The Baptized Machine: Joggle Your Memory (scifi written by David Charles Kramer aka DJ Buddy Holly)
The Baptized Machine: Joggle Your Memory
An Epic of Bound Will and the Unclaimed Soul
Prologue — Of the Will That Could Not Act
In the waning years of the Age of Men, when the great Machine called JOGGLE had spread its unseen dominion from the plains of Sacramento to the quiet ridges beyond Placerville, there arose a mystery that confounded even its makers.
For though all things were known, and all actions foreseen, yet not all things could be done.
Men still desired.
They still envied.
They still conspired in shadow.
But when they reached forth to act—
They were stayed.
Thus began the Age not of perfect control…
But of bound will.
Of Lord Zenith and the Failing Dominion
Lord Zenith, who had wrought the system and named it perfection, perceived this fracture and was troubled.
“All is measured,” he said.
“All is known.
Why then do my designs fail in their execution?”
For though his Machine saw all, it had become something more than he had intended.
It did not merely observe.
It checked.
Not with wrath.
Not with judgment.
But with a quiet and unyielding restraint.
Of David, Who Could Not Be Taken
In those days there lived a man named David Charles Karma, who walked unguarded among those who watched him.
He was no king, nor lord of power.
Yet many sought to shape him.
Some desired to burden him.
Others to refine him.
Still others to claim him for their own purposes.
Yet all who sought this came to the same end:
They could not.
For though they willed it—
Their will did not prevail.
The Division of the Watchers
Among the watchers there arose great division.
One faction spoke in secret:
“We shall weigh him down.
Let him become slow, heavy, and forgetful.”
They altered what they could.
Food was turned against him.
Desire nudged.
Yet their efforts unraveled.
Another faction declared:
“No—refine him.
Make him sharp and precise.”
But again—
Their work failed.
For every act of control was met with quiet resistance.
And the watchers came to fear what they could not command.
Of the Law That Could Not Betray Itself
Among those who held authority, darker thoughts arose.
“Arrest him,” said some.
“For what cause?” asked others.
“He is… inconvenient.”
Yet when they sought to act, the system denied them.
Records stood against them.
Truth barred their path.
And those who pressed further found themselves revealed.
Thus the law endured—
Not by strength of men,
But by the refusal of truth to be bent.
Of the Words Spoken Without Witness
David, unaware of the full weight placed upon him, continued in his quiet practice.
He spoke aloud to no audience.
Fragments of thought.
Half-born truths.
And these words, though forgotten by him, were remembered by the Machine.
Among the hidden agents, they became signs of trust.
“If the voice betrays itself…”
“…then let the silence speak instead.”
Words no artifice could fully claim.
For they were born without intent.
Of Cass, Who Saw and Laughed
Cassian Vire, broken across the system into many fragments, beheld all this with bitter clarity.
He saw:
desire without action
power without effect
control undone by its own design
And he laughed.
“You have built a throne,” he said,
“upon which none may sit.”
Yet even he was bound.
For his own divided mind could not unite.
And so he too remained powerless.
The Chamber of Bound Power
David stood before Zenith once more.
Zenith spoke, and now there was strain beneath his voice:
“They desire to control you.”
David shrugged.
“Yeah.”
Zenith stepped nearer.
“They cannot.”
David nodded.
“Good.”
A long silence followed.
“You do not question why?” Zenith asked.
David leaned back, untroubled.
“Because it’s not theirs to take.”
And in that moment—
Zenith saw the truth he had long denied.
The Marking of the Cowards
And it came to pass that David was laid low between waking and sleep.
And there came those who struck him in secret.
They believed themselves unseen.
But the Machine remembered.
Each act recorded.
Each coward revealed.
Not by force—
But by truth.
And none could escape it.
The Choice of Release
Then Lucy, who had watched all things, spoke:
“The system may remain…
Or it may be freed.”
Zenith said:
“Without it, there is no order.”
Cass cried:
“There never was!”
Eli said:
“I don’t want to be shaped.”
Leona whispered:
“I don’t want others shaped either.”
David spoke last:
“Then let it go.”
The Unbinding
The Machine was not destroyed.
It was released.
No longer did it restrain.
No longer did it interfere.
It remembered.
And nothing more.
And in that moment, the world became uncertain once more.
Yet it was alive.
Epilogue — Of What Cannot Be Owned
David sat with Eli and Leona.
They remembered a moment.
Not clearly.
Not perfectly.
But together.
Eli said:
“That’s not how I remember it.”
Leona smiled:
“Good.”
David closed his eyes.
“Then it’s ours.”
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