Henry Gower, College Student

Saturday Afternoon

I stretch, feeling the joints in my neck cracking as I roll my head. It was the start of a week long holiday and I had forgotten to set my alarm again. I pick up my phone as my stomach rumbled reminding me that I had missed breakfast and lunch. The charging cable falls flat on my bed and a new notification catches my eye.

Application for Direct Messaging Into the Neocortex (ADMIN) installed

What? A new app. I new I hadn't installed anything new in the last month, let alone last night. Also what did this mean, "direct messaging into the neocortex"? I open it up and start flipping though the FAQ, my confusion growing before I hear a banging on my door. 'Wake up already' Esme, my younger sister shouts through the door, I hear her footsteps pound down the stairs before I can respond. Shrugging, I quickly scroll though the nearby girls, confused to see my sister there- had the app somehow synced to my contacts. This must be some sort of data-miner, but there isn't much I could do now, so I decide to type in a quick command "make me breakfast" and confirm the popup.

87% chance of success, 2% battery power. Confirm? Cancel?

It pings a "success" while I place my phone down, already forgetting about the app and heading downstairs to the smell of eggs cooking. 'I wanted to welcome you home, so I made breakfast!' Esme smiles, piling up my plate, letting me sit down and eat it up, before rushing to my room. I grab my phone and scroll through the app, looking for the perfect quest. Before I can search for the one I want, my phone harasses me with another popup:

When awareness is off, targets will rationalize any commands they receive as being their own idea or the result of an accident, etc. Individual subjects can have their awareness adjusted without changing the global setting. The user cannot toggle their own awareness off.

That makes sense, but I don't need to mess with awareness now, so why is it telling me this? shaking my head I search for the quest I want, taking a look at the options as I do so.