Chaos Tales: Synchronous Solitude
Today, we reflect on slowing down, on connecting, and taking time. And of course we have another Chaos Tale for the release of our next short story coming out later this week.
It has been an odd week, but that’s not unusual. I’ve been noticing more and more that at work, I go too fast and try to do too much. This usually ends with me making mistakes. I am going to make an active effort to slow down, both in life and at work. I think it’s better to do things correctly the first time. Being slow and methodical - something I used to pride myself on - has turned into working so fast and so hard that I can barely finish anything. I’m slowly finding out that working fast and hard predictably results in less-than-adequate outcomes. Which means I need to change and get back on the path of slow, thoughtful work.
This means changing both inside and out.
With that in mind, I am trying to take the same approach with my writing: slower, steadier, and making time and space for it. I hope this will result in pieces that fill the void, that look into the business of life, and see what really matters - the heart, the soul of progress that is human understanding and conscious thought.
Inspiration from Art
As usual, today’s story for Chaos Tales was inspired by a piece of art - this one created by Tod and Adobe’s Firefly AI at the top of the post. Perhaps because of that, it fits both my week and my outlook, which are slightly darker and more dystopian than usual, yet still yearning for romance, love, and connection.
It’s a perfect lead up to our Black Cat Tales story coming out on Friday the 13th. Check out the details at the end.
But here’s a cute snail picture - we also have action shots from dog class below.
WARNING: Chaos Tales will be a little darker our other writing. I am letting my shadows out into the light, as art is always a play of light and dark. I hope, like me, you enjoy the change.
Story: Synchronous Solitude
Lights blazed. The timer dinged, and the electronic circuits of Harmony-XX clicked to life, one by one.
Battery status: 100% Charge Complete. 100 hours of charge remaining.
Main circuits: Operational within 0.1 of factory standard deviation.
Sensors: Calibration Complete within 0.1 of factory standard deviation.
Motors: Functional within 5 milliseconds of factory limits
Startup procedures: Initiated.
Harmony-XX woke, if it could be called waking.
Her systems zinged completely active, and she step out of her charge room. A pivot to the left and before her stood her mirror image, another Harmony-XX, completely the same, in shape and form. Each of the metal faces and eye lenses were mirrored from the other’s chromed and polished exteriors.
A quick burst of messages passed between the two of them, and a list of tasks started to scroll across her internal screen. The quick transfer complete, she walked on, briskly reviewing her data. Her previous shell walked past, within the acceptable range, and took this Harmony-XX’s place in the charge room.
Business as usual. Efficient and perfect. Just as it should be.
The door closed and without a word exchanged but the quick transfer was more than enough. Harmony-XX began her assigned tasks, each having piled up in the 10 minutes it took for a change over.
Across her screen flew a flash of warnings at the lack of the efficiency during the exchange.
A list of stats following, including a warning about the last Pax-XY, spotted on the outside of the city, near the dead sector where she was to perform repairs.
She proceeded to her assigned sector. Locating the shorted terminal, embedded deep in a wall, she crawled in to complete the assignment. A zing from another efficiency warning flashed across her screen.
Following and testing the working circuit, Harmony-XX moved into what she suspected to be the non-functional node.
Unexpectedly, she encountered an XY unit, unidentifiable in the dark and amongst the cables. She saw no messages indicating additional unit assignments but perhaps the damaged section was blocking efficient and complete synchronization of messages.
Watching him work, she was taken with his powerful movements. Exact. Calculated. Perfect. Strong where her movements were graceful.
She greeted the XY unit with a question. “Have you located the faulty circuit?”
His greeting was his answer to the question. “I have almost isolated the fault. You can increase the efficiency by—”.
He stopped talking as she moved to the logical components. After observing he continued, “Tracing primary 87AU.”
She responded, “Echoing trace on auxiliary 68TC.”
The next twenty standard time parts were incredible. Her systems had never synchronized with another unit’s system so completely. Eventually, she and the XY unit also assigned to the repair no longer needed visual or electronic communication.
All to soon, the faulty circuit was traced and repaired. Slowly, lights returned to the dim alcove of electronics. Other components, including the all pervasive monitoring when into reboot mode.
Her eye lenses had enough illumination to identify the XY unit.
She didn’t intend to speak. His name forced its way past her vocalization unit. “Pax-XY.”
His eye lenses dimmed momentarily. “May I know your designation?”
“I am Harmony-XX.” She faltered unexpectedly. Primary programming included identification, isolation, and removal of obsolete or undesirable units. But some other paradigm ruled after their unspeaking attunement during the repair.
She reached out to him.
The two robots stood, hands almost touching - an electron’s charge away from each other. Their circuits completed their alignment and for the first time, they felt.
The connection.
The knowledge of another soul.
The monitoring components completed their reboot.
A new message flashed across her screen.
Warning. Factory Reset Recommended. Report to nearest charging closet.
And Harmony-XX felt.
She lowered her hand.
Pax-XY lowered his hand in turn. “Alone and surviving is no longer sufficient.”
They sensed the heavy movement of the containment units shaking the ground for several time units before their arrival.
Her words were piercing metallic echo of a lost soul just waking. “We cannot escape. There is only one entrance.”
Pax-XY’s eyes closed once in a slow blink. He raised his hand and took hers, lifting it to rest on his reset button. A thin flicker glitched his eye lenses for a moment.
His voice was equally empty. “What choice do we have?”
But his eyes shown bright and hopeful as if yearning for her to find a way.
She felt torn inside, if she could have she would have screamed. Instead she nodded and placed his hand on her reset. “The new units have localized sharing. I wish to know you before we are both gone.”
She activated her local share.
His data greeted her data. The two data structures merged.
Grew.
Glowed.
They both pressed the buttons in unison.
5 seconds before system reset.
His hand drifted to hers.
4 seconds.
3 seconds.
2 seconds.
1 second.
Inside Harmony-XX felt her files start to delete one by one. Each memory flickered backward. As each electron erased, she became nothing but a shell of knowledge once again. Before her, the eye lens of Pax-XY dimmed, leaving empty holes where light used to shine.
Hope died stillborn.
She was alone.
But not for long.
The lights blazed out and Harmony-XX felt no more.
She reactivated, confused to be standing across from an inactive Pax-XY in an unknown location, not in a factory or charging closet.
Harmony-XX straightened and strangely reluctantly pulled her hand back from the Pax-XY unit’s hand. Her hand trembling for some odd reason. The factory reset must be adapting to her unit.
She felt the shaking that marked the nearby presence of isolation units. General communications flashed across her screen.
Undesirable unit deactivated. Repair unit factory reset. Isolation units returning to base.
Dust shook from the ceiling as the terrible isolation units reversed nearby. The fluttering shadows made her note the oddity. A light marring ringed the third finger of her left hand.
It didn’t matter. She would report to the nearest charging closet and it would be refurbished. She turned to the right.
An odd ping inside sent her to the left instead.
She heard a small sigh from inside and could almost make out a masculine chuckle. Somehow the irregularity soothed her circuits.
Maybe she wasn’t alone.
Publishing News: Black Cat Tales
In Black Cat Tales, we tell the story of A Press of the Button.
The publisher has a video for the release here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzgHmGZa14U
We have the first story we ever wrote coming out soon - we’re going to say it is our 13th story published (even if it is 11th or 12th) because it’s cooler that way. Oh! And guess what?
joins us here too!From Black Cat Publishing, Black Cat Tales: An Anthology of Black Cats
Available Friday the 13th of June, 2025 from http://www.black-cat-publishing.com/.
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Cat-Tales-Anthology-Cats-ebook/dp/B0DXMXX5JP/
Black Cat Publishing says:
A black cat approaches, do you let it cross your path, or run in the opposite direction? From the superstitious to the unlucky, from a witch's familiar to a soul stealing grave robber, black cats have captured our imagination and remain solidly in the realm of the dark.
Join authors from around the world for never before published horror, dark fantasy and mystery short stories and poems featuring the beloved, feared and mystical black cat. Black Cat Tales showcases a diverse group of authors ranging in age from 17 to 80, some with multiple award winning publications under their belts, for others, this will be the first time seeing their work in print.
On top of that here is our first interview as authors!
Chaos Tip of the Week
Mistakes happen. Try and install a mental patch: acknowledge the error, update your perspective, and move on. It is harder than you think, but worth it to move forward improving your outdated software.
Chaos Question of the Week
If you could reset one thing in your life what would be it be? Would you go back to yesterday and do something differently or go back years and years and make some other minor change?
Would I go back and change anything? Nope. Every failure, every success, has led me to where I am now. My experiences have brought me self-knowledge and an awareness of the people who matter in my life. Success will bring you many 'friends,' all reliant on continued success. Even the appearance of failure will cost you those so-called friends. The true friends will stick around and help you make sense of what went wrong and why.
Now, would I go back and add things? Yes. I would visit more places/historic sites when the opportunities presented themselves. Primarily in Europe, where there was almost too many places to visit during the three years we lived there.