The Rise of the Cyborgs

Interlude 3:Mitch and the Troll

Councillor Mitch looked at the PC again. She sighed.

Mitch Open a word processor.  She pushed her mouse to the other screen where the live twitter stream rang.

"if I see one positive message in the next five minutes I won't do it." She promised herself. It was really a promise to Mary but she had a promise she needed to make to her daughters too.

"I can't go on" Mitch said to herself.

She had said this before. Every time her friend had persuaded her. She would get back up. Get back in the game. She'd always relied on Mary.

It was late in the evening. Mitch sat in a small windowless room. The kind of room the Party might give someone from the opposition party. Which is what it was. Councillor was a title they handed out to someone of the Reform party. Which is what it was. On the door was the titled Councillor. A long time ago Thain Kasia had called Councillor the fig leaf of democracy. NewAmerica had a proportional system of voting. It meant that a few Reform people would get jobs. They always got the poisoned jobs. Jobs which came with the blame but no power. The jobs that never actually do anything.

They either got them or got nothing. Both ways the Permanence party won. So Mitch got a small windowless office. She had an out of date computers which they nursed. GovSys never upgraded it. Mitch's had two screens. One ran a live feed from social media. #MitchBlakeForCouncil.

Normally Mary had filtered out all of Mitch's junk. Watching it live stream past was some kind of tour of the sixth level of hell. Who could believe the NewAmerica had such vitriol in it?

Mary checked the Twitter Account like some kind of flagellating mediaeval monk.

"We must be up with the needs of the people" Mitch had said.

"That's not people" Mary would say "that's a forest full of trolls. Ignore them."

Every few seconds Mitch's mind went back to Mary. Mary had been so excited after she had taken the plunge and joined that dating website. She hadn't said anything about the guy she was dating except he was really good looking, a total catch. Mitch had just been quietly confident that Mary would be fine. Mary had worked hard but was easy to spook. She had to leave early, said she had won some prize from the site. Complete with some kind of makeover. Mitch just thought about the last time she saw Mary.

"What am I to do Mary?" Mitch had said to her assistant.

Mary had been less an assistant. She was confident, Cheerleader, Strategist, Coach, Friend. She had been in her middle thirties. Single. She had wrinkles and freckles something she constantly bitched about. Mitch, on the other hand, was a thin woman. Her appearance moved between 'appealing' and reliably mature. She had a taste for well-cut business suits. They looked good in photos and campaign posters.

"What are you to do. You mean about the mid-terms or this investigation?" Mary had said.

"No, I mean about this constant stream of abuse. Every media channel is neck deep in abuse." Mitch had said scanning through her inbox. "Can Gov-sys give us better filtering than this? Listen to this one 'For a fat cow politician like you Mitch, I think its a bit rich sending your kids to a school like that. Aggie looks so valuable in that red outfit." Mitch had read out. "For fuck sakes."

Mitch put her forehead in her hand.

"What can I say, Mitch? Do you want me to tell you? That ever since you had stood as a candidate for the Reform party the amount of personal abuse you get is horrendous. You knew that." Mary had said. " You know politicians need to have sick skin about this." 

Mitch looked at her "thick skin is one thing but made of stone is another." Mitch sat back "Aggie for fuck's sake Mary. They are threatening my daughter."