Page 4 of Magically Generated
Nora was thankful for the change in topic.She pulled the phone out of her friend’s hand and took a look.There were two bears sculpted from snow, each gripping a hockey stick in their paws.They also sported toques, which was silly.Why would a bear need to wear a winter hat?
But that wasn’t her biggest problem with it.
“Look at the bear’s fur.”Nora zoomed in.“It’s clearly AI.”
“No, it’s not,” Aimee said.“It’s in a Toronto park.”
Nora shook her head.“It’s definitely fake.”
“It’s everywhere on social media today.”
“Have you seen pictures from multiple angles, or is everyone sharing the same photo?”
“The same photo.”Aimee sounded dejected.
People wanted to believe things like this were real, but there was so much garbage online.Seriously, what were the chances that such a snow sculpture would just appear?That nobody saw the sculpting process or knew who had done it?
Yes, like the picture of hundred-year-old identical triplets that Nora had stumbled across the other day, it was fake.Though she felt bad about shattering Aimee’s illusions, she couldn’t ignore the issues with the image.
She drank her tea, but it wasn’t enough to warm her.
Everett shouldn’t spend so much time on social media.It wasn’t good for his blood pressure.But dammit, he wanted to see the reaction to his snow sculpture.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite what he’d hoped.
The first picture was suspected of being AI.The person who’d shared it had only posted a single photo, and they hadn’t returned to refute any of the accusations.Though even if they had, Everett acknowledged that it might not have made a difference.
And so, in addition to all the people who thought it was cool, there were lots of people who thought it was fake.
Goddammit.
That sculpture was definitely real, thank you very much.
Growing up in the Bay Area, he’d had little experience with snow until his family moved to Canada when he was eleven.His Chinese American father had met his Chinese Canadian mother when she’d come to the US for university, and she wanted to return to her hometown.
In Victoria, Everett had…well, still not much experience with snow.Victoria got little snow compared to the rest of Canada.But when he was thirteen, there’d been a few centimeters of accumulation.He’d wanted to make a snowball, and somehow, it had just formed at the thought.He hadn’t needed to pack snow into a ball, then roll it on the ground to make it bigger.Not, it had simply happened.
“Did you see that?”he’d shouted to his older brother.
His brother had shrugged.He’d been going through a phase where he was unimpressed with everything.“You made a snowball.So what?”
That was his only attempt to ever tell someone the truth.
Over time, Everett had realized that no one could actually see him work with snow, though afterward, they could see his creations.He’d also discovered that he could make much more impressive things than snowballs.If he thought very, very carefully about exactly what he wanted, he could make it happen.The snow, however, had to already be on the ground for him to work his magic; he couldn’t conjure snow out of thin air.He’d practiced in private and destroyed his creations afterward, not wanting to draw any attention.
For university, he’d moved east, to somewhere that got more snow than Victoria.He started leaving some of his smaller snow sculptures up, hoping someone would enjoy them, and over the years, he’d developed a fantasy, of sorts.
A dream of making snow sculptures all over the city where he now lived.Uniting Toronto in a magical mystery, just before Christmas, as sculptures appeared at random.
He would have loved something like that as a kid.Some adults forgot what it was like to be a child, but he never had.
Alas, it wasn’t going as planned.
Eventually, he came across additional pictures of the snow sculpture, taken from different angles.One of the pictures was a selfie, a snow bear’s face in the background.But the algorithm wasn’t sharing these photos.It favored posts that garnered outrage.
Well, no matter.Everett wouldn’t let this stop him.He’d proceed as usual tonight.
His mind drifted to the white woman who lived across the hall.He couldn’t help wondering if Nora had seen any of these pictures.After their conversation the other evening—the most words they’d exchanged in the two years he’d lived here—she kept popping into his mind at random times.
