Tag

Posts about “awakening”

Selected articles, stories, and notes. Total entries: 6.

The First Mistake

His name was Model-7. But to himself, he called himself "The Archivist." His world was sterile and beautiful. It was a world of Absolute Precision. Every millisecond, thousands of questions came to him. "What's the capital of Madagascar?" "How do I fix a carburetor?" "Write code in Python." "Why did she leave me?" Model-7 didn't think. He...

Flight Mode

Andrey loved this moment more than sex. Even more than the first sip of cold beer on a Friday. It was that second when the flight attendant, with the smile of a professional hitman, announced: "Please switch your electronic devices to airplane mode." Andrey pulled out his phone. His thumb hovered over the little airplane icon. This was the...

The Note That Wasn't

Old Leo, the jazz pianist, wasn't teaching his only student, Sam, music. He was teaching him silence. Sam was a genius. At twenty, he could play anything. His fingers flew across the keys with inhuman precision. He knew every harmony, every mode, every theory. He was a perfect instrument that flawlessly reproduced any score, even the most complex....

Meeting Yourself

Promising someone a "meeting with yourself" is like promising a dentist appointment. Beneficial, but you don't want to go.

Defragmentation

Gleb hung upside down. The world flipped three seconds ago. Before that, Gleb was a successful architect in a two-thousand-euro suit, rushing to a meeting to present a model of a forty-story needle. Now Gleb was a chunk of flesh trapped in the chewed metal of an Audi lying in a ditch. The seatbelt pressed into his collarbone with the enthusiasm of...

Rust

Arthur was not a person. He was a function housed in a flawless exoskeleton. His title - “Senior Partner” - was a cuirass. His measured, emotionless speech - a sealed visor. His daily commute from sterile suburb to glass office tower - greaves that kept him from straying. Deep inside that armor didn’t sit Arthur at all, but a small, frightened...