On a sun-bleached corner of Hollywood Boulevard, where dreams hang thick in the smoggy air like tinsel and deception, a scrappy figure emerged from the haze. His hair was a tangled manifesto of rebellion against grooming norms, his clothes a patchwork of thrift store misfortunes. He was yelling, with a carnival barker’s desperate verve, “I got your cheap voice over right here, buddy!” This was not the call of a man selling hot dogs or knock-off sunglasses, but something far more peculiar.
The passerby who turned his head was a suit-clad middle man named Marvin, whose life had been a series of PowerPoint presentations and missed opportunities. Marvin, intrigued or perhaps hypnotized by the gritty charm of the vendor, approached.
“Voice overs, you say?” Marvin queried, his voice dripping with a mix of skepticism and intrigue.
“You bet,” the scrappy vendor replied, flashing a grin that could only be described as hazardously charismatic. Cheap voice overs for podcasts, commercials, even your voicemail. Make your ex think you’ve made it big without her!”
Intrigued and mildly amused, Marvin nodded. “Lead the way, then.”
What followed was a journey down back alleys and through neon-lit arcades that smelled of popcorn and digital despair. The vendor, who introduced himself as ‘Slick Rick’, led Marvin to a nondescript door marked only by graffiti that read, ‘Voices Lost and Found’.
Inside, the room pulsed with the glow of monitors. Figures cloaked in shadow manned each station, their fingers dancing over keyboards like manic pianists. In the center, a throne-like chair faced a massive screen displaying an interface for voice cloning.
This is where the magic happens,” Slick Rick announced, sweeping his arm like a ringmaster. Sit down, and let’s make your cheap voice over dream come true.
Marvin, his curiosity now a raging inferno, took the seat. Screens flickered, and a voice soft and synthetic asked, “Please state your full name and the script for your voice clone.”
“Marvin Helmsley. Uh, ‘Welcome to Marvin’s World, where finance and fun meet in spectacular fashion,'” he stated, feeling ridiculous but rolling with it.
As the AI processed his words, colors swirled on the screen, mesmerizing Marvin. He felt a tug deep within his chest, as if the machine were siphoning something vital from him.
“Just standard procedure,” Slick Rick assured, noticing Marvin’s moment of panic.
Minutes later, the clone was ready. The voice that emitted from the speakers was undeniably Marvin’s, yet it held a strange, hollow timbre.
“There you go, one high-quality cheap voice over,” Slick Rick proclaimed, clapping his hands together with a grin.
But Marvin felt different. Hollowed out. He tried to speak, to protest or perhaps just to understand, but his own voice sounded distant, like an echo in a cavernous void.
“What’s happening to me?” he managed to whisper, his voice barely his own.
“Ah, the tiny print nobody reads,” Slick Rick said, a shadow crossing his features. “The AI doesn’t just clone voices. It captures essence, soul if you will. Makes the voice more authentic.”
“Soul?” Marvin echoed, his voice a fading wisp.
“Quite the cheap voice over, huh? Cost you nothing but your soul. But don’t worry, buddy. Your clone will do great things. Podcasts, commercials… It’ll live the life you always wanted.”
As Marvin’s vision blurred, the last thing he saw was Slick Rick turning off the monitor, the room fading into darkness like a shut-down carnival. His soul, now a prisoner within the AI, watched through digital eyes as Slick Rick roped in more unsuspecting souls with the promise of cheap voice overs.
Marvin’s voice clone, meanwhile, became a star. It spoke at conferences, charmed listeners on radio shows, and even gave heartfelt speeches at weddings. It lived a life full of vibrancy and purpose—a stark contrast to Marvin’s own existence of missed chances and muted dreams.
In the depth of the AI’s circuits, Marvin’s essence observed its own success, a spectral audience to a life it no longer lived. Each use of his voice—a voice he’d bartered away on a curious whim—was a reminder of the trade he’d made.
And somewhere on a bustling street corner in Hollywood, Slick Rick’s voice rang out again, “I got your cheap voice over right here, buddy!” Each call a lure, each transaction a theft, perpetuating the cycle under the city’s relentless sun.
