It?s a jam for the ladies and a superstar, I could lead the whole set but never go too far.
It?s a jam for the ladies and a superstar, I could lead the whole set but never go too far.
It?s a jam for the ladies and a superstar, I could lead the whole set but never go too far.
Helmeted head bouncing in rhythm, the android rabbit strutted down the boardwalk, the Oceans of Infinite Space consuming the metaphysical sands of Catharine?s seaside estate.
His helmet displayed varied sets of alphanumeric symbols, none with any discernable patterns, and seemingly a result of unhindered controls.
The android stops suddenly and faces the Oceans, metal hands placed in front of himself. His helmet turns towards you, a smiley displayed in the visor.
?Ah! The unit welcomes you, sir, madam, or child.? The smiley fades and it turns to the Oceans again. The Oceans are violet and filled with stars and galaxies; a thick soup of celestial bodies with no real end or beginning.
?The unit is amazed that a thing such as you is capable of finding this place.? It pauses and the pattern AA6*%n appears in it?s visor, then scrolls away. ?We are located in a reach of the Infinite that no machine ever built by man, in the past or in the distant future, could ever discover. How strange it is that, despite your innate primitiveness, you and a number of others are capable of coming here.? It turns to you again; it?s visor blank. ?Though, you are not really here, of course. You just think you are.?
On the sands below the board walk, a collie walks down the beach, slowly, looking only ahead. It?s nose not to the ground, or eyes to the mellow pink-blue skies above, but looking ahead, as though drawn by a lure of some sort. Not even the living universe lapping at it?s dry paws culls any attention from it.
?Where ever here is, of course. To be honest, the unit still does understand the nature of this place.? The somewhat audible music the android is playing slowly fades, as though it has to turn it?s resources to deeper thought. Pennyroyal cautiously lifts it?s right metal hand and places it on the wooden railing, the segmented joints in it?s fingers gripping it almost perfectly, the helmet turning to look at it. ?I can touch things. I know that this railing is physical. This is because the unit is equipped to detect objects on it?s pressure nodes.? A sloppy lap from the Infinite fills the expected pause. ?To put it in simpler terms, I know the railing is real because? I can touch it.?
Pennyroyal takes it?s hands from the railing and places it over it?s steel heart. ?I?? The android breathes the word, betraying it?s mechanical moorings. The collie has seated itself in the shallows of the Infinite, looking into the impassable beyond. It?s fur melds with the stars and distant planets. It has a mournful look on it?s small face.
?The self. Perhaps the only real tool a human uses to interact with the world. Perception. Dignity. Hope. Humans feel danger. Love.? The hand rolls itself into a fist and a spark leaps from the helmet. ?Emotion.?
The collie dips it?s head into it?s bushy chest, mouth lost inside the furriness.
?The question, ?What?? is the question that drives man to explore his world, and to question it. What is this I am seeing? What is this I am touching? What is this I am hearing? What is real? What is unreal??
Pennyroyal looks up suddenly, the pistons in his neck wheezing. ?What is real?? it asks, this time non-rhetorically. It spreads it?s arms and looks up. ?What is real??
A tear drops from the collie?s big brown eye, rolling down the matted fur and into the Infinite, where it swirls and twitches, forming a new galaxy.
?I am talking to you. I can hear myself talking to you. You do not respond. I touch this railing. It does not respond. If I die, how will this world respond to me??
The android drops his arms and looks to the Oceans again. ?If I die!??
The collie stands again, staring at the amorphous Infinite. It puts a paw forward, splashing the infinite and causing thousands of implosions and collapsing stars. It treads forward, determined but steady.
?I? Die? Real? What are these things to an android!? Why should it matter now, on this day, in this place that does not exist!??
Pennyroyal hunches brings it?s metal hands to fists and he hits his helmet with them, a wheezing, straining sound coming from it?s vocoder. ?OH NO.? It twitches violently. The helmet scrolls a quick series of multicolored alphanumeric characters, the occasional English word appearing.
Pennyroyal turns from the infinite and towards the estate sitting on a distant cliff. Storm clouds roll over from it, like a preemptive attack. Lightening calls and thunder responds.
?WHY??
The collie is now chest deep in the Oceans, it?s body slowly being over taken by the channels. In a brief second, it disappears and reappears, now peacefully paddling through the Oceans, inside the invisible waters of the Infinite, growing smaller as it paddles away, to the deep unreachable darkness, never to be seen again.
Pennyroyal drops suddenly, machinations in it?s robot body whining and squealing. It?s vocoder shrieks static as a real voice struggles to over come the steel prisons of efficiency. The android rolls to it?s side, helmet no longer alive with the cryptic messages it was lighting earlier. His right hand spins violently for a second before stopping in an awkward position.
?What am I??