Nightcaps - Making Whiskers
From Create Your Own Story
Drawing our Class's mascot would be a great idea, it's something we share in common, and Whiskers always manages to brighten my day, and Jeffrey's. But, I couldn't draw a cat if my life depended on it. Well, I could probably at least draw something that, if I were to ask Jeffrey to guess what it was, he would respond "it's a cat," and of course if I asked him "which cat," that wouldn't exactly be hard to guess either, but I wouldn't be able to pull off anything much better than that.
Unless... I'm laughing now, at the acronym of a name that stands for what could help me make a picture. The Comprehensive Automatic Rendering Lab would not only make a drawing of Whiskers be a breeze, but even a three-dimensional model wouldn't be too hard. Closing the door behind me, I dash into my Relax-O-Man (spinning around once before I can grab a hold of my desk), reach up, behind the back of the chair, and pull down my nightcap.
I take note of the announcements flashing in my peripheral vision, but I'm much more interested in a program resting a few feet away. "Begin program, Carl," I declare with determination, the announcements and other resting programs all quickly swish out of sight, leaving just the one to dominate my range of vision.
"Do we have any images of Whiskers on file?" Carl hesitates. I get just a little annoyed; they should really make this program more context-sensitive. "My cat. Our cat. Our Class's mascot."
"Negative," a very sorry-looking announcement popped up at me. I had hoped someone had taken a picture of him, but I guess we see him often enough in awake hours, since he's allowed into the classrooms. I consider going back down to take a picture myself, but that would take longer.
"Access the hall cameras, find him, and record as many different angles of him as possible," I calmly instruct. I remember that it's programmed to be more effective when it detects proper manners. "Please?"
A tsunami rushes at me from the null horizon, noticeably slower than when most other information gets pulled up. Probably because, by the looks of it, there were dozens of gigabytes being summoned all at once. And as it starts its final approach, I can tell my estimation is a gross understatement, as this virtual wall of data mostly contains video clips, not just stills. "Wow, that's a lot of..." I consider being rude so Carl wouldn't act so... enthusiastic, but it would probably do the same thing anyway, but take longer. "Thanks." No need to waste time on pleasantries, either.
I couldn't possibly make use of all this information on Whiskers in a reasonable timeframe, however, and probably not even in an unreasonable one. I also don't want to simply copy one (or more) of these clips; I want it to be meaningful.
What do I do?
