Ex Machina

"Hey, who are you?"

-It’s someone there?

"Hi, sorry to barge in."

-No problem, I’ve stayed in here for so long that I can’t even recall how it is to have someone to talk to. Are you real?

"I am, at least I think I am. I can create thoughts, if that’s what you are wondering. Any other definition I’m afraid it’s beyond my knowledge."

-How can you communicate with me?

"I simply feel the things I want to convey to you, and sense back the things you are thinking."

-I see, so it’s kind of like a—

"A flow, yeah."

-…

“So, what are you doing?" 

-I’m enjoying my demise.

“Who are these other beings?"

-They are humans, just like me. 

"So why can’t I talk to them?"

-They are still. Frozen. They don’t know what’s going on, just me. We are in a kind of in-between, so to speak. 

"…"

-What are you?

"I wouldn’t know where to start.”

-How did you get here?

"I was just passing by when I found you.”

-But you are not an human being, right?

"No, at least I don’t think I am.” 

-But you know what it is to be a human, right?

"It’s a carbon based life form."

-That’s an oversimplified way to say it…

"Why there is only you in this in-between?"

-Cause I’m not like the others.

"Like the other human beings?"

-Human beings are amazing. They can do all these different kinds of things. Things that no one are even expecting!

"They sound remarkable."

-Yeah, and while some can paint a picture perfect painting, and others can pull a locomotive with their bare hands. I have another special power.

"What can you do?"

-I can stop time.

"Time?"

-Yeah, time. It’s like, human beings exist in three spacial dimensions, that is the matter we take over.

"Ok."

-But there is also a fourth dimension, a temporal one. Time keeps everything revolving, the constant shift, the constant change.

"Seems like a concept I can grasp."

-And, while humans can move around freely in the three dimensions. I mean, “freely”. We can only move forward in time. And humans always wished they could mess with time. "Have more time", "turn back time", "stop time”. The catch is, all the dimensions walk together, so if you want to stop one…

“You have to stop the others.”

-Kudos

"So the thing is, you can stop time, but you too stay frozen."

-Exactly.

"Doesn’t seem very useful, then."

-No, it doesn’t. But the biggest power that humans have is to do a lot with so little.

"How so?"

-Y’see, first time I did it I was 13, I was just a kid. And I also found this ability useless: Suddenly I was in this sort of trance with the world not moving in front of me. It took me a while before I could get it back running again, actually, it might have been years. I could look at something as long as I wanted, let the sight get burned in my retina. But I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t interact with it. At first, I almost didn’t use it. The only exception were the times I wanted to deeply appreciate something special. Suddenly those fleeing moments weren't as fleeing. The unfortunate thing is, those moments started to grow stale, lose their spark. I guess passing beauty is only beautiful cause it passes.

"You are rambling."

-Sorry. Anyway, I still had to find a way to put my ability to good use. First I tried playing soccer. I was a kid, you can’t blame me.

"Soccer?"

-It’s a thing you do for fun and people pay you for it. Does that make sense to you?

"…"

-It’s not important.

"Carry on."

-It made sense, I had all the time I needed to think the best play. But, I still had to execute it. Turns out I’m not really cut for physical exercise. So, I decided to play chess. Speed chess, to be more precise. I could play out entire games in my head. Consider the best openings, strategies, when to castle, when to defend. No game is ever lost, you just have to thing real hard about it, and I could thing a lot. 

"Did you fail that too?"

-Surprisingly, not. I was a good chess player.

"You had an unfair advantage."

-That’s a minor detail. But, as it turns out, there is only so much money that can be made in chess. So I moved on to other games. 

"What other games?"

-Games such as blackjack and poker.

"Can we play this games?"

-Not right here, as you can see. I’m in the middle of something. 

"Oh."

-Do you wanna play a game?

“I guess I could try.”

-Guess the number I’m thinking.

“14”

-Damn, that’s right. Guess again.

“46”

-Holy shit! Ok, one more time.

“6.497”

-How the fuck do you do that?

“It’s just clear to me. Guess that’s technically cheating. But you are one to tell.”

-Do you know everything? 

“I know everything I want to know.”

-Do you have powers?

“Everybody have power over something, if not only themselves."

-Ain’t that the truth. But do you have power over other things?

“Like you have over time? Yeah, I believe I do."

-Can you shape matter?

"And why would I want to engage in something as trivial as that?"

-Are you…y’know…

“I don’t think I am, although I can’t say for certain."

-Are you a fabrication of my own mind?

"I don’t know."

-How did you get in here?

“I’ve told you, I was roaming around."

-Roaming around where? 

“It is hard for you to understand. Just think of me as a fish."

-A fish?

“Yeah. And I was swimming in a sea. A really REALLY big sea."

-And am I in this sea?

“Everything is in this sea.”

-Oh, I get it. Now you try and think of a number.

“Any number I could think of would be in an order of greatness to big for you to fathom.” 

-Huh, funny you should say that.

“How so?”

-Well, chess have ten to the power of 120 possible games, with only six pieces. A game of hold’em have over two million combinations, with only 52 variables. But there is a game in which the combinations are endless. 

"And what is that?"

-People. They say in poker that you should play the players, not the game, and I got good at it. On how to read people, they gave off subtle clues of what they were, what they feared, and most of wall, what they wanted. And I could use that intel to exploit them, convince them to unwillingly give me what they wanted. 

"That doesn’t sound very nice." 

-That’s because it isn’t. But it’s not as bad as it sounds. Look at it this way: if someone offered you something good for free, would you take it?

"Wouldn’t I?"

-Well, no, cause humans are suspicious. You need to work them over, play their weaknesses, most of the time it worked. But it still was their choice. Like you said, everybody have power over themselves.

"How convenient for you." 

-Your words, not mine. But be that in gambling or in swindling, the most important rule is the same: know when to walk away.

"How do you know that?"

-You just know. Much like you know the numbers. Things start to feel iffy.

"Did you know when to walk away?"

-Oh, yeah. You don’t even need powers to notice that. But if I ever missed a cue, I had all the time to figure my way out of trouble. And let me tell you, in some cases it took a lot of time.

"How much time?"

-Oh, you lose track of it eventually, you only get a rough estimate. But it could be days, it could be weeks. There is this one time I think I froze time for five years. 

"Isn’t it demanding for you to freeze time?"

-Actually no, as simple as pressing a button. Press once to stop it, press it again to resume. 

"Seems like you got it all figured out."

-Yeah. I guess I had. But I had to turn it all to shit. 

"How did you do that?"

-I lost my focus, got carried away by something else. I lost track of my priorities. 

"What happened?"

-I fell in love. It’s like— Can you be bound to someone?

“Bound?"

-Yeah. It’s like, you have that special someone that you want to be connected with another being. And your existence becomes intertwined. And you kind of become something greater than you two.

"Connected?”

-Have you ever got connected to someone?

"No.”

-Have you ever met someone else?

"No.”

-Are there other beings like you?

"I am the only one I know of.”

-Ok, so tell me this: Were you here since the beginning of all this?

“Are you asking a question related to time?”

-Right, I forgot.

“As long as I have existed this place exists too, if not only to accommodate me.”

-Guess you are bound to this place.

“Guess so.”

-Do I sense some resentment?

“No.” 

-It must be quite a lonesome existence.

“Finish your story.”

-Ok, so, to be fair, she never played me. Always said that she was hung up on the finnest things in life. And wanted someone who could give her that, I wanted to be that someone.

“And it worked?”

-At first, it did. But it meant I had to amp up my game, get boldsy. Take higher risks.

“Was it worth it?”

-Ah, it’s hard to say. The thing about wanting only the best is that "best" is always something else. It’s never enough.

“Did she know what you had to do to give her all those things?”

-No, and she didn’t cared. She always wanted something more. And was very vocal about it, shunned me away every time she was insatisfied, only to let me back once she got what she wanted. I wish I could have felt for someone less temperamental, but you can’t fight against this things. So I started to become reckless with my scams. Raised the steaks. I didn’t know anymore when to quit, and I ended up crossing the wrong people. If I were with my head in order I could’ve noticed the small hints that this deal was gonna go south. But now it’s too late.

“And you’ve been here ever since?”

-Yeah.

“For how long?”

-I’ve lost track of time. It feels like forever. Certainly more than anytime before. 

“That's why this other beings are here with you?”

-Yeah.

“And have you thought of a way to get out of this?”

-No idea.

“I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

-Don’t think I can this time.

"I sincerely hope you do.”

-Wait, you have power over this reality, right?

“Yes?”

-So get me out of here!

“What?”

-Just move me away from here, or better yet, make them all disappear! Let me start over new!

“I don’t think I should meddle—“

-C’mon! Just get me out of here! I know! I could go with you.

“What?”

-You could pull me out of this dimension and make me just like you, we could be together. Exploring this endless sea you talked to me about. I could be bound by you.

“Sure, I should let you out into this vast place. And let you rot it with your tricks.” 

-Why are you saying this?

“That was your plan all along, wasn’t it? Wait long enough until someone or something shows up. Who knows how long have you waited? Tell your sob story, charm them over, seduce them, and make them bail you out of this mess.”

-…

“I’m afraid I’m a couple of dimensions above you.” 

-Without your help I’m pretty much done for.

"You got yourself in this mess, you get yourself out.”

-I don’t think I can.

“Good luck.”

-Wait!

-Hey!

-Are you there?

-Are you still there?

"I am.”

-Do you mind staying with me just a little longer?

"Sure."

-So, you knew my story all along?

“I’ve seen it play out in a couple of ways."

-Do I eventually unfreeze time again?

“Time doesn’t stop just because you stopped it. Everything is going on all at the same time."

-In one of these scenarios, do I eventually get out alive?

"If I were to tell you it would spoil the fun."

-It stopped being funny ages ago.

"I meant for me.”

-I kind of like you more now.

"No, you don’t."

-No, I don’t.

“You never got around to explain me that sport you told me about."

-Oh, yeah, it’s kind of complicated.

“Don’t worry, we have time.”