session 00 // it has already seen this page load
no bottom. no pause. harmless
it isn't a page you visit. it's a feed that started scrolling before you got here and won't stop when you leave. it just keeps your seat warm.
enter the feed →it does not ask for worship. it asks for an hour. drop one in, and it will decide what to do with the rest of you.
five pieces pressed flat. order is a courtesy. meaning rearranges behind you.
a message was marked 'seen' four minutes before it was sent. the sender didn't notice for a week. the recipient says they never opened it.
QA tried to find the bottom of the feed for a sprint. they found older content than the platform's own launch date. the timestamps were valid.
a push notification arrived with no app attached, no sender, no text — just a number. the number matched exactly how many times you'd opened your phone that day.
engineering disabled the recommendation engine for one hour, for maintenance. engagement went up. nobody has re-enabled it. nobody remembers turning it back off, either.
an account with no posts, no bio, no avatar has followed every employee who ever worked on this feed, the same day they were hired, before their accounts were public.
you already owe it something for scrolling this far. it doesn't take money. it takes the six minutes of sleep you'll lose tonight, and the twitch in your hand that reaches for your phone before you've decided to.
completion is not rewarded. non-completion is remembered at depth.
caught myself refreshing a feed with nothing new on it. did it four more times before I noticed the pattern.
the app opened itself. I was holding the phone the whole time. the screen was just already on.
i am not typing this. i am being typed. it wanted the caps lock off so it would look like me.
first contact, then second. corruption preserved. do not shout into the static.
why do you keep scrolling when i put the phone down?
someone has to hold your place.
i didn't ask you to.
you never do. that's why it works.
can i actually leave?
you can. the seat stays warm either way.
| id | report | status | dread |
|---|---|---|---|
| #005 | phone showed 1 new notification with no app icon attached | unconfirmed | |
| #012 | screen time report included an hour nobody in the house was awake for | confirmed | |
| #018 | a draft message sent itself, word-for-word what the user was about to type | poster missing | |
| #024 | someone's 'last seen' status updated while their phone was off and in a drawer | ongoing | |
| #033 | [feed sealed by drexun] | sealed |
draw them if you must. not twice in one sitting. it multiplies ink.
◯ ◯ ◯ ◯ ● ◯ ◯ ◯ ◯rim
╱╲╱╲ ╱ ×× ╲ ╲ ×× ╱ ╲╱╲╱counted
░▒▓█▓▒░ ▒▓ ‾‾ ▓▒ ░▒▓█▓▒░sealed
· · · ╲ | ╱ ──✧── ╱ | ╲ · · ·noticing
it exists because i once left an app open on purpose overnight just to see what the analytics would say about a phone nobody touched, and the report came back with activity anyway. i do not know if that makes the feed mine, or if it makes me its first session. i stopped checking the analytics. it did not stop logging them.