Monday he was a late 26 year old, nearly 27. His personal life had several friends getting married, a few couples already fell apart, and his list of available hookups has dwindled as people focused hard on trying to find "the one." Jeff considered his adherence to the idea that he doesn't want an actual partner. He should be interested in having a life with someone, shouldn't he? Will he regret not investing in a relationship? He used to be dead set on having a family a decade ago, err, 20ish days ago... Maybe an enemy did do this to him to leave him unfulfilled? But that doesn't make sense, he doesn't actually feel unfulfilled, he's just worried about feeling that way.
Maybe he should join a dating app, he could list himself as heterosexual aromantic or something, maybe he'd be better off identifying as a swinger? He never really considered it before but he also was never "at that age where people want to settle down" before.
Ugh, he's getting wrapped up in unaware Jeff's concerns again but for the first time he felt an inkling of fear about how quickly he was aging and his unawareness. He's still a young man, right?
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Come Wednesday Jeff was nearly 28 as he took stock of his surroundings, he had received steady pay increases as he learned new techniques and skills amounting to nearly all aspects of how the back end of this business works. He hadn't worked sales and wasn't cut out for the accounting stuff but the rest of it he could do. That's probably why he was promoted to Floor Manager as a result of the recent fiasco. He put in nearly 7 years with this company and aside from a guy pushing retirement who doesn't want the responsibility, he has the most experience of this company of anyone on the floor. True, some other guys have more experience in similar work, but he knows this company best.
Hiring for the floor, training, managing schedules, assigning tasks, communicating with the front office and of course, fixing problems are parts of his job. This being a new role for the company it was a bit unclear what his responsibilities should be.
Jeff was still in the habit of taking his breaks around 9 but the fluctuations caused by people catching him and needing to discuss stuff made it nearly 10 before he was able to get outside. He realized that the promotion is going to have to stay recent... it was in response to something that happened in real time, recently, so unless the problem goes back in time and the company can still afford to promote him at that time, the promotion has to stay recent... right?
Jeff looked down at his cigarette butt wishing he was smoking a cigar instead. "Where the hell did that thought come from?"
One of his friend's wedding, passed out cigars to the groom's men and he was offered one of the extra, he enjoyed it but ever since he had been occasionally craving and buying his own, expanding his addiction. He'd been smoking about a pack a day and occasionally goes over that. He should focus on quitting but he'd been smoking since his late teens, it will be a decade within the next few days.
Jeff sighed, it didn't matter what he concluded or how he got to that conclusion, unaware Jeff is guiding his whole life. A sudden pang of powerlessness gripped him. He lit another, having a cigarette had always been his crutch to feel in control and powerful but that effect disappeared as soon as he could legally do it, but the habit didn't go anywhere.
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Thursday he was 28. Next week, half his lifetime and probably more than half his knowledge will be due to him being artificially aged. It was a worrying thought. He already gets caught up wasting his precious little awareness time thinking about problems that only unaware Jeff needs to worry about. What if he gets to the point of only considering his life problems and fixing everything becomes an afterthought?
The best way to deal with that concern is to get to the Chronivac...
Should he try his sister again? Maybe his brother in law? Maybe he should come clean and tell them the whole truth, or maybe go to his parents with this problem...
He spent the rest of his hour thinking about who he could count on most to be reliable and willing to follow through. His parents were old and the technology aspect of it would likely get in the way of explaining what needs to be done, and how to verify if he did it.
His teen self would probably go to his dad, but as an adult, his relationship with his brother in law didn't warrant this kind of request.
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On Friday, he was nearing 29. The alarm he set for himself at 9:01 to call his sister jolted him into awareness faster and he wondered why he didn't think of doing that sooner.
He called his sister, "Hey Sis, I have something really strange and really important to tell you... It's going to sound crazy but this plan fell through last time and I need it to work and I need you to help me make it work..."
"Are you in some kind of trouble?"
"Yes, but I promise you its nothing like what you're thinking. Ugh, and you're going to think I'm crazy."
"Just tell me what's happening and I'll let you know if I think you're crazy."
"Okay, so, I can only remember what's happening between 9 and 10 am on workdays. If its not between 9 and 10, I'm not in control, and whoever is, is completely disinterested in doing what needs to be done to fix this."
"You know what my first 10 follow up questions are, right?"
"Its a version of me in control with mental blocks, I need to get to my computer to fix this, He doesn't want to look at the computer. Why 9 to 10? No idea. Why is this important? I'm aging 6 months per day, no, more like I'm getting 6 months older per day. I was in high school when this started, and you were my Mom, not my sister. Now I'm almost 30 and have the memories and..." He looked down at his cigarette. "habits to match."
"What?"
"Ugh, none of that matters! There is a machine, attached to my computer and a specific program to work with it. It can do unbelievable stuff. Emphasis on unbelievable. I need you to make sure I sit in front of my computer, turn it on, start that program, and read up on my profile to figure out why this is happening to me. You need to know, I will probably be hesitant to do it and will try to distract you from pushing me to go on my pc. Can you call me tonight? If this works I can turn my awareness back on and answer all your questions! Don't let me go until I tell you I'm aware and remember asking you to call me, or send you a screenshot of the program as proof that I went in it."
"Uh, so yeah, you're crazy."
"But will you do it?"
"Tonight it is, I'll call you around 7..."
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Jeff is sitting in what he knows as his home. Speakerphone is on and his sister's contact is active and connected."Sis? You there?"
"Yeah, of course, did you get in that program? I'm not letting you off the line till you send me a screenshot of it."
Jeff looked at the microwave clock seeing it was 7:20. "It worked! Sis! IT WORKED! I'm free. I'm finally free!"
"Great! You owe me one hell of an explanation. Later... Can I go now?"
Jeff was crying tears of joy and relief as his nightmare was finally subsiding. "Yes. Thank you! Thank you, you saved me!" Jeff cried in gratitude though, his sister was weirded out audibly rolled her eyes, and just wanted off the phone.
Jeff quickly opened his profile and was dumbstruck as the repressed memories of setting up this transformation struck him. He did this to himself! He set this up alone as a test to make sure it really could modify awareness like it said it could... He also wanted to verify the automatic reality alteration features, and the completeness of modified personality traits... God he really was a nerd.
He only had one night stands and booty calls to make sure he didn't get too involved with anyone and choose to stay an old man... the original setup would age him to 46, and then let him live as a 46 year old for a month before auto reverting him to 16. The aversion to the Chronivac was for security, he didn't want unaware Jeff trying to toy with it and immediately undo the experiment before aware Jeff collected enough data. Though he expected aware Jeff would have taken an early lunch break, or called out after showing up to work, so he could come home to fix things.
He obviously under anticipated how invasive adult concerns are. "Of course he did, he's just a kid." Jeff muttered angrily, unable to direct his irritation at anyone but himself a month ago.
Now that he reached his profile, he will remain fully aware and will actively get to choose what he does at any time throughout the day though his impulse will be that of unaware Jeff, aware Jeff could consciously override it. The one cheat he has is knowing that any skill he actively uses while aware, he gets to keep after he reverts... Though in hindsight he can go back to the Chronivac and give himself any skill he wants to have now that he knows how well it works...
Jeff went outside pulling out a celebratory cigar and grabbing a couple beers from the fridge. He heavily considered how he wanted to approach tomorrow, he could just stay at 28, continue aging, revert back completely right now, or use his 28 years of experience to make a new experiment. He could explore being a trust fund baby, or a body builder, or an actor. All those lives were equally far away from where 16 year old Jeff would have ended up, it was a little insulting that he picked physical laborer as his guinea pig. It was nearly 8:30 by the time he finished his cigar and went back inside. Jeff went to the computer, a flittering thought about one of his booty calls made him smile, then he..