Trevor Rollins was a young boy with a lot going for him. He has decent grades, was about to enter high school in a new town, and is the new owner of the Chronivac device. He may be a little overconfident in his abilities, as demonstrated by skipping the help section but he was wise enough to take his time to look through his options before clicking things willie nillie.
Many of the options had their novelty and appealed to him. He realized the Chronivac was claiming some really amazing things, but nothing about it seemed like a joke. This gave him pause. I mean, he could repair his family, or become an adult, or a werewolf... so it claims.
Trevor wanted to just write it off as a joke, the thought of giving this power to someone was truly absurd to consider, but Trevor wasn't a mean person so he wouldn't be a horrible option if someone WAS actually trying to beta test a miracle device... "UGH!" With a groan of frustration Trevor realized that it was either real or a joke and he was going to try something or he wasn't.
In going through the options over the last three hours he had seen a lot of really bizarre settings to choose from and play with, if he was going to suspend his disbelief he was still going to be smart about it.
Of the capabilities, he saw a setting for a 'Reality Bubble'. Investigating further the machine described:
"Here at Transdem Labs, we have been working hard to incorporate user feedback into our latest version of our Chronivac line. Using the reality bubble feature greatly extends the capabilities and can enhance your experiences with the Chronivac 4.0. With our breakthroughs in quantum time dilation you can be more free to experience your modified reality directly without having to maintain understanding of your original reality.
When using this feature, you are transported into a sub-universe wherein all your changes take effect. You will still have access to your Chronivac device and may still make changes to the sub-universe with the exclusion of making another sub-universe. The sub-universe will be destroyed upon the completion of either the original or modified duration (including user cancellation), the users death, or destruction of the sub-universe's Chronivac device.
Upon the destruction of the sub-universe the user returns with all the memories and experiences they had within the sub universe but will be recalled at 40% intensity level. The user will then be given the option to keep the memories or remove them. Upon accepting the memories the User has the option of changing their intensity to be anything between a random daydream from years ago (1-15%), to a concrete part of your life (85-100%).
Within the sub-universe the Chronivac device has no distance limitations. Users may play out their wildest fantasies including introducing things like zombies, magic, highly infectious plagues, world domination, gratuitous destruction of property and the like, all without interfering with the rest of the real world. Additionally, this option eliminates the risk of death from unforeseen consequences and with that being said, lends more appeal for the option to fully immerse yourself in the new reality using the 'user 0% aware' option setting.
Another option some users may find appealing is the ability to modify the sub-universe through God mode (some customers may remember this from Chronivac 0.1). Having a direct connection to your mind, the Chronivac may directly inflict changes based on your will. Although this feature was originally removed due to user related self control issues, the inherent safety systems of the sub-universe mechanism allow us to offer you this option yet again. Once activated you can directly modify the basic flow of time, universe level physics and much much more!"
Trevor remembered a news report about a crazy person causing a raucous in a nearby town. Basically they thought they should be getting worshiped and had recreated the universe, they were captured and were receiving help but not after causing traffic delays at rush hour and being a general menace. Trevor considered the story in a new light.
Trevor checked the box next to "Activate Reality Bubble upon start" which caused the computer to hang for a moment but then a new window appeared with all the same options as previously but a few extra such as "Temporal Flow" and "Allow Black Holes to exist". Curious he clicked on the section "Model Universe After" and saw "Reality" was already selected. Though there were some options for D&D as well as Azeroth from WOW and other things he didnt understand...
Poking through things he had a number of things he really wanted to try like being a high school jock, mad scientist, party happy college student, soldier, rock star, werewolf, high school stoner, movie star, mechanic, construction worker, vampire, electrician, doctor, teen billionaire, and with a blush he also thought porn star, would all be fun things to try. On a deeper level he could try life with his dad instead of his mom, or fix them back up, or even become Dad for a few days to understand what went wrong from his perspective and why he drinks. They weren't all mutually exclusive options but clearly, some were.
"Trevor honey? What are you up to? There are a ton of boxes to unpack. I haven't heard you in hours, you better not be taking a nap!"
"I'm not Mom! I'm just, I just... got... distracted."
"Well, Distract yourself with dusting, cleaning and unpacking. Come on now! I can't do everything by myself and keep my sanity..." Mom popped her head in the room. "You do like me sane don't you?"
Trevor looked up and couldn't help but smirk at mom being ridiculous. "Yeah."
"You don't want me doing crazy things like grounding you and making YOU do this all by YOURself do you?"
"No"
"Then get a move on booper bum!"
"Sorry Mom."
She left the room and Trevor had to leave it for now but he REALLY wanted to try it... so he clicked start, but didn't have any settings in other than make a universe modeled after reality.
There was a flash from the emitter and everything was disorienting for a second. Trevor got his bearings and looked around, everything seemed the same. Looking at the screen there was a red outline on all the windows and and a red warning on each window stating "Reality Bubble Currently Active"
None of this proved the device actually did anything beyond list crazy options but at least now, if it does work, he could always reset back to this moment.