You were standing on a cloud... well, you THINK it's a cloud. You're not an idiot, you know that clouds can't be stood upon at all in real life. But this ground, whatever you want to call it, is extremely white, soft to a touch, a little squishy but completely flat, and has a dry but pleasant fog as if from a machine rolling over it... except that there's no machine anywhere, the fog just is, coming from the ground itself and disappearing just as quickly. You don't concern yourself with it, because there is a LOT more to look at.
It's an extremely clear day, with a brilliant sun shining overhead providing just the right amount of heat. The cloud you're standing on is only about fifteen feet around, but it's connected to other clouds via a collection of identical cobblestone bridges. Some of the connected clouds are smaller, but some of them appear to be MUCH larger, holding separate houses, even buildings, all at once. In the distance, you can see bridges connecting other clouds as well, including people crossing them. Your cloud just contains a tree, a park bench, and lamp post. Not seeing much at your current location, you decide to take a look around for something more interesting.
After crossing a bridge onto a different cloud with a small neighborhood on it, you begin to notice something odd about the people living in it. You can adjust to the sandal/white tunic getup that seems to be universal for everyone, even yourself, but you are beginning to see... similarities in the people you pass. No one is exactly alike, but they come really close to it. Those two girls look the same, except for their height and face... those two guys could pass as each other, except for their hair color... and that guy...
He looks just like you, except taller.
You're about to address him when a hand grabs your shoulder from behind and a voice calls out "Like what I've done here?"
"Julia!" You cry out- it's good to see someone you know in this town which was beginning to get a little eerie. "So you finally found me!"
"Wellll, I wouldn't say 'Finally'.... but yeah," she smiles.
"This place is amazing, I really feel like I'm here!... wherever here is."
"This is known as the Cloud 7 simulation," she explains. "Because this is the seventh edition of this simulation that we've made. It DOES look pretty good, but it's still lacking in a few areas."
"Like how?" You question, although you think you know one of them already.
"You notice how some traits are shared a lot in this system? That's not just coincidence. Making completely unique individuals by the thousands would be a headache even for this machine, so we sorta cheated a little bit."
"So it's mix and matching the traits it's got to try and make these people?" You guess.
She nods. "And then it's recycling the traits to do them again. It's got control over some basics, like height and weight, but its catalog for facial and body details is pretty small at the moment, so some copies become very-" she pauses as the pair of very similar girls pass you- "...close."
"So, that guy I saw who looked like me..."
"The machine scans every new face that comes in and registers it for copying," She replies. "Your face was bound to be in here somewhere. Don't bother making conversation, because we haven't even got the speech and conversation routines in, so no one says anything yet."
You hadn't thought about that, but now that you do that actually sounds kind of cool. You keep making small-talk as you pass out of the neighborhood and into another cloud with small city commercial buildings on it.
"This is just too crazy for words," You tell Julia. "I'm just glad you didn't use this program to toy with me."
Julia smiles...  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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