{"id":11331,"date":"2014-06-22T20:55:05","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T00:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=11331"},"modified":"2014-06-22T20:55:05","modified_gmt":"2014-06-23T00:55:05","slug":"sunday-62","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=11331","title":{"rendered":"Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

I did some cleaning yesterday, which is about as exciting as it got.<\/p>\n

Today, I had my weekly free-writing group. And, well, the prompt was a little weird, but I had fun with it nevertheless:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Children and the elderly go first,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the robot man said. There were gears inexpertly grafted to its face, a clockwork mechanism that let the human jaw beneath poorly mimic human speech.<\/p>\n

You chose this? Manny thought, eyeing the metal thing and its patchwork of sheet metal and flesh, a rusting constellation of rivets scarred across its receding hairline. A hundred years ago you stepped through this very same time gate and let whoever\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on the other side do that to you. They said, let us strip off your humanity and and replace it with leaking motor oil, burnt spark plugs, soldered-on transistors, and you said sure. If the stories are true, you signed up for this, you and all the other temporal borgs watching over the gate.<\/p>\n

At least the four of us didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a choice in the matter. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going through the gate if we want to or not.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t any elderly or children here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the Professor. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d introduced himself, Conrad something, but Manny still thought he looked like a professor decked out in tweed. He was just missing the chalk dust stains and the elbow patches. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Perhaps we should just go through one at a time?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it make more sense for me to go first?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ms. Earth asked, twirling a lock of her blonde hair and unnecessarily moistening her lips with her tongue. Watching her preen for cameras that were no longer there, Manny almost laughed. Only a girlish giggle would have been more transparent.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re you doing, honey?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Abigail, the fourth in their little group of prisoners, asked with a heavy sigh. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The beauty pageant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s long done with. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like Gearface over there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna fall for your act.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just saying,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the one-time beauty queen said, glaring at the older woman, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153if we want to put our best foot forward with the Architects, maybe we should lean on the one of us who has some experience with public speaking.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yeah,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Abigail said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and who knows, maybe there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be a swimsuit competition.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153C\u00e2\u20ac\u2122mon now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Ms. World — whose real name, Manny now remembered, was Melody — \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I just meant that — \u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Children and the elderly go first,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the temporal borg repeated, stepping in front of the time portal.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do you think if we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t follow the rules it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let us go through at all?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Professor asked.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Now that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be a real shame,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Abigail said.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to let us go back to what we were doing before,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Manny said, surprising even himself. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Architects don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let anybody go once they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve chosen.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The kid isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wrong,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Professor said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everybody goes into the future eventually.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He looked at Manny as if sizing him up. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also as close to \u00e2\u20ac\u2122children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 as we get,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He and you should probably go through first.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And me?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Abigail asked. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just who do you think you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re calling elderly?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just relative,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Professor said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I did some cleaning yesterday, which is about as exciting as it got. Today, I had my weekly free-writing group. And, well, the prompt was a little weird, but I had fun with it nevertheless: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Children and the elderly go first,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the robot man said. There were gears inexpertly grafted to its face, a clockwork … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[28,12],"class_list":["post-11331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-personal","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11331"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11332,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11331\/revisions\/11332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}