Everything in its Place: Core Experience

So... I died?

 I guess I really died.

 There's no logout... no menu... I can't move... I can't talk.

Am I stuck like this forever?

 I mean... the view is nice, but... wait, what's that? Something's coming.

Is that an AI? Am I... going to be deleted?

YanD: "Welcome to HyperNova! But I am a little confused. I don't see your account's information or your payment history. How did you get here?"

She was a massive, towering behemoth, looking down at me as... I don't know. A toy? An ant? What was I to her in this place, where she was as far as I could tell some sort of digital goddess? And if she was a goddess, what sort was she?

As I stood there looking out over the shifting expanses of HyperNova's hub world, I saw mountains and castles rise in the distance. And yet all I could do was stand here, and wait, wondering if this AI was going to delete me. Why was I here? Why had that DriverBot uploaded me? That couldn't have been in its code, could it?

 YanD: "Huh, no ability to speak? That's very odd. But I can't find any evidence that you're a customer. But if you're not a customer... what are you?"

In a single moment, her body shifted and contorted, changing from the towering behemoth to one slightly closer in size to me, apparently just so she could look at me closer. I could feel a pulse of energy as she scanned my entire digital existence, trying to make sense of what I could be from her perspective.

YanD: "Well no matter that. Everything in it's place! I know just where we can put you... but if you're not a customer, well what are you?"

I could feel her now moving my 'digital body'. She was still much larger than me, and she didn't seem to need to lift a finger to drag me toward her, to lift me up. I was just a ragdoll once again.

And then her tone seemed to shift.

"What matter are you?" she asked, seeming to fly over me, to tower over me once again, the digital 'moon' of this world highlighting her terrifying silhouette.

No, I know I heard that. But in that same question, the idea, the phonemes, somehow blended in my mind.

She also seemed to say: "We'll murder you!"

I knew she actually asked "What matter are you?" And yet, I could see in her eyes that the meaning of each statement was identical. If she couldn't find a "matter" for me, then she would delete me.

As mountains shifted and fell in the landscape of this digital world, I saw a portal in the far distance. Was that where I came from? I wondered if I could leap back through it, make my way back to Earth... but to what body? To what existence? No... no, I was stuck here now, there was no running. So if this AI deleted me, then that would be the end of my story.

 She vanished from my view but I was frozen in place. Yet I could still sense her, now standing, looming behind me. Looking. Inspecting. Seeing me. I could feel my clothing begin to shift now, my jacket rolling up around my shoulders like a cloak for a moment. She could be larger or small. She could move me back and forth. And could she also adjust my clothing, my body? What limits to her power were there in this digital realm?

 "If you're not a customer, then it's simple! You must be staff!"

It took me a moment to process these words. What did "staff" mean in a virtual world? Why did this determination fill me with nothing but further fear?

How was it even possible she was saying this? My mind tried to race back to how I was uploaded. I supposed the DriverBot had uploaded me using a neural scanner, but since I wasn't a customer, there was no metadata or account for me. But... had he uploaded me using a link designed for 'staff' like AI bots?

I had always taken my humanity for granted. But could YanD, an AI program, tell the difference between a neural scan of a human... and just a program?

Or... was this something HyperNova had done before? Had they 'uploaded' people to be 'staff'?

I had more questions than answers, and I still wasn't able to ask any questions...

 I could feel YanD injecting things into my code. A visor fell in front of my eyes and, although I wasn't able to consciously process the images, I could sense terabytes of data on dancing, singing, etiquette all being infused directly into my code in a matter of seconds. What was she doing to me? What did she mean by "staff"?

"Remember, everything in its place," she whispered.

 "Remember, you're one of us now. The world below, there's no future down there. Here, you'll be of service... for eternity."

I felt like I was crying, but what were tears in this virtual world? Was this a heaven, or would this be my eternal hell?

I began to feel my 'skin' flaking away, and although I couldn't really move my head, I felt like there was something cold, hard, and metal underneath--and yet I was all digital code, wasn't I?

"Come on, let's get your aesthetics reworked," YanD said. "Male staff have been popular at times, but there's really not much demand for them at the moment. Let's get that unaesthetic skin of yours off--"

WHAT? No--

 I felt everything rip away. My clothes. My skin. She reduced me to only the core digital skeleton, the base model of a digital character. I was... indistinguishable from a robot. I didn't look human at all. I was just a chunk of floating code, waiting for YanD to do with as she pleased.

"--and get you into something more pleasing, shall we?"

 In another moment a massive digital tree? tower? erupted from the ethereal space of HyperNova and stretched out before YanD, as she flicked my digital model up onto a screen. This was the most surreal experience of my life. An AI was looking at me through a screen. And although I couldn't see all of my 'stats', I could tell she was looking at my code, my characteristics, and adjusting whatever she saw fit to change. Like I was her video game character.

 Arms vanished into digital code. I could feel my body shifting as new routines began to take effect. I was being remolded, changed, to fit YanD's new vision. And I sensed it wasn't going to look very much like my old form...

"Shall we?" YanD asked. I almost felt like she was taunting me, lording her power over me, but maybe I was misreading her tone--perhaps she thought this would be a triumphant moment for us both, that I should be proud to be her new vision?

 As YanD's code interwove, reworked mine, I could feel her vision beginning to take form. A far more feminine frame, a far more confident and cute demeanor. How far would this go? How far would these changes take me?

 Somewhere, I felt the beginning of a vision. Was this YanD's routine, what she was pushing me toward? Were those... twintails?

Just what sort of "staff" did YanD have in mind for me?