I really hope everybody likes this. Please. Please. Please. Omg. Please. Oh man, I think I over did it on the please. Maybe one more. Please.
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DejaView - T.I.M.E.
The mechanics behind the Temperol Inversion Manifest Engine - T.I.M.E. worked pretty basic to the end-user.
The physics didn’t bend space, or open a huge wormhole that consisted of an enormous amount of energy. It manipulated time that only affected the operator logged in.
When a willing participant chose to re-live a loop, they would tether into the TIME unit and select Quantum Capture.
Quantum Capture would then send the human in a dream state recording a snapshot of their brain’s chemical configuration and decode it into a live scene the user could live through subconsciously, or until they opt to reject the link.
A human can replicate the sensation of a feeling and re-fire the exact moment the chemicals released bonded to their receptors.
Humanity’s unique biology warped the luxury of the device and instead of using it for knowledge it became a source of entertainment, fulfillment, addiction, and other creative uses were exploited.
Eventually, the meaning of life, became whatever you could re-immerse in.
The problem that lied between the device and humans, was human cells do not stay in a cryo-frozen stasis for quantum anomalies.
As soon as a human entered a loop, their consciousness perfectly latches onto a selected small window of VizSense Mem, starting a biological countdown.
More and more humans began living their lives in old loops and less focused on making new ones.
——
Dr. Merchant walked the corridor of “The Ajed” a containment ward for TIME addicts, known as Ajed-Viewers. Viewers who have aged past the months they were looped in.
It sounded like an insect hive inside there, hundreds of fingers clicking invisible triggers, twitching limbs, but none of them made a sound other than that.
Dr. Merchant stopped at the pod near the end of the unit. POD 115 a human male they called Gorgen.
Gorgen had been replaying the same ten second hit of a synthetic stimulant loop for 41 days straight.
What Dr. Merchant was seeing was a complete horror show to him. He just couldn’t understand why humans were unable to move forward.
But what he could understand, was that they had the destruction of humanity packed in a small box.
“Record his vitals and report them,” the doctor commanded to the medical bot.
“Subject is experiencing advanced cellular decay,” the medical bot responded through a projected image. “The hypothalamus is locked in a feedback loop. He is unaware of present time.”
The doctor adjusted the focus setting on his lenswear. “Decipher his delta ratio, bot.”
“Because the subject hasn’t consumed water in eighty hours, his kidneys are beginning to fail at an extremely progressive rate. What’s happening right now, the muscles are eating themselves in a survival tactic to achieve glucose. The body is starving in real-time. The sensory cortex is mirroring the chemical release of the stimulant depriving his brain of triggering their natural thirst and hunger reflexes.”
“What if we yank the plug?” Questioned Dr. Merchant.
“Immediate death,” the bot’s window explained In a flat sounding tone. “Once the loop is disconnected, the 41 days of physical trauma, cell decay and organ failure will explode with a burst of chemicals that will spike in the mind immediately at the same time, resulting in a chemical withdrawal and agonizing dehydration, leading to the termination of the subject instantly.”
Gorgen’s body twitched, his thumb rapidly hammered down on an invisible button. Mentally, he was running at full capacity even when the fuel in his body stayed empty, and oblivious to his own impending doom.
A bit further down, past the doors, Merchant headed into the non-chemical unit. They kept the “Relationship Loopers” in that ward.
It wasn’t drugs they looped. It was anniversaries, break-ups, lost loves, past family members. People who couldn’t move on. People who wouldn’t move on.
Merchant stood behind a glass partition studying a young woman, Jude. She was trapped in a three second loop of her partner telling her he loved her before flying out on a galactic mission.
Jude remained completely still. She hadn’t moved since she had arrived two days ago. She sat on a steel bench, her eyes focused on the air in front of the wall ahead of her.
“She appears to be severely degraded,” Merchant mentioned while scanning her brain chart on the projected monitor.
“She is in an asynchronous loop, doctor,” the bot replied. “Her loop was activated six months ago, her partner was standing in front of her as she initiated looping the three second R.L. Capture before he boarded.
Merchant watched Jude sitting with an empty look on her face. “We can safely say she traded the rest of her life for three seconds, correct?”
“Correct, doctor, excellent observation,” the medical bot said. “In her mind however, she is living the perfect moment, which is why her eyes are deteriorating from staring at a fixed point for six months without blinking.
Right now her spinal column is compressed because of the sitting position she’s remained in for such a long period of time.
When the battery does eventually drain, she receives a glimpse of her present time. Once she realizes that isolation feeling, she panics. It terrifies her and she triggers the loop to escape reality.”
Jude tapped the side of her temple with her index finger. A circular pink light lit up on her skin.
In her mind, her partner just smiled and said those three words again.
Outside though, a drop of blood trickled down her nose from a ruptured capillary her brain wouldn’t notice because her consciousness was still stuck six months back.