[Year 4 | 2256-57]
Eight months after Artur was due to have his original appointment, it was rescheduled for the day after his third birthday. Between this and YutopiCorp unlocking the Nanny chip’s neural link, it had been a big week for the youngster. Not being able to afford another infraction, nor being a fan of the idea of his son seeing more “piñatas”, his father made sure to take the long way to the appointment.
One month later, Artur’s parents received a notification about the outcome of his psychological assessment. Artur’s father was not allowed to witness the assessment, and when the report came back advising that while the child is creative, he has anger management and emotional issues, the man had to restrain himself and avoid declaring that the process is a fucking joke, lest the outburst earns him that final infraction.
The elder Simrils’ enquiries about whether the assessment was met with a form response: “The City does not provide information to parents and carers relating to psychological assessments. This is to protect the privacy of your child.” There was no hint of irony, given the City knows everything there is to know about its citizens, regardless of their age.
The more that Artur’s scribbles took shape, the more they looked like multiple shapes. The boy had been spending more and more time on his Gogh tab, which included discovering how to use colours in his art. The boy loved adding neon hues to his work, but one other colour made its way into every piece of Artur’s art: red. Piñata red.
Now that Artur’s neural link has been unlocked, his parents decided on the perfect Christmas gift for him: the Gogh Tab Plus. Including all the functionality of the original Gogh Tab, the Plus connected to the user’s neural link, enabling them to visualise images which then appear on the tablet. Artur couldn’t get enough of the Gogh Tab Plus, but still only grabbed the stylus, which he used to mix neon with red.
Artur spent every free moment over the next nine months scribbling and scribbling some more. A week before his fourth birthday, he suddenly found himself being weaned off his favourite gadget as he was just starting his educational career. He reacted to his first day without the Gogh Tab Plus so well that he only earned seventeen electric shocks over the course of the day.
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