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."
"And who exactly are you?" Julia challenged her. "The Doctor introduced himself, Roger, and even Taylor...but you didn't."
"Josephine. I've been trying to fix the mess your program created since the beginning. I said we should have intervened ages ago."
Roger made a noise. "Elias designed the parameters and I finalized the details. But I knew plenty of people like Jon when I was that age. You know...the sort you'd say hello to in the hall, maybe ask how things were...but that was the extent of your relationship. He wasn't meant to be any more than that."
Josephine adjusted her glasses. "Karyn was upset after she and Sarah had their falling out. Jon only had 1 trait you gave him...being a nice guy...and that was what Karyn was looking for. Instead, you and Elias tried to get all meet cute and throw Rebecca Hart at her...Then, you upgraded him from extra to secondary but didn't fill in more of his profile...he essentially started to develop interests to mirror what Karyn wanted to do...I wanted to introduce some quirks into him to make him more interesting...you two said to let it play out and she'll drop him like a bad habit...Instead she didn't develop many other associations..it made things worse."
"Hello...I'm still here," Julia said.
"And so am I," Ellis said. "Josephine, we know that you wanted to interfere earlier, and while you were right, the point of the show is that it is largely 'real', with the characters making decisions for themselves. You know why we made the decision."
"So, once you are done with this, I'm free to live any life you give me without too much interference?" Julia asked them.
"Well, unless there's another ratings disaster, or we get cancelled. But...even with cancellation, with the fan base we've had historicaly, they'd probably put the show into storage in case there's interest in a reboot," Ellis said. "And by then...with technology and computers moving forward...running your simulation might be less expensive."
"And will I remember anything is different?" She was still worried about the people she used to care about, even though they'd been Jon's friends, not hers.
"Yes, we don't have time to remove everything, we are under the gun to start the new season...it isn't like in the time your simulation is set in, where you had to wait months for new episodes...the breaks are much shorter. That's why we're making you aware of what we're doing...otherwise when the simulation was reinitialized you'd be telling everyone that you are someone named Jon Gibson. Now, that might be an interesting plot for some people...but it defeats the purpose of promoting Jon isn't on the show anymore. And trust me, you won't want to tell anyone...they have mental institutions in your simulation, remember."
"You didn't make me an idiot," Julia said. "I get what you're doing and why...but no more Jon bashing, okay...he kind of feels like my...brother or something."
Josephine paused. "Did we decide whether Julia has any siblings?"
"We decided no. We have too much to do to develop her parents and backstory."
Josephine pulled her clipboard device. "Let's see what we've finalized so far...Julia Serrano, born in New York City. Parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico and now to California, where your father's company transferred him...which came with a promotion and a salary bump...You visit your grandmother and cousins outside San Juan for at least a week every year and we might let one of them visit if you start taking a more prominent role. Otherwise you'll go visit them...and we'll load some memories of that...we don't have the budget to go on location unless Sarah or Karyn are involved. You are also not happy about leaving New York, but you're prepared to make the best of it because you know what an opportunity this is for your father. Your mother is a nurse, but won't be starting work until she gets everything settled here. You wear glasses, and you prefer them in class, but you wear contacts when doing anything active."
Julia felt her headache returning. She was starting to see her new parents...but just what they looked like...the details weren't there yet...probably because they hadn't been written yet. "Wait...if you can't erase my memories, how can you erase everyone else's?"
"Well, most of them we're just reverting to an earlier backup...beyond that, Sarah barely noticed your existence, except that Karyn was hanging out with you. We have a whole team working on this for Karyn...but the fact the two of you didn't have many other connections recently actually made that part easier."
"Good work so far, people," Doctor Ellis said. "I see her personality forming, and she definitely is growing beyond the limits her old program placed on her. I'm going to go make some adjustments in the school program...we need to place her strategically in classes with Sarah if we want them to cross paths."
