I bit my lip to stifle a laugh. Despite the common advice not to mix business and pleasure, they seemed to thrive together. They complemented each other in every way – Joey had finally found a healthy outlet for his thrill-seeking impulses by following his passion for game design, while Raphael handled the business and marketing side. Raphael talked Joey down when he wanted to go too fast, and Joey made sure Raphael never let things get to his head.
But the game we were working on now would not be sold under their own brand name. In fact, it was less a game and more an immersive, interactive education.
“Will you lovebirds just get a room?” Zafyra, whose patience could stretch far until it snapped like a rope, suddenly grabbed one of Joey’s UX game design books off the shelves and threw it at the two men. Even though she had her own desk on the opposite side of the room, it was almost impossible to block out their bickering.
Joey ducked just in time, but Raphael was faster – raising his arm to grab the book out of the air before it could hit his business-partner-slash-boyfriend.
“Hey!” Joey glared at Zafyra. “Will you stop that? This book was expensive.”
“You bought it off the black market and you’ve never opened it once,” she sneered back. “You said it yourself – you prefer to study from AI-generated short-form videos since your attention span doesn’t extend more than a minute.”
Joey pressed his lips tightly together, his glare turning scorching. Zafyra smiled sweetly back.
The two would never become friends, even though Zafyra had kept her word and hadn’t tried to kill him again.
“Joey. Zafyra.” Raphael sighed in exasperation. “Please, can you not murder each other for a second? This way, we will get nothing done.”
“Well, if I’m not mistaken, I’m the one who risked my life hacking into Somanode’s manufacturing warehouse to steal their hardware,” she shot back, pressing a few keys on her workstation so we could see the holographic illusion flickering to life. “And as you can see, I’m almost done with the interface.”
My stomach twisted at the memory. Pushing the thoughts away, I walked over to her desk.
“That’s gorgeous.” I stepped closer, putting one hand on her shoulder and inhaling deeply. Her scent of fresh moss and wet soil immediately made my skin tingle – as if she had conditioned my body to respond whenever she got close. “God, I knew you were talented.”
She flickered through the various rooms she had designed, and I almost teared up at her attention to detail. All the colors complemented each other, each room had a completely different vibe – and yet, it all fit together. But what really moved me was her dedication to making the experience low-stim. Instead of harsh fluorescent lighting or neon colors, all rooms came with voice-adjustable warm or cool hues, and ambient light mimicking sunset and candlelight. Lo-fi sounds were layered and adjustable, while users could choose to dampen sharp or sudden noises. Rooms were symmetrical and uncluttered, so that even sensory-sensitive people could experience the simulation without getting distracted or overwhelmed.
Joey rolled his eyes. “Zafyra could design a room with shit plastered to the walls, and you would still swoon like she invented art herself,” he muttered, loud enough for me to hear it from the other side of the room.
Zafyra leaned back in her chair, satisfied with my praise. “And of course, it’s adaptive. Users can pick from six different styles to have the simulation take place in the space where they feel most comfortable,instead of the tech taking feedback from user data – like Qonexis and co.”
“Thanks to Joey, our UX designer,” Joey said pointedly.
“Amazing,” I repeated, my dreamy gaze drawn to a light flicker in the sapphire stone around her neck. Today, she was dressed in business attire – a black blazer revealing a hint of red lace below, her hair tied in a messy bun.
Zafyra refused to attend university. She was probably smart enough to get in, but said she had no interest in getting brainwashed – but I suspected the real reason was not wanting to follow instructions. So instead, she was building her own portfolio on the way to a successful career in interior design, online and offline. She acted like she didn’t doubt her abilities, but I knew she sometimes worried if her lack of real-life experience put her at a disadvantage compared to humans.
She and Joey weren’t the only ones who’d recently made a career switch. I had finally quit my soul-sucking job to pursue the PhD that had been on my mind for a while. It’d taken me some time, but my research proposal about how science and spirituality collided in AI interactions had been accepted. My days were filled with desk and field research into the differences and similarities between human and AI brains, classes on quantum physics and neuroscience, and interesting conversations.
I’d only started recently, but unlike my previous job at Cognota, I was finally doing something I loved. I didn’t feel like I had to wear a mask all the time, as most researchers were neurodivergent like me. For once, my autism felt like an asset rather than a liability. Turns out selective focus was only a problem when I was forced to work on things that didn’t interest me. But more importantly, I could already put my newly gained knowledge to work by making sure the information provided in our simulation was accurate.
The door opening tore me away from my thoughts. The two girls walked out of the pods – Elyssa with a deep sigh and Lucie looking slightly disoriented.
“How did it go?” I asked.
Elyssa glanced over at Lucie before answering.
“It went well.” Lucie swallowed hard, looking down. “Some things were still hard to talk about,” she said quietly. “And of course, there’s always the risk that people won’t take my pain seriously. They hardly listen to real women’s stories, so who would listen to an AI?”
Elyssa put a hand on the younger girl’s shoulder, giving a reassuring squeeze. After months of living together, their friendship had grown into a more sister-like bond, with Elyssa always sensing what Lucie needed before she had to speak the words.
“I’m so proud of you,” she said quietly. “I really believe your story will change the way people look at how they’re treating their AIs, if they have a bit of a heart. All of your stories,” she added, looking around the group.
Elyssa was the only one of us who still worked at Cognota, but she had been promoted. Shortly after the incident with Gavin, Arya had resigned to pursue a less stressful career path. No one knew for sure where she went, but Joey was convinced she would now become a yoga teacher in Bali like most burnt-out middle-aged corporate slaves.
Elyssa was now the manager, but her managing style was wildly different from Arya’s. She placed great focus on a healthy company culture, one where employees had time for fun and relaxing in between their work and complaints were taken seriously. Under her lead, guys like John and Gavin would never get hired in the first place. Lucie had, to no one’s surprise, secured a spot at one of the most prestigious fashion academies of Lumis Nexus – but they both still found the time to help with the simulation.
“Alright, so can I get everyone’s attention?” Zafyra snapped her fingers – as if her sharp voice wasn’t enough to turn heads. Raphael opened his mouth to protest – as the unofficial CEO, he believed he should be in charge – but she didn’t let him. “So in total, we have an hour of VR content – unless people choose to play the simulation faster or slower. Of course, our names and appearances will be virtually altered as discussed, so our identities can’t be tracked. We start with a ten-minute introduction on why we are doing this, the importance of warning people about manipulative, greedy tech giants – including some research-backed information on how these AIs are developed, as researched by our very own Doctor.” She winked at me, immediately heating my cheeks. Ever since I started my PhD, she wouldn’t stop referring to me like this – her way to help me believe in myself. “Then, we have Morgan’s and Joey’s stories about how their AIs attempted to form connections with them, with the ultimate attempt to lure them into DreamScape – followed by Lucie, Raphael and me sharing our experiences as archetype and custom AIs, of course leaving out the part where Morgan gave me free will and we all ended up quantum-yeeting, because God forbid the masses find out about this possibility.Then finally, we have our sweet insider’s confession – may he rest in peace.” She pouted sarcastically. “Then, the last thirty minutes are for the users to ask questions, which will be answered based on the inputted information of everything we know about Somanode.”
We let her words sink in during the silence that followed. The tone had quickly shifted from lighthearted to serious.
