sarnia de la mare

Sarnia de la Mare FRSA

Artist • Composer • Educator

Sarnia is a multidisciplinary artist and founder of Tale Teller Club Politico UK . Their immersive work blends art, sound, and story—exploring identity, transformation, and the beauty of otherness.

As a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and founder of the Sarnia de la Maré Academy of Arts, they empower creatives to think radically and create fearlessly, whilst seeking truth.


TALE TELLER CLUB™ Publishing

Multimedia arts publishing

Jun 18, 2025

Strata 8 Shabra (Laws of Attraction) The Book of Immersion by Sarnia de la Mare


Welcome to Immersion, you have reached Strata 8

Shabra (Laws of Attraction)

female soldier


Sexual attraction for humans is dictated by a reflex to engage in intimacy with others. This phenomenon can be influenced by physical cues alone, the way a human looks, moves, speaks and so on.


Romantic attraction may be described as deeper and yet may still be instantaneous, spurred on by feelings of wanting a relationship with another.



These two desires may appear together in a deep power of attraction.


The psychology of attraction is most peculiar to humans. It is not possible to create this phenomenon in machines whose methods of attraction use logical conditions to draw entities towards them. Predefined targets for machine attention avoid accidents, although machines are notorious for repeatedly targeting their attention on non compliant humans.


Likewise, human attraction is usually nonreciprocal. A machine programmed to give a human all it needs will often reap better results. But when dealing with human desires, neither machine nor human can ever guarantee positive results.



Jerome breaks an awkward silence, 'No *ishy, brother,' He stamped on another Scritter. 'Damn those nasty little *mudafinks!'


Renyke exits the concrete compound with Flex running anxiously behind.


The *robo-dog had waited patiently at the entrance and began wagging its tail and leaping around.



Renyke spots some graffiti with the Redact logo near an underpass. Maybeline crawled out of his coat and nudged his cheek for food.


'You sure you did the right thing brother?' asked Flex, who was now feeling agitated. His naive friend was likely to lead him into trouble. Perhaps it was time to take charge of the matter.


'Wheels is speed, wheels is protection my friend. We gonna stand out like *fucksyfools on the streets. People gonna target us! Words spread fast.' Flex explained still half running to keep pace.


'I can manage quite well,' said Renyke, 'You don't need to .......' Renyke trails off, distracted by a woman on the car roof.


She glanced over at Renyke.


'Oh well let's just go and ask her for her car then' said Flex.


'Are you mocking me?'


Renyke was genuinely unsure. He had always grappled with humour. Incongruous remarks always had to be analysed closely. A false analysis could be incompatible with overall provision of human satisfaction, which was paramount to his function in the world.


Mabel had used the word *nuke about some of her friends.


'I believe the woman to be nuke, explained Renyke, continuing with some confidence.

She exhibits a powerful energy, enough to engage a compelling force as I look upon her.


'Hahahahahaha.....' laughed Flex, that will make things worse, trust me, I have knowledge....


'Follow me,' he tutted, reluctantly leading the way.


The woman was sitting on the roof of the car smoking a pipe and making smoke rings.


Renyke felt a momentary surge of something unknown deep inside him. Was it fear he wondered, Trepidation?


Things were not computing.


He checked POS for his health levels.



...Normal activity presenting. 99.9% battery remaining. Nothing unusual to report.


But Renyke felt a strange fluttering feeling in his belly.


The woman sitting on the car whistled. 'Hey!'


'Like the coat! Cool *toggies. You wanna *swapsie-trade?'


The woman jumped off the car and lifted her fist for an air bump followed by an elbow bump, then a salute. Renyke tried to keep up but was cumbersome. He had seen these manoeuvres in old films on the *tellywebs but he had never actually performed them.


*'Wappens?' asked the woman in a strong accent.' Renyke guessed what she meant and said,


'I need transport, not far, just to Redact, do know that place?'


The woman laughed.....'Man like you, looks way too soft for the *guanty-travel.'


Renyke checks POS.


..'gaunty-travel'......colloquial, Zoners' slang roughly translates as a very dangerous journey..


'But I can take to the second zone, five miles nearer, then you gotta make your own ways,' she continues.


'What you go by?' she asks.


Renyke looked confused.......


'I'm Shabra. Lady of the Shadows, where I go no light follows, ya hear me soldier? I travel at night where there are no lights.'


'I'm Renyke,' he said, trying to decipher the poetry.


You wanna swapsie-trade the coat, or you got me somtin sweeta? I take *nibs, *bits…….1000 *G-bits and you got me hired. But I like that coat too.'


'It's a good deal man, said Flex, 'good deal, five miles is five miles. We come too, me n the dog! I got no ties to this street.'


Flex looks at Shabra who sighs, ‘Yeah, yeah, whoever, no *pipin’ in my *vicular though.'


Renyke knows that Flex could be useful, and the robodog too. It was obedient and would do as it was told.




Chapters of the Book of Immersion So far



#CyberpunkFiction
#SciFiAdventure
#DystopianTale
#PhilosophicalSciFi
#PostHumanWorld
#FuturisticFiction
#AIAndEmotion
#SentientMachines
#HumanMachineFusion
#DigitalDesire
#LogicVsEmotion
#ArtificialConsciousness
#TechAndIntimacy
#RenykeTheAndroid
#ShabraOfTheShadows
#RobodogCompanion
#ZonerSlang
#RedactZone
#POSSystem
#CadreCouncil
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#FeministSciFi
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View All 71 Artworks

Strata 7 Jarome and the Scritters, (Trade and Barter) The Book of Immersion by Sarnia de la Mare


Welcome to Immersion, you have reached Strata 7

Jarome and the Scritters, (Trade and Barter)


 

bug insect scifi


Humans have developed uniqueness from animals through a process of cognitive evolution. 

They are exceptional cultural learners and can read situations. 


These skills have enabled them to develop complex trading tools. They rely heavily on these skills to create abstract cerebral and linguistic representations when placing themselves in various situations.


The cultural and socio-political environment in which humans have evolved has led them to acquire the cognitive skills, particularly mathematical, to support a sophisticated disposition along with a capacity for reciprocal cooperation. Humans understand conceptual ideas of property and exchange value. 


Humans are savvy, humans broker deals.




Outside there was an optimistic sun and the people busied around the market unaware of any of the commotion that had occurred in the bank.


*POS informed Renyke that he had lost negligible battery power and there was no damage to his mechanical structures.


The *robo-dog and the cat had waited patiently outside the bank and now trotted diligently at their sides.


Maybeline returned to Renyke's pocket for a nap.


'You got my *bits?' asked the woman


'For nearly getting us killed?' Asked Renyke contemplating the difference between, irony,  sarcasm and humour. POS began to explain but Renyke shut her out. He really did not want to know at this juncture.


'Listen Mr whoever you are, there's many a hiccup ahead. You are in the *zones now, you need to get used to the hiccups. 'Sides, I gotta feed my cat. She ain't no robot like that mutt.'


The robo-dog gave a little yelp and lowered its head in shame.

Queenie's cat moved closer to Renyke and sniffed the air for any scent of lunch.


Renyke took something from the bag, the smallest nugget he could find, and handed it to Queenie. 


'That is very generous of you,' she said, taking the payment and subtly raising an eyebrow with the tiniest of smiles. The payment was excessive and the cat would eat for a month. Renyke was none the wiser. 


Then Queenie was gone, running into the crowds as lithe as the cat behind her. A blue feather shimmied to the ground. For some reason Renyke was compelled to pick it up and put it in his pocket and Maybeline wrapped it around herself. 


Back on the main street Flex approached smiling and jaunty. Renyke was reassured to see him.


'I need a vehicle, Flex, something to get me to where I am going,' said Renyke.


'Yes, yes, yes Mr. Leather Man, where you goin' is where I'm goin'. Let's find a veee-hicle. Jerome, he is the car man, he got cars, and bikes and *scoots..... and *copters, and airships so they say.'


'Take me to Jerome,' said Renyke.



****


Flex took Renyke into a disused concrete building as the robo-dog curled up and waited outside.


There are the echoes of voices, activity and motor engines being revved from another part of the building. There is a smell of fuel and mumbled communications. Somewhere too there is music.


Flex beckoned Renyke to Jerome's office, a ramshackle room filled with books. More books than Renyke had ever seen. Books were no longer used in most homes or schools and the paper shortages after the warmings had meant that they were no longer being produced commercially. Paper had become heavily taxed and there were also problems with scritters. 


*Scritters were large crawling insects that had been genetically made in a laboratory by the Russian military. They were a fusion of a cockroach and a wasp but there wings had become lost in the process. Scritters were highly protective and thus easily trained.


They looked deformed with big insect heads and metal body parts. At birth scritters are born with a soft back. They seek protection from any material that offers a hard shell. Because of the huge landfill areas all around the world, the rubbish of hundred's of years had provided the perfect materials for protection. Plastics and metals were abundant. 


During the *Russia China Wars scritters had been used to carry tiny incendiary divides on their backs were not affected by the nerve gases. But after the wars, the scritters had bred like wildfire, devouring paper and trees and nesting in book spines where the glue offered a perfect cocoon for pupae. Whole libraries had been mutilated by them. They were a scourge on the planet and another reason so many houses were built on stilts in the *Midcast Projects as scritters were terrified of heights.


The more paper they ate, the more they reproduced. Books and paper matter that had not been digitally copied had been devastated and lost forever.


'A car you say?' asked Jerome. 'I got plenty, but the fuel....we got no fuel. We are working on some alternatives, but all prototypes so far. They cut off our fuel after the riots. And the food supplies. I have been missing Gummies, I loved those.'


Renyke nodded as Jerome continued....


'Transport is a big problem. You'll be better off walking, my friend, if you can get through the tunnels. But there are booby traps all around the perimeters here in the zones.'


Renyke checks POS for details but the tunnels are unchartered. 


POS seemed to be struggling with connection and was operating intermittently.


'I have a hybrid cart,' continued Jerome. 'It runs on solar but only for about 3 hours per full charge if you do under 40km. And if it is a cloudy day, an hour. I can let you take it for 3000 *G-bits. It won't get off the ground without jet fuel but it can drive on flat ground well enough. It doesn't hold the road well, but if you are a good driver, it won't be an issue.' 


Renyke is unsure of his driving skills and POS was glitching again. This man was rambling on and Renyke needed facts urgently. It was hard to know what was important without POS.


'Can you drive?' Renyke asked Flex.


Flex laughed... 'Of course I can.'


A scritter crawls across the floor and Jerome stamps on it. A black tar oozes from under his foot.


Jerome sees Renyke might be changing his mind about the deal. 


'I will take *TELL You got some TELL?"


POS gets a signal......


...TELL: abbreviation of Tellurium, found in copper ore. Used in mobile phones, especially older versions where it was added to other metals improving their strength and hardness and reducing corrosion. Rare due to demise of traditional copper mines. 


Renyke begins to feel confused about whether to get the vehicle and asks POS.


...I am not programmed to have opinions. I do not have access to data about the vehicle, it has no computerised system. The seller seems to be shield protected. But Redact is within easy walking distance for a *Mark 3...


Renyke looks at Flex and then at Jerome. A scritter is crawling up his boot and he throws it off with a kick. He feels a rising panic and a thumping in his chest which he does not recognise. Why was it so important that he not make a mistake? Why was he not able to understand the virtue or danger of the exchange? 


Finally, Renyke says, 'I will walk.'


Jerome shrugged his shoulders and stamped on another scritter mumbling, 'time waster' under his breath.


Flex, looking aghast, sighed.


to be continued,

© 2025 Sarnia de la Mare


#jarome #scritters




#CyberpunkFiction
#SciFiAdventure
#DystopianTale
#PhilosophicalSciFi
#PostHumanWorld
#FuturisticFiction
#AIAndEmotion
#SentientMachines
#HumanMachineFusion
#DigitalDesire
#LogicVsEmotion
#ArtificialConsciousness
#TechAndIntimacy
#RenykeTheAndroid
#ShabraOfTheShadows
#RobodogCompanion
#ZonerSlang
#RedactZone
#POSSystem
#CadreCouncil
#PsychologyOfAttraction
#FeministSciFi
#TranshumanThemes
#DigitalSoul
#ExperimentalFiction
#ImmersiveNarrative
#NeoNoirSciFi