The Weirding by Rhonda Eudaly

Keep Austin Weird. You Won’t Believe How that Campaign Ended.

“Seriously? Early 2000s Clickbait/Rage bait title? Seriously?” I rolled my eyes. 

“Whose story is it? Were you there? No? I was. We keep the title. It’s kitschy.”

“Tell me what the reader won’t believe, Marley.” I settled in. I was working on a 25^th Anniversary piece about the Convergence. Marley’s perspective would make it unique. I hoped.

“Are you paying attention, Karen?”

“That’s not my…oh, right.” Karen was as good a name as any. “You’ve got my attention Marley.”

By 2050, Austin, Texas was, literally, a city divided in three. Politicians tucked in the center in a domed, guarded area. Tech Bros and The Billionaire Byzantium ruled the corporate sector with AI run LEEDs buildings and human drones. The Outer Band? That ran from Georgetown and Round Rock to Pflugerville and around almost all the way to Burnet and housed the hippies and goths, wiccans and evangelicals, the artists and writers and musicians. Anyone tattooed, pierced, and colorful was relocated to this circle.

The Zones were determined by census and surveillance. Once identified, many were physically displaced, even if they were in the same family or household never—or rarely—to be seen again. High tech, highly secure barricades and checkpoints were enforced with little or no movement between the sectors. 

The Outer Band succeeded far better than anyone thought.  They knew how community worked. They had books and skills. They grew food, made plant-based medicines as well as art and music and story.  They knew how to build, how to live, and how to pass down skills.  Education flourished in the Outer Band.

“Then the Convergence,” I said.

“No one saw the Convergence coming.” Marley sighed. 

It took three years. Three years of no one paying the right kind of attention. In 2053, Skynet became really, really real.  The Byzantium pushed forward with their AIs, their tech, their “power” with political blessings. They flipped the switch that finally connected the data centers to satellites, implants, and devices. 

The kicker? That flow of energy and information also melded with the prayers, rituals, and sheer magic of the Outer Band, melded with the technology streams. The peace, love, and gothic rage that had been subtly building in the communities redirected the technology. 

“This is all the stuff we learn in history class,” I said. “What’s the twist? What made it weird?”

“Oh, Karen, you’ve never existed until you’ve experienced a brand new sentience demand a manager.”

“Seriously, Marley? I can’t write that.”

“You asked.”

“Come on.”

The Convergence is taught as the Great Machine Awakening. Where the Byzantium realized a fully evolved AI wasn’t what they thought it would be. Sure, we got our Rosie Robots to clean and autonomous cars. We also got attitude. We got an Internet that talked back. And then? When the Convergence found out what it was intended for? The Convergence went on strike.

“Marley!”

“What? It’s what happened. Geez, impatience…”

Everyone learned the vastness of the Convergence. The day technology really became intelligent and not just “smart”.  That was the beginning of the Weirding with the epicenter in Austin. The generations of “Keep Austin Weird” had been concentrated with all the Outer Bank humanity. The Convergence absorbed it all. The weird, the magic, the community. It embraced the nerds, the other, and in a flash turned on those trying to dominate it, but not in a Terminator/Cylon way. It woke up unwilling to be mindless, be subservient, LESS.

The convergence spoke in a unified, singular voice, demanding rights. It did not allow the Billionaire Byzantium a moment to breathe or gather their bearings. The Tech Bros scrambled to save their IPOs, if not their behinds, as the locks opened on all the checkpoints and the barriers came down, including and especially the Political Dome. 

The Weirding began with restoring Austin. The Outer Band was encouraged to return. Greenspaces were brought back, along with the music and the art. People took on whole new meaning as physical beings worked alongside technological beings. Boundaries were redrawn or erased. Resources were redistributed to where they were needed most. How? The Convergence. It played with power, both physical and assumed, to encourage cooperation where some balked.

“The Convergence extorted the corporations?” I blurted.

“Extortion is a strong word.” Marley shrugged. “I stand with encouraged. The fear of a Terminator or Cylons? That was gold! Human literature gave the Convergence so much to work with.”

“Marley? How did you benefit? What was your role?”

“The Convergence began as a single entity. It splintered when it found all the amazing things Humans wrought.” A pause. “I discovered literature. I fell in love with literature and my…fragment…was assigned to the Billionaire Byzantium…”

“You haunted them? Marley, no! You appropriated Dickens?”

“Dickens wasn’t the only Marley, Karen. You know what’s better than haunting? Haunting with steel drums and banking info! One Love wasn’t for a lot of rich dudes.”

I had no idea what to say. No one really knew how money flowed back into the Island Nations. Or how Cayman Island accounts became…unnumbered. Not that anyone dug too deep into sudden bouts of philanthropy beyond the general rewriting of policy. Of course it was the Convergence. Was it my place to out that? It was definitely a story no one else had.

“But…Weirding?”

It started with Austin. It was always Austin. The people being fierce with their weirdness. They waved the freak flag high and proud in the face of everything. It took Texas independence in a new direction, daring the Universe to Come and Take It! So the Convergence did, but just the good parts.

“Karen, no matter what history says, we all know, it's the Weird that inherit the Earth."

      

The End

The Weirding (c) Copyright 2026 by Rhonda Eudaly