Free WetWeb by Robert Haney Page B

were greeted by the RSI hypno-therapist.  The purpose of this evaluation was to determine how well they would respond to hypnotic suggestion.  This ability was a critical factor as the remote player would want to take as much control of the host’s body as possible.  Therefore, the applicant needed to be able to enter into a meditative state and remain open to suggestion.  If the applicant scored well with the hypno-therapist, they were usually guaranteed work at RSI gaming.
    From the audition rooms, Henry led me to the sets and costumes.  Here the successful applicants were assigned a character role and a Wild West name and identity.  They were outfitted with the appropriate clothes and weapons.  The Chinese cowboys wandering about in these rooms did not look convincing.  They all looked quite uncomfortable in their new clothes.
    Henry noticed my doubts and reassured me saying,
    “Do not worry, next is the training.”
    I followed as he led me past the employee dorm to the training wing of the factory.  Here the applicants spent all day in “Cowboy College.”  During the day, they were taught to ride and shoot.  They were taught to fight like stunt-men.  At night they watched western movies from old black and white starring Tom Mix and Gene Audrey to classics with big stars like John Wayne. 
    Using dialogue from these movies, they practiced the lingo of the old west.  Henry introduced me to some of the graduates of Cowboy College who were now helping train new students while waiting for WWA to open.  Meeting the graduates my doubts were erased.  They seemed like looked and talked like authentic Wild West gunmen.
    The RSI training regimen never allowed the employees go back to the village zone once they entered Cowboy College.  Our strategy was total immersion into Wild West culture.  We were worried that if they went back to the village zone that they would revert to their old mannerisms and accents.  At the time, I remember thinking this was a good idea.
    Returning to Wild West Alive now, knowing that real violence had erupted, I began to re-think a lot of things that I originally thought were good ideas. 
    “What happened to the wounded cowboy?” Franklin asked.  He had enough technical background about the game and the setup.  He was interested to hear how the retro pulp feature would end.
    “The outlaw that had his arm broken by the Stage Coach?” Anand, clarified, “He woke up in the medical wing at the factory.”
    Franklin turned his notebook to a clean page and prepared to write the pulp feature. As Anand spoke, Franklin could see the retro pulp feature playing out in his mind.
    Yang knew he was no longer in Squabash, before he opened his eyes.  The familiar smell of the plastic factory, now converted to an RSI facility was all around him.  The soft murmuring conversation was in Chinese instead of western cowboy slang.  As he opened his eyes, blurry images slowly began to sharpen.  His Mother was there.  He recognized her voice before his vision cleared.  His cousin, Gus, was also in the room and when he could see clearly, the saw there was also a man in a white coat who was either a Doctor or a Nurse.  He was back in the plastic factory. He was in the medical wing of the RSI facility.
    “He’s waking up,” Gus said switching back to Wild West English out of habit.
    Yang’s mother was at his side.  She held his left hand tightly against her cheek.  Yang could feel wetness from her tears on the back of his hand. 
    Yang tried to comfort her saying, “I’m OK” but found his tongue too thick and dry to talk.  The man in the white coat helped him drink cool water from a cup and he began to feel better.
    He looked at his right arm.  It was tightly bandaged and there was a splint.  All he could see were the tips of his fingers.  His arm was supported by a sling with an I.V. dripping clear fluid into where his elbow would be.  Looking at the purple-red finger tips