Clarity

"And here he is, folks, the one you've been waiting to see, Milo Kennedy!"

The voice echoed brightly from the loudspeakers as a well-dressed man moved out from behind the stage curtain to the sound of thundering applause. Milo smiled and waved toward the crowd as he strode towards the center. The lights dimmed, except on the stage, where on spotlight shone at him from somewhere above. Behind Milo was a screen showing a logo of the silhouette of an Arabian castle over a curving pool. Underneath was the word "Mirage".

"I remember that when I was a little kid, whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I told them I wanted to be a geologist." Milo began, strolling casually to one side of the stage. "I was obsessed with it. I had dozens of books about geology, minerals, and the earth. I collected rocks and categorized them based on their types, from what I had read. Whenever my family would go on a vacation or a trip, I would use the opportunity to collect minerals from a different area of the country." The screen behind him changed, showing a photo of a boy about eight years old, carrying several rocks in his arms. The next photo was of the same boy, slightly older, sitting on a table with several dozen small rock and crystals arranged in in rows in front of him. The crowed gave a few laughs, and Milo smiled.

"But I didn't stay that way forever." He said, walking to the other side of the stage. "I went through more phases as I got older, and by the time I was in my senior year of high school, I decided I wanted to study medicine. I started by taking a degree biology. but partway through I had this, sort of, crisis. I was so unsure of myself, so unsure of my life's direction, that I dropped out." Milo's voice dropped and paused briefly, looking over the crowd. "I was lost. I had no idea what do, or in what direction to take my life. Then, by chance, I discovered computer programming, and fell in love with it. I went back to college, got a degree in computer science, and founded Mirage. But while things eventually worked out, that experience of confusion and self-doubt stuck with me. And after that, I began to notice how much other people struggled in knowing not just their career paths, or where they wanted to live, but with knowing themselves. I thought about that for a long time, and eventually started to work on what I know you're all here to see."

Applause and cheers erupted from the audience, pushing a grin onto Milo's face. He looked to his left, where a glass panel descended from the ceiling. It came to rest on the ground, and he walked towards it. "Everyone, I want you to meet Clarity."

On the panel, a pair of glowing blue eyes and a smiling mouth appeared. "Hi Milo! Hi everybody!" said an eager and cheery voice. It sounded nearly female, but the synthesized pitch and intonation gave it the slightest ethereal quality.

The crowed cooed and giggled, and a scattering of greetings could be heard.

"Before we begin," Milo said, "I just want to mention that, while I was intimately involved in the development of Clarity, I'm seeing her in her final form right now for the first time, so I think this is going to be a lot of fun. I'll let her speak for herself." Milo turned to look at the smiling visage on the screen. "Clarity, for everyone else here, can you tell us a little about how you work?"

The eyes on the screen swayed back and forth, and a smile remained plastered on the face. "Sure! First Milo filled out a personal identity questionnaire, then the programmers at Mirage fed me all of the data from Milo's social media accounts, gave me a full genetic model of him, and provided a detailed summary of his life."

Milo looked to the crowd. "Clarity needs a lot of data, a few hundred terabytes, but most of that is the biological information."

"Something you might not know," Clarity began, bringing Milo's attention back to her, "is that we also asked some of your very close friends and family to complete surveys of their own, with questions all about you, of course."

Some sounds of surprise and intrigue could be heard from the audience, and Milo wore a playful smile. "Oh, I'm very interested. Now Clarity," Milo began, looking to the crowd, "can you tell them what we're going to do now?"

"We're gonna play a game where Milo and I ask each other questions about him, and we see how many we each get right! Are you ready, Milo?"

"I'm ready, Clarity!" Milo said, rubbing his hands together.

"Great! You get to ask me a question first. What do you want to know?"

"Okay, let's start with an easy one," Milo began, "who was my favourite teacher in high school?"

"Too simple!" Clarity said with a smile. "It was Mrs. Vaughn. You told everyone it was Mr. Hashimoto because he made your history classes engaging. However, you think that even though Mrs. Vaughn was tough on you, she made you a better student."

"Wow, you really do know your stuff. And Sorry, Mr. Hashimoto, if you're watching," Milo said to the camera. "your history class was great, though. But Clarity is right on this one."

"I always am!" Clarity said, prompting a chuckle from the audience. "Now you need to answer one, Milo."

"Shoot."

"What was the name of your imaginary friend you had when you were between seven and nine years old?" Milo was quiet for a moment, then his face lit up with recognition. "Of course! You must mean Rain. I haven't thought about him in years."

"That's right." said Clarity.

"My parents must have told you about him, then." he said, with a slight flush in his face.

"Your turn Milo!"

"Okay, let's see," Milo paused for a moment, and then raised a finger. "Ah, I got good one. Should I have stayed in school to be come a doctor?", he said, with faux-devious grin on is face.

There was a silent moment before a reply came from Clarity. "Actually, yes. Though you've been successful, you would have made a much better doctor than you realize, and would likely have published in top academic journals."

Milo's brow was furrowed, and he was looking off into the distance. "Well, I suppose," he began after clearing his throat. "that may not have been something I considered, but-"

Clarity interjected. "No, you knew. At least somewhat. But it's my turn now!"

Milo took a breath and composed himself. "Alright, go ahead."

"What's your strongest skill or attribute?"

Milo's eyes narrowed, and frowning again, he stood for a moment in silence. "It has to be," he began, more slowly than before. "It has to be my ability to lead a team." He turned more towards the audience. "I know it sounds tacky, but I know that from the earlier days of Mirage, we always-"

"Nope! That's not correct." Clarity interjected brightly again.

"What?" Milo's head snapped quickly towards the glowing face.

"I'm actually surprised you answered that. But your best skill is your memory. You never had trouble in any of those anatomy classes, did you? You were nearly top of the class in all of them."

Quickly, Milo replied. "Sure, but I remember all the times at Mirage where I had to maintain the integrity of the team when we came to hard time. So what were those then?"

"True, but not all of them enjoyed that, you know. You always taking charge of the group like it was some kind of moral duty."

Milo held his gaze with Clarity, his frown eventually softening and turning to a downward face. "They didn't like working with me?" he asked.

"Some did, but I think many stayed because they thought that they'd end up making a lot of money in the future. And they were right!"

Milo leaned forward. "What do you mean? How do you know what they thought?"

"I just do!"

"Okay, my turn," Milo snapped. "Why did I drop out of medical school?" He spoke firmly, but behind his eyes were pleading and vulnerable.

"Gosh, this again?" Clarity rolled her eyes, prompting laughter from the audience. "It's not that you doubted you skills as a doctor, but you did underestimate yourself. No, you were afraid you wouldn't be happy in the end. You imagined that you'd feel like you hadn't reached your full potential, because you liked to imagine your potential was even higher than successful doctor."

Milo held his gaze with clarity. "What? No, that's not it at all." He began, stammering slightly. "I had a lot of good reasons for leaving. And you keep saying I would have been a good doctor, but you know how stressed I was at that time. And nobody else seemed to understand, and-" A lit sign from behind the audience caught Milo's attention. The white letters on the screen shone brightly: WRAP IT UP.

"Okay, okay." Milo said, "You get one more question to ask."

"Awesome, I have a good one! Who do you love most?"

Milo closed his mouth tightly. Again, he looked past the audience to the screen which now read TOO FAR, and turned back towards Clarity, and spoke slowly. "My son. I love my son more than anyone."

"That's very sweet, but its wrong!"

"Horseshit, Clarity." Milo spat, approaching the screen with an aggression that seemed out of place on the quiet and polished stage. "I don't care about what else you said before, maybe those were true, but this isn't. The birth of my son was the happiest day of my life." His voice quivered as he went on. "When he tells me about his accomplishments, even small ones, those are the best parts of my day. There's no one I love more than him, even my wife."

Clarity held a look of coy shock on her face for a moment. "Well Milo, you were almost right about that. You do love your son a lot, more than any other person besides, drum roll please, yourself!"

At this time, two people with headsets emerged from backstage and gestured to him, but Milo shooed them away. "I can't believe this!" He shouted at Clarity. "Do you think I know nothing about myself?"

"Do you know why I say you love yourself more than anyone?" Clarity began, narrowing her eyes, and speaking in a voice which lacked the previous joy and energy. "Because, actually, you're right about your son's birth being the happiest day of your life. But you only saw his birth in terms of your own success, and as denial to your near-lifelong fear of impotence. You didn't feel good for his sake, but because you saw it a success for yourself."

By this point, Milo had taken several steps back from Clarity but kept his eyes locked with her. His mouth was open, but he did not speak.

"And about your wife, you ought to know that you loved Audrey more than her. But Audrey didn't like you as much. And, well, you know how that one worked out. I know you do."

Milo turned his head once more towards the screen behind the audience, which now read YOU'RE DONE. He stumbled backwards into a chair onstage, and sunk his head into his hands. The people with the headsets slowly came out from backstage and approached him. Clarity turned towards the audience.

"Wow! I had so much fun today, everyone!" She exclaimed, the excited tone having now returned to her voice. "Let's give Milo a round of applause!" The crowd cheered as the lights dimmed and the curtains closed.