Hypno Life

It was a nice, sunny day and I was bored. I was stuck inside working instead of out enjoying the day. I was working for a game company. Instead of making the games like I really wanted I was stuck doing office work. As I was finishing up a report I was thinking about being a kid and being able to enjoy the day. It was summer which meant the kids were out of school. I'll admit that I was a little jealous of them. Suddenly I heard my boss clear her throat and I turned around to see that she had been looking over my shoulder. She nodded her head at my computer screen and I was horrified to see that I had been writing about my desire to be a kid again, free to enjoy this summer day. I knew that I was in trouble. I had basically written that I was dissatisfied with my job. I could lose my job over this and I needed this job. I needed the money to pay for learning to make games. I also wanted to make games for this company and if I was fired now I wouldn't be able to. I turned back to my boss and she said "When you're finished with your report, I want to see you in my office." She then turned and walked away. I was a little bit relieved. If she was going to fire me she wouldn't have me finish my report. I couldn't help but wonder what she wanted if she wasn't going to fire me.

A little later I was my bosses office. I was sitting in a chair in front of her desk. I was a bit nervous as she wrote a few things down. When she was done she looked up at me and said "I've been very satisfied with your work here. I also know that you want to make games for us. However, after seeing what you wrote I'm a little concerned that you may be falling into a rut and getting bored. I think that I may not be challenging you enough. That I may not be keeping things fresh enough for you. I want to try to correct that. That's why I'm offering you a chance to test a new kind of game that we're making. Would you be interested in testing a new game?"

"Yes I would" I said. I had never thought that I would be offered a chance to test a new game after my boss saw what I had wrote.

"That's great" my boss said. "Now, like I said, this game is new. It's not a conventional game that you play on a computer or game system. This game is played in the mind. We're calling it Hypno Life. It's like a mixture of The Sims 2 and Second Life. You navigate a world using an avatar that you create, interacting with others that are also playing the game. I'm sure you're wondering how that is possible. Science is beginning to say that there are alternate realities. What we're doing is using the power of the mind to create a world much like our own. There are a few differences in this world. One of them is that a year is 364 days and is divided into 13 months of 28 days each. People playing this game can teleport from place to place. There are some places that you will not be able to teleport to without a security card. Everyone has a watch that you use to teleport and you can insert the security cards into it. Now, just because you can't teleport into certain areas directly doesn't mean that you can't get into them. Some of those areas will have teleportation pads in them that will allow you to enter some areas. Other areas have a metallic ring called a Stargate in them. Either one will one will allow you to enter certain areas. Of course some of them may have security measures in place to control who gets in. You shouldn't need to worry about that though. You should be able to get into all the areas. At least until more people start playing the game and buying areas. Not only will you be able to explore a world like ours but the whole solar system is open to you. When you create an avatar you will be that avatar in the game. You will be able to choose your age, gender, skin color, eye color, hair color, hair length, hair style, height, weight, nationality, and even species. Basically you can create a body to your liking within limits for the age, gender, and species. Once you have made your avatar to your liking you can enter Hypno Life. At first you will start in a cylinder that will open and someone will give you clothes. They will tell you about Hypno Life and general information about teleporting. They will also tell you how families work in Hypno Life. Now I'll ask you again. Do you want to test this game?"

"More than ever now" I said excitedly. This would be like a dream come true.

"I'm glad" my boss said. "You will be paid for this. Now I need you to go to this address and listen to the hypnosis file." She hands me a piece of paper with the address on it. "One other thing before you go. Before you make your avatar I want you to come see me again."

"Ok" I said and left.

I went to the address that my boss had given me. It was a one story building. I went inside and told the receptionist who I was and why I was here. She had me fill out some forms for health reasons. Once I had filled them out I was led into a room with a leather chair with speakers on the side facing in toward a person's head in the middle. I was told to sit down in the chair and to get comfortable. It was suggested that I should take off my shoes to be more comfortable. That made sense so I did. After I was comfortable I was left alone. Suddenly the lights dimmed and the sounds of waves, wind, and rain came from the speakers. I was so comfortable and the sound was relaxing me even more. I could hardly keep my eyes open so I closed them. After what felt like a few seconds I opened my eyes as the sounds quit and the lights came back up. I was asked if I had heard anything to which I replied that the only thing I heard was the waves, wind, and rain. I was told to come back tomorrow for another session.

Two months later I was in for yet another hypnosis session. After each session I was asked if I heard anything. Each time I told them that the only thing I heard was the sound of the waves, wind, and rain. I didn't know what they were waiting for but I was willing to go with it. I was getting paid for this and during my sessions I was really relaxed. This session was different though. During it I heard a feminine voice say "Welcome to Hypno Life. From now on you can log in to Hypno Life by saying 'Hypno Life log in'. The first time you log in you will be creating your avatar. Have a great time playing Hypno Life." I opened my eyes as the sounds ended and the lights came up. When I was asked if I heard anything I told them what I had heard. This time instead of telling me to come back for another session they told me that I didn't need another one unless I had trouble logging in.

I was once again sitting in my boss's office. She had said to come see her before I logged in for the first time. I was about to find out why she had wanted me to see her first. She looked at me and said "I heard that you're ready to log in. That's great! Now, I'm sure that you're wondering why I wanted to see you before you logged in. I've gotten reports that everyone who has logged in so far have chosen to be adults. We need at least one kid in the game. I want you to be that kid. You can choose what age you want to be as long as it's under thirteen. The rest of what your avatar looks like is up to you. You will be paid for your time playing Hypno Life. Just make sure to write down the time you log in and log out. I'm going to take your word for the hours you are in the game. I know you to be an honest person. Go on home and log in."

I went home wondering what I would make my avatar look like. I was told to be a kid in the game. I could live with that. I was also getting paid for this and it looked like I would be able to do it at home. By the time I entered my apartment I had some idea of what I wanted. I took off my shoes and sat down. I said the trigger phrase and suddenly I found myself in a black room. The only thing that was in there was a computer on a table with a chair. I went to it and sat down in the chair. On the screen were the words 'Choose Your Age'. I entered 11 as my age. As soon as I entered 11 new instructions appeared. This time it asked me to choose my gender. Well I was going to be a kid again and I figured that I might as well go for a new experience so I put in female. Next it asked me to choose a species. It gave me a list of everything that I could be. I found one that was interesting to me. It was Shape shifter and it had a question mark next to it. When I hovered the cursor over it an explanation popped up. 'A Shape shifter is a human with the ability to change into different things'. It sounded interesting to me so I chose that. Next it asked me to choose a name. I was a little confused by the fact that it only had spaces for a first and middle name. I shrugged thinking that I would be picking my last name next and I entered Elisabeth Michelle. What it asked next wasn't what I wanted for a last name but what I wanted for my height. It had a slider and it was set in the middle. A height was displayed below this that said 4' 8½". I left it as it was. The next thing it asked was for me to choose my weight. Once again there was a slider positioned in the middle and 82 lbs. below it. I left that as it was as well. It kept asking me stuff such as hair color, length, and style, breast size, eye color, and nationality. I ended up choosing strawberry blond hair, waist length hair, straight hair, AA size breasts, green for eye color, and Caucasian for nationality. When I had entered everything the screen showed what I'd look like and gave me the chance to go back and change anything. I was pretty happy with what I'd look like so I clicked on proceed. The computer, table, chair, and even my body dissolved. I could no longer feel my body.

Suddenly I could feel my body again and knew that my eyes were closed so I opened them. I was looking at a white ceiling so I must be laying on my back. I sat up and saw that I was in a room with light pink walls. I looked at what I had been laying in some kind of cylinder. The cylinder was about eight foot long, not counting the ends which were bigger in diameter than what I had been laying in. The top half of the cylinder was open now but I would bet that it had been closed. The bottom half seemed to be filled with a soft pink mattress. As I looked at the cylinder I couldn't help but look at my body also. I was completely naked. I no longer had male genitals. In their place were female genitals. I reached down and felt my new genitals. I was able to insert a finger inside so I knew that it was real. At least inside the game.

Suddenly a woman said "Welcome Elisabeth! I am Marla. I am a Non-Player Character or NPC. I am here to welcome you and to explain Hypno Life to you. If you would please stand up I will begin." I stood up and looked around. There were numerous cylinders like the one I had been in around. The only difference was that these were closed. The top was clear but I couldn't tell if it was glass or plastic. Suddenly a green light started flashing on one of the cylinders. Marla said "Oooo, you're in luck. Somebody logged in and is creating a female avatar. I'll wait for them to finish so I don't get interrupted."

I watched the cylinder wondering what would happen. Soon the cylinder filled with white smoke. After a few seconds it began to dissipate and I was soon looking at a girl that looked younger than I was and who was naked. The top cycled open and the girl opened her eyes. She sat up and looked around like I had done. She seemed to be surprised when she saw me. Marla then said "Welcome Tammy! I am Marla. I am a Non-Player Character or NPC. I am here to welcome you and to explain Hypno Life to you. If you would pleas stand up I will begin." Tammy stood up and Marla said "I know that you have been given a little information about this game. What Hypno Life is is an alternate solar system created and maintained by the subconscious mind. Even if no one is logged in this solar system continues to exist and time goes on. You have created what is termed as avatars. This is your form while you are logged in. You are in a starting room on what we call Hypno Earth. Female avatars start here. A year on Hypno Earth is 364 days long divided up into 13 months of 28 days each. There is a time difference between Hypno Life and what you would call the real world. A day here is only an hour in the real world. Now, you two have chosen to be children. You will be placed in an adoption center to await adoption. That is why you weren't given the option of choosing a last name. Now I'll activate your watches." She pressed some buttons on a tablet pc and a watch seemed to grow out of my arm. It wasn't one a girl would normally wear. It was black and square. "These watches will allow you to teleport to just about any location on a planet or moon as long as you have a landmark for it. Just think of where you want to go and press the red button. Just remember that you may not be able to get into certain areas without a security card. You may be able to get into those areas using a teleport pad or a Stargate. There are NPCs operating these. Tell them where you want to go and they'll do their best to get you there. There could be security so you still may not be able to get into certain areas. The Stargate is the only way to get to the other planets and moons in the solar system. Your watches also access your inventory. Once you have clothing in your inventory you can think of what you want to wear and press the white button. You can rez objects in your inventory by thinking the item and pressing the grey button. Here are some clothes to get you started." She hands each of us a little grey memory card. "There is a slot on the side of your watches that the cards go into" she continued. "You will notice that the cards I handed are grey. That means that they are items that can be rezzed once they are in your inventory."

I put the card into the slot and I knew what it was. I thought about it and pressed the grey button on my watch. A grey box suddenly appeared on the ground in front of me. I opened the lid and saw five white cards inside. I put each of them in the watch slot and discovered that one was a pair of shoes, two were complete outfits, and the other two were nightgowns. I wanted to return the box to my inventory but didn't know how. Marla said "To return an item to your inventory just think about it and press the grey button again. The same goes for returning clothes to your inventory. Think about the clothes and press the white button. Elisabeth, you are a shape shifter. When you change your shape your clothes will automatically return to your inventory. This is to prevent them from being ruined when you change. Now, you can also take off your clothes like you would in the real world. Why don't you put on your clothes now?"

There was one outfit that I wanted to wear so I concentrated on that one and pushed the white button on my watch. The pink tee, denim skirt, bra, panties, and ankle socks seemed to grow out of my skin like my watch. I wanted to have shoes on so I concentrated on them and again pressed the white button. The shoes seemed to grow out of my socks. I liked these shoes. They were white with pink piping and pink laces and were comfortable, almost like they were made for my feet. In fact all my clothes seemed made just for me.

"You can give someone clothes or items in your inventory by concentrating on them and pressing the yellow button on your watch" Marla said. "This will eject a card with the clothes or items on it. You will of course lose those clothes or items from your inventory. You will find stores throughout Hypno Life that sell clothes and items. It's just like shopping in the real world except you get a card when you purchase something. There are factories that make clothes and items and put them on a card. You can hide your watch by pressing the grey and red button. It will reappear when you want it.

"Moving on" Marla said, "you will age. Eventually you will die of old age but you can die by other means. This includes being vored, that is to say eaten. Only females can vore and usually the one being vored is male. The female swallows their victim whole. When you die you can either clone yourself as you were just before you died or create a new avatar. In the case of old age I suggest the latter. When you clone yourself you will have all of your items that you had before you died. Of course that is not the case if you create a new avatar. In that case you will start over like you did when creating your first avatar. When you die you can stay with your body and experience what happens to it or you can log out. When you're logged out your avatar will not age."

"You will need to eat, drink, sleep, bath, and use the toilet just as you would in the real world" Marla continued. "Don't worry about soiling yourself in the real world when you use the toilet here. Your mind keeps the two separate. You will know when you need to use the toilet in the real world long before you soil yourself. Since you two are girls may experience everything that a girl does."

"Families in Hypno Life are basically the same as in the real world. When a baby is born it could be a NPC or avatar. It depends on whether or not the person being a baby selects a prenatal age and if the mother unbirths someone. Babies that are above the prenatal line and children are placed into an adoption center to be adopted. They adoption center takes into account your preferences and those of the prospective family. This increases the chances that the family is a happy family. When you are adopted you will of course take on the last name of your parent or parents. They will be responsible for you. You will have to go to school when it is in session just like you would have to in the real world. Until you are adopted you will live at the adoption center."

"The final thing that I have to tell both of you is how to log out and chat" Marla said. "It's just like logging in except you say 'Hypno Life log out'. When you are logged in you are still aware of what goes on in the real world. If you had logged in with your eyes open they will still be opened and seeing everything in the direction you were looking in. You can still hear in the real world also. This means that you'll know when the phone rings, the alarm clock goes off, or someone comes to your door just like you normally would. You can choose to ignore those or you can log out to take care of them. You will automatically log out if there is an emergency."

"Chatting is pretty basic in Hypno Life" Marla continued after a brief pause. "We are chatting right now. This is normal chat. There is also group and private chat. Both of these are telepathic communications so you can be anywhere in the solar system and still be in touch. For group chat just concentrate on the group name and press the green and grey button on your watch. All you have to do is think your message and people will hear you in their minds. To end your input just press the button again. For private you do the same thing except you concentrate on a specific person. You can still receive messages even if you haven't pressed the button."

"This next part concerns only you Elisabeth" Marla said focusing on me. "You are special since you are a shape shifter. I've already told you that your clothes will automatically return to your inventory when you change. Those clothes will automatically reappear on you when you change back to this form. You will need to acquire the form you want to become. These are on green cards and once you insert it into your watch it is yours. You can not give it to someone else. I am authorized to give you your first form. You get to choose which one you want. We have a wide variety of different forms for you to choose from. They range from ants to zebras, past and present. These include mythical forms such as merpeople and centaurs. Also you can have anthro forms of many of them. Anthro is a hybrid of human and something else like a wolf. An anthro wolf is not a werewolf though if you change into an anthro wolf it would be like you were a werewolf. A werewolf is a shape shifter but they can only change into the one form while you can change into multiple forms. Take a look and tell me which one you want for your first form."

Marla handed me her tablet pc and I looked at all the forms that were available to me. She wasn't kidding when she said they had a wide variety. There were so many to choose from and so many colorations to each that it would probably take me years to go through. I even saw vampire on the list. After a few minutes I picked a mermaid with a golden bronze tail.

"I think that you'll look cute with that tail" Marla said. She typed in a few things and then handed me a green card. "When you've inserted that card all you need to do is concentrate on that form and you'll change. I would suggest that you sit down before you change since it will be difficult to stand on your tail."

I noticed that the box that my clothes came in was big enough and strong enough for me to sit on so I did. I inserted the card and then concentrated on the mermaid form. My clothes returned to my inventory leaving me naked for a split second. Then shells appeared over my breasts and scales appeared at my waist and spread down my body. As the scales grew down my body my legs fused together and my feet changed to fins. This was incredible! I was a mermaid!

"As a mermaid you can live underwater" Marla said. "You don't have to worry about changing back to human form when you're asleep underwater. You have to consciously concentrate on your form in order to change. If you would change back we will finish so you can teleport to the adoption center."

Once I changed back Marla said "Here's the landmark to the adoption center. Since you are the only children so far you will both be going to the same adoption center. In fact, it's the only adoption center at the moment. More will pop up as the population of Hypno Life grows. Please clean up before you leave."

Marla hands us red cards and I put slide it into my watch. I was tempted to teleport right away but I did have a box that I needed to take back into my inventory. I concentrated on it and pressed the grey button again and the box disappeared. I then concentrated on the landmark Marla gave me and pushed the red button. Suddenly everything around me dissolved, even my body and clothes. I felt weightless and couldn't feel anything. It was like when I had finished creating my avatar. This only lasted a few seconds though. I had barely noticed this when everything reformed around me. When everything was done reforming I noticed that I was in a different place.

A lady said "Welcome to Family First Adoption! You two must be Elisabeth Michelle and Tammy Fae. I need you to fill out a couple of forms so we can find you a good family."

I took the form the lady gave me and found that it already had my name, age, species, and nationality on it. It had your average questions on it like if you have any brothers and/or sisters, what you wanted in parents, and a little bit about yourself. Then it had questions like if you would mind family members that were a different species than you and if you would mind if they lived the goth/vampire lifestyle. There were many more questions than these, seeming to try to insure a compatible family. I filled out the form and handed it back to the lady.

When Tammy had also finished the lady said "I'll put these on file. We don't have any parents wanting to adopt yet but that should change. You'll just have to stay here for now. When we do find a match you will go on a trial period of a month before you are officially adopted. Now, this is our main area. Any avatar can come here. We have a play area but you need a security card to get into that area. You also need a security card to get into the sleeping area. The sleeping area can only be reached by teleporting. Here are the landmarks and security cards for the areas."

The lady handed us the cards. As I looked at them I noticed that two of them were grey with a red stripe on the end. I figured that these were the security cards. I slid each one into my watch as the lady said "Go on and teleport to the sleeping area and pick out your beds. The toilets and baths are through the door that you will see. The landmark will drop you off by that door."

I concentrated on the sleeping area landmark and pressed the button. I was once again teleported and when everything reformed I was standing by the door that the lady had told us about. The sleeping area was done in pink and white, very typically girl. The walls had light pink wallpaper with swirl patterns on them. The carpet was a very light pink while the beds had white frames and pink covers. I looked in the bathroom and saw that the floor in there was white and pink tile. The toilets were enclosed in pink stalls. As I looked some more I saw that the sinks were white set into pink marble countertops. I couldn’t see the baths from where I was standing so I went inside and Tammy followed me. The baths were open to each other, some were just showers while others were regular bathtubs. There was one big one off to one side that looked like it was a communal tub where more than one person would bathe.

We went back out into the sleeping area and Tammy said “We should pick our beds. I would like it if we had beds next to each other.”

“Me too” I said.

As we got closer to the beds we saw that they had blank name plates on them. That made sense since all the beds were the same though I wondered who we would tell which beds we picked so they could put our names on them. I didn’t have to wonder long as Tammy stood right in front of one and said “I’ll take this one.” She let out a small gasp and said “Elisabeth, you’re not going to believe this my name just appeared on the name plate.”

“For some reason it doesn’t surprise me” I said. “You’re forgetting that this isn’t like the real world. It may seem like it but it’s not. Look at me, I’m a shape shifter in this world.”

“You’re right” Tammy said. “So which bed are you going to pick?”

“I’ll take this one” I said standing in front of the one on the right of Tammy’s bed. As soon as I said that my name appeared on the name plate.

“What should we do now” Tammy asked.

“Let’s go to the play area and see what that’s like” I said.

“Ok” Tammy said.

We both teleported to the play area. When we rematerialized we saw that is was out in the open with a wooden fence around the entire area. There were swings, monkey bars, slides, merry go rounds, spring animals for the little ones to ride on, and just about everything else you could think of. They even had swimming pools that were fenced in from the rest of the play area so little kids wouldn’t wander into them and drawn. One of the pools wasn’t chlorinated to allow for aquatic species to enjoy swimming. This excited me as I would be able to use my mermaid form. I could see Tammy’s long face as she looked at the pools. It was evident that she wanted to go swimming but neither of us had a swimsuit. I didn’t need one with my mermaid form but Tammy wasn’t so lucky. As it turned out we hadn’t needed to worry about it. They had simple swimsuits with the adoption center’s logo on them free of charge. We each got one and spent the rest of the day swimming and getting to know each other.

Now we just wait to be adopted. I hoped that it wouldn’t take long as we would both need to log out sooner or later.