Aly in Space Ch. 05

As soon as I stepped onto the platform, the lab faded to white and a new scene faded in. I stood in a small room with racks of clothes and fabric all around. A row of mannequins stood against the wall, each with a different size and build.

Valitor's voice echoed above me. "For the calibration, we would like to see you dress a mannequin in a way that would best depict yourself. Take your time."

The row of mannequins stared back at me. Tall, thin, muscular, curvy, masculine, pear-shaped, apple-shaped... and they all seemed to come apart interchangeably. I tested this by twisting an arm off of one of them. Easy peasy. I started assembling myself. Tall, feminine, tapered limbs, solidly pear-shaped, heavier-set.... Honestly the clacking of the limbs back into place was super satisfying.

I then glanced around the room at all the clothes and racks. First things first, I needed a good wig.

"Oo! These actually feel soft like real hair!" I exclaimed upon petting one. I went through the bigger collection pulling out potentials. Blonde, wavy-verging-on-curly, medium length--well, Valitor said to depict myself. He didn't specify right now, and I had just taken a more bold risk with a haircut that took off a few more inches than I liked. It had been long less than a week ago and for most of my adulthood prior, so I went with a longer one. This one was too yellow... this one was really pretty, but I don't think my hair is actually that light. More of a dark platinum, if that even exists....

I arranged the hair on the mannequin, stepped back for approval, then started looking through the clothes. Probably a dress--that would make the most sense for me--but nothing too tight around the legs, nothing with a weird texture... oo! definitely blue.... I brought a couple options back to the mannequin and finagled it over the head, trying valiantly to work the arms through the short sleeves, before remembering that the mannequins came apart, and that made it a lot simpler. I found a little white knit shawl to go over the shoulders and stepped back. Mostly like me? I guess?

I saw some hats by the wigs and was going to put one on with blue flowers on the rim, but then I had a better idea. I found two small blue ones, carefully pulled them and their pins out of the hat, and gave myself two flowers for blue eyes. There. Now it had the semblance of a face. I nodded in approval at the mannequin and called to the mysterious voice from before.

"Okay! I'm done!"

And the room faded back to white, then to the lab. I hopped down and saw a few technicians huddled over one of the stations, where a miniature replica of my mannequin stood on top. Valitor clapped me on the back in encouragement and told me to fetch whoever was next.

I brought Mark out of our special privacy room, but I was then curious if he'd get the same scenario as me. I hopped up to the overlook where Yevn was taking notes in a script I didn't understand, intending to watch Mark's session in the lab. He hadn't seen mine, since I was so eager to start. Sure enough, his field transformed into (albeit a more masculine-looking) dressing room with mannequins. Valitor's voice echoed the same instructions as for me.

Mark also had his choice of mannequin, although I don't know if he noticed any real differences between them other than height. He did actually measure himself against them to make that part accurate, and in doing so, he also found out that they moved.

He pulled one of them forward and began dressing him in business casual. Button-up, pants, tie, black shoes....

"Dang it!" I said abruptly.

Yevn startled next to me, having been enraptured in the scene. She looked at me with concern. "Is something the matter? Do you need something? Did we forget--"

"No," I laughed. "I just realized I forgot shoes on my mannequin. Oh well."

Yevn's faced brightened. "It is true you did not put shoes on, but you did put eyes on, and I don't know if the others will think to do that. You certainly did nothing wrong. This merely helps us understand each of you and how you see yourselves, and get basic readings on your movements for future scenes."

She was already refocused intently on Mark and his progress, so I settled in to watch as well. Mark had a fairly Mark-ish mannequin, but he clearly wasn't done. He looked at the mannequin in front of him, then glanced to the side where both of them stood reflected in a full-length mirror. He paused there for a moment and then started moving the mannequin into an action pose.

He still wasn't satisfied, so he went back around the room, this time looking in all the accessories. He found a toy sword stashed in a box of more costume-like stuff, and a cape, and made himself into a superhero pose. He stepped back, posed himself in combat against it, then looked at the mirror again and laughed. I could hear his real laughter from over here. He tossed the cape and sword back onto a pile of his other clothing and prop rejects, posed the mannequin in a more natural walking position, and announced his completion.

As the field faded and Mark stepped down, I saw the technicians huddled again around a station, looking over something together. One of them was intentionally pressing his hand in a strange shape into the machine, and a miniature replica of Mark's mannequin began to take shape from the machine itself, as if the whole station was made out of Play-Doh. I couldn't see any apparatus from here actually at work, but it appeared that the technician was responsible for its changes. Shortly, Mark's miniature stood next to mine on the station, both still attached to (part of?) the machine.

I saw Mark talking briefly with Valitor, who smiled and gestured toward where Kat stood waiting. She had seen the tail end of Mark's session. The two of them swapped places as Mark hopped down and Kat stepped up. At this point I assumed she'd have the same task.

"Oh, Kat's gonna love this," I murmured quietly.

"I would imagine so, yes," said Yevn beside me. "Of the three of you, she does by far put the most time and effort into her appearance day to day, and given her appreciation for those 'dress-up mobile games' on her phone, I anticipate this will be quite a lovely interface for her."

"She for sure always looks the best of us. Maybe I should take some notes like you are."

Kat's process was meticulous. She chose a medium height, petite build mannequin and long, dark hair to go with it. Personally, if I were choosing a mannequin for Kat, I would've for sure taken the bustiest one over on the right side.

She then set the hair aside and began trying on clothes. I thought any of them looked pretty, and very much like things I had seen in her closet in real life, but she kept taking them off and trying different ones.

The process was the same for almost every piece of the wardrobe. Lots of options, comparing colors, trying a few on before she was satisfied.... I also learned that not only did I forget shoes, but I also didn't even think about looking for jewelry or a purse or frankly any accessories other than a hat.

When Kat's mannequin was done, she did indeed look very lovely and put together, and Kat proudly called a "ta-da!" to signify her completion. Valitor again gestured for the field to fade and said something to Kat on her way down. Valitor looked around the lab and atrium before he spotted me and waved me down. I left Yevn still writing furiously to rejoin the group.

"Thank you all very much," Valitor said smiling. "We have collected some valuable data that my team will process here shortly. It will take a little bit of time for them to recalibrate the lab, so feel free to wander if you like. But first, how are each of you feeling? Was the experience seamless?"

Kat shrugged. "I'd do that again."

"I'm very curious," said Mark, "what sort of data did you get from something like this? Did we all have the same scene?"

I nodded, since he had seen Kat's but not mine.

"Several separate aspects of calibration were achieved. For one, as much as we can observe and predict information about your species, it is hard to completely fine-tune our equipment in advance. Your strength when interacting with objects, your individual 'vital signs,' I think you call them, such as lung capacity, reflexes, sensory scanning.... We want to make the simulations as close to your reality as possible, for most accurate results, and that includes knowing precisely how you as a species and as individuals adapt to our simulation field.

"Second, while a simple exercise, the instruction to model yourselves provided insight, not only in the final product, but also in your priorities and thought processes. For instance, both Kat and Aly took a rather piecemeal approach to the task, but Kat spent 92% of her time on the outfittings and adornments, while Aly spent 54% of her time disassembling the mannequins themselves to reconstruct a more preferred body.

"Each of you noticed the mirrors against the wall, and while Mark took the view to inspire movement into his replica with a note of humor, Aly decidedly did not look at the mirror after the first glance, during which her heart rate and blood pressure rose significantly, indicating a level of stress by the very presence of the mirror."

Ouch. Spot on.

"Valitor!" Zentylk called from the central panel where the other scientists were gathered. He waved the team leader over to assist them.

"There is much more we observed, but that should give you an idea. If you'll excuse me...." Valitor exited stage right to assist with the calibration.

"Interesting," Mark said. He kind of wandered off, thinking, and Kat and I followed.

"They do have pretty sophisticated instruments here," I agreed.

"It's both the technology and the interpretations that intrigue me," Mark continued. "He got you spot on." Mark nudged me gently with his elbow.

I rubbed the back of my neck and pushed down the squirmy feeling. "Yeah, is it really that obvious?"

Kat put her arm around my shoulders and rubbed my back warmly. "We're working on it, that's all that matters."

"I mean, the mirror thing, yeah. But... did you notice how even with the mannequin he said I treated it 'piecemeal'? That's kind of why I don't like looking in the mirror. Cause that's what my brain does every time I see myself. It's just all these little pieces, and most of them are wrong, and there's no person there. I wonder if these aliens know a lot more about that stuff than we do."

"Well, there is a person, in those mirrors, but there's also a person right here." Kat squeezed my shoulders tightly with a little shake, and I smiled a little. We're working on it.

"How do you feel after trying it the first time, Kat?" I asked, shifting it back to her.

"Honestly? It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I did kind of get absorbed in it, but I never forgot it was a simulation. And while I do prefer the real world by and large, it might be fun to experience some imaginary things that we can't do in the real world."

"Like flying?" I asked excitedly.

"Yeah, or something," Kat laughed. "Did you really spend--what was it '54% of your time" taking the mannequins apart?"

"Yeah. I also forgot to put shoes on. Well, I didn't forget to put them on, more like I forgot to see if they had any, or just... forgot about shoes in general...? I don't know."

By now we had wandered a good way around the spacious room. I peeked into a few of the side rooms as we went. For such a big spaceship, there were surprisingly few aliens on board, from what I could tell. Maybe they only needed a small crew? Or maybe the 'science vessels', as they called them, kept more to the bare necessities?

As we continued meandering, I saw a tunnel off the main room leading lower than most, into what I can only describe as a bioluminescent version of Mario Kart's Mushroom Gorge.

"Hey, are we allowed to go down here?" I called over to the scientists.

Zentylk looked up from the shared machine and excitedly turned to Valitor. "Oh, this would be an excellent one to observe in the lab, Valitor. Capitalize on the exploratory nature of the species in an unknown environment? And they could of course go explore the real playroom after--"

"Very well, I think we're about finished with the calibrations." Then to us, "Would you mind if we set up that room in the lab to record your impressions for our research? And then, by all means, you could go see the real thing."

We paused our walk to come back toward the platform.

"Why not?" Mark shrugged.

"Agridia, bring up the playroom schematics."