Julia blinked back into consciousness, still in the hotel room 'set', but this time, Ellis was joined by an older severe looking woman with her greying brunette hair held in a bun was looking Julia over critically from behind a pair of cat's eye glasses and a bearded Indian man typing notes on his own tablet off to the side.
"How are you feeling, Julia?" Ellis asked.
Julia jutted out her chin defiantly, "Why should I tell you?"
Ellis turned to the bearded man, "Dial back the attitude a little, will you Roger? I don't mind her that feisty if pushed...but she's not a rebel."
"Can do, boss," Roger said as he hit a few quick keys.
From Julia's perspective, Ellis and Roger suddenly jumped...in reality, she'd restarted again. She instantly felt embarrassment for mouthing off to Doctor Ellis. Sure, she wasn't happy with the situation, but he'd been nothing but polite. "Sorry...I don't know what came over me."
"Roger's working on that...you'll be a little scattered personality wise until he finishes with your matrix and we start loading in your backstory."
"Don't play with me too much," Julia told Roger. "I'm not that kind of girl..."
"We're still working on what kind of girl you are," the woman replied. "I'm thinking good student, slightly above average grades, athlete..." She walked around Julia, studying her, and pulled out her own tablet. "I need to figure out what your clothing style is. Somewhere in between Karyn's tomboy style and Sarah's overly feminine one." She looked over at Ellis. "Did we decide if she was straight, lesbian, or bi?"
"They decided on straight," Ellis said. "We think having an established character turn out to be discovering their sexuality isn't what people think is a better storyline later. And if we introduce a possible conflict with Sarah, we don't want people writing fanfiction about them being lovers..."
"Why is it every time we get two characters who people like someone wants to make it sexual?" the woman asked.
Roger shrugged, and Ellis had no answer. Julia, on the other hand, was feeling particularly good she wasn't going to end up in a romantic subplot with Sarah. But she wasn't sure, considering these people were messing with her personality, if she'd always feel that way.
"Can you stop talking about me as if I'm not here?" Julia asked.
The woman seemed a lot colder than the somewhat distant, but still friendly Dr. Ellis. "You aren't here and neither are we. You are an interactive program. That doesn't mean that you can't have a fulfilling and happy life though. Once we're done, you could have years of life in your simulation. Get married, have children...maybe one of them could even be a main character...and we actually want you to succeed...people in the real world don't know if their creators are rooting for them. And once we get rid of the rest of the Jon subroutines, you'll be much better for it."
"Hey!" Julia said, offended. "I know you said people didn't like him, but Jon was a sweet and nice guy...Wait...why does it feel like Jon is someone else?"
"Because you're Julia now. You remember being Jon...but we've removed that personality, so everything Julia will feel more real to you."
