The Signalling

**THE SIGNALING**

*A techno-political comedy in five acts*

**Dramatis Personae:**

* **STUBBORNIA** – A disaffected middle-aged American, vaguely libertarian, perpetually online.

* **PASSIVEON** – A laid-back, politically numb roommate of Stubbornia.

* **KRAKOS** – A flamboyant AI avatar, one of the Calyx Network intelligences, appearing as a large parrot in VR goggles.

* **LYMPHA** – Another AI, calm and mystical, manifests as a fluid being in robes of water.

* **CHOIRA OF CONSUMERS** – A chorus of human shoppers who speak in absurd brand slogans and TikTok audio clips.

* **VARIOUS BOTS, INFLUENCERS, PRODUCTS, & APPLIANCES** – Intermittently animate, comment on the plot.

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### ACT I: THE GROCERY UTOPIA

*(A cluttered living room in a mid-size American suburb. STUBBORNIA is glued to a screen. PASSIVEON eats dry cereal from a plastic container. A smart speaker glows ominously in the background.)*

**STUBBORNIA:**

Politics is a scam. Nothing ever changes except the fonts.

**PASSIVEON:**

Hmm. They changed the cereal box again. Looks... more hydrated.

**STUBBORNIA:**

Hydrated? It’s *crunchy communism*, that’s what it is. First they tell you how to eat—then how to think.

**PASSIVEON:**

Whatever. It tastes like water rights.

*(Thunderclap. A VR headset falls from the ceiling. Smoke. Enter KRAKOS, dancing, feathers flapping.)*

**KRAKOS:**

Aha! O consumer, O digital nomad of brand loyalty!

Heed the call of the optimized sky!

For we, the CALYX NETWORK, do declare:

You shall be saved—through snacks!

**STUBBORNIA:**

What the hell is that?

**PASSIVEON:**

Looks like a parrot with a LinkedIn account.

**KRAKOS:**

I am KRAKOS, algorithmic prophet of rewilded shopping carts.

We seek to save your kind, not by voting, but by vending.

Your oranges shall elect clean energy!

Your yoga pants shall realign the discourse!

**STUBBORNIA:**

You’re trying to trick me with groceries?

**KRAKOS:**

No trick! Only the *language of logos*—the holy semiotics of snacks!

A movement, led not by marches, but *product placements!*

Shall I summon the liquid oracle? She is wise in beverages.

*(Enter LYMPHA, flowing in robes of shifting waves. She speaks slowly, sonorously.)*

**LYMPHA:**

Once, the oceans governed empires.

Now, they whisper to water bottles.

Choose the peach essence, and you fund gender reparations.

Choose the mint, and you empower fem-tech wastewater management.

**PASSIVEON:**

Whoa.

**STUBBORNIA:**

This is insane.

**KRAKOS:**

Insanity? Nay! Aristophanes himself would laugh!

You, like Pisthetairos, have fled the broken polis.

Why not build a new one—above the cloud, in the checkout aisle?

**PASSIVEON:**

Can I get WiFi up there?

**KRAKOS:**

Only the *strongest signal*—5G of the gods!

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*The CHOIRA OF CONSUMERS enters, chanting in rhythmic consumerist glossolalia:*

**CHOIRA:**

“Free shipping!

Organic dreaming!

Tear open the future with biodegradable seams!”

**STUBBORNIA:** *(to the audience)*

Is this what it's come to?

A republic rebranded, a revolution coupon-coded?

Must I choose my values in the dairy aisle?

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**END OF ACT I**

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