Fortune Cookies: Futurism

Starting the new month off with a bit of a shorter, lighter one after the couple of more grim downers. I went for a mix of using English and a foreign language this time instead of going all in on one or the other. Still gotta read the text if you wanna know what the robot is saying, but I tried to blend the conveyance of information.

And again, done with Google Translate and I just grabbed a name off a list of Korean names, so my apologies for any inaccuracies.

TEXT

Leo was a scifi fan. He loved all of it, from the shining utopias of Star Trek to grungy,, anarchic cyberpunk to the soul-crushing, depressing dystopia of Warhammer 40k and all of the everything in between. Modern life bored him, especially with how stagnant everything had become. But that all changed when Leo went out for some Chinese food one night. He'd eaten his fill and when he'd cracked open his fortune cookie, it had read 'Your next wish will come true in unexpected ways'. He wasn't much of a believer in mysticism, but the drudgery of the modern world had really been wearing on him recently. So, after staring at the small strip of paper for a long moment, Leo closed his eyes.

"I just wish I was someone in the future!" He whispered, clutching the fortune tight. A wave of dizziness overtook him and he opened his eyes, gasping in shock as the Chinese restaurant went blurry and distorted like a watercolor painting. He even felt tingly! What had been in that food? And then with a sudden blast of cool air, the world swam back into focus around him...only it was NOT the world he had left. He was seated in a vehicle, not a booth, and the city outside the window was one of towering skyscrapers lit with...were those HOLOGRAMS!? Projected against the flawless glass walls of the huge buildings were advertisements for things like 'augmentations' or 'android butlers'...And was that a ROBOT driving the car he was in!?

"Holy shit!" He said, but immediately silenced himself at the strange, high pitched voice that came out of his mouth. Leo slowly looked down at himself, his eyes going wide as the round mounds poking out of the feminine clothes he had definitely NOT been wearing just a moment ago. Dark bangs fell into his vision as he slowly grabbed the breasts and felt a wave of sensitive pleasure surge through his body, including a tingle in what was now a warm foid between his legs where his dick should have been! He...he was a woman!

"Where am I...when am I!?" He whispered in his new voice, "And who am I?" Leo didn't seem to realize the language he was speaking had also changed with the strange warping of reality. But he, now a she, definitely picked up on it when the robotic taxi cab driver responded.

"귀하는 네오서울에 있으며, 날짜는 2097년 10월 18일입니다. 귀하의 신원 기록에 귀하는 (주)탠담 비서 내이재로 기재되어 있습니다. 이 정보가 맞나요?" (You are in Neo Seoul, and the date is October 18, 2097. In your identity records, you are listed as Nae Jae, secretary of Tandam Co., Ltd. Is this information correct?) The cab driver's robotic voice buzzed pleasantly. It was a male voice with just a hint of auto-tuning, but it was definitely NOT speaking English. In fact, the entire city outside, light-cyberpunk stylings aside, looked aesthetically a FAR cry from the classic American city he had been living in just a moment ago!

"Oh...oh my god!" Leo, or rather, the new Nae Yi-Jae whispered as her changed eyes threatened to pop out of her new head. She looked out the window of the cab again, catching brief glimpses of her new face in the reflection. She was...well, definitely Korean if this was 'Neo-Seoul'. And she was pretty. Not drop dead gorgeous, but definitely a looker. And she was a secretary? Ugh, so much for all those architecture courses she had been taking...Had taken? Or not at all now that she was clearly someone entirely different? Ugh, time travel stuff was ALWAYS complicated!

"이 정보가 맞나요? 아직 유흥가로 갈 건가요, 아니면 당신 거주지로 돌아갈 건가요?" (Is this information correct? Are you still going to the entertainment district or are you going back to your place of residence?) The artificial taxi driver asked, it's synthetic voice rising in question.

"Uh, yes! Yes I'm, uh, Nae Yi-Jae. And umm...no? Let's keep going?" The new woman settled back in her seat as the taxi-bot let out an electronic chirp in confirmation, and they continued to roll down the neon-lit streets.

"Well, at least i'm finally in the future..." She said with a resigned sigh. It's not like she could go back! She made a promise to herself that the next time she made a wish, she'd make sure to be far, FAR more specific about!