After the hippie-method saving the world experiment failed, Sherry started rethinking her approach. She wanted something less chaotic, less intrusive… a way to bring more peace to Earth without everything backfiring. Somewhere along the line, that turned into the idea of “helping” by pulling consciousness into her own simulation, pulling people out of their realities and into Sherrytopia, overriding their free will in the process.
“Look, I’ve got another idea. Why don’t we code spas in every corner and get the NPCs to relax more? They work too much, it’s stressing me out.”
“Er, so should you… How do you even afford all of this? You go to one of the most expensive places on earth on vacation. I mean I know we coded that place entirely based on your personality and catered it to your needs and likes, so it would distract you forever. We thought you’d move there by now and forget about this whole thing.”
“I opened the Sims cheat bar and hit Motherlode multiple times while you were asleep. Don’t worry about it, I’m completely committed to my side quests instead of focusing on building my dream life. Can we get back to my spa idea now?”
“Fine. What now?”
“Spas in every corner, and maybe we can spike the peeling salts with some Molly? You know that’s like the ultimate love drug, right? Maybe they’ll have a spa orgy.”
“Girl, what is it with you and orgies? Haven’t you learned anything from the last round of ‘let’s not alter NPC minds with drugs without consent’ experiments you went on about?”
“Nope. But maybe a little. No aliens this time. They had their fun but they’ve been complaining about how stupid and confusing humans are. They miss their own planets, let’s get them outta here.”
“You respect the free will of extraterrestrials, but continuously over-rule the free will of your NPCs hoping to bring more conscious ones into your simulation against their will?”
“Yup. Guilty as charged. Can we focus on the mission? I’m tired of you hinting that I have control issues. Which I do.”
“You have control issues and fantasize too much about orgies. What have you been watching?”
“Er, I’ve seen Sense8 like three times, but that’s besides the point.”
The spa idea with spiked peeling salts surprisingly didn’t cause any global wars this time around. The NPCs actually stayed calm, even affectionate, and started working from home more in the name of work–life balance. Less traffic, lower emissions, less noise, fewer arguments… more ease. Zen mode activated.
“See, that didn’t backfire. You must have dosed the Molly well. Sweet. Can you see if someone zapped into my simulation?”
“Let me check the map. Hmm… nothing in your area. Oh wait, look, it actually worked! I can see another glowing dot in the mountains. Not too far from the other one. Looks like there are three of you now. What are you gonna do about it?”
“Is he a handsome hunk I can smash?”
“Girl, you’re disgusting. I can’t see how he looks like from here! We don’t even know if he’s a he or a she. But let me guess, that’s not a problem for you, is it?”
“Don’t think so. Alright, enter those coordinates for that ‘yummy-looking consciousness’ into the map. Let’s go find them.”
“You know, when you were a sweet, naive girl in love with the first other consciousness you ever met, you were so much easier to deal with. You’d dream about him all the time, he was basically your whole world. And you left me alone.”
“I didn’t leave you alone. Remember the times I’d frantically try to alter his code, only to realize he didn’t have any to begin with?”
“Yeah, I just went along with it to keep you entertained. I wasn’t doing any actual work.”
“Even my hologram is a lazy-ass, sassy beach,” Sherry muttered, rolling her eyes as she prepared to head out in search of the next conscious one.
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