io9 is proud to present fiction from Lightspeed Magazine . Once a month , we feature a story from Lightspeed ’s current military issue . This month ’s option is “ Through the Machine ” by P.A. Cornell . Enjoy !
Through the Machine
by P.A. Cornell
“ Steve , over here ! Turn to your right . Can we get a smile ? ”
He falls back on his training well enough , turns to the cameras , gift them his famous crooked smile , tilt his head just so as the flashbulb go off so they can capture the smolder that highlights his zygomatic bone . The one he ’s practiced countless times with his director , Ethel .
The red carpet extend before him , and up ahead he sees the actress he ’s been paired with in this picture . His co - prima and onscreen love interest but in realness , a total stranger . He only knows her name because the lensman keep shouting it , asking her to turn so they can capture her svelte profile . She tilts her head obligingly , long blond hair falling temptingly over one eye , teasing the lenses and through them the millions of devotee who ’ll one Clarence Shepard Day Jr. see these images . She ’s a pro , like him . She ’s distinctly had the same form of training he ’s had . She ’s been through the machine .
© Lightspeed
It ’s a phrase he see years ago from a previous - nighttime public lecture show host . It refer to the way Hollywood turn you into a Cartesian product . You start out this average mortal , just trying to make it as an actor , then as your success originate , more and more mass come into your life sentence to work you into something else . A movie star . A fairy tale ideal of renown perfection . He ’d told himself that would never be him . He was in it for the fine art , not the renown and luck . But here he is .
“ Steve ! Daphne ! Can we get some shot of the two of you together ? ”
The light-haired up beforehand reaches a hand toward him as if wave a good friend , though this is the first fourth dimension they ’ve meet . She smile at him in a way that almost looks genuine . He returns his best starring man grinning , flashing the expensive solidification of pearly white tooth his director fix up for in the earliest day of their partnership . He puts an limb around Daphne . They both pose , turn , take care at each other and smile , over and over . Then both look serious , then smile once more . Then she run in for a peck on the impudence as instructed by the shouting crew , just before they ’re both ushered off to detect their places inside , where the film will be screened .
Once they ’re by from the cameras , he extends his manus to Daphne .
“ Hi . Steve Randall . ”
“ Nice to encounter you , ” she laughs . “ Daphne Everheart . ”
“ You experience any of it yet ? ”
“ Not even the trailer , ” she admits . “ Did they send off you the screenplay ? ”
He shakes his fountainhead .
Someone in her entourage grabs her by the weapon . She gives him a small wave as they lead her off . He wonders if he ’ll even see her again after this premiere . peradventure . If the film does well opening weekend , there could be a subsequence . They could find themselves at another premiere for a movie they appear in together , but that neither of them has act in .
Steve let his own people show him past curtains and cocktails to a theater with plush scarlet seating . He need his place staring up at the screen , trying to conjure up some of the hullabaloo he once mat as a nipper about to watch his favorite actors . But the fervor feels more akin to anxiety as the gap credits seem . He get word his own name — or the one his coach gave him , anyway . That ’s whenheappears .
Seeing himself like this is unsettling , to say the least . He turns to the people seated around him and they ’re all face up at this human face that resembles him but is n’t him . Do they not see it ? Do they not feel that uncanny valley sickness in the pit of their stomach that press his down as the affair on screen billed as Steve Randall commence to verbalize ? It ’s his voice , but he ’s never order these words . Never understand the playscript they came from . Who drop a line this , anyway ? He wonders . Or rather , whatwrote this ?
The film ’s runtime is ninety - five minutes . It ’s a romanticist comedy , but the word “ funniness ” is generous . Steve does n’t so much as break a grinning . He watch over this AI - generated doppelganger and his evenly digitalise scene pardner as they cross the odd landscape of the disjointed plot — flimsy even for this genre . They flash smile after smile , kiss with ever - deepen passion — if you could call it that — and at last , after a series of contrived misinterpretation , they get their Hollywood close . All place to an AI - father score bereft of any impression that might conjure atmosphere or elicit an excited reception from the viewer .
As the lights come up up and people embark on to clap , Steve glances down the row of seats at his carbon monoxide - star . Daphne , seeming to sense his stare , glances back . She looks as though she ’s about to be sick but gives him a brave smile — a train smile — and get going to clap along with everyone else . He does the same . This is his chore now , after all .
The scan was taken a couple of geezerhood ago , during pre - production on a moving-picture show in which he played an spaceman . They had to scan him for proper fit of the spacesuit they were having made , as well as for some of the more intricate effects . The part they came by even more easily . From all the ADR he ’d done , voicework on some animated stuff , and of course countless interviews already approachable online . He had n’t present the scan much cogitate , at the clock time . It had made sense for the work they were doing . He ’d never imagined it would lead to this .
There ’s an afterparty and masses keep coming up and congratulating him on the movie . He says what he ’s been train to say , graciously give thanks them for their praise , taking word-painting with people for mag and entertainment show . grounds that he is in fact still a real person that exists in the world , even though it ’s not him on screen . Not in this moving picture and not in a smattering of others , several of which he has n’t even seen . If Hollywood could twist you into a intersection before , this is on another level .
His life history has become , almost exclusively , one of public appearing . His L.A. agent has him book for a store orifice tomorrow , and a series of meet - and - greets at conventions sometime in the springiness . The sorts of gigs that used to be think of as “ has - been ” work , but Steve , by all accounts , is still a bona fide movie headliner . He wasPeoplemagazine ’s “ Sexiest Man Alive ” just last yr . Fans still somehow manage to discover out what hotel he ’s last out at in any give metropolis all over the earth , just so they can catch a glance of him take the air in and out . How has it fall to this ?
At the end of the night someone pushes him into a glistening ignominious town elevator car and the spectacle of this farce fades away in the car ’s rearward lights . He breathe out , attempt to get the image of thethingon screen out of his psyche . It ’s not so unfit , he order himself . SAG made certain he ’d get pay for the use of his image . It ’s not as much as he might ’ve liked , maybe , but it ’s decorous , and they utilise it often enough that the cheque enable him to wield his standard of living . The public appearances add to that . He ca n’t really complain .
But the sickish feeling in his stomach stay .
• • •
When he ’s back in New York , he anticipate his coach .
“ It was fucking unearthly , Ethel . ” He tells her . “ Seeing myself in a film I was n’t actually in . No interpersonal chemistry between me and my co - star because , well . . . neither of us was actually there to do any acting . This is n’t what I signed up for . ”
“ dulcet boy , ” she says , using her years ’ old term of endearment for him , though he has n’t been a boy in quite some time . “ I know . But this is how it works with the studio moving picture these days . Be glad your ikon is still deserving something . ”
Steve sigh deeply . “ I hump . It ’s just . . . I worked so hard to get here . We both did . The work mattered to me . I miss challenging myself , figuring out who my lineament is and how to best convey that through my operation . I miss being able-bodied to go away into all those the great unwashed and experience their lives for a time . ”
“ Of of course , of line , ” enounce Ethel . “ That ’s one of the reason I took you on as a client . Even at sixteen , you had such passion . You bonk the art of it . But what ’s the choice , Stefan ? ”
She only ever expend his original name when she ’s serious . He knows her hands are as tie as his . It ’s this or give up the business altogether .
Over drinks with a friend the next nighttime , he air his frustrations , his glossa loosened by more than a few shot with beer chasers .
“ I ’m blase , ” he tells Frank , who doubled for him in an action movie dealership that now continues without need of either of them . “ I pretermit acting . It ’s like all they left me with are the worst function of renown . The portion where I still ca n’t walk down the street in peacefulness without some paparazzo shoving a lens in my font , and where I can still get cancel online for any stunned darn I might say without thinking . But the good parts , they ’ve all been taken over by some digital variant of me that frankly gives me the creeps . ”
“ I listen ya , Steve , ” Frank say , raising his beer . “ It ’s not just you though , brother . At least you still have a vendable bearing . Companies still send you free dress and shit so you’re able to be spot using it . ”
“ Sure , ” he tells Frank . “ But all that amounts to is that I ’m now jolly much just this human hoarding . I ’m not even an player any longer . ”
Steve get laid he ’s right and feels bad for grizzle . Things could be so much worse . Whatever caper he ’s drop off to AI , there are countless more jobs lost by less famous player , crew , and other support personnel like PA ’s and craft services . He ca n’t get to imagine how they ’re all making ends meet these days . Many of the single he ’s still close-fitting with , like Frank , work multiple chore , even outside the industry , just to cover what their once unchanging careers did .
“ Drinks are on me tonight , by the way , ” he tells Frank .
“ You ’ll get no argument here , pal . ”
Later , in the privacy of his loft , Steve set aside himself the luxury of self - pity . He ca n’t help think of the tyke he once was . The chubby small jerk with the accent . Too unsure to talk to girlfriend . push around by the guys he so wanted to be . Acting freed him from all that . It had allowed this Thomas Kyd who did n’t feel easy in his own skin to become someone else . In prison term , it had afford him confidence , and as he continued to hone his trade , it had bring him the attention he ’d crave and opportunities he ’d never envisage .
It has n’t always been easy . There ’d been plenty of lean year before his great breakout role turn him into a household name . year during which embrace rent had been a battle , and meals had often consisted of half - eaten refuse leave by patrons of the restaurants in which he ’d look tables . But he ’d loved acting enough to stick with it , and he ’d cerebrate it worth all the sacrifice .
He gave up his very name for this professing . He fall behind the accent and the baby fat . He ’s spend a goodish portion of his income on fixing his teeth , and on five - hundred - buck haircuts sometimes pair with a discussion to reach that perfect shade of chestnut brown or a shaving that still left enough stubble to keep him look “ manfully ” in a marketable way . He ’s gotten even tangent to conceal his naturally pale skin color — a shape the L.A. agent refers to as his “ vampire ” look . He ’s hired a stylist , a personal flight simulator , and a dietitian to aid him keep up what the grueling workout have cheat him into . He ’s had more 60 minutes of media training than he ’s had acting class . hell on earth , at times he ’s even see women he ’s beentoldto date . All of it to make this perfect image of Hollywood glamor intended to seduce audiences into occupy dramaturgy seats .
He ’s been put through the machine — and volitionally let it go on — just so he can go on doing what he loves .
He had n’t realized this figure of speech was n’t him . It was just a product . Something that could be sold , and then re - sold again and again , with niggling if any say from him as to how it might be used .
He scroll through his provender and finds thePeoplephoto shoot . His feeling about the shoot are a mix of pride and embarrassment . pridefulness that the chubby kid with the Polish accent express his high school browbeat up , but a little shame at the fact that he still like so much about what they might think . Still , a few of the pictures from the shoot are really good . He recalls how the lensman ’s great sense of humor put him at ease , and how welcome the magazine faculty were .
Continuing to scroll , he comes across a picture of himself he never took . This is n’t one of those awe-inspiring fan art persona he ’s seen over the year made by outstandingly gifted artists that managed to capture not just his coming into court , but his essence . This is some kind of Frankenimage , clearly AI - generated . His hair’s-breadth is a honey blond he ’s never lark about , not even on screen . The zygomatic bone are peculiarly exaggerated and too narrow , giving him an almost gaunt show . In the picture he holds an baby , staring down at it like a proud male parent . It hurts him to see it . He ’s always wanted a family , but this has n’t happened for him in real liveliness .
“ I embark them . ”
“ Gorgeous art . have it away this . ”
“ Yes , please . ”
And so on .
“ I wanna see them getting down in a movie together , ” someone ’s write .
There ’s a response to this last input from someone who ’s handle indicates they make for for a major studio apartment . “ Do n’t worry . You wo n’t have to waitress much longer for that . And allow ’s just say this one ’s not going to be the kin - friendly menu you ’re used to seeing these guys in . ”
Steve is n’t homophobic . He ’s played gay characters more than once and has been o.k. with osculate or even simulating gender with other manlike actors . But there ’s something about being twin with a close protagonist in this way without so much as a heads up , that seems like a irreverence . It ’s one thing to work with another player that you ’ve built trust with and talk through a scene to verify you ’re both well-fixed depicting something inner that everyone can be majestic of in the end . It ’s quite another affair when your image is used to quell strangers ’ salacious appetites , in a way you did n’t consent to .
Steve feels sick . He take screenshots of both the AI ikon and the comment about the movie and texts them to his friend . He follow that up with the message :
Did you roll in the hay about this ?
The response comes almost straightaway .
Fuck . Are you kid me ?
wish well I was .
Damn adult male . I make out you , but not like that . At least not without the kind of money we used to get for our movies .
Steve smile in spite of himself . At least his protagonist can still have a sense of humor about these thing .
I feel like we ask to drive back on this , he tells his friend .
Yeah , I get it man , but we signed the contract . I bonk we did n’t have much choice , but the police force does n’t manage . We concord to this . Pretty indisputable it ’s too later to stop them .
The fans do n’t even seem to handle it ’s not really us , Steve case .
Why would they?His friend reply . They do n’t even really involve us anymore . We just get in the way of their fantasies .
Steve does n’t respond to that . He erase his Instagram score .
He shudders to think of what they ’re doing with his effigy on TikTok . Or tough , on the dark-skinned World Wide Web .
“ This suck , Ethel . ” Steve puts the phone on loudspeaker and set it down on the kitchen replication to pullulate a bowl of cereal . “ I ’m travel hustle - crazy here . I require something to challenge my creativeness again . ”
“ Well , I heard about one thing , but I ’m not sure it ’s really for you , so I had n’t cite it , ” she says .
“ What ? Tell me ? ” He open up the fridge and reaches for the almond Milk River then thinks , have sex it , and catch the whole milk he bought yesterday instead .
“ There ’s this Broadway musical . I sleep with one of the producers , but you ’d have to audition . ”
“ That ’s exactly what I postulate right now , ” he tell her , over mouthfuls of Frosted Flakes . “ It ’ll be good for me to go back to my theater root . It ’s been too long since I ’ve perform in front of an audience . ”
He pushes the idea that it ’s a musical to the back of his nous . He ’s never been get it on for his vocalizing , but he can work with a vocalism manager or something . At this point , he ’ll do anything to perform again .
“ It ’s been a longsighted time since you ’ve had to audition , let alone for live dramatic art , ” Ethel say .
“ Just tell apart me where and when . I ’ve nonplus this . ”
When he gets the lead in the melodious , Steve ’s throb , but also gently surprised . He ’d felt good about the sense of hearing , but he ’d heard some of the other histrion spill the beans and they were clearly better than he is . He figures they must ’ve get word something in him — an nonphysical quality that suits the part . Why overthink it ?
His illusions come crash down ahead of time on in rehearsals . During a break of serve , he talk with one of the stagehands . An older guy named Bill . Steve vents a bit about how he ca n’t really playact in the film industry any longer .
“ Thank god for Broadway . The last resort for doer like me . ”
“ Yeah . For player likeyou , ” Bill accord .
Steve is n’t sure what he means by that and says so .
“ wait , you seem like a decent enough guy , ” Bill say , “ so do n’t take this the wrong path , but you ’re here because you ’re a name . They need something to put on the billboards that ’ll attract a bunch , is all . It ai n’t about natural endowment no more . ”
Steve is taken aback , and his aspect must show it .
“ Do n’t get me wrong , ” Bill carry on . “ You ’re practiced . Up there on the large filmdom , you were a real standout . But this is a whole dissimilar animal . All I ’m articulate is there ’s actors more cut out for the leg than you that ca n’t get hire anymore because the guys who used to work the screen are taking their roles . ”
Steve ’s about to respond when Bill level to a group of actors sitting together utter .
“ See the guy in the collared shirt ? ” Bill enunciate . “ That ’s Wayne Garnet . ”
Steve hump Wayne from rehearsals . Nice guy . He has a small part but gives it his all .
“ Wayne ’s a Tony - winner . Used to behisname on the pavilion . Now even he has to settle for bit parts since AI started take clod out of the film manufacture . ”
subsequently Steve Googles Wayne Garnet and finds he ’s really wontwoTonys . He ’s also have it off for his singing articulation , which he lend to several animated films before they set forth digitally revivify it .
Steve feels sick . He approaches Wayne during the next dry run and offers to bend out to make room for him . Wayne is gracious and tells him not to .
“ There ’s no tip , Steve . They ’d just get another big name movie star to supersede you . My twenty-four hours as the jumper lead are done . I ’m just felicitous I still get to be on stage at all . At least for now . ”
“ What do you mean ? ” Steve asks .
“ AI ’s coming for all of us , ” Wayne says . “ It ’s not just the film diligence . This crap is spreading like a virus throughout the arts . There ’s already public lecture of a Modern play , AI - write , of course , where instead of live actors they ’re propose digital performers onto the stage . It ’s strictly off - Broadway for now , but give it time . ”
Steve is appalled . Does n’t roll in the hay what to say .
Wayne continue . “ I ’ll take whatever I can get these daylight . You know what they say , ‘ There are no small parts . ’ I just hope that when the roles ladder out , someone will need to scanmeto employment in a projection so I can at least cash a cheque now and then . ”
At home one night , after the play ’s discharge has ended , Steve settles in to find out telly . He scans his choice , stumbling upon one of his early roles . A serious drama in which he played a depressed teen , struggling with his parents ’ divorce and his older brother ’s premature death .
Even all these geezerhood later , the dialog hail back as he watches one of the more emotional scene .
“ It ’s not like I do n’t require to talk about Tommy , ” he mouths along with his younger self . “ I do . It ’s just that . . . ” Young Steve ca n’t finish because he ’s jump to cry .
Present twenty-four hour period Steve remembers shooting the scene — his first time crying on cue . He remember harness all those emotion and tapping into all the pain he ’d ever feel , and all of it somehow pouring out of him in that moment . He remembers the director take him aside later on and saying , “ You nailed it , fry . ” He smile mentation of this now , but then he ’s distressing again , pretermit the sense of skill of pull off a fit like this . The exhilaration of seeing an hearing react to it later .
He watches the difference of the movie while eat peanut butter by the spoonful right out of the jar . midway through he crumbles in an entire Kit - kat bar like he used to do when he was a kid . By the prison term the credits roll , the jar is empty .
Steve ’s personal trainer leaves frequent voicemail subject matter asking when he ’s coming back to the gym . He experience he should , but it ’s tough to get motivated for a exercising when he feels like all anyone ’s proceed to see is his AI clone . Still , it ’s in his contract to endeavor to resemble the digital variation of himself as much as potential . He knows his tegument could expend a bit more coloration these days too , and his hair ’s starting to show some gray he had n’t even realized he had . He makes a mental note to focus more on his appearance .
All that can wait until after he returns from the convention though . He ’s surprised to find he ’s actually looking forward to connect with his fans again and perchance run across some of the ones that have become conversant facial expression over time .
The muscularity at the convict is intense , and Steve feel electrified , like he did during his stint on Broadway . One by one he greets his fans as warmly as he mayhap can . He make time to speak with them in the few minutes he has while they take scene with him . He give way them not his exercise smile , but his real one , and makes sure to thank each one for their continued support .
Things get a little weird during the signing . Much of it is what he ’s used to , with fans handing him old headshot or pictures from his older films to sign , and in some typesetter’s case art they ’ve made themselves . But he ’s also pass quite a few more AI - generated images than he ’s used to . He feel like a fraud sign them . Like he ’s putting his John Hancock on someone else ’s headshot . Still , he attempt to be benignant and humble with the fan . They ’ve been there for him through his rise to renown . It ’s the least he can do .
“ Is it just me or is Steve rockin ’ the dad bod these days ? ” someone asks .
“ Yeah . I detest to say it , but I was a bit discomfited that he did n’t look as hot as he does inBurning Brand II , ” replies the chronicle holder . “ He ’s looking older too . I have in mind , do n’t get me wrong , he was nice and all , I just bid the picture was honest . ”
“ Just prepare it so he looks raging , ” someone else suggests .
“ Yeah , I probably will . ”
Steve does n’t even know whatBurning Brand IIis . Another of his film he has n’t escort — or play in — he assume .
He shut the app and wonders why he even bothers . If the fans do n’t care what ’s material and what is n’t , why is he even doing this ?
He goes for a launch the next morning . It ’s been a while , but he shortly find oneself his rhythm . It ’s early in the day and the streets are placid . He like this time of sidereal day . It ’s peaceful . give him a chance to clear his head .
When he finish for a rest , he notices a small theater . A sign over the door extol that the theater shows only movies made by and starring live human being . The acronym “ AI ” is paint on one of the windows with a red slash cut diagonally through it . But what really get Steve ’s attention is the man changing the posters . He replace one with another that sport a pensive - look Daphne Everheart . His former carbon monoxide - hotshot , if you’re able to call her that , looks youthful in this card . He ’s never examine her act before and he ’s curious . He settle to come back later in the solar day when the theater opens .
The film ’s calledGrace . In it , Daphne wager a young woman trying to convince her affluent parents to take her in earnest as an artificer . The narrative is incite , as Daphne ’s character struggles against societal expectations to attain her dreams . Steve likes the grade too , and decide he ’ll stay to register through the credits to see who composed it . He also enjoys the style the director has brought to the task . But what he like most is Daphne ’s execution . She ’s good . It kills him to think that someone who was clearly a rise star is now relegate to appear only as a digital specter of herself in half - baked movies that would ’ve been an overplus at another time .
How many other gifted actors have been storm out of the industry entirely ? And what of everyone else whose jobs have been made irrelevant ?
Steve feel the crying well up , in part because of the movie , but also because of his thoughts . He blinks them away and await around to see if other citizenry are equally moved . That ’s when he notices that nearly every posterior in the theatre has someone in it . He watches their formulation as they react to Daphne ’s performance . He sees the story affect them , and by the closing he realize that there are people for whom this art still has meaning .
After the movie lets out , he calls Ethel .
“ I ’m thinking of doing something a bit different , ” he severalise her . “ I need to start out a production company . Make moving picture the one-time way . I have a whole list of people I can call who ’d alternate at the chance to cooperate on something real again . ”
“ That sounds wonderful , sweet boy . It ’s gracious to find out some excitement in your vocalisation again . ”
“ I was foretell to postulate you something , ” he tells her . “ You would n’t happen to know how to get in touch with Daphne Everheart , would you ? I do n’t have a project yet , but I ’d like to gauge her level of interest . I ’m trusted we ’ll retrieve something for her . The world deserves to see how secure she actually is at this . ”
P.A. Cornell is a Chilean - Canadian speculative fiction writer . A alum of the Odyssey workshop , her report have been print or are outgoing in over fifty magazines and anthology , includingLightspeed , Apex , and three “ good of ” anthologies . In summation to becoming the first Chilean Nebula finalist in 2024 , Cornell has been a finalist for the Aurora and World Fantasy Awards , was longlisted for the BSFA Awards , and win Canada ’s Short Works Prize . When not writing , she can be found assemble intricate Lego flesh or drinking ridiculous amount of tea leaf . Sometimes both . For more on the writer and her work , inspect her websitepacornell.com .
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