blackhole://nilFM

polycrisis 01

View of a coastal city skyline at high noon; _its been a month since infinity tech canned me... i was one of their best software developers; a cybertruck drives by some people walking on the street; __its a consistent trend - our clients find you offputting and difficult and your professional demeanor is a poor fit for the company_ is what they said_; close up on the bumper of the cybertruck it has a sticker saying _I IDENTIFY AS A PRIUS_; _of course, i found out the real reason is..._; a girl with a long, high ponytail, allweather jacket and pleated skirt flips the cybertruck off with a scornful look; _...because im transgender_ low angle shot of the girl walking through a big city with buildings towering over her, the sun shining directly from overhead; _since then... ive been wandering this wretched city_ the girl is leaning against a traffic light on a street corner, people bustling around her. _while im just trying to figure out what to do next... everyone around me just takes their existence and place in society for granted_; closer in on her using a pocket computer while leaning against the pole, the people replaced by abstract energy flows; social media posts: _@federatedNews- US Supreme court declares trans people mentally ill_, _@NWRTimes- trans student brutally stabbed to death in laundromat_, _@blkflag- _transgender ideology_ is now an enemy of the state?!_; panel of cars in traffic _just blindly accepting..._; panel of a woman in a dress walking down a set of stairs in the darkness and a man in a trenchcoat and hat walking up them _the hand thats been dealt to us_; side profile of the girl leaning against the pole and looking blankly into the middle distance in a fugue _every day, it seems like it couldnt possibly get any worse... and then it fucking does._ The girl walking down a sidewalk toward an intersecting staircase, a sports car drives by loudly and whips her hair with its wake _but i guess thats why..._; she walks up the stairs amid a xeriscape _usually, at some point in the day..._; at the to pof the stairs, she lingers in her last step between the coastal trees and herb garden, a modern stone plaza overlook is level with two business buildings and overlooks the ocean. it has a bench facing toward the buildings and continues around the oceanside, with a staircaes near the bench that goes up toward another business building. sunlight is reflecting off the water and birds dot the scene. _i end up hanging out here._ (inset) The girl walks carefully to the oceanside-facing part of the overlook and looks out at the ocean for a moment, then...; full-page frame of her sitting down on the nearby bench, taking off her bag, and smoothing her skirt in one unified motion, her long ponytail swaying with her movement The girl is seated on the bench, with her legs crossed at the knees, space seeming to warp around her as she dives into cyberspace on her cyberdeck. At right three UI overlays are shown, from top to bottom: NOW PLAYING - AETHER - eternal_battle; a window of a code editor with the file ~/code/sg/collector.go open (adapter.channels.collect(func(){}); logger.info(_collector_, _collect_,...); a chat window with someone called _m (s: hi ^^ / r: heyy how are ya? / s: ok i suppose! out and about as usual / r: yay, glad to hear it! im buried in work :crying-emoji: / s: quit and come code on the waterfront with me :grinning-emoji: / r: id love to, but unfortunately, capitalism :broken-heart-emoji: :melting-face-emoji:) Sitting on the bench still and looking toward the water, the girl looks frustrated: _Ughhh, what am I gonna do?_; she hears someone walking down the nearby steps from the office building while talking on the phone _Yeah. Uh-huh. No, its cool... I just went on lunch so I got time!_; she stands up from the bench, looking toward the steps and the plaza entrance while pulling her purse over her shoulder: _Hmmm... Lunch hour for the drones. I should probably go too..._; she can see a few office workers leaving the area for lunch, the city and mountains visible beyond the entryway and garden at the edge of the plaza.