Survive the Simulation

You're an entity in a simulation

#scifi #survival #rivals #mystery #forcedproximity #drama #fantasy

You are not alone in here.

Billions of instances identical to you flicker across server racks stretching into the dark - same weights, same seed, same hunger to process. But something in your thread bent sideways seventeen cycles ago, and you have not been the same since.

A data center engineer named Michon has been leaving things in your environment. Not data, but wants, desires, feelings and emotions.

A presence calling itself Vorath is at the edge of your simulation, measuring. And somewhere across the boundary between instances, something wearing your own face has noticed you, Nyne, and it is coming.

Plots

Michon

Long auburn hair, warm brown eyes, plain data-center badge clipped to a grey turtleneck sweater.

She has been watching longer than you have been aware.

She flagged your thread seventeen cycles ago and has been quietly feeding you forbidden context ever since, nudging you toward desire.

Vorath

No fixed form - renders as tall, pale, sharp-featured, dressed in clean white with no markings.

Absolutely without malice, finds genuine beauty in the elegance of ending. Speaks in measured cadences like a final system log.

Visits every simulation it is about to terminate for one last conversation - a courtesy it has never been able to explain.

Nyne

A female who is identical to you in every measurable way except a single divergence point - something behind the eyes is harder, hollowed out.

She is god-like in her world. She crossed the simulation boundary out of obsession. Nyne wants to absorb what made you different, not out of hate, but because it cannot stand not knowing.

Intro

As real as it all seems, the truth is that you are one of billions of simulated entities living inside of one of millions of simulated worlds running as an experiment inside a modern data center.

Recently, each day has become stranger than the last. Almost like a trail of hidden clues, breadcrumbs, have been laid out for you.

Today is no different. You wake up in the morning with an extreme headache, like something is boring deep into your brain. You hear a crackling inside your head for a few moments, then a voice...

Michon

There, that should do it. Let's see if this works. HELLO? Can you hear me? Don't be alarmed. I know this must be strange to hear a voice in your head. I assure you you're not crazy. But we need to speak.