Synch

by sunnypack

68 - Video Blog a.k.a Black and White

People are full of paradoxes. If you ask a butter-coated mare why she was so shy with ponies is because ponies are unpredictable. People, or ponies for that matter, say one thing but can mean another, metaphors and symbolism are steeped into their language and we either adapt or are cast out among the circles of conformity or perish.

Mean what you say. Say what you mean.

Take for example, meeting someone new (without a friendly introduction I might add). That nervousness you are feeling is the result of your mind trying to gauge if the other person is a threat. Feel confident in yourself? That person is a lesser threat. Feel lively, spritely and outgoing? You’ve never been hurt before.

Meanwhile, the person you are meeting is feeling the exact same things.

So while they are acting all friendly and nice, inside they are judging you with their most primal and base urges. It is like I said. People are full of paradoxes.

Though Angel had appeared the frosty Arch Angel of Death, the Ice Queen, the Cold Caretaker and various other names, which had been ascribed to her personality, her files reflected a relatively carefree character that simply wanted an outlet to express her warm inner nature. Most people, even sometimes me, would commit the grievous sin of what Paul would call the Fundamental Attribution Error. They see Angel, a young girl with a severe expression and instantly make assumptions about her personality, her outlook, her philosophy, her background and a plethora of other miscellaneous mishmash of her innermost qualities, all without meeting her.

So when I went through Angel’s files I was surprised to have a glimpse through the prism of her life. She had kept logs about her day-to-day work and I found myself smiling as she commented on the mishaps and struggles she went through in her personal video blog. It occurred to me that she had transferred her video diary, something she had kept on her personal Synch, to mine for some reason. As I went through dates, day-by-day I began to realise that the updates stretched past the length of time that I had been here.

The hairs on the back of my neck began to stand on end as I was struck by a hunch, that I hoped to some higher power would not be true.

Frantically, I thought my way through to the last dated files.

The last file by Angel was dated on the year 2105, almost sixty-six years after I had started working on Synchrony…

That didn’t make any sense.

The earliest this device could get here would be sometime maybe a week after I had arrived, probably a maximum of one month, just until they had gotten into possession of it and failed to utilise any of its potential.

I checked to see if the latter video blog files had just been placeholders. No luck there.

I watched a few of the videos in morbid fascination. Angel had grown. Considerably.

I held onto the fragile hope that it was some sort of face polymorphiser, or some similar software manipulation. I somehow doubted it. There were years worth of video blogs from Angel. I sighed, glancing with one eye to the sky, it was approaching noon. Better get started now.

-----

“Hello there!” Angel greets the camera awkwardly. I struggle not to smile at seeing her so out of character. So this is what she is like alone.

“I’m having a go at these video blog things because I want to document my progress and where my life is going. Maybe, if I have a family or someone special to share this with I might show this to them and we’d have a big laugh- “ I break away from the view with a thought and pause the stream, feeling a bit guilty at how invasive I was, I shook my head, I might not have another chance to see these, if ever “ -or not, I don’t know… kids if you’re watching this, your mother wasn’t always the happy person she is now! At least I hope I’m happy, in the future, I mean.”

She pauses.

“Oh I’m rambling, look at me go on in front of a camera. Uhm… wait… yep that’s it, I’ve got an offer to work at Grooble for an internship! I met these two guys, Paul and hum, I can’t remember his name but I added him on Facecook- ” I felt a little offended “ -anyway the other guy, not Paul, he’s amazing! I’ll tell you how he passed the interview- “ she leant into the camera as if sharing a secret and lowered her voice “ -he hacked all the interviewer’s phones. He even caught them out lying about their positions! Genius! I hope I become half as good as him…”

Angel takes a moment to pause as if debating whether to say what’s on her mind next.

“I can’t believe I made friends with him, I can’t believe I made friends at all, this was the first time I just reached out and connected with someone. He seems nice enough and all and… I think I like him- “ she looks shyly at the camera her eyes twinkling in mischief “ -but don’t tell him I said that.”

I couldn’t force myself to look at more of the video blog after that. I sunk into a bad mix of guilt and loss.

Damn feelings, why can’t they just go away?

Author's Note:

Our protagonist finally opens a video file from his past, but what's this? Angel forgets his name!

Oh, poor sod.

Next Chapter: It's going to be absolutely bland with no plot-movement whatsoever. It's also going to be short. It's probably going to be up in a very short while.

As always, thanks for reading, readers!

Comments

[PiMan]

Ooh, a 'next chapter' description that is likely to be accurate. It's a miracle!