After having eaten a meal of lightly burnt eggs and cleaning up the puddle of water on the living room floor I sat down on the couch. While I ate and cleaned I left my ptop plugged in to charge. Turning it on, I tapped the screen as it was booting up and found that it was normal. The gss didn't stretch. It didn’t deform nor did my hand sink inside. I continued touching the screen again and again as it loaded up.
It was only after in-depth testing did I learn that for it to work the image on the screen required depth. Or at least that was my best guess. My current hypothesis being that the image required both a foreground and a background.
Truly, how any of this worked was anyone's guess.
My first test was to draw something with Paint, the built-in graphics editing software. Touching the screen, I got nothing. However, if I used a 3D modeling app I could remove the objects that I made.
From my tests, I ended up with a couple items on the coffee table. A cube and sphere of unknown material, and an apple. The cube and sphere came out of the 3D modeling software. The apple came from a photo I found online. It even tasted like a normal apple.
On my ptop screen, there was a painting of a basket of fruit for my test test. The basket of fruit was the centerpiece of the painting. Reaching my hand into the ptop’s screen, I felt the same membrane sensation as I had in the previous tests.
Sticking my arm deeper into the painting reaching around until I felt the wicker basket. Pulling it out I was surprised to find that it looked normal, like a real basket, not a painting. The fruit inside also looked perfectly fine as well.
Going over everything I’d taken out so far:
Cloud:
Removed from TV during the weather forecast. Looked like a clipart graphic of a cloud. After about a minute it dissipated. As far as I know, there were no side effects. Other than the puddle of water I had to clean up.
Cube and Sphere:
Removed from modeling software. Cy-colored unknown material. Snaps back into shape when squished or stretched. Once removed from the screen they disappeared in the app. Loading a saved file restores the model in the app. No changes occur to the removed item when changing the shape after loading the save.
Apple:
Removed from a photo of an apple orchard. A normal apple. Once removed from the screen disappeared from the photo. Once the webpage was refreshed the image was restored to the original. Tastes like an apple.
Fruit basket:
Removed from painting with a baroque art style. Everything in the basket and including said basket appears ‘normal’. At current the painting now cks said Fruit basket.
I sat back in thought. I wondered if there were any limits to this. Questions percoted my mind:
What would happen if I pulled out something from a game?
If I pulled an item out from a game would it keep its effects? Would the effects persist outside of the game?
Could I pull out living things? Does fruit count as a living thing?
What would happen with other mediums? Like a video or a movie?
For a moment I was once again lost in thought.
When I came back, my next test was to see if I could not only pull things out of the screen but if I could put an item in.
Holding the half-eaten apple in hand I pressed the uneaten side up against the screen and was met with the screen. Trying again this time with my finger going into the screen first. To my utter amazement, my finger and then the apple in my hand entered the painting. Pcing the apple inside before retracting my hand, I could only stare at the apple now in the baroque art style of the painting.
Looking around I found a spare pen lying in the couch cushion. Something I had lying around for the occasional note. Trying the test again the pen touches the screen first and It's a normal screen, my hand touches it first and enters the painting. The first thing I did with the pen was to scribble on the tablecloth. I started messing around adding some of the fruits back in.
Soon, the painting that was originally just a simple fruit basket on a table had become a mess. There were scribbles on the white tablecloth and stains from fruit juices. An apple that had been stabbed through with a pen. A few fruits were even sticking to the back wall.
Not only was I able to change the image by adding Items I could even rearrange the items while my hand was inside the picture, even if it was hard to see what I was doing. Added items even seem to take on properties of the image, IE: art style. I noted looking at the apple that was taken out of a photo that now blended with the picture looking like it was painted. Taking the skewered apple out of the painting, I pulled the pen out and took another bite out of the apple. It still tastes like any ordinary apple, “a bit sweet though”.
I sat for a moment looking up at the beige ceiling. It was only morning, and I was already tired. What is this? Superpowers? Magic? Ability? It's fuckin bullshit!. Money? Unnecessary. Food? I can pull it out of the ether. All I need is a photo… What were the limits to this?
Now, should I test if magic items come out magical or if I can pull a person out... "Hmmm," I thought for a moment. If that works I could do anything to anyone who has ever taken a picture before... that sounds fucking terrifying. "Well, I could see if it works on porn... who should my test subject be?" I should check my collection...
End
I would like to point out, for James touch screens have become quite literal.