Chapter 1 The A.i-fterlife
Chapter 1: A.i.fterlife.
There is this song that kept flowing through his head while staring into his laptop screen. The Digital Baba had not seen his own face for over a year. The black dark reflected light of the earthly existence his physical manifestation had given him. His eyes squinted through the now clear Virtual Reality glasses physically grown into his head. He stroked at his overgrown beard, long hair matted and oily spilling over his shoulders. His eyes squinted harder attempting to remember the lyrics of the song. After all he had done and written and posted on the internet on every social media platform. He realized that also not one other real face had he seen in the last year. The lyrics spilled through that internal memory his brain had stored.
“Waiting on a Sunday afternoon, for what I read between the lines, you’re lies…”
It triggered the deep sense of belonging to a moment in time way back before his life had begun to take the journey of the Digital Baba. His love for the human passion of resentment that singer put into the lyrics
‘What was his name.’ He thought to himself. ‘Stone Temple Pilots was the band from the 1990’s?’
He struggled to recall and without power or the internet he was alone with only the machine he was born with.
‘Is my brain just a machine I had neglected to get the latest update.’ He continued on his train of thought.
Then he remembered the girl that triggered it all while looking up to see the abandoned airport seats around him empty. A saber of light gutting the badly carpet tiled floor. The travelators stood idle, the Air Conditioner stuck on its whisper setting.
“Where did the story begin?” He cast his memory back falling into that space of memory and dream co mingling. The sweet memory flowed back to 2018. “A memory he could always rely on.’
He had time on his hands and for some reason this always made him a perfect target for someone to talk to. He shut his eyes and tried to act invisible thinking of a perfect clear stream running through a green jungle. “Hi Do you work in the movies?” The woman sat down crossing her legs in a long flowery skirt and placing her hands in her lap as if ready to teach. “Errr. No.” He shook his head, taking in the full form of the woman into his focus. “Well I had this idea for a movie.” She said not waiting for his response. “Two mimes go on a cruise with their young son. The boat sinks and they survive to be stuck on an island raising their baby mime. They are both deaf and mute but the baby can speak but never learns to” She used her hands to animate like her hand was a mouth. DB noticed the AGI visual glitching the fingers always turned into claw like or fan shaped fingers. “So the child.. his voice atrophied because of no use or need to use. Making him a perfect mime. Raised by the mime parents exclusively until an adult they are found when he turns 18 and they are reintegrated into society. As a family they attempt to make money being mimes but find they are shunned by society and take up being silent clowns for parties, circuses and rodeos. Their life of poverty hand to mouth ensues.” DB listened although he knew the system was glitchy and hoped the programme would not be a long script looking passed her and picking at the seam in his jeans. “The paid work dries up so they become internet mimes that mime pornography for money on a subscription site. All to provide a roof and food for their mute mime son’s reintegration therapy. They are arrested on some weird indecency charge and the young lad is left on his own as a physically mute mime in society with no other skills. He is first convinced by a Christian that he can be saved and learns about Christ. Then wanders into a moselem temple and learns about the koran and God as everything, then eventually stumbles across a buddhist begging for food and sees everyone sitting in silence. He joins finding solace in the simplicity that you don't have to do anything and be wrong about it to his liking.” The lady pulled her jet black hair into pony tail and continues “Well.. until news reaches him from the police that his mother and father both died. The report read that his mother and father had both died in prison in strange circumstances. Some say they died of a broken Heart as they were both found passed away in similar expressions and bodily positions of sadness, betrayal and longing. There two fists resting on eyes in the crying mime pose. In great sadness. He goes to their funeral. Lost and depressed he goes for a job as a VR model, of which he succeeds immensely. These mime type jobs pay extremely well as his expressions and physical dances are modeled into Virtual reality to make the characters look more human or entertainingly expressive . He becomes rich and in demand as the silent mime that makes all the most famous video games in the VR universe by being a wizard, a zombie, a military boss, a giant killer, and a cowboy. His fame and life goes on a trajectory of drugs sex and controversy until his redemption moment where he saves a girl from a burning building. The world can not get enough of his fame and persona. The Silent mime becomes a global phenomenon. He moves into politics and becomes a statesman in international relations making diplomatic movements with his mime to save the world from a nuclear war.
The Lady stops as if overwhelmed by her own excitement and takes a deep breath, “Yet he is disillusioned at the task to save humanity and feeling the failure He retires to the island where his mother and father raised him in the pacific somewhere as the world starts to communicate using non verbal communication after the deafening sonic booms and chemicals of war has left everyone in the modern world deaf and mute. He sits on the island recounting his mother and fathers love making mimes by the firelight. He switches on the TV in his remote shack. The news presenters were now mimes as symbols of world peace between all people.” He was transfixed by the story and the randomness of his meeting.
“Wow I wish I did have the millions and skills to make that movie. I would most definitely watch it.” He said with a smile.
“Oh must go. Bye was really nice to meet you.” She said throwing her bag around and in a flurry of the skirt spinning she disappeared in to the light of day burning through the glass doors.
He sighed and turned to see what the clatter of plates were going on in the eatery area near the food cart installed near the entrance on the other side of the building. He quickly worked out their names.
”Hey, that is my spoon! Frank!.”
“It doesn’t have your name on it.” The large, heavily built bald man with a tattooed neck quickly shoved the spoon into his mouth. Quite aware that the conversation would have to change tact.
“I didn’t want it anyway.” The short blonde man named Frank stuck his finger in the hot coffee and stirred without so much as a facial expression, making sure that he sucked the coffee off his middle finger in obvious insult to the bald man..
“Ohh ain't you just the tough one.” In retaliation he removed the spoon from his mouth to stop his words becoming garbled and put it neatly next to his plate.
“Excuse me I didn’t catch that?” Frank put his hand to one ear.
“OHH! Ain't YOU just the TOUGH one!” The bald replied with more aggressive sarcasm.
“Why did you not say that to begin with.” Frank raised his eyebrow while sipping at his coffee.
“I can’t help that you are too stupid to understand or put two and two together.”
“Oh so it gets personal now?” Frank pushed his chair back standing up showing his large biceps put his fists up to flex..
“Yeah I know you got the guns.
The bald guy and man called Frank looked like the classic two brothers that could never agree on anything other than they both felt that each other knew something they didn’t know. They were about to kill each other once in a fight over something stupid as arguing over a spoon. DB just wanted the day’s programme script to finish and get out back into the realm of his constructed universe. But this was the end. Or was it just another beginning? Why did the DBU force such a side step in his world building architecture?
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