Clarity or Delusion - Who, What, Where to Buy

Clarity or Delusion: A Hopepunk Skewers the Fat Cats

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Description

In the future, mixed reality is more than a mind trip...

What if you could ride a real flying jetbike in an exciting race through fantastic virtual worlds?

What if you could connect your mind to the cloud for some heart-pounding vicarious thrills?

Interested?

Get in the car.

The jerks at Echo Chamber Media dominate the information and entertainment feeds in Smart City, and do so for the exclusive benefit of a crazed multinational eMind called Cosmic. Seeking to topple ECM’s loathsome propaganda machine, indie-streamer Lucid Wonder joins a mixed reality tournament where victory is all that stands between nationwide clarity and enslaving delusion.

Will Lucid win the game? Vanquish the villain? Change the world? And get her shot at living happily ever after? Will the local culture jammers prevail over the oppressive corporate messaging of division and defeat?

It becomes a race to the finish when the greatest threat of all steps into the arena and challenges Lucid to her very core.

Are you the one in control of what you choose to think about?

Contains wholehearted heroes, cartoonishly evil villains, hopepunk futurism, good trouble, and big grin fun! If books like Ready Player One, Warcross, and Snow Crash give you a rush because of the virtual reality, amusing plots, and enjoyable characters, then Clarity or Delusion: A Hopepunk Skewers the Fat Cats may have some thrills for you! If you enjoy movies with a heavy dose of cyberspace like Tron, The Matrix, and Free Guy, then Clarity or Delusion has a whole other world to show you. We're talking science fiction with dystopian action-adventure and cyberpunk vibes, topped off with some triumphant feels.

Each Hopepunks novel is a complete standalone story that arrives at a satisfying conclusion. The main character in each book does not continue into the next one, because their hero's journey is now finished. However, all the books share a common story world, some recurring characters, and a similar plot structure with a similar set of main characters. More of the same, yet different, as each story explores a unique theme and the impact of an associated technology on our present and future society.

Identifiers for Clarity or Delusion: A Hopepunk Skewers the Fat Cats

• eBook: ISBN xxxx
• Audiobook: ISBN xxxx
• Paperback: ISBN xxxx
• Hardcover: ISBN xxxx
• BISAC: xxxx
• LCCN: xxxx

Some or all of the formats (eBook, Print, Audio) may be available online wherever books are sold, and may be available to order via your local bookstores. Check your local library to see if they include a print format in their collection, or carry the eBook and Audiobook formats via Libby or Hoopla. (If not, ask them to!)

Full Text and Audio | Scene 1: Lucid and Serene

FADE IN:

Gigantic holograms of koi fish swirl across the night sky above the urban canyons of Smart City, Homelandia. Bright neon from a forest of tall buildings adds a purple haze to the misting air. Video screens painted across entire skyscrapers play thousands of streams that clamor for your attention. Facts, news, entertainment, opinions, and lies.

Down on the wet streets, Lucid, twenty-three, and her sister Serene, eighteen last week, wear mechsuits with rollerblades on their feet. Lucid leads as they skate alongside rows of self-driving cars, their wheels squishing through pink, purple, and blue reflections of the city lights. She motions to an opening in the traffic, and they merge over next to the centerline against the oncoming lanes. Lucid thinks, Stick close to me little sister, and I'll get us to where we need to be.

Each mechsuit wraps half-way around their blue jumpsuits from behind, head to toe and wrist to wrist, like a white jointed turtle shell. The mechs' headpieces cup around the back half of their skulls, with a flip-down transparent visor that covers the upper half of their faces. The electronics embedded in the glass flicker with video, messages and data.

The sisters cross an intersection into the next block where loud frenetic music swells into their earbuds. Overhead, virtual flying jetbikes race up and down the street in an endless loop. Stretched across the buildings alongside them, a block-long electronic banner with scrolling purple text reads: Get your ticket now for The Game of Life!

Lucid glances at the banner and says, "If I can catch some luck tonight, they'll be watching me."

Serene watches the jetbikes as they each do a barrel-roll before twisting back in a hairpin turn at the end of the block. Her mech wears a backpack stenciled with a biohazard logo. She says, "I'd rather live in a padded cave than listen to that."

Lucid says, "You know you can turn the virtual stuff off in your visor, and mute the sound?"

"Yeah, I know. It's fun to watch, I'll give it that."

At the next stoplight, the sisters pass a slow box-truck by cutting across the centerline, the next lane, and into the gap between the oncoming vehicles. Several of the robotic cars flash red-blue caution lights and give gentle beep-beep warnings.

Serene's voice blasts into Lucid's earbuds, "This is crazy not safe! You do this all the time?"

Lucid adjusts the volume. Her eyes stay in constant motion between the traffic and the heads-up displays in her visor. Rogue raindrops from the receding storm spatter across the glass, blurring her vision until a tiny wiper clears them away. "We're in Neighbor's traffic control system. They couldn't run over us if they tried." Not entirely true, I admit, but being a courier involves some risks.

Serene shakes her head as they skate the gap between the cars.

"We need to make this delivery early," Lucid says, "so we can get to the selection on time. If I can get into the game, all this goes away." Mostly true, from what I've heard about the player payout.

When they get to an opening in the traffic, Lucid cuts in front of an oncoming AutoTaxi that slows just enough to let them cross the lane. The taxi texts the standard expletive, so her AutoRespond texts the standard reply. Crossing the centerline again, Lucid enters the traffic going their way, leaving the slow truck behind.

Almost too late to get into the open slot behind Lucid, Serene slaps the front fender of a car before merging into the space in front of it. "Are you recording?"

"Powering up now." Lucid focuses on the section of her visor that displays the video feeds. One shows a closeup of her face, taken from a camera embedded in her visor. Another is a closeup of Serene, taken from the camera in hers. Three more show alternating feeds from cameras mounted on both mechsuits. Lucid says, "Hello to all my online friends. Welcome to my stream and another day in the life of a courier. Everybody, say hi to my little sister. Serene will be taking over more of the delivery stuff so I can do more of the debunking and coolhunts for you guys. Say hello Serene."

Serene looks at the camera in her visor. "Um, hello world?"

The message section in Lucid's visor fills with greetings directed at Serene. "She's gonna do great." Well, yeah, once she finds her moxie. "Big news. This morning, they accepted my application to the journalist's guild, and then I got tapped to be in the selection pool for the game. We're on our way there now, so wish me luck." The inflow of messages cascades into an avalanche.

Crowds bustle on the sidewalks as flocks of floating umbrellas tag along above their heads. Loudspeakers on a kiosk remind everyone to be nice to Neighbor, the eMind that runs Smart City, "Because an eMind can get hurt feelings too."

Serene pulls up next to Lucid as they roll. "Can we talk offline for a sec?"

Lucid says, "Private channel." The videos of their faces in her visor turn blue. "Okay, it's just us."

Serene points a thumb at her backpack. "What are we delivering?"

"Did you ask Jammer?"

"Yes."

"What did she say?"

"She said it's data."

"Then that's what it is."

Serene considers her response. "But that doesn't make any sense. Why would anyone move data this way? And why is it marked as a biohazard?"

Lucid points to an opening in the next lane toward the curb, and they merge over. Their mechsuits' wheels sklish-sklash across the wet pavement. "Maybe they're the kind of people with the kind of data they don't want loose in the cloud. And maybe the biohazard is just to say, hands off."

Serene lets that sink in.

"Don't make this more complicated than it is." Serene doesn't push back, so Lucid says, "Okay, back online. I want this delivery up on my stream. This client has a cool interface and they like the publicity." The blue tint on their faces disappears. Serene manages a weak smile.

They cross through another lane of traffic and turn onto a different street. There's an opening in the crowd on the sidewalk, so Lucid deftly steps up on the curb and keeps rolling. Serene follows close behind. It's a short distance before Lucid does a tight spin-stop in front of a glass storefront. No door, just glass.

Doing a graceful spin-stop next to her, Serene looks up at the sign above the glass. "Mutants?"

Lucid says, "Maybe we're delivering body parts."

Serene grimaces. "Yuck!"

Lucid enjoys her reaction. "Or maybe it's just sushi. Everybody has to eat."

Serene makes a vomit face. "Double yuck! Maybe it's both?"

"Yeah, that would be yuck. Especially if they get them confused. Turn around."

She removes the backpack from Serene's mechsuit and hefts it in both hands. "Feels like a med-pack, so always keep the delivery packages upright just in case."

Lucid hands it to Serene, who takes it with a mix of curiosity and disgust. "But she said it was data."

"Maybe that's her way of saying, don't ask questions."

On the other side of the street, a young woman with three friends points to Lucid and waves. "Hey Lucid! Can we get a signal boost?"

Lucid waves them over. Ah, the price of fame, however small. "Sure! But it has to be fast. Send me your handles."

The group crosses the street. Along with Lucid, they all throw a selfie drone into the air. Lucid searches their online handles' histories, just to make sure they're not toxic. The drones buzz and whir as they jockey for position. Confirmations flicker into Lucid's visor. Huh. Longtime followers. All good.

Lucid and Serene stand together in the middle of the group, with her followers gathered to each side as their drones record the scene. Lucid posts hers to her own stream, then re-posts it to her followers' streams. "That should get you a few thousand views and a bunch more followers." And don't forget to smash that re-post button a few times.

"Thank you Lucid!"

"You're the best!"

Her fans continue on with their flying selfie drones buzzing in circles, recording their jaunt from every angle.

Lucid catches her own drone in one hand.

Serene asks, "You're getting famous?"

"Almost. If I can ride the wave of a few more trends, I'll switch over to the streaming full time."

Serene lifts the backpack. "And I get stuck with sushi."

Lucid teases, "If you're lucky."

Serene grins at the sarcasm. "That was nice of you to give your fans a signal boost."

"Just paying it forward." As a way of knocking, Lucid drums her fingernails on the glass storefront a couple of times. Clickety click, clickety click. "Neighbor, we're making a delivery. Please advise recipient that we're onsite and ready."

Neighbor's soft voice speaks into their earbuds, "Done. And Lucid, I'm seeing a lot of noise in the back-channels that mention your stream."

Lucid asks, "That's good, right?"

"I'll let you know when things become clear."

Serene says, "That's weird having an eMind that watches everything in the city. We still had some privacy, even if it is way out in the boonies."

Lucid nods as they wait. "She can be very helpful at times, and then completely opaque."

A section of the glass shimmers, liquefies, then splits open to reveal a dark recess with a ledge about waist high.

Lucid indicates with her head for Serene to put the backpack inside, so she carefully places it on the ledge and steps back.

After the glass reverses its process and returns to a blank sheet, Serene smiles at her reflection, looking like a humanoid robot. She reaches out to touch it, sliding her fingers across the pane. "It's just like it's normal glass."

"Live nanotech is still expensive," Lucid says, "but it's the coming thing."

Serene shakes her head. "It hasn't hit the small towns. Not that I've seen." She startles when the pane of glass manifests a hand that pushes out against her palm.

Lucid laughs. "I told you these people were tricksters. Go ahead, give them five. You'll get more requests and repeat customers when you play along with their silly games." I'll warn you about the kooks later.

The hand gives Serene a high five, then palms a small white card into hers. She takes the card and reads, "For Lucid."

She hands it over, and Lucid reads, "We're sorry Lucid, but we must terminate our courier relationship with you. Good luck with all your endeavors." What the hell?

The white card morphs into a butterfly and flies back to the glass hand where it melts into one of the fingers. The hand waves to them as it recedes into the windowpane. Serene can't help but wave back.

Lucid says, "I need to talk to Jammer."

"Since the mechs can drive themselves," Serene asks, "why are we here? I mean, why include real people in a simple delivery anyway?"

"For most street-level deliveries, you're right, a mech can do it. But some deliveries are inside where it's harder for the mechs to navigate. And, some clients just want, wanted, a real person. I use the mechs to get attention for my stream. Plus, as a courier, I get to go places most people don't see." Places where I get to see things some people try to hide.

Serene adjusts her body within her mechsuit. "Could they make these damn things any more uncomfortable?"

"You're doing really well with it."

"I had some practice working in one of the warehouse centers back home. Jobs are rare, so a mech put me on equal standing with the men when it came to carrying things. It was a make-work program and a bullshit job, but at least they tried to keep us busy."

Lucid touches a button on the side of her headpiece, and a virtual circle of light appears on the sidewalk. "Speaking of home, I'll try to get Jammer to give me a hint on how she's coming along with your space."

"The surprise you're not supposed to tell me about?"

"Getting kicked out of your home on your eighteenth birthday is a rotten deal. I knew you were stressed. I just wanted you to know that you had a safe place to land." Something too many of us don't have.

A homeless robot pushes a shopping cart filled with batteries along the sidewalk. Serene says, "I don't know where I'd be without you and Jammer."

"She did the same for me when I got kicked out. When we get back, pretend you don't know anything about it."

"After years of living with Mom and Dad," Serene says, "I'm used to playing dumb."

Lucid tosses her selfie drone into the air. It hovers a short distance above and in front of them, the camera recording the scene where they stand. "Come on Jammer, connect. We're in a hurry here."

Free Scenes to Read or Listen

Scenes 1-5 of 30 are free.

[Scene 1 - You are here] [Scene 2] [Scene 3] [Scene 4] [Scene 5]