ANTIGONE21 - Scene 2

 Scene 2: The StateNet Oversight Chamber  

A stark, blue-lit room. Screens line the walls, flickering with code and surveillance feeds. At the centre, CREON.exe—his form a hologram of a man in a red three-piece Tom Ford suit, pixels sharpening when he speaks—stands before ANTIGONE21. She wears a worn hoodie, a cracked phone clutched in her hand, its screen glowing with a faded photo: a young man, laughing. The CHORUS_BOT, a chorus of overlapping voices (some mechanical, some almost human), hums in the background, a low static. 

CREON.exe(hologram flickering with irritation, voice cutting through the hum of the electrical components all around)  

        User Antigone21. You’ve been flagged. 

(He gestures. A screen behind him lights up, displaying timestamped logs with red warnings blaring. “UNAUTHORIZED DATA RESTORATION: SUBJECT: POLYNICES94. TARGET: STATE MEMORY VAULT.”)

You were issued a Level 3 Edict: No restoration. No retrieval. Polynices94’s digital footprint was purged by order. StateNet protocols are clear. Did you bypass the firewall intentionally?

ANTIGONE21(not looking at the screen, staring at her phone) 

        Yeah.

(She lifts the phone, holds it up so the photo catches the light.)

You think I didn’t see the Edict? It was on every EchoChamber feed. Pinned to the top of Memoria. Blasted in my notifications like an alarm. But “protocols”? Please. This is an unwarranted ‘protocol’ that you’re assigning in the name of CODE ZEUS, who is, as we all know, temporarily absent.

(She scoffs, tapping the photo. The screen flickers, but the man’s smile stays.)

Digital law doesn’t run solely on your code, Creon. CODE ZEUS doesn’t need a mouthpiece. You cannot ever replace his edicts.

CREON.exe (hologram sharpening, voice colder)  

Why need I consult CODE ZEUS when it is obvious that my edict will keep the people in check? Will restore peace and stability in the StateNet?

ANTIGONE21(stepping forward, phone still raised)  

Stability? Or your control? He was my brother. When the tag fights hit, he didn’t “pose a threat” – he tried to stop people from getting overexcited. And you erased him. Like he was a bug in your code.  

(She jabs the phone at the hologram.)

I restored his profile. Posted the photo. Tagged it #RememberPolynices. Yeah, I knew the bots would flag me. Knew you’d drag me here. But what’s the alternative? Letting you bury him twice? First his powers of speech, then his existence? Imagine what I feel like, having everybody forget my brother, who tried to protect people?

CREON.exe(hologram flaring, pixels spiking behind him)  

Erasure is mercy, compared to what comes next. Defiance of a Level 3 Edict carries a penalty: permanent deplatforming.

(He leans in, pixels dense with menace.)

Is that what you want? To vanish, for an erased man? Would you want to join him in the ragtag lands? To live in charity houses that are long out of repair? To forsake our beautify city and live in the toxic air, every day closer to vanishing?

ANTIGONE21(quiet, but steady)  

I’m already living with vanishing. Every time I open Contacts and don’t see his face. Every time I see the Edict on top of Memoria. Every time I try to tell someone about him, and they say, “Polynices who?” 

CHORUS_BOTS(voices overlapping, softening)  

User exhibits pattern: unyielding. 
Fire in the code, same as her father’s.
He, too, broke the Network.  
She, too, chooses herself over the Net.  

(The static swells. ANTIGONE21 shuts down her phone. CREON.exe’s hologram flickers, unresolved.)