cybervice

from Terminal Games by Cole Perrimanpublished by Bantam
Books, May, 1994_
Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin, 1994
   

               00101                         cybervice
   
     Sapphire appeared in the doorway to Ernie+s bar.  She
was decked out, as always, in a tight blue strapless evening
gown replete with a white fur stole and innumerable garish
necklaces and earrings.  She had a hooked nose, crow+s feet
around her eyes, and the proportions of a Rubens
nude-well-rounded and distinctly overweight by today+s
standards.  Her enormous coiffure was an impossible shade of
orange.
     Obeying the instructions of her remote operator,
Sapphire wiggled her profile view past a couple of tables
occupied by a variety of other characters.  She popped up
onto an empty bar stool.  Exaggerated as she was, Sapphire
was among the more conventional in a gathering that included
antennas and numerous limbs.  Aside from apparently
extraterrestrial life forms, many of earth+s animal phyla
were represented, including arthropods, sponges, and
chordates.   
     One of the arthropods was a literal -barfly+ named
Buzz.  He had transparent wings and big bulging eyes and
clutched various drinks in each of his six hands.  Little
bubbles, symbolic of extreme inebriation, floated out of the
top of Buzz+s head, and the poor fellow passed out against
the bar in a recurring 120 second loop.  Several patrons
appeared more human, but even they came in a variety of skin
colors that included magenta and turquoise and lime. 
     Tinkly player piano music could be heard in the
background.  Ernie, the perpetual bartender, nodded his
poker-faced visage as he mopped the bar with a rag.  His
long yellowish face, decorated with a handlebar mustache and
topped by thick hair parted in the middle, would have looked
at home in an old-time western saloon. 
     -Hi Sapphire.  Want the usual?+ Ernie asked.  The
computer spoke his words aloud. 
     -Sure, Ernie.  Gimme a strawberry daiquiri,+ Sapphire
said, giving her standard verbal response in a sultry voice.
She rested her arms on the bar.
     A couple more key commands rotated the view so that the
characters on the bar stools now faced the screen.
Sapphire+s head snapped from center to left or right as she
looked up and down the row of characters beside her.
     -Hi, everybody,+ she said aloud.  The other characters
remained mute.  The back of Ernie+s head appeared in front
of her, and his hand placed a drink on the bar.  -Thanks,
sweetie,+ she verbalized again.    Then typed words began to
appear in the space above the character+s heads-the
necessary form for anything other than previously
standardized comments and responses. 

prayreedog>hi, safir.  wat+s hot on the net 2day? 

safir>i don+t no, u old prairie dog-jst got hre myslf.

sudopod>ws in the dome for a wile.  boring 2day, al amaturs.
   
     Above the lines of conversation, a pair of eyes with
lengthy lashes blinked into view-an observer checking out
the action.  Next to the eyes was a set of initials
identifying the alter as -flwr.+  The watching eyes quickly
disappeared.  Then another pair of eyes, round and
bloodshot, appeared next to the initials -goldnrod.+  These
eyes stayed and watched while other pairs of eyes came and
went.  The characters below kept talking, generally ignoring
the spectators.
     Sapphire raised her glass a few times.  Her red lips
were shaped in an interminable, horsey, gold-plated smile.
From time to time she fingered a ruby necklace hanging among
the conglomeration of jewels around her neck.
     The typed lines of conversation were punctuated with
actual sounds-various kinds of laughter, along with standard
phrases like -Sure you do,+ -I know I+ve seen you before,+
-Fuck you,+ -Another round, Ernie+-triggered by a keyboard
or menu command.  With no human operator, Ernie+s
conversation was limited, but he was skillfully programmed
to respond to specific situations and signals.  Sometimes he
could go for a long time without repeating the same
response.  The effect was often eerie.
     So the conversation went on, words and sounds woven
together, the cartoon characters bobbing on their bar
stools, occasionally coming and going through the swinging
doors.    Then Sapphire noticed that Auggie had joined the
group . . .         *    -wildebeest, sudopod, prayreedog,
safir, awgy . . .+  -Sapphire and Auggie!+ Marianne
exclaimed as she looked over the log for Ernie+s Bar.  -So
Renee+s logged on!  And she tracked Auggie down before I
could!+
     Marianne double-clicked the Ernie+s Bar icon, and
Elfie+s eyes were suddenly floating through the interior of
the saloon.  Marianne maneuvered the disembodied eyes among
the mutated clientele for a few moments before she
discovered Auggie and Sapphire-Renee+s Insomnimania
alter-sitting in one of the -booths+ near the back of the
bar. 
     Sapphire, in all her brassy glory, was nodding and
sipping a drink and blinking her heavily-lashed eyes at the
ragged-looking clown.  But unfortunately, there were no
written sentences floating above them to indicate what they
were saying to each other.  Throughout the rest of Ernie+s
Bar, operators could -eavesdrop+ on conversations simply by
reading the words floating above the alters+ heads.  But in
a booth all conversations were private.  Only the operators
of alters inside the booth could read what was being said.
     Damn!  I wonder what+s going on in there?
     She had an urge to call Renee right now and find out.
But it would be awfully rude to interrupt when Renee was
possibly landing the scoop of her life.  Marianne would have
to wait until later-possibly tomorrow-to get the news.
     Out of the loop.  The story of my life.
     And how, after all, did she expect her search to end?
With a dramatic confrontation between Elfie and Auggie?
That was impossible.  Without a virtual body, Elfie couldn+t
even carry on a conversation with the clown.
     In fact, the list of things Elfie couldn+t do was quite
formidable.  She couldn+t have drinks in Ernie+s Bar, play
canasta in the Casino, or ride the Ferris wheel at the
Carnival.  She could only do more passive things, like read
porn in La BibliothÅque ârotique or leave messages on the
network+s innumerable bulletin boards.  She could peek in on
the activities of others, of course-appearing only as
disembodied eyes floating in the corner of the screen. 
     Renee often criticized Marianne for not physicalizing
Elfie.  But Marianne always liked to think of Elfie as
having a kind of astral body.  Elfie was an elf, after
all-ethereal, androgynous, elusive, mysterious-always
peeking around trees and rocks, hovering at the fringes of
the mortal world.  Marianne had wanted Elfie to be the stuff
of legend, haunting Insomnimania rather than inhabiting it.
And what suggested such an existence better than a pair of
blinking eyes?
     But right now, Marianne really felt Elfie+s
limitations.  And this anticlimax to her search for Auggie
pretty well capped off her day.  In less than twenty-four
hours, she had fled from a cop, bungled a phone tip to the
police, and had located Auggie in the computer maze only to
be helpless to do anything about it.
     Marianne slumped over in her chair and groaned.
     Guess I+d better leave the go-getting to Renee.  I+m
not exactly a woman of action.
     As for now, there was really nothing left to do except
go to bed.  She was certainly too tired to do any work on
her current project.  But she wasn+t tired enough to sleep.
She might as well stalk the maze in search of other
activities-there were some things she could participate in,
however anonymously.     She clicked Elfie+s eyes out of
Ernie+s Bar and guided them through the maze towards the
Pleasure Dome, a kind of mini-mall of erotic activities
which included La BibliothÅque ârotique, where she had been
reading from My Secret Life just a little while ago.
     She maneuvered Elfie+s eyes over the -Weightless Room+
icon and checked the log . . .     -panpipe, lickitysplit,
8inches, hotsytwotsy, artfulroger ..+
     Doesn+t sound like a savory bunch.  She double-clicked
Elfie+s eyes and immediately found herself in the Weightless
Chamber+s -lobby+ facing a row of twelve naked human
figures-six men and six women. 
     In places like Ernie+s Bar, Marianne had a name but no
body.  But in the Weightless Chamber, it was the other way
around.  She would -borrow+ one of this stash of healthy,
anonymous bodies for the activities inside. 
     Presumably in the interest of political correctness and
cultural diversity, the figures constituted a fair
assortment of racial and ethnic types.  A couple even had
non-human colors.  In several cases, it was a little hard to
tell exactly which types were represented.  Were the
medium-height, round-faced figures with the brownish skin
supposed to be Inuit or Mongolian?  Were the tall, lean,
olive-skinned figures meant to be Latin or Semitic?  And
what part of the Far East did the yellow-toned Asiatic
figures hail from, to say nothing of those bodies tinged
with green or blue?
     But none of this really mattered.  The figures were
meant to be sex slaves, pure and simple.  So they were
uniform in one respect, and that was physical
attractiveness.  Whether tall or short, voluptuous or trim,
all the figures were conventionally good-looking.  The men
were muscular but not bulky, and the women were soft but not
insipid.  The sizes of the women+s breasts varied only
slightly, and the men+s now-reposeful penises appeared to be
identically proportioned.  The figures were drawn skillfully
if not artistically, with particular attention to
chiaroscuro.  Replete with colored-pixel shadows, the
figures looked exquisitely rounded.
     Marianne briefly pondered which body to choose.  After
her last foray into the Weightless Chamber, she had promised
herself to try a male body next time-just for a little
vicarious role-reversal.  But right now she felt too tired
for adventurousness.  She chose a Caucasian figure-a tall,
slender woman who looked much like herself.  Marianne tried
to recall whether she had chosen this same figure last
time.     Who can remember?  Who cares?
     She double-clicked on the figure.  All the other
figures disappeared, and hers was abruptly decked out in a
lumpy, shiny, and anything-but-erotic space suit.  Even the
figure+s face was invisible behind the tinted visor.  The
sound of slow, heavy breathing came over the computer
speaker-more asthmatic than sexual.  Marianne maneuvered the
figure toward the -airlock+-a formidable-looking sliding
door seemingly made of stainless steel.  The figure then
pushed a button.  A harsh, squawking siren went off, and a
red light flashed an urgent announcement:
     PRESSURIZING.+
     Then the door rumbled open with a raspy, hydraulic hiss
to reveal a chrome-encrusted corridor leading to another
door.  Marianne guided her lumbering figure into the
airlock, and a subsequent hiss and slam indicated that the
sliding door had closed behind her.  Another red sign
flashed:
     -DISROBE, PLEASE.+
     Marianne struck a command, and the shiny pieces came
flying off like like one of those breakaway suits they used
in the movies.  Pieces of space suit rattled around the
airlock a bit then mysteriously vanished, leaving the female
figure naked again, facing away from Marianne.
     The sign flashed again:  -THANK YOU.  YOU MAY ENTER THE
CHAMBER NOW.+  Then came another hiss as the second door
slid open, revealing a large, spherical chamber in which
sixteen or so naked figures were languidly, indolently
floating through the slightly foggy atmosphere.  Marianne
used her mouse to give her figure one last little nudge.
The figure slipped through the door and drifted weightlessly
among her fellow interstellar hedonists.
     Airborne at last!
     Marianne let her figure sail passively among the others
for a moment while she scanned the Weightless Chamber+s
other occupants.  Most of the figures were unattached,
isolated, reaching and groping for carnal companionship.
But there were several mid-air couplings taking place.
These copulating figures thrashed about in various states of
frenzy and excitement.  Nothing unconventional was going
on-the program did not permit anything more unfamiliar than
straightforward heterosexual intercourse.  But Marianne was
sure that this was not due to any prudery on the part of the
programmer.  The software still had its limitations, that
was all. 
     Just wait for the next upgrade.
     In the meantime, the couples didn+t have to do anything
particularly original in order to appear exotic.  They were
doing it in mid-air, after all.  And the sex was completely
egalitarian here-no -erotic handicaps+ as in the Pleasure
Dome, forcing participants to be dominant or submissive,
aggressive or passive.  It was a world of complete
consensuality and simultaneous orgasms. 
     A carnal utopia if ever there was one.
     All the unattached figures-male or female-seemed
absolutely limber and relaxed.  There was not the slightest
feeling of tension or unease in the whole environment.  The
women+s limbs stretched in all directions with luxurious
flexibility.  When the women turned profile, they revealed
starkly erect nipples.  The males had natural-looking,
uncaricatured erections-except for the recently-uncoupled
few whose cocks remained flaccid for a few moments while
recharging took place.  The sphere was filled with a
cacophony of sighing and moaning and gasping breaths-a loop
of sound which ran over and over again regardless of what
any of the figures were doing.     Marianne+s figure began
to drift inertly toward one of the couples.
     That won+t do.  No cutting in allowed on this dance
floor.
     The point of the game was to find an unattached
partner, and that would take a bit of maneuvering.  Figures
in the Weightless Chamber did not drift about in a purely
random way.  In the absence of normal gravity, each male or
female exerted its own gravitational pull.  To move in the
vicinity of another body meant to be drawn toward that body.
     Marianne used her mouse to propel her figure toward an
unattached male, apparently of African descent, looking spry
and spread-eagled and eager for action.  Now all she could
do was to wait and see what happened.  If the two figures
met each other perfectly face on, they would intertwine and
begin to copulate.  If they struck at ever-so-slightly the
wrong angle, they would deflect away from one another and
probably bounce off the sphere+s elegantly padded walls.
     Marianne held her breath as she watched.  But the magic
didn+t happen this time.  Her figure struck the dusky male a
little too much to the left, and she went spinning away
toward the wall.  She bounced off the wall, curled
spontaneously into a ball shape, and did several forward
rolls through the foggy air.  Then her limbs unfolded
welcomingly as she drifted among the others again. 
     Marianne exhaled, a little surprised to notice that her
heart had started beating faster.  Was it possible that she
was really getting an erotic kick from this?  She didn+t
think so, but perhaps she was without quite realizing it. 
What if Stephen were here watching this with me?
     She remembered going to a hard-core X-rated movie one
night with Evan-at Evan+s insistence, naturally.  She had
giggled through much of it, and Evan kept a slightly
embarrassed silence.  During the drive home, both she and
Evan swore to have been utterly unaffected by the movie.
But the minute they set foot back in their apartment, they
were mauling and unclothing one another ravenously.  In less
than an hour, they had doubled their already-extensive
repertoire of sexual techniques.
     Marianne hastily shoved the episode from her mind and
concentrated on the game at hand.  Her figure had started to
ricochet slowly and gently off several others.  These
harmless collisions seemed to imbue the figures with a kind
of rubbery, almost sensual softness.
     All this movement had a strong kinesthetic effect.  The
feeling of movement and suspension was truly palpable.  It
took Marianne back to her days on the high school
synchronized swim team-except that this -water+ allowed
greater freedom, greater movement than any swimming pool
ever could.  It never forced you in a particular direction.

     Now her figure and another female began to orbit each
other slowly.  Marianne marvelled at the programmer+s
ability to suggest reciprocal gravitation.     
     For every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction.  Isaac Newton would love this.          But a
problem quickly arose.  The other female in the dual orbit
was her figure+s exact double, and after they+d rounded each
other a couple times, Marianne had no idea which was which.
The operator of the other figure was undoubtedly just as
confused.  Then Marianne figured that all she had to do was
to move her figure one way or the other; whichever figure
moved had to be hers.  She used her mouse to jolt her figure
gently to the right.  But the other figure reciprocated, and
the dual orbit simply reversed directions.
     Uncanny!  The other operator must have tried the same
thing!    It was a bit like two people encountering one
another in a narrow passageway, each of them trying to step
out of the other+s way but winding up stepping in the same
direction.  But in real life, two such people did not lose
track of who was who.
     Marianne+s next tactic was to let the orbit continue
until the other operator broke it.  But her counterpart
apparently had the same idea this time, too, and the orbit
continued for several long seconds.  Marianne decided to
wait it out.  Soon, one of the figures broke out of the
orbit and Marianne then knew that hers was the figure still
spinning in its original path.
     Now Marianne propelled her figure toward a blue-toned
Asiatic-looking fellow, and she quickly sensed that their
contact was going to click.  Sure enough, their bodies met
and connected.  Marianne lost all control of the action.
She could only sit and watch as the two figures wrapped
themselves more and more tightly together, the female+s legs
winding serpent-like around the male+s.
     The animation was remarkable, with shifting highlight
and shadow falling perfectly across their constantly moving
limbs.  Marianne guessed that each possible pairing of
puppets offered a separate animation sequence, so one could
come to the Weightless Chamber many times and still feel
that one was watching a fresh, spontaneous sex act. 
     It went on for a surprisingly long time.  The figures
thrust pelvis against pelvis, slowly at first but then more
rapidly, and ran their hands all over each other.  They
craned their necks and arched their backs in simulated
passion, and the female+s long hair floated freely
everywhere.  Their accelerating movements sent them spinning
and whirling through the sphere like a wayward, slowly
rotating gyroscope.  They slowly careened against other
bodies and the walls, bouncing helter-skelter.  Their mouths
dropped open in unheard outcries.  Their very silence amid
the random erotic sounds was highly evocative.   A series of
climactic spasms brought the episode to an end. 
     Marianne suddenly felt just a shade warmer.  Is
something wrong with the thermostat in this place?
     Now she had to make a decision.  The two figures could
remain locked together in pleasant afterglow, or they could
disconnect and float elsewhere.  If they continued their
embrace, it had to be a mutual decision.  It only took one
of the operators to break out of it.   
     Marianne felt tired now, and the day+s discouragements
had pretty well left her mind.  The Weightless Chamber had
served its purpose, and she felt pretty sure she could go to
sleep.  She gently tugged her figure out of the embrace.
The Asiatic man+s arms reached yearningly after the
departing female.  The other operator had wanted to sustain
a moment of simple affection, but Marianne had broken it.
Marianne felt a pang of sadness when she realized what had
happened.
     Steady, girl.  Remember, it+s just a cartoon.  Maybe
he-or she-will have better luck next time.   Marianne struck
a command, and the airlock doors appeared.  The doors opened
noisily, and the naked puppet vanished into them.

*safir>howdu lke to be in shobiz baby?

awgy>huh?

safir>u hrd me. howdu lke to cm out of that shll of urs and
face the wrld? u+d be a hit i cn tell u.

     Renee pressed the command for synthetic laughter and
Sapphire complied with her usual gloating chuckle.  She had
lured  Auggie into a -booth+ by design.  Here there could be
no interruptions from other Auggie fans, and nobody could
hear what they were saying to one another.
     -I can+t believe you talked me into this,+ Renee
whispered to Sapphire.  -Didn+t I say I wanted to go cold
turkey?+  Renee+s resolve had broken the minute she had
tried to go to sleep.  It seemed convenient, now, to blame
Sapphire, who did seem rather willful at times.  A lot of
self-recrimination would only hurt Renee+s concentration,
and she had to stay focused.  She couldn+t let Auggie sweep
her off to the Pleasure Dome or the Casino or some other
Insomnimania game room. 
     Anything might happen in one of those places.
     And indeed, it had sometimes seemed as though anything
did happen.  On one or two occasions, Renee seemed to have
fallen asleep in front of the computer while continuing to
operate Sapphire.  She had only a sketchy memory of what had
actually transpired-particularly when she was prowling the
maze with Auggie. 
     We+ll have none of that tonight.  She was resolved to
keep Sapphire firmly in character-meaning under control. 
     Sapphire and Auggie were nestled in pixel-simulated
upholstery across a pixel-simulated formica table sipping on
pixel-simulated drinks.  Comic-book-style word balloons,
invisible to the other patrons, enclosed each bit of their
dialogue.  Renee reminded herself to make sure Sapphire
savored this strawberry daiquiri very slowly.  Mixed drinks
at Ernie+s cost more than she+d be willing to spend in a
real bar.  Whenever one logged into Ernie+s, one+s tab was
automatically drawn off one+s credit card.  And there was a
two-drink minimum. 
     Sapphire was Renee+s image of a social-climber from the
Bronx who had long since succeeded in destroying the
emotional well-being of four full-grown children (all
financially successful professionals), emasculating her
husband of thirty-two years (a used car salesman), and
imprinting a brood of grandchildren with primal guilt trips.
By Sapphire+s reckoning, this constituted having lived a
rich, full life.  Now she was loose in the infoworld
gathering and dispersing gossip, generally living it up and
enjoying her retirement.  Or so Renee imagined-and
imagination was all that mattered in Ernie+s Bar.      As
Renee manipulated Sapphire+s computer image by striking the
command key in various combinations with other keys,
Sapphire indulged in her chronic nervous mannerism of
fingering her ruby necklace as she leaned across the table
toward Auggie.  Sapphire was sipping her drink, obscenely
revealing a gratuitous quantity of pudgy cleavage.  Renee
typed in Sapphire+s next line of dialogue, and a rectangular
word balloon grew to fit the increasing verbiage.  As the
dialogue balloons appeared, Renee read both Auggie+s and
Sapphire+s  words aloud.  Somehow the conversation seemed
more real that way.

safir>awgy hunny lissn to your deah frnd safir. doncha think
its maby time u shd think abt goin public?

awgy>whassat? going pubic?

safir>o awgy u scamp. uer trooooly bad. u no what i meeeeen.

     Tricky territory.  But she was determined to draw
Auggie out-and ultimately to get him on the air.  She
chuckled to herself.  Imagine getting an entity who only
existed on a computer screen to go audio-and face a big, big
audience.  A telephone interview would do it.  Auggie+s
anonymity could be preserved even while she tried to get him
to reveal as much as she could about himself.
     Her racing thoughts hesitated a moment at the idea of
revealing that Sapphire was actually the alter of L.A.+s
hottest talk radio host.  Did Renee actually want to meet
somebody whose nighttime hobby was creating computer
simulations of apparently real-life killings?
     Oh, but it+s got to be worth the risk.  -Auggie, the
Computerized Snuff-Room Virtuoso+-a virtual entity -live+ on
real-life radio-the latest thing in performance art.  It
would be a ratings hit!  And in a town like L.A., who knew
what kind of doors it might open up for Auggie, too-or
whoever this character really was?  He might be the next Max
Headroom-and longer lasting.  Someday he+ll thank me for-it.
     In the meantime, Auggie sat with his elbow on the
table, his chin resting on his raggedy-gloved hand, sipping
at a pint of Irish stout, tilting his head quizzically in a
manner reminiscent of Jack Benny.  He made no reply to
Sapphire+s last remark.
     Lucifer stalked toward the keyboard. 
     -Shooo!+ hissed Renee loudly.  Lucifer had an uncanny
knack for pressing the wrong keys when he strayed near the
computer.  On one occasion, he had managed to delete an
entire file.  On another, he successfully logged Renee off
Insomnimania at an extremely inappropriate moment in the
Weightless Chamber. 
     Renee vigorously brushed Lucifer off her desk.  She sat
waiting for a moment, trying to decide what to say next.
But the clown was talking again. 

awgy>do u no hw mportant u r 2 me safir?  we r a hol wurld
al bi rselvs.  a univers.  we cn be 1 tgether.  ths    hol
act+s immutably decreed.  twus rehersed by thee and me a
billiun yeers bfor ths netwurk evur     wus.

     Renee shivered slightly.  Between crude jokes, Auggie
sometimes spoke fleetingly of profound secrets and the
powers of fate-brief, incongruous bursts of intimacy and
eloquence that always disturbed her a little.  And now he
was quoting something again.  What was it?  She wished her
knowledge of literature were better.         
     The clown said nothing more.  He seemed to grow larger,
to fill more of her vision.  An animator+s trick?  As aware
as she was of the techniques being used, she shrank back
from the intensity projected through her computer monitor.
She took a breath and began to type again.

safir>awgy hunny safir nos a littel seeeeeecret abt u.   

     Auggie made no reply, but wiggled his fingers and
eyebrows at Sapphire in the lecherous mode of a burlesque
comic.  Gone was the daunting air he had assumed the moment
before.  Now he was fully a clown again.

  safir>safir nos wheah u get the ideas for those wunnerful
snuffs of urs. 

     Auggie was motionless.  He still made no reply.  Slowly
and cautiously, Renee continued to type.

safir>u get them from reeeeeeel life dont u?

     Still silent, Auggie made an exquisitely slow and
exaggerated shrug, proclaiming with non-verbal
ingenuousness, -I+ve got no idea what you+re talking
about.+   Oh, he+s a virtuoso.  Renee typed some more.

safir>awgy sweethart u can play this dnky tavern or that
litl snuff room for the rest of ure days but what      kind
of awdyns d+u think ure rechin hunny? 1 hunred a show r
maybe 2? dont u think u dezerv     bettah? doncha evah think
about goin for the bucks n glory? now lissn to safir awgy.
ive gotta frnd      hoos gotta frnd hoos gotta frnd hoo cld
get u gobs n i dooooo meeeeeen gobs of media hipe n   
exposhuh. shld u hppn tbe intrstd.

     Auggie remained motionless and silent.  Renee began to
get a little nervous.  The last thing she wanted was to
trigger one of Auggie+s tantrums.  The smiling clown often
became furious over one trivial matter or another.  Once he
had criticized Sapphire+s penchant for strawberry daiquiris,
insisting that she should drink stout instead.  When
Sapphire demurred, Auggie had angrily scrawled the word
-bitch+ across the screen and disappeared.  Another time he
criticized her hair color, insisting that lavender would be
preferable to orange.  Again Sapphire disagreed, and again
Auggie cried -bitch+ and vanished.  Auggie had dumped poor
Sapphire in such a peremptory manner a half dozen times now.
     Simply to vanish from Ernie+s Bar-or indeed, from any
room in Insomnimania-was considered the height of
discourtesy.  Your alter was expected to walk away and exit
properly from even the most confrontational situations.  To
make your alter vanish, you had to shut off your machine
without properly logging off.  That was cheating, pure and
simple.  It broke the delicate reality of cyberspace.
     But Auggie was notoriously uncouth and prima donna-ish.
Just like most celebrities.  She wanted to keep him on the
hook just this once-long enough to set up some kind of
arrangement with him.  Then Auggie spoke again.

awgy>mr. 0 reely likes u.  mr. 0 wunts to c u agin.  rite
now.   

     Oh, not this again.  Renee groaned.  She remembered
last week+s wretched episode when she had dressed up as
-Blue Angel,+ a scantily-clad cabaret singer, and Auggie had
transformed himself into an amorphous, faceless character
named -Mr. Zero.+  The two of them had retired to the Tunnel
of Love, and their rompings there had left Renee distinctly
queasy.  Half-asleep at her desk at home with Lucifer
purring in her lap, Renee had almost felt an an eerily
tactile embrace of pixel limbs.  She often enjoyed the
Weightless Chamber, but the Tunnel of Love was much too
furtive for her taste-and Mr. Zero was unmistakably weird.
She typed again . . . 

safir>awgy, hunny, pleez tel mr. 0 i luv him as a frnd.  i
reeeeelly dooo.  but ime afrd it jst dosent click     
btween us, u no, sx-wise.

awgy>then ile cum as i am!

     To Renee+s great surprise, Auggie shoved his stout
aside and grasped Sapphire by the wrist.  He actually raised
Sapphire+s hand passionately to his lips and kissed it.  A
noisy -smack+ crackled over the computer speaker. 
     Renee inhaled sharply, as if her own hand had been
seized and kissed.  Impossible!
     Physical contact between alters was reserved purely for
the Pleasure Dome.  It supposedly couldn+t even happen in
Ernie+s Bar.
     How did he do it?   How had Auggie-or the person
manipulating Auggie-assumed such a degree of power over
Sapphire?  Had this other user hacked into Renee+s
Insomnimania file?  Had he taken Sapphire away from her
altogether?
     Renee anxiously punched in a command, and Sapphire
obediently pulled both of her hands to her sides.  Renee
breathed a sigh of relief.  She was in control of her alter
again.       
     Auggie leaned across the table toward Sapphire, his big
white eyes rolling wildly and bawdily in opposite
directions. 

awgy>o darlin safir ther iz a hol world watin 4 u & me. how
cn you tok of such pawtriness as fame and    forchin wen wut
i wunt is u u u u u?  cm wth me to the pleshur dome n we wll
al the pleshurs     proov tht groves hills n feelds woods r
steepy mowntn yeelds!

     The computer speaker suddenly roared with bells,
sirens, bicycle horns and calliope music.  Renee laughed
aloud nervously.   This was getting her nowhere.  She had to
get Auggie  off the subject of sex and back to himself, but
how?  Well, what would a well-bred Bronx social-climber say
when propositioned by some witty but painty-faced freak?

safir>wht maks u think ide hve sx wth a clwn?

     The sound effects stopped abruptly.  A hiatus ensued.
Renee shuddered as Auggie+s features darkened-she couldn+t
quite tell how.  Was it a subtle change of expression, or
did his loudly-painted face actually turn a more somber hue?
Whichever was the case, Auggie had suddenly become
inexplicably threatening. 

awgy>huer u callin a clwn?

     -Shit, I should have known!+ Renee said aloud.  -What a
ridiculous situation.+  She was genuinely uneasy
now-although she felt stupid, too.  Why had she insulted
Auggie?  A booth, after all, was customarily a place where
couples clandestinely arranged liaisons in the Pleasure
Dome-where new alters and sexual agendas were agreed upon.
By luring Auggie here, Sapphire had seemed to be making the
first move in another virtual dalliance. 

safir>awgy hunny thers bn a littel misunderstndng. it jst
wont work out.  not btween u n me.  fr 1 thng ive got
unnuther dte tnite. 

awgy>LYING CUNT.

     Renee snatched her fingers back from the keyboard as if
she had just received an electric shock.  Auggie+s big white
smile flipped over like a boomerang, abruptly transformed
into a hideous scowl.  His fury poured across the screen in
capital letters, the network  equivalent of yelling.

awgy>ITS BN LIKE THS LWAYS. FR HUNREDS F THOWSNS OF YRS.
PEEPLE. PEEPLE SUCK.     BSTRDS N BTCHES EVRY LST WON F U.
FR BILLIUNS OF YRS I RUN THE UNIVRS JST      FINE ON MY OWN
N THEN U IDIOTS CME ALNG THNKNG U GOT THE BRANES N U GOT   
THE NSERS. BUT I I I I GOT THE POWER N THE GLORY FOREVER. N
I OFFR U THE   CHANS TBE SMTHNG MOR THN HYUMN TBE PRT F
SMTHNG TRULY BUTIFL N GREAT   N U TRT ME LKE SHT. U CRUSIFY
ME. WELL FUCK U. U N URE KND TRIDE TO TAME   ME BUT U CANT.
I M ERTHQKS PESTLNCS FLUDS PLAIGS MDNSS THE WRMS OF THE   
GRAV N EVRYTHNG THTS NT ON URE FCKNG OFFC CALNDR. I M N
LWAYS HAV BN A      BLGHT ON URE EXSTNCE N WLL END IT SOON.
I WLL TARE U LIM FRM LIM N SPRED   PEECES OF U FAR N WIDE N
MY LAFFTER WLL EKKO THRU THE HEVENS.   

     Auggie+s tirade completely filled the computer screen
momentarily, then vanished.  Sapphire and Auggie were left
facing one another.  Renee+s computer speaker rang with his
raucous laughter, and then was silent.
     Renee sat frozen for a moment.  She was suddenly
frightened to be in the booth, where no one could overhear
the conversation, where no one could witness Auggie+s sudden
display of ferocity.  She felt vulnerable and alone.   She
waited for Auggie to pull his usual disappearing act. 
     He didn+t. 
     He just sat there scowling horribly at her.
     Renee typed a simple message.

safir>i dont want to see you anymore.

     Auggie remained motionless.  Renee knew the next move
had to be hers.  She wanted with all her heart to do as
Auggie usually did, to abruptly turn off her terminal and
vanish from the cyberworld.  But she stopped herself.
     -Keep your cool, Sapphire,+ she murmured soothingly to
her alter.  -We+ve got to show a little finesse here.+
     Renee punched in a series of commands.  Sapphire rose
from her seat and walked away from the booth.  Faces of
Ernie+s regular customers, chattering on their stools and at
their tables, suddenly turned to watch Sapphire make her
exit, quite surprised.  They were used to overhearing
Sapphire+s open barroom quarrels with Auggie and watching
Auggie disappear.  But now everyone could see that something
different had happened. 
     More than she ever had before, Renee felt a strange,
kinesthetic bond with Sapphire.  She actually shared
Sapphire+s creeping discomfort as she walked past the bar
amongst the staring faces, sensing Auggie+s hateful eyes
upon her.
     Ernie himself was mechanically washing glasses behind
the bar.  He offered his stock end-of-the-night audio
salutation.
     -Be seeing you tomorrow night, Sapphire?+    But
Sapphire made no reply as she approached the bar+s swinging
doors.  Renee could see Auggie, still sitting in the Booth,
watching Sapphire, his big red clown mouth turned down
rather than up at the corners.  And, just at that moment,
Auggie vanished without a trace.   Sapphire stood motionless
for a moment, then passed through the swinging doors.  Then
Renee logged off and shut down her machine.  She shivered
deeply, suddenly amazed at how frightened she+d been.
     He touched Sapphire.  How could he touch her?
     Renee sat staring at the blank computer screen
apprehensively, as if it might turn itself back on at any
moment.