Faust relaxed his hands, loosely holding an ordinary wooden staff. His eyes were dull with boredom and his tattered cloak swayed with the wind.
The embers of wonder flickered in his eyes.
He was not dulled to the beauty before him.
Not to the artistic masterpiece that called itself Under the Blue Sky.
Where he, and many others find fulfillment.
The conservation efforts of sapience still could not compare to worlds of fantasy, to virtual freedom unmatched by modern laws.
That it was possible to inject different art styles into virtual reality was already incredible.
That it was done so flawlessly.
Chef's kiss.
He knelt down to touch the grass beneath his feet. The subtle colorings of the world, the desaturated colored landscapes meshed with soft and hard lighting.
Every facet of this world was like a painting.
If it were to be named, then in its youth it would be held under the broad strokes of ancient Chinese color theory.
Now, it's under soft art.
A new blanket term, like the rolling hills before him.
Something simplified, easy for the masses to digest.
So incredibly compressed for the internet to reuse again and again.
Just so that people would be able to appreciate the distant mountains, rendered in stylized brush strokes.
Just so that everyone could understand the tip of the iceberg.
So that everyone would be able to appreciate the celestial glow that the land donned.
Where was his place in this game?
Who was he?
What reality did he don?
Faust stood, readying himself once more to enter his world.
He stood from the grass, peaking just over the hill at the starter village ahead.
A renewed beginning.
Aros Sonja.
He was a relatively fortunate person.
He did well in school, he had few if any hiccups with administrators.
His sports weren't good, nor were they bad.
He was just in preschool when the government announced breakthroughs in their FTL travel infrastructure.
By the time he got to elementary school they'd already fully civilized seventeen new planets and terraformed two others for future human life.
When middle school came around Aros figured that his interest lay in artistry with mathematics on the side.
New planetary colonies were announced day after day.
Terraforming companies were raking in government bonuses.
Such an era was practically heaven for research in fauna and exploration.
Once he got into highschool Aros learned that the only way for someone of his intelligence and interests to make a living was to be one of many in a new colony.
To be groundskeeper in a colony housing structure.
Once graduation came, he left a message for his parents, took his college savings, and left on the next colony ship.
In the same vein he filled out government paperwork regarding his preferred destination and intended business in the colonies.
Included was his willingness to explore the new world's cuisine, partake in community services, and even furthering his academic progress.
If he had anyone he was close with he could've tried to get them to go with him.
However he could see their potential, he wasn't going to tie them down to him like this.
Truthfully, Aros considered his achievements, present and future, inconsequential. To him, the mere existence of sapience among the stars was the greatest miracle in the universe.
For the ancient terrans and their hundreds of countries, space travel on such a scale was impossible.
Even in the height of their technology they fought only amongst themselves.
Their adventurous ambitions ended as soon as they created a working system for themselves.
It was a miracle that they did not render themselves extinct, and that the galactic government was established.
Now, across the stars of the milky way there stood thousands of colonized planets, countless more terran subspecies emerged in these efforts.
The galactic calendar, based on the terran year, stated that the year was 4052.
The final terran war took place in the twenty fourth century.
In the prior century, they were able to partially terraform Mars.
The terrans had figured out how to get Mars and Earth in the habitable zone without eliminating all chances of continued life in the solar system.
Then, over corporate greed and a rush for the full colonization and terraforming of mars the researchers and workers in the colonies came into conflict with the terrans.
The resulting loss of lives was devastating, that culture and knowledge was able to be preserved for the future was a miracle.
That the surviving Martians were able to scrounge up enough resources and materials to fully terraform Mars, return to earth, and clear the radiation was an even greater miracle.
With the preserved knowledge the ancients were quick to progress forward in technology.
Just short of four hundred years was all it took to return to that peak.
Two hundred more years and they established their first remote interstellar terraforming project.
One hundred years for many more unmanned fleets of terraformers to grace their fraction of the galaxy.
In the meantime, they spent their resources in human preservation for the long journey.
The first stasis chambers had a two percent failure rate.
They failed to keep the body in stasis long enough for the original minds to be reinserted into the body.
Expensive and complicated as they were, such technology is still used today in medical facilities.
In the thirty-first century the first interstellar colonies were born.
Cities on foreign systems were erected, connections were established, more brilliant minds were born.
Life, truly, in every aspect is a miracle.
"Aros! Kiera's rodent got out again!"
An alert pinged on Faust's interface, the voice of one of his tenants passing through the vr pod's system.
His pod projected his voice out. "Alright! I'll be right out! Where'd it get out to this time?"
He disengaged from the game, deactivating the pod restraints.
At the door, the young messenger spoke. "West wing, on the roof!" A flurry of footsteps followed the voice. The rush of a boy late for supper.
By the time he fully left the pod he could hear the opening of a door a floor beneath him.
'Gah, squeaky door, I'll get to that after I catch the rat.'
He stretched, pushing his arms up to the ceiling. He just finished character creation too.
"Tsk! Losing your rat. It's supposed to stay in the gardens!"
He criticized Kiara as he put some outside clothes on. Dress shirt, slackers, comfortable shoes.
Supposedly these clothes, especially with the implications of the shirt's name, were to some degree formal.
Nowadays people just wore what they found to be comfortable. Because why carry an absurd amount of gadgets when all you need is a comm? It comes with your wallet, earbuds, and connection to services on-net and off.
Aros grabbed his comm and mounted it on his wrist before walking out of the apartment. He closed the door and tapped his comm against the doorknob, automatically locking it.
"West wing, roof. West wing and on the roof. That means I don't need a ladder, bleeding space did she walk it up the stairs?"
He set off on a steady pace, looking at the intricate fencing lining the walls.
Did they make sense? fences along the walls? No. They looked nice and provided little structural support. Their deep red and lightly saturated dark green color scheme provided some interest to the eye. Against the dark pearl gray walls they popped out even more.
The floors had little light fixtures at its edges. Emergency lights that brightened if the main power systems fell. These were very nicely colored green.
Aros tested them and the blue ceiling ones every once in a while. Perhaps the fencing helped with depth perception in an emergency. That would need further testing.
He soon saw natural light, the light purple bordering blue sky peaking at him through the hallway between wings.
Whose idea was it to have such walkways? It costed extra to get those damn windmufflers!
He jogged from the fourth floor of the north wing building to the west wing.
Up the stairs past the fifth floor for roof access. Opening the door he looked out onto the ridged gable roof.
'Five floors tall and we're using ridged gable roofing. Why, I know I signed up for groundskeeping but, why.'
The tiles were also green.
His comfortable shoes would not do, to be on such a roof. He took them off, his socks as well as he prepared to go out.
He spotted his quarry just above the door, on one of many ridges.
"Down from there rat, I've got the door open for you."
The rodent moved not a single inch. Its eyes closed and its head lifted.
"How the hell did you even get through the door damnit?"
He rubbed the blasted thing's nose and braced his steps.
It woke steadily under the pink sun. Its eyes blinked, its heavy frame shifted, and like the blasted animal it was, it walked.
Down the tiles and into the door.
"Now why couldn't they give you a door opener."
Aros followed it down the steps, intent on seeing this capybara returned to its designated environment. The garden at the center of the housing grounds.
It had ground floor entrances just below the blasted suspended walkways. Four ground floor entrances were in the buildings. One per wing.
The walkways were exposed to air, and very much felt rigid. They did have the fencing though.
The garden walls were composed of a transparent material, one apparently approved by thousands of scholars for this specific building, in this specific design.
'I'm thankful that the sapient population can spare such manpower for every single building, but that looks like glass. And glass breaks pretty easy.'
Thankfully, it was not load-bearing glass.
The installment, known to the residents under his care as "the garden" was in the center of the four wings.
It possessed a transparent ceiling as well, reaching the third floor. It came with large pillars jutting from the ground to the third floor central walkway. It was the only walkway that connected all four wings together.
As for why the west wing elevator wasn't available for the giant rodent friend.
"Nyur, when do you think you'll be done with repairs?"
Aros stopped the capybara and asked a passing maintenance assistant.
"Sir, the elevator will be finished with repairs shortly. I have sent the details over to your digital mailbox."
It was an android that he and the security guys had admin rights to. As for why sapients still had jobs, the great decline in the 28th century indicated that not only would sapients go crazy, they would also not reproduce.
Thus, were humans given differing access levels to work bots. There were about eight bots per wing floor, so 160 bots for the whole community.
At any given time seven per floor could be used by the residents to teach simple skills and assist with small home crafts.
It was a rule that there must be one bot on each floor available at all times for security people and groundskeepers to access.
Aros considered his job incredibly tame. Though it could be tamer. He walked the capybara, one he called rat, back to the garden. Considering that each in-wing walkway had large housing units on both sides, and about 8 such units per side, he was responsible for 80 housing units.
He was groundskeeper for the north wing of the neighborhood. There was little he could actually do in directly physically aiding his tenants. What his job description told him to do was study the building's design, its modular rooms, the common possible problems, and how to prompt the bots.
Different planets mean different nicknames for the same thing. With so many planets out there it only takes one slip up for the robot to tush that thing instead of tush the thing.
Now of course, terrible actions are hard coded out of the bots, but the risk is there, and extra stress for the tenants is never good.
Aros returned the capybara to its zone in the garden, calling Kiara on his comm.
[Hello! For whatever reason I'm not able to use my comm right now. If you gotta leave a message, I prefer text!]
Oh he was not gonna text her, she doesn't remember that way. Her voicemail was reserved for "serious things." Blasted witch.
He waited for the beep and took a breath. "Kiara, do not bring the capybara's out of their environmental zones. This is your second warning and I cannot stress this enough, the capybara has a chance of dying when being taken out. I understand that you feel a special connection to one of them, but understand that despite the seemingly good environment outside, they are in the garden for a reason."
He finished his voicemail and started another call. This one to the security team of the west wing.
[West wing security how may I help you?]
Not even half a second passed when it picked up.
"Hey, it's Aros from the north wing."
[Ah! Stand in west wing groundskeeper? Yeah what can I do for you?]
Aros walked from the garden to the north wing, taking the laid out paths directly.
"You have a resident, First name Kiara, last name Sdodne. She's taken a capybara out of its zone twice now."
[Oh shit! The capybaras? Fuck, right I get the message, I'll prompt our guys' bots. Thanks Aros, We'll take it from here.]
"Thanks, are you gonna tell the other security guys or am I?"
[We'll do it, thanks for the heads up Aros.]
"Of course."
He looked back to see the capybara resting alongside another. Tough walk you giant rodent.
"If this happens again I'm just gonna use a bot."
He jogged to the north wing elevator, hitting the fourth floor button once.
Not a single thing bothered him until he passed the 3rd floor.
'Agh fuck! squeaky door.'
When he got out of the elevator he took the stairs down to the 3rd floor. The elevators are faster only if the floor difference is greater than one. He found someone with their door opened, obviously just moving in. The boxes of personal items expressing the fact.
"Hey excuse me, I'm groundskeeper here, have you seen anyone opening their door on this floor? With the door making a ton of noise in the process?"
The person standing at the door with a box in their hand nodded. The strap of a bag was in their teeth preventing them from talking. They raised a finger, asking Aros to wait.
In just a second they set down the box and bag.
"That one right there sir."
He pointed to a door that had a doormat in front of it.
Aros cringed.
'What do you mean sir? I'm younger looking than you!'
"Thanks."
He checked the bots in the corridor before inspecting the door.
Two were helping the new tenant, three were free.
"Nyur!" One of the three bots approached, waiting for further instruction.
He led it towards the door and knocked on the door.
"Who is it?"
A woman's voice came from behind it.
"Groundskeeper! Here to fix your door!"
Immediately a positive answer came.
"Oh great! I was just about to put in a work order, could you lock it for me when you're done?"
The door unlocked.
"Yes!"
Aros turned to the robot, prompt prepared. "Remove the door from the doorframe using standard procedure."
Nonstandard procedure is only for emergencies, wherein emergency protocols are active.
With such multipurpose bots though, it doesn't hurt to be careful.
The bot nodded its head and opened the door before detaching the magnet based hinges.
Soon the door was on the ground, its hinges were placed beside it.
If he asked the bot to fix the door, it would instead ask questions regarding the door, how the door is broken, why the symptoms mean the door is broken, and in general be unhelpful.
"From top to down the hinges are one two three and four respectively. Dismantle hinge one according to standard procedure."
Each object in the building had procedures. In his first week, he had to identify each and every item that needed its own procedure and commission programmers to include them in the machine.
It was part of the budget in establishing the buildings. If there were updates to be done to the software, he would do the same thing.
"Hinge 1 disassembled sir."
Aros inspected the components. "Reassemble hinge 1 based on standard procedure, disassemble hinge 2 based on standard procedure."
He watched the machine take apart the hinge. Its fingers opened to reveal many smaller thinner limbs. Great for maintenance on overengineered hinges.
Expensive? Let those hinge designers have fun!
Plus, when they functioned well the doors never slammed or made any noise.
Still for those functions the hinges were overengineered.
"Hinge 1 reassembled, Hinge 2 disassembled sir. Debris detected in hinge 2. Damage detected in hinge 2, components 3a and 7c."
Aros nodded. "Disassemble hinge 3 based on standard procedure."
He began to type a prompt into his comm, a long detailed prompt to get a first floor bot to print out a copy of the damaged part, take the elevator, and pass it over.
He shuddered thinking about how a simple prompt caused one of the bots to accidentally damage the west elevator.
Safe to say Kiara should be watched carefully, especially near the capybaras.
"Hinge 3 disassembled. Debris detected. Sapient origin debris identified. Hair, blood. Corrosion identified. No further damage identified."
Aros sent for another bot.
In the meantime, with the second bot reentering the elevator hinge two could be repaired.
"Replace the damaged components in hinge two based on standard procedure, then reassemble hinge two based on standard procedure."
Hinge two was placed back where it belonged, this time in good shape.
"Disassemble hinge 4 based on standard procedure."
The bot swiftly completed its task, reportion in monotone.
"Hinge four disassembled. No debris detected. No damage detected."
That was good.
"Reassemble hinge 4 based on standard procedure. Analyze relevant area and debris in hinge two and three."
The machine stood over the material, scanning the debris of the hinge and the environment.
"Clothing material detected in hinge two debris. Sapient origin hair and blood detected in hinge three debris. Standard wear on floormat, debris located under floormat."
The bot lifted the mat.
"Debris identified. Originated from increased friction between floor and floormat."
It looked around at the nearby floor and stood up, finished with its task.
"Debris found, sapient origin, blood and skin."
'Some kid slipped on the doormat, scraped against the hinges. I'll check with security later.'
At the same time another bot came from the elevator, a full hinge replacement in hand.
It returned to the elevator after Aros received the hinge.
Aros inspected the hinge and handed it over to the bot.
"Hold onto debris until they are to be dealt with through standard waste processing. Reassemble the door using a replacement hinge in place of hinge 3 according to standard procedure. Then mount the completed door back on the door frame. After the door is mounted, test its functions according to standard procedure and leave it locked."
At this Aros walked away, taking the stairs back to the fourth floor. The only thing he wanted to do was play Under the Blue Sky after all.
He got a ping on his comm unit. [Task finished.]
He sent the bot its final instructions. [Return to standby mode.]
'Inelegant, but useful things these nyurs are.'
There were some things he couldn't let go of, his home planet's slang, the bonus he got for being a standing west wing groundskeeper, and his love of Under the Blue Sky.
He unlocked his door, took off his clothes save his undergarments, and laid down in his vr capsule.
A smile rested on his face, as it did every time he said, "And Over The Green Hills."[1]
[1] Remember SAO “link start”? He gets a custom command to voice activate his vr pod.