Noah: The Bitter Orphan

The mall was a shrine to all the things he’d never had.

Banners of grinning couples. Posters with wide-eyed kids holding fancy ass toys. Families gliding hand-in-hand past storefronts like they enjoyed every second here, like they’d earned their joy.

Noah hated all of them.

He walked with his hood up, earbuds in, volume extremely low. Not because he wanted to listen to music, he just didn’t want anyone to talk to him. He’d been walking the same loop for twenty minutes, not buying anything, not looking for anyone. Just watching. Stewing.

A little boy ran past him, laughing, chased by a woman who could only be his mother, a nice shapely woman, all curves accentuated in a tasteful sundress. Noah clenched his jaw.

“You’re so fast, baby!” she giggled. “Mommy can’t keep up!”

It wasn’t fair.

Not just because he’d never had a mom like that, not even close but because they didn’t even know what they had.

They paraded it around like it wasn’t fragile. Like it couldn’t all be taken away. It was their nonchalance that got to him. Only an orphan like him knew what it was like to not have anyone he could call his family.

He ducked into the side corridor near the food court and leaned against the wall, chewing at his thumbnail. He hated everything about his existence.

That’s when his phone buzzed suddenly.

No app was open. No browser running. Just a single, glowing notification at the top of his screen:

NeuYou V0.5 – installed

Jester’s Imaginarium Inc. | Experimental build – software division testing purposes only

He frowned. The hell was this?

Noah tapped the notification. The screen flickered.

Then, text scrolled slowly across the center, on a black background with pale violet trim:

“Welcome to NeuYou.

Your reality has now been set to developer mode.

You may select any individual visible to your camera.

Input their new reality through your prompt.

Reality will rewrite itself to match your input.

Targets will gain new personalities, appearances and relationships based on your input.

All other subjects will act with complete disregard for any changes made.

No undo. No limits. No consequences.

Have fun.”

– Mr J.

There were no login screens, no settings menu. Just a camera view with a capture button and a text box underneath.

Noah raised his eyebrow with doubt.

Was this… real?

He looked up. Around. The mall buzzed like always. Nothing special. Nothing different.

But then his eyes caught them.

A boy, eighteen, maybe older, shuffling beside a woman who looked way too good to be anyone’s mom. Probably mid-40s, but hardly showing it. Tall, chestnut waves in a loose bun, blouse unbuttoned just enough to be a problem, tight black skirt swaying around thighs that clearly weren’t used to being ignored.

She was scolding him. Pretty loudly at that.

“God, Jim, you’re such a mess. Honestly, I should’ve left your lazy ass at home.”

The boy, Jim just grunted, shoulders hunched, like he’d heard it all before.

Noah’s eyes locked on the woman.

She was beautiful. She was angry. She was maternal in the worst, most hypocritical way.

Perfect. Well if he had to try this joke of an app out and be satisfied with it working, this was the perfect test subject.

He raised the phone. The screen sharpened, locking onto her with a soft violet outline as he clicked the capture button.

A small text box appeared underneath the image:

Define a new reality for the target:

Noah smirked. Clearly whoever made this joke app spared no time and effort in making sure the setup was elaborate enough to be believable.

His thumbs hovered over the keyboard.

And he started to type as he looked at the picture.

Her face froze mid-sneer, eyes narrowed at her son, mouth open in some tired insult. On-screen, the soft violet outline pulsed.

Noah stared at the screen, then backed up. The mother and son were moving again, stepping onto the escalator that led down toward the mall’s lower level.

He followed at a distance. Not creeping, not rushing, just observing. Watching her hips sway with that careless, annoyed confidence that only came from feeling above everything around you.

He still didn’t believe it. Could reality really be altered so easily?

He needed something bold. Something undeniable. Something impossible.

That’s when he saw the lingerie store.

Satin-lined displays. Plastic torsos wearing things no mother should ever wear. The boutique was classy in its design, clearly a very high-end business.

And she was walking right next to it when the idea struck Noah.

A slow grin pulled at Noah’s face. His fingers hovered over the phone again, ready now.

And then he typed: