Mango Porcupine Chapter 3
Amid ignoring messages from Sapph and his own internal thoughts of aimless boredom, Shel came across a full basketball court. The conflict between the two teams, orange and green, was intense...
Amid ignoring messages from Sapph and his own internal thoughts of aimless boredom, Shel came across a full basketball court. The conflict between the two teams, orange and green, was intense but that somehow made the game more fluid. Long limbs lept between limbs. They reached for the basketball, sometimes striking air, sometimes stealing. A mixture of squeaks and sharp hits shot ambiently into the air.
“Whatoccs my man?” one of the basketball players shouted to Shel. He was big and lanky with spider hands, green team.
“Just taking an afternoon run.”
“Respect. You want in?”
The other players stopped and waited expectantly.
“Yeah. I’ll be on the winning team.” Shel said.
The players laughed, Shel scratched his mole.
“Alright you’re on my team.” Spider Hands shook his chin toward their side of the court. He fist bumped Shel as he walked by and gave him a confident grin.
The basketball spun in Spider Hand’s hands like wind over grass… then stopped, frozen, all eyes on it. With a snap it left fingers and was off the ground into another green players hands. He dribbled rapidly down the court and took a shot…miss.
Orange team took the ball and the player came right down Shel’s side of the court, dodging two players. Shel made a swipe at it, but was hit by the majority of the player’s body, shoving him into the ground. His head smacked the pavement. The orange player in mid-shoot, paused, rotated on his foot to face Shel and with all of the other players, walked up to him in unison.
Spider Hands stood up straight, and his eyes began to glow, “Would you like to change the difficulty level?”
Ah. A bot court.
A court manned entirely by robots that looked just like humans but had no rights, just like iBots, and served a specific function in the urban mileiu. In this case the function could be classified under a line found on tourism collateral for the metro: “. . .a bustling and vibrant city.” As always, getting to jump in on a game with some random guys, was one of the big perks of living in a bustling and vibrant city.
Gah, I can’t remember the last time I got to go play with people. I need to take Gilbrett and we can each have a side.
An electric blue hologram projected from Spider Hand’s eyes creating a selection menu like a video game. A wheel made up of twelve sections spun out of nothing and froze in the center, gently pulsing with light. The current level was on nine out of twelve. Shel could just see the players in different stances behind the menu, shimmering, waiting. A pang of loneliness stabbed between his ribs and he let out a little disappointed breath. He pushed past it and looked out at the streets. Seeing no one, he selected three and was quickly whelmed with the thrilling feeling of scoring seven baskets in ten minutes.
Exhausted and sweaty, he pulled a granola bar and orange out of his pack. As he peeled the orange he sat on a bench watching the players play on.
Man who was playing them on a nine?
Then he had a thought.
He finished his food, picked up his pack and on his way leaving the court he stopped by Spider Hands “Hey, I need to change the difficulty level.”
“Respect. The current level is on three.”
“Twelve please.”
“Respect.”
As he was walking off he saw them go at it. The ball no longer dribbled, but moved between hand and concrete as precisely as the metallic spheres in a Newton’s Cradle. As he rounded the corner he heard it hit the backboard with such force it sounded as if it broke.
He walked several blocks enjoying the chilly winter sunset before realizing he hadn’t picked a destination. He could go back home for dinner with Sapph… but he reallllly didn’t feel ready for that yet. He’d watch TV with her later, that’d be nice.
Now, he felt like grabbing a few drinks before calling it a day. He walked off before he heard a voice stop him, “Excuse me sir! I just need some food! I’m starving! Haven’t had a meal in days!”
Behind him a filthy homeless woman was walking up. She was tall, impeccably skinny, and dragging her foot in a plastic grocery bag.
“Oh hello-“ he managed to get out before the woman came in real close to his face and stammered.
“Wow…! You look like a model!”
Shel blushed and scratched his mole, he knew she was homeless and a bot at that, but still it was nice to hear.
“No really you do!”
“Here, here’s some granola bars and a protien shake.”
“Oh thank you sir! The world needs people like you!” Beaming and waving, she loped into an alley.
He swelled with pride as he walked away because it was true. Without food the homeless bot population would die.