Original Author: Detective Barricade
You breathe a sigh of relief. It's finally complete. The Imagine-real machine Mk. II is ready to begin testing. It had popped into your head one day at the bar, and while you normally don't do anything that pops into your head after a drink or two, especially when the room seems to be spinning, this one stuck in your head even after the hangover the day after relented its fury on your skull. (why you let your co-workers convince you to go there is beyond anyone's guess. Even a few glasses of wine are enough to make you regret it later) Not unlike...her.
Your best friend when you were growing up wasn't even real. She was imaginary. And while this made it a little difficult to play with her, she was always rather bubbly, cheery, and friendly towards you and anyone else around. To you, she was real...until you got to the age where having an imaginary friend was considered uncool and you were forced to stop believing in her. Eventually, you mostly forgot about her and started talking and playing with real people, but deep down...
Regardless, the details of the machine are that it's supposed to make anything imagined real - to a certain extent. It couldn't be used for violent purposes, period. it wouldn't produce anything sharper than a plastic butter knife, and a terrible one at that. So something told you, anyway. A voice that is...suspiciously feminine, until you think about it too hard and it returns to being 'your' voice. But how would this prototype perform on its first test? You have no idea, but you intend to find out.
You put the helmet on your head and tighten the strap. You check the cables leading from it to a computer, and then from the computer to a large box-like space that just barely avoids touching the ceiling opposite of where you have a seat for comfort and said computer next to. Again, you have no clue why you needed a box-like structure about your height, but something told you it was important. Along with the sitting part. You also keep a fire extinguisher close at hand in case things get nasty with this test.
You flick the switch and begin to imagine something. You imagine a dollar bill. The machine responds and a dollar bill appears in the floor of the box...although it's clearly fake. You figure it's because you don't know the full details of what goes into making money, but it's still something to point out if you're to sell people on this machine if you can get it past prototyping. "Perhaps something a little bigger than a Washington? Why not?" you subconsciously ask and answer yourself, as though repeating someone else's question.
You imagine an apple, all the ins and outs of what an apple should be and whatnot. Again, the Imagine-real Mk. II reacts and an apple appears inside the box. You get up and examine it, then bite into it. It is definitely an apple, indistinguishable from one you could find at a grocery store. You put the core in the garbage, unsure if the seeds would yield an apple tree as you've never seen one in your life to be able to put that detail in. "I need another test. Just one more. Fine." you again say, as though repeating the words of someone else. It's almost like...no. That's just silly! You're just tired. You're alone. You like having an intelligent conversation, yes! You're not going crazy, no! ...Now you feel like something is silently giggling at your thought-impression of Megatron from Beast Wars, a show you watched reruns of growing up.
You focus your thoughts away from the megalomaniac character that you most certainly do not want entering the real world and try to think of something else to imagine into reality. All this use of imagination though is making you tired, and you instead drift off into sleep before you can shut the machine off. To make matters worse, you had forgotten to install a safety in case the user falls asleep. It had never occurred to you to put it in...or perhaps something made sure you wouldn't?
It's not long before you're dreaming. And in your dream, an all too familiar girl spies you and announces, "Te-he-he! At last...Now's my chance! Be seeing you real soon!" before running into the mists of your mind. Suddenly a loud alert jolts you awake - the computer is experiencing an error! Something's materializing in the box, but you don't recall imagining - the dream. Oh no. A fire breaks out and you grab the fire extinguisher. You blast the fire and put it out with the extinguisher, but it's too late. The Imagine-real machine Mk. II is wrecked. Strangely, unlike with the Mk. I's failure, you don't feel like rebuilding it. ...In fact, the idea of it has disappeared from your mind. You can't remember how to build it.
You turn your attention to the smoke clearing out of what remains of the machine, and you start to piece things together... "The Imagine-real machine never was my idea, was it?" you say aloud. But instead of answering yourself like before, a familiar feminine voice answers back from within the mist, "Nope. It was mine. Made for a single main purpose: to bring me into your world." The smoke clears and inside the box is revealed to be your imaginary friend, only, she's no longer imaginary! She appears like...
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