Pigs, Bears and Bees: The World of Black Mirror

[JRoge1]

Heyo folks - so this is a revamp of an old timeline I've been working on, based on Charlie Brooker's anthology series Black Mirror. While each installment is standalone, this project aims to provide a unified timeline incorporating events, themes and ideas from a number of episodes. I should give a big shoutout to Matilda, whose White Bear Continuum was a huge inspiration for this scenario. This timeline largely diverges from our own in 2011 (with some smaller divergences going back to the 2000s) and will likely continue into the 2030s, or however far into the future I feel like taking it. Hope you all enjoy!

 

[JRoge1]

Iconic screenshot from the beginning of the now-infamous Susannah Tape.​

There are many names for the events of July 8, 2011: the Great Humiliation, the Bloom Affair, the Royal Hostage Crisis, etc. Suffice it to say things haven't been the same since, the incident having fundamentally and irrecoverably upended the dynamic between politicians and the public.

Susannah was the only child of Prince Louis[1] and Louise Charlotte Wingfield, the Duchess of Beaumont. In 2001, when she was just thirteen years old, Susannah's mother was among the thousands killed in the September 11 attacks. Lady Louise had been in the office of her children's charity in the World Trade Center when the first plane struck[2]. Miraculously, the charity's mascot, a small red-haired doll, was found intact and returned to young Susannah, who opted to donate it to the Great Ormond Street children's hospital. This singular act of selflessness received great public fanfare, and as she grew older the Princess continued her late mother's charitable works, becoming one of the most admired and beloved members of the British royal family.

In 2011, shortly after announcing her own engagement on Facebook, Susannah attended the private wedding ceremony of an old friend in London. While being escorted home, Susannah was kidnapped by an unknown assailant after both her security details were rendered unconscious using tranquilizer darts. It was less than an hour later that the infamous Susannah Tape first surfaced on YouTube, wherein the distraught princess was forced to read out her captor's bizarre demands: in exchange for her safe release, Prime Minister Michael Callow must engage in full, unsimulated sexual intercourse with a live pig on national television.

At first, the PM assumed this was some sort of twisted joke orchestrated by his cabinet. Unfortunately for all parties involved, Susannah's situation was very real, and the stakes could not be higher - after the loss of Diana and Lady Louise, Britain could not afford to lose a third princess. The largest manhunt in British history (codenamed Operation Rapunzel) ensued, but was unsuccessful in retrieving the princess. After exhausting all possible options, with the nation's damsel still very much in distress, the Prime Minister was forced to comply with the kidnapper's demands. As per his specifications, the event was broadcast at exactly 4PM on all British networks, terrestrial and satellite. Precise worldwide viewing figures are disputed, but most estimates range between 1.2 and 1.4 billion.

What was perhaps most tragic about this sordid state of affairs was how unnecessary it was: as is now known, Princess Susannah was released onto the now-empty Millennium Bridge at 3:34 PM - almost a full half hour before the "entertainment" began. Her kidnapper, who was later identified as Turner Award-winning artist Carlton Dudley Bloom[3], committed suicide by hanging five minutes into the broadcast. What was undoubtedly the greatest political humiliation in world history had all been for nothing, and "Bloom the Loon" as the press dubbed him had held up a dark mirror exposing the ruthlessness and bloodlust of modern society.

[1] Third and youngest child of Queen Elizabeth ITTL.
[2] Based on Sarah Ferguson, who was very nearly killed in the attacks.
[3] This award was posthumously rescinded.

 

[JRoge1]

London's East Village district, photographed in August of 2012, shortly before tragedy struck.​

The 2012 London Olympics were met with much anticipation: it was hoped that in the wake of last year's humiliation, the international sporting event could help Britain recapture some of her lost prestige on the world stage. Unsurprisingly, security was at an all-time high, but no system of preventative measures is perfect, and all it would take was one lone wolf to slip through the cracks: in August, London's East Village, where the Olympic athletes were being housed, was subject to a bombing attack. The explosion claimed the lives of nine people, including three athletes, and left dozens more injured. Among the wounded was Britain's own premiere track cyclist Gwen Marbury, who was left paralyzed from the waist down mere hours after winning the gold medal[1]. The country's worst fears had been realized in a tragedy comparable to the 1972 Munich massacre and the 1996 Olympic Park Bombing.

Omar Javaid was a 29 year old British man of Pakistani descent, described by those who knew him as an honest and upstanding citizen, as well as a devoted husband and father. Less than 48 hours after the East Village bombing, Javaid was fatally shot by police officers in his own living room, in front of his wife and their four year old son. Omar had been mistakenly identified as the London terrorist based on some grainy CCTV footage recovered near the site of the blast[2]. The public was justifiably outraged, and both the Metropolitan Police and Callow's own government (which had been largely immune to criticism since the Bloom Affair) came under intense scrutiny.

This anger was only amplified after it emerged that the true culprit (who had, as predicted, acted in retaliation for the Prime Minister's bestiality) fled the country shortly before Omar's killing. Mass protests followed, which escalated into some of the largest riots in modern history[3], while Michael Callow issued a formal apology to the Javaid family. Javaid's widow would later meet and befriend wounded Olympian Gwen Marbury, who subsequently became one of the country's most outspoken progressive voices. After it was announced that no charges would be brought against Omar Javaid's killers, Marbury famously returned her gold medal.

For a time, it appeared that the British public's faith in their legal and political institutions could sink no lower - but of course, this was before Waldo arrived on the scene.

[1] More from her later.
[2] Inspired by this case.
[3] Comparable to the 2011 London riots, which were butterflied away by the events of the National Anthem.

 

[JRoge1]

Waldo (fifth from the right) during a televised debate.​

In October of 2014, what should have been a fairly conventional by-election in the British constituency of Stentonford and Hersham was disrupted by a highly unconventional candidate: an animatronic blue bear named Waldo.

The brainchild of struggling English comedian Jamie Salter, Waldo first debuted in the late 2000s on the satirical late-night panel show Tonight, For One Week Only. The foul-mouthed bear's candidacy initially started as little more than a cynical ploy to boost ratings and sell tacky merchandise. It wasn't until after the debates that Waldo began to be taken semi-seriously: after conservative candidate Liam Munroe launched a personal attack against Jamie Salter, the comedian (still in character as Waldo) delivered an impassioned takedown of the British establishment, which subsequently went viral on YouTube. Despite Salter himself later disavowing the campaign once he felt things had gotten out of hand, Waldo ultimately came in second place, losing to Liam Munroe by a mere 3,000 votes.

Although Waldo may not have won the election, there was no denying that he had struck a chord with the British public, with calls even being made for the character to serve as figurehead for a new national party. The popularity of Waldo and associated political figures would wax and wane intermittently over the course of the next decade. Nonetheless, contemporary historians regard the Stentonford and Hersham by-election as a pivotal moment in the United Kingdom's gradual shift towards populist ideals. The so-called "Waldo Moment" also brought national attention to entertainer and business Jack Napier, who would prove one of the most influential figures of the next decade.

One of Shrive's victims, 19-year old Kenny Bentley, presently incarcerated for murder, bank robbery,
and possession of child pornography.​

The year 2015 saw the emergence of an enigmatic hacker (or, more likely, group of hackers) known to the British media as Shrive[1]. While not the first internet collective focused on taking the law into their own hands, Shrive were unique in terms of their scale, methods and organization. They targeted all manner of individuals coming from a variety of different backgrounds, the only commonality between them being that they each had something to hide - something that could destroy their career, end their marriage, or even land them in prison. Shrive blackmailed their victims into performing their dirty work, turning them into living meat-puppets for their own amusement.

The nature of these demands depended on the nature of the victim's transgressions - after all, not all crimes are equal, and everyone has their limits (someone who sent a racist email, for example, probably isn't going to hold up a bank at gunpoint to stop it from getting out). Those with the most to lose - and forced to put themselves in the most danger - were pedophiles, who in some cases were forced to engage in a full-on fight to the death, which was livestreamed via camera-mounted drone. Once they had finished "performing", the puppets' secrets were leaked to their contacts anyway. Even years later, Shrive have never been definitively unmasked, and the identity of the person or persons behind the screen remains one of the internet's most enduring and elusive mysteries.

In the eyes of the British public, there was no question that the police had disgraced themselves in the East Village Bombing investigation. Shrive had not only landed several pedophiles in prison, but made it entertaining in a way Chris Hansen could never have dreamed of. Was vigilante justice really such a bad thing?

[1] Named for the software they use to entrap people (their name for themselves, if indeed they have one, is unknown).

 

[JRoge1]

UA404, pictured in 2011.​

The date of August 12, 2016 saw one of the worst aviation disasters in U.S. history.

United Airlines Flight 404 was a regularly scheduled commercial flight carrying a total of 237 passengers and crewmembers. Shortly before midday, the plane crashed into a small field in west Texas, instantly killing all on board. The cause of the tragedy was initially something of a mystery, though foul play was suspected: following a lengthy investigation, it was found that the disaster was the result of a civilian drone that had collided with the plane's engine. This had not been an accident.

The culprit was eventually identified as 27 year old Caleb Reese Kuykendall, a mechanic born and raised in Fort Worth. Kuykendall harbored an unhealthy obsession with best-selling music artist Ashley Ortiz (better known by her stage name Ashley O). Ashley was the daughter of American country singer Robbie Jay O, and was perhaps best known for her starring role in the hit Disney Channel original series Shona Arizona. Several weeks prior to the crash of Flight 404, she had announced her engagement to the rapper Tusk[1], which infuriated Caleb (particularly because Tusk was black, and Kuykendall was known to have racist leanings)[2].

In Caleb's mind, if he couldn't have Ashley O, then nobody could. So it was that the mechanic devised a plan to kill both her and her fiancé, and if hundreds more had to die for him to achieve this goal, then so be it. Kuykendall knew that Ashley O was due to attend a benefit gig in Houston on the evening of August 12, and that Tusk would be accompanying her. Based on her schedule, it was fairly easy to deduce which plane the two would be taking, while an app on his phone allowed Caleb to track UA404's flight path in real time. Unbeknownst to Kuykendall, neither of his two targets were on board at the time of the collision. This was a result of sheer coincidence: less than sixty minutes prior to takeoff, Ashley O's grandmother had been hospitalized after a suspected stroke, forcing her and Tusk to cancel the trip.

Many have speculated that had Caleb been aware of this development, perhaps he would not have done what he did. Regardless, because of one man's obsession, more than 200 lives were snuffed out in seconds. The disaster took a severe toll on Ashley O's mental health, causing her to fall back into her old drug habit (not helping matters was Tusk calling off their engagement while she was in rehab). Ashley O died from a drug overdose on June 9, 2017 in what many suspected to be a suicide, while Caleb Kuykendall was tried and ultimately sentenced to death.

The downing of UA404 remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in United States history, and led to far more restrictive drone laws, with most nations now requiring a license to operate them . Unfortunately, this would not be the last time drones were utilized as a method of mass murder, with future attacks being on a much larger scale.

Footnotes:

[1] Loosely based on the real-life case of Ricardo López (a.k.a. the Bjork Stalker).
[2] Real name Lionel Perryman. More from him later, too.

 

[JRoge1]

Message sent to all smartphones in the state of Hawaii on September 9, 2017.​

As in our timeline, the year 2017 saw heightened tensions between the United States and North Korea following the rogue state's development of ICBMs. While there was no President Trump to egg him on, Korean despot Kim Jong-un promised swift annihilation of the decadent, pig-fucking westerners. For a time there was genuine fear of World War III breaking out (something that the media - hungry for another major news story after Callow and Flight 404 - took full advantage of). These fears were exacerbated in July after the American Department of Defense confirmed that Korean missiles had the potential to reach Hawaii.

On September 9, an alert was mistakenly sent to every smartphone in the state, falsely claiming that a nuclear strike was imminent. The crisis itself lasted just under an hour, although this was time enough for tragedy to strike. One of the alarm's million or so recipients was Tim Mossman, a 43 year old man with a history of paranoia. Convinced that the nuclear apocalypse had begun, and desperate to spare his family the slow agony of radiation poisoning, Tim fatally shot his wife Tonya (then four months pregnant) and their two young children, Matthew (9) and Sophia (6), before finally turning his gun on himself. Ten minutes after the Mossman murders, a second alert was issued, clarifying that the initial message had been sent erroneously.

Hawaii's FEMA director, Henry Muramoto, took full responsibility for the incident, which was later determined to have been caused by a glitch in their (woefully outdated) software. Muramoto resigned from his post the following day. Tim Mossman's father-in-law was Ralph Clarence Woodruff, a 73 year old widower and Vietnam veteran. Unbeknownst to his family, Ralph had recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and desired only to spend what little time he had left in the company of his grandchildren, promising himself that he'd stick around long enough for the birth of his third. His son-in-law's actions had robbed him of that, and he blamed Muramoto's incompetence for pushing him over the edge. That same year, shortly before Thanksgiving, Woodruff broke into Muramoto's home, where he shot him four times - in his own words, once for his daughter, three times more for his grandkids[1].

Without any fuss or remorse, Ralph then calmly turned himself over to the authorities, while Henry Muramoto died from his injuries en route to hospital. What was perhaps most surprising about this turn of events was the unprecedented amount of public support Woodruff received - not just sympathy, but outright admiration (to his credit, Ralph did at least wait until Henry's wife was out of the house before shooting him, even leaving her a handwritten note explaining his actions). Although he succumbed to his cancer in early 2018, Ralph Woodruff had become a modern day folk hero almost overnight, with online petitions demanding his immediate release from prison receiving thousands of signatures from across the globe. This incident only confirmed what many had already suspected - the era of "digilanteism", as one journalist dubbed it, was here to stay.

Footnotes:

[1] This scenario was very loosely inspired by the case of Vitaly Kaloyev.

 

[JRoge1]

Ashley O being interviewed in mid-2015, shortly before her brush with death in the Flight 404 disaster.​

One area in which technology has advanced considerably in recent years is that of holographic projection: the trend of resurrecting dead singers for posthumous concert tours was big for a while, although their popularity has taken a bit of a hit as of late.

In February of 2020, the late American pop idol Ashley O began her first holographic tour, appearing in simulated form at dozens of music venues in the United States and abroad. This tour (originally scheduled to last eight months) was heavily controversial - not only because the singer had been dead just a few years, but also due to the tragic circumstances surrounding her demise. In June of that year, the tour was abruptly cut short following the hologram's now-infamous appearance at the Hotshots Nightclub in Nevada.

Shortly before midnight, during a rendition of her 2011 chart topper "On A Roll", an electric fire broke out at Hotshots, and swiftly engulfed the premises. 39 concertgoers lost their lives that night, while the blaze itself was later attributed to a faulty projector (the lack of accessible fire exits didn't help, with the club's owners later being charged with 39 counts of criminal negligence and involuntary manslaughter).

Whether the Hotshots Fire was mere spooky coincidence, or an artist wrecking vengeance from beyond the grave remains up for debate: as many have noted, the disaster occurred almost four years to the day after the Shona Arizona star's untimely death). Whatever the case may be, some people just aren't willing to take the risk.

 

[JRoge1]

The earliest generation of neural implants (nicknamed "mushrooms" due to their distinctly fungal appearance) were highly unreliable, occasionally causing some less than pleasant experiences in patients.​

The mid-to-late 2010s marked the beginning of what is now referred to as the Neurological Revolution. This era saw humanity's first cautious (some might say reckless) steps towards true mind-machine interfaces, or MMIs. One of the first companies to experiment with such technologies was SaitoGemu, a Japanese gaming corporation that developed an implant intended to offer their players an immersive augmented reality experience. This project was ultimately abandoned following the tragic case of Cooper Redfield (pictured above), an American test subject who died milliseconds into his trial due to phone signal interference.

More famous was the case of Dr. Peter Dawson (a.k.a. the Pain Addict), a favorite among true crime enthusiasts and the poster child for luddites across the globe: in mid-2019, Dr. Dawson boldly volunteered to be fitted with an experimental device known as the sympathetic diagnoser. This implant, which was inserted just behind the ear, allowed Dawson to experience the physical sensations of others, provided they wearing a specialized hairnet-like device. As with many discoveries, the sympathetic diagnoser was happened upon by sheer accident: while a researcher was attempting to transfer memories between two laboratory rats, he accidentally spilled a cup of searing hot coffee onto one, causing both specimens to react with pain. Dr. Dawson spent several months at St. Juniper's Hospital diagnosing patients through sensations alone - despite the horrendous act he'd later commit, there's no denying that he did save lives.

This all changed in a single night, after the doctor experienced death vicariously through one of his patients. The flood of endorphins he felt damaged his implant, causing him to feel the pain of others as pleasure. Over time Dawson's behavior became increasingly erratic, and it wasn't long before he began prolonging patients' suffering for his own pleasure. The doctor was subsequently sent home while St. Juniper's researchers began working on a way to deactivate the implant (unfortunately, they had busy schedules, and project deadlines to meet...).

While it was obvious to other hospital staff that Dawson had become seriously disturbed, the true extent of the implant's effects would not reveal themselves until the following week: the doctor had realized that he could feel his own pain as pleasure, and spent several bliss-filled days cutting his skin, burning himself, pulling out his teeth and nails, etc. But self-mutilation only got him so far: he needed to experience the fear of another person. Just as one cannot tickle themselves, Dr. Dawson could truly scare himself, and so he decided to find a second participant.

The participant in question was Jasper Felix Gillett, a 58 year old homeless man who had been living on the streets for more than a decade. Like Dawson himself, Jasper had a habit, albeit one of a far more mundane nature, having lost his job, his home and his family to heroin abuse. At first, when his captor's intentions became clear, the vagrant begged for his life, but after a short time in Dawson's company, he begged for his death. Almost an hour would pass before he received this wish: the unparalleled sensation of Jasper Gillett's torturous demise completely overwhelmed the Pain Addict, short-circuiting his implant and causing him to fall into deep coma in which he remains to this day.

Dawson is presently housed in a private ward at the same hospital where he once worked his magic - the claim that he's still smiling, even in his vegetative state, is just an urban legend (probably). Dr. Dawson's tragic downfall is remembered as the most gruesome cautionary tale from the early Neurological Revolution.

The esteemed Dr. Peter Brent Dawson, diagnosing a patient through touch at St. Juniper's Hospital prior to his spiral into addiction, c. July, 2019.​

 

[JRoge1]

In most countries, by the early 2020s, memory erasure therapy cost roughly the same as laser-eye surgery.​

Another milestone of the Neurological Revolution was the development of technology enabling the deletion of undesirable memories using a piece of equipment called the expunger[1]. This groundbreaking technique (known colloquially as "scrubbing") received FDA approval in 2017, and has been pioneered by such companies as Nepenthe[2], where it has shown promising results in the treatment of trauma victims. To use one high-profile example, it is known that Princess Susannah had most of her recollections of the Bloom Affair erased (it is rumored that another of the involved parties may have done the same, which Downing Street has neither confirmed nor denied).

Some say that those who choose to forget the past are doomed to repeat it: in February of 2020, a young Canadian woman named Hailey Gendron was killed in a traffic accident while driving under the influence of alcohol. It later emerged that Ms. Gendron had been involved in a similar (though less severe) incident almost two years prior: while the initial crash did not leave her badly injured, Hailey experienced some psychological trauma as a result, and had decided to have her memories erased the previous summer. Hailey's parents (who were not aware of the procedure until after her death) later filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against Nepenthe: they argued (perhaps not unreasonably) that had their daughter retained the memory and emotional weight of her first accident, she would have been far less likely to again risk driving drunk.

The expunger has also seen far more unsavory applications: for example, a number of human trafficking groups are known to erase their victims' identities, making them harder to trace, and easier to control. There have been many instances of such victims being rescued by the authorities, and having to return to families they could no longer remember[3]. There have been a few documented occurrences of criminals using the device to scrub the memories of witnesses: such cases tend to be rare, as it's generally easier to silence them through more conventional means. A number of governments are rumored to erase the identities of violent criminals and political dissidents prior to mandatory re-education in lieu of long prison sentences. In some countries, total identity erasure has also been touted as an alleged "cure" for homosexuality.

There was also the stomach-churning case of American technician Francis Graham Frauenfelder (better known to the press as "Frankie Forget-Me", or the Memory Thief), one of the most prolific sexual predators of the last decade. Over a period of roughly eighteen months, Frauenfelder broke into the homes of no less than a dozen single, mostly middle-aged women late during the night. Afterwards, he forced himself on his victims, filming each of his assaults before using an unlicensed expunger to wipe their memories of his misdeeds (chillingly, sometimes visiting the same victims more than once). In his own twisted psyche, this unique method of predation was as much a kindness as it was a means of self-preservation - after all, he may be fulfilling his own depraved desires, but at least his victims would suffer no long-lasting psychological trauma.

Disturbingly, the bastard may well have gotten away with his crimes had it not been for the actions of a single burglar with a conscience: in October of 2020, the Memory Thief himself fell victim to a home invasion, wherein a number of his personal effects were stolen - including his laptop. Once its new owner discovered video footage of his heinous crimes, the hard drive was handed over to police, and Frankie Forget-Me was at last put behind bars. In custody, Frauenfelder boasted that he only filmed around half of the assaults he committed: whether or not he's making this up is unclear, though it's entirely possible he has many more victims that don't (and likely never will) know it.

Footnotes:

[1] The 2004 movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is regarded as highly prescient ITTL.
[2] Named for the legendary potion of forgetfulness from Greek mythology.
[3] Total erasure (sometimes referred to as "slating") tends to be less reliable than targeted erasure, and can lead to memories remanifesting themselves, as we'll see in the case of Victoria Skillane...

 

[JRoge1]

​

Of course, mind-machine interfaces weren't the only innovations of the 2020s. While the holy grail of artificial intelligence is still somewhere beyond the horizon, great strides have been made in the field of robotics, far beyond anything achieved IOTL. One such example is that of the MetaDog[1] (pictured above), which was first deployed in the battlefield in 2018, has since seen widespread adaptation by militaries across the globe.

These solar-powered canines are fully autonomous, and are used primarily for reconnaissance missions, surveying difficult terrain and identifying potential threats. MetaDogs are highly lethal and can, if required, neutralize enemy targets with frightening proficiency. Recently, MetaDog has branched out into the field of private security, which has led to some understandable concerns. Purchasing a single MetaDog is now more cost-efficient than hiring a whole team of human security staff - plus, their (mostly justified) reputation as ruthless killing machines is thought to act as a deterrent in high-crime areas.

On January 19, 2021, tragedy struck at a manufacturing facility in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The plant was one of the first of its kind to boast a fully-automated security system following a lengthy pay dispute with their team of private contractors. The building's resident MetaDog (known affectionately to the plant's employees as "Sparky") was equipped with fifty rounds of ammunition, and had been with the company six months without ever needing to fire a single bullet. On that fateful evening however, less than half an hour into the night shift, Sparky began mercilessly hunting down the plant's workers one by one, seemingly with no provocation whatsoever.

Although the massacre lasted mere minutes, it resulted in the deaths of some 46 employees, most of whom were systematically executed by the steely hellhound at close range. One worker, Simon Groenewald, who was just three months away from retirement, was fortunate enough to survive the onslaught of bullets, but succumbed to a fatal heart attack while awaiting rescue (doubtlessly induced by the sheer terror of the situation). By the time Sparky could be safely deactivated, it had already run out of ammunition.

Exactly what triggered Sparky's sudden rampage remains a mystery. For a time there were rumors that the dog might have been hacked by a security guard angry at being made redundant, but no evidence could be found to support this theory. A much more likely explanation was that the mechanical mutt experienced some sort of glitch causing it to perceive everyone on the premises as a threat to be eliminated - it could have been triggered by anything as innocuous as the sound of a bin tipping over, or a car door slamming. Whatever the case, the events of January 19 became so notorious that it effectively ended the commercialization of MetaDogs once and for all.

Canines weren't the only animals being used as a template for robots: the summer of 2020 saw the deployment of autonomous drone insects (ADIs) in the United Kingdom. Developed by the Granular corporation, these self-replicating drones were ostensibly introduced in the interest of environmental protection (colony collapse disorder having become more widespread, particularly in the British Isles, than in our reality). This was a half-truth: with the rise of terrorism and crime in recent years, the ADIs' real purpose was to serve as the most advanced surveillance system the world had ever seen (shutting up those pesky environmentalists was just a bonus).

Right from the beginning, some had suspected that the ADIs might be used in some surveillance capacity, but such concerns were generally laughed off as sheer paranoia. In light of the Flight 404 disaster five years earlier, there were also fears that the drones could accidentally collide with planes mid-air, although the public was assured that this had been taken into account with imposed flight restrictions. At the time, none could have predicted that the ADIs would play a central role in the greatest disaster in British history.

"I didn't expect to find myself living in the future, but here I fucking well am".​

Footnotes:

[1] Often erroneously referred to as "MetalDogs", their name in fact derives from the Metaverse described in Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash, which also featured robotic dogs.

 

[JRoge1]

New entry hopefully up some time next week

 

[JRoge1]

Detectives analysing thousands of ADI hives scattered throughout the United Kingdom.​

To paraphrase Vladimir Lenin, there are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen. The Week of Terror, as it is now called, falls into the latter of the two categories.

The Game of Consequences started out similar to any other flash-in-the-pan viral challenge. It first surfaced on Twitter in May of 2021, shortly after the autonomous drone insects were activated for their second summer (though few, if any, drew much correlation between the two). The rules of the game were simple: Twitter users were encouraged to tweet using the #DeathTo hashtag. Each message should be accompanied by the name and photograph of someone they wished dead, with the promise that the person who received the most votes would be eliminated at 5PM that evening. At the time nobody gave much thought as to exactly what this "elimination" entailed - they certainly had no idea that the "winners" would be killed by an ADI burrowing directly into their brain.

The first victim was Jo Powers, a controversial journalist who had evoked ire after publishing a scathing article on recently deceased activist and former Olympian Gwen Marbury. Powers had previously condemned Marbury for her decision to return her Olympic medal in the wake of the Omar Javaid enquiry On May 15, Ms. Marbury committed suicide by self-immolation outside 10 Downing Street in protest of the Callow government's sweeping cutbacks to disability allowance. Before Ms. Marbury's funeral had even taken place, Powers lambasted her suicide as representing "the worst kind of public attention seeking" (ironically, an insult that many of Jo's own critics had previously directed at her). Joanne's husband, James Powers, was the only other person at home when she was killed. As there were no signs of forced entry, James was initially considered a primary suspect, despite his claims that Jo had attacked him with a knife before slicing her own throat open.

While James' testimony failed to sway detectives, he was quickly ruled out as a suspect once more victims began turning up: the Game's second winner was American-born rapper Lionel Perryman (a.k.a. "Tusk"), who had caused public outcry with his callous dismissal of a young fan on national television. For many, this incident was the straw that broke the camel's back: Tusk had always been something of a divisive figure, with many blaming him for the suicide of his ex-fiancee, Shona Arizona star Ashley O. After collapsing in a parking lot during his concert tour, Tusk was rushed to hospital in an unresponsive state. It was here that the cause of his condition became apparent: an ADI had somehow become lodged in the pain center of his brain. Magnetic interference from the hospital's MRI machine had pulled it straight through his eye socket, killing the rapper instantly[1]. For the National Crime Agency, these findings were incredibly concerning.

The Game's third winner was 23 year old Clara Meades: unlike her two predecessors, Clara was not a public figure, just a young student who had made a foolish mistake - that mistake being, taking a picture of herself pretending to urinate against a war memorial. Despite the best efforts of detectives Karin Parke and Blue Coulson, who rushed to Ms. Meades to a supposed safe house outside the ADIs' range, the student met the same fate as both previous victims. Clara Meades died screaming, while the two detectives could do nothing but watch on helplessly. It was after this point that the public could no longer be kept in the dark about the Game of Consequences, and the ADIs' true purpose was revealed to the British populace.

Footnotes:

[1] The irony that Tusk (who had previously dodged death in the aforementioned Flight 404 disaster) was killed by a drone was not lost on anyone.

 

[JRoge1]

Art-terrorist Carlton Dudley Bloom (1974 - 2011).​

While the entire world is aware of Carlton Bloom and his sickening impact on history, comparatively few know of the strange circumstances that occurred five months after his death.

As the sole mastermind of the Susannah Abduction, Carlton Bloom remains one of the most reviled Britons in living memory. His actions - supposedly committed in the name of artistic pursuit - had inflicted indelible trauma upon not just Princess Susannah and Prime Minister Callow, but the entire nation. After his suicide, "Bloom the Loon" was buried in a family plot near his home town of Tillsdale. There was very little in the way of a funeral; his family had been through enough turmoil, and were eager to get the inevitable media circus over and done with. On December 4, Carlton's body was unearthed by an unknown party, for reasons equally obscure. Comparisons were made to the theft of Charlie Chaplin's body in 1978, although there was no ransom or monetary gain to be had. It would not be for several days that the fate of Bloom's corpse became apparent, thanks to a shocking discovery made at a barnyard several miles from his previous resting place.

In the early hours of the morning, an elderly farmer was horrified to discover what appeared to be human teeth in the pig pen. The police were contacted, and after having to spend an hour or so sifting through pig shit, more human bone fragments were discovered. These findings were cross-referenced with DNA taken from Bloom's severed finger (which he famously mailed to a television studio, pretending it belonged to the captive princess). Once the results came through, there was no doubt about it: Bloom's rotting corpse had been deliberately fed to more than a dozen hogs. The farmer in question was of course thoroughly interrogated, but there was no evidence to suggest he had any involvement in the theft (and indeed, seemed very disturbed by it).

The perpetrator has never been identified, although many view his actions as giving Carlton his just desserts. While not a very well known case outside of the United Kingdom, the theft of Bloom's body nonetheless serves as a grizzly postscript to one of the most depraved chapters in British history.

 

[JRoge1]

Expect Pt. 2 of the Week of Terror in the next couple weeks

 

[JRoge1]

The violent crime rate in Post-Bloom Britain was somewhat higher than IOTL. Sociologists have speculated that witnessing the Prime Minister being degraded in such a brutal and public fashion likely contributed to an unprecedented decline in the country's faith in its political institutions. Similarly, the death of Omar Javaid and the bungled inquiry made the police appear corrupt and incompetent. By far the most heinous crime witnessed during this period was the case of Jemima Sykes.

In the autumn of 2019, six-year-old Jemima vanished without a trace, the only clue as to her fate being her white teddy bear, which was discovered in a layby two miles from her home. The youngster's disappearance remained a mystery for roughly seven months, captivating the country in a manner not seen since the disappearance of Madeline McCann a decade prior. In 2020, a pregnant hiker named Cheryl Ticehurst found Jemima's body in an isolated section of forest, several miles from her last known whereabouts. Although the young girl's remains had been burnt beyond recognition, the traumatized mother-to-be knew almost immediately who she was looking at. Cheryl wasted no time in contacting the authorities, and tearfully told the operator "I've found her... I've found Jemima". The sight was so devastating that Mrs. Ticehurst would later undergo memory erasure treatment before giving birth.

Within thirty minutes, the entire area was being scoured by forensic teams. A cigarette butt, which had been stubbed out in Jemima's eye before her death, was retrieved and taken to the crime lab for analysis. Shortly afterwards, one of the two perpetrators, 30 year old Iain Desmond Rannoch, was arrested. Rannoch's fiance, 28 year old Victoria Natalie Skillane, was also taken into custody for questioning. Both parties denied any knowledge of the girl's disappearance, but after Victoria's phone had been confiscated, the pieces of the whole rotten puzzle began falling into place: a video clip, almost thirty minutes in length, depicted the six year old's agonizing final moments. The footage clearly showed Rannoch as the one responsible for Jemima's torture, while Skillane herself watched with sickening enthusiasm, mocking the child as she cried for her mummy, and singing Burn, Baby Burn as her mutilated corpse was wrapped in a sleeping bag and set alight.

The case was so notorious that it sparked furious debate as to whether or not capital punishment should be reinstated in the United Kingdom. Iain Rannoch would ultimately commit suicide in his cell, but the question remained of what to do with his fiance.

For some, death would not good enough.

Jemima Megan Sykes (February 18, 2013 - October 18, 2019)​

 

[JRoge1]

As I've been writing a bit about Skillane of late (much more to come Post-Week of Terror), I thought I'd share this neat story here. A brilliant work of fanfiction based on the episode - White Bear Justice Park Reviews.

 

[JRoge1]

Sorry for delays - second part of the Week of Terror should be up in the next week or two...

 

[JRoge1]

First-generation mnemograph.​

One of the most transformative inventions of the Neurological Revolution was the mnemograph (more commonly known as the recaller), a device which allows for the viewing of recently-formed memories. The recaller has numerous applications: aside from the obvious uses in police and investigative work, it has also been used in the healthcare industry - for example, patients with Alzheimer's may have their memories tapped in order to determine how far the condition has progressed, allowing doctors to prescribe the appropriate medication accordingly.

If there's any lesson that the past decade has made abundantly clear, it's that with each technological milestone comes new complications and challenges. This is apparent in the case of Mia "Crocodile" Nolan[1], a British architect who committed a series of murders in an attempt to escape her own past: in late 2005, then-22 year old Mia and her boyfriend, Rob Pearson, accidentally hit and killed a cyclist following a night of heavy drinking, before hastily condemning his body to the sea. The cyclist in question, 37 year old Anthony Dugdale, was never found: it is something of a dark irony that the circumstances of Anthony's death would only ever come to light due to Ms. Nolan's efforts to conceal her involvement.

Fifteen years later in December 2020, while staying at a hotel in Castleport, Nolan was visited by her newly-sober former beau, who revealed his intent to write a letter of confession to Dugdale's widow. Nolan, who was concerned only for her reputation, fought with Pearson and wound up killing him. As fate would have it, Rob's death coincided with a minor traffic accident outside Mia's hotel window, when a young musician named Gordon Grigsby was injured by a self-driving pizza truck. This improbable chain of events set in motion one of the most bizarre murder cases in British history.

The following day, Nolan was approached by Shazia Akhand, an insurance investigator who sought access to her memories of the accident. Shazia was not entirely truthful when she told Mia that if she refused the recaller, she would have to inform the police - but she wanted to close the case quickly to receive her bonus. Despite Mia's best efforts, Shazia witnessed her memories of Rob's death on the recaller. For the sake of her career, Mia was forced to kill not only Shazia, but her husband and their infant son (the fact the boy was blind, and could not therefore give a recollection, she did not learn until later).

The common belief that Nolan was ultimately thwarted by the Akhands' pet guinea pig, Codger, is a misconception: in fact, there was much more definitive evidence linking Mia to the murders, which is what lead to her swift arrest. Xenomnemography is not standard procedure - it's hard enough getting accurate memories from humans, let alone animals, but given the sheer brutality of the crime police went out on a limb to secure all the evidence they could[2]. The fact that the response team were able to harvest a grainy, single-frame reconstruction of baby Ali's murder was down to pure luck: had they arrived even an hour later the rodent's recollection would almost certainly have been totally indecipherable.

Nonetheless, the idea of a pet guinea pig serving as the smoking gun in a multiple murder investigation made for good headlines, and there were even calls for Codger to receive a public bravery award. Sadly, this media coverage contributed to the so-called "Nolan Effect", where there was a noticeable uptick in burglars needlessly killing household pets out of fear that they might be used to identify them.

Footnotes:

[1] So named because of her inelegant blubbering as she was dragged from her son's school play and taken into police custody.
[2] Perhaps not as incredulous as it sounds: the earliest mnemography experiments were, after all, conducted on rodents - including guinea pigs.

 

[JRoge1]

​

May 20, 2021: The fourth day of the Week of Terror, and the day that the ballot truly became public.

One might assume that learning the fate of the #DeathTo victims would make Twitter users somewhat more hesitant to participate in the Game of Consequences: in fact, this revelation produced the opposite effect. Joanne Powers, Lionel Perryman and Clara Meades had all been brutally executed based on the collective whim of less than 1500 people, none of whom were aware of the hashtag's lethal nature. By Thursday evening however, the number of players had skyrocketed, with more than 380,000 people having made their voices heard.

The projected "winner" of Day Four was none other than the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself, Thomas Raymond Pickering, who was still very much in the shit for his controversial slashing of disability benefits. Runners-up included Lord Farrington, an 82 year old MP and alleged pedophile, and Victoria Skillane herself[1]. The threat of hefty fines and lengthy jail sentences for those caught using the hashtag did little to stem the rising tide of bloodlust. There was of course some anger towards the government for using the ADIs as a tool for mass surveillance without the public's consent, but this would not fully materialize until after the Game had reached its conclusion.

The mastermind behind the Game of Consequences was eventually identified as Garrett Vincent Scholes, a former employee of Granular, Inc. In his 98-page manifesto (found embedded in the ADI extracted from Jo Powers' skull), Scholes likened humans to insects, arguing that cruelty and callousness were genetic defects that should be bred out of the population. With the 5PM deadline drawing closer by the second and the Chancellor still sitting in the number one spot, senior NCA member Shaun Li was forced to make a difficult decision - one that would stay with him for the rest of life (or rather, what remains of it).

Seeing no other option, Shaun took the initiative and pulled the plug on the entire ADI network over the protests of detectives Parke and Coulson. As Li had anticipated, every last drone insect in the United Kingdom immediately went dead, seemingly bringing the Week of Terror to an abrupt end. The jubilation however was short lived: mere seconds later, the ADIs reactivated, now operating outside of the government's control, and swiftly got to work exterminating the true targets of Scholes' wrath - that being, every last man, woman or child that had used the #DeathTo hashtag.

The exact number of people killed in the ADI massacre may never be known, although the official number presently stands at 387,036. It was the largest act of terrorism in world history, on a scale once considered unthinkable - a scale that made even the 9/11 attacks look the World Trade Center bombing by comparison. One of the most iconic photographs captured on May 20 showed healthcare workers mournfully packing dozens of corpses into bin liners - there simply weren't enough body bags to go around. The vast majority of victims were of course people who had used the #DeathTo hashtag: whether they were active participants in the Game of Consequences, had used the hashtag as a joke, or had even just tweeted as to enquire what all the fuss was about, was irrelevant to their executioners.

Many people were killed indirectly (these victims are sometimes grimly referred to as "collaterals"): by far the deadliest such incident took place in the south of England, where Clive Milburn, a 43 year old train driver, was killed. Tragically, Clive had only used the #DeathTo hashtag in a tweet imploring people NOT to take part in the Game of Consequences: in the ensuing chaos, the train derailed, causing the deaths of 60 passengers and leaving more than 300 injured (the death toll would almost certainly have been lower, but hospitals were already stretched far beyond their limits).

Garrett Scholes was never found. He is believed to have fled the country, like the East Village Bomber before him. Because of Scholes' actions, Britain became preoccupied with one thing and one thing only:

Revenge.

And as fortune would have it, one man was more than happy to take advantage of the situation.

Footnotes:

[1] The fact that the Chancellor outranked one known and one strongly suspected child abuser should give some indication of his popularity.

 

[JRoge1]

(Sorry I've been having a bit of trouble with images loading, should hopefully be fixed now xD)

 

[JRoge1]

Noting here for posterity that I've moved the dates of a few latter events up by a year or two. I've been trying to make the TL a bit more succinct, and I like the idea of National Anthem/Hated in the Nation occurring within ten years of each other. Some of the early Black Mirrors give me a "2010s-punk" vibe - I imagine the rapid pace of technological development seen the late 00s and early 10s not only continued, but accelerated.

 

[JRoge1]

Had an idea for a take on "Be Right Back" to incorporate into this timeline. Don't think I'll be including any human-like androids, but the idea of an app that allows one to "commune" with their deceased loved ones raises some interesting possibilities...

 

[JRoge1]

(Here's another entry, this one loosely based on the episode Be Right Back, with just a hint of Smithereens

​

The revolutionary app known as Communion was first released in the United States in the summer of 2019. Using the latest in artificial intelligence and speech synthesis technology, Communion offers a unique service to its customers: for a small fee, the app generates a simulated persona based on their departed loves ones. These personas[1] are piled together using samples of texts, tweets and video footage (sparking any number of Frankenstein comparisons), and Communion's chatbots are universally regarded as some of the most convincing ever made. That said, the app's existence continues to be the subject of passionate debate: while its stated goal is to help people suffering from loss, some would argue that it creates more problems than it solves.

One notable incident was that of 52 year old Dennis Hockenberry, whose youngest son, Jason, died following a short illness in December of 2019. Some months later, Dennis discovered that his wife, April, had used Communion to generate a chatbot possessing Jason's voice and personality, which she spoke to on a daily basis. Dennis was vehemently opposed to this, seeing it as highly disrespectful to their son's memory. Following a series of heated arguments (one of which ended in Dennis smashing April's phone on the floor), he was forced to move out. It was then that the grieving father decided to take matters into his own hands.

On August 5, 2020, Dennis Hockenberry showed up at Communion's headquarters brandishing a gun, and demanded to speak to the company CEO. Hockenberry (who was believed to be intoxicated at the time) claimed he would start shooting employees unless the simulated Jason was deleted immediately. With little alternative, Communion's CEO obliged, erasing the chatbot once and for all. By this point, the building was surrounded by armed police, and given that Dennis was clearly distraught, they weren't willing to take any chances: Mr. Hockenberry was shot once in the chest, and died en route to hospital. It was discovered shortly afterwards that his gun had not actually been loaded.

Another controversial case was that of Scott Lyon and Monica Deaton, a young couple from Wisconsin who found themselves in something of a love triangle in which they were the only participants: in 2019, Scott was involved in a motorcycling accident, his injuries so severe as to require placing him in an induced coma. His girlfriend was naturally distraught, and as days turned into weeks with no change in his condition, Monica signed up for Communion's service out of curiosity[2]. Almost eleven months after his accident, Scott defied doctors' expectations and awoke from his coma, showing no signs of brain damage.

When Monica came to visit Scott, she told him there was someone she'd like him to meet - his simulated persona. Scott was deeply upset by this: had Monica simply moved on with her life and met someone else he could understand, but this was a hollow imitation of him, made without his consent. Scott decided that he was willing to forgive Monica and continue their relationship providing she cancel her Communion subscription, to which his girlfriend tentatively agreed. But Monica had grown deeply attached to the chatbot in its own right: as Scott later discovered, she continued speaking to it covertly between his physiotherapy sessions, causing him to break things off with her.

Some time later, Monica learned that Scott's family were planning to sue Communion in order to have the chatbot erased, arguing that its existence violated his digital rights: for Monica, it seemed as though she was losing her partner all over again, and she felt unable to continue without the real or the simulated Scott in her life. In November of 2020, Monica Deaton was found dead in her apartment, having committed suicide by overdosing on painkillers. Her phone was found lying next to her with the Communion app still running, its warm, synthetic voice being the last thing she heard.

Following Monica's death, Scott Lyon found himself overwhelmed by guilt, feeling angry for letting himself become jealous of his digital doppelganger. It was with no small amount of hesitation that Scott later signed up for Communion himself, generating a chatbot based on his ex-girlfriend as a tribute to her memory: in some strange way, perhaps the two worked things out after all.

Footnotes:

[1] Sometimes disparagingly known as "zombots".
[2] Ironically, she might never even have heard of this service had her boyfriend not mentioned it in passing a week before the accident.

 

[JRoge1]

Next entry will be up in the coming weeks.