Parallel Processes 1 – Chapters for March 2024

SJ Shoemaker
Last Update: 4/2/2024

I’ve always had a fascination with the role medium plays in a story’s telling. A novel, a film, a television series, and a video game. All different mediums with strengths and weaknesses that must be acknowledged and worked around to provide the audience with the best experience possible. This is why adaptation can be deceptively complicated.

Beyond this, I find it particularly captivating when a story is found in an unorthodox place. With no reason to exist where it does. Obstanantly filling a niche that otherwise would be entirely overlooked if not for a human mind asking: “what story could possibly fit there?”

Here is the start of my story with no reason to exist.

Instagram stories can really only fit 200 words before the text becomes too small to be legible. TikTok polls can’t have more than 2 options. And polls on both sights last for exactly 24 hours without an option to change.

So if someone were to create an ongoing narrative in the personal stories of these social media sights asking for input from followers to decide how the tale progresses… Well, it would have to follow 2 characters with alternating narrative progression. Otherwise, daily posts would overlap the ongoing poll from the day before. And it would need a built-in explanation for slow progression to allow for bite-size posts.

With the crack measures, all that was left was to fill it.

Below is an archive of previous story posts along with their accompanying poll and their cumulative selected choice. If you’ve missed the story, this should fill you in. And if you wish to participate, vote on my active polls each day on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and/or Threads.

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Origin (3/25/2024):

WHERE SHOULD BARNABY BEGIN HIS WORK?

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Beginning of the End (3/26/2024):

The upload remained at 99% as it had been for hours now. Barnaby ripped the device off his head and tossed it without care toward the desk corner.

Attempt 57: Failed. Like all the others.

He stood and immediately regretted it. Lightheaded and short of breath within a pace. Stupid heart! He needed time away from this broken computer. Needed to storm off in a huff and pace the halls. The track he would have worn into that wood-panel floor if he had the fortitude to pace whenever he felt the urge. Instead, he worked up a stitch just sitting upright.

Already he tired. Sleep would overtake him soon, but he fought against it on principle. How much rest could one body require? How many more attempts could he squeeze into his busy schedule of restless slumber before his ultimate demise?

SHOULD BARNABY BEGIN ATTEMPT 58 IMMEDIATELY?

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Calculations (3/27/2024):

Polyurethane was the commonly agreed upon material for total artificial replacement. Durable, flexible, and lightweight. 1.15 grams per cubic centimeter, Banaby’s digital prayers revealed. It was fully capable of moving the average 6 liters per minute without leakage. He stood up a subfunction to begin designing a model while maintaining his own focus on the larger problem. 3D printers existed, of course, capable of generating polyurethane structures. But that wouldn’t help the real Barnaby–physical Barnaby, he meant. Barnab-A.

While Barnab-B’s world had grown beyond imagination, his physical counterpart was restricted to a hundred square feet most days. And income was practically non-existent. This course of action would not suffice. Wealth or material? One would need correcting.

WHICH OUGHT BARNAB-B CORRECT?

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Barnaby – Attempt 58 Begins (3/28/2024):

Dang! The wire was bent. His callous handling of the headset after his last failed attempt left one of the electrodes upraised. A bit of electrical tape would hold it in place, but the roll was in the living room. And the weekly nursing check-in was two days away. Or three? What day was it?

He struggled to his feet. Puffy fingers gripping desk and chair and door frame. Whatever he could grab to stabilize his uneven steps down the narrow hallway. There, just beyond, was his nest on the living room couch where he had previously been situated. Naively, he believed an escape from his bedroom would grant him untapped reserves of energy. In reality, it meant just as much sleep on less comfortable cushions. He asked the nurse at last check-in to carry him back to the bed but forgot his supplies on the coffee table.

By some miracle, he found himself falling over the couch arm, back toward gravity. The tape roll sat easily within reach, but the cushions offered a much-needed reprieve.

HOW OUGHT BARNABY PROCEED?

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Barnab-B – Wealth Acquisition (3/29/2024):

The amount of information and power at his fingertips–again with the bodily saying–was astonishing. Barnab-A was in no condition to pursue any of the myriad forming schemes his subprocesses were generating. They needed a middleman. And conveniently SO many police records were public-facing. Here was one, chosen with light parameters. (1) A recurring name complete with (2) last known address and (3) an active cell number. Draven Rask.  Praise be the mighty processor in the cloud.

He pinged the number and followed the stream to a nearby cell tower. According to geolocation, Draven was home.

A nearby convenience store had posted pictures of a recent robbery online. It pointed toward the home in question. Barnab-B considered for 3.1 milliseconds hacking the closed-circuit security system for a live feed of the residence. Then he came to his sensese and the oxymoron was popped off his memory stack. Besides, reliance on visuals was a vestige of his lowly origins.

Draven’s phone was connected to an unprotected wifi router. If Draven was going to leave the door wide open… Barnab-B slipped within and constructed a node to mask his presence. Another device was on the network as well. A laptop. Likely an easier target. But the cellphone surely held better blackmail.

WHICH SHOULD BARNAB-B HACK?

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Barnaby – Restlessness (3/30/2024):

Broken headsets were strewn across the desk. Dozens. Hundreds. Piled in shattered pieces. An electronic salad. Return. He had to return.

He pressed the last working headset onto his skullcap, and then pulled further. And further. As eyeline rose higher within, he could see electric highways jittering. He longed to walk along each and learn their routes by swollen heart. But something fought his ingress. Another entity within refused to grant him access. Return. Why can’t he return?

A snap cried out from his palms, and the infinite landscape he sought was gone. The world that remained was dull, motionless. One more broken dream added to the pile. He would never return… to a place he had never been? That didn’t… Where was he?

Banraby outstretched his hand. Fingertips wrapped around an electrical tape roll on table edge where he had left it. Grogginess unbalanced his world as he rotated his broken body upright on the couch. He ached everywhere. What a strange dream. Return? Why would he want to–his program! After the scan was complete, did he forget a return command? Maybe that was why it never went past 99%.

He would have to search his hard drive for the missing scan file. Or maybe just add the missing line and run the scan again. After he journeyed back to his desk, of course.

WHICH EXPERIMENT SHOULD BARNABY CONTINUE?

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Barnab-B – Motivation (3/31/2024):

Let’s see what secrets this phone has to hide. Pictures of a cat. Grocery list. Texts from his friend. Draven’s mother was recently in the hospital. Surgery? Something major by the language of it.

Gotta dig further. Look through older content.

More pictures of the cat. Celebration plans for his sister. The big 5 0. They went to the beach. How sweet. Mother couldn’t attend. Said she wasn’t feeling well. Thought it was just a cold at the time. Hindsight does not suit her. But where are all the crimes?

Apps. Let’s see. Fitness app, unused. Car racing game, frequently open and a major drain on the battery to boot. Last call, months ago. Contacts, suspiciously empty. Camera, filled to the brim. Who needs that many pictures of their cat? Notes app, empty. No, there’s one document in use. And it’s publicly accessible. Now why would Draven need to share his unsaved notes? Dare I check the clipboard?

And would you look at that?

Draven, you’ve been a busy man.

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Barnaby – Attempt 58 Revisited (4/1/2024):

Heart crashes against ribcage in a painful rhythm. Where were his pain meds? How long had it been since his last dosage? It didn’t matter. Barnaby had dreamed of the solution, and his code was now refactored. He needed to catch his breath and push through one more brain scan. Hands shook violently as they fumbled to tear a strip of tape from the roll. Chest followed suit, as laughter erupted. So much effort for the tiniest adhesive. It nearly killed him (slight exaggeration), but it would soon be worth it. He pressed the tape against metal, and it wrinkled and stuck to itself. A passable patch job. The sight of it was unpleasant, but It would hold the bent electrode in place long enough.

No sooner was the headset on his skull than the scan had begun.

Excitement gave way to weariness. The thought crossed Barnaby’s mind as sleep overtook him to check his hard drive for scan 57. In theory, it should have completed. Maybe it was already working away to find a cure. In that case, it’d be best… to check for… rogue… processes

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