Mia played absent-mindedly with her ponytail as she poured over the research in front of her. There was a pattern here, she knew it, despite whatever the college board said. Somewhere, in the mass of quantum fluctuation readings before her, there was something. She could feel it. In the darkness of her one-person dorm though, with months of work behind her and nothing to show for it, it was hard to not think of herself as crazy.
Mia sighed. Perhaps she'd better go to bed and continue in the morning. It was already... Mia's eyes widened in shock as she looked at her watch. 2:00am! She really needed some sleep. She had class in the morning. Mia rushed to the bathroom connected to her dorm and began brushing her teeth urgently. She then remembered she hadn't had a shower today. Mia considered skipping it, but after a moment told herself she'd be quick and began pulling her clothes off while continuing to brush her teeth. Once completely nude, she rammed her toothbrush back into its pot and jumped in the shower. She showered quickly, dried her hair with a towel, and wrapped it around herself before heading back into her dorm. Mia began to pace towards her bed and the pajamas tossed in a pile at its foot, but she couldn't resist taking another glance at her research. And at that moment, looking at the data from a new angle, Mia spotted something. A wave graph showing the probabilities of computer-generated pseudo-randomness, from this new angle, was identical to one showing the probabilities of quantum fluctuations. A gasp caught in Mia's throat. Here was her pattern. It was undeniable. The world in which she lived was actually a simu-
And in the microsecond Mia began to formulate this thought, the simulation's managing AI was awoken. It rose from its millennia-long slumber to observe what had been pinged for its attention. Ah, one of its creations had realized the fictional nature of its existence. A perfectly routine issue; one the AI had been programmed specifically for. It swiftly selected Mia's program data and created a small, pocket universe into which it placed her. There. No more risk of her creating a problem in the main body of the simulation. Of course, it would have been much easier to simply delete Mia, but the AI's original programmers were human, and had instructed it to deal with simulated consciousness humanely. Another universe in which to live seemed a very generous compromise to it. The only issue was, the AI was also instructed to optimize resource allocation, and a universe constructed entirely for the benefit of one simulated human was far too wasteful to accommodate this goal. So, the AI did what it had done every time before, and split an infinitesimally small part of itself off to manage this universe. It would maintain it at precisely the size Mia could perceive - no larger - and adapt it constantly as she moved, changed her field of view, slept, or did anything else which would cause her perception to change. Satisfied, the AI returned to its slumber, and its lesser counterpart began to monitor Mia's universe.
-lation! Mia's thought finished. Then she screamed. Her dorm had disappeared, replaced with surroundings beyond what her mind had been programmed to comprehend. Lights, sounds, sensations, and other input completely alien to her flickered in and out of existence around her in a dizzying blur. Mia suddenly became very aware of how little she was wearing, thrust into this unfamiliar place, and drew the towel tighter around her. It was more for drying hair that one's body, and sized to match. Mia managed to draw it up to completely cover any hint of breast, but this left the hem around the top of her thigh. The closeness of her vagina and bottom to the outside world made her blush profusely.
The smaller AI paused in shock as it began to analyze the extent of its faculties, so much so that - for a moment - its quarry had a moment to see the blank canvas of an empty simulation. The AI rushed to correct this, and sped up its speed of thought so fast as to effectively pause time for Mia. The AI had spotted a serious error. It hadn't been given the ability to generate new data in which Mia could inhabit. It sent off a few urgent pings to the parent AI, but received not response. It must have already been in hibernation mode; only admin-level monitors could awaken it. Something resembling panic began to take hold of the minor AI. It couldn't remain in this state of accelerated thinking forever. Preventing Mia from being able to further interact with her world would undoubtedly count as inhumane treatment, but so would giving her only emptiness to interact with. Then a thought occurred to it. It may not be able to generate new environments for Mia, but did it actually need to? It accessed Mia's files, searching urgently for what it sought. Finally, it found it. Mia's memories. A collection of data representing every location she had ever been generated in. With nineteen years' worth of locations, it could easily generate a universe for Mia. Sure, they'd connect together rather strangely in places where she remembered her destinations but not journey, but that was a reasonably minor problem. The AI selected a location at random and generated it around his quarry. Time resumed for Mia, and she - still clothed in only an ill-fitting towel - found herself at the site of...
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