SINGA-ONE: The State of Fun

_{Merlion Source}

Dinesh raised his arms up for the 30^th time that day, as the rollercoaster descended down into a corkscrew rail. Meanwhile, his brother, Manish, was busy thumbing his phone throughout the entire ride. Both of them were impassive, even yawning a few times during the whole thing. They still get the occasional tingle, but most of it were expected even before they hit. All the twists and turns had become commonplace.

    "Hey," Dinesh muttered as the coaster came to a grinding halt. He flicked Manish's arm, just as both of his were on their way down. "What's the count?"

    "One more time in the log jam, and we're done for the day," answered Manish, whose eyes were still glued to his mobile device. His implants allowed him the capability to have an eidetic memory, but he mostly put it to use memorizing trivial information. "We could go to that 4D one, but that'll take three more turns."

    "Nah, the one ride in the log jam is fine."

Ever since Singapore became the fifth country to adapt a fully-automated workforce, its citizens had been automatically enrolled to a Universal Basic Income structure. However, since one of its driving sources of income remains to be tourism, it had to keep up appearances of being a thriving and inviting place for foreigners. To help with the initiative, it mandated its citizens to populate the tourist destinations. The conditional release of their income depends on whether they meet a weekly quota of attractions they visit.

The brothers each waved their wrist above the turnstiles to allow them access, and to log their activity. They hopped into an artificial log, then flexed their muscles while posing for a complimentary photo, as their carriage made its way down the steep flume. Both of them tried their best to flash a smile, but all they could muster was a deadpan expression.

As they made their way out, they were greeted by a notification informing them that their weekly allowance had been released to their bank accounts. It was the same routine they had been doing for all of their lives, which somewhat made them feel condemned to a life of drudgery. Their parents and other elderly people often recalled a time when they had to work for a living, but the younger generation simply couldn't relate to the stories. All of their complaints were met with disgust, and were dismissed as a result of entitlement.

    "Tell mom I'll be home late," Dinesh bid his brother farewell as he headed down to the train station. "Don't wait up."

Manish waved at him, as he headed home. His eyes were still glued to his mobile device, but he expertly evaded everything in his path. Between him and his brother, they had managed to save up more than a million STEEM, but they were simply uninterested in moving out of their parents' house. In fact, most of the younger generation didn't feel the urge to get their own place.

Dinesh boarded the train at Harbourfront, transferred to the North-South Line at Dhoby Ghaut, then got off at Somerset. What would normally take people from other countries a little under an hour and several STEEM costed him less than 10 minutes and about 0.001 STEEM. The younger generation were so used to this luxury that they often took it for granted.

Walking on Orchard, he chanced upon several youth huddled around in a well-known trap street. Being the inquisitive type, he snuck up on them and tried to ascertain what shenanigans they were into. He noticed that there were no CCTV cameras in the vicinity, and that there were no other witnesses nearby. Dinesh took online Krav Maga lessons, so he felt like he could fend off five aggressors easily, if it ever came down to it.

The youth kicked around a street sweeper bot, that was malfunctioning since its navigation systems didn't recognize its location. They even made a game out of it, with the person who finishes the bot off was declared the winner. There wasn't a prize, nor a grand announcement, just the satisfaction of beating the life out of a defenseless machine.

    "Hey!" one of the youth yelled, while pointing at Dinesh.

His heart sank to his stomach, and beads of sweat broke on his forehead. He wanted to run, but he felt his feet anchored to the ground. His mind cycled through different scenarios. There was one where he charged at them, flailing his feet and fist until they run away, but that required a lot of energy. Every possible scenario required some amount of energy, which he seemingly suddenly ran out of. All he could was stare at them with his mouth agape.

    "Come," the same person invited, beckoning to him with her hand. "Join us!"

    "W-Who?" Dinesh queried, pointing at himself. "Me?"

    "There is nobody else here. Now, come on!"

Destroying a property of the Singaporean government was punishable by law, but the youth got away with it by avoiding the cameras. If there was no evidence, no one would be convicted. They filled him in on what they were doing, as they continued to assault the helpless robot. At first, they had made a game of hiding from the cameras, but that quickly became boring. They kept elevating the level of difficulty, seemingly in a quest to get caught.

Soon after, Dinesh joined in on the action. There was something invigorating about the whole thing. He wasn't a vagrant, and he hasn't disobeyed the law ever in his life, but something inside him came alive. Disobedience somehow cut through the doldrum he had been feeling for a number of years now. It was the same feeling he had when he first tried out the rides at Sentosa when he was a child. Breaking the law gnawed at him, but it was surpassed by an even greater feeling. He felt alive, for the very first time in a long while.

He kicked as hard as he could, and was eventually the one to break the hapless bot. The group cheered, and brought Dinesh into the fold. They knew that the sweeper robot would send out a distress signal upon its destruction, so they collected each others' contact information just before they dispersed.

Upon his return home, Dinesh recounted his ordeal to his brother. Manish expressed his concern, but felt even more curious than his brother did on that trap street. It didn't take long for Dinesh to convince his brother to join whenever the group contacts him next. The fervor in his brother's voice is what drew Manish in.

The call came, and the brothers rushed to the specified location. Dinesh asked the group's permission to include his brother, and they quickly accepted him as one of their own. They jumped from bot to bot, property to property, with each encounter being riskier than the previous ones. The group did just enough t be inches from getting caught. It was exhilarating, and they felt an unmatched high from their illicit activities.

Manish studied how the group picked their marks, and eventually devised a more efficient algorithm to go about it. He shared it with his brother, hoping they could branch off, fearing that the group was becoming too large to go unnoticed. Dinesh hesitated, but figured it would be alright to strike out on their own some times and just meet up with the group whenever they can.

During one of their outings, they discovered that other people were doing the same thing. Little did they know that they had unknowingly been a part of a hidden network of vagrants for quite some time. It gave them a strange sense of relief, but it definitely took away some feeling of uniqueness. They knew better than to trust anyone, so they kept their real identities close to their chest.

There was a noticeable change in their demeanor. Instead of dragging their feet through rides and attractions, they became more chipper, excited to get to their illicit activities quicker. Dinesh felt more confident than he had ever been, and Manish didn't bury himself in his mobile device all that much anymore. To avoid being questioned about their late nights, they decided to get separate apartments, away from their parents.

The brothers went from wrecking sweeper bots, to hacking police drones, to defacing whole buildings. As their activities became grander, their exploits made their way to the news. While Dinesh felt worried that their covert operation would be compromised by increased surveillance, Manish felt even more challenged.

    "Maybe we should slow it down, yeah?" Dinesh asked over the phone. They spoke in code, since they weren't talking on an encrypted line. "I mean, 50 rides in a day is too much. People would be too tired seeing our face in the photowall."

    "Look, brother, I don't care" Manish retorted. "I haven't felt this good in a long time. So, if you want to take a breather, then by all means, go on back to your posse."

So, they did just that. Dinesh went back full-time with his original group, and Manish went on to solo outings. The brothers became estranged, and eventually lost touch.

Dinesh's group grew in numbers, but most of the new members became too unruly. The authorities planted a trap during one of their outings, but many of them were fortunate enough to not get caught. He counted himself as one of the lucky ones, and he knew that luck, unlike his STEEM, was in short supply. To help in laying low, he moved back to his parents' place and waited for the heat to die down. Life, for Dinesh, reverted back to his old normal. But, he felt incomplete.

He tried to contact his brother, but his calls were left unanswered. So, he decided to head to Manish's apartment to patch things up. As he headed up on the elevator, he felt a bit unnerved. Dinesh thought of several scenarios that could've happened to his estranged sibling. Manish could've been hooked on drugs, or have gotten tangled up with shady individuals—several horrible thoughts swirled in his head. When bad things happen to people, and he had the capability to stop them, he felt like all of those bad things were partly his fault.

Dinesh knocked on Manish's door, but there was no answer. He called to him, banging even louder, but still wasn't met with any reply. Out of desperation, he shorted Manish's doorlock and forced his way inside. Upon entering the room, he saw his brother sprawled in his bed. He dove in to check his pulse, and was glad to discover that his brother hasn't expired.

Manish panicked, but calmed down when he discovered that it was only his brother. His music was too loud, that's why he couldn't hear Dinesh knocking.

    "Yeh kyaa hai?" Dinesh angrily asked. "W-What the hell, man?"

    "Mein theek hoon," Manish excused. "I was ... I was asleep."

    "You ... I've been calling you. Why weren't you answering your phone?"

    "I was asleep, man. Come on!"

    "The whole day? Huh? The whole day yesterday, too?"

Manish stayed silent, thinking of a plausible excuse. It had been a month or so since he and his brother last spoke, so he didn't want the next thing he said to spark any unwanted animosity.

    "What ... I was just ... worried, I guess. It's been ... I don't know. All of those things in the news. I keep thinking one of those are your doing," Dinesh calmed down a bit, resting his back against a wall. "What are you ... What are you into these days anyway? Mom is worried. You haven't even bothered to call her for quite some time."

    "What are you talking about?" Manish queried. "Mom is always worried! I spoke to her, I don't know, two or three days ago. I don't check in for a day and it's like the whole world is ending."

The brothers laughed, and it cut the tension a bit. Manish sat up and invited his brother to sit back down.

    "I'm serious though," Dinesh followed. "I'm worried about you. What have you been up to these days? Did you know I was almost caught?"

    "I figured. Mom told me you moved back."

    "It was rough, I ... We were cornered. They're really cracking down on all the vagrancy. I came here to warn you about it."

    "Weeks after your ordeal?"

    "We had a falling out, I thought it would be a good lesson for you."

    "It wasn't needed," Manish reassured him.

    "What? Are you part of a group again? Have you been taking drugs?"

    "No, no. None of that."

    "Then what?"

Manish paused for a second, as he let out a long sigh. The delay didn't help ease Dinesh's worry.

    "Well? Come on, man," Dinesh begged. "Out with it!"

    "The truth is ... Well, I did try going solo for a bit," Manish divulged. "I have to say, it wasn't as easy as it seemed. Two or three times, then I ... I guess the thrill was gone. I just ... I just stopped."

Dinesh felt relieved, but didn't know how to react. The way Manish was going before they became estranged, he didn't think that Manish stopping was a remote possibility. All he could do was bob his head and smile.

Suddenly, a group of police busted through the door and demanded the brothers to raise their arms up, to which they complied. Dinesh had been caught by the CCTV breaking into Manish's apartment, alerting the authorities of a possible robbery. After a few hours of explanation, the brothers cleared the misunderstanding, and in the process, reconciled as well. They went back to their lives before everything happened, but fondly remembered the time they went on one of the wildest rides of their lives.

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