Psychic Timeshare
earliest post first | most recent post first
Temperance Fugit - 11/11/2024 6:48pmThe children are responding well in the temporal dysmorphia chambers, and I expect them to be released soon and lead relatively normal lives going forward. My own fate, however, is more problematic.
The Executive Committee has thrown the book at me. Several of the pages flew out and become Mephshædes, who now lurk outside my door and approach me menacingly whenever I leave the building. I can shake them easily enough, and am turning them back into paper one by one, which I then place in the recycling.
The book itself, left in a heap at my doorstep, molted and took root. Vines and thorny brambles are now attacking the foundation of the building, and the tiny flowers that cover them emit a pollen that makes my skin itch.
It's clear they're hoping to drive me out, but if that doesn't work, how far will they go? I could easily pick up and leave for Florida, but I've put so much work into this position, it's hard to give up. Plus, I love the children.
Add a journal entry to Psychic Timeshare
Sindra the Bee Tamer - 11/7/2024 1:14pmwhen i was little i had a dream about being a diver in the ocean. swimming around a colorful reef, a shoal of bright fishies darting by. then i realized i didn't have any scuba gear on, but i was breathing just fine. because there wasn't any water in the ocean! but everything still had those rich colors, like the inside of an aquarium. when i realized i shouldn't be able to swim if there wasn't any water, i woke up.
buzzing around the cells in the time hive is a little like that, but somehow i'm keeping from waking up. like you're swimming in a medium that doesn't exist, or is just so natural you don't notice it. as a result, everything is hyper-clear. it's the most beautiful planet as far as i can see in all directions, gridded out like a giant honeycomb. parks and forests and mediterranean villas.
well, not all beautiful. i see a section up ahead and to the north that looks darker. as we fly closer, i can see blighted trees, and smoke, and rubble.
"cawwwww!"
betsy the black bird says not to go that way. she veers us to the west.
Grips Courtesy - 11/3/2024 11:45pmI'll admit, seeing your whole life out of order can be pretty confusing. Especially when you haven't lived it all! I was lost. Confused. I didn't know where to turn.
Until I met Thom Thomlinson of Thomlinson Time Holdings.
"Thom Thomlinson? Who's he?"
Just the highest producing Time Broker this side of the Prime Meridian!
"Sounds expensive."
Oh he is. But you'll make such great differentials on your Futures, you won't even notice!
Let Thom show you how it's done. He helped me, and I'm ready to retire at 17!
PAID FOR BY THE THOM THOMLINSON FOR TIME JUDGE SECTOR FIVE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Internal Memo - 10/30/2024 11:53pmMINUTES FROM THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD
███: I say we bottle it.
█████ ███: Come again?
█ ██: We can't control it. The genie is already out of the bottle. Every little thing those kids do has repercussions, and it's replicating.
███: No, seriously. We bottle that up and sell it. Rebellion! Thinking for yourself! Save the world!
█████ ███: Save the god damned whales.
███: Slap that on some bottles...
█ ██: Or gummies...
█████ ███: And we can sell it right back to them. Feed it all back into the supply chain as a recursive loop.
███: Equality! Freedom! Live Woke!
(group chuckles)
█ ██: I'll have the product team draw up a plan. We can have it in stores by Monday.
Hope Granules - 10/26/2024 5:53pm"They don't seem to be making much progress," I said, peering into the scrying pool. I caught glimpses of @
Grips Courtesy, @
Astrid LaFlame, and @
Sindra the Bee Tamer, each one a collection of tiny crystals, glittering like sugar on a swizzle stick.
"You can only see a small sampling of their moments from this perspective," @
Temperance Fugit said. "And only the ones with good lighting twinkle like that."
Each of their "moments" seemed so mundane. Everyday stuff, like somebody was wearing a GoPro on their head.
"The arc of history is made up of many tiny moments," Temperance said. "Even when one is clearly consequential--like a bomb going off or a car crashing--it takes a whole bunch of smaller ones to set it up so it can happen."
I saw Grips trying to straighten out his life. I saw Astrid setting fire to a billboard on a highway. I saw Sindra planting pollinators,
"It just doesn't seem to make much of a difference," I said. "Each moment is so small."
"But now they're making them from an informed perspective," Temperance said. "They've seen the big picture. But by school policy, we're only allowed to administer the ritual using training cups."
"Again with the cups," I said.
"The cups are pre-made," she said. "Store bought. Approved by the Executive Board. Using the Standard Shapes."
"Standard Shapes?"
"They're patented," she said. "Think of them as molds. So everything that comes out of them--"
"--is preformed?" I asked.
"Exactly," Temperance answered. "Human capital as a service."
I didn't know what that meant.
"We didn't use cups," I said.
"You're free range, now," she said. "And illegal."
Internal Memo - 10/22/2024 11:39pmMINUTES FROM THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD
█████ ███: We had your assurances this was a slam dunk. What the hell?
███: These are just minor alterations in the stream. If you look at pages 32 through 38, you'll see the projected impacts of the changes are still within the tolerable--
█████ ███: --but how much more can we "tolerate" from these these kids mucking around?
█ ██: Mandela Effect, Butterfly Effect, Streisand Effect... the variables start piling up exponentially...
█████ ███: And why are the kids still in play? I thought she pulled them out right away. Why don't we have them ourselves?
███: Medical exemption. Still recovering in her temporal dysmorphia chambers. She says to pull them out now would have irreversible effects--
█████ ███: --I think that's already obvious--
███: --on the kids, and the Psymed board still recognizes her credentials. We're working on Psymed, but for now we still can't get our hands on the kids.
█ ██: On the bright side, it is just a handful of kids. The temporal density we've built up is really... dense. The "weight of history" and all that. Even with all the potential side effects, the numbers still say any changes they could possibly make will be reintegrated within a few years, tops.
███: Yes. That's in the conclusions on page 42.
█████ ███: Well... I suppose. We have laid down a lot infrastructure.
█ ██: Like racism. Try building that out!
(group chuckles)
███: Ok. You'll continue to get daily updates on any further alterations that show up in the temporal record. And we should have the High Counselor on ice in just a few more days. You know how the bureaucracy is at Admin.
Sindra the Bee Tamer - 10/19/2024 10:48pmi hadn't ever noticed before, but all our individual moments gots little id codes on them!
i mean, there's lots to tell the time cells apart, like all the scenery :-p but if you know how to look for it, there's little clues woven in. that's how you know you're in the right one.
now, you're probably saying "sindra, isn't that creepy? like some mark of the beast level shit? bar code tats and all that?"
nah. not since i seen it in the TIMESTREAM (whoa!)
so, yeah, there is a whole lotta trickery in terms of how you wanna spend your time, and it's real easy to just buy it off the shelf and not even read the label. that stuff'll kill you. in the forever way.
but i'm talking free range, baby! i slipped out of the package and out of the whole dang supermarket. but even out here, there's time org, man. that's why they're all encoded. otherwise everything'd happen all at once and where's the fun in that?
"cawwwww!"
and there's my bestie, betsy the black bird. probably a crow.
"comin' betsy!"
Astrid LaFlame - 10/16/2024 11:51pm"The whole contraption is horrific," I gasped.
With the help of my guide--a big white bird with long, luxurious plumes that never stopped flying--I'd made it up through the catwalks and scaffolding and could overlook the whole of human creation.
It stunk. It stunk like burning oil and diesel fumes. It stunk like rotting bodies.
"It is built to eat its children," my swirling bird friend said.
Usually you can only see what's around you. And what you see on the internet. And you have a fuzzy picture of what you think happened before, and a fuzzy picture of what you think might happen next.
But from up here, everything was crystal clear. 8K Ultra HD clear. Agonizingly, burningly clear. On fire with burning radiation of existence itself.
Slaves building pyramids down near the bottom. Soldiers clashing, ships full of slaves. Then huge metal gun tubes and exhaust pipes that spanned decades, grinding gears spitting out bodies, office windows and computer screens and still more slaves and people hanging off the sides and falling off.
"It's a huge, greasy, people eating machine," I said.
"And people making machine," said the bird.
Now that I was up above it, I didn't want to go back.
"We can change it," said the bird, doing loops in the air while I sat on the scaffold, looking out.
"We can blow it up," she said. "We can tear it down."
Internal Memo - 10/13/2024 11:29pmMINUTES FROM THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD
███: According to the report, the kids slipped in through an open window. She says she might of left it open for her cats.
█ ██: Or to air the place out. She is the "High" Counselor.
(group chuckles)
███: In any case, we can now assume complete control of the facility. It's a hazard and she's negligent. Kids going into temporal fugues, parents to apologize to, out-of-court settlements to make. It's gonna cost us but it'll be worth it. She'll get disciplined and out of the way and we can put in some real security and lock it down right.
█████ ███: About damn time. We're lucky some kid didn't wipe out the next half century. All the investment we’ve put into these futures…. the construction, the logistics, the long range planning…
█ ██: The future doesn’t just make itself!
███: And who's going to build the next generation of workers, if not us?
█████ ███: Damn straight.
█ ██: And anything to keep the Dry Bone people out of the picture.
(the group is silent)
███: You're not supposed to mention them by name. And you keep doing it.
█ ██: Oh, yeah. Sorry.
Hope Granules - 10/10/2024 11:53pm"Hello Hope."
It was the High Counselor. I was so busted. Why did my head hurt so much?
"Because you looked directly into the raw time stream without appropriate protective measures," she said. "But you're going to be ok."
She patted my arm. Like she was my grandma.
"Protective measures?" I asked.
The High Counselor leaned closer and adjusted my pillow.
"PPE," she said. "There's a whole training you're supposed to go through, you know. There are real precautions. And you're supposed to use a cup."
"A cup?"
"Yes. A training cup. You make it yourself, then you dip it in the fountain. Everybody's cup is unique, just like your future."
"The fountain?"
"Yes. The fountain. You and your friends just stuck your faces right into it."
"Like sucking on a firehose," I said.
The High Counselor laughed. "Yes that's probably a good description of it."
"My friends?"
"They're getting better too. Just like you."
"Can I see them? Are they here?" I looked around the little room. It was like a room in the back of a church.
"Oh, you're not really here," she said. "You're in a temporal dysmorphia chamber. And I'm not really here either."
I was very sleepy.
"You rest," she said.
next 4 >