Page 1 of Nothing to You
ONE
“OH MY GOD, do you even know what you’re talking about?”Roux Radley asked.
Wearing a wireless headset, she strolled back and forth in front of her home desk, running a pencil through her fingers over and over.
“Do I know what I’m talking about?”his deep voice came through her earpiece.
“The whole point of this group is to debate different points of view…” another voice, the moderator, said.“Respectfully.”
“Ha!”Hotshot got in before she could respond.Damn him.“Firefly doesn’t do respectfully.She’s loud and obnoxious—”
“And right every time,” she said, triumphant.
Hotshot snatched the victory.“Thus, I rest my case.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head, her speed increasing.“Thus nothing.You don’t.If I’m loud and obnoxious, you’re brash and arrogant.You never rest your case—you go on and on and—”
“Please,” the moderator cut in.“Huddle rules are specific.There can be no name calling or bullying.”
“He started it.”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to finish it by ejecting both of you from the group.”
“But I—”
Dead silence betrayed it was done.No arguments allowed.It wasn’t the first time.On a sigh, she tossed her pencil to the desk and went into the kitchen to retrieve fruit from the freezer.Definitely time for a treat.
Huddle was a sort of social media site.Sort of because it was like all of them and none of them.Profile pages didn’t exist.You were your handle on Huddle.Your handle and your level.Nothing else.No one came from anywhere or had any family… that the group at large knew.
The network consisted of temporary booths.Each one had a tier number, a color, and a topic.The tier and color of the limited time booths were determined by algorithms and employees based on their divisiveness.Users could pop in, join the conversation, and zip out whenever they wanted.
Booths were rooms, groups, where people got together to voice chat.No one had a face.No video allowed.Audio only.A user leveled up depending on their platform history.The higher their level, the higher tier booth they could participate in.
An actual human approved and monitored every member.They limited new admittance each week so the humans at the Huddle end could keep an eye on their charges.
Being disruptive or bullying at a lower level would get a member banned, which meant they never got a chance at the higher, more contentious, levels.
At level one, you got to join the most benign chambers.Like “Who doesn’t like puppies?”And “Air is good.”That last one quickly got boosted to a higher tier after the debates on climate change took over.Talk about a raucous.
Being ejected from a chat could get someone dropped a level, but the human involvement at Huddle kept a close check on users.Spot checks happened regularly.Twenty-four, seven.Huddle employees could be listening at any time.She should know.She was one.
Cutting up strawberries, she tossed them into the blender, popping the odd half between her lips.
A Huddle ring came through her headphone.
“Huddle, answer,” she said into the microphone.
“Been a while since that happened.”
She smiled.“It was your fault.”
“Want to find another fight?”
“Not tonight,” she said.“How’d the date with Red Shoes go?”
“Wasn’t a date,” he said.“How’s Darts Man doing?Break his heart yet?”
“They all have their hearts broken eventually.”
