In a story developing out of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, Veronica Stewart is waxing poetic about the illusory nature of reality, though she does subscribe to the reality of money by Venmo requesting you $3.75 whenever she picks up coffee or you share food at lunch.
“All these rules we live by are just made up,” said Veronica, who earlier asked if you wanted to split a side of truffle fries, then charged you $3.75 even though they were six dollars because you ‘had a few more’.
“We’d all live better lives if we freed ourselves from the shackles of false authority,” added Veronica, whose father is a plastic surgeon. “Life is so short, we should all just let the little stuff go!”
Seemingly, what Veronica wants to do is be a free spirit while remaining stringent about the prices of goods and services used in a shared interaction.
“For someone who doesn’t think reality is real, she’s pretty concerned about the difference a few dollars in her bank account is going to make in this unreal world,” you say. “I would be totally open to her radically skeptical ethos if it led her to question intergenerational wealth hoarding, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
As a free thinker, Veronica is often inviting you to restaurants you can’t afford so she talk through some of her developing life philosophies.
“You know that this is probably all a simulation right?” she said. “That’s actually been proven; I don’t remember all the details but we’re basically Sims.”
You are not totally convinced by her logic.
“If this is all a computer game, then shit — use your tokens freely!” you say. “Some of us have a lot less, and this simulation might be more fun and cooperative if I wasn’t worried about making rent, and if Veronica stopped Venmo requesting me for Ubers that I know she puts on her dad’s credit card.”
But Veronica doesn’t see it that way.
“You worry way too much!” she says. “Throw caution to the wind and just live; nothing matters! By the way I need that dress you borrowed back. I don’t have anything coming up, but it was just really expensive.”
