Synch

by sunnypack

25 - Null Object

Angel gazed longingly at the small plinth constructed in former Synchrony monitoring chamber. The small podium was covered in gold paint and reflected only the cool fluorescent lights that illuminated the small room.

All the equipment had been moved and shunted off to better places they could have been better utilised than just sitting in a cold room at Grooble. The small podium only held a simple circlet, raised by a small silver brace.

Angel had come before, to visit the small wonder of human technology. But she had not come to marvel at what humanity had achieved, but rather pay her respects to who had been quickly forgotten.

Synchrony had been a trying time on both the company and the world at large and it had damaged the industry. Humans though, adapted and moved on and the Synch platform quickly grew and fulfilled its true purpose as it had meant to be, after the shockwaves of Synchrony died down.

The populace marvelled at the new Synch features. One in particular was called Immersion, which allowed users to ‘immerse’ into a very realistic virtual reality. Recreating world history, going on vacation and living out some fantasies had all been top priority for those who had access to a Synch device.

Cautiously, the world accepted Synch again, albeit with convincing from leading security experts that it was indeed safe. Synchrony didn’t plague the minds of the populace and all that was left was to pick up the pieces and begin anew.

Angel had used her Synch to dive into happier times, when I was around. She had catalogued her memories in her Synch device and would from time to time immerse herself in them.

Little was known about the sacrifice I had made because they couldn't explain it. The official press release was that somehow, Synchrony had been backtracked and special operatives from the government had captured the one responsible for the devastation of over a quarter of million lives. They made no mention of me.

My family had been informed that I had been involved in a power surge accident, my body instantly vaporised by a high power plasma discharge. They were not able to recover any remains and my parents wept as they buried an empty coffin.

Angel had taken to being alone again, as she was from the start. Before she had met me, she had no friends to call her own, no close family to contact, she was a young adult that struggled to live on her own.

I had been blind to her battles but my ignorance had given me an opening to reach out to her and for that she had been glad. Angel had been happy to meet me. I was her first friend at the time. The majority of the time she spent was now, as she had graduated from high school, studying a tertiary degree in computer science and quantum engineering and working for Grooble.

Periodically she'd seen Dmitri also hang around but he had become subdued. Paul while normal in every aspect seemed to carry a small hint of sadness every time they met up for coffee.

Though the world’s heart beat on, the small group of friends I had seemed frozen in time.

Within the depths of her soul, Angel cried for me to come back.

And I heard her in a dream.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the short chapter update but I thought you might have wanted to see what the post-mortem of Synch in the world had been.

NB: Null object is a programming thing, especially in a programming language called C. It is considered archaic and the person who invented it regrets it but like most parts of C it played an important part in the beginning of that programming language. This chapter is an analogy to that, with the main character casually used by the world when they needed him and then discarded so much like a disposable tissue.

I still feel a need to write Angel's backstory but this story unfortunately doesn't centre on it. (Did I mention she was my favourite character?)

Alternatively I can make a HiE story with Angel how about that?

Nah, I'm a horrible writer, let's just stick with this and hope I improve.

Give me comments, critcisms and the like and as always, thanks for reading!

Comments

[Kenny]

Interrresting...

This is an idea. Let's take a closer look...

[RainbowDragon]

Mate if you were a horrible writer I wouldn't read this as well as the other people who liked and faved this story

[Amber flicker]

You are not a horrible writer.

[sunnypack]

4818442
4818490
4819711

Aww thanks!

I've still got room to improve like every writer and I think it's just being able to write fast and with a decent amount of quality. I don't like to keep favouriters waiting but obviously it needs to be good work. Also there has to be some reason for the dislikes, so I'm trying to get better before I release a story on Angel (or continue with Tiger Stripes). I'm tossing it up between continuing the Synch world or maybe go into different genres. What do you think?

[RainbowDragon]

4820774 continue expanding the sync universe