Chapter Nineteen – Want To See My Fanart Collection?

Chapter Nineteen – Want To See My Fanart Collection?

“To ‘go viral’ means that a video, image, or piece of information is circulated rapidly online from user to user and platform to platform. But as the modern internet grew and became more segregated, a piece of media that went viral might fail to reach some corners of the internet.

Going ‘super viral’ means that the meme or piece of information transcends these borders. It is so sharable and so memeable, that it breaks past any artificial delineations designed to keep things apart.”

-On Super Memes, 2049

***

Eric stared at me for a moment, then started walking again. I hoped to catch up to him. It seemed like he was just giving me a tour of the floor, really. Though he might also have been parading me in front of all his coworkers.

I didn’t have a great impression of how the Family’s internal shit worked, but I did have the impression that anyone that worked closely with one or more samurai would quickly climb the corporate totem pole.

“Your showing online, just before the Phobos Incident became international news… actually, your warning and call to action is what made it international news. Since then, pundits have been arguing about samurai access to weapons of mass destruction, again, and your video appears in several clips.”

“So a lot of folks saw that? So what?” I asked.

“Well, it was big news in several ways. It went super-viral. A samurai cutting into media feeds is noteworthy in the tech sector, the announcement fit into general news well, the end-of-the-world potential was a hit amongst the religious and the fear-mongering algorithms, and there were several other samurai in the clip, just hanging out in the background, including some unknowns.”

“Right, I guess that was Gros Baton’s big debut.”

“His name is still hotly debated online,” he said. “Since there’s no primary source confirming it. It’s made him very popular with certain groups.”

“Certain groups?” I asked. I didn’t want to know, but I had to ask.

“There’s a lot of fanart,” Eric admitted.

I shook my head. I was right, I didn’t want to know. “Okay, so I popped up and that went viral. Shit like that happens all the time. I remember seeing samurai show up on my feeds pretty often growing up if they did something big.”

“Yes, but this is different,” Eric said. “You executed a moderately high-ranking political official on live television. Then there’s your speech at the funeral service for those who passed during the incident. It was heavily televised. Live viewership was in the tens of millions. And your speech, following after Miss Emoscythe Mordeath Noir’s, was spoken in a way that encouraged… dissidents to pick up arms.”

“Oops,” I said.

“You’re giving us a lot of work,” Eric said. “The Family, most corporations, and the government, work very hard to reduce anti-establishment sentiments and to fold individualism within a certain range of acceptable deviations. You… kicked that out of position, and now there’s a large effort to course-correct, and that effort is being pushed against. This isn’t all on you. There has been a resurgence in anti-government and anti-corporate sentiment that has been growing in the last ten or so years. It’s just that right now, a lot of those sentiments are coming to a head, a boiling point.”

I rubbed at my face. “Okay. And what do I do about it?”

Eric shrugged. “The higher ups won’t give you orders. But if you could avoid making any media appearances, that would be nice.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I said.

“Thank you. Try to especially avoid starting any rebellions?”

I snorted, then jumped when I noticed the time on my augs. “Ah, fuck. I’ve got to go. Can’t stick around here for too much longer. Need to pick up my girl in under an hour.”

“Of course,” Eric said. “Let me guide you to the roof. Next time you come over, feel free to send me a message first? Or to Piper, she’s the other agent currently on file, and I don’t mind working with her.”

“But not others?” I asked.

Eric shifted a bit, and some of that awkwardness I’d first noticed in him was back. “Miss Piper is… friendly and capable of sharing. It isn’t everyone who has that same attitude here.”

Aww, poor moron had a crush.