There is a young man who leads a careless and profane life, ordering things
from the etherfield regardless of his duties to shareholders and man. One
day, having been thus engaged, he finds to his horror and dismay that
instead of the particular unwanted item he bought on impulse, his domestic
digifabricator has downloaded and printed a creature of most disturbing
appearance. Abandoned by the young man, the monster remains for ten
years unharmed and unheeded in the sewers until at length it outgrows them
and bursts forth. Having laid waste to the gentrified areas formerly occupied
by immigrants and artists, it crosses the river and seeks the place where the
young man had formerly worked three days a week at a tech guild, before
going on a year long sabbatical. Much is said to little purpose, until the CEO–
a woman of age and experience– advises that one of the interns should be
immediately placed outside to carry out public relations. It is discovered
that if an intern is not waiting in the lobby every day ready to be devoured,
the thing breaks out into a violent, destructive and lethal rage. After a year,
however, the young man who ordered the thing from the etherfield returns, a
sadder and wiser person. At first all the commenters do nothing but troll him,
or dox his avatar for having brought such a scourge upon his neighbourhood.
But when some of them perceive that he is indeed penitent, they advise him
to paint himself with poison, take the sacrificial intern’s place, and meet the
enemy in the reception area. This he duly does and the creature leaps upon
him, as if to smother him, but the tighter it grips him the more it is poisoned.
