MOAB

Chapter 38: Gregoris @ 2.8x nhs

Chapter 38: Gregoris @ 2.8x nhs

“You’re such a slob,” Greg said, picking up clothes.

“Hey! That’s not a nice thing to say to a lady.” Gal kept working on her Timeshaver project.

“Exactly. No ladies present. What we have here is simply dorm-room behaviour.”

“What’s the point of you being rich if you can’t have people clean up after you?”

“I can’t focus when the place is like this.” He cleaned up, cups, plates, her socks. Her sock inside a cup. She was such a slob.

“You throw arrows all over the house!” she complained.

He froze. “Okay, you have a point there. But I really want to understand how Artemis shoots turning arrows.”

“She-who-must-not-be-named,” Gal noted, “is an Olympic archer. You’re a glorified nerd.”

“Gee, thanks babe.” He kept on tidying up after her.

She stopped and shut her eyes. “No, Greg, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant that she had lots of practice.”

“I know. I’m just trying to get into her head.” He fumbled with some t-shirts.

Gal stood up and stopped him. “Okay, tell me what you have. Just blurt it out, no judgies.”

“No judgies. Okay, I think I have located the pivot point. It’s this guy.” Greg gestured the command that pulled up the file in the veil. They both could see a big picture of Teucer floating in the air.

She clicked her tongue, reading his notes. He saw her eyes flitting across the screen. She was getting fast, definitely faster than he was after doing this for a few months. She was younger, after all. Sharper. Greg was certain she didn’t even notice her overclock.

“Seems valid. This Teucer guy has a fanatic following. And he’s already a brand ambassador for Apollon augmentations I see.”

“Yes,” he pulled up even more data. “There are only a few athletes popular enough to make the shift happen. Pistorious used to be one. Then Usain Bolt. Then Rauwen. But in the 2028 Olympics at Los Angeles, Teucer showed up and wooed the crowd. Then he got into a serious accident, and got augmentations. He’s not allowed to compete in regular Olympics, so he’s the perfect case to bring about the change. He was an Olympian, then got injured, he’s still popular in the Cybathlon and the Paralympics. The committee will definitely consider letting him compete.”

Gal nodded slowly. She scrunched her nose in a very cute way when she thought about stuff, Greg loved that. “It’s good. I think you found the, whatchacallit? Fulcrum.”

They watched some video clips of Teucer. He had them sped up at 3.x.

Gal snorted.

“What?”

“There should be like a normal person running the track in the Olympics. So we can see the baseline of the human race and really marvel at these demigods who give it their all, you know?”

He smiled. “Okay. But who would subject himself to such ridicule?”

“I bet some comedians would happily do the track. You know, establish the baseline. Don’t laugh! No really, we watch these demigods perform superhuman feats and we shrug. We look like the ‘meh’ emoji. During the break, there should be a guy with a beer belly running the 100 metre dash, with all the bells and whistles, track overlays, timekeeping, personal record, the lot. And he’d do like fifty seconds to cross the track and we will laugh. But when the Olympians run afterwards and you see them zoom across it and its blink-and-you-miss-it, then you’d really appreciate what they’re doing.

He entertained her brain fart. “Okay, so all the sports?”

“Yeah! Not the marathon, obviously cause the comedian would die of a heart attack. But yes, jumps, javelin throws, swimming, everything. He’d just plant his face into the sand half the time.”

“Fine. I’ll make sure to pass it along if ratings ever go down.”

“What would you ever do without me?” Gal said and took off her top. She threw it at the exact place he had just cleaned up.

He pulled her close to his body by the waist. “I’d have a cleaner house, that’s for sure.”

“Pft! Live a little.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He kissed her.