Synch

by sunnypack

4 - I'm a Frayed Knot (rev1)

I remember the first time I had heard about Synchrony, how it was plastered over the extranet feeds.

"A worrying new program has been circling the extranet community. Synch users should be aware that a potentially harmful illegal knot has been found on Synch devices", the newscaster intoned, giving a serious look at the camera.

I remember eating my breakfast then and dismissing it at first, until I hopped onto the extranet. My feeds were flooded with updates and notifications of the new illegal knot. The Synch community had exploded when they found out about the knot mysteriously tied to their device. Everyone connected to the extranet, which was pretty much the entire population, immediately downloaded and tied the knot into their personal Synch device. Unwillingly I might add.

Of course I was no exception. I had tried deleting it, as many else had, but ultimately failed.

"Dang it! Why won't you just go away?!" I had growled to the seemingly innocuous knot.

The knot just floated there in my virtual vision, tied snugly onto my central board.

"Just, ugh, how about this?" I had grumbled to myself, while trying a few other thought gestures and executing some thought-commands.

It didn't do much good. I hadn't known nearly enough to get rid of it without performing a full wipe. I combed through the extranet trying to find answers but they were all the same. Despite so many affected by the same knot, there weren't any solutions.

I need help with my Synch!

What's this weird knot on my Synch? Is it the same one from the news? Anyone found a solution?

Frustrated, I eventually left it alone after trying to get rid of it via root access. I surmised that it was just a matter of time before Grooble released new firmware to fix the issue and I could have my personal Synch back to normal.

The extranet feed was alive with the latest developments of what this mysterious knot was and how it had come to be.

Several newscasts had many things to say about it, I listened to a few, interested in anything Synch-related. I wanted to know how it got on my device.

Reports have come in of a mysterious new knot that has infected Synch devices worldwide. Grooble has yet to announce how they plan to tackle the problem and this has raised concerns in the public as to how safe these Synch devices are really. More news coming in soon!

I remember looking at my Synch and toying with the idea of running that mysterious knot.

Emilia had warned me to stay the heck away from it. In fact, I was certain her words were: Stay away from it, I have a really bad feeling about it, just let the professionals handle it.

Emilia had been one of the only people who had cared enough to bring me out of my little shell. She was a good friend... I miss her...

I was a mess until she found me but I think that is a tale I'd rather recount later.

Where was I?

Ah yes, the illegal knot.

Some people who were as curious as I were, and certainly less lucky than me, had run the knot. Devastating consequences had ensued. I had found later, only a few days after I had decided not to run the knot, that there were disturbing side effects.

Upon waking the people would smile, and they would hug their loved ones, generally acting out of character as if their personalities had been altered. At this point Grooble was frantic and were on the verge of recalling back the Synch devices so they could safely disarm the illegal knot. The media had reported just under a hundred of these cases and I remember feeling the true depth of my mortal coil at the time. It still brings a chill feeling how close I was to being taken by Synchrony.

Then as suddenly as it had appeared, the knot had disappeared.

Confused, Grooble could only pledge a statement that it would find whomever was responsible for this outrage and (sic) take any and all actions legal or otherwise to rectify the situation.

A couple of weeks had passed and more information came through about those who had activated the mystery knot.

The media had callously labelled them as ‘Sunken’ patients and amusingly characterised the Synch as the Titanic. The Sunk patients however were reportedly, happier than ever having been through what they stated was the ‘best experience of my life’. Sunken patients reported to have subjectively experienced months to years of experience through the mysterious knot but they never seemed to regret it.

The baffling reports of the sunken patients inflamed the curiosity of the community and a small group of extranet communities banded together to find or create the mystery Synch knot. The media had unofficially dubbed the program Ultimate Zero Day (as a solution was never found) but among the extranet circles it was named Synchrony, the pinnacle of human and machine fusion, among the more romantic of the followers.

But only after a month of silence, a familiar knot greeted Synch users.

Synchrony was back.

Author's Note:

I'm sorry for chapters being short. I usually write longer chapters but the back and forth style that I'm experimenting with breaks up the content into smaller chunks. Later on chapters may be longer but we'll see how it goes.

EDITED.

Comments

[DaedricPrinceSheogorath]

Intresting name....'synchrony' has a nice ring to it...

[blank check]

Um?

Well, for one thing, Grooble is a ridiculous name. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be an obvious reference to Google, so why not call it Google outright?

[Official Taco]

4942240 like "wabbajack".