Nori and the bear

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. Although she had never left this room- technically it wasn't hers. It belonged to her guarantor; the person she contracted her headspace to, who would feed her and keep her safe while she built her credit.

Not that she could go anywhere else. You’re bound you see, chained by the furthest reach of your wireless leash. If you lose connection, step outside of your data bubble, you’re cut off from your network. I mean what would you do anyway? It’s not like the dark ages – there are no person to person shops… everything is done online. Even if you could find someone they wouldn’t sell you anything as they couldn’t see your trust level. And if for some reason they did you wouldn’t be able to pay them as you’d have no access to your wallet.

Nothing exists outside the Meta.

It’s said that after the April 20th attacks the Metwork went down in the Guateng province. People literally went crazy. No filters, no claps, no stims – everything was just flat 3d. No info anywhere. And when I say people went crazy they really, really did. Those that didn’t just lie down and die rampaged through the streets smashing infrastructure, burning whole blocks, and throwing themselves headfirst into the droneway. The army had to come in and raze the whole area.

The Visionaries were furious at the loss of life – it was estimated that 12468 animals were killed. 12468! And that doesn’t include the rare fauna that was lost – according to wikinews the area was renowned for 7 different types of rare lichen.

As a result, and as a standing memorial, every citizen on the planet had 12468 credits docked every season, for seven seasons! This plunged the world into a poverty crisis, greatly accelerating the Headspace business as people found ways to survive.

It didn’t affect Nori so much as she was already on the lowest service tier, limited to what age bracket and categories she could access, as well as not being able to view the current seasons series. It doesn’t sound like the worst punishment but not being able to connect with your peer group, or any peer group, made her miserable and desperate to improve her ratings.

As she thought of this an ad popped up informing her that nobody wanted to speak about last seasons shows when there was so much going on in the current season, and that if she leased just 19% more headspace she could work her way up the trustlevels faster.

Damn these dumb ads. Nori was already renting out 81% of her unused – another 19% and she’d be nothing more than a processor, intubated with her brain burning out, not an original thought or feeling left in her and who knows if she could ever recover from that. Some people really never come back.

She looked around her room, searching for the Skip Ad button but couldn’t see it anywhere. Her eyes went past the rectangle, slowed down over the vitals panel… they often hid it there but no, not this time. It wasn’t at the tank, the feed dispenser, or the sloughing chamber. What was that, on the parcel chute? Nori zoomed in… nope, just an artefact. Then she saw it, at the window, which meant she’d have to get up, disconnect.

Her sigh was accompanied by a series of pops as she unhooked from the charging station. The ad still played of course, flowing and morphing over everything she looked at. These Deezer ads would go on forever too, desperate as they were to gain ground on their rivals. There were faint clicks and whirs from her implants as she put one foot in front of the other, gritting her teeth as she made her way across the room. Pausing half way she steadied her breathing and ordered some anti-cramp meds, only to be informed that they would be dispatched within the hour unless she wanted to upgrade to Prime Plus Plus, in which case delivery could be expected within thirty seconds.

Her leg muscles were already stiffening, knots like babies fists balling up, trying to push through her pallid skin. She made a micro-payment, upgrading for this instance only before releasing a script to go through the Ts & Cs, unticking the marketing options and opting out of all the mailing lists.

Still the ad played, but finally she was at the button. Part of her downgrade, part of her punishment, was that she couldn’t sight-click anything or hire daemons to take care of things like this. There were more high pitched whirs as she reached up, extended her shaking J-finger, and tapped the X.

The ad fell away, and Nori was surprised at the window. No, that wasn’t it, she expected to be at the window – she had just walked four whole paces to get there. She knew this because her stravabots were chiming encouragement, informing her that she could still do her PB if she turned around and repeated the walk now. But she didn’t. Instead she stared at the unexpected shape moving through the greenway below.

It was a person. A real, live person. And it was wearing what looked like… a bearskin? Nori wrinkled her nose in disgust. It couldn’t be, it has to be a polymix, but even plastic was illegal. An image popped up of a dolphin with a carrier bag stuck in its blowhole. It thrashed in front of her, face turning purple and appealing for her to make a micro-payment to…

Nori swore, taking several swipes to clear the image away then froze still. Bear boy had stopped walking and was looking directly at her. Their eyes locked, and Nori hardly dared to breathe.

The tension was broken when a drone zipped into view, dropping a package into her chute. The flash from the camera made her stumble backwards, the motors in the servos whirring to keep her upright. The meds she ordered clattered to the table but instead of picking them up she stepped forward to the window again. Bear boy was gone.

What should she do? There were no wires or panels, no logos or bots… it was as if he had no tech. A little laugh escaped her. That would be ridiculous.

Reviewing her eyecam footage didn’t reveal anything – it had been downgraded so often that everything was just pixelated.

Should she report it? It would certainly be the first steps back to social media redemption. She nodded but, realising she had no remote rights, turned back towards the terminal next to the charging station. Taking two steps forward, she had to bat away several ads for upgraded models of her terminal. Three more paces to go… wow, those stravabots were having a field day.

That’s when the cramp hit, and Nori tumbled to the floor. Her world went black, with nothing but a single, solitary cursor blinking away in the top left corner of her vision. After a while that disappeared. Her vital statistics flashed across her closed eyelids, and she could taste blood in her mouth.

Checking her account Nori saw that she couldn't afford endorphins. So she opened one eye instead. She was on the floor. From the arch of her back she assumed she was in the foetal position. That was good. What wasn’t good was the muffled thud that came from the corner of her room, followed by another, more insistent one. Nori’s heart got stuck in her throat. Mentally she mashed the panic button. A list of services appeared but they were greyed out, while a line of dots circled a number that started counting down from 30. Insufficient credits to upgrade appeared below this, followed by Please wait for your service tier to activate.

A loud crack accompanied the final thud. Nori watched in horror as the rectangle in the wall detached down one side, swinging towards her. Light fell into the room, doing nothing to illuminate the unmistakable silhouette of The Bear. Nori filled her lungs and tried to scream but as if her vocal chords had also been downgraded what emerged was a frantic creak.

The wave of stink hit her first – the smell of another human body, so overpowering, so unnatural; it was like the beast hadn’t sloughered in weeks. Nori wretched a little, her stomach convulsing, threatening to eject that mornings feed. Her eyes watered, her muscles contracted and released causing her body to shake uncontrollably. The man in the bearskin took a step closer, bending over her and reaching out with one filthy claw.

His hand closing on her shoulder tripped her panic circuit, plunging her once again into darkness.

Safe, she thought, as her sensory inputs shut down. She’d be safe now.