As Joseph slept, his 'friends' went to work. He left his cyber-loop on, recording as he slept. He truly wanted to know what he dreamed of this summer, but this was also a risk, because unknown to him, his then-friends might be able to take a look, if they really tried hard enough.
Mark decided to loop him through a nightmare just for scare. He didn't like the fact that Joseph's businesses went so great. Yeah, he was still poor, but he was about to move on from where they lived. Joseph didn't know what was up as he slept, and didn't care anyway. He always cared for what truly meant something for him. Particularly his muse and all his projects, even while being poor.
Meanwhile, Mark figured he could use a past unused wireless key Joseph shared with him to access his cyber-loop for a while, but this was a one-off business, because he would obviously revoke all keys afterwards. This key wasn't meant to be used this way, but it worked because he also knew Joseph's wireless password. His girl's full name and his library number.
As Mark's loop began, Joseph felt as if he woke up, slowly, dizzy and in a haze. He felt as he laid on his couch, head back and listening. He heard the birds singing and knew it was still day time and as he started to awake, noticed he could not close his couch leg stand. He tried, but to no avail, even hard enough to close it.
Then he felt as he woke up again. It was strange, it behaved as a 'nightware loop' but he didn't care. This time he awoke on his bed, still trying to close the leg stand as hard as he could. He heard an evil taunt that said:
"Maybe you should care..."
and instantly knew something was off. He could care less. This was more expensive to those who ran the loop than to him. They would not be able to sustain it past a third time.
And just like that, he woke up again, he moved up and started 'fixing' an old xBox he had laying around. Just as he started a sudden charge hit his hand, and the xBox turned itself on. It behaved like a radio, and Alan Watts could be heard talking nonsense, which he never did unless he was joking. He placed everything down, and went back to sleep.
He woke up a few hours later, alone, turned off his loop and drank water. Now he knew everything was good. He could, if he wanted, live through that 'nightware' again, edit it and even sell it, or he could just choose to use it as fuel for a written story. He erased its chip and looked forward into seeing his girl and writing about this instead. He did care for her and didn't care about anyone else's business other than his own.
