Myth Gods Tech - Omnibus Edition: Science Fiction Meets Greek Mythology In The God Complex Universe

Erinyes

George Saoulidis

Chapter
1

I took her place. That’s
the reason I am telling you all this. Oh god what was I
thinking?

But let me start from the beginning, or else you’ll think I
am crazy.
I am not
, by the way.

My name
is Mahi and I’m a teenager. I no longer feel like a teenager
because of all the skata that has happened but I guess it bears
mentioning. I used to be a normal teenage girl, going to school,
taking selfies all the time, failing my grades, getting yelled at
by mom, going for long coffee breaks like any self-respecting Greek
should do, my future predetermined by people who don’t care and
enforced by people who just manage to get by.

Oh boy
did I live in a bubble.

Still at
our house, living in posh northern Athens, amongst the pine trees
and blissfully unaffected by the Greek crisis, I remember hearing
my parents through the door arguing.

“
You can’t give her a present, she failed half the exams!”
said mom with her patented angry whisper. I am pretty sure my ears
shot up at the sound of the word “present” and I stuck my ear to
the door.

“
I know honey, you are right, but I already said yes to my
boss!” said dad. My dad works for Hermes Information Technology at
the marketing department, shush now and let me listen.

“
Who ever heard of a present being mandatory to be given to
your daughter?” asked mom.

“
It is a buzz marketing thing, circulate the new phone model
to some sneezers and it creates demand when it finally hits the
shelv-“

“
Don’t call Mahi a sneezer!” mom interrupted.

“
It’s just a term. She is popular, other girls will see her
with the new Veil phone and they will want to buy it in order to
become popular themselves. She fits the profile and I told my boss
that she would be perfect for the marketing study. It is a market
survey thing, we gave lots of phones away.”

My
mother wasn’t happy at all. “It sends the wrong message, fail the
class, get rewarded with a brand new phone, why bother studying at
all?”

“
There is a lot of money funnelled on this release. I already
said yes, we can’t afford me losing my job,” said dad, mentally
adding the word “again.”

And that was the end of the discussion, and me biting my hand
not to cry out of excitement. Dad’s workplace had
the
latest tech, like
straight from Japan or something like that. I never cared for those
things. What I did care about, was me being around with the latest
smartphone model, showing it off to every kariola who thought she
was cooler than me. I can’t remember exactly but I’m pretty sure I
posted an update with my excited face about getting a new phone
from my dad’s company, right then and there kneeling by the
door.

Huh. I
guess they really do know their thing.

But why
am I going on and on about a stupid phone, you might ask? That
stupid phone was how she found me, that’s why.

When dad
gave me the new phone, it was like Christmas in June.

“
We are still mad at your grades Mahi. Your mom and I want you
to understand that this is not a reward for failing classes, you
need to study hard and pass,” I think dad said, or at least
something similar, but I was only paying attention to the super
awesome pink late-tech smartphone in the box.

“
Thank you daddy sooo much!” I jumped up and hugged him. “I
need to show this to all my friends right now!”

“
That’s the idea,” he said and went on to face the angry mom
stare in the next room.

Of
course I was grounded for being close to fail the class and I had
tons of studying for the re-exams with no time to spare at all, so
naturally I turned on the music real loud, started dancing and
taking selfies on the mirror with my new phone.

What a
vlaka I was.

While
you have the mental picture of me jumping up and down singing pop
songs firmly placed in your mind, I want to explain some things to
you that I only figured out much later. The only reason we lived in
a nice neighbourhood after the Greek crisis is because dad got a
job at Hermes. I had no idea at that time (still jumping up and
down) of the way people lived around Greece, or that mom and dad
wanted me to get an education and get a job in one of the
corporations that were swiftly engulfing the country, or that they
believed that doing so was the only way to survive, the alternative
being leading a life of poverty.

Then I
got an IM. “You know what happened to Narcissus who admired himself
at the lake all the time?” asked Billy. Bless him for being such a
grounding influence.

I
naturally replied with stupidity, “He turned into a
bush.”

“
Close, but not it. Have you spoken to Deppy?” he
said.

Even the
most grounded teen has his hormones bubbling hot I guess. I called
him on the phone and snapped, “You talk to her
yourself!”

“
Come on, please just bring her here, do it for me,” he said,
me imagining his puppy dog eyes. A two meter tall puppy mind you,
but with a tender soul.

“
I am grounded and have to study. Do you want to go from being
-
such a nice influence to our
daughter
- to -
what a bad influence that young man has become
- ?” I asked, mocking my mother’s tone of
voice.

“
I’m guessing you are posting selfies and I expect you will
keep doing so for the next two hours. By badly influencing you to
skipping study time I am also preventing you from staring at your
reflection. Lesser of two evils and such,” he said, clearly playing
chess with his idle hand as I could hear the soft thumping of the
pawns.

“
Stop playing with yourself Billy,” I said.

“
I’m not. This Korean guy is even better in chess than the
other games,” he said. His phone glinged in-call with a received
SMS text, probably from the chess opponent sending in his next
move.

“
OK
fine
,
I’ll call her,” I said, recognising the excuse to get out for a
walk.

Billy
was (seriously) not using the latest smartphone, not posting
everything on Facebook and not chatting, tweeting, IMing, sharing,
liking, tagging all the time like the rest us. What a
freak.

Chapter
2

I was
already wearing make-up.

You
don’t take selfies without make-up, what are you nuts? That is like
60-70 less likes right off the bat. I got my bag with my laptop and
sneaked out of the house. It wasn’t that hard with mom having a
video of a how-to recipe playing on the tablet and the kitchen TV
showing some Turkish melodrama BOTH OF THEM PLAYING SO LOUD MY GOD
MOM TURN IT DOWN DIDN’T IT USED TO BE THE OTHER WAY
AROUND?

Thank
god we live in a protected neighbourhood, or else she wouldn’t even
hear any burglars smashing their way in.

Deppy
was online naturally so arranged a meet at the corner by my
house.

While I
waited, I could see a small Roma boy, just a kid really, trying to
make a living. As the cars waited at the crossroads, he would
stroll to the window, extend his little hand to the driver and ask
for them to buy his pack of facial tissues. It was a thing they
did. Instead of asking for charity, they would “sell” you the cheap
pack, and you’d always pay more than its actual value as a kind
gesture.

The boy
was disappointed. On a warm summer day, nobody was sneezing or
anything, so nobody was buying anything from him. He had just went
up to jeep, having to stand on his toes to present his wares to the
tall window. He was waved away by the man inside, who simply went
on with his phone call. His shoulders fell and he slouched away,
while the cars revved and left the intersection. He was standing in
the scorching sun all day, trying to make a meager
living.

I had
seen his green eyes before. He’d been working our street for a few
months. The boy had medium dirty curls, unkempt hair.

He
reminded me of my little brother.

I called
him and bought a pack of facial tissues from him. I gave him half
my allowance, then shrugged and gave him all of it, except the
change for the metro fare. He gave me a smile, sold me three packs
of facial tissue and went on to enjoy some of the shade.

Chapter
3

Deppy
showed up. She had the superpower of walking and never taking her
eyes off the phone, all the while taking half-jumpy cutesy steps
and not bumping onto things or people. I strategically positioned
myself many times with a light-post between us just to kindle a
sudden kiss between them, but she never seemed to fall for it. Oh
well, time to get her to kiss a boy-like light post. Man, are they
the exact opposites of one another or what?

“
Ya!” she said, clearly dodging the light post. Oh well, must
keep on trying.

“
Ya. Let’s go to Kifissia for frappe,” I said
casually.

“
Nobody will be there, too soon. Lemme see. Yeap, no check-ins
yet,” she said, taking her eyes off the phone for a mere second to
see me.

“
I need Wi-Fi, mom closed mine, I’m grounded,” I said
casually.
Casually
I said!

“
What a bummer. Fine let’s go but I haven’t got any money.
Just coming along for the check-in!” she said with her cutesy
voice. Guys must fall for it all the time.

We
walked side by side each of us on her phone towards the metro. I
texted Billy, “Bringing her now. Just buy her a frappe and she’s
all yours to ignore you as long as you wish…” .

Deppy
saw my earlier post about dad’s present and said, “Oh you got a new
phone, lemme see!”

If it’s
not on a status update, it did not happen.

I
twisted my wrist slightly and showed her the latest smartphone that
was thirty centimetres away from her nose but needed information to
take the long route (I don’t know, are there satellites involved or
something?) to make her actually notice it. “Oh it’s so nice. And
pink!” she said. And then she started touching it.

No, that
did not seem unusual to me at that time.

“
What can it do?”

“
No idea. Took a bunch of pictures.”

“
Come on, it must do something new, Hermes’ stuff are the
best.”

“
Still got nothing.”

“
Wait, lemme search.”

“
Here it is,
overlay
. The revolutionary Veil
smartphone will also be the first integrated overlay device.
Overlay brings the digital world topology to the real world for the
ultimate augmented reality… Sample pics, nai, here, how to use. Can
I?” she asked but was already grabbing it. I let her play or else
we would never make it to the metro.

She
turned on the camera and pointed it a people on the street. Some
floating text followed them, and when she tapped on a guy his
facebook profile came up. The app lost the face-lock because Deppy
was jumping up and down with excitement and I was carried away for
a bit.

“
Find a cute guy, that one,” I told her and bit my
lip.

“
Single, works at Apollo Medical. Good pick girl,” she said
nodding.

“
No don’t add him!” I said and tried to stop her. The man
reached for his phone, smiled and I got a friend request acceptance
a few seconds later.

“
Oh this is golden. When do these come out, did your dad tell
you?” she asked me with excitement.

“
Soon I guess, I dunno,” I said.

“
This is so awesome,” she said and pointed the camera at
herself. The overlay showed her profile, her latest update, even
the IMDB link of that part she had in a movie a year ago. “It has
nothing private, everything is already accessible online. Lemme
check, nai, my private pictures are not shown – thank god, dad
would have a heart attack – but overlays the information about
someone from the net on the real person. Oh, it works on buildings
too. Anything with an RFID chip. Who cares really? Let’s go see
what the people on the metro will show up!” she said, and started
jogging.