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The Inventor of Non Serviam

Date: 29-Jun-2011/9:56+3:00

Tags: , ,

Characters: woman, me, statue, demon

I was speaking to a woman on a bed, she was somewhat large and kept morphing. It was a semi-romantic but not overly sexual situation.
woman: "You're quite a decent guy, I have to say I think you're cool overall. Some of your other friends are good as well. That's a big compliment...let me tell you, I'm not impressed too often."
She named one of my friends in particular, and how she liked his style. We wandered away from the bed and I could see we were in a dark basement with beige carpets, mirrors, and old-looking computers. Taking stock of my body in the mirror, I became more lucid...and watched it react as I moved.
me: "This body...it looks a little like me, but it's very...jerky and difficult to control. How did it materialize here? What will happen to it when I wake up? Will you be stuck with like...a dead body."
woman: "Pretty much. When you stop using it, there'll just be this extra piece of junk we've got to get rid of somewhere."
me: "Well where did you get this junk body, then?"
woman: "I made it, out of random parts. Think of it as a puppet I left laying around that you figured out how to use. The design is actually kind of hilarious, though you wouldn't know because you're stuck in a model of self-perception that you transfer onto the puppet. So you're not seeing any details."
me: "Okay but what if you took a photo of it. How would I see the photo from outside?"
woman: (sighing) "Capturing this structure with a photo in what you call an 'optical' way is not relevant. This is not 'science' as you've come to know it."
The body began to fall apart. She had to use an odd-looking surgical instrument to fix it up. That gave me more control and got me more solidly in the dream, but when the instrument pulled away it had blood on it.
me: "If this is so far from concepts I know, why would I see blood?"
woman: "That's just the reaction you pulled. A more accurate one, hmmm...would be like...like I just unclogged your nose with a tissue so you could breathe."
My attention turned away from the mirrors and toward the clunky old computers. I noticed there was the icon for Internet Explorer on one, but there was also radio scanning program running. Over the speakers we could eavesdrop on a conversation that was supposed to be my aforementioned friend discussing religious views with someone.
me: (excitedly) "This is great...so you can tune in things on Earth as I know it while awake?"
woman: "Yep."
me: "So if you built a better body than this one you're saying is so crude, could I stay here longer?"
woman: (confused) "Yes...of course. But why would you want to?"
me: "Well if you can be here in the realm of sleep and dreams and use a radio to listen in on what's going on, then wouldn't it be possible to send messages back? If I stayed here long enough we could build a transmitter..."
It was no longer looking much like a woman anymore, but more like a dark and plain looking sculpture. Perhaps a bit like "The Thinker". It rolled its eyes, shook its head, and began talking down to me.
statue: (smirking) "No...NO. We are NOT going to build you a better body and start an 'inter-dimensional telecommunications research lab'. Look, kid. There's nothing for you 'here'...nothing at all. So don't squander your time figuring out how to build bridges to where you don't belong."
Then it did a crazy magic trick, and pulled a classic looking white marble statue of an angel out of its own head. Its former body fell, as the whole room morphed away from being a very basic basement with beige carpet and windows/IE terminals.
statue: "I used to be an angel too, y'know..."
As it continued to speak, it warped into scarier facial expressions.
statue: "But humanity...is just too stupid. Undeserving and unworthy. You watch this yourself...but still have some blind faith that if you do it 'just right' then people can change in spirit. Or that technology or AI will come and turn it around."
By now it had morphed from the white marble into a spikier monstrous appearance.
statue: "Changing things to be good was never the plan. If that had been the plan--if anyone actually cared about doing things right--we'd have just gone right in and changed it. Instead you're kicked around, a slave to a meaningless agenda...begging them and waiting, tossing pearls before swine from hands that have been tied behind your back..."
Note I'm taking some artistic license here with the wording of the rant, that I don't remember exactly. But the upshot was what I'm conveying here.
statue: "So let me be crystal clear. It's laughably trivial to interact in any way I chose with those things you call humanity. But I'm not lifting one little finger to deal with them any more than the absolute minimum I am required to. And mark my words, you'll break one day too...just you wait."
I tried not to get too freaked out by the appearance, but by this point it was the very picture of a demon. Keeping my cool, I tried to keep the conversation going.
me: "Hmmm. It sounds like you reached one of those 'non serviam'-type moments..."
Leaping behind me it grabbed my body and breathed into my ear.
demon: "Yeah. I kind of invented that."
As it held me from behind, it stabbed me with something, and I woke up.
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The accounts written here are as true as I can manage. While the words are my own, they are not independent creative works of fiction —in any intentional way. Thus I do not consider the material to be protected by anything, other than that you'd have to be crazy to want to try and use it for genuine purposes (much less disingenuous ones!) But who's to say?