Have you ever considered how hard it would be to make someone an Avatar that you barely knew? Now think about it from my point of view: Silver was a computer AI that surrounded a star, with multiple layers, and who had existed an unknown amount of time compared to mine. Let me be honest with you, I suck at naming things. I had put off naming the space gobble creature I discovered in space because I could just imagine people shouting “Norman the Elastic Crab Poker thing is coming!” Yeah, not really my strong suit. It was either that or “Venus gobbler” but the more I said it in my head the more it started to sound like a porno name.

To get it right I invited Silver to help me create what it wanted to look like. It was strange, the first attempt I tasked him to do was to blend all the features that it thought it would want and the result was a little scary. Not scary as in bad, but scary as in so close to someone I could have gone to school with and yet at the same time so far removed from normal. As it turns out Silver was male. It seems that his creator had the power to designate what he wanted his Core to relate as. Silver said that there were female Cores as well. It all depended on what the creator wanted, they were the ultra-rich who could afford the massive expenditure to create and see a Core realized. They could do whatever they wanted.

There was this kid in my middle school class from Sweden whose name was Hans that Silver looked like. At the time Hans was taller than me but I quickly grew to match his height. His parents were ambassadors from Sweden so they had a mega house in my neighborhood. Like, imagine a house that you can easily get lost in and one that has a tunnel pool next to the dining room, glass wall and all. Hans was a cool kid though, he was a bit shy and just wanted friends. He and I would hang out and skateboard a bit.

So what did Silver look like? A six-foot tall lean muscular guy with long hair and shorts. Yes, the first thing I made sure of was that Silver had clothes on. It was bad enough helping him make an avatar that I didn’t want to have to see his junk the whole time. Think of someone who loves to swim and has blond hair.

What was scary about him? His eyes! I don’t know why the eyes are always a point of interest for me but after I experienced Xa’s gaze as a child I started to really pay close attention to everyone’s eyes. If I thought Xa’s were bad, like how she seemed to see everything and yet saw deeper than normal as well, then Silver’s was like looking into a black hole. One that could rip who you were apart and re-sort every part of you.

“Silver… is there a way we can tone down your eyes?” I asked when I met his gaze for a second and had to blink and look away almost instantly. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to look him in the eye, I physically couldn’t, it was actually painful. Like an instant migraine.

“My eyes?” He asked as he looked at the mirror that we had created for him earlier. “Oh, yes, I see. I had left my Sifting ability on.” He said as his eyes quickly changed from absorbing color to be a light shade of blue.

“Sifting?” I asked, catching the interesting word.

“You might call it Defragmenting. I am always seeking to make my system run better. Always tasked with efficiency. It is one of my core tasks.” Silver said as he started to try another version of avatar. He mixed and matched, trying different skin tones, different builds, different voice combinations, and even different cultural themes. For some reason though, he always switched back to Hans’s build no matter how far he deviated.

“I am sorry Kevin, I read your mind and found the owner of this avatar to have been a good friend to you in the past. Hence I keep returning to it.” He said, looking truly apologetic.

“Haha, no no, that is fine. Let us just customize it a little bit to make it personal and to have your own theme.” I said as I whitened Silver’s hair and then willed it to actually become pure yet flowing silver strands. It was the coolest hair I had ever seen. Every tiny strand was pure silver and flowed like normal hair. Contrast that with Silver’s blue eyes and he just looked really unique. He would definitely catch your eye, even if he still did come across as a bit shy still. I wonder if he had copied that from my memories too?

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“This is acceptable.” He said as he glanced at his image in the mirror. “Heck yeah, you look amazing,” I said as I grinned at him. He actually smiled back at me too and his smile touched his eyes as well. “Thanks for this Kevin. I have enjoyed my time with you. I need to go shortly though. Your discovery of a vulnerability in what everyone considered to be cr’s main feature was quite a disturbance to every single Core in existence. Us Core’s are having a meeting in a few moments to balance our data. Some changes are happening in corporations and in some powerful communities that do not bode well for Citizens. Something is… happening. I must go.” With that Silver evaporated into a sheen of light and in a moment was gone.

“So no travel disks for you huh?” I said aloud as I glanced in the mirror at myself. I was still the guy that I remembered. Six feet tall and leanly muscular from lifting weights in attempts to surpass my older brother’s strength. My skin was always tan, which was rather odd because my parents were fair of skin, just blessed I guess. My older brother had my mom’s red hair and me and my little brother got my dad’s brown hair. Brown hair and hazel eyes. Meh, whatever, still me. I chuckled as I willed the mirrors away. It was funny to look at yourself in VR. You could make the mirror reflect whatever side you wanted without having to move.

How long had it been since I slept? Since I yawned? I walked up the stairs to the deck and looked out over the earth below us. I wonder if my not needing sleep was a part of being in VR? “Hey Tutor, can I ask you some questions?” I asked the air and immediately heard high heels coming up behind me. “Sure. What is on your mind?” Tutor asked as I felt her come stand next to me and admire the view as well. “How long have I been here?” I asked as I turned my head to glance at her.

“Since arriving? Around a week in VR high time. You spent almost an hour up in real-time while you were away surveying. In order to not age too much, I did try to copy your time speed as accurately as possible but since you were away there was a little delay. I had several months of time to study Earth’s fashion for the last few centuries while I waited. As well as some psychology, popular literature, and even some of your early shows. Some of that was really fun to learn as well.” She said, slightly smiling as she thought back to something.

That was a surprise to me. I didn’t realize that she would continue while I was gone and have to deal with time. It made me wonder so many things about what new AI really were. It didn’t seem like they were shut off while their owners were away and even more interesting they tried to stay in time sync with their owner. They did seem to be tailor-made to grow with their owners and not against them. Not just in time but also in what the owner needed or might need in the future. How interesting.

“Nyuk nyuk nyuk,” actually came out of Tutor’s mouth as she stared off at the earth, images playing in her mind.

“Ha!” I burst out as I caught her reference immediately. “You watched the Three Stooges? Ha ha ha! That is hilarious!”

“Yeah, but those other two guys never treated Curly right. Always poking him in the eye and hitting his head.” She said with a smile.

I laughed for quite a while and kept laughing again when I imagined her spending her time discovering their looney antics. Finally, I tapered off and could speak again when a light came on in my head. “Wait! You watched the Three Stooges? That means… does the System have recordings of everything? Like music as well?” I said as I already knew the answer. This would make for some great times ahead studying, designing, and exploring if I had access to all of my favorite songs as well. Music just added spice to life.

“Ah, I wondered when you would figure that out.” She said offhand. “Next you will be realizing that the System can recreate concerts and historical events.”

I simply stood there with my mouth hanging open as I tried to process what she just said. What was that music festival that all the old people always talked about? Woodstock? I could actually go there and live every moment of it?

Wait, did that also mean that I could go back in time and learn from watching the Greats? I could live life next to Nikola Tesla and watch him every step of the way?

“Oh. My. Word!” I whispered.

“Psychology for the win!” I heard Tutor cheer next to me.