Our Simulated Selves by Nikki Null

A mind-bending quantum thriller about simulated realities, brainscanners, a digital apocalypse, trans awakenings, and tabletop gaming at a cozy queer café. Jeanne said she wouldn't date Ren if he were the last man on Earth. Unfortunately, he had the technology to test her claim. Dejected programmer Ren "Zero" takes notes after uploading his brain into a supercomputer, using his memory to recreate his past. He sets the world in motion and watches his simulated self go through many steps he has taken in his reality, including: - Buying a stolen brainscanner from punkish technologist Jeanne in exchange for getting her hired; - Getting dragged to a queer café to play tabletop RPGs with Jeanne's trans friends; - Having the best time of his life playing a female character there, for unknown and mysterious reasons; - Asking Jeanne out in a storm of confused signals and emotions. That's when Zero deletes everyone from the simulation except Ren and Jeanne. Now wandering together through the empty city, Ren and Jeanne must work together to find the truths behind their baffling reality, while Zero subtly manipulates their world to achieve his desired ends. In order to defy the controller's plans, Ren must outsmart his real-world counterpart by finally confronting the fundamental truths that even the all-powerful Controller could not compute... Nikki Null is a trans writer based in Southern California. She took inspiration from lots of sci-fi she loved, including The Matrix, Black Mirror, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, added massive, *massive* quantities of estrogen to the mixture, then cooked for over a decade.