THE MOMENT
“No, no,” The young man shook his head with a grin. “New world, new me. Call me D. J.,” he said. He was standing in a forest clearing next to a teen girl with blue hair. She wore a crisp white suit and looked notably more professional than him. Younger too. Still, he couldn't deny she'd delivered everything he asked for so far.
“Okay, I'll make a note of that to avoid any complications in the future,” she flicked her wrist up at waist height and a dark grey pane of glass appeared. “Deee Jaaaayy….nooot Carl,” she sounded out her thoughts for his benefit as she tapped and swiped at the surface. “Got it. So, this server uses music to manifest magical effects, as requested. Elves and all the usual fantasy races exist, and it's currently the middle ages. Are you good here, or would you like to see some other options?” she asked.
“And I can access my Spotify from my node, right?” DJ asked as he showed her the transparent card she gave him when they first met fifteen minutes ago. He spent most of that time answering questions and explaining what he wanted. This was the first Earth they'd been to, but he was ready to start his adventure then and there. As long as he had access to his secret library of overpowered songs.
“Yes,” Liberty giggled. “You can access a lot more than that, but you'll find your Playlist there too,” she nodded. “I'd really like to encourage you to do the tutorial on the node, and set an appointment to meet with Mundo. You're missing a big part of how the universe works without those steps.”
“I'm sure I'll make time,” DJ chuckled as he browsed the node. “For now, I've really gotta try this out. Stand back!” He said as he raised the noise and hovered his finger over the ‘Play’ button.
“Why?” Liberty asked.
“BECAUSE THIS!” he eagerly jammed his finger against the glass. The messy music started suddenly at full blast. But, nothing else happened.
There were no explosions. No earthquakes, or flaming storm clouds. Just racous music filling the forest. It was disappointing enough that he pressed the button again to stop it.
“I asked for a world where magic comes from music…,” he turned to Liberty for an explanation.
“That's here,” she nodded. “An entire orchestra can cast a spell worthy of destroying a Fortress.”
“Then why didn't my Dubstep do anything?” DJ asked. Liberty shrugged.
“What did you want it to do?”
“I don't know, SOMETHING,” he said. He caught himself and realized he didn't want to be yelling at the teenager. “But it didn't do anything,” he added with a softer tone.
“That's the problem,” Liberty said. “Music is magic, but it's nothing on its own. It still requires a focused human with clear intent on one side. Music is just the wand. They say music comes from the soul, that's the magic. Even if you had intent, you can't force that through something pre-recorded. If ‘sound’ was all that was needed, every cricket chirp and falling tree would be magical. It takes years for people to get the hang of channeling their intent and emotion through music. You can’t replicate that with the push of a button,” she smiled, but DJ was too disappointed. His shoulders slumped and he sighed.
“Well, this isn’t the world I want then,” he shook his head. “You said I could go to any world I imagine.. I’m imagining a world where I can cast all kinds of destructive magic with my dubstep playlist,” he said.
“No problem, Sharp Development can arrange that for you as I promised. I feel like I should point out that isn’t what you asked for initially. I can’t have you thinking Sharp Development got it wrong,” she added. “It’ll take a little bit longer to research. In the meantime…,” she dropped a black card on the forest floor and it opened a portal like the one that brought them there. “...it’s a good opportunity to get oriented. It looks like you’ve got a lot of mixed-up ideas of how the universe works and Mundo can explain everything to you while I find you a world better suited to your liking.”