed the disc into the V-Gamer's slot, then stood up and returned to the treadmill while 'LOADING...' appeared before my eyes in the headset.

Then, suddenly, the world changed. I wasn't standing in a plain, unremarkable box room any longer; I was standing outside a set of wrought iron gates, shivering in a light rain, hearing a peal of thunder come from far off. It was incredible. I could actually feel the raindrops lightly landing on my shoulders, and the suit had lowered its temperature so it felt colder than it had before. When I turned my head, the view changed, looking away from the imposing gates and up a grassy track, damp and muddy, the stiff breeze catching the undergrowth of the untamed hedge along one side. I looked back, and in the ironwork in gothic lettering was picked out the name: Castle Lockleaze. Beyond the gates was darkness, some kind of stone structure which might be a fountain or sculpture looming out of the gloom. I really couldn't believe how

real

this felt.

I reached my hand up and touched the gate, but before my hand could meet the cold iron, a menu appeared.

CHARACTER SELECTION

> Free Design

> Pre-Made

Not wanting to waste time messing about with a character designer, I reached out and touched 'Pre-Made'. Four avatars appeared, standing around me as if they'd just teleported in. It was a bit unnerving, actually, having them staring at me, but it became clear they weren't going to move. To my left were two male characters, one tall, statuesque and wielding an old-fashioned rifle, the other shorter, broader, completely bald and carrying a large shiny sword in both hands. The weapons actually were a little intimidating in this kind of immersive environment, so I looked to my right instead.

There were two female characters, and I let out a faint sigh of disappointment when I saw the first one. She was designed for everything in the male fantasy: giant tits bursting out of a barely-fastened vest; long blonde hair staying effortlessly in place despite the wind and rain; perfect hourglass figure clad in the skimpiest skin-tight leather imaginable; and yes, she was wearing heels. Her weapon of choice was a giant hammer, obviously too heavy and unwieldy, but she bore it easily. There was something subconscious here about a gorgeous woman with her hands on a large tool.

The other woman was shorter, more of a tomboyish type, with brunette hair cut in a long bob and a sharp, mischievous smile. She looked plain, wearing a more utilitarian boiler suit in a dark leather with pockets and which actually covered her arms and legs. Happily, I thought, she was actually not too unlike me: no giant rack bouncing around all over the place; not especially tall; and in her hands were a pair of glittering daggers. That was more like it: daggers and pockets suggested stealth and cunning instead of blasting bullets or swinging a hammer. I reached out my hand and as I did, all four characters disappeared, and then I

was

the character. When I looked down, my clothes were dark leather, covered in pockets, and a curtain of hair from my bob hung down the side of my face. It was a strange feeling, the melding of the two of us like this, but somehow it felt very natural. I was ready to be her for a while. Strange woman, armed with daggers, ready to hunt vampires. I stepped forwards, aware of the sensation of the treadmill moving beneath my feet, and a ghostly apparition materialised between me and the gate, flickering in the wind.

"Marissa Lylac, welcome to Castle Lockleaze," the ghost whispered, but their voice filled my head eerily. "Those who die here are cursed to walk the earth forever as spectres; shadows of what we once were, now under the vampire's curse. But if you can slay the vampire who rules this castle, maybe you can release us... release us... release us..."

The last two words echoed as the ghost faded. Standard computer game stuff, I thought, looking at the blank space where the ghost had been, setting up a paper-thin story when really you're just here to kill enemies as violently as possible. I stepped forwards and the iron gates swung open without being touched, and I took my first steps into the castle grounds.

To my surprise as I progressed, the game was actually quite fun. It wasn't the hordes-of-vampires game I had expected; most of it was about solving puzzles and careful, methodical gameplay to reach the next area. I made it through the hedge maze and the statue garden, and when I reached the greenhouses the light rain that was still falling now felt refreshing. I could go for five or ten minutes at a time, completely immersed in the game, forgetting I was standing on a treadmill in a weird outfit, instead thinking that I really

was

Marissa, using my dagger fo scratch a word into a pane of glass in order to unlock a tunnel which led into the castle.

The tunnel itself was dank and I almost felt I could taste the wet earth and stale air. I walked bent forwards so I wouldn't touch the roof of the tunnel, curving my back in real life too, and felt a real sense of relief when I saw light at the end. This virtual reality idea really had something to it.

The tunnel opened out into a wine cellar, too small to contain anything secret that I could find, so I climbed the wooden stairs and went through a door into the brightly-lit entrance chamber. All the walls were stone, but with braziers and tapestries, it didn't feel cold and uncomfortable in the castle. A big fireplace was burning on the opposite side from me, and when I approached it, I could feel heat coming off it through the suit. There was an elaborate coat of arms around the fireplace, vines entwining and creating a pattern, and I realised this was part of a puzzle too. I bent down to examine it at eye-level, then jumped when I heard a voice from nowhere.