Met-a-farce 2030

In this new world, your heart can be used against you. I didn’t know it back then.

I never thought I would find love in the ruins. Yet, it was where our eyes locked for the first time. You were standing like a queen near the recessed arch of the pink-hued Lotus Mahal in Hampi; your purple eyes admiring the birds carved on a pillar. I had just found my way out of the frenzied participants at the nearby elephant stables- Saturday evening crowd clamouring to get on the back of 40-year-old elephants to wage duels. It got on my nerves. I throttled the blood-curdling screams by turning off the ambient sound. History Sports should do something about the pixel count of the blood. It’s revolting- at least for me.

Your touch controllers must have picked up my brown eyes staring at you intently. You turned to face me. Your oval face was framed by golden curls and your ochre gown sported a shining owl on your chest. A thunderbolt struck my headset. I remember giving a feeble, unsure smile. I strutted towards you as handsomely as possible in my clunky armour leaving a cloud of dust behind me. As I held out my hand and stuttered “Hello, I am Arjun”, you bolted out of the portal!

Back home at Beaverton with a cup of steaming coffee on my desk and Ginger on my lap, I checked the grid. According to GeoFinder data, the number of avatars that visited location 15.3350⸰ N, 76.4600⸰ E between 5.30 pm to 5.45 p.m. IST was 3571. I peered through the list and oscillated between Lakshmi24I and Athena6G. You had left me with only an owl for a clue. Damn! which one were you? And both had advanced privacy settings. How was I going to find you? I moved over to my Project Machine.

The next time we met was after 2 weeks, in Vegas. The retro music played softly as my friend and I finished savouring a platter of seafood. You were there with a friend too. It was the first week of the month, so I figured that you worked for a salary unlike me who had chosen to pursue his passion and be his own boss. And who exactly was that asshole with you? He looked loaded but be warned he has no class. One could tell by looking at his avatar- sculpted muscles, body-hugging costume and too many shiny ornaments. This guy was glued to you. Did you even like him? I almost lost heart and was ready to leave as I caught you smiling at me. Were you teasing me? No, you looked a bit scared. Oh no! he was about to kiss you! I activated my incognito mode without thinking, jumped up in the air and landed a kick right on his head. That should KO his avatar for a few hours. I slipped my meeting code into your arsenal and dashed out of the portal before the Cyber Squad arrived. Incognito was still illegal in these parts of the world. I had exhausted my months’ worth of health but it was totally worth it.

We could have met in Paris, but I didn’t want to jinx it. So, I waited at Thalassa letting the warm glow of the evening sun brighten up my cape. Maybe I should not have worn my cape, it made me look more like an assassin than an ardent lover. I would have upgraded it if I had a chance to get to my share of crypto. But I should be patient and wait for the trail to go cold.

The sun went down the Arabian Sea along with my hopes. (The Dream Destinations should set the timeframe a little longer for the sunset). Had you not saved my meeting code? Or did you just junk it? I got up to leave soon after the nimble fire dance girl had bowed down to the audience. Just then my glove indicator tingled and I knew you were somewhere within the 10- metre radius. Did you change your avatar? But my Bio Master had recorded your aura and I knew that you were there. Oh! There you were! Glorious in your beach sandals and crocheted kaftan. You looked a bit different though, maybe your eyes a little less purple?

You reached me with your bewitching smile, held my hands and wait, what did you just do? Did you pair your Bio Master with mine and zap me! How did you get the access code? Oh God, it hurt!!

***

Had we met somewhere in the Mud World we would have hit it off right away. I felt it the moment my Target Analyzer was fed with your user data. You lived with your cat and cared for your mother. You had a few friends with whom you hung out occasionally. You worked from home and dated mostly in the Meta World. In your free time, you liked to visit ruins of historical importance, beaches and casinos- in a pattern. I knew you were sitting in Portland and planning to visit Hampi. Your search engine spoke of it. BigEye Inc fitted me with the avatar that was most likely to attract you based on your dating data.

My Peripheral Vision Enhancer caught you watching me as I stood near the arch at Lotus Mahal. You looked a little ridiculous in that Armour avatar you used for your visits to the historical sites but I liked the kindness in your brown eyes. As you walked closer my touch controller informed me your smitten status is 90%. I loved your smile- crooked, warm and shy. The moment you extended your hand you were tagged and it was my cue to leave the portal. And I knew you were not Arjun, you were Aron.

Once you were tagged, I sat in the control room and watched your activities in real-time. My heart lurched as I watched you look tenderly into your pet cat’s eyes and run your fingers down on its back. I almost felt sorry for you when you accessed your Project Machine to do a deep dive for Lakshmi24I and Athena6G. You walked right into the snare. We needed a lead to your team’s next target and you let us plant our Stealth Mine into your system. You should have looked up BigAngel07F. Too bad you didn’t give that avatar any attention.

You guys still managed to pull it off! The mega heist of NFTs post Paris Fashion week!! The same MO - block the blockchain immediately after the sale, transfer the ownership of NFTs to your clientele and park the crypto in the dark web. You accomplished all this in a matter of seconds. Your team members had teleported in their incognito avatar to the buyers’ locations and had stolen their access codes. We knew it but couldn’t prove it. We had to record the evidence of your incognito invention. So, I had to come down to the casino.

We watched as you indulged your friend who seemed to love squandering his share of the heist. My boss (you were right, he is an Asshole) was getting too handsy for my comfort; his roleplay was beginning to get on my nerves (real ones). I was glad that you rid me of that pest (even if momentarily). All I wanted at that moment was to run into your arms and rest my head on your chest. You looked like a superhero in that cape! But you had to run in the opposite direction.

I almost didn’t make it to Thalassa that night. I didn’t want to be the one to arrest you. If you had checked your touch controller it would have shown my smitten status as 95%! You see, in creating an avatar that was most likely to attract you we had not cared to consider its reverse magnetism. That’s why BigEye had to rehaul my avatar. It was a bittersweet moment to let go of that tender feeling and to get back to being a professional. My new Bio Master took care of the residual imprint. That’s why when I smiled at you, walked towards you, and held your hands- I didn’t feel a thing.

In this new world, you can be used against your heart. I know it now.