After a decent amount of…let’s say vigorous exercise, I found myself back in Mirage, having fallen asleep. In this place, there was nothing and no one else to bother me, no difficult moral dilemmas that I had to pretend to care about, so I was free to simply take a break from all of that, and just work on whatever I wanted. Last night when I was here, I started coming up with a design for a way for me to gather information about how Mirage works, specifically when I’m awake. I needed to create a person, and then every night when I come back, I’ll need to ask that person about what they experienced when I was gone. Most likely, I’ll need to create a few different people, that way I have multiple different accounts, and can gather a wider sample of data.
However, first thing’s first, I need to actually successfully create an artificial personality. The problem that I’d faced when I experimented on that member of the Royal Family, watching the way that his mind had completely collapsed inwards on itself, had taught me a lot about how a human subconscious was supposed to be structured. I started out with a base foundation of Self Preservation. While in a normal person, this foundation would be responsible for things like heartbeat, breathing, hunger, and sex drive, in this artificial intelligence of mine, I theorized that it would realize that the best ways for it to protect itself is to a) provide me with useful information, and b) protect my mind.
Due to the fact that I had no idea how to even begin crafting a soul for it, and due to the fact that I assumed that a soul is on some level necessary to experience thoughts and memories, I decided to anchor the artificial intelligence on a small segment of my own soul. Due to my brush against my soul when I realized my Dream Aspect, I was able to sense the edges of it somewhat through the mana that constantly emitted from it, though it was hazy, and slightly distorted. However, in a worst case scenario, I would definitely be able to cut off the piece of my soul that connected to the A.I. and terminate it, only suffering a small amount of soul damage in exchange that would heal back up within a week or so.
After the soul anchor and the foundation of Self Preservation, came the ability to store memories. As I created this function, I also built a sort of Computer Lab room, this one with no furniture, but filled wall to wall with empty bookshelves. As the A.I. gained various experiences, those would become recorded into books, which would then automatically fill the shelves. The idea was that this way, I would be able to dive into them and experience whatever the A.I. experienced from a first hand viewpoint.
After the ability to store memories came the part I was least sure about. The part where I would have to hand craft the personality, but without any memories to start with. I debated skipping this part, as it’s supposed to be just an A.I., does it really NEED a personality? The only reason I didn’t skip it entirely is because I don’t think I’d have any way to interact with it without one. The mind is a tricky field that I know nothing about, I have no idea what parts are necessary for it to do what I want it to do, so I decided to simply copy the two people I knew best, Sophia and Ash, and take the formless pressure and natures of their subconscious minds, dial them down to about 25% their original intensities, then gently mix them together, as they swirled around, creating something new, something that would hopefully behave like a mixture of the two people, but I had no way of knowing before I actually brought it into existence and started spending time with it.
The last thing that I needed to create for it was a ‘physical’ body. ‘Physical’ in quotation marks because you have to remember that this is all technically a dream, and Mirage doesn’t actually exist. Or does it? To be honest, I know literally nothing about this place, hence why I’m building an A.I. to experience it and teach me about it in the first place.
Now, I could easily give it a humanoid form. Given my innate familiarity with humanoid forms, that would honestly be the easiest solution. However, I ask you, would that be the coolest solution? The answer is a resounding no. If I’m going through the trouble of hand crafting a damn artificial intelligence, then I’m gonna make the user interface something fucking awesome. And what is always cool no matter how overused it is in the media? Dragons. Dragons are always dope as hell. So yeah, I spent a few hours meticulously designing a dragon body.
Due to the fact that I didn’t need it to actually fight or anything, I made it small, about the size of a Labrador Retriever. The body itself was serpentine, resembling an eastern style dragon more than a western one, though it did possess four legs and a pair of wings. I used my own Dreamsilk as the design for the color motif, soft white scales lined with brilliant gold. The spines and talons were golden as well, and the wings were large and white as snow. They actually rather resembled my own dreamsilk a bit.
I designed the face to be softly curved and cute, rather than fierce and intimidating. The personality was based on both Ash and Sophia after all, so I designed the dragon to be a baby girl. Though I’m not really certain if reproduction is possible in this plane, even if I were to create a male dragon for her, so the concept of sex might be a moot point. Adorning her head were two majestic crystalline horns, shaped like deer antlers, but a clear pure white with veins of gold running through them. Her eyes were also colored gold, with a reptilian slit for pupils.
Now you may be asking, Leo, why are you putting so much time and effort into making an adorable baby dragon body for your A.I.? A human form would be simpler to do, and even if you were dead set on making it a dragon, why not make it big and awesome looking, even though you don’t necessarily need it to fight anything for you? To which I’d answer, Fuck you it’s my A.I. and I want a cute little baby dragon flying around so I’m making it that way, and if you have a problem with that then Fight Me.
Several hours had passed by the time I finished both the mind and the body, so I put them aside, planning on merging them together when I come back tomorrow night. I’ll want to run a bunch of tests if it works after all, and I’m about to wake up soon. I decided to spend the rest of my time in the living room, picking up a random book and jotting down all of the tests I’d run once I finished tomorrow. Soon enough, my body started fading away, the sign that I was waking up, so I put the book down and closed my eyes, letting myself drift back up into reality.
Unknown to me, on the table in the lab, the formless cloud of my A.I.’s mind, driven by the base of Self Preservation, was drifting slowly towards the body that I’d laid out for it. Tendrils formed and started attaching themselves to the head of the cute little baby dragon.
Sophia’s POV
To be completely honest, I cared very little about what happened to the people of the Kingdom. For that matter, I don’t even particularly care about what happens to the denizens of Hell. When you live for millenia, the deaths of mortals are just something that happens, no different from the falling of leaves or a chilly breeze. However, Ash seemed to be very concerned about these particular deaths of mortals, so I tried my best to be supportive, despite not understanding. I couldn’t particularly empathize with her plight, nor could I really engage in the discussion of the morals behind it. According to Leo, my existence predates the very concept of morality.
Ironically, Heaven and Hell are both similar in this regard, though naturally for opposite reasons. In Hell, people generally don’t particularly care about any other than themselves and whatever individuals they’ve bonded with. Every other demon in existence could die horrific deaths, but as long as their little group is fine, they don’t particularly care. Meanwhile, from what I’ve heard about Heaven, people there are generally okay with death and suffering, as according to them, “This is the world’s message to me, and another way for me to become one with the world.” Which, if you ask me, is a bunch of bullshit, but hey, to each their own.
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When morning came, the five of us gathered in the living room, so that they could discuss the plan that they would follow. I came so that I could get cuddles on the couch and let Ash know that I was on her side. As we all sat, Leo started stroking my hair and asked, “Did you guys decide what you’re gonna do?”
Only silence for a moment, before Duke spoke up. “I dunno about these two, but I was just gonna stay in the subspace if that’s cool with you two. I already learned the Kingdom’s language, what happens next isn’t really my problem.” He then went back over to the table with the motor, trying to figure out how to increase it’s mana efficiency, as well as allow the spinning rod to switch between a slow mode that can pull a lot of weight, a fast mode that can’t pull any weight, and a between mode that can’t go as fast but can pull a little bit of weight if it needs to. This was a ‘homework assignment’ that Leo had given us, and not even my best moves in the bedroom had convinced him to give us a hint. Our goal was to figure out our own way to accomplish it within two weeks, after which he’d tell us the answer.
X seemed oddly silent about his travel companion’s lack of concern for the lives of millions of people. I suppose he must have known that would be the case, and expected this response from Duke. Meanwhile, Ash spoke up, “Even though it might lead to more overall deaths, I still want to at least let the people know why they’re fighting. Let them know what the Kingdom has been plotting. I think it’s better to die knowing the truth than live for the sake of a lie.”
Leo nodded, then asked, “As expected of you. However, the most interesting opinion,” He said, actually turning his head for once to fully face X, “Is that of Lord Xavier. Tell me, what do you think of the Capital’s leadership?”
Ash butted in, “Leo! Those are his friends, not cool, man. This is harder for him than it is for us.” She then started stroking X’s shoulder, supportively. From what I could observe, it seemed like she knew what his answer would be, and was trying to tell him that she was there for him. Finally, Xavier spoke up.
“The citizens…They have a right to know.” Leo seemed to observe him for a moment, before nodding in acceptance. He then left us all alone for a moment wordlessly, and Ash and X looked at each other in confusion. Was that it? Was he not going to help them actually form the plan to inform the people, and instead was just helping decide that there would in fact be a plan? The hell? I happened to know that Leo was just grabbing something he had prepared for this moment from his shed, but I didn’t feel like stealing his thunder, so I walked over to where Duke was sitting, and we came up with some more ideas to test, trying to modify the enchantment behind the spinning rod in a way that would allow us to choose between different modes.
After a short period of time, Leo came back with several sticks in his arms, and one carved one in his hand. It seemed to have an image of a battery, and inside of the battery was…a book? I’d never seen this particular enchantment of his. Fortunately, when it comes to enchanting, Leo never fails to explain his process. “Back when I was trying to do some soundproofing, one of my first attempts was a volume button. Basically, in theory, it would have been able to increase or decrease the amount of sound in a space. However, the design for a volume button is a rectangular box with a + on the top and a - on the bottom, and inside is a device commonly used to emit sound, called a speaker. My battery enchantment also happens to be a rectangular box with a + on the top and a - on the bottom, so the enchantment that I ended up actually making from that attempt was a battery that stored Sound instead of Mana.
“This taught me that my battery enchantment can store more than just pure mana. From various tests, I’ve learned that the only limit is that whatever it stores has to be ‘formless’. If it has any sort of solid or liquid state, it cannot be stored in my battery enchantment, and I’ll need some sort of other container for that. Anyway, this particular enchantment is one that I got the idea for based on something that I learned recently. Apparently, in my mind, I have a tendency to correlate memories and other forms of stored information and books. This gave me the idea to create this new enchantment here.” He lifted up the stick in his hand so that we could all see the book inside of the battery. “A battery that stores memory and information.”
He then placed the sticks down on the table, keeping the carved one in his hand, separate from the pile. He then lifted that one up again and said, “And on this particular one, I have a recording of the interrogation where I learned about the Kingdom’s plans. Now, we have two ways of sharing this information with the citizens of the Capital. The hard, sneaky, and kinda boring way, or the easier, fun, and hella flamboyant way. It’s your call.”
X asked, “What are each of the two ways?”
Leo responded, “Well, the hard, sneaky, and boring way is that I carve information batteries into each and every one of these sticks here,” He gestured to the massive pile of twigs on the table, “and then we slowly and steadily disseminate these, picking and choosing ‘social butterfly’ types who will be sure to start spreading the rumors until a few weeks pass and eventually a majority of the people have at least heard suspicious rumors of the plans of the Kingdom. I would then spend those few weeks painstakingly carving more and more information batteries so that you guys could then give them to more and more people until eventually the ‘rumors’ stop being ‘rumors’ and become ‘fact’.
“The Easy, Fun, and Flamboyant way, however, is finding a way to show this to the entire capital at the same time. Basically, I’d work a little magic to take this,” He ran his mana through the enchantment so that we could all see an image of a royal apparently talking in his sleep, “and turn it into a huge image that covers the entire damn sky, and his words would ring out like thunder, so everyone from miles around would see and hear it. So which way are we going?”
Ash and X looked at each other for a moment, before replying, ““The easy way””. Leo clapped his hands together.
“Delightful! In that case, we’re good to go whenever, but you should probably grab Mike and the other two first. Things are gonna get hectic really fast, so we need to get them somewhere safe first. I don’t really want to bring them here, but I can’t really think of anywhere else that’s out of the way. So Ash, you get those three all together outside of the capital, hide out in the forest and wait for me there. Once I start the show, I expect the Royal Family to be satisfactorily displeased, so they’ll be out and about, and I don’t want you anywhere near them. Any questions?”
X and Ash shook their heads, then they went to their respective rooms to get themselves ready for what was to come. Leo walked over to the table where Duke and I were working, and asked us, “You guys come up with any ideas?”
Duke shook his head. “No matter how I think about it, I can’t seem to get it to work. I can get it to spin at different preset speeds, but no matter what I do the pulling strength stays about the same. I can’t think of an enchantment that would modify that.”
I added in, “I tried the demonic word ‘hakaar’, meaning 'power that gradually increases’, but it ended up just making the rod spin both faster and with more pulling force. Basically, I can make it ‘both fast and strong’, or ‘both slow and weak’, but not ‘fast and weak’ or ‘slow and strong’.”
Leo nodded his head, following along with our progress. He then tilted his head and said, “Seeing as how you only have a few days left before your deadline, I’ll give you a hint. If enchantments aren’t working, then find a way to do it that doesn’t rely on enchantments.” He then walked off towards the kitchen to make himself a snack.
Duke and I sat there silently for a moment, before I turned to the gnome and said, “It worked, I broke him, pay up bitch.” Yes, before my attempts to seduce a hint out of him, I had made the very first wager of my long life. Not that I really considered it a wager necessarily. After all, look at me, I’m fucking gorgeous. No way he wouldn’t fold before my sheer beauty.
Duke attempted to dispute my victory. “It seemed more like he really wants us to figure it out for ourselves, but the path that we were taking wouldn’t let us work it out. I refuse to acknowledge this as your win.”
“You goddamn imp, you’re as bad as Veronica. This is my win and you know it.”
“Who’s Veronica?”
“You guys do realize that we have an open kitchen here right? I can hear every single word you’re saying. And no Soph, this is not ‘your win’. In fact, I would say that this is your loss. As in, you’ve lost reward privileges for the next week for trying to fucking honeytrap your own damn husband.”
I dropped silent, before turning to Duke and accusing, “This is your fault.”
He snorted and started fiddling with some metal pieces he pulled out of who knows where, trying to find a mechanical solution to our puzzle. “I’m not the one who suggested that I’d be able to, ahh, how exactly did you phrase it? ‘Suck that sadistic bastard’s mind out and read the answer directly from his thoughts.’.” I tried to silence his blatant disregard of the ‘don’t tell the goddamn teacher’ unwritten rule betwixt fellow students, but it didn’t work.
“Two weeks.”
I debated heavily whether I should just roast the damn midget, but before the flames could fully materialize outside of my body, Ash and X returned from their rooms, all geared up and ready to go. Leo came out of the kitchen, and said, “Alrighty guys, let’s go raise some hell.”