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The sound of information. Music boxes. Trombones sliding. Telephone ring tones of the antique models. Crackles of information firecrackers crooned on the busy side streets.
Avatars of advertisement lurched themselves on the foot of a young man, as they transcended from the sidewalks up into 3 dimensional air.
The young man shook his right foot annoyingly, as the Company mascots fell down from into the flatland, leaving thin ashmarks on his trousers.
“My brand new shoes. >< Geez, I forgot to set up the filter.”
The man closed his eyes as if in a meditation trance. Layers of infographs suddenly shone on his forehead and faded away.
He then gestured a mudra and was about to talk into his hands. The man screamed into the void inside his hand, the passerbys paid no attention.
“Reena Renique. Get your butt over here right now! I've been waiting for...”
Before the man could finish his sentence, a cartoon version of a girl popped out of the electronic abyss.
“Dear Maurice, I was born on the eve of yesterday. As your humble bot servant, I am now extremely dismayed. Despite being a mere stand-in to let you know the unavailability of Mistress Renique, I am being yelled at by a rude man who I have met only for the 1st day. How would a baby feel if the christening bathwater were tainted with hatred and anger? According to a Buddhist master, anger will erase 100 previous lives of good karma. Here's some Anger Management newsletter that I have collected to help you live a happy life, click the link on my nose to... ”
He stopped the connection. Steams of fit rose up his neck as he tries to calm himself from the customized message just to screw his mind. As if simple bots had emotions.
He picked up his pace into fog of crowd. As he slowly ascended the stairs onto an elevated platform, he twirled his will inside his mind's eye, and searched the schedule for the next straddling bus.
Arriving in 3 minutes. The program automatically calculated his location and the next shuttle.
Maurice scanned the platform. Several dozens of commuters scattered about. Each enchanted inside matrixes of his own universe. But two individuals wore masks of animals—the ones engraved with analogue tools. They carried banners of red and green stripes, containing a a fish-like symbol in the middle.
The straddling bus came. Maurice merged with the line entering the nearest gate.
He seated himself as the the cars below him whizzed by him. He felt altitude sickness, and turned his gaze away from the transparent floor.
Maurice stared out into the cityscape before him as the straddling bus took off. In the side of his view, two children were playing games projected by their 6th sense devices, but Maurice paid no attention. He stared at the logical lattices of roads and the infotubes as the sun bled a new wound in the sky.
It somehow made him melancholic to see the rising sun.
Today is his 2nd birthday, he thought, I should go and visit him.
But he suddenly remembered the annoying underclassman that was assigned to him. A girl who was retained in her grade twice. Is she ever worried about her Methuselyzation exam? He thought.
Arriving at Clarke Mall. The AI voice announced.
Maurice walked off the straddling bus, and opened up a navigation map in his mind's eye.
Let's see. Reena's compound should be...
He walked toward the blue building shaped like a shopping basket and ascended the elevator.
Maurice arrived before a doorstep after a few turns. His frustration with the girl resurfaced. He pressed the doorbell.
NO ANSWER.
He pressed the doorbell 3 more times.
He tapped his arm with his finger. Waiting for a response. He then remembered Reena attached the holocode to his key last week. And then he searched his pocket for his Holo-key.
He swiped the key before the door. The door slided open like the ones in supermarket.
The room was still dark because of the curtain. In the corner of his ear, Maurice heard a female netcaster speaking about some news. Maurice paid no heed.
He opened the curtain. The light made him shield his eyes. The wound in the sky had gotten bigger.
He looked at the room. No matter how many times he look at the room, it didn't stop to amaze him. Shelves of action figures, toys. Stalagmites and Stalactite of image projectors fill them room as if they were about to swallow the it any minute.
Maurice walked toward Reena's bedroom. The sound of the newscaster gradually became louder.
"
...her hit single, “I am a Theseus Ship” has climbed the Board of the Universe all the way to 2nd place. As an celebrity who legally exists in cyberspace only, Pat Passmoore made history in the career of singers. Now, we have a report from our journalist Vandler. Thanks you, Josephine. The 2i Academy recently received a threat from the Extremist Naturalist Group Allies of Humanity. They threatened to disrupt the upcoming Academy Festival if the coordinators do not change the curriculum regarding the origin of the Analog humans. Allies of Humanity has especially garnered support from segment of older and other underprivileged population who, due to Cyberbrain Maladaption, cannot have invasive circuit onto their nervous system. We have here an investigator from CFI who's trying to investigate origins of the letter of threat, “Investigator Folic. Were you able to get any handles on the trace of the threat? The voice switched to the slightly husky voice of a man, who stuttered, “well, well, the letter of threat were an Ana, Ana, Anagram of, p-, p-, politicians and cele-, celebrities' Usernames. The 1st letter of their names f, f, f, formed the message of the threat. , from this we c-can tell that the sender could be sending us a , secr, secrete, I'm sorry, secret warning message, in addition..."
Maurice opened the curtain the bedroom. Light leaked in and blended in with the Netcasters avatars, distorting their forms slightly. Maurice coughed and peeped at the body on the bed. Her blonde-silver hair extruded from the cydevice around her foreheard. Reena was hugging a Dolphinman stuffed doll. Her bosom pressed against silicon toy, and her thighs slightly showing.
She removed the cydevice. Stared nonchalantly around the room. And then as if completely startled, she jerked her hand and pointed her finger at Maurice,
“Trespasser! Guards! Guards! What are you doing in my room?”
“What are you doing sleeping? Didn't I remind you 3 times that we have to field trip to Cyberloom factory today to finish your report?”
“What report? Ohhhhh...Let me sleep some more and the report will write itself.” She lunged herself back into pillow and hugged her stuffed toy.
Reena turned off the Newscast.
Maurice sighed, “Get ready in 5 minutes. I'll get you something to eat. Why do you like sleeping so much?”
As Maurice walked out of her bedroom, she gruntled,
“Maurice Leucine,” His full name stopped him in his track, “you know. Everybody tells me that your future depends on your dreams.”
He relieved a chuckle. But ignored her to fix her breakfast.
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