FLASHed

22. Immersion

Expectant faces levelled intently at him and him alone. From the outside, they seemed like everyone \Blake Anthrax had ever known; co-workers, friends, family, each and every one of them, his superior. The problem was that he couldn't accept that these faces were different, that, unlike everybody else, they not only welcomed him, they desired him.

From the moment of his birth, Blake had been an attention deficit. He knew why: ugly? ✓ check; boring and obnoxious? ✓ check; smelly? ✓ hell yeah.

His one and only ever girlfriend had broken up with him after only twenty-four hours because of the abnormal hormonal stink that oozed from his body after physical exertion--since then, he'd had recurring nightmares about the phrase she'd used that included the f-word and 'skunk'. But, that was the real world, here, within the Environment, it seemed that Blake was simply, irresistible.

They were mind augments, individuals that had installed bionic cognitive enchantments and given their lives to the virtual world. Out of billions of users, they numbered only in the hundreds. Their company, The Order, had an influence that was monumentally unproportionate considering their small number; they were the movers and shakers of the virtual universe, and their touch made Midas seem a pauper.

"Why me?" He had asked when the senior augment, Xorn, first invited him to join The Order. Their answer was unexpected--

"Blake?! It is time." Xorn jerked him back into the present. They were still waiting for him to commit the immersion.

Even in the spotlight, Blake had fallen into a bout of stream dreaming. It was a thing he did, usually at the most inappropriate times, and meant his conscious self would fall into one or more peripheral narratives; recollection would often come uninvited and in bouts of compelling high-fidelity. After his immersion, he'd been promised hardware and training that only the augments could provide. They would show him how to run his gift in parallel with his primary thread.

Xorn had brought him back to the here-and-now, but he needed more time and pretended to still be dreaming. While Blake seemed to have finally found a tribe that would accept him for himself, the idea of joining The Order was no light undertaking. It meant that he would have to live permanently within the Environment, giving away his ability to unhook, to go outside and feel the real sun upon his face. That was the price of perpetual privilege and instant and indiminishable respect from everyone, everywhere. A small price?

He received a personal thread request, it was also from Xorn but hidden from the others, the title of the packet said it all:

Blake, you are embarrassing me in front of all my friends.

Blake pretended to snap out of his stream dream, "Okay, Xorn. I'm ready."

Good. Let us begin.

* * *

Immersed in water, your whole being is surrounded. You may find yourself floating peacefully, but sooner or later, you'll need to come up for air. The immersion that Blake faced was similar, but like holding your breath, knowing that you will never breathe again.

"Blake!"

"It's okay, Xorn, I'm here."

One of the others, a hooded cloak, looked to Xorn, "are you sure about this? He seems..." the augment paused to consider the correct word, "...immature."

"It doesn't matter, the decision has been made." Xorn signalled for Blake to continue.

Blake threw a private thread request to Xorn, who snapped it up. "They're right, I'm not ready, I will never be ready to give up real life. After all, they don't really want me, they just need my brain." And there, he'd said it; the angry elephant was out and free to smash up the room.

Xorn was not displeased, "It is true. You are unique. As I've said before, not in an age has a brain with the physical properties such as yours been born. Then, before The Order, before the Environment, such brains were responsible for the greatest advancements in human development" (the augment referred to Blake's abnormally thick corpus callosum combined with an extraordinary surface area around the young man's mid-frontal lobe).

"While it is odd that your advantage hasn't generally manifested itself in genius, you were able to access and decipher our protocols, something that no one has been able to do without the advantage of neural augmentations.

"Imagine what you will be capable of once we augment your already wonderful brain."

But Blake didn't buy it, "I can only imagine what you will be capable of after you own my brain." He thought to the years of torment strapped to his menial job as an audit clerk. He considered that his new world would be nothing more than a new kind of corporate slavery, one from which he could never clock off.

"IMMERSION!" The hooded cloak invoked a power that pulled Blake out of his thread with Xorn, "Do it now, or we will be rid of this nonsense!"

The demand was met with the scattered murmur of agreement.

Blake didn't have much time, soon The Order would lose patience, and he would be ejected, destined to be forever just another user--or a slave--he didn't know--Blake jumped in.

* * *

Deep deep deep where light has no meaning, and the only sound is the buzz of your busy brain fighting against the pull of currents; dead-end ideas are caught in eddies; and hopes cool until they are lost beneath red hot fears--anger ever rising. Finally, alone with the pulsing energy that feeds scorn and doubt, you push the sulphur-yellow poison outside. Here, deep deep deep where light has no meaning, you embrace your many selves, you embrace your shadow, and become the only one that matters. You are irrepressible.

* * *

"You are one of us now. How does it feel, reborn?" Xorn asked some time after the other witnesses had retired.

Xorn had been his friend, but now, it was all different; the immersion had given Blake a unique insight, "you don't get it, do you? I'm not one of you; I'm not a user either. I'm no one's friend, no one's happiness, no one's brain. Sorry Xorn, but now I'm free."

"Blake, remember our deal?" The mind augment was not used to opposition, and hadn't considered such an active development in their muse after just one immersion. Blake's new attitude had taken them by surprise, "Blake, you belong with us now!"

"Do I? Or do I belong to you?" Blake placed his hand over the shoulder of the one who had only hours before been his superior. "Do not follow. Do not try and touch me. Thank you and Goodbye, Xorn."

Back in the immersion, the only thing that Blake desired was to protect his new-found freedom.

fin. 

<◕.◕> first published here 24 Oct, 2019