Persona: The Gladiator
The girl was beautiful. Even the limited programming of the processing droids at the entrance could understand that. Charlotte Tilsbury of Uriah, Kansas. This was her third day inside the resort. Persona Orlando, second only in area to the monopoly that surrounded Lake Buena Vista, was the first resort ever constructed that was fully populated and run by artificial humans. The concierge at the hotel, the chefs at the four-star restaurants, the sex workers disguised as tourists who would pleasure you anywhere at the utterance of a certain code phrase: they were all machines. Some were puppets controlled by the scant few on-site human technicians and compliance officers, but it was impossible to tell who was who.
Guests could have anyone and be inside anything. Charlotte herself had spent the first few days at the resort living inside her favorite films, indulging whims she would never in the “real” world, and finally, at the age of twenty-four, losing her virginity to a variety of transfeminine gynoid pleasure slaves. She still had several days left here, but she wanted to make time to experience her greatest curiosity.
She wanted to know what it was like to die.
HorrorWorld, buried deep inside the resort and under mounds of waivers and release forms, was where curious guests went to experience this and live to tell the tale. Chased by slasher villains, trapped by Jigsaw, fighting for their lives in a gorefest that would put 70s Filipino knock-off filmmakers to shame. If you could imagine it, then your artificial avatar could be placed within it. At no small price to the guest a tremendously-detailed robot duplicate of them would be crafted, able to simulate all the slings and arrows of meeting one’s end via slings and arrows. The guest would then be put under to control the android in a dream state, essentially becoming the robot. It was all quite safe, but the level of danger could be adjusted to meet the pleasure of the guest.
Charlotte’s daily masque was one of propriety, a woman who could never think of such things as she wrote down in her pre-visit questionnaire. But it was easy for Persona’s engineers to understand what she really wanted. She would experience the line between pleasure and pain that no one returns from. They hoped she would return within the year to feel it again.
“I, Charlotte Tilsbury, Born 7 September 1997, confirm that I have entered this attraction willingly and understand the risks involved with this process. Is that it?” The processing droid, who until last week had been a Final Girl at this attraction, motioned to the pad in front of Charlotte. Put her hand down for scanning and blood test.
“Thank you, Ms. Tilsbury. We have crafted a gladiator game for your first attraction inside HorrorWorld’s dome. You will be slightly altered by the dreamstate machine to accept this as your reality. You are a prisoner doomed to fruitlessly fight for your life inside the arena against our strongest competitors. Do you have any requests as to what will happen to you.”
Charlotte gasped slightly, drawing backwards in delighted anxiety. She thought for a moment and then spoke quickly. "I want him to crush my skull at the end of it." "I won’t remember that I’m in a robot? I’ll think I’m me?” "I want to think I have a chance against him." As she spoke they took a full scan of her brain, all of her features from head to toe. They let her watch as her double was created, a cybernetic organism grown in a tube, slowly taking on all of Charlotte's attributes: the slight blemish next to her left eye, the fold in her navel, the wave of her blonde hair.
It was like looking in a mirror. Charlotte was about to open her mouth when the double spoke. "It's so lifelike! She's going to be the one going in for me?" "Of course. When you wake up it'll be like it all really happened, and you'll remember everything up until you die. We can run as many scenarios as you like, Charlotte." The technician spoke to the double as if she was the real Charlotte. What was happening?
"Now, to get you ready. You. Strip." Both Charlottes froze, standing at attention. Then they removed their street clothes in a clinical fashion, as if they were both under remote control. "She said a leather skirt and that's it. She wants her breasts exposed. That will make her very popular with the crowd." Charlotte only had a moment to ponder if she was the original before she was injected with something into her neck. Her world went black.
________________________________________
"You! Offering! On your feet." Charlotte woke to the voice of a jailer standing above her. It looked so real! She looked around for her cell phone so she could take a picture of…picture…there are no pictures in a dungeon. Syell Pone? Who is that? Was that her name? She was Charlotte, wasn't she? She was here to--here to--she had been convicted of crimes against the City-State and the Emperor. The high court had sentenced her to be placed in the arena to fight for her innocence and her life. They had stripped her bare and thrown her in this cell, only allowing her a skirt for her modesty and protection.
"I said up!" The man nearly slobbered on her as he pulled her to her feet. The jailer led Charlotte by the chains around her hands through the lines of cells, down the rows of other prisoners either crying for help or jeering at the girl that she was minutes from death. She had seen the challengers of the arena. They were probably right. She was weak and frail, but she did have her speed. She could outmaneuver them all. There was a chance Charlotte would make it out alive.
In the light of the arena's entrance the jailer unshackled her, handing Charlotte a simple knife-point to wrap around her fingers and jut out at any assailant. "Goodbye, traitor." It was the last thing he said before shoving her forward onto the sands of the battlefield.
The crowd cheered; they were probably glad to see a new kind of fighter after wave of strongmen who were destroyed easily. Maybe this girl would provide better entertainment. "Citizens, Allowed Slaves, Visitors from Other Ports, and All Who Have Gathered! Witness Shar-Lott, traitor of the City-State and enemy of our Senate, placed in battle to win her way out of her crimes!" The cheers turned to boos, hisses, invective phrases thrown at Charlotte. "She will face our grandest champion! Our mountain of power! The Emperor's prized combatant! The grandest of them all! Welcome: Gorgar!" The ground seemed to shake under her. Charlotte looked up to see a man who stood well over seven feet, nearly as wide as he was tall, muscles on top of muscles. She knew the blade better than she even knew the man. It was the blade that had never faltered in battle, not once. She had seen Gorgar destroy countless men, even had nightmares of his hands around her.
She swore that the day would not end with that nightmare coming true.