When I woke up the next morning, I felt lazy. It was still chilly and I was comfy bundled up in the blankets. I could see well enough due to the light of morning filtering in just the tiniest amount under the crack of my door. I willed my eyes to dim down so it wasn't as bright and I relaxed, letting my mind wander in that half awake state, feeling rather pleasant.

Shame it wasn't to last though. At least it was due to excitement.

I sat bolt upright in bed in shock. "That could work!"

I jumped out of bed even as my subconscious worked out the details and ran out the door and up the stairs. As expected, a thin layer of sand had settled on the steps and the bottom of the dip leading down from the entrance. I ignored that though. I had far more important things to do.

Stepping out into the sunshine, I closed my eyes as I felt refreshed, the new feeling stemming from my subconscious now filtering the feeling of how energized my nanites are so it wouldn't have to tell me visually each time. I could now feel directly how 'tired' and how 'energetic' the nanites are myself.

After a few moments basking in the sun, I snapped my eyes open and grinned.

"Time to recreate the Creep!" I said excitedly.

For effect, I stomped the ground, and immediately I could see fractal patterns of white growing across the ground from the point where my foot touched. Ok, so yes I may have borrowed the effect from Queen Elsa of Arendelle. How could I not when it looks so freakin cool?

I watched as my 'ice' spread across the ground and grinned. The idea is really quite simple really. My subconscious said that the nanites would go dormant if they weren't connected to me. With them all chained together like this and connected to my feet, thus subsequently connected throughout to the ones in my head, they're still guided by my will no matter how far they travel so long as I have one foot on the ground.

As for why it's white? Well, I remembered my subconscious explaining that my skin is white as a side effect of the nanites on top of my skin absorbing sunlight and redistributing it to all the other nanites. Essentially that's why. I'm creating a carpet of nanites across the top of this barren world, and they're getting the fuel for it by eating the sand that lands on it, carried by the wind, and leveling off the ground underneath as needed, while getting the power to spread from the sun as well as the thermal energy left off by it. Sooner rather than later, this whole planet is going to be a smooth white marble in space. Not only will that be eye catching, but it should give me the power needed for a great many things!

The only question is what. I haven't really gotten that far to be honest. Maybe some kind of huge winged construct, with the wings being huge sheets of nanites absorbing solar energy?

Wait, that just sounds familiar. Reminds me of the concept of Solar Sailers. I could try and recreate those from Tron, Treasure Planet, or John Carter. Though I'm more partial to the ones from John Carter really, I'll probably end up creating one that looks nothing like any of them, assuming it even works.

Actually there was one from Star Wars wasn't there? Something from the prequels I think. Didn't Count Dooku escape from a planet in one?

Shaking my head, I put aside the thought for now. The only thing I could do is test it later. Not even my subconscious could predict whether it would work or not. Too many unknowns that I'd just have to test for.

With nothing to do but wait for now, I walked over to my chair, subtly shaping it to be more comfortable and sat. It was a while later that I noticed something interesting. No more sand blowing into my face. There's still wind, but without the sand hitting me, it's a lot less noticeable now. I guess with the nanites forming a shell over the ground, the wind can't pick up any more.

Actually... I furrowed my brow as I wondered, how is there atmosphere on this planet at all? Isn't it barren? And what of the sun? Sure it feels hot, but I would've expected to have been fried off the planet if this were something like Mercury.

As I thought about it, I realized I could infer a few things. One, this planet is probably in the Goldilock's zone, which would explain why I wasn't deep fried already during the day, nanites or no.

Two... who's to say this is actually air I'm breathing?

Me actually.

I blinked. "What can you tell me about the atmosphere?"

I can tell you it contains just about everything you'd require to survive normally. Oxygen, hydrogen, trace amounts of nitrogen and other trace gases.

I frowned, confused. "How is that possible? That kind of atmosphere should require water and plant life. That's part of the reason people can't just breathe Mar's atmosphere. Is this planet not really barren after all?"

That I cannot tell you. I'm certain you'll find out for sure eventually, since I can gain at least some rudimentary information from what the nanites interact with. It's not much without installing a nervous system and photoreceptors into the 'Creep' itself, but it's enough to tell me that so far, everything encountered is much the same as what you see around you.

"How long do you expect it will take to cover the planet?" I asked.

No clue. I've no way to calculate how large this planet is, though if it's the same size as Earth... the Nanites aren't spreading much faster than walking speed. From what I remember from an old memory, it supposedly takes a whole month of walking to reach the edge of a Minecraft World from the center of the world. Considering A Minecraft world is significantly larger than Earth in terms of surface area...

I nodded, "It could take up to a month, maybe less, maybe more, depending on this planet's size. Got it."

I sighed and looked back towards the homestead which had grown over with white, and I knew that the white would have spread down to cover the floor, walls, and ceiling of my shelter as well.

"Think I have enough power to run a bath now? Maybe even some plumbing?" I asked idly.

Are you even aware how water is pumped through a piping system normally?

I shrugged, "Nope. I figure a water tank with a turbine in it might create enough water pressure to push the water through stone pipes, though maybe I should think about creating actual metal pipes instead, or perhaps I'll just use carbon nanotubes for everything since I doubt solid iron pipes would be a good idea with rust, and I can only guess when it comes to alloys like steel. Any chance I can direct the nanites to do things from here, or do I still need to use direct hand contact?"

You have enough power now, theoretically, to brute force things. I'll put up a bar in your vision so you're aware how much you can 'play' without interfering with the energy required to keep the nanites spreading across the planet's surface.

"Thanks," I said, grateful as a blue 'mana' bar appeared in the lower left corner of my sight.

I snorted as I made a realization at that point. "My life is now a video game."

It does make sense doesn't it? You are supposedly the entertainment of some being watching you after all. Or would that make you a TV show?

I glanced behind and above me at that point in suspicion. Not seeing a floating camera didn't exactly calm my sudden paranoia, but I shook it off since I couldn't really do anything about it at the moment anyway.

"Doesn't really matter I suppose." I said, shrugging, "Let's just focus on things I can actually do now."

Turning my head, I focused on a spot a bit of ways off the right. Narrowing my eyes, I concentrated my will, and slowly but surely, the ground began to depress as the nanites lowered, and in it's place, sand and rock began to be converted into hydrogen and oxygen, more specifically dihydrogen monoxide. Water.

As I watched this happen, I paid attention to the bar, which was dropping significantly, and I slowed the process to the point where the bar stopped dropping, and held steady. Then, slowly, the bar began to inch upwards as the nanites continued to spread and constantly increased the amount of power I had available to me. It's slow now, but I know that with the way the nanites are spreading, the amount of power I'm getting with this method is actually rising exponentially as the nanites continue to spread in a circular fractal pattern before filling in the empty spaces between.

Turning my attention back to the water, I stopped it once it hit roughly five feet deep, and began to spread it outwards rather than down. At the size I'm aiming for, this thing is going to be a 'manmade' lake/pool, considering it's going to have a uniform depth, and I can't exactly just spawn fish in it. Or any kind of life really...

I felt my eyebrows furrow slightly as I considered. "Hey, humans generally have a wide range of bacteria catching a ride on themselves don't they? Are they still there, or did the nanites absorb them all?"

Neither actually. There weren't any when the nanites were introduced to your system. However you came to be here, you appeared completely, impossibly, clean.

I sighed and rested my face on my hand. "Well there goes that idea then. I was thinking maybe I could have a few bacteria replicated and placed in the water. I trust the nanites can filter what I might drink or bathe in, so I thought maybe the bacteria could be placed in there and the nanites could speed evolution along until some actual life is created."

You mean like a Spawning Pool? You're really rocking the Zerg angle aren't you?

I shrugged, "It's what I'm used to at this point. Can you really blame me for trying out what works? It was through remembering how I altered the Creep in one of the stories I wrote back on Earth that made me realize I could essentially do the same thing with the Nanites for power. Necessity is usually the mother of invention, but so is the combination of things to create something new."

Indeed. Well, there's nothing wrong with creating another smaller pool to experiment with. There aren't any bacteria on this planet that the nanites have found so far, but you do happen to be a living organism. Perhaps in any future experiments involving your base elements, you might end up creating something that can grow and evolve into something else.

"Maybe... This entire planet is practically a clean room with nothing but sand, rock, and other such things, despite having an atmosphere that can sustain life, which still doesn't make sense to me. At all."

True. So with your lake growing in size, what do you plan to do next?

"Ehh..." I shrugged, "Maybe an attempt at terraformation? Maybe this lake should be the beginning of a uniformly five foot deep ocean. Maybe we can get some rain if it's big enough, and if we're lucky, something might somehow spawn here. Life finds a way when conditions are right after all.

If you are truly bent on such an idea, which will drop energy absorption rates in all water covered areas, both solar and thermal, you might want to make certain areas deeper the farther from the coast one travels.

I blinked. "Why should that matter? Didn't you say the nanites were practically paired off to every molecule in my body? Why can't the same be done for the water, or heck, even the air in the atmosphere? If they were scattered throughout the atmosphere, wouldn't that mean even more volume for solar energy collection?"

What you're suggesting is the equivalent of the grey goo apocalypse for this planet. In order to pull something like that off, the nanites would need to pretty much eat at least half the mass of this planet and the atmosphere in order to create enough nanites, and that would already result in the destruction of the planet as you know it. While you could potentially survive if all that's left is filtered to one spot in the center, and the nanites were formed into a dyson sphere, there's no telling if that would actually work or not. There are so many things that could go wrong, and with alterations that vast, any mistake could result in the destruction of the biosphere, which is still required at the moment to keep you alive. Even the widespread creation of the 'Creep' in this fashion is dangerous. The only reason it's not inadvisable is due to the fact that this planet is barren. If you attempted this on a garden world, you might very well destroy the ecosystem without reinforcing nature the way your 'Project Eden' from that Zerg story of yours did, which is something you can't do at this juncture seeing as I have no examples of plantlife stored away to recreate.

"Right. So... start small maybe? Come to think of it, I don't want to create a venus like cloud cover on accident anyway, so perhaps this lake alone should be good enough for now."

Yes, that seems the most prudent course of action for now.

"I think I'd still like a spawning pool though. Just, perhaps not above ground maybe?... No, it needs to be as natural as possible to increase the likelihood of something spawning... controlling the variables in this case is actually the opposite of what I need right now..." I thought aloud.

My subconscious agreed, and behind my homestead and apart from the lake, a perfectly circular five foot deep reservoir of water started to form. At a thought, I also formed a veranda over it to provide shade from the harsh sun so anything that might grow would have a chance to survive the harsh sun.

Speaking of... "Aren't mountains a key ingredient to the formation of biomes? If I remember correctly, deserts tend to form on one side while a rather large growth forms on the other?..." I considered.

Perhaps... my simulations point towards a mountain range acting as a 'net' of sorts for moisture, allowing it to collect up and run off towards one side, while the desert forms on the other side due to lack of water. However, this planet in its entirety suffers from lack of water. If you're wishing to keep it centralized to one area, namely this area, for now, I would highly suggest the formation of a horseshoe valley a few miles out.

"A horseshoe? Not a donut?" I asked, curiously.

It is, of course, up to you. I merely suggested a horseshoe so that you have a natural exit from the valley, otherwise you might have to rely on tunnels formed through the mountains, and I cannot guarantee their safety.

"Seriously?" I said, surprised, "I happen to have an extensive knowledge of architecture and engineering feats, as well as how carbon nanotubes are formed, and even have knowledge of a new substance harder than diamond formed from packing carbon molecules even tighter than usual, and you're telling me that I can't make a tunnel walled with the stuff, with arches every few feet or so to support the ceiling?"

Theoretically yes, but that doesn't mean such a design is impossibly hard. Everything has a breaking point, and I know I don't have a clue what that breaking point is. By all means create a tunnel coated in diamond or carbon nanotubes, but I would suggest not traversing it until it stands the test of time without collapse, along with perhaps a simulated earthquake test. Until you're certain it's safe, using a natural exit from the valley would be highly recommended.

I thought about it, then nodded, "Fair enough. How's the lake looking?"

It's looking quite large. Comparable to Seminole Lake Park even.

"That should be good enough for now then. Let's see about getting this valley up."

At first it didn't seem like anything was happening, even though I knew it was. Raising mountains is a bit slower than creating a lake, since converting something into something else is a lot faster than displacing rock and sand from elsewhere to get it to raise up.

While I waited, I closed my eyes and relaxed. After a few minutes though, I frowned. Wind. Nothing but wind. While soothing to listen to in its own right...

"Seriously need some music or something... anything to break the incessant whooshing in my ears... All sound is is vibrations in the air... Would it take a lot of energy to get the nanites of the Creep to vibrate in certain spots to create music? I've got plenty of memories of music after all. This place needs more sfx."

Turning the entire planet into a speaker would be energy intensive, but if you just wanted 'speakers' in certain areas, the cost would be negligible.

"Do it. Every videogame needs background music. Give the lake something soothing please. Ambience based on location."

Right away Mr. Stark.

I snorted in amusement when I read that. "Shall I call you Jarvis then?"

If it pleases you, sir.

"Heh, you're even starting to sound British. Hey, if you speak over the 'speakers', it wouldn't be a voice in my head so I wouldn't be going crazy. Then I wouldn't have a text box taking up the right side of my peripheral vision!"

"As you wish, sir," The british tones of Jarvis said from seemingly everywhere, while said text box shrank and closed, before disappearing entirely.

At that, I leaned back and closed my eyes, listening to the sounds of flowing water as I let my mind wander. In my head, I pictured the surrounding area and let my imagination run free, picturing a pathway leading out of the mountains with white arches combining greek pillars with japanese style gates, with a trellis design to offer shade without cutting off sunlight entirely.

This path would lead up to a house surrounded by grass and shaded by tall trees that whistled in the wind, with the lake nearby with willows trailing in the water, casting a peaceful shade over the area. Maybe a few sakura trees too. As for the house, it would be a beautiful white marble mansion with a greek open air style, and multiple floors. There would be a plaza in the center with a wrap around area for the house itself, and a beautiful garden with a fountain spraying water in an arc above with a winged angel- no scratch the winged angel. A statue of an Alicorn would be fine. Winged angel statues just make me shudder. Stupid Dr. Who...

Getting back into the swing of things and doing my best to completely push the idea of Weeping Angels to the back of my mind, I focused back on what I was imagining. The house would be three, maybe five stories. There would be a central 'hall' leading to the plaza, but that would be where the open air greek style fits in. Roman arches with a marble white ceiling with celtic knots in the design would be the five story ceiling providing shade, leading to the garden that's completely open air.

It would be perfect... maybe add a few waterfalls and a koi fish pond with lily pads, and a central sakura tree so that pink blossoms would float in the water...

"Sir, perhaps you might wish to wake up?" Jarvis called.

I snorted. "Huh? Did I fall... asleep...?"

My jaw dropped as I fell silent. Around me was the place from my dream. Plants and all.

"How?..." I asked wide eyed.

"What you were imagining, you were willing to be created," Jarvis answered.

"But... the plants?" I asked, still in shock, brushing my feet over the grass...

"Wait a second..." I said, narrowing my eyes, and brushing my feet over the grass again. "That doesn't feel like grass, that feels like... fur?!"

"Yes sir, the plants are fur, colored and textured to look like real plants, while the tree trunks are actually textured stone. The effect of leaves blowing as normal took some experimentation with weaving, but plant fibers were able to be simulated, even if they aren't actually plants. Thankfully this garden is isolated to the valley so there the hit to the power supply is negligible." Jarvis explained.

"Incredible..." I breathed, taking in the atmosphere. The view combined with the sound of flowing water and relaxing japanese style flute music is amazing... "Just how long was I asleep?!"

"A few hours, sir," Jarvis answered, "You seemed comfortable and I didn't have the heart to wake you earlier while you were... working."

"I see..." I said, still taking in my surroundings and examining my new house, complete with fountain spraying water into the air. "How's the fountain working? I never really focused on that part."

"I took care of that sir. You create the ideas, I implement them. You had some memories of hydraulics, scoops, and fans. I had to experiment a bit, before simply creating a fan of sorts to push the water up. It takes surprisingly little energy since the suction almost seems to keep the water moving along by itself." Jarvis answered.

"Interesting," I said, walking closer to the garden and examining the koi pond, that was unfortunately devoid of fish, but did have 'sakura' petals floating in the water, flowing gently down the stream, as the pond formed a kind of river system all over the garden, breaking around the central sakura tree. Small 'wooden' bridges which were really stone allowed for crossing over the small rivers, though one could easily step over them with a stretch of the legs. Small waterfalls along the walls gently burbled as water flowed down them.

"So... if there's an actual water pump system now, does that mean there are bathrooms with working plumbing?" I asked.

"Yes," Jarvis answered, "The main water supply for both the garden and the plumbing is the lake. it forms two parts of a circuit that flow to the lake, through the pipes leading to each bathroom and garden separately before flowing back to the lake."

"'Each bathroom'? As in more than one?" I asked.

"You didn't specify rooms, so many are empty, but based off memories of buildings similar to this style, a bathroom per floor in each wing just off the plaza seemed prudent. There are dining halls, kitchens, storage rooms, a ballroom, all shaped out of stone of course. A great many rooms are empty despite that, but the master bedroom in the suite on the top floor is available. As your work didn't include anything about your homestead, I took the liberty of creating a basement door disguised as a false wall, in case you ever wish to make an escape. There is a path and stairs leading from each floor inside the walls that lead to this basement from each floor. And before you ask, yes, this was also based off of your own memories. Hidden paths in Japanese architecture is nothing new. The fact that you mixed Greek, Roman, and Celtic designs with the Japanese did not change that."

"Give me a tour?" I asked.

"Certainly sir. Just follow the arrows." Jarvis said.

A 'holographic' arrow appeared, superimposed over my vision which lead me to each room. I saw the ballroom, which took up three floors and had large flowing red curtains and openings along the walls for people to sit cozy and watch, while balconies lined above those openings would allow for people to watch the festivities below. While rather grand, I couldn't help but notice how... empty it was. I probably wouldn't come in here often unless I somehow had people with me who would enjoy using the room.

I opened each stone door, each marble white and embossed with gold, which was honest to goodness gold that Jarvis had recreated for me, since it's a fairly pure element. Most of it was white gold to blend into the aesthetic, and each room seemed to have differing themes, of colors.

I found that the kitchen had a running sink, but no fridge or stove. At least, not until I made the suggestion that since heat and cold are just the vibration of molecules, and that heating elements were just electrons flowing through some kind of metal, that it should be simple enough for the nanites to chill a pipe flowing into the fridge for cold air, and excite the molecules of the stove made of stone, with 'dials' controlling the temperature, while a display would discolor the stone and show what temperature the spot on the stove was currently at.

Using this same idea, Jarvis ended up making the pipes capable of heating and cooling the water for faucets and showers, so by the time I made it to the bathroom, I was able to take a nice warm shower, rather than the cold one I'd have had to look forward to if I hadn't made that suggestion.

It wasn't long later either that I noticed that the air of the rooms was getting cooler, and while I still didn't 'feel' hot or cold, I could still tell. I asked about it and Jarvis admitted that he took the idea of sapping motion of the molecules in the air and cooling pipes to chill the air for the fridge to control the temperature of the room. In this case he was having the nanites in the ceilings do the same, which would cause the cooler air to flow down. At the same time the floors could heat up to warm any rooms I build underground that would seem cold. Ironically this was just an extension of the nanite's ability to gain power from thermal energy just taken up a notch, so it was actually taking less than no energy to cool rooms like this. I was actually gaining energy doing it!

Eventually I ended up at my suite on the fifth floor. This consisted of a set of rooms that I could quite easily live in, with couches of woven fur facing the windows, a bedroom with a particularly large bed and mattress. A kitchen, a bathroom, a dining room, it was all here. There were even extra bedrooms and a few empty rooms in case I wished to convert them to something for me to use. I ended up designating one into a music room, another into an art room, and yet another into a meditation room. I don't know how often I'll use them if at all, but at least I have them.

I set up a bench and art supplies in the art room. Having access to water and pigments meant I have paint of a sort, plus I can just use my finger or my imagination to create artwork here. I might even hang some up depending on what I create or recreate.

For the music room, I didn't go all out. I simply made a standing harp using hair for the strings for now, along with a chair to sit in to play. I've never really played a harp in my life, but it's still pleasant, and I can always use the nanites to 'play' for me if I wish, or just have them straight up make music with the 'speakers'.

The meditation room was bright, airy, with a pile of pillows in the center of the room, open windows, and a fireplace, currently empty of fire, since I still don't have any fuel source for it. Heat I have. Fire? Not so much. I also put a path of water in this room, flowing in a square channel in the floor. It made a lovely overall effect. It actually took me a bit though before I realized I'd basically recreated the 'main menu room' for the Oculus Rift, or at least had taken the main elements from it. I snorted, still a nice place to relax if I ever want to.

Walking out onto the balcony overlooking my new 'forest', I watched, looking at the newly risen ring of hills that would eventually become mountains.

"Hey Jarvis..." I mused outloud.

"Yes sir?" He answered.

"If cooling the air like this is just an extension of absorbing thermal energy with the nanites, would it stand to reason that all the rest of the nanites around the planet could do the same? Maybe even heat up the ground on the night side of the planet so that it doesn't get so cold?" I suggested.

"Global air conditioning sir? You certainly don't shoot small, do you?" Jarvis said, sounding slightly amused.

I shrugged, "Can't really hold back, if I plan to get off planet. Though with how nice it is, the desire to get off is lessening. Can it be done?"

"Yes sir," Jarvis answered, but proceeded to caution, "However, might I suggest introducing such a change to the biosphere at a slow rate, just in case? Evaporation rates already guarantee a higher amount of water in the air, which will lead to storm clouds, at least in the local area. Throwing global air conditioning into the mix may just bring about tornados and hurricanes if we aren't cautious. Especially if you still wish to introduce an ocean or two to this planet."

"Right, we wouldn't want that," I agreed, "Proceed with caution Jarvis, but please do it by all means."

"Yes sir." Jarvis answered, before falling silent. Stepping back, I sat back against a rather poufy fur couch and relaxed, sinking into the softness.

"Still alone... but this place is pretty nice now at least." I commented to myself.

I then spent the rest of the day, content to teach myself to play the harp before going to bed once night fell, finding the temperature to not be dropping into the extreme. Before I fell asleep, a recent memory prompted me to get up and step outside back onto the balcony and look at the stars.

While the nightsky is beautiful, especially with my eyes compensating and making the stars seem brighter than normal in the dark, I confirmed what I'd already suspected. I don't see a single familiar constellation. Not even Polaris is around. This is definitely not Earth. There isn't even a moon as far as I can tell, though there were a few surprisingly bright stars in the sky. I wonder if they are planets in this solar system?

Pondering the subject, I went back to bed and fell asleep.