Deus Ex Machina – Daniel 47

 

For back story go here: Story so far, and maybe this one.]

[Relevant back story links also within text.] 

There was a bit of a commotion going on in the coffee shop. Daniel was trying to ignore it in the way you do when you're aware they know you can hear them but you have to try and ignore them anyway. But from what he could gather the dispute was only over the type of coffee that had been served and he couldn't imagine this would last for a very long time. Surely? Not here. Not now. 

Daniel tried to focus, or to change his focus. This was meant to be 'me' time, he thought, even though he was using it not for the sake of being just with himself, but for the sake of trying to work out the next move for Together... Apart. He was trying to come up with catchy marketing slogans, image ideas and campaigns, which was a difficult task when combined with having Daisy dotting around the front room (drawing a lovely picture of a chocolate brownie cooking in the oven one minute, hurtling a unicorn round her head and into the fireplace the next). He had told her she would be going back to school - proper school - or at least proper school with the funny distanced classrooms and spots on the floor - next week and while Daisy seemed pretty OK with the idea it had made her a barrel of nervous energy that wasn't conducive to home working. Maybe a combination of the classroom, her friends and Mrs Chistlehurst's regime would straighten things out a little.

Either way, she was asleep now and Daniel had taken advantage of this to slip into Adrian's virtual world again for a spot of inspiration and maybe some R and R.

"This isn't in hackable, is it?" asked Daniel aloud.

'Nothing is one hundred percent proof," came a disembodied voice, "But it's as close as I can get at the moment. If anything comes up I can shoot it down pretty quickly in general."

"And online abuse?"

"Same thing goes," said the voice. "Same as on any platform. We need to keep monitoring it and if anything happens or gets reported we respond."

"You and whose army?" asked Daniel.

"Yeah," said the voice. "You've got a point there."

The voice was Adrian's. As world creator he could lead internally, taking the role of 'God' here and speaking directly with any or many of his subjects. He had an all-seeing presence, although he was keen to relinquish this as soon as a possible, perhaps to a more democratic structure or at least to a team of online customer experience representatives. Daniel mused as to whether a real Deity would welcome handing over all their responsibility in the same way.

“Wow,” said a new voice behind him. “We found each other.”

Daniel looked around. A woman appeared to be in front of him. 

“Sandra?” he asked and she smiled and sat down in response. “You look – different – from how I imagined.”

“She does look different,” came Adrian’s voice. “I’m not scanning in people here, you’re all just avatars, remember?”

“Right,” said Daniel, suitably admonished. “How are you?”

“Good thanks,” said Sandra. “Busy. Better in lots of ways. Good.”

“I think the important thing is to remember how far we’ve come,” said Adrian, still on his own track. “I mean, this isn’t The Matrix right? We’re not fully immersed or -"

“Adrian?” said Sandra. “Nice to hear from you but can you belt up and go away?”

There was one thing you probably wouldn’t say to a real Deity, thought Daniel. But it was nice to be able to.

“Sure thing,” said Adrian. “I need to go and rescue a couple of people from an identity theft thing. A superhero’s work is never done. If you need me press Alt Command G,” he added. “The chatbot is just a stalling device.”

“So,” said Sandra. “Here we are again. Netflix and now hanging out. Won’t be long before we can meet in person. Possibly. I mean, if you want to?”

Daniel considered this. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to - far from it. It was just the thought of actually being with someone else, someone new, in person was really quite a bizarre concept. For nearly a year now various things had not happened. No one had been in his house apart from Daisy. He had gone into no one else’s house (apart from that sort of break in at Chrissy’s). He’d had a couple of work meetings, but not been in an office. For all the talk of a ‘new normal’, ’normality’ had never really arrived. There were just a series of points towards a return to what everyone really wanted. The old normal.

“I think that would be good,” said Daniel. “I’ll look forward to it. It’ll be the Christmas we never had.”

Over in the cafe, the disruptive customer suddenly disappeared and peace returned. Daniel sent a prayer of thanks to Adrian and relaxed.