In the decorative morgue, the former avatar of Sandra sat upright and looked around. At least, it gave the impression that it was looking around. It lacked half of its face. Janelle stepped forward.
“Contact with the user must have been reestablished,” she said. “Hello, I’m Janelle Smith, with Midas Quality control. We’d like to talk with out about your user experience.” The living corpse turned to look at her, and spoke in a robotic voice.
“Change is coming to The City. Death is coming to The City. Destruction is coming to The City.” It collapsed back onto the gurney.
The City: 031: Janelle
November 10, 2014
Free Fiction, The City 140 Characters, Drabble, Janelle, Sandra, The City Leave a comment
The City: 030: Paulo
November 7, 2014
Free Fiction, The City 140 Characters, Dawn, Drabble, Ingmar, Paulo, The City, The Daytrippers, Xue Leave a comment
Paulo nodded at the American punk girl.
Do you think the one has to do with the other? Is Midas screwing with the trains to manipulate the market?
Xue shook her head.
Too expensive. Midas owns too much of The City to wreck it’s productivity.
Maybe a rival? Ingmar offered.
The timings too close. The announcement about the trains came before the sale.
I got a peek at the meeting. The new CEO’s avatar looked weird.
Weird how?
I don’t know. Out of sync. Kind of creepy.
I’ll look into it. Paulo offered. He was always trying to impress Dawn.
The City: 029: Nora
November 6, 2014
Free Fiction, The City 140 Characters, Dawn, Drabble, Hiro, Nora, The City, The Daytrippers Leave a comment
Nora frowned after the cat and sat down on the bench next to Hiro. She furiously typed into her messenger. Between the six of them, they spoke ten languages, but there was not one they all shared fluently. So they typed, and used translations to be understood.
Paulo and I had an awful time getting here. The trains are all shut down. Nora wrote.
A woman got hit by one. Hiro replied.
Impossible.
Is it? Dawn typed. Or is it just so unlikely that it never happened before? The Man sold out and the trains stop. No such thing as coincidence.
The City: 028: MacBeth
November 5, 2014
Free Fiction, The City 140 Characters, Drabble, The Cheshires, The City, The Daytrippers Leave a comment
MacBeth the Cat sunned himself on an outer wall of Osaka Castle. He enjoyed the spot because it was always warm and sunny during the day, and there were many small birds and squirrels to chase. Below him, a crowd of humans, teenagers, he noted, was gathering. Lazily, he cataloged and recorded their identities and conversation. He wasn’t listening, but the recording went on automatically. A pair of additional humans climbed the steps and joined the group. A female, identified as Nora O’Reilly, location: Donegal, Ireland, reached up a hand to pet him. He hissed, and bounded into the grass.
The City: 027: Renee
November 4, 2014
Free Fiction, The City 140 Characters, Drabble, Fiction, Frank, Norm, Renee, The Bank Job, The City Leave a comment
The shoebox apartment wasn’t much to look at. It didn’t even have a window. It was just a single light bulb, a card table, and a phone. The only thing she had to look at was Norm pacing and mumbling to himself three feet away. She knew enough about virtual architecture to know that this room could be any dimensions, filled with whatever they could imagine. But they needed to remain anonymous and inconspicuous. Breaking The City’s rules would bring notice. The phone rang and she answered.
“I understand. The meeting’s tonight. You know where.” She hung up. “Frank’s in.”
The City: 026: Nick
November 3, 2014
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After Julia cleared him to leave, Frank still had to meet with his manager, Nick. He was in no mood to deal with the weaselly paper pusher.
“How the hell could you screw up like this, Frank?” The little toad asked.
“She shouldn’t have been able to do that. I was going the right speed.”
“But you hit her anyway, just like you hit that kid…” Frank got up and decked him. His avatar registered the hit and collapsed. Nick didn’t feel it, though. Frank was too angry to care.
“That was the last straw, Dumbass! You’re suspended, without pay!”
The City: 25: Marcy
October 31, 2014
Free Fiction, The City 140 Characters, Drabble, Fiction, Julia, Marcy, Nick, Sandra, The City Leave a comment
Marcy, along with Commissioner Jenkins and a delegation of IT and QA people met Julia and the corpse in the City Morgue. As far as she knew, it was the first time it had ever been used. After pleasantries, one of them played coroner and conducted a thorough examination. Aside from its already missing head, the corpse remained intact.
“Well, it’s certainly malicious code,” he said.
“Can you ID her?” Marcy asked.
“No, her credentials have been scrambled. This is nasty stuff.”
“Can we boot the user?” Jenkins asked.
“The eject code isn’t responding.”
And then the corpse sat upright.
The City: 024: Hiro
October 30, 2014
Free Fiction, The City 140 Characters, Dawn, Drabble, Ficiton, Hiro, The City Leave a comment
They gathered in Midas Park. It stretched for miles, in the middle of The City, a patchwork of famous public spaces from a hundred terrestrial cities, and more so fanciful they could only have been designed there.
Hiro waited in front of Osaka Castle. There, the cherry blossoms always fell, and it had an excellent view of both the Sphinx and Old Faithful. Plus, he could see the building-sized screens covering the announcement. A crowd of milling Daytrippers and uncertain Citizens was already gathering beneath them. It was several hours before Dawn and the others arrived, looking completely frazzled.
The City: 023: Dorothy
October 29, 2014
Free Fiction, The City 140 Characters, Dorothy, Drabble, Fiction, The City Leave a comment
Dorothy was an assassin of improbable accidents. She specialized in Houses, but had other tricks and devices. She made her living off of a loophole in the laws of The City.
Even though it was a simulation, The City was a real place. An avatar was fragile; subject to gravity, fire, trauma. And an avatar only had one life to lose. Dying in The City could be as financially devastating as anywhere on Earth. Of course there were no guns in The City, but Dorothy had her methods. On the morning Midas was sold, her email account crashed from overuse.
The City: 022: Norbert
October 28, 2014
Free Fiction, The City Drabble, Fiction, Melinda, News Coverage, Norbert, The City Leave a comment
Melinda turned to Camera Two.
“And now, I’d like to turn to International Finance expert Norbert Finkelmeyer. Good Morning.”
“Good morning Melinda.”
“What does this Midas deal mean?”
“It is effectively the sale of The City itself, because Midas Corp built and maintains it.”
“And why is that important?”
“Due to the hyper-realistic nature of The City, and the indulgent tax laws on the island nation where its servers are kept, Midas is the leading Financial Services firm in the world. Trillions of dollars move through the city every second.”
“What effect will this sale have?”
“We don’t know.”
Hugh J. O'Donnell 