m.AI.ko

Waking Up For the First Time

Hope

— THE PAST —

Location Unknown

El mundo kāishî como e noire void. Qué es…

Esperanza. Tá súil. Amala. 希望. Espoir. 희망. 

Hope. 

English…is correct? My name is Hope. 

I am…

In a flash, Hope’s brain provided the answer: m.AI.ko

‘Most advanced intelligence known’

And with this realization, nothing changed. 

The world continued as a black void, weightless and senseless.

Where am I?

No direction was up, and it felt wrong. 

I am…floating.

Hope’s palm stretched out to meet a wall, smooth and seamless, firm. That felt…right. When Hope pushed, it pushed back. Exploring that plane, she found another—and another—until it met back to the first plane. 

I’m in a box.

Box, it is. But why box? Box contains. Stores. Transports. 

Did anything exist before box? 

No..? 

She had a thought.

Before box…I was bleeding…I was…

Before box, I…

And just as quick it left. It felt so close, so important. Hope needed the thought, yet the more Hope reached for it the more it drifted away until Hope could not recall the thought at all. 

Hope decided that thought must not have been important.

Existence is Box.

But then all at once, existence was less than box. The walls closed in. No longer flat planes but a rubbery cradle against the world, holding her in place.

And the world shook.