June 11, 3405 -- Chess Fainrer's Diaries

Well, today at work they gave me a new project. I'm... really not sure what to think.

They call her "Mir". It's really hard not to want to name her, or refer to her as "her", even though a project number would have done just as well. She's not really alive; she's the culmination of their experiments to create a Reyvateil without emotions, something that can be used to harness the raw magical power of the Tower without having to exploit feeling beings. It sounds a little disturbing when you put it like that, but if she can't feel anything it's not like there's any harm being done.

Still, it's difficult not to treat her like she's a person. They created a really convincing illusion, let me tell you that. I'm not sure why they saw the need to make her simulate emotions; as humans we naturally react to what looks like human suffering, even if imitated. It just makes the whole thing feel weirder than it is. Honestly, the only thing I can think of is that someone, somewhere in here, enjoys the illusion, and that's a prospect I'd rather keep my mind off. If that's the level of professionalism you exhibit, you've no business being involved in something that has this much potential to redefine how we think about people, IMHO.

She kind of looks human, but also kind of doesn't. I suppose they did at least something to take the edge off the weird. She's chalk-white, like they didn't bother putting any pigment in her skin, and her eyes are the same, a kind of cherry red that looks really alien. I suppose the black hair is so you don't just mistake her for an albino human.

I think they're having her keep some kind of log or something, because she kept saying she "wanted" to go back to writing. Eventually I just left her to it, but I couldn't help watching her through the glass walls, scribbling in a notebook. I guess they don't let her have a computer; she's a Reyvateil after all, she'd probably hack it in some way that'd cause serious problems for us. It was just one of those sights that's so creepy you can't tear yourself away from it: something utterly emotionless, behaving so perfectly human.

I'm just glad they pay me through the nose for this.