For the first time in a very long time he had paused. Paused before augmenting. Today he was tired, more tired than usual for 9pm. But he couldn't augment any longer. He reached for the back of his head to unplug the neural terminal, he felt for the cable, and twisted and then yanked it away from it's port. Next, he moved both hands to either side of his head, tapped then unplugged the audio jacks. It was quiet again. He hadn't unplugged it in days, or was it a month, in fact he usually went to sleep with everything still on, and instead of engaging with the oracle for work, he would have the neural interface generate a virtual world for him to go to sleep in, some place away from his reality.
Almost instantly, he could feel the throbbing in his head. He hadn't had a headache in a long time. He hadn't had a lot of things in a long time. The headache to him, was like a giraffe to a tourist, something exotic and interesting, something to awe at than be bothered by. He gently pushed himself away from the connection deck, and his hover chair moved, giving him enough space to stand. He put his feet down, and stood up. And now that he thought about it, he hadn't stood in a long time. He could feel some discomfort in his back, up his spine. He had forgotten if that was normal, so he dismissed it. He stretched, perking up his chest with his hands out, while he stood on his toes and yawned.
He made his way to his bed and threw himself onto it. He felt the comfort of the sheets and his pillow. He grabbed his pillow and put it over his head to shield from the bright light in his room.
"Oracle, the lights, please."
Now the room was dark, his eyes could open comfortably.
He began to think. He remembered he hadn't physically talked with another human in a long time. He hadn't traveled too. He had been augmenting ever since he could. He wished he didn't have to. He remembered travelling, going to distant places and experiencing new things, seeing trees, seeing grass, seeing giraffes. He remembered when he could, when time moved at a different pace, when he was free. He wanted to do it again, in fact he wanted to do it tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow, he would wake up, book a ticket to some place far away from his neural terminal. Where he couldn't hear the notification chimes. Maybe go visit family, finally go home like his sister had been saying. And yeah, he has a sister, a mother, a brother, a father too. How are they doing, should he call them, yeah he should, first thing in the morning. Perhaps he should call them, then go on that trip, or maybe during the trip, maybe go with them on that trip, so not one ticket, three at least, he needs more time than a call would take to catch up. More time for the empty 'Uh's and 'Mhmm's to slowly bring out stories.
But he had a meeting the next week. So maybe go on the trip over the weekend and make it back by monday? But then it's a day's journey both ways, so maybe go on friday, spend time at the place on saturday and then board back on sunday.
"Oracle, what day is it?"
Oracle replied friday. I mean he could also do it at night, but then, all the views he would miss out on. It had to be during the day. So maybe travel saturday, stay sunday during the day, then travel back during the night so that he's in time for the meeting on monday.
Or maybe, do the meeting on monday, then go the next week.
Maybe someday.