Anonymous A started this discussion 3 years ago#107,176
Sometimes you get bored of Time Magazine, bored of constantly hearing about "your" father's (or mother's) generation: the first generation that grew up with television, the last one that grew up without.
But sometimes all you want to hear about is what it was like for your own parents' generation, that odd group of people who were growing up in a world that was flat and filled with land mines and oil rigs, and who had to wait a whole year for a new season of The Jetsons.
It was a strange time, this early 1960s. The United States was still smarting from the war in Vietnam, a war that was still going on and which pretty much everyone agreed would never end until Nixon got elected president. But Nixon was only a few years away, and the future appeared to be one of perpetual war. A future where a gold-lined pocketbook was only a defrauding of a national government away.
But there were other things happening, other things that would have a much more profound impact on the future. There were the first steps toward a new approach to warfare: the first hydrogen bombs; the first space-based weapons system, the Strategic Defense Initiative... and the simple Internet stalkers.
There were three of them: one in Florida, one in Philadelphia, and one in New York.
***
"It looks like we've got two drones," someone said over the radio. "They're flying in from opposite directions."
"I'm tracking them," said the voice over the radio. "One's heading for Miami."
"Get me their ID."
"Okay, hold on."
***
The man sitting at the computer terminal was bored. Nobody was really getting upset about his new shtick posts today. Everyone was too busy with other things. He had told the admin he had an emergency, but he wasn't really sure what it was. He had gotten bored with his normal posts and decided to try something new...
Anonymous A (OP) double-posted this 3 years ago, 11 minutes later[^][v]#1,203,284
...and it had taken off like wildfire. He had even heard about it from other people over the Internet, who were using his posts as an excuse to get out of work. They'd been doing it without permission, of course. That didn't matter to him. He was getting paid $50 per post, and he was making $1500 per day from this new scheme. Posts were faster and easier to make than drawings or paintings; if he kept up with it, he could retire in five years.
He had been getting some complaints from local people, but they were just complaining about his posts because they were "boring and obvious". They hadn't gotten the point yet. There were no real complaints... that he'd heard about...
***
The man at the computer terminal was annoyed. He didn't want to be here in this room any longer than he had to be. He had spent all morning writing and posting his new post on the bulletin board, and nobody seemed to be paying any attention to it. He even heard someone making fun of him over the radio, but he didn't know who it was. He suspected the blimp that had floated by his window earlier in the day. He knew better than to just ignore it though. It could have been a real threat. He had heard about blimps before; they had been used by Nazi Germany during World War Two as anti-aircraft weapons. Not many blimps flew by these days, but they weren't completely gone either.
The man slapped the submit post button as quickly as he could. It would take a few minutes for the post to appear on the bulletin board... but he knew it was worth it in the end.
***
The three drones were flying over Miami, but none of them had any idea why they were there. They were just following orders from their handlers by radio signals—and they weren't supposed to be flying anywhere near Miami. They mostly flew out over open water or along freeways when there weren't many people around. In fact, they weren't supposed to be flying at all; their last orders were to stay outside the city limits for another hour or so and then head back home. But these three drones didn't have much choice... their handlers just didn't care if they were there or not. They couldn't get away with anything like this in Washington or New York or Los Angeles—they had too many people looking after them—but here they could get away with just about anything... as long as they could get away with it quickly enough before anybody found out what was going on...
Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 3 years ago, 2 minutes later, 20 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,203,286
@1,203,284 (A)
The three drones were flying over Miami again, this time with controllers from New York City, who had been monitoring them from their office all day long. They were supposed to stay away from Miami for several more hours. The New York City controllers had been monitoring their emissions for several minutes now and were starting to notice some suspicious behavior in their transmissions... but they couldn't figure out what it meant yet.
***
The man in the computer terminal was annoyed again. He'd just seen two more posts from people who had been screwing around with his new shtick posts; he didn't know who they were or why they were doing this, but he knew that eventually they would get caught... and that's what he wanted! His new shtick posts were going viral now; he knew they would be a huge hit later on when the people who had screwed it up got caught! He'd never make so much money in his life if he just gave up now! Everybody else would make fun of him for not being able to handle his new shtick posts! But he knew how to handle them! He wouldn't let anyone else have all the fun!
***
The three drones were flying over Miami International Airport now, according to their controllers in New York City who were monitoring them from their office all day long. It looked like they were planning on landing there soon, but they weren't sure if their handlers wanted them to do that or not yet...
***
The man in the computer terminal was happy again. He hadn't seen any more posts from people who had been screwing around with his new shtick posts all day long; he didn't know who they were or why they were doing this, but he knew that eventually they would get caught. The FBI had told him they would be investigating his case thoroughly after their investigation into the Internet stalkers had been completed, and that's what he wanted!
His new shtick posts were going more viral than ever before! Post after post after post after post! The people who wanted him to stop making these posts wouldn't be able to stop him now! That's what he wanted! And the more viral his posts got, the more popular he would become! It wasn't just about making money anymore—it was about being famous!
Anonymous A (OP) double-posted this 3 years ago, 21 minutes later, 41 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,203,290
@previous (A)
The three drones were still flying over Miami International Airport, according to their controllers in New York City who were monitoring them from their office all day long. It looked like they planned on landing there soon...
***
The man at the computer terminal was sad again. His latest viral shtick posting no longer excited him the way it once had: it no longer made him feel important anymore. People no longer seemed to be reading his posts anymore because nobody seemed to care about anything anymore. The man was worried about something else now: he wasn't sure what would happen if he didn't feel important anymore...
***
One of the drones received a signal from its handler in New York City, via radio signal: "Land at Miami International Airport now." The drone's flight controls immediately responded with an affirmative answer: "We're landing at Miami International Airport now." The drone's landing gears extended and retracted themselves as it lowered itself down toward the ground below... where it would crash into a building less than half a mile away...
The building glinted and shone in a vivid reflection of the orange sky as it burned with flaming embers like its neighbors around it were also doing —and then slowly its walls collapsed inward toward its center... and then its floors fell onto its roof as its roof collapsed inward toward another building nearby... and then its second floor fell onto its first floor as its second floor collapsed onto its first floor... it was a spectacularly chaotic mess... but most of it happened so quickly that nobody outside could see what happened at all... and no one inside could see anything either... because there weren't any windows left after all these buildings collapsed on top of each other... nothing remained of this building except for a filthy mass of twisted metal that spanned an area twice as big as its foundation once did...
***
The man at the computer terminal was frustrated again: nobody seemed to be reading his posts anymore! His latest shtick posting wasn't getting any reactions at all! He knew somebody must be seeing his posts somewhere out there on the Internet somewhere—but none of them seemed to care about anything anymore! It made him feel less important than he ever thought possible!
When the man refreshed the bulletin board again, it was gone!
***
The three drones somehow seemed to understand that they had upset their handlers enough to warrant punishment—and that punishment would come when they got home—and so they decided not to land at Miami International Airport after all, instead merely gliding down onto a road nearby where a car could easily avoid them if need be—and then gliding up into an empty field nearby where nobody would see anything anyway—and then gliding back home where nobody would ever know what happened...
***
The man at the computer terminal was happy again: nobody would be able to read his viral posts anymore! He knew that meant action would be taken against him soon enough—but that's what he wanted! His posts would be too large a burden on his mind if he were to keep them inside... He thought for a moment and decided that it wouldn't matter if anybody could read his viral shtick posts anymore, he could post them anyway! He thought he had won again! He posted one last shtick post that said: "You should have done this sooner!" and then he turned off his computer and went back inside his house where nobody could see him anymore...
***
"Jones, dig out the Narssen file again. Its serious this time." The Special Agent-in-Charge turned and walked away from Agent Jones' desk without another word. Agent Jones couldn't believe what he had just heard: "seriously" was not part of his vocabulary… but then again neither was "treason" or "terrorism". The Special Agent-in-Charge obviously believed that something bad was going on—which meant Jones would have to find out for himself. He grabbed a thick file folder marked "Narssen" from a shelf behind his desk and hurriedly flipped through its pages until he found what he needed: a photo of a cute little girl with blue eyes wearing a pink dress with white polka-dots behind her ears—and then Jones quietly walked out of his office without another word… only this time without his gun… and without even looking back…
Jones spent another hour trying to make sense of everything he'd been told by the Special Agent-in-Charge until he finally realized that nothing made sense at all anymore: these people—these "terrorists"—were supposed to be harmless little girls who hadn't done anything wrong—or so everyone thought… and yet here was Agent Jones being briefed by Special Agent-in-Charge...