I want to tell you a story.
But I can't.
Well, I'm sure I can pull together a few story threads from other places, throw them together, mix them up, and have a basic story I can tell you. But that's not what I want to do.
There's a specific story I want to tell you, a specfic journey I want to take you on, but I can't.
Because it's not a story I can tell with words, on a screen, like this. It needs another format to tell you.
Watch this space for when we get transmitting smells technology.
When they woke up, they struggled against the straps, like all of them.
"The fuck is going on?" they asked, like all of them.
I apologised for pulling them out of their mission early, but circumstances had changed and I needed them to become more overt in their efforts, like all of them.
They clearly didn't remember anything about working for me, nor anything about having had mental blocks placed on them, like all of them.
They then demanded a larger percentage, which I reluctantly agreed to, just like with every good guy I captured and then altered their personality.
He picked up the book, looking it over.
"This is the one that like, made the genre, right?"
I looked over and nodded.
"Yeah, 'Office Block' was the book that started the Neurocapitalism genre, although it wasn't the first book to explore the themes, but it really was the big starting point."
"Cool, so I should read it?"
"Honestly, pretty much every theme and concept in the book is done better and more interestingly in later books in the genre, so outside of completeness, you seen The Simpsons parodies?"
"Sure, clips online."
"Doesn't matter, you've basically read the book then."
I make a habit of buying mad scientists and their ilk's notes and equipment whenever they float up on the black market. I'm usually the only interested party, and get them on the cheap.
Sure, you usually get gets what you pay for, and they are overpriced test tubes and ramblings. But sometimes I get a new idea, or an interesting data point.
And sometimes, I get a step by step instruction manual on how to fake a scientific breakthrough that I can sell to gullible greedy assholes.
On an unrelated note, you want to invest in unlimited power generation?
"Next case!"
A scared looking young woman was dragged into the makeshift dock.
"This civilian is hearby charged with aiding and abetting the enemy!"
I raised an eyebrow as I looked at her.
"In what way?"
"She would sneak injured enemy combatants from POW camps, then accompany them across the border!"
I looked at her again.
"I assume you have proof for this, because I'm not exactly convinced looking at her."
"One of the officers she helped wrote her a thank you letter."
I was handed the letter, then looked at her again.
"Officers are idiots, huh?
Guilty, shooting squad."
When the walls fell, that was when the character of those left standing would be revealed.
With the defences gone, and only death, subjugation, or the most unlikely victory ever, to come, that was when you found out who the survivors truly were.
Some ran, afraid of the options, or the work, trying to delay it in the hope that they wouldn't have to choose.
Some fought, to try and win, or to try to survive, or to try and die.
And some just gave up, and laid down.
My character?
Who do you think brought the walls down originally?
The Personification Of All Knowledge appeared, surrounded by bright light.
"You have summoned me, Mortal! Ask your question, and I shall answer!"
"What's this pain I get in my feet?"
The Personification Of All Knowledge tilted its female coded head as it stared at me.
"You cracked the living code of the universe, sacrificing unique items that will now never exist, solely to ask about your feet?"
"No doctor or mystic seems to know what's causing it."
The Personification Of All Knowledge sighed.
"Very well."
The Personification Of All Knowledge looked at my feet.
"Wait, what the hell is that?"
