Merc’s backfield on Mars

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say,” the advertisement maintained most assuredly. The mist had descended this night, such that the sky was more murky than aglow and still without a star in sight. Bright and clear however the neon-lit holographic billboard was hard selling to the city.

“Everyone will know you in the crowd,” it kept on with the MuMu mascot bellowing out rhythms in between hook lines. It was a primary feature of the Martian horizon, and Spacey was MuMu Co.'s childhood superstar.

“Have you tried it out?” Jizz asked in between drags.

“Tried out what?” Merc shrugged and huffed back. He had managed to block out the background noise, including traffic, melancholic banter, whale moaning and screaming, next all of course to the advertising audio attempting by the utmost to capture all attention over the city's hum drumming, and from the 20-foot tall hologram cascading immediately above their heads, and affixed to the wall of the building opposite their smoko haunt in the back alley of work.

“Music for your music!” Jizz snickered.

“Bright!” Merc raised his hand for a high five but Jizz didn’t take it on.

“Clouds, I haven’t, so tell me about it…” Jizz looked high above them at the mascot Spacey jumping in and out of his black hole and dancing around and tempting viewers into procuring the extension for musical creative control. At this angle, mostly he could see the soles of Spacey’s feet, up his nose, or under his shirt but it was a familiar scene, one he had witnessed from around town.

“Sick, so, dog…” Merc took the last drag but didn't want to end their break and resume work too soon on the fryer at Uncle Benny’s. Regardless he stamped it out amid the plethora of cigarette butt's lining the sodden alleyway, there so surrounded by dumpsters and the occasional homeless bum wrapped up in cardboard. He continued; “When you’re gaming, or drop a tune on your player, it puts out branch algo-choices on your desktop or holotab. Offering combos of other similar songs, you can click’n’poke choose to alternate the track for up or downtempo, electrify, or downplay into acoustic.”

“Muffins!” Jizz was readying to spark another when Merc signalled both his watch and the back door to the Kitchen again.

“Dishes await dear.” Merc stood slyly by and laughed at Jizz's choice approval. Then expecting his young friend to punch him and light another cigarette nonetheless. Merc often teased Jizz, his junior, now at entry-level to Career chef. It was of course, the dishes, the most horrid workplace Merc had already outlived.

“Plenty of options then, like smart integration, DJ substitution; crafty.” Jizz's jaw had long dropped as he was still staring up at Spacey who was pumping out some techno. Price tags were now all he saw on the Xtension membership offer displays.

“One song is for one day, long gone…” Spacey was waving at an assembly of musical artists from the 20th century Earth, while hovering inside his Black hole. The band members were all banding together and singing a chant about being One, and saving the Earth, all while Spacey was drop-punting footballs at them, and only for the Old vanguard to emerge within another blackhole arms around each other, swaying. Spacey periodically stopped to check his wristwatch, which was an old mechanical model but had the current date on it; 2291. Occasionally amid the candour, Spacey had to dodge a planet that came careering towards him in a model solar system. The animated planet would stamp out a signet under Spacey as it passed by in whatsoever aspect its passage concurred with. Be it an opposition between two of the planets or conjunction, Spacey’s bi-spacial realm was integrated in proper synchrony with the circular orbits. The sky wasn’t so different here on Mars, but Spacey was as an official arbiter for the Interplanetary Migration Program, and often adorning his glasses for doing comparative displays of the aspects on Mars, and as so different to Earth. The cross-comparisons appeared in tandem with the real-time events so that someone on Mars could see the time difference of the alignment, and to that same alignment on Earth, and along with a topographic chart to display the temporal off-set within the holographic model of the solar system. All not just for the super geeks, as planetology.

The Earthlings didn’t much like the visualization of another planetary concentric set of alignments since there was nothing to reminisce about, and only jealousies were inspired by it. The concentrated appropriation of planetology of course was a motive to the madness since blanket advertising was no longer allowed by law, in that issuing fake content, without some measure of scientific co-optation was hijacking public attention for private gain, and wholly illegal under Martian law. The founder of the colonies, Elon Musk, had originally found this excuse to keep traditional advertising in place and for paying for his great cross-planetary shindig, whilst not upsetting his people so much as to return to Earth. That is, it wasn't advertising if it had a weather report, included within it, or next to it, and a part of it somehow. "Like Mars, is just a part of Earth's legacy..." he famously compared the fact for ensuring pluralism prevailed as the solar norm.

Merc took the cigarette from Jizz before he could light it and put it back into his packet. “Yea… can’t listen to a closed song again, or get that feeling at the end when the song’s over. Pits.”

“Banging” Jizz replied, as Merc opened the wrought iron door from the alley leading the way back to their shifts from their break. Jizz quickly lifted his holotab from his keenwatch and placed an order for the new Mu Mu for me me Xtension. It’d be readily installed on his home system by the time his order was fulfilled, and in sync with his balance value exchange assessment and credit limit association approval. That should get him access to all of the local young artists' live song list compatibilities at least. Good enough for him he reckoned of the effective fuel for the government cooperated media exchange services.