"...Okay, all finished with this," you said to yourself as you set an empty box aside. "Just a few boxes to go!"
You'd spent the whole day unpacking your hoard of stuff into your new apartment, after spending the day before moving it all in with the help of your parents and a couple friends. You could've done without the four flights of stairs up and down all day with heavy boxes, furniture, and anything else you'd stowed away in preparation for the big move, but at least you got a great view out of it. Plus, how could you be upset with a place all to yourself?
Man, how lucky could you get? A decent place to live for cheap, a good job opportunity fresh out of college, and a week before that job started to do whatever you wanted! At least, that'd be the case once you were fully unpacked. Speaking of--
You slit open the top of one of the remaining boxes, ready to clean out your remaining work to get to your pre-work vacation, but stopped as an unfamiliar object greeted you immediately upon pulling open the flaps.
"What the...?"
Resting on top of some of your clothes and miscellaneous things was a white, odd-looking remote with a slight curve to its shape, a single cream-colored button resting on its top. A folded sheet of paper laid beneath the device, equally unfamiliar to you; picking up the remote in one hand, you flipped open the sheet and scanned over it.
Greetings, new user! You are now the proud owner of the state-of-the-art Fictional Insertion DeviceTM from SwapCo!
Interested in the lives of your favorite characters from movies, video games, comics, and other pieces of fiction? Do you wonder what it would be like to step into their shoes? With this device, that's but a click away!
Simply point the FID at a fictional character in a piece of media, and within moments, you will assume their role within the story! And that's not all--no one will know the difference! You'll be free to play their part, while both those in the real world and your new "cast members" won't be the wiser! And when you've had your fun, simply hold down the button, and you'll be back to the real world, no different than when you left it!
Feel free to explore the lives and identities of the characters behind the screen and pages of your favorite stories with the help of the Fictional Insertion DeviceTM!
(SwapCo is not liable for any injuries, conditions, or reality distortions incurred from usage of the Fictional Insertion DeviceTM.)
...What the heck? Was this some kind of toy? That whole ad blurb reminded you of the goofy novelty items you remembered seeing in the back of those old-timey comics your dad had--X-Ray specs or Hypno Yo-Yos or something. But how'd it end up with your stuff? Some kind of weird shipping error? Or maybe one of your friends had somehow slipped it into your stuff as some weird prank...
...Well, whatever--not like you were really going to use it. Maybe you could ask around about it later. Little too late to be calling people up about a weird toy you found with your stuff. You tossed it onto the table near your couch and turned back to the opened box, but found your motivation to continue unpacking had slipped away after all that weirdness. You had been working all day to get yourself situated...maybe a little break with some games, a movie, or a good comic would do you good. Good thing you'd wisely unpacked most of your fun stuff already.
You settled onto the couch, entertainment medium at the ready, and settled in to enjoy your break. But despite your attempts to relax, your eyes kept shifting over to the strange device on your side table. The "Fictional Insertion Device"...What if that ad was legit, and this thing really could put you into some story? There was no way--but there'd be no other way to know for certain...
Gingerly, you reached for the device, pointing it at your chosen form of entertainment, leveled it at a particular character, and after a moment's hesitation, pressed the button.
What medium were you engaging with?
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