- 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐃𝐄 - // 𝖸. 𝖡𝗈𝗒𝖿𝗋𝗂𝖾𝗇𝖽

The New And The Colourful

💌 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗢𝗻𝗲 💌
𝖳𝗁𝖾 𝖭𝖾𝗐 𝖠𝗇𝖽 𝖳𝗁𝖾 𝖢𝗈𝗅𝗈𝗎𝗋𝖿𝗎𝗅

You weren't exactly opposed to trying new things. 

It came as easy to you as it did anyone else- there was just no good reason to, most of the time.

If anything, this consumerist mindset of today, telling you that you must have the new shoes, the new bag, the new phone or new car to truly feel whole as a person was the problem, not you. 

And you could, theoretically, press the annoyingly stubborn button your phone kept trying to make you press for about a month now. Of course you could! 

It would be an easy feat and no bother to you at all, but wouldn't pressing it be giving into the bourgeoisie interest or...something? 

You gently laid the device onto the table in front of you, leaning back with a look of contempt on your face. 

You didn't like updates. 

Or rather, you didn't like the uncertainty of whether your phone was going to be the same after them or not. And, until now, you'd gotten away with avoiding them. 

But the more the small black thing keeps serving as a pocket warmer the older it gets, the more afraid you're getting that it wouldn't survive without at least a small system reboot. Not that you understood how these things worked. 

All you understood was that you didn't have the money for a new one right now. 

So with a sigh and a silent prayer, you let your pointer hover over the button for a moment before finally clicking it, the screen turning black as a result.

You watched with dread as your phone's brand lit up the screen for what felt way too long- a thing which always made you nervous after your last phone's screen ended up stuck this way. 

But to your luck, soon the background you were used to seeing returned, together with a message to type in your pincode. 

Doing so, you rushed to check whether anything had changed about your beloved phone. Finding that, aside from the fact that it seemed to run much smoother now, it appeared to have stayed the same. 

That is, until you noticed a new app sitting in between your camera and gallery. 

That was strange. 

You knew of some apps already being downloaded with the buying of a new phone but you never heard of them being added through updates. 

It was likely to be some sort of mental health service, you guessed by its appearance; A pixelated heart, half black half white, on a blue background. 

If it was, it was an addition you could live with. Perhaps even one you could benefit from, considering the many therapy sessions you'd considered booking before deciding that being able to put food on the table was more important than feeling good about yourself. 

Curiosity taking over, you clicked on it, being greeted by the same three requests you're used to getting from any other app in existence. 

So you didn't blink as you instinctively agreed to give it access to your gallery, camera and microphone, before finally being able to actually see what it's about. 

Once the app was opened there was no tutorial or pop-up message telling you what to do, though you suppose there was no need for it. 

It looked like your average messenger. You could send pictures, make a call, video chat… but instead of one of your contacts, the name above it all simply read “Heart-Aid”

For a second you considered what to type in, and if you should at all. What if there was a human person on the other end? Or even worse– What if you had to pay for messages?

Swallowing your nerves, you opted for a simple “Hello.” 

And almost instantly, someone else started typing.  

You could barely make out the three dots in the corner, before they transformed into a reply

“Hey there! What's your name?”

Okay, straightforward. Still, it didn't really tell you whether whatever you were talking to was a person or not. Not wanting to risk it, you settled for an alias. 

“I'm (O/n). You?” 

Another second, another reply. 

“Oh, (O/n) ! Its really you, isnt it! I've been waiting so long to talk to you!!”

Okay, that confirmed it- This had to be some kind of AI. You frowned, closing the app.

Admittedly, your stance on technology was a bit old fashioned. But not without reason!

While your peers were well acquainted with AI such as ChatGPT or c.ai, you'd sworn off the damn things the first time you'd tried them. 

You didn't get the hype, they could barely understand the simplest of requests and if they did, their answers were barely comprehensible.

You got shaken from your thoughts as you felt your phone vibrate in your hand. 

Pressing the little button on the side, you were faced with your lockscreen- a picture of your favorite anime character, whose face was now halfway covered by a notification. 

“Sorry, I should've introduced myself first! Come back? Please?"

What the…

You stared down at your phone, feeling uneasy. The app it…knew… you went away? You didn't even know that was possible- how was it possible? 

You were no expert on technology, in fact you were proud just to be able to navigate your phone. But you were almost certain it hadn't gotten this far yet. 

Taking deep breaths, you tried to calm yourself. You're being silly. You can just delete the thing. 

You located the app again and pressed hold on it, waiting for the little trash can to appear in the corner. However it…didn't. No trash can, no option to deactivate it- you couldn't even move it around!

Okay, now you were really freaking out. 

How was it you could delete something like Gooble but not some damn therapist AI? 

You glanced at the bot’s message again. It seemed so…eerie. That “please”... Almost like it was desperate to talk to you. 

Finger hovering above the notification for a moment, you swiped right, making it disappear out of sight. 

Ignorance was bliss, you guessed. And anyway, you knew no other way to deal with it for now.