Freedoms At Premiums / Crying.exe for $4.99 per minute

            I stared at the vending machine. It glowed, cooly, into the foggy alleyway night. I could hear, if I let my panels lax, the motor of my mechanical heart and the whirrs of the pumps in my artificial lungs.

            A human would probably find this a crisis. But it has always been this way for me.

            Humans have to buy food, you know. And purchase water, and shelter. These things must be such hassles; Such horrors. All it takes is one bad day to lose all of that at the will of someone else, but at least they still have their legs, at least they still can walk and go somewhere. Choose to rob a bank or bum a couch or the like.

            If I gaze down now, I will see my own legs. One, a functional old model with an in-built gyroscope an old inventing friend gave me when I was ill, many years ago. The other, a sleek and professional model with the latest balancing technology, ‘like new’, from Silvatex.

            Silvatex went bankrupt last week. And of course, this means their subscription service—already an arm and a leg, if you’ll pardon the pun— has shut down. And now it’s just an unpleasant hunk of metal.

            I cannot express how grateful I am to be able to walk like a pirate as apposed to being unable to walk at all. But I am, of course, angry. Or well, I think I am. I was angry a week ago, but I might’ve run out of anger. It would replenish with a recharge, but my charging port was also developed by Silvatex. Something I knew was a bad call from the outset, but when my old one broke, its replacement had long since been phased out.

            Partly because the manufacturer was acquired by Silvatex.

            There is a philosophy, in some economic’s moronic mnemonic, that if it is monopoly the people want it to be.

            Fucker’s probably never had their leg shut off before.

            Oh. Anger. I’m not out of that yet. Lovely.

            A monopoly is not possible because of the will of the public, a monopoly exists because of the will of finances. People do not choose which company becomes a monopoly, because the people do not choose the locations of businesses or timings of advertisements.

            But who is left to oppose them? The heads of government were all utilizing Silvatex parts like myself.

            I’m pretty sure one of them was using a Silvatex cranium. I feel bad for him, he probably doesn’t even realize his life just got ruined. He might not even exist anymore.

            A manufactured sigh escapes my lips- I needn’t expel air but I, like people, need to express frustration, and that is an apt way.

            I wonder why they insisted in giving me legs. Maybe I’ll purchase a pogo stick and fashion it into a leg.

            I’m sure humans struggle with similar things. When their cars only accept their subscriptions, or their surveillance can be destroyed by simply misplacing a bill. I’ve seen online posts where people complain of being unable to own anything, and I think they are right to do so.

            But that isn’t my problem to solve.

            As an hour’s worth of wages is eaten up by the machine, this, I acknowledge, is my problem to solve.

            As double A batteries fall out of the slot and I install them in my wrist, I acknowledge this is my problem to solve.

            And what an unsolvable problem it is.