The Meta Mirage
Scene 1
“I need a story!” Emma grumbled frustratedly, pulling her hair as she sat in her small, run-down New York apartment. She tears out a paper and crumples it before tossing it to the side.
“I need some fresh air,” she sighs, and gets up.
-.-.-.-
She walks around listlessly, around the Times Square area, which is bustling with people. A flashy advertisement pops up on the billboard, and suddenly, all of Emma’s problems seem to relinquish. Emma callously ignores Mayor Humdinger’s advertisement, ‘Let’s Make New York Clean Again’ and focuses on the loud, bold “See the world through their eyes- The New Alpha glasses”. She rushes home, opens her laptop, and without giving it a second thought, purchases the Alpha glasses.
“$300. This better be worth it,” she mutters, before throwing herself back on her bed and closing her eyes.
-.-.-.-
When the package containing Emma’s knight in shining armour arrives, Emma struggles to adjust the settings. She fiddles around with the buttons, trying to test it and see if it would make for a worthwhile story. Suddenly, Emma’s eyesight is filled with panels and panels of information about everyone and everything.
“Holy sh-” She looks mesmerised, looking through everyone’s InstantGram, FaceCard and even their financial records. From her peripheral vision, Emma sees a whiz of a familiar blonde head. Mayor Humdinger. Emma gasps, shocked to see a scandalous detail. Everything blurs, because to Emma, this could be the world. All that she sees are the red, bold letters.
Mayor Humdinger running a bribe from a nuclear plant in New Jersey.
Maybe I can get my New York penthouse after all. She thinks.
“So much for being environmentally-friendly,” she scoffs as she starts writing her story.
Scene 2
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“Oh my god! Seriously? Yes, omg, yes of course,” Emma gushes on the phone. Her story was a hit, unlike Mayor Humdinger. Emma rushes to get her Alpha glasses and kisses them.
“Show me more,” she smiles. She puts on the glasses and writes down more story ideas about people in New York.
Lila James, A-list celebrity, wears fake Gucci.
Multi-dollar billionaire, Hugo Fields, isn’t really rich.
And more. And more. And more.
[Emma smiling evilly as she is seen writing many stories about people; focus on Emma and her glasses]
“I’m going to be rich,” Emma whispers in shock. She’s been pulled in by power. She writes and writes about nearly every single person worth writing about, and while she gets richer and richer, she also gets more and more hate.
“Haters keep on hating,” she sing-songs as she reads another hate letter before throwing it away. She puts on the glasses once again, and sees something interesting about her landlord. Cheating much? She types out yet another article, and by this point, she feels extremely powerful. Unfortunately, the company she works with, WitsWithWords, thinks otherwise.
“I don’t know how to put this any other way Ms. Bridget but you’re fired. You’ve abused the power of writing by writing about people all the time instead of other things that go on in New York. People don’t like you, and since you have been publishing these articles without consent from our core team for a while now, don’t think we haven’t noticed, people don’t like WitsWithWords. Our company cannot have someone who runs the carriage astray when given the reins.” Millie Lorel, the CEO of WitsWithWords calls and informs Emma. Emma is shocked. She didn’t think she would be fired. She was just writing stories. Unfortunately for her, the change in luck doesn’t end there for her. A few days later, her landlord comes to visit.
Scene 3
“Ms Emma Bridget, you are being evicted from this apartment as of today. Please pack up and leave,” Emma’s lanky landlord says, in a monotonous voice as he stands in her doorway.
“WHAT?!” she yells. “I know I paid back the rent kind of late last time but this month I’m-”
“It’s not about the money Ms. Bridget. You have violated and breached my privacy. You have told the world something that you have mistaken. You believe I was cheating? I was with that lady because I was getting a custom-made ring for my fiancée. Now thanks to you, I have lost her. Please. Leave.” Emma’s jaw drops as she is forced to pack up her things, right then and there, and go. She has no place to stay. She goes down her building, replaying Millie’s words and her landlord’s. She stands in the middle of the street, surrounded by her luggages as cars pass by. Her eyes are wide open in shock, as everything begins to register.
She was given a sword, and she thought it would help her, but after using the sword to hurt others, she ended up stabbing herself. Had the thought of power really ruined her? Had the glasses made her believe she could be more superior? Shaking, she pulls out the glasses and tosses them in the middle of the road.
Thinking box: Emma was in a rut, and the taste of power, of the knowledge that by using the glasses she would be something more, ended up shredding her to pieces. She didn’t know when to stop. When you have that kind of power, especially with technology, it consumes you, and just like an itch that’s been skimmed by, you end up scratching, and scratching, and scratching. You don’t know when to stop. How far can Meta Glasses go?In a world where knowledge reigns as the ultimate power, the question is not whether you could wield such a technology — but whether you should.
- Ananya Bansal
