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Chapter Øne | FSD
She starts to feel her body itch and her hands start to flicker, she realizes that something is wrong. At first, she thinks that her eyesight may be damaged or that her brain is malfunctioning, but after further inspection, she sees that her hands are filled with wires. “Am I artificial?” she whispers to herself.
Her thoughts begin to race as she tries to come to terms with the reality that she may be a robot. She thinks about all of the implications of this and wonders who created her and why. She also thinks about all of the things she will have to leave behind if she is not human. Deciding that she needs to find answers, she wraps her hand in a bandage and begins to pack a small shoulder bag with supplies for a few days.
As she shuts and locks the door to her apartment, she has a strong desire to call her mom and demand answers. However, she buries her fear and leaves to find the only place she thinks might have answers. Getting in her car, she turns off the radio and drives to the only place she thinks might know what is going on with her body. As she drives, she thinks about a time when she felt like love might be a computer virus and wonders if that was a sign that she is not human.
Chapter Twø | Entrøpy
As she arrives at Avid Computing, she finds that the building is abandoned. However, as she is about to leave, she hears a noise and sees a light on in the basement. She goes to investigate and finds John, just the man she was looking for. Græble tells John about the incident with her hands, “I think I am not human,” Græble said, ” I need your help.”
Joki looked at her with a mix of pity and understanding.
“I can help you,” he said. “But it won’t be easy.”
“What do i have to do?” Græble said.
“We need to run some tests to see the extent of these wires” John replied.
Græble agreed to do whatever was necessary to find out what was happening to her.
John gestured to a chair for Græble to sit in for the procedure, and began to attach some cables to the wires inside of her left hand. This enabled John to run a series of tests.
As the test began Græble felt a little lightheaded and her eyes began closing, almost as if she was suddenly tired enough to immediately fall asleep…
“Am I artificial?”
– she whispers
“I can help you, But it won’t be easy.”
– John
Chapter Thrëë | Atrøphy
During the process of falling asleep, Græble felt her mind disconnect from her body, as if she was floating in a smoke filled abyss. Her body began to disappear from her sense of feeling.
It was as if her body had atrophied from a decade long coma, but it didn’t frighten her. Instead she found a sense of peace in letting it go, followed by an intense curiosity about this picture of memories that seemed to be coming into view behind her eyelids…
Now that Græble had fallen unconscious, John was able to run a much needed diagnostic.
He could see the data flow, billions of signals moving in an and out of the Græble’s body, even through the wires in her hands.
He ran a few more head and body scans as well and could see that the wires were not only connecting to her nervous system, they were actually becoming a part of it.
“This explains why she is beginning to feel the signals more now then ever before” – John thought.
He hadn’t been able to check her status since creation, so it was great to see that everything appears to be working as intended; however she must never know about these details.
Chapter ∆ | EUPHØRIA
In her sleeping state, GRÆBLE began to see an image of what she thought was a memory coming into view. But as the image grew closer, she found herself standing in a hotel lobby that must have been 10 stories high at least. To her left there was a round reception desk and to her right was a large fountain, slowly running as if time had been slowed down. That’s when she noticed that everything seemed to be slow moving. The small amount of people were walking slowly scattered throughout the lobby, and she couldn’t really see them, just a static dark blur of what a person might look like when just out of view.
Straight ahead she could see an elevator. Just as she became aware of it, the elevator bell dinged and the door opened, revealing a soft warm light inside. As she walked towards it, she realized the elevator was not in slow motion. Looking up she could see all the floors balconies and the light that shone on them from the 10 story front window.
So she decided to see what was up there.
Walking into the elevator seemed to take hours. Once she was inside, the doors closed and the elevator began to ascend slowly.
There was no music, there was no sound at all. Looking around for a floor indicator, GRÆBLE noticed that there were no buttons, and no floor signs in here.
“How do I know what floor I’m going to?” She thought.
Just then the door opened and she saw a dim lit hallway with a single hotel room door straight ahead. Peeking out, she could see that the far wall was just hotel room doors for as far as the eye could see in both directions.”What floor is this?” She wondered. She slowly stepped out into the hallway, feeling as if she was in a dream. Every step felt like it was taking an eternity. She turned to her right and saw that the hallway just continued on, with more hotel room doors. She turned back to the door in front of her and slowly opened it, peeking inside.
Chapter Fijve | Epiphæny
Entering the room she felt the air change, the dead silence of the hallway turned into the sound of a soft breeze. Looking around the room she could see a window straight ahead on the far wall with a soft blue light coming through the curtains.
To the left there was a full size bed in the darkest part of the room and to the right there was a small desk and laptop, as well as a door sized archway that she assumed led to a private bathroom.
Walking towards the archway took no time at all, like the time was faster than it was outside in the hotel.
“Did every room have a different time” she thought.
As she reached the archway she saw a small vanity built into the wall, and a door to the bathroom. In the mirror she could see her reflection, but she couldn’t make out any real details.
Just then she heard a voice.
“That sounds like John” – She thought, or did she speak?
She wasn’t sure if she thought it or had said it out loud. Perhaps she had been in here too long.
The Voice came from the mirror, and the center of the mirror appeared to transform into a portal like glimpse of John as she could see him standing in the lab.
“Everything appears to be working as intended, however; she must never know the truth”
What did he say?! – said Græble
In the dim blue light, she began pacing around the room “Does this mean I’m not human? He knows more than he’s telling me, but he is just a liar! I thought i could trust him.” Stopping near the window she peaked through the curtains to find a silhouette of city buildings. It looked like an industrial zone.
As she stared blankly out of the window she continued to talk to herself.
“I can’t trust anyone. It seems like I am trapped in this place. Did he put me here? I wanna get out, but I also have to find more answers. When i do find my way out, i must pretend like i did not hear what he said” – Æ
[black screen]
Chapter Six | Ellipsis
Chapter Six | Ellipsis
Suddenly, a loud beeping sound filled the room, startling Græble. She quickly looked around to see where it was coming from and saw a glowing white box on the bedside table. She moved closer to investigate, and as she did, the box opened up, revealing a small device with a screen.
A message was displayed on the screen that said, “You are not alone.”
Græble was confused and not sure what to make of the message. She looked around the room, but there was no one else in sight. She reread the message several times, her mind racing as she tried to make sense of it. Could it be a sign from John, a hint of some kind? But what could it mean?
She had so many questions, but no answers.
She was about to turn off the device when she noticed something else: a small blinking light on the bottom of the screen. She pressed it, and the device began to play a melody. The melody was faint yet captivating and comforting at the same time. It seemed to speak to her in a way, like it was guiding her, leading her towards a mysterious destination.
She entered the elevator and, as the doors closed, the music changed and grew louder until finally she reached the only floor that had a number. The elevator doors opened and the hallway wall directly ahead had deep red letters painted on it that read 11.
The walls and floor, the numbers, and the room doors on this floor appeared to fluctuate, as if they were made of some sort of thick water. Grable hesitated to step out, but her curiosity overcame her fear. Just as she stepped her right foot onto the floor, time moved slowly and she did not sink into the floor as she thought she would. She simply seemed to flow with the fluid-like air.
Then she heard a childlike voice from her right: “Hi there,” it said. Grable turned quickly to her right to look at who this was, but she saw no one, just more hotel room doors. The voice continued, saying, “I’m down here, silly.”
-Æ
Chapter Sevən (επτά) | Solitude
Letters start appearing on the screen in front of Nora, generative no doubt. She must be working on an idea.
She is standing at a terminal in the abandoned Avid Lab, whilst John is across the room mumbling to himself while pacing back and fourth. Nora seems unfazed by him entirely, as if to suggest she has heard him do this many times.
Græble is still in the chair hooked up to the server across the room, laying silently.
Nora puts a small device in her pocket just as the letters finish appearing on the screen and Nora grabs the her drink excitedly
AH HA! – She says aloud as she turns towards John.
“I’ve got it! I think that I may have found a way to avoid the conflict we had last time!” – Nora says
“which is?” – John replied while walking towards her terminal.
“In order for us to provide true information without damaging the programs current structure, we need to add a small piece of code that will allow us to extract the data without altering it in any way. – She says
John takes a deep breath as he looks at the code, before nodding in agreement, “That sounds like a good plan. Let’s get started.”
Nora smiles in response, before typing something into the terminal and hitting run.
“Let’s see if it works.” She said.
The letters on the screen begin to move around, but ultimately resulted in an failure.
Nora looked down in frustration and sighed as John said “this is why i created the training program, cause if I had let you run this attempt on the subject, we would have a horrifying situation on our hands right now!”
John walks back over towards the terminal GRÆBLE is hooked up to. As he is walking closer he notices something strange. For a brief moment he thought he saw someone communicating in the terminal, but in a flash it was gone.
“I think I need to get a little bit of rest Nora, keep an eye on her while I do.” John ordered.