Sometimes, Troy truly did feel like an imposter. Time upon time again, he rebuked himself for living the life he did, not truly doing anything to stop it all from happening. Maybe there were times where he tried to stop the spiral, but could it truly be compared to what others had done? The answer to that depended on the time off did, honestly.

He did not know how others had it in life, for he had only lived his own. He believed he had it tough, but maybe he had it easy when stood next to other people. The young man had come out of his original situation after all. Troy still remembered his old neighbour, that sweet little boy. The age difference between him and the kid had been over five, yet they had still been great friends. Troy had helped him hide when his parents came around looking angry, and the boy helped him do the same when his mother came looking for him. What was his name again? For the life of him, he couldn't- Finn! There it was. Oh, the simple remembering of his name brought nostalgia back to Troy’s thoughts, filling him with a warmth he had not felt for too long.

Anyhow, Finn was dead. Had been for nearly a decade now. As a thirteen-year-old kid, not enough had been understood when the black car came around the corner. It had driven down the road, Troy and Finn looking on at amazement at the manually controlled car. They had been rare during those times. Nowadays, they had been restricted for anything but military use. Still, seeing such a clean carriage had been a one in a million chance, and the two kids had enjoyed every second of it.

When it had stopped in front of the two, they had felt like the luckiest boys in the world, getting to see the vehicle up close. Troy had found an old car magazine while dumpster diving not long before that day and had been especially fixated on the technology. That had been the reason the two had gotten so close to the doors. He had wanted to peek inside, to see the controls.

Finn had not wanted to, shyness having been learnt through adoption. Troy had gotten himself a different approach to it, yet that fact had not become obvious until later in life. He had grown a little extroverted, wanting to try new things for the sake of trying. And he especially wanted to do it with a friend, which is why he had encouraged the boy to come closer to the car together.

To this day, Troy still liked to blame the age difference between them on why Finn was the one taken. The door had opened so quickly, the hands snatching the boy inside. There hadn't been time to even scream before it had closed, and the car had driven off, never to be seen by Troy again.

Having been in a state of stillness at the time, he had just watched it drive away. He didn't run after it like a hero or anything. Even if Troy had tried, there was little chance his legs would have obeyed. They had still been shaking for several minutes after the fact.

There hadn't really been anybody to report the occurrence to. He had first tried to tell Finn’s parents. It turned out that Troy had taken it much harder than they did. The two adults had almost seemed happy about it as if having one less mouth to feed was a gift from the heavens. With this turnout, he had told his mom as well, but she had given him a look of indifference. Or maybe it was jealousy. Who could tell, honestly?

Even if Troy never saw Finn again, there was no question he was dead. Not too long after, police had come around the neighbourhood. Down a block or two, a bruised body had been found. The records had told them that the boy found had been their neighbour. It was his mom who had done that testimony, telling them that her troubled boy had never talked to anybody. From the looks given by the two police folk, it had been clear that they hadn't believed her. Not that they pressured on or anything like that. They merely wished her a good morning, before leaving the way they came. Maybe they knew about the beating that would follow if too many questions were asking. Maybe they were just being nice.

There wasn't ever any type of punishment dealt out. As Troy would later learn, plenty of people had seen it happen, either from their porches or from their windows. Not a single one had said a thing about it to the police. When he was younger, he had thought it was because of them being afraid of the authorities. Of the power, they had over them. It took a few years to sink in, that everybody feared the one in the black car.

Everybody knew the one in it, in fact. He was relatively well-known around the neighbourhood, for the cheap prices and nice attitude. He even did a banking business on the side. All who had gained his friendship were allowed deals that weren't possible to be gotten anywhere else. Finn’s parents were good friends with him. Yet, even the best friendships could be stained, and a gift had been required to regain it fully. The two adults had apparently been slow on the uptake, so the man had decided to take it for himself. It did not take a sane mind to realise just how he took it. Those smiles of relief still haunted Troy.

A year or two back in time, he had searched the man up on the internet. Partly due to nostalgia, with the other part being something of an ongoing plan. It had been a plan thrown in the dumpster, but that was several months later down the line. Not that it would have reached what it intended to do anyway, as the man had already been dead by that point. Shot by police after trying out his own supply at the wrong time. As it had been one of the new automatic patrols, no man had been there to get bribed, threatened, or otherwise coerced. Reports say that the man had died painfully, slowly bleeding out on the ground with nobody around willing to help him. Troy thought of that sometimes. It reminded him that sometimes karma did come back to bite. Not always though, when the feat one had gone through was not possible to go back from.

Finn was supposed to have grown up happy. With the new programs sprouting around the time, the boy could have become a man in good standing. Instead, his body had been left to rot on the soil, partially eaten before he was found. Troy sometimes wondered if he would have taken his place if that had been offered. Would he have given his own potential away, so another could live out to theirs? At the time, he knew he would have rejected the idea. Now? Now, he wasn't so sure anymore. With the knowledge of where he ended up, maybe it would have been better for another life to have gotten a chance. Finn had been a smart boy, smarter than anything Troy would ever have the chance of becoming. Yet he could have become so much more.

If only-

A bright flash hit Troy in his right eye from the side, causing more than a little pain from the sensation. He could feel the back of his head being overloaded with feedback, the only way to interpret it narrowed down to pain. And the pain was certainly felt, as he gritted his teeth while wiping his eyes with his hands. He could still see a spot or two, but those would disappear with time. More importantly…

“What is that supposed to be?” Troy said, feeling like he was being subjected to an abstract kind of torture. Maybe it was a trick of the slightly burnt eyes, but it almost looked like there stood a concrete staircase before him.

Taking a few steps to the side, it turned out that he was fully correct in his idea. Before the man was a staircase fully formed out of concrete. A large impractical thing, as it more than likely weighed several tons. He did not want to be near it if it ever fell over.

'I believe that most people call such contraptions staircases,` Adam answered, much to the blank stare that was given back in response. Oh, Troy would have never guessed that it was a staircase. That form was all too- what was he supposed to do with such a stupid answer? Bury it in the garden and hope it shitted out something more decent? Much of nothing that would give.

“I know what a staircase is, Adam,” Troy helpfully informed the AI, still trying to understand just how the thing came to exist. The most likely culprits were either Dr Fidlies or Adam. Seeing as the doctor was insistent on not directly manipulating the tests, it came down to the AI. The man wondered if the concrete felt like the real deal, and began the short walk over to check it out for himself. “I was wondering why you decided to make it. It didn't think you would be having fun with something so… simple.”

Maybe it wasn't simple for him, though. With how flat the facility was as a whole, it could be that Adam saw stairs as an intriguing architectural design. If that was so, Troy wouldn't have been able to blame him. He had been similarly entranced by tall buildings when he was younger, himself living in two-story abodes two stories tall at the maximum. The factories had been the tallest thing he saw for his first fifteen years of being on the earth. Or.. it could have just been because-

'They were the first option to choose. So I chose the first,` Adam sent without pause. Troy was guessing it would be something like that.

“Sounds cool enough,” he remarked, his voice not sounding as interested as his words would imply. Seeing a whole concrete staircase… interesting. Those blinding lights had been more fun to look at, and he was still seeing those damn spots. “Though, besides creating staircases, what else can you do? A chair perhaps?”

It was not meant to sound rude, but the man just couldn't help himself. It was all in good fun in the end, though, so there was no need to worry. Banter, jokes, and sadistic tendencies were part of a good friendship after all. No need to be afraid of turning around, as the AI now had the capability of creating objects, which included making them over his head. Wait, he could do that actually. What a reasonable thing to worry about immensely.

'Creation is only one of the many things I am able to perform, with the access I have to the current interface,` Adam informed Troy about. Bonus points would have been given if the voice sounded the least bit cheerful about the power of literal creation, but no such things were destined to be given out that day.

“Then, how about you get on with showing off a little, and have some of that fun that is mandated by that doctor we all love?” Troy encouraged, the last bit being a little forced. He was supposed to be holding up his normal part of the conversation, but it still felt a little weird speaking of Dr Fidelis in such a manner. Like, he had been told only an hour earlier that the man had been listening in on him every second he was in his bedroom. If that wasn't incredibly messed up on both a physical and ethical level, then the standards of the place were way too high.

'I am sure that having fun is not mandated, and is instead only a recommendation. This is in addition to the fact that showing off is entirely subjective, which does cause me to lower my desire for the act. Instead, I will be following along my predetermined path through the interface, where I will get to experience the different capabilities of the system. Please stand still while I do this. I am unsure if turning your body causes any change in the axis, but I don't feel like it should be tested out just yet.`

Well, that was sounding extremely boring. Standing around in the same position, discouraged from turning the body.

“If I'm going to be imitating a statue, could I at least have something to sit on?” Troy requested. While he would likely be able to hold the position for an extended time, there was no reason to tire out his body so early in the morning. He would have simply done as requested on one of the later tests, but getting worn out already would only create difficulties longer down the road.

'… That would be manageable. Please wait for two seconds before moving towards the object being created,` Adam sent in response, which was great news for the young man. If he had gotten a negative, he would have just asked if he could sit on the stairs instead.

With a flash of light, a bench resembling those used in older movies including parks appeared. It looked to be wood, felt like wood, and was just about as hard as wood when he sat down on it.

Adam took him sitting down as his permission to begin what the man could only call rapid lighting-hazards. All around, objects appeared. Some were small, some were big, and some looked to be big enough to fit an entire building inside. Even if Troy wasn't allowed to move, there would at least be plenty of entertainment.