"Silly Pablo, don't look so glum. As a current citizen, the city allows you complete freedom to customize your personal space in any way you want. Here, let me show you."
Janice walked to the wall opposite the entry and pointed out a small indentation in the exact center of the otherwise white and featureless wall. She pressed the dot, and a slide control similar to those on the appliance's gently glowed.
She chose a series of icons of small arrows and gave the wall a push. It moved with ease as she walked ten feet forward. The walls on either side, as well as the ceiling and floor, remained as they were in the now rectangular room. She performed the same operation on the left-hand wall, then pushed the replicate icon and created three more walls, which she moved about to form an alcove.
"You can make your space as large or small as you need, and add as many rooms and alcoves as you desire."
"Surely, there must be a limit. For instance, what if we are on the outside wall of the building, or city, whatever this is, or abutting against a neighbor?"
"If there is a limit, no one has yet found it, and there are some vast compounds. You haven't asked me about it yet, but the city has no human governmental authority or structure. In the years since people first moved in, there has never been a shortage of anything. That, and along with the apparent physical health changes, there also seems to be no more mental or emotional deviancies either.
Oh, people still have minor personality confrontations and the occasional relational jealousy, but with unlimited resources and space, plus the fact that anyone can notify the city system of certain people to avoid, we have an incredible amount of freedom."
"So, some people create mansions? I don't know what I'd do with that much space."
"Mansions, and even what I'd call palaces, both realistic and fantastical. Most of those, though, have multiple residents. It's incredible the diverse kinds of families, and communities, that people create when left to their own devices.
This boundless freedom actually gives a lot of newcomers the most problem while acclimating. No one judges anyone else, or if they do, it's easy enough to avoid the judges."
"Maybe I'm getting ahead of your great presentation, but what about, like, a bed and furniture and stuff."
"If you give me just a moment, we'll cover that, but first, there's more to the interior surfaces. See this slide? And of course, instead of slide controls, you can vocally direct your PDA. Some things are easier one way, some the other, but a combination is often the fastest way to communicate your wishes."
Pablo's varicolored chimp had climbed to the top of the appliance and had settled into a comfortable position when they had first entered the room, patiently waiting while picking at its fuzzy fur.
Janice directed Pablo's attention back to the wall slide-controls and pushed another button. All the surfaces, except the ceiling, became transparent as glass while the room appeared to float several hundred feet in the air.
Pablo felt instant vertigo, but there was no solid place he could grab to stop the spinning sensation other than the appliance. He lurched over to it and hung on in a partially successful attempt to regain his balance. Janice giggled again, but in a way that disarmed any angry or belittled feelings.
"You can zoom in or out on any surface, or display patterns or pictures, static or moving. There is an almost unlimited library of both to choose from, or the more artistic among us create custom pieces. Now, as far as furniture or anything else you can imagine for that matter, the appliance takes care of all that.
It works similar to the field units out in the world. I assume you are familiar? Great! The entire top surface also acts as a disposal for larger items that you no longer want. Just set something on top and press this icon, or easier yet, just inform your PDA. What's that look for?
"I was just wondering, do I have to sit on the top of the appliance when I need to, you know, go?"
"Of course not, silly! Just order the appliance to create a portable disposal unit and move walls around if you want a private toilet. Well, I guess that's all you need, for now. How about I let you create some furniture and get some rest, then I'll call you later, and we can go get some dinner?"
"Can't we just eat here?
"I knew I'd forget something. That is one difference between the portables and the appliances in our rooms. Ours don't dispense food, but they do offer a full choice of liquids. There is a lot of debate as to why.
Actually, debating why any and all of the city's quirks is the major daily activity, but as to food, the leading theory at the moment is that whoever made all this wants us to socially congregate around meals.
Whether this is to promote a sense of community or for some other reason, the only place food is dispensed is in large communal areas. It's kind of the same with our comm devices. You can only talk remotely with one person at a time, and you have to meet in person before you can connect, or have to be recommended by a mutual acquaintance.
Again, it's thought that the lack of mass communications forces interpersonal relationships and inhibits group identities that create strife. Or maybe limit mob control, or at least harmful influences. Anyway, I'll call you later. Have fun decorating, and take your time settling in."
Janice did not wait for an answer before the hidden door appeared, and she was gone.
~o0o~
Pablo stood for quite a while and stared out the virtual windows across the prairie below, waiting for his mind to process enough of his overwhelming circumstances so he could think again in real-time. His bladder prompted his next move.
He studied the slide controls on the oversized appliance and found the disposal bucket easily enough. He also saw unlimited design tweaks he could order, but the basic high-tech bucket used since he was five would suffice, at least for now. He used the two corner walls that Janice had copied as examples, created a rough toilet space, and then stood once again in the center of his room.
All at once, his emotions, as well as the physical trip, caught up to him in a wave of fatigue. He started to drop against a wall and snuggle against his backpack, but he wanted something more comfortable for both body and spirit. He walked back to the appliance and, for the second time, addressed his PDA.
"PDA, is there anything else I can call you?"
"You may call me anything you wish. I can usually tell by context when you want something from me, but for convenience, many humans give their PDA's a personal name."
Pablo had a name in mind but had to decide if he would sound too silly saying it out loud, then remembered he could subvocalize. The PDA was designed after a favorite childhood stuffy, and its name was one of the first words that Pablo spoke, probably a soft-palate corruption of something else. He decided to use it and was glad he did since it brought a slight smile and a feeling of comfort.
"Okay, then, your name is Woogie. So, Woogie, I want to design an easy-chair as my first piece of furniture. How do I begin?"
"If you picture it, in as much detail as you can, I will be able to read the general image from the neurons firing in your visual cortex. After that, you can make any adjustments either by visualizing, explaining, or using the slide controls."
"Wait, you mean that you can read my mind?"
"I, which you may think of as the city's system, can interpret the electrical fields generated when your synapses fire in your brain. It is not one hundred percent accurate, but I will do better the longer I study you personally. How did you think I designed this Woogie image from your memories?"
Pablo was not sure which bothered him more; the idea that the city could virtually read his thoughts or that the little monkey just asked a rhetorical question that sounded as if it had an attitude. He'd have to file that thought away and test it out later.
He had a sinking feeling that the city had an agenda of its own, but he hoped the PDA would do as asked. Pablo made his first concrete goal since he reached the city; to discover who was in control or at least what the city's agenda might be.
For the moment, mainly because he felt in serious need of rest, Pablo touched a top corner of the appliance to invoke a slide and pictured his Papi's battered old recliner. A one-foot-high three-dimensional hologram slowly rotated just off the top surface of the appliance.
Pablo had never seen that technology in person but had read about early experiments and assumed it was common in the old world before the electricity stopped. In some ways, since he was so young when the world changed, it was easy to accept endless engineering miracles.
The chair image was an exact replica, at least of his memories, including the broken arm on one side and several strips of duct tape that was mostly successful at keeping the stuffing on the inside of the burgundy leather.
"Can we fix that broken arm and maybe recover it with new leather?"
"Anything you wish. Would you also care to change the color? I can also modify the configuration so that it more closely fits your body. The dimensions seem a bit oversized, but that is likely due to your perspective as a child."
Pablo had to think that over. He initially thought the chair would be a lovely memorial to Papi, but the more he thought, the more he realized it would almost be like living with a ghost. He decided on a compromise that would remind him of Papi without falling into morbidity.
"Yes, please, go ahead and customize it to me, and make the color a butterscotch yellow."
Pablo had a dim memory, back when electricity and television still operated, of a fancy-looking house with lots of rooms, including two indoor swimming pools, which had impressed the preschooler to no end.
He also remembered a setting of a chair, couch, and love seat covered in that exact color of yellow, and it was the first time he gained a little understanding of income inequality. He never felt jealous of others' wealth, but that may have been due to the interruption of social programming shortly after that.
Pablo's Woogie directed him to use the slide controls to adjust the color to his exact preferences and asked him to step back a few feet. The Appliance grew in height without sound or visible moving parts.
A dispensing panel opened, and a new, pleasantly yellow recliner eased into the room. The Appliance shrunk back to its original four-foot height, and Woogie jumped to the floor and walked around the chair while nodding in approval.
Pablo sat on the edge, then wiggled his backside all the way in and raised the foot-rest. It was so comfortable he let out a sigh and reclined the back about half-way down. Just before he fell asleep, he thought, "I have a toilet, a comfy chair, and my Woogie. Oh, and a cute nudist for a friend. What more do I need in life?"
~o0o~
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