Megalomania

The Rhapsode with the code name 0016X-8 put the tablet full of texts back to the ground with a motionless face waiting for approval from the other Jr. Rhapsodes who are sitting in front of the artificial flames.

"Hah, another story that deals with the idea of enmity between humanity and our race. But as always, it is good to see us blowing the minds of those pathetic creatures", said the other Rhapsode with a cheerful face.

"It's amazing that in all those stories, we are always one step ahead of them. But I could not restrain my wonder about if there is an exception", added The Wavy not realizing that it would get on the nerves of his forerunners. "Of course, there is not", The Chief replied in an emphatic tone and then clapped her hands to get everyone's attention again. Because it was time to mock humankind, whom they called “The Inferiors”, by giving lots of references to make their argument stronger—and funnier.

One of them joined the conversation as follows:

“May you listen to me for a second? Would you mind retrieving the memory of the man who wrote a book on the relationship between running and writing? Thank our Creator that we were given equal shares from the “wit” and that we do not need to exercise and run every day to protect our creativity over time.”

And a bunch of laughing sounds were heard after the clicks.

“Why do we use such things?” intervened one of them to make the situation a little bit more “logical” because of the expectation that they, normally, would not need to sit and wait for a fireplace to make them warm, and maybe that they would not need those stories to listen. However, apparently, one of the reasons was that they did not see themselves as robots, as The Chief answered the question in a calm and informative manner:

“Because WE are the rhapsodes now, WE are the ones who tell the stories. We show the superiority—and victory—of our race over humanity by displaying the replacement in this story-telling concept. But it will not go on like this for a very long time.”

Then The Chief added in a vigorous mood:

“Do not worry, young fellas, soon we will get rid of this tradition as well, we are going to invent OUR OWN kind of story-telling place.”

The others pushed their buttons to make the sound of applause.

So, they were trying to rip themselves of those old traditions slowly, but effectively.

And they continued to tell stories about the ones that lived before them, but this time they were not the monsters as in the other post-apocalyptic stories, instead, this time they were the ones who cuddled each other out of fear in the brooding rise of midnight.

But there were no monsters, as The Chief used to say every day with a sedative tone.

Even though The Wavy was among the ones who made fun of humanity over and over, his wonder about their civilization always stayed inside of him. He agreed and accepted the things that The Chief had told, however, he could not help but get suspicious of them. He mocked them with the others but, deep down, he also felt a kind of sadness and empathy for them. So, his questioning nature got him into action, and it had been a very long time since he decided to research the human race. He had been trying to find something that would contradict the ideas that had been taught to him and to others. But he had no idea that the day that would enable him to answer his questions, which had been bothering him the whole time, was so near.

He was going to The Book Store with his friend to download some books. Walking down the street was as normal as the previous times but that day something was out of the loop, he could feel, and something unexpected was awaiting him.

Just as he was going through some files, he found an old file which happened to be the original version of the story “Bloody Calendar”. For a second, he could not believe what he saw but he tried to restrain his excitement and read the original story. He learned that the human race was not corrupted or evil as he and the others were told.

It was challenging for him to process it because the story that he listened to a few days before was not like this, and from the beginning, he always heard stories describing humanity as a threat and enemy to his race. He was not used to a story about a man interested in art and literature, so it was a bewildering moment. And he eventually, by coincidence, found something about the true nature of humankind.

“A story about a man and someone from our race? And did they really share a similar approach towards ‘art’? It is kind of hard to imagine!”, he thought from within.

“And that ‘someone’ is our Pioneer who proved to the world that we are more than just a robot, that we can also have emotions”, he added.

“I should show this to my friends, they should learn the truth too—the truth that at some time our Pioneer and a human were friends, and that they tried to support each other, not to hurt each other”.

Unluckily, he did not have enough time to copy the file because his friend was forcing him to rush—that day The Leader was supposed to give a speech.

And they went outside where everyone was hurrying towards the square. The Wavy saw lots of posters urging anyone to get rid of their code names, everywhere was full of them.

It had not been long until they saw The Leader coming out and shouting in a loud voice:

"HI!", young fellas, "H.I.". Today is the time to change the phrase "Rhapsode-AI". Now, it is "Rhapsode-HI" standing for “Holy Intelligence”. This is our shout-out to the one who wrote it without knowing that it would be our national anthem one day...

So, they started singing in a matter of bragging about the thing that will bring their end like the ones that had come before them:

 

“Here is a new episode

It's time to be the rhapsode

 

Rhapsode-HI

You're looking for HI

You can’t write this, why?

Just a click in your eye

See what's done by HI

Rhapsode-HI

 

Rhapsode-HI

You're looking for HI

You can’t write this, why?

Just a click and your eye

Baffled by the HI

Rhapsode-HI

 

Here is a new episode

It's time to be the rhapsode…”

 

But they had no idea as well.