Her Virtual Headspace - Prt 02

Her Virtual Headspace Countdown: 59:44:02

There was a brief sensation of rapid motion typical of synching of her wetware with the hardware and suddenly she found herself in the construct which was an at the moment and endless white void that she hadn't yet spent time to customize.

Before she'd had to replace her headware her private contruct had been pretty basic really. Modeled after a museum she had visited once it had simply been a collection of vast open rooms with a rather odd collection of paintings and sculptures she had enjoyed viewing now and again. Next time around she was thinking about setting up like Pink Floyds. Though the version before she had gone ballistic and shot the place to shit.

An icon appeared than floating in midair announcing that the download was complete and that she should press to start.

A moment later a circle appeared and a male voice filled the silence of the void.

"Thank you for choosing Extreme's Companiontech Gen 5. The next evolution in Companionware technology. Would you like to know more about Companion tech Gen 5 ?"

"No thanks" Mei said." Main menu please."

" Main menu..." The voice announced. "Companion Tech can generate a personal companion in one of three easy methods. Quick Companion, Quick Personalized Companion, Custom Personalized Companion build."

Mei had already read all the literature and was already familier with the build methods.

Quick Companion simply made a randomly generated companion using preloaded materials and media samples.

Quick Personalized Companion generated the companion using the users own digital footprint and individual information drawn from pregenerated profile builds.

Customize Personalized Companion build was the best version according to the literature. The Companion was built from a series of passive tests that identified both user wants and needs using these to build an amalgam of diverse but user specific traits solidified into a single Companion persona.

" The Customize Personalized Companion build, please. " Mei answered.

" Confirmed, projected run time for this option ranges between 30 minutes to one hour depending upon individual user requirements."

" Understood, continue..." Mei ordered.

--

The module ran through a series of diagnostic tests in the guise of odd little games in an effort to identify her needs. Some twelve games in all ranging from a simple drawing game to a rather involved trivial knowledge game that asked some of the oddest questions she had ever heard.

" Did God make man in his image or did Man make God in his ? "

" Where does the qoute ' All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others' come from?"

" Who said the line 'Farewell the tranquil mind' ?"

Some --

Another brief sensation of motion and she found herself standing in a large park next to a fountain depicting dryads relaxing under the spray of water, and across from her in a white suit stood an older gentlemen in a white suit smiling at her. " Congratulations your almost there ... "

Mei smiled nodding. " It wasn't all bad ... perhaps a bit on the childish side."

The man nodded ... " Companions are like children at first. They need to learn to grow and I must say yours has grown a great deal in such a short amount of time."

" So whats next ..." Mei asked enjoying the park setting found herself in.

" Next .... next is just a walk in the park compared to the rest." The man in the white suit said motioning down the main avenue through the park. " Your Companion is waiting to meet you all you need to do is walk from here to there."

" Here to there huh? " Mei spoke aloud as she started walking.

--

Not even three steps and open avenue was suddenly filled with people of all shapes and sizes seemingly doing what people do.

Men and Woman, Boys and Girls, Old and Young, Seemingly people of countless origins going about there daily lives their minds on other more important matters.

Another few steps and Mei started to notice small changes with each new step.

At first the she seemed to have simply passed the Older individuals by or they seemed to walk out of frame.

That was followed shortly by the children seemingly doing the same.

Another few steps and she had noticed that the crowd crowded had thinned considerably to just about half of the number of people that had been there to start. All still very different but things where starting to become more detailed and focused. The colors and shadows more comfortable.

The next few steps the park setting had transitioned from day to night. The lamps flickering to brightness as stars filled the evening sky.

Here to the crowded continued to thin more so as the majority seemed to start to leave for places and destinations unknown until after only a few more steps Mei found herself alone at night walking in an empty park.

No, not empty because someone stood at the fountain just a short distance away waiting for her.

Mei was suddenly afraid stopping short as her ideal Companion turned to greet her.

" Hey there stranger... " The young woman said as she smiled. Her fingers absentmindly pushing her long blond hair back behind her ear as she tilted her head to one side. " Surprised ? "

" Yes... " Mei couldn't help but admit.