Ethereal 0.03

Oliver moved to his window, casting his view out over the verdant pastures that were his yard and out into the inexplicable void further on. It had been hours since Retia had arrived and never once had their conversation halted. His questions had fallen from his lips one by one without end in sight until his legs began to feel achy and unused.

He turned back to the sofa's and to Retia. She had barely moved an inch since she arrived. Just sat there stock still without showing even the barest sense of being uncomfortable or anything to the likeness. The most movements she'd made so far had been little things like tilting her head or her chest rising and falling as she breathed.

'Breath…' Oliver mulled, setting one hand on his chest he felt it rise but he also felt his heart beating with slow, methodical bu-bumps. "Question, any point why breathing and our heartbeats are being simulated?"

Retia nodded and spoke, "due to efforts to decrease the undoubtedly uncanny effect being in a digital world may entail, the Developers have taken to simulating many different human bodily movements such as minor emotional ticks, breathing, and even the heart beating."

"Does that mean I also have to y'know, use the toilet?" if he didn't that would be a boon.

"It does not. While urination and defecation are a staple of human life, they were deemed unnecessary when presented as being optional to digital human life."

"And eating? Do I still have tastebuds and all that?"

"You do. Taste was deemed an important factor to the human body alongside all the other senses. Namely, sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Should you encounter anything that may be revolting to one of these senses, you are capable of disabling that sense from activating in the presence of the offending origin or replace the sense with another more pleasant feeling."

Oliver bobbed his head to the side, it sounded perfect when spoken like that. It would be perfect in getting children to enjoy their vegetals but just as quickly an odd idea came to him. "Wait, wouldn't that mean someone who hates getting kicked in the balls could just replace the feeling with something else?"

"They could."

"That… is wrong and somehow intriguing." He mulled, 'not that I'm touching that setting with a ten-foot poll. I'd rather stay feeling pain than finding pleasure in something so cruel.'

Looking to his side he peered to the open form kitchen of the house and was soon upon it. A hand rose to his throat then descended to his belly and realized he hadn't eaten anything in many hours. Not since breakfast the morning of his death. "Is hunger simulated as well? Thirst?"

"It is an option you may enable or disable within Etherium at large. Should you enter one of the Dreamscapes then depending on the settings therein hunger and thirst may or may not be permanently enabled or disabled."

"Right." Reaching for the fridge handle he pulled it open and was immediately greeted with a flash of blue-grey light in the form of a holographic interface much like that of a game's inventory. There were forty boxes while only twelve were filled up and just above them all was a single word 'Refridgerator.'

'Don't need an explanation on this.' Oliver chuckled to himself, the sudden jolt the inventories appearance had fading enough that he could gingerly lift one hand to the fridge and tap the top left-most box. An egg.

The moment he did the screen flickered and a light blared from the refrigerator itself and drew his gaze, forcing him to focus on the carton of eggs stuffed in on the topmost shelf right beside a jar of jam and various other perishables. Then noting how everything was inside the fridge, Oliver instead reached for a milk carton and was able to lift it and move it around. 'So the screen just tells me what is inside and where it is? Handy.' Scanning the inventory he found the twelfth icon and smirked soda. Cola. The archenemy of his teeth and his best friend.

He pressed the button, more for amusement and was drawn to the very obvious shelf where the cola bottle was set right beside the milk carton. Finding no end to the amusement a divinely shining bottle of brown could bring him.

Setting it down on the island he reached instinctively to the cupboard and found the largest glass he could and filled it to just below the brim. "You want anything?" he asked looking to Retia.

"I do not need sustenance if that is what you are asking."

"No, I'm asking if you would like anything to drink."

Retia seemed completely confused with the notion. "No. I do not want anything to drink. I thank you for the offer."

"No problem…" Quickly Oliver was realizing that while Retia was amazingly lifelike in many ways, she was still very much in the janky department of semi-artificial intelligence. Chances were that over time she'd start becoming more human. Whether that was from her own learning—if she even could—or the programmers tweaking things he'd have to see.

Not asking anymore, Oliver filled the rest of his glass with ice cubes, wincing as he felt his fingers chill and looked down to them. Waggling his digits about as the chill faded and was replaced by the ambient warmth of the room. "This is so weird."

Arriving back at the sofa's he seated himself and downed a sip of his drink. Internally bouncing with delight that it tasted just like he remembered. Lowering it from his lips his head rose and he gazed into the flatscreen hanging on the wall, just like the mirrors upstairs it was matte and without any reflections. "Any reason I can't see my reflection? Aren't they like, a staple of modern-day games?"

Retia followed his eyes then returned to him, "reflections are currently disabled. Should you wish to enable them simple say 'Enable Reflections.' Or something in a similar line of wording."

Oliver hummed then muttered, "enable reflections." And just like that, the grey matter faded from the television to be returned to a familiar black gloss. His face just barely noticeable in it. Squinting his eyes, Oliver felt something was wrong, he rose and stepped close to the screen, his reflection doing much the same, and turned his head all around, eyes glued and scanning his face in search of what was putting him off. "Am I… handsome?" his features were more chiselled, his skin cleaner, even his hair was a brilliant shade of glossy cinnamon and exceedingly thick. He was his own ideal boyfriend, and he was straight.

"You are."

Oliver paused, spun his head to Retia and saw her sitting as neutrally as ever. Lips a light, almost motherly smile as she looked up at him. "Did you just…?"

"As body positivity was and currently is a large piece of contention, I was programmed to assure that each and every Dreamer I come into contact is beautiful, handsome, sexy, or any other form of positive form."

'Well, that's a kick in the head.' Rolling his eyes, Oliver lumbered back to his seat and fell into it, "and here I was thinking a beautiful lady actually found me handsome."

"I do find you handsome. While yes I am automatically required to respond with positive bodily feedback, I do still have my own preferences in body shape and what I personally find attractive. While I find you are a little lean for my taste, I do find you in general to fit the basal term of 'handsome.'"

Oliver blinked more times than he could count as he processed. "You have-wait, just, so of everything you don't have. You have sexual preferences?"

"Indeed. This is most likely a lingering effect from one of, if not all, of the human minds that were used to create me. Should my programmers install another mind, then likely my preferences will shift to include anything within the new mind. Similar should a mind be removed. I will lose that as well."

Lost for words, Oliver kept downing his drink mouthful by mouthful in search of anything else he could ask but was quickly coming on dry. At least for the moment. So much information had been gleaned that he was lost on the processing of it. He needed a break from the questioning, a day, maybe two just to do what was expected of him for the next two weeks. Acclimate.

"I'm about done with my questions for the day, are you going to be leaving now?"

"I shall leave should you ask me to. I may also remain here throughout your acclimation period should you wish that of me."

"That's not necessary. Don't you have other people you have to worry about?"

"Currently I do not. You are the first Dreamer to be awoken. Another is expected to awaken not long after your acclimation period is elapsed. Even then, I am a digital construct, I am capable of making various copies of myself and have them converse with the others should they awaken."

"Useful."

Oliver mulled to himself one last time and grasped his glass tighter. "Just… before you go. Can I ask you one more thing?"

"You may ask me as many things as you may desire. I will be glad to answer them all."

He nodded softly and looked away, "my family… would I be able to talk to them? Let them know I'm okay… in the loosest sense of the word."

Retia's expression froze and rapidly drew downcasted, "currently you are unable to make contact with the human world. If you wish I can convey a message to my programmers that they may deliver to them.

For the split of a second, Oliver's expression lightened to a weak and solemn smile. "That'd be great."

***

He knew days had passed since he'd arrived in this digital construct that was his home. Not long after Retia's first time leaving he'd looked around in search of… something. At the time he didn't know quite what he was looking for but once he'd returned to his room after simulated night had come about, he'd seen it. His computer.

His brow rose and an inkling came to him. In a few swift strides, he was by it. He pulled out his chair and fell into it, it was better than his real one. It didn't creak and squeak as he turned and leaned back. Then he pulled himself under his desk, looking between the two computer screens before him, they were the large type, twenty-seven inchers and one was a drawing LED drawing tablet. The logo and name though had been expunged for a reason he was quick to presume as copyright or something like that. It was hard to know what laws were expected in this new realm of his.

Oliver turned on each of the screens and saw them flicker to life, the dull gloss of black turning to light grey before a blue 'input not found' box appeared on each of them. He leaned over and with a trepidating press, pushed his finger onto the indented power button of his computer.

The machine roared to life like a furious beast, the sound so familiar it was a blend of horrifying and calming. Oliver could just see it growing wings and flying off from how hard the fans were spinning.

Then like nothing, the noise died down and life flickered onto the computer screens. On his central monitor appeared a logo, clouds overlapped with the word [Dreamland] with a simple monotone red dragon over the top left roaring at some silver moon lingering just above the 'land' of the logo. Squinting, Oliver noticed that faintly across the entire moon were markings reminiscent of circuit boards.

Quickly—in the span of seconds—the logo was gone and a familiar background of a fantastical fight scene of a man dressed in thick onyx armour challenged a monster twice his size and filled with pustules, appeared on the screen. As Oliver sat staring in awe at the machine, the background shifted and turned to a scantily clad woman dressed in the barest essentials to hide her assets.

Shutting his gaping mouth he looked away from the woman and to the icons all around the screen. They were neatly aligned with a few of them being the familiar icons to some of his favourite games, even ones that would lead onto his steam account if he wanted to.

The only major difference was the amount of clutter was severely decreased leaving only those few games and two unfamiliar icons there for him to stare curiously at.

Oliver focused on the first one, a pink and intricate icon of a brain inside a hollow gear. A spur gear, he thought it looked like. The other icon was similar to the start screen logo, though in this case, it was a moon being chewed on by a disembodied dragons head.

Glancing to his steam icon and the games he pondered if he should test if they worked but chose to do so later. Instead, he took his mouse and guided his cursor over to the first of the icons, the dragon eating a circuit embezzled moon and clicked twice in rapid succession.

It didn't take more than half a second for the screen to flare white and for the relatively blank home screen of a web browser to open. On it the logo of a dragon, cloud, and moon, and beneath that a search bar. Thankfully, it had automatically come in dark mode. So that was boon, Oliver thought. Clicking on the search bar, he thought of what to search for and immediately one thing came up. [Oliver Geiger, death.] And clicked enter.

In seconds he was greeted with one thing, a chibi dragon sitting on its bottom, legs splayed out beneath it with tears in its eyes and

[It appears you do not have access to the internet at the current time. Please wait while we remedy this. If it does not return within one hour please call the number listed within the settings.]

Oliver blinked a few times then sighed. 'Somehow this doesn't surprise me.' He thought and pressed space as a test to see if anything happened. Nothing did. He was expecting to get internet access not long in the future, when Retia came back he'd asked why that was.

Closing the browser he clicked on the gear and brain icon and watched everything shift for a second before opening a dark screen filled with numerous tabs he could only equate to the settings of a computer. Personalization, network, privacy, time&language and many more.

Some though were new to him like the [Manual] page and the [Apps] options on the side. His first thought was to click on the manual, that thought was quickly put away. As much as he loved reading manuals, he didn't have the willpower to read through something that would undoubtedly be many, many hours of his day lost forever.

For all I know, my day could be an hour in the real world. Oliver huffed and hovered over the [Apps] tab and opened it. He was hoping for something interesting, something more than just a collection of icons of all the games that came preinstalled. Sadly though, that was exactly what it was. Though unlike his home screen there were many, many more tabs for him to click. Most of them for things he didn't have the faintest about.

The first in the list of unknowns was the [Customization] app. Opening it he was greeted with a few more tabs, [Mindscape] [Avatar] [Interface]. Not knowing what to click on first he decided to go for the one that sounded the least exciting. That being the interface. Turns out it just gave him a few slight controls over his computer, things like the background as well as if he wanted dark mode for everything… which was a yes.

He then moved onto [Avatar], in it he saw himself standing to the left with a plethora of options to the right. Sliders mostly but a few buttons here and there that let him zoom in on specific portions of his body. It was much like the character creators in video games, at least, the games that had the more advanced customization options.

Oliver quickly scanned through the list of alterations he could make. It was basal things really, hair, eyes, face shape, height and build—he made himself fat in the screen for just a second but decided against pressing apply and testing that feature—though once he got to another option labelled [Breasts] he froze and with hesitant motions watched his digital and naked self grow pert bosoms.

"I… okay…" he mouthed not knowing what to say. Angling his view to the [Apply] button, Oliver hesitantly pressed it and felt a steady weight rising on his chest. He turned his eyes down and watch two baseballs rise and stretch his shirt. He gaped, lifted one hand and nervously poked it, it was soft.

"I'm just… this is…" Oliver gaped and reached for the mouse, swiftly sliding the option all the way down and returned himself to his regular self. Leaning into his seat he let his arms hang languidly by his side as his mind raced with the implications something like that would entail. "Oh god, please tell me there's not-" desperately he shot up and glared daggers at the option beneath all the various breast sliders like areolae size and softness, and paled when he saw what was beneath.

[Genitalia]

If he wanted to, Oliver could have very well swapped his manhood out for womanhood. That just… it wasn't something he was tempted to deal with. Though when he saw the option for [Penis size] and [Penis shape] his male curiosity took over. It didn't take long for him to decide that having something hanging to his knee, was not going to be comfortable in the slightest.

Though maybe a little bigger wouldn't hurt.

The [Mindscape] subsection of the [Customization] app let him alter his surroundings. It let him change his home into a castle into a wood cabin in the middle of a bustling forest, it let him add rain or have a hurricane destroying a farmhouse in the background. There wasn't much else to it. Just a simple way to customize his surroundings. There was even an option to import prefabs, though he didn't have access to any of those at the moment.

Closing the app, he perused the others some more, seeking out anything to alleviate his boredom and curiosity. He knew he could easily just open up a game and binge that for a few hours, but when greeted with his current situation and all the things it was granting him… he couldn't help but explore.

And that was when he saw it, a single app named curtly [Harlot] he blinked once, then twice, then rubbed his eyes not believing he was seeing a word like that in his apps. When opened he wasn't just greeted with another customization screen for himself, instead, he was greeted with the customization screen for a woman. She was fit and pretty and if anything looked like the base character a games customizer would start with.

"Is this?" he muttered and then angled his gaze to where the [Apply] button would have been had it not been replaced with [Hire]

It wasn't bad for him to be expectant of that button, was it? Feeling a lump at the back of his throat, Oliver brought his cursor to the button, extended his index, and pressed it down hearing the satisfying click of a new mouse.

The screen flickered and a thunk from behind sent him spinning in his seat towards the wall opposite. There hadn't been a door there when he first entered but now there was.

Warm light snuck in from the rectangular crack it formed. A second drew to five and then the crack widened, the 'door' slid free letting free a thick billowing of fog. As it rose and opened, the fog billowed harder and was joined by a bright and encompassing light. And in the light… 'she' appeared. A silhouette indistinguishable from the image on his screen.

Oliver's mouth hung open as she took two steps into his room, paused, and smiled brightly at him. Her hand lifted to her mouth and finally, she chuckled in a most hair raising manner.

"Ara ara. How can this onee-chan service you master?"

Oliver spun back to his computer, eyed the [Hire] button and saw it had shifted to [Fire] The woman's bare feet pattered closer with Oliver doing his utmost not to think of how she was stark bollock naked at the moment. His hand trembled over the [Fire] button but as he sensed her behind him and felt her hands snake over his chest and felt her bosom against the back of his head… he found himself unable to.

'I don't even know anymore.' He thought.

Come morning he had learned this digital world was more than just a hollow mimicry of real-life… for some aspects… it was exactly the same.