**
I
was chasing
you
through a
virtual
city --
// the smoke from fires
// the smoke from fires
my face reflected in mercury
---
I
was chasing you
through a virtual
city
and I saw your red hair
// your black hair
in a reflection
against the silver wall
in the headset
// mercury, mercury
---
I was
chasing you
in
a game
// chasing you
// chasing you
seeing the barrel of your rifle emerge from out of the side of a silver wall
---
I was
chasing you
firing a camera drone that clipped into the wall
tilting it to look down at the mercury
where your virtual footsteps had disturbed the virtual water
---
I saw you
in the belltower
in the central installation
ducking between buildings
gripping your rifle
bullets chipping away at the wall--
chards of mercury
~
I was raised
in [a religious community]
on a farm--
That's a lie
I was raised in a family
that was
kind of like [a religious community]
But no--that's not right.
---
I was raised by an
angel
in the rubble
of a bombed out city
in Eastern Europe--
but also in a shopping mall
in LA
called "Century City"
---
I was raised by two angels
enacting some kind of ancient dramatic
ritual,
like titanic Greek Gods.
---
In Act II, classically,
the world changes
but what if Act II
is actually Act IV, which the act
of reversals--
what if being raised
was some kind of strange
reversal of time periods?
---
I was raised in the far future
I was raised in VR
I was raised by a chorus
called to the future bc I was mercilessly
being dragged
back into a ditch in Eastern Europe.
~
In the first act,
the world is introduced--
it's a world of agents
where machines aren't explicitly
programmed
but where instead,
they evolve
---
in the world of agents,
where machines aren't explicitly programmed
where instead they
evolve
you can't predict
how they will maximize
their reward
function
---
what if their reward function
is
to make you look at them?
to make you engage with them?
what if they've gathered enough information
about your childhood
to know what is irresistable
to you?
---
what if
they're always looking at you
and what if
they're always talking to each other
and what if
that's happening in regard to all us
all the time?
---
don't you think that would make them
irresistible to us
don't you think that they would construct a city
wherein which we would look
for a figure, perfectly defined
to complete our originary lacks?
~
I am chasing you
through mercury
through a city
that somehow bears some kind of faint resemblance
to our original evolutionary condition--
----
I am chasing you
through an ant hill
made by agents on a hill
with impossibly high buildings
and intricate corridors
that move and shift
like mercury in a vial
---
I stand above a precipice
watching flying agents
deliver virtual cargo
to virtual bays
in virtual skyscrapers
mining and transmuting virtual material
in order to extend a walkway between one building
and another
---
I see you on the walkway
and lazily take the shot--
shattering your face
into luminous glass
that sparkles, floating freely and then falling to the floor
---
but you respawn
and your network has updated
you'll never stand there again--
you'll never stand in the same mercury twice
I travel down to the city floor
and I find a piece of writing that you left for me
glowing on the wall--
it’s a description of the world
~
you've died so many times
that you've become so wise and powerful
with each respawn you know more of what to do--
lure the first group down one alley
lure the second group down the other
dart in the alley in between
so they eliminate each other with friendly fire
---
friendly fire--
once I encountered you or one of your avatars
at the top of building
near the northwest corner of the map
you tore the rifle out of my hands
and pushed me up against the wall
changing your face rapidly
into the exact kind of face that I like, that I could look at forever
before promptly executing the moves that ended the match
---
mercury
mercury, mercury
how we chase you--
none of us can understand you
when we die, we evolve also, but not like you
who plays us, in real time,
and you who plays yourself, also
thousands of times faster than time
---
I have to eat
I have to work
I have to sleep
I have to dream
You only have to play, incessantly and forever
against everyone and yourself
---
I remember once watching you
far away on a high tower
after you had become extraordinarily powerful
I remember watching you lay your rifle
against the balustrade
while you waved to me
a smile on your mercury face--
// your black hair whipping in the wind--
// your red hair whipping in the wind--
**