THE GREENWOOD ARC - A TALE OF PLEASURABLE EVENTS
warning: the following programme features brief appearances from actual black people
"cant you see the danger?"
as reclusive indecisive machines go, greenwood was possibly the most susceptible to anxiety. he was a creature born to rewrite the outdated b5-6 compliant data ready to be fitted with the latest b3a. the delusioned humans earned their name here ever since the schedule had been announced to say that the technology would find its peak once reaching b1a. greenwood felt confident in the scheme and its schedule yet at the same time a great deal of pity for the machines, leaving him largely indifferent to the entire process. his calculations defined him as being emotionally dependant on the success of the project though he was not quite sure if he wanted to accept that answer. ultimately he was 0.471% more efficient than the average boxwrit and because he had faith in there being no possibility of another motherbrain scan within his alloted operational existence he enjoyed the extra 3% prohibited arrogance he created as a result
"danger? are you high on invalid memory or something? there is no danger"
for a long time mcgregor had been greenwoods friend. since his creation, in fact, when he had been assigned to him. every two cycles or so greenwood purchased affection regulators as mcgregors placement on his friend rankings jumped periodically from fourth to third and from third to second as the effects of the last regulator began to wear off. he began to harbor a strange feeling of disgust towards mcgregor as a result of this. it didnt help that mcgregors name implied that he was irish. he was also quite fat. greenwood had seen other creatures that were not fat however and felt no disgust so it was certainly unique to mcgregor. greenwood hated all irish creatures though
"if they put red ribbons up for sale tomorrow and you have already bought a blue ribbon you will be a mockery. no one wears blue when red is in fashion"
greenwood had been activated fourteen cycles before the ribbon scheme had been started. this meant he was not compatible with the scheme and he did not have to make any of these choices. this was how greenwood liked it. it was quite sad to witness the majority of the other creatures fooling trying to choose their pointless ribbon colors. without this hassle greenwood was able to put aside the spare credits for his his choice of armband. 'those poor creatures will be failing to compile responses when they see my yellow armband' he mused
NINE CYCLES LATER
what began as an extraordinarily ordinary day for greenwood, closed with an even more ordinary diversion to the regulator vendor on the corner of griffin court. greenwood preferred this spot to purchase his regulators from as the vendor was situated near the top of the plants hill facing towards the downwards slope. from here he could see the entirety of the side of the world. there were some creatures, he was sure, that were assigned to work beneath the plant and would never have the pleasure of viewing the enormous white board in its beauty like greenwood could everyday. sometimes he would standby and attempt to calculate the complete size of the cube. his answer would always be 3.218688km with a +/- of 0.003 mm. the fact that he had never been able to calculate more accurately than that annoyed him a great deal
greenwood found himself conflicted as to why he was requesting the affection regulator again when it should have supplied him with one already. 'these vending creatures are obsolete' he reminded himself as he punched in the request once more. he was requesting an affection regulator. the vending creature was not supplying him with an affection regulator. he needed an affection regulator. the creature was not supplying him with an affection regulator. he was demanding an affection regulator. the f**king machine was not giving him his affection regulator
"*CHHHHHHHHHHHHZCKH*-unit 383-t cease your attempts to make a transaction with this vendor and return to your dock"
it was the sound of a delusioned human
"p- ... please forgive me sir. i had intended to make a swift purchase of an affection regulator and the vendor appears to be broken"
"the vendor is in perfect working order you little s**t. you dont have enough credits to purchase an affection regulator. dont insult our services again and get back to your dock"
greenwood turned as quickly as he could and ran towards the alley of the block across the street. a flurry of operations flooded his mind as he tried to calculate how he managed to have insufficient credits for his purchase of an affection regulator. he turned a corner by a disused factory. he needed an affection regulator or his prohibited caring for mcgregor would soon be enough for a total of three system terminations. he ran by a system of rusty pipes and wires. 'if i carry on like this, today i will be asking him how his day has been and in a few cycles i will be offering to adjust his perception filters for him'. his body whirred with the thought
greenwood felt nothing. and then the slow restart of his systems made him aware that he was in pain. his right arm framework was crushed slightly underneath him. as his memory partially returned he concluded that he had fallen from somewhere and stopped where he was now
as he looked behind him and up towards his previous position some processor within him burnt out having overloaded with queries. held somewhat in the middle of a surrounding forest of struts and power cables hung the all too familiar but amazingly foreign giant white cube
finally greenwood was able to provide a half decent statement about the situation he currently found himself in. he was outside. greenwood wasnt exactly sure what this meant or even if it was correct. outside was the closest he could come to describing his placement. like his dock was a place within the world of the cube, the rest of the cube that was not his dock was 'outside' his dock. where he had fallen was not a place within the cube and so outside was the best name for it
an indescribable stream of multi-color thoughts began to flow through greenwoods mind. he could taste things quite peculiar before he could assimilate what tasting things meant. perhaps he was having a majorly prohibited dream, he thought. or perhaps he was hallucinating this as a symptom of affection regulator withdrawal. greenwood slowly began to not care about any of the possibilities but rather with the countless truths of the infinite. he could see place where he had arms displaying all sorts of colored arm bands. purple. green. brown. colors he had never seen. colors that he couldnt see and colors that wouldnt ever exist
EPILOGUE
the last of greenwoods personality cores were loaded into the incinerator as rt. clarence skimmer exited the room on his way back to his office. trotting down some marbled flooring and across the reception he scrunched his face as the realization that he had forgotten to inform his wife to save his dinner as he would be spending an extra couple of hours writing up an accident report for the maintenance staff to look at in the morning. he closed the door to his office and began to accept the reality of the next few hours in front of a computer screen
