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Summer Storms (5) : There have been plenty of thunderstorms this summer, and everyone is blaming the weather for the strangeness of their electronics--or, bored kids out of school. It’s not uncommon to get phone calls from impossible numbers--strings of letters and numbers, and a blank caller ID. It’s hard to make out any sounds; it sounds like static, and a broken up voice in a language you can’t make out. There is no way to call the number back; it says the line is disconnected. Sometimes, text messages come through, in foreign symbols. The messages always disappear within a few seconds, and there’s no way to reply. People have even had video chats, but the image is always staticky and it’s impossible to make out any details except for a silhouette, and the same strange, foreign language. The city is hoping to have this issue fixed soon, but in the meantime they are asking for patience.
The nice thing about living in a mansion, besides all of the other nice things that came with it was the enclosed porch that they had in the backyard. The backyard was quite large, but one of the places he liked to most was the enclosed porch. Not only did it keep the rain out but there was also an in-ground firepit that they were able to use during the winter in case they wanted to enjoy the warmth of the fire and be outside at the same time.
Today was no different other than it was thunder storming. But the booms were far away and weren’t too loud as the storm moved on. But what was weird were the random text messages that Jacques had been getting. What really bothered him about it was that he was expecting some news through the form of a text message, so every time that it happened, he would have to look at his phone to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.
Instead, he was getting spammed by messages with foreign symbols and then they deleted themselves. At least if he could go in there and delete them himself, he could also block the number that was sending them as well. It as though someone was trying to hack his phone. But it wasn’t just his phone, other people online were starting to complain about it as well. So, either there was an attack on their phones through text messaging or someone had hacked the system. Neither of the two was good, but apparently repairs were underway.
Still, what he received in the text messages were annoying and random. Sometimes it would have a voice, sometimes the message would open a video chat, but the images would be filled with static.
He had sent an email to the company that was wanting to buy some pieces from him that if they could please email him or call by landline or even use a messenger pigeon instead of calling on his cell phone, that would be great. He was getting tired of all of this, and he wasn’t even sure he could blame it on magic at this point. Sure, it was random and weird, but he was sure this also fell into the line of hacking phones as well. So, to say that it may have had a magical origin when there were no signs of magic, other than the symbols and possible voice, then he couldn’t say for sure that it was something that wouldn’t be fixed eventually.
It was why he was out here on the porch. Listening to the rain and watching the clouds go by was much more entertaining than whatever this hack was trying to do to their phones and he just wanted it to be over with.
When he went to the Negaverse next time, he would ask them if it possibly came from them, just in case they were testing something out. And if they were, could they please leave his phone out of it next time?
