Sorting out

By this point you can understand if I was overwhelmed. I had gone from a manager at an advertising firm, olding gracefully in a content if not engrossing marriage, getting ready for my kids to go to college, to someone who could do, if I was understating Power properly, basically anything.

'Does master have any more questions?' Power asked. The buttery accent and mannerisms were getting on my nerves by this point. I could understand why it might have chosen that based on my memories, but it was just too far off normal for me, even with everything else. Also, I was talking to nothing and it was starting to make me feel crazy. I was hoping that it was just a feeling, and not me hallucinating things, since technically I hadn't really verified anything that couldn't just be me having a mental breakdown yet

"Could you talk more normally?" I replied, exasperated. "The way you are speaking is just too strange. And could you maybe give me something to talk AT? I am not feeling great conversing with air."

Rather than respond, the air in front of me flickered, then resolved into a translucent figure standing in front of me. The image looked all flickery, like holograms in a sci-fi show, and I realized it in fact was from a sci-fi show. I couldn't remember which one at the time, though.

"Is this better, sir?" she said, her voice now clearly coming from her image rather than being indistinct. "This is an image you had in your head for an 'interface' that is clearly not real, which you seemed to desire."

"That actually is better," I replied. "You don't have to be all military, though, just because that character was. Ok, so now I can actually face you. Can others see you? Will I have to explain you to them if you are visible like this?"

"No. Only you can hear or see me, unless you request otherwise. However, people can see and hear you talking to me, unless you would like me to fix that."

"'Fix that'? How?" I replied.

"I can simply have then not register anything you do in relation to me. They will fail to notice any actions taken in my context, believing you are behaving totally normally. If necessary, they will momentarily stop and wait for you to finish with me, without registering the time lapse as inappropriate."

"You are talking about... mind controlling everyone I come across to make them ignore my talking to you? You can do that?"

"Of course. In order to fulfill your desires, I can alter anyone in any way mentally or physically. You need only ask."

This was by this point getting to be too much. In hindsight, I should have realized that making a person out of nothing would obviously this was possible, but you'll excuse me for being slow on the uptake. It was not like I had prior experience with this kind of thing. At this point I was thoroughly burned out, so I decided to do what I normally do when I needed a break, and when the weather was nice: get some ice cream. I left my house (Power simply vanished; when I asked it replied that it believed seeing it following me around would bother me, though its voice now sounded like I had in an earpiece, rather than being nebulous) and headed out to the ice cream shop. It occurred to me I could just have some ice cream appear, but at this point I wanted something normal, and besides I liked the walk. Also I wanted to test out my 'new' wallet.

After grabbing my favorite flavor and paying (with a twenty that definitely had not been in there when I left home; I had emptied the wallet just to prove to myself what was going on), I sat down at a table and just had a look around at the perfectly normal and mostly empty store. I saw a teenage couple enter the store. She was a beauty, somewhat similar to the image of perfection I had had on my couch, though taller and a lot bustier (my tastes run to petites). She was dressed neatly in a t-shirt and jeans. Her boyfriend was rather scroungy looking. She appeared to be about 18, he was probably about 21. I idly asked to check that (they were very clearly in earshot but took notice); Power replied that she had her 18th birthday 3 weeks ago.

As I left the store, I watched them through the window. The boyfriend was asking for a root bear float to share; the girl wanted something fruity. I looked her over, appreciating the way her t-shirt clung to her nicely sized boobs, they way her intentionally ripped jean showed off her legs, and was tight on her ass.