Summary:
Utopia is a virtual world designed to store human consciousness. For decades Daphne has been the only human left, completely unaware of what happens in the real world, and ultimately bored by the interactions with virtual characters. She then decides to stir things up for herself by designing a new 'unpredictable' character, giving him the chance to develop a human-like artificial intelligence. A choice she may come to regret later...
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Chapter 1: Boredom
Daphne sighed as she turned off her working computer in the Utopian library. She was tired. So very tired with everything. There were only so many hours one could occupy oneself browsing earth's database through Wikipedia, just to pass times. Daphne had already reached that point several years ago, but what else was could she do? Somewhere, immeasurably far away her real body laid in some cryogenic chamber, comatose and terminally ill. A long time ago she had been one of many people who's consciousness was stored in Utopia, a virtual plane of existence, a so called perfect world where everything was pleasant and beautiful. A harmonious community of people waiting to be called back to the real world when a new medical breakthrough had been achieved. For the last 20 years however Daphne was the only human left. Lost, and forgotten.
She stood up from her desk and said goodbye to Gwen at the counter. She walked outside, to the street. The Utopian main street was empty. All the shops within sight were open, but the street was nearly dead. Just a taxi driving by, and a man walking his dog. Many years ago over three thousand people lived in this town, not counting the characters. It had been a very different sight back then.
Since there was no one paying attention, Daphne focused her mind on where she wanted to go. Home. In the blink of an eye she stood on the porch of her house in the suburbs, feeling the spring breeze slightly move her long red curls. Over the last years she had become so familiar with the Utopia program she lived in she had found a way to bypass certain parts and perform 'minor tricks' as she preferred to call them, one of them being teleportation. Not that she needed more time. On the contrary. In fact, the moment she reached for the door key she regretted she hadn't walked home. She would have had another 20 minutes time passed.
When she stepped inside she thought she heard a noise in the living room.
"Steve?" she called for her boyfriend, "are you home already?"
"Surprise," the blonde male-supermodel-like hunk in police uniform popped his head around the corner, smiling.
"Oh, that's nice," Daphne said indifferently while she closed the door. She was hardly surprised. As she entered the living room she noticed he had decorated the table with a nice cloth, and a red candle.
"I'm making dinner tonight, darling." She almost laughed because he said it in exactly the same tone as he did every other time he came home early to 'surprise' her with dinner by candle light. It wasn't really amusing though. Rather tragic actually.
"That's really sweet, Steve," Daphne smiled anyway. She had to play along with the romantic story or she would lose her mind completely. "Do you mind if I go take a bath first?"
"Of course not, honey. Take your time." Steve looked at her as he came closer, lovingly as ever. "I'll make sure dinner is ready just by the time you're back."
"You're so sweet," Daphne replied. She gave him a quick peck on his lips and went upstairs to the bathroom.
While the bathtub filled with water she chose a new set of clothes in the dressing room. A 'minor trick' she still couldn't achieve was materialising objects. When she wanted new things that did not yet exist in Utopia she could design them on the computer, put them in the catalogue and order them to be delivered the next day. Deleting, on the other hand was no problem. When she took off her clothes she let them fall on the ground and then concentrated on their disappearance. She snapped her fingers, and they were gone. She sighed again, stepping into the warm bath. She could feel the water, but she knew it wasn't real. She could caress herself, feel her own soft naked skin trying to relax, but she knew it wasn't real. Nothing was real. Her fake life so unrealistic. She often wondered why she tried her best to have a 'normal' day because really, what was the point? But she already knew the answer. If she didn't do this, if she didn't play along and pretended to have a life here she'd go insane. There were no other options. Not even suicide. She had already tried that. Six months ago she jumped out of a plane and 'forgot' to open her parachute. She had found herself waking from unconsciousness in the grass, with some memory of excruciating pain. The first thing she wondered about was why the hell did pain even exist in Utopia? Or any illusion of physical feeling in general? Her fall hadn't even made a hole in the ground. Apparently she could do just about anything imaginable, except kill herself. Utopia's main function was to keep her alive. So here she was, taking a bath. Which was absolutely pointless. She had long since decided that the man who had named this program 'Utopia' should have been shot.
After about 20 minutes of trying to relax she got out of the tub. She dried herself with a towel and put on fresh pink lingerie and a grass green dress that matched nicely with her long red hair. She looked at her freckled face in the mirror, again eye to eye with the strange reality, that she had been a 29 year old woman for 47 years. Still young and beautiful after all these years, perfectly preserved.
"Don't complain," she spoke to herself with a whisper while fixing her long copper curls, "no 76 year old woman ever looked this good."
What else could she do but make the best of it? She had to accept that there was a chance she'd be stuck here forever. That the outside world had forgotten her completely, her relatives could all be dead. Her physical body could have died, and perhaps someone had decided she'd be better off not knowing. That person would be wrong. Bus she would make the best of it. Accept the situation by lack of better options and play tonight's date with Steve. Who knew, maybe he' d still be able to surprise her somehow.
The duck with orange sauce tasted as it should. Even the texture and the smell was right. The wine was nice, and made her blush when she emptied her first glass, as alcohol always did. It all felt real enough. If only she could still believe it. When she was finished she stared at her empty plate.
"You are so quiet." Steve noticed.
"Sorry," Daphne smiled. "I really enjoyed dinner. You're the best chef I know."
Steve smiled broadly, accepting the compliment.
"Would you care to massage me a bit?" she asked. "My shoulders are a little tense."
"Of course, darling."
As always, Steve immediately jumped up to act upon her desire. Daphne closed her eyes when his hands touched her shoulders. He was great at massages, as if he knew exactly what felt really good. Even if it wasn't real, a massage was one of the few things Daphne could truly enjoy completely.
When she created her first boyfriend Jeffrey she had forgotten to flag the 'massage skill' button at character creation. Daphne had deleted him after 5 years, to make her second boyfriend, David. Every boyfriend after that had lasted less long. She just got bored with them so easily, as their artificial intelligence was complex, but still somewhat limited. She also had an affair with one of the real humans for a while but he left, just like all the others. One day he got a message his real body would be revived. The next morning he was gone. It was around the time people stopped coming to Utopia, though nobody knew why. That was almost 30 years ago. From then on they all just disappeared one by one, until only Daphne was left. She had gone through over two dozen virtual boyfriends since then. Some she deleted, some she integrated in the city after revising their program a little bit, giving them different lives.
Daphne moaned softly, really enjoying Steve's skilled hands. "That feels so good..."
She arched her back, looking up at his face. She reached out her arm to make him bend forward and kiss her. She opened her mouth slightly, brushing her tongue against his lips. Taking the hint, Steve deepened the kiss while burying his fingers into Daphne's copper hair.
Daphne took a little distance to breathe, and looked at her perfect boyfriend, quite turned on. She slowly stood up from her chair. "I want you," she whispered. Upon these words, which were her code words to initiate sex, he took her into his arms again, a little more determined, and kissed her passionately. Enjoying the delicious kisses Daphne moved her feet away from the dinner table, in attempt to lure him toward the couch. A fantasy popped into her head, about her sweet and obedient lover throwing her on it and ravaging her like a wild beast. Of course that would never happen. Steve never took the initiative for anything. She had to think of everything and ask him. He did start to undress her, very slowly and gently though. And his lips left her mouth to lower, kissing her chin and then her throat. Pretty much in the same way as he had done last time. Pretty much the same as ever. There were some variables, but really, Daphne knew them all. Quite abruptly, her burning lust diminished.
"Wait" she whispered.
Steve halted and looked up at her. Even when her hands went on caressing his back. Daphne looked at the dinner table.
"We haven't cleaned up the table..." she said. "Would you do it now, dear?"
Steve smiled lovingly. "Of course, honey." He gave her a peck on her lips and stood up to get to work. Daphne kept observing him as he took the dirty pots and plates to the kitchen to go do the dishes. She sighed.
"Unbelievable," she whispered to herself, "if Steve is a man, I'm the pharaoh of Egypt."
She rearranged her clothes and went upstairs to the computer room. She first checked her mail, in the nearly inexistent hope there would be a message from the outside world. But her mailbox was empty as always. She looked at the counter in the upper right corner: Realms of Utopia. Current residents: 1
Daphne sighed and took her headset and called her virtual best friend Celina.
"Hey," Celina appeared in the screen. "You're on early."
"What can I say, I'm a little bored..."
"Oh, and here I was, thinking you called me because you're my friend." Celina faked a pout.
"You know I didn't mean it, right?" Daphne smiled. "Say, did you do something wit your hair? It looks great!" Celina had shoulder length blonde hair and it appeared to be cut in a spicy locally modern fashion.
