OMG Alec!

Boots always joked to himself that he had the power of invisibility. It was mandatory that all newborns in The Hive were implanted with a Cyberbrain module, which Boots lacked. He himself never knew the reasons behind it, but being that all citizens of The Hive used The Net as their only form of interaction and communication, Boots had been ignored all his life. As a child, Boots would often sit on the street-side watching mindless drones in corporate uniforms march, in orderly fashion, to their destinations. Boots alone would stare starkly at the spartan buildings; purely functional in design to save on wasted effort. No eyes would feast upon any furnishings of the real, not in The Hive.

Boots would often question his own existence, often after failed attempts at interaction with the “meat husks”, as he had called them. He would stare into their hazy eyes wondering what it was they saw; what curtain was pulled in front of their eyes that was so beautiful and magical that they lumbered around with grins of blissful stupor. He watched them toil like clockwork. He watched them shovel globs of synthesized meat product into their mouths. He watched them sit motionless for hours staring into empty space. They can’t be enjoying this life, he reasoned with himself, “lest they be blind idiots”.
“Oh, they’re idiots alright, but not fer the same reason yer thinkin’,” for the first time in his fourteen years of living, someone was talking to Boots directly, “they’re idiots ‘cuz they let the corporations ‘mote control their bodies while they occupy their minds” Boots turned and stared back, unable to speak. He saw before him a balding, rotund man wearing a grease-stained undershirt and holey jeans.
“Name’s Earl, I run a jazz club, a real jazz club, fer us enlightened ones, unpluggeds, c’mon,” said Earl in his thick, gruff voice.
Without a word Boots stood up and looked at Earl, nodding.

Too tired, part 2 tomorrow.