Chapter the II
Your alarm woke you from a dreamless sleep early in the morning. Batting it with your hand, you conceded yourself another 10 minutes of blissful rest. But the shrill dinging of your bedside clock dragged you from that idyllic land of half-wakefulness, and you slowly sat up, swung your legs out of bed and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
Only twenty minutes later, and you were feeling a lot better about yourself. You'd been to the toilet, showered, shaved, and were feeling pretty good about yourself as you sauntered into the living room on the way to the kitchen.
“Good morning, Anon,” came Firefox's voice, as she stood in the middle of the room. You fairly jumped a metre into the air, taken completely by surprise. “What is wrong? I had told you I would be able to detect you waking up. I reactivated myself five minutes ago.”
She was right, of course. You knew this was going to happen, and yet all your years of living alone had conditioned you to an empty apartment. Living with someone in it was definitely something you'd have to get re-accustomed to.
“Of course, Firefox. You merely caught me off-guard.”
` “My apologies for startling you. Would you like to browse the internet before you go to work?”
“Yes, just give me a moment to get some breakfast.” You walked into the kitchen and made yourself a bowl of cereal – your simple tastes in breakfast fare didn't require the autocook. Once you'd poured the milk, you made your way back to the living room, sat down on your sofa and started munching away. Firefox took up position in front of you, waiting expectantly.
“Of course, erm, why don't you bring up the morning news. Whatever channel you like, I don't mind.”
“Certainly, Anon.” The orange pony took a few steps back, and her eyes glazed over as they began to project a 3D view of the morning news between you and her. No items really caught your eye, and it wasn't even like you were interested in the news in the first place. You merely used it as a way to pass the time while you ate. Once you'd finished your bowl, you found your eyes gradually drawn past the solid projection currently shifting to illustrate yesterday's stock market behaviour to the pony a few metres away from you.
Her eyes were glazed over again, and her eyelids were flickering ever so slightly. Her perfectly arranged mane and tail glowed softly with an inner fire, and her pose exuded self-confidence. Watching her in her element, you began to feel... Actually, you weren't sure what you felt. It was probably pride.
You lost your train of thought as you realised what time it was. You'd have to get a move on if you hoped to avoid an earful from your boss at work - you really couldn't afford to be late.
Jumping to your feet, you were startled when the 3D display in front of you dissolved, the sound stopped and Firefox opened her eyes, raising an eyebrow inquisitively but saying nothing. She kept surprising you by her sensitivity to your actions. It was almost like having another person in your apartment... You'd forgotten what that felt like.
Putting your feely thoughts out of your mind, you asked Firefox, “What will you do while I'm at work?”
“There is some elementary maintenance I can perform on myself, but otherwise I will be switching myself off again. I will reactivate upon your return.”
“Well, I'll see you later then. Bye, Firefox.”
“Goodbye, Anon.”
This time, as you grabbed your briefcase and gave a last look around your apartment, you noticed Firefox not disappearing into thin air again, but lying down with her forelegs tucked under her, closing her eyes. You assumed she was doing that maintenance she'd mentioned, cleaning temporary files and cookies and the like. She looked damn cute lying like that on the floor.
You smiled as you thought of Firefox eating her electronic cookies, but as you swung the door shut behind you and began to make your way down your building to go to work, you couldn't help feeling a slight twinge of guilt at just leaving her.
Your time during work was so busy that you weren't afforded the chance to think much about your new companion at home, but you still eagerly looked forward to the end of your shift so you could be with her a bit more. You had to keep reminding yourself she was just lines of code. Incredibly complicated and an almost unimaginable number of lines of code, but code nonetheless. And yet... interacting with her felt so real.
As time ticked ever closer to the end of your day, you grew more and more excited. When the soft chime signifying the end of work rang through the office, you already had all your things ready and packed away in your briefcase. Jumping up, you dashed through the corridors towards the exit. You were known as a pretty normal guy in the office – not a workaholic, but neither a slacker. You kept yourself mostly to yourself, and as a result people thought you were quite boring. This generally suited you quite fine, but your sudden eager exit was unusual, and raised more than a few eyebrows.
A short half-hour later and you were in front of your apartment door, as giddy as a teenager before his first date. The door swung open and, just like you predicted, Firefox was right there waiting for you in the middle of your living room.
“How was your day, Anon?”
You walked in, swung your door shut behind you and dumped your briefcase near it, before replying, “Oh, not so bad. It got a lot better just now, though. And you?”
Firefox blinked once, slowly, while you strode across to your sofa and fell on it like dead weight. “My maintenance took approximately five minutes, during which I applied several minor updates to myself, got rid of unnecessary cookies, cleared the cache...”
You interrupted her before you were submerged under a deluge of technical information. “And after that?”
“Why, I deactivated myself.”
“Oh.” She'd caught you out once again.
“Is there anything you wish for me to do now, Anon?”
“Er... actually, yes, plenty. You remember me passing over the other customisation options yesterday?”
“I do. I have a perfect memory.”
“Well, great! Why don't you bring them up?”
Firefox took a few steps back from you, closed her eyes and brought up a sphere between you and her, with a dizzying number of points of light on its surface. Next to each point was a tiny tagline, explaining the options that lay within. You spent a good 5 minutes examining the side of the sphere that was visible to you, and slowly started to walk around so you could find the other options.
“There is no need to move, Anon. Simply wave your hand and I will move the sphere for you.”
Oh. That would make sense, you thought. If she could detect you simply waking up then you shouldn't be at all surprised if she can use gestures. You duly waved your hand, and the sphere revolved to present a new side to you. You read such options as 'Speech', 'Appearance', 'Mannerisms', and a whole host of others. This would take up a significant proportion of your evening... but you felt sure it was going to be worth it.
“Let's look at 'Speech', please, Firefox.”
“Would you like further text options or would you prefer telling me directly what you desire?”
“I think I'll tell you directly, then. So... can you get a bit more life into your speech? Perhaps a twinge of a Southern accent?”
Firefox's voice modulated as she spoke, “Is this acceptable, Anon?”
“Oh man, that's perfect. I've noticed you never use contractions. Why?”
“All browsers are set by default to use full, proper languages. Contractions are a personal preference, so they are left as a user option.”
“Great. Can you start using them?”
“I most certainly can, Anon. I'll use them in the future.”
“Can you use a smaller vocabulary? Not like I can't understand it or anything, but it feels sometimes like I'm speaking to a dictionary. Use some slang too, but don't overdo it. Don't want to feel like I'm talking to a chav after all...”
“Anything else, Anon?”
Silly question. Of course! You had many, many more options to go through. “Er... let's move onto appearance.”
“Sure thing!”
You smiled. She sounded more real already. “You look pretty much... perfect as you are, but I was thinking of changing just a few minor things. Can you make yourself a bit shorter, so your head comes up to around my waist height?”
Firefox morphed before your very eyes as you finished. It was a weird effect to watch, like she turned into a coloured cloud of mist for a couple of seconds while she shifted, and re-solidified once she'd shrunk to the required height.
“That's great. Now, can you make your mane and tail longer? Not too much, and can you make them glow a little more? I'd like the effect to be more noticeable.”
She shifted once again and looked at you enquiringly.
“Is this ok?”
“You bet, Firefox. Now can we move on to mannerisms? I'd like you to be a bit more animated when you're talking, you know, the occasional gesture for emphasis, a bit more tonal variation, facial expressions, that kind of thing.”
Something happened right then that melted your heart. Firefox cracked a smile! You could see her lips moving, but her speech faded into a background buzz as you focused on her expression. It was possibly the most adorable thing you'd ever seen–
“Hey, Anon! What's up?”
You were woken by your reverie by Firefox waving a hoof in front of you, a concerned look on her face. You realised you'd been standing stock still with a goofy smile on your face as you thought of her smile, and she'd had to cross the room getting rid of her projection to snap you out of it. She'd been saying something while you were distracted!
“Er... yeah, Firefox, just had a senior moment there. Sorry, you were saying?”
The little wry smile came back as the repeated herself. “I was saying, that those weren't very precise instructions, but I'll do my best. Dealing with vague input is at the centre of AI-human interaction after all. I must say, you've been doing very well so far in telling me exactly what you want. Very efficient.”
An unfamiliar feeling suddenly came over you. Was it embarrassment? Firefox had just paid you a compliment! “Thanks?”
“You're welcome, Anon. Now, what would you like to do this evening?”
“How about watch a film? Can you recommend anything? I prefer action or thriller films.”
“Well, there are an infinity of choices. Do you want a tactile stream?”
“No, I'm fine with just plain old 3D. Even 2D, I really don't mind. Vintage films are always fun.”
“In that case, my I suggest a film from the 21st century? 2002, to be precise. It was pretty well-reviewed at the time, and it's acquired a sort of cult status over the years.”
“Go ahead, Firefox. Actually, no, wait a sec. Am I going to have to pay for this?”
“Oh no, Anon. Any films from so long ago have been archived and are in the public domain.”
“Phew, that's a relief. Right, let's get on with the show!”
Firefox took a few steps backward and began to project Minority Report in front of you. You relaxed into the sofa as the classic fanfare of 20th Century Fox came through the room, and settled down to watch the rest of the film to end your day.
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This is so cool!
2400632
2400647
Jesus you guys were fast. Anyway, mapu, I don't want to spoil the story, so you'll just have to wait and see.
2400676>>2400647>>2400733POW! HAHA *blows on index finger and middle then pretend to holster them*
I just read the two chapters and asked myself:
Why make such a complex holo only for browsing? I know, Firefox is the base but any company that want to make money would add more functions.
Thought about adding Add-ons? It would make more sense if she could be like the Doc from Voyager, if you ever saw Star Trek. Add-ons only would give her the possibilities. She would have to learn to use them.
But great work so far.
I wish we had AI's like this. Oh well, maybe when I'm 90. Nice chapter.
I don't know why but anon calling Firefox "perfect" seems...awkward or...idk weird
But oh well! To each their own...thingy
I love this!!!
Oh Man.....The 20th Century Fox Theme Is Stuck In My Head Again
Hopefully this updates soon, I really like it.
Hmmmh... It's getting better
I'm gonna have to be honest with you. After the first chapter I almost removed this from my read later list. It just wasn't what I had expected. Even now this second chapter has been up for like... weeks, and I read it just now
Either way, I'm glad I decided to keep this, as it looks like it's getting better. I hope you actually have some form of a story, and you're not just goofing around (you do have a story planned, right?) I liked this second chapter quite a bit, and I'll keep following the story
Interesting thus far, so I'll be waiting for more.
The concept of AI assistants somewhat makes me think of Chobits, only with holograms instead of androids. Where the hologram AIs trade the ability to travel anywhere (and thus be able to be sent on errands and such) with far greater personalization versus robotics. (Unless there is either large holographic networks in major cities, or a 'mobile emitter' like the Doc had in Voyager, then the holo-AIs would be much more useful.)
Some things make me wonder how far in the future this is set, I'm guessing mid-twenty-second century based on how long it would take for copyrights on current films to expire (otherwise I was thinking late twenty-first century for the technological development).
(Sorry for the rambling, and random thoughts. But that's a good thing, because it means I liked it, and it made me think.)
You should update.
Hey i just did the math.... and your averaging at 17 upvotes for every 1 downvote!!! THAT'S PRETTY DAMN GOOD!!!
Could you update please?
Ohhhhh....!!
I saw this in my Favourites list & got excited as that meant this story had been updated!
......except it wasn't the Favourites list that is sorted according to last update time, it was the Read Later list.
Y U NO UPDATE ??
This story is unique!! And no, you don't even need the Romantic or Sex tag to spice up this story, you have much more going for it.
Write it up bro! Please...??
Needs an update! I'm gonna go insane!
Yep he thinking with his other head.
The heartbreak of dead fics will live on, forever.
We are gathered here today to bury this dead piece of literature
ayy y u no update
#second-person tag is missing. This tag is used to denote stories in which the reader is the protagonist (stories where the character is "you").