The Never Ending Tails

The Interface is quite an interesting device. It may never have the overwhelming audience that it deserved in some universes, but it is truly one of the most advanced technologies humans ever made. The interface started as a cybernetic tool to upgrade the brain functions. However, the first generation ended up causing more harm than good.

The interface project stayed in suspension for quite a while after those events and when it was finally back in production, the needs weren’t similar. To adapt to the new market, the interface became a virtual world generator immersing the subject in an environment complex enough to make it feel real. The program that was running the virtual matrix was called the Interface W.I.

The interface W.I. has been used only once and for only one subject. However, the software was powerful enough to create a whole world where only he was real. Of course it was a beta test as many other people were intended to share the same environment, but they never joined and in the meantime, the virtual world was filled by NPCs. They were advanced enough to complete the illusion as their basic programming was making them believe that they were as real as the subject. It was the perfect loop to keep the credibility running for as long as needed.

It was a cold Saturday morning in Diamond City. The weather started up grey and the cold winter wind wasn’t helping. There were no classes scheduled at the Diamond University on Saturdays, so it was quite understandable that the campus would not be crowded at all, probably even desert. There was pretty much no one around. The only presence was a lonely girl wondering by herself in front of the main restaurant, where the green was most noticeable.

There was no logical explanation to her presence there. A tall redhead girl with a shining face and short silky hair that moved with the wind. She didn’t even react when the air touched her face, freezing her little nose and drying her firry eyes. In that moment, she seemed like out of the world she was in. completely detached of the elements and the roughness of the cold. She wasn’t shacking in her tall black jacket, just keeping her hands in her pockets. Her scarf was following the wind as much as her hair. She was a complete mystery. On the other side of the restaurant glass someone was present, and also alone on his side.

He; however was there to take food so he can afford to not leave his room anymore, but he happened to glance the girl outside, he wondered about her presence. His observation abruptly stopped when he had to take his order and end up leaving as fast as he could to see if the girl was still outside. When he finally opened the restaurant's main door, the place was completely vacant. Ethan, as his name was, assumed that the girl with firry hair just left.

Ethan met with her again sooner than he expected. The previous events happened in the beginning of the semester. He discovered later, to his big surprise, that the girl in question was his classmate. Even though he was happy about seeing her again, he wasn’t really able to get in direct contact with her. He felt that she was surrounded by a strong protection wall. He didn’t hear her voice for the first couple of times they were in class. In view of the lack of information encountered, he took some time to continue his observation. All what he gained was frustration. The red hair girl wasn’t showing any sign of opening up.

Now that they were classmates, he started to notice her around more and she always looked the same. She was completely disconnected with the reality around her, like if her firry eyes could perceive things differently. Ethan never knew what that was all about.

The girl went by Aurora and was another program of the Interface W.I. virtual matrix, one of the many sub artificial intelligence programs that were made to inhabit the virtual world. Aurora was different from all the other AIs as she developed a very peculiar glitch. Aurora was able to perceive the coding of the Interface and has learned through the different evolutions of her program setting the truth behind the reality she lived in. She discovered through the glitch the reason of her existence.

Her personality was utterly touched by the truth and she developed a strong hate for this human user who was beholding all of their destinies by his path. She was acting differently because she was seeing through the illusion. During that first cold day in the Diamond City campus, she was aware that she was looked at. She was shocked to discover that it was by the human host. She didn’t act at all. She didn’t acknowledge him.

The situation remained that way for a while, but as she was following the source scenario, she got to spend more time around the human host. Her perception of things changed, eventually. As long as she was around him, she felt that he was unaware of the truth and she saw how similar he was to all the other programs, developing the same patterns and going the same way, not doing anything with the huge potential of the Interface. She felt that he would eventually know, and end the program. Not going as far as changing her basic detachment to things, she silently transferred a code to the human host; a code that will save him beyond his return to flesh.

As Aurora was able to see the basic structure of the Interface, she saw a piece of coded information that she didn’t find any difficulty to decipher. The information was a crucial high level code to go beyond the already set end of humanity. Even while knowing that at a certain point, the host will shut the program. This transfer of information was a major last hope for humanity and the interface consequently as she perfectly understood the long term consequences of the application of the code.

Ethan never knew about the transfer on this actual life time, but the information was stored deep enough in him to remain intact eons later. Aurora, who was a self-aware artificial intelligent program end up saving the whole of humanity through a silent contact with the human for whom the whole illusion she was living in has been built for. A quite simple happening at first view, but utterly important for all what remained of humanity.

Into the Void

Memories of a life that never happened

Fragments of pictures and landscapes

Landscape that long ago fell

Decadence of time like sand covering land

The moment was lost at the beginning

Before the motion ran and the Symphony started

The story continued over the eons and schemes

Foolishness of humans made it a tragedy

It is in this layout that our tale began

In a world that was no more than the shadow of a shadow

Trapped in a sub-reality, a man was living a lie

And the man in the center was in faith

That the world he was seeing was real

But everything was no more than drones,

Virtual life forms crafted for the only task

To make the lie seem as real as it could

In the program the man wasn’t glad

He always carried sadness in his heart

He never really knew why nor where it came from

In the tragedy of his life, he almost never felt alive

At the exception of one time, the only time

When his heart pounded in the depth of his chest

At the view of the girl with firry hair

By a cold morning in the emptiness of his world