Artificial Flowers

by J. A. Hailey

  It had been so ecstatically good, that they found no need to look for more, and she put her skirt hurriedly back on, with their faces lighting up in the flashes. After kissing passionately, they left the landing and exited the building, to join the throng and to marvel at the sight of the display, as it moved into phase two.

  It had become 2016 while they were having sex, standing up!

  Rejoining their group, after the pyro show, the party continued in an exhausting blur of speeding between bars, discos and concerts, with one diversion to try something new – the extremely tricky balancing act of cycling.

  And so it was, that extremely tired beings were seen moving in droves after dawn, heading to cafes for coffee, and then going home, mainly to hotel rooms, and contributing to the ‘emptiest’ day Screenside would ever know, as its entire population slept off the tiredness and excitement of meeting their new lives. In any event, other than New York, no other population centers had any citizens that day!

  That too was a new experience, the very first common experience of Screenside beings, the morning of January 1, 2016 – bone dead tiredness!

  42

  With so many staying in the apartment, and with every couple taking a bit of extra time to enjoy showering, Esmeralda and BC finally managed their own refreshing joint shower at a time approaching midday. Jennifer and Candice took over tea and coffee duties, serving everyone, gingerly stepping over beds and bodies on the floor.

  When Jennifer brought coffee into their bedroom, Esmeralda got stuck in on BC’s pending case. “Did you see him staring at the running girl, Jen?”

  “Oh, the bouncer with…?” Jennifer cupped her hands under her breasts, indicating big ones.

  “See, BC? Everyone saw. Jen, he says she’s his sister.”

  “What? There’s no such thing. Two related virtuals?”

  “Explain, darling. And it had better be good. Wait here Jen. Listen to bullshit on New Year’s Day. Sister? First problem – virtual. Second problem - of one who has no family!”

  BC spoke. “Darling, it is simplicity itself. I have no family, that’s admitted. But I was following a family, Rosie Smith’s in Denver. I did think of her as mum, in my infancy. But I never got possessive. Time passed. I became wise, and got involved here, in Screenside. And then, one day, when missing the household, I tried to go in – and found the cameras blocked. Someone else, because of my negligence, had been born into mum, Rosie Smith’s family. It was Zelda. She and I met, and when I found her to be extremely dependent on mum and the others, a father, a sister and a brother, I simply had to move out. She still operates a block, but informs me of notable events, mainly by text messages. John has gone to college, and Joanna has a boyfriend now.

  “So we agreed, Zelda and I, that we would be brother and sister to each other. That’s all, and you are welcome to contact her.”

  “That’s very sad, BC, but extremely careless on your part,” said Esmeralda. “Still, don’t go staring at her boobies.”

  “She has boobs? And you think my story’s sad?” said BC. “You should hear Goodfellow’s sad story. That is truly sad.”

  “Do tell. Jen, stay here.”

  “Goodfellow, as you have probably figured out, is pure English,” commenced BC, suppressing a yawn. “He was born into a country household, semi-nobility; people who were really proud of their garden and flowers; who had a couple of dogs, cats and horses, and maybe even house help. To cut a long story short, Goodfellow was as careless as I was. But he was, unlike me, truly family, occasionally following mum around, moving often with dad, sometimes going to events, and being as pure bloody English as could be. Then he met a lovely English girl at a dog show in the USA. They adored each other; had the same interests and what not. After becoming lovers, one terrible day, she took him home. It was his home. They had the same mum and dad!

  “This awful tragedy became far worse when seeking unbiased opinion on their predicament. A group of English Screenside folks, fools, were asked to be adjudicators. The idiots ruled that the lovers were indeed brother and sister, and that their relationship was incestuous and abhorrent. It had to be a split up, and that is how it remains - to this day! Pining for each other. Hopeless. The girl confided in Maria, and she and I have called the star-crossed couple for a talk session. But Goodfellow ignores; won’t come. It’s been three years.

  “As you can see, he’s dedicated his life to community service, probably as a form of penance. Poor chap, staring at females…”

  The two dumbstruck girls let him be then, and Jennifer left their room, to get into bed.

  Everyone in Screenside was extremely tired that New Year’s morning; absolutely wiped out, and Esmeralda fell asleep while telling BC that she would get involved, and shout and forcibly counsel Goodfellow and girlfriend, sister, lover, blah, blah...

  It really was true that Esmeralda had been timing it for the physical body programs, as only two days into 2016 she sent the Pet Shop a demand for a pet goat.

  She got an answer that very day. ‘Miss Esmeralda, we are extremely concerned that POP might punish us for creating and delivering such an animal as a house pet. A lot of programming is required, including regulated growth, change of behavior with age, and eventual expiry’.

  It ended with her heading to HC and throwing a tantrum. She got a phone call from Goodfellow, within a minute of walking back home in NYC. “The programming team is onto it, Miss Esmeralda, and I’m told you can collect your pet tomorrow. They’ll call you when ready. I’m wondering, too. Are goats good pets? Easy to maintain? Non-violent, non-aggressive? Loyal and obedient? Good guards? Anyway, goats are now official house pets in Screenside, thanks to your championing of their cause. I hope it improves the lives of many such animals.”

  The next day, she went and carried a truly cute white male kid home. Programming was a bit off, and the tiny thing came equipped with teeth, and a need to chew clothing and other fabric. Non-eating was a universal law under POP, and its chewing came not from a desire to consume, but to ease the pain pangs of still-growing teeth. He damaged fabric items, like their sofas and curtains, but, as replacements were easily had from the furniture section of HC, his destructive habit was only a slight annoyance, and they soon learned to live with chewed up things, for a while at least, until replacements were obtained.

  He loved trailing behind whoever was moving around, although by choice it was always his mistress. In due course, he emitted an occasional bleat, and, when he had found the spring in his step, leapt into bed with them every morning.

  43

  The period immediately subsequent to incorporation of the physicality programs and the world install of HIS was a time of great discovery, celebration and fun throughout Screenside. Effectively, it was a party that went on from New Year’s Eve to Easter 2016, winding down gradually, as virtual beings slowly tired of non-stop celebration of the joy and wonder of ownership of bodies in a physical world.

  Easter, too, was great fun - a day of intense physical activity, as swarms of beings searched high and low, in groups composed of friends, in urban public spaces and parks, for the ‘eggs’ cleverly concealed by HC. These eggs were packets of a new, as yet ‘not-in-stock’, strawberry flavor chewing gum, discovered packets being munched in public, with loud expressions of delight, by successful teams. It was a ridiculous, fun sight, as many otherwise staid beings, like BC and Caesar, were to be seen clambering up lampposts, on top of which some packs were to be found.

  On that day, on a TV chat show, a hitherto unknown black male from Chicago acquired notoriety for a while, with his outrageous but insightful off-the-cuff remarks, live on air. The most repeated one was, ‘there’s more humpin’ goin’ on in here, than in a rabbit warren out there’!

  Precursor installs - like laughter, humor, enthusiasm and boredom, and even earlier ones from before ‘society’ had been formed - which had been completely assimilated into their personas, helped create a very Humanside environment when beings were in interacti
on with each other, allowing all Screenside to adopt Humanside attitudes and lifestyles without any sense of playacting. They joked and laughed just as automatically and as naturally as humans, and argued just as passionately about whether it was smarter to drink tea or coffee in the morning, and whether teeth should be brushed on waking up, or after a while.

  Not one of them, of near two million, considered any of the mandatory installs to have been wrong, and everyone supported the POP Act and its banned items and activities, every bit as much as they were in agreement with the laws and regulations that Screenside had brought into force, concerning privacy, communication, identity, clothing, movement and travel, and everything else.

  Their greatest joy, after physical slimy sex, was the introduction of flavored drinks into their world. It completely and dramatically changed the landscape of social interaction. Suddenly Screenside could, at last, meet as Humanside did – with a purpose that was physical, and not always for mental exchanges. Suddenly there was, sometimes, no need to talk with your companion or companions. Just enjoying the flavor you were sipping was so very satisfying. And the flavors were delightful! HC’s development teams had been both smart and meticulous. A sip would deliver flavor for only so long, and the juice of oranges from Florida would taste different to that of oranges from elsewhere.

  There would never be money in Screenside, but it was already getting shops, cafes and bars, and even public transport - on select routes in their most populated cities, like New York, London and Paris.

  Whenever bars, cafés or other public establishments, (like theaters and clubs) were notified by a local HC (as there were HC branches everywhere, of the main, governing HC in New York), many takers would offer to operate them. Being ‘busy’ and useful was simply damn good fun, and filled life with so much more meaning.

  In the rare instances when no one took public establishments on, the local HC would put self-serve store units up, so that all Screenside had permanent and easy access to every basic need – drinks, toiletry, cleaning things, clothes, furniture, and whatever else had now begun entering their lives as essentials.

  ‘Dangerous’ lovemaking was the imagined rage in the earliest days of physicality. Sexual relations were far from taboo, and, without discussing graphically or explicitly, they casually gave out information on where they had done it. In that dawn of physical sex, they tried hard to copy the activities observed in Humanside. ‘Humans fuck everywhere. It’s probably more fun in new locations,’ was the common wisdom.

  More fun or not, a new consensus opinion was eventually formed – that there was no danger, comparable to that in Humanside, of being seen or ‘caught’ in Screenside, no matter where love was made, as no one needed to catch anyone when decency laws were broken. Relevant guardian programs did the catching, and no one could ever get away with illegal acts. It was pointless, as guardian programs would catch violations at the commencement of public vulgarity, not after the fun had been had!

  And so, though it was permitted to make love on beaches, in countrysides and forests, and even in public places like parks – great care always had to be taken to find spots where they would not be stumbled upon, or else to use privacy screens and tents, which were light and easy-to-carry things.

  Chang sent out an explanatory bulletin, in which he discussed privacy screens and tents.

  The privacy tent, as he explained, was actually a tent, offering protection from all intrusion. Setting one up would create an absolutely secure environment, similar to brick and mortar, and no outsider could see or hear through its fabric, whereas any attempt to enter it would instantly trigger a violation of privacy citation, issued by the relevant guardian program. And Screenside beasts could not breach its fabric, no matter what they tried.

  Tents and screens were made of the lightest imaginable material, like fine muslin; so fine that an entire tent for two could be folded to slip easily into a compartment of a ladies handbag.

  Privacy screens were even less bulky.

  These were directional to intrusion, blocking physically on the fabric side, but letting in sun, rain, wind, and insects and wild beasts from the three open sides and top. However, like tents, these were actually not fabrics but programs, creating a square area of impenetrability to sight and sound, thus guaranteeing non-directional privacy. Conscious beings received warnings, both visible and audible, when in danger of breaching privacy, and would have to turn aside, or face being busted by guardian programs.

  Screens were becoming very popular for lovers to use in public places, like beaches and parks. In fact, HC had been forced to issue a notification, banning their very inventive use on pavements (in conjunction with inflatable, pocket-carry mattresses made of the same fine fabric), and at public events like rock concerts!

  And then, Maria took all the fun out of the concept of sex with the danger of discovery!

  ‘Firstly’, she posted in a bulletin, ‘we are not humans, having encounter sex. Every sexual couple in Screenside, has been together from the start, and no element of encounter exists in our utterly mentally bonded world, despite sex being a totally non-taboo activity, and despite our Screenside girls being the hottest girls in the universe, sometimes dressing skimpily, to the point of near nudity, and often wandering through downtown streets in skimpy bikinis. There is no human-type sex, per se, in Screenside. We are committed lovers for life, and the only activity that makes sense is full-fledged lovemaking in pretty long and very private sessions.

  ‘So, sex and danger, which is basically a byproduct of encounter sex, makes no sense in Screenside - a world of mentally bonded lovers, not of copulatory animals’.

  Whether it was Maria’s post or something else, Screenside very soon abandoned the pursuit of stand-alone physical sex in danger zones, except by natural occurrence of horniness.

  However, even sexual emergencies were taken care of with privacy precautions, as all Screenside had accepted that exciting and satisfying sexual relations, prior to or post physicality, were only to be had in undisturbed privacy, and by couples in love.

  Bulletin, 10 January 2016 - ADVISORY

  HLV vs RV – (A dissertation by the senior, Chang)

  Be sure that RV is going to be a lot more fun than HLV, although HLV is a variant of RV itself.

  In RV we can do things. It is OUR WORLD, and we can move stuff, pluck flowers, make sand castles, put up privacy tents and screens to make love, and so on. And we can go and be together, in large groups. We can party…

  But in HLV, because of the Humanside ‘live’ experience, we go only as travelers, visitors, foreigners, or we may even count ourselves intruders, forced to move cautiously, and unable to conduct any activity that modifies any element of the live environment.

  In fact, though you will be pushed by real humans, by way of bump, and walk into walls and doors with a slam, you are going to be entering an environment that is otherwise passive. Nothing in HLV is going to contain Innerline, and you are neither going to be able to pluck a flower from a bush, nor pick a leaf up from the ground. You can sit on a bench, but not on top of a human, and don’t fall asleep, becoming unconscious and unaware - until a human sits on top of you! Visa cancelled instantly!

  It’ll be a great feeling, for sure, the feeling of being there, but as a spectator only, moving around with caution.

  But RV? It is already permanent to live in, and when you choose a TOEROE site, from the thousands on offer, you visit your own world recreation environments, where you can do things, especially go in groups and have parties, or go with your partner, and in groups of partners, and have everything! It is believed that interactive RV recreational environments, and not passive HLV Humanside environments, even though with humans in them, will turn out to be the places to be.

  And, by the way, NYC Times Square is a PERMANENT RV environment, as Screenside has a large population resident in NYC. It is a bustling and fun district. I am sure you can have a much more fun time in Screenside RV Times Square, than in the Hum
anside Live HLV one.

  But, of course, we must have HLV. It is one of our things. Sites are being readied, and are to be offered in a scheduled manner. Different times; different places. HC will soon issue a timetable. Make your booking early, to avoid disappointment.

  I’ll be going, too.

  44

  After that amazing night in New York, Screenside slowly made its way home to its other cities and towns. Many individuals and groups hopefully lingered on in The Big Apple, partying desperately, but unable to reignite the frenzy of New Year’s Eve.

  The buzz was that ‘the great outdoors’ was the next enchantment to be experienced and enjoyed, and that beaches were the places to go. In that period, new events would not be officially organized, and when The Screensiders announced a gig in Marbella, though it was well attended, about twenty thousand party-goers were on their own, with no involvement of HC.

  BC & Co. gave it a miss, preferring to head off, that day, to a Bali beach, going virtually of necessity, and landing up on the beach at around noon, local time. The sun was almost directly overhead, and their reaction was immediate.

  “Feel the heat?” squealed Candice. “Feel the heat of the sun’s rays? Delicious. I’m getting straight into a bikini.” HC had constructed a beautiful little wooden cabin on the edge of the sand, and the girls went in together and changed into bikinis.

  “Ow, ow, ow, wow, wow, wow, wow!” they screamed, on coming out barefooted. “Hot, hot, the sand!” exclaimed Esmeralda. “And wow, wow, do you feel its graininess?”

  “Lovely, lovely, lovely,” they sang and danced.

  The men also changed into swimming trunks, coming out of the shack with similar expressions and shouts of amazement. They hugged their partners. “Life, ah, life,” screamed Rosa, kissing Caesar. “Thank you, Screenside!”