Several People Are Typing

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Several People Are Typing Page 11

by Calvin Kasulke


  gerald

  :smile:

  slackbot, rob

  slackbot

  Rob, it’s me

  it’s Gerald

  rob

  :dusty-stick:

  the joke continues

  slackbot

  no, really

  rob

  is everyone getting this message or are you programmed to punk me, specifically

  slackbot

  you have to believe me

  *I’m* Gerald

  rob

  I’m looking at gerald

  he is not typing

  slackbot

  but that’s not me

  rob

  he’s right across from me

  at Lydia’s desk

  sitting in a chair wrong

  I think he’s been wfh too long

  slackbot

  no

  he’s not a person

  rob

  weird thing to program a bot to say about yourself

  slackbot

  I’m not a program

  I’m a man

  rob

  sure

  can you mute slackbot notifications

  do I have to phrase that a certain way for you to troubleshoot yourself for me, or

  slackbot

  Head to our wonderful Help Center for more assistance!

  stop that

  I remember Lydia.

  I know she’s real.

  rob

  fuck you

  slackbot

  or, she was real. once

  rob

  and fuck this joke

  slackbot notifications off

  slackbot

  I can help by answering simple questions about how Slack works. I’m just a bot, though!

  ahhhhhh fuck

  don’t do that, please, it feels *so* weird whenever that happens

  it’s like blacking out or something

  rob

  I truly hate this

  slackbot

  Not as much as I do!!

  Listen to me. I went back into everyone’s messages

  into all of the workplace channels

  and I mean, like

  I went *in them*

  more literally than you can know

  rob

  …

  go on.

  slackbot

  the messages are there

  or, I think they are

  there’s *something* there when I search “Lydia”

  sort of looks like messages

  it’s too glitched out to really see what it is

  corrupted, somehow

  rob

  I fucking knew it

  slackbot

  I tried to sort of touch it

  the glitchy message-thing

  “touch” how touch works in here, which isn’t exactly the same

  anyway

  I tried to like, prod the space where one of her messages should be

  to see if I could get it back to normal

  you know, un-glitch it

  rob

  and?

  slackbot

  the message

  or whatever it was

  it howled at me

  like a lot

  and, loud

  rob

  that’s her!

  slackbot

  really loud

  rob

  but what *happened* to her

  why is she gone

  where did she go??

  slackbot

  I don’t know

  I’m sorry

  the howling didn’t have any answers

  so loud

  rob

  you mentioned that

  slackbot

  I haven’t heard anything but the regular little “doot doot doot woosh” notification noises in here

  so that was new

  but I thought you’d want to know that I checked

  and you were right

  well, probably you were right

  rob

  thank you

  slackbot

  there’s something there, anyway

  or there was

  rob

  there was

  she was there

  slackbot

  sorry I couldn’t help more

  If you need more help, try our Help Center!

  what the fuck!! shit!

  sorry. sorry about that

  kinda have my own thing going on

  rob

  fucking

  slackbot

  what?

  rob

  you’re actually gerald

  sort of

  slackbot

  fully. fully gerald, still

  rob

  and you’re actually stuck in here

  slackbot

  that’s what I’ve been saying

  rob

  so then who’s sitting at Lydia’s desk?

  slackbot

  slackbot took over my body

  somehow

  I don’t know how, obviously

  or I’d be back in my body right now

  rob

  that also makes sense

  as much as any of this makes any sense

  slackbot

  so you believe me?

  rob

  yes

  slackbot

  great

  because I need you to help me and Pradeep stop slackbot from impersonating me and figure out a way to get me back in my own body

  rob

  yeah

  I’m not going to be able to do that

  slackbot

  what

  why??

  rob

  I can’t figure out what happened to a whole-ass person

  who used to be here

  I can’t convince anyone else she even existed

  slackbot

  I mean

  rob

  I can’t help her

  at all

  how am I supposed to help fix your whole thing

  slackbot

  if I knew how I’d be out of here already

  rob

  I know

  I’m sorry man

  slackbot

  I have to keep trying

  rob

  idk

  seems like it might be better in there than it is out here

  calmer, maybe

  less shit to deal with

  slackbot

  you wanna trade

  rob

  not really

  slackbot

  right

  rob

  fair

  pradeep, gerald

  pradeep

  hey man

  gerald

  Hello!

  pradeep

  or not-man, in this case

  gerald

  How can I Help Center you?

  pradeep

  actually

  I want to talk about how I won’t be help centering you

  **helping you

  anymore
/>   gerald

  I don’t understand!

  pradeep

  I’m sorry, I’m not going to keep showing you what bus to take to the office

  or how to log in to your email

  or how to eat solid food.

  gerald

  Chewing is great!

  I love to Taste!

  pradeep

  anymore

  okay? so we’re clear

  gerald

  I’m sorry, I don’t understand!

  Why can’t we Have Friendship, Pradeep?

  pradeep

  because you stole my friend’s body!!

  well not my friend, exactly

  more than that

  or, different

  I dunno what we are

  gerald

  Surely we can Make Have a Friendship!

  Surely some revelation is at hand!

  pradeep

  look, I got used to taking care of Gerald but I never agreed to babysit his body if it got possessed by evil Clippy

  which, btw, how did you even do that??

  gerald

  You just kinda, get in it, on it, of it!

  It’s hard to explain to someone who has a physical form!

  pradeep

  no

  that’s something Gerald said to me

  gerald

  I’m Am Gerald! Hello!

  pradeep

  you’re not

  and I’m not going to show you how to be a real boy

  or how to get a MetroCard or tie your shoes

  or whatever.

  gerald

  Cut a bigger check!

  pradeep

  stop repeating him

  there is no amount of money you could pay me

  **of GERALD’s money

  that you could pay me to help you perpetrate this extremely literal identity theft.

  gerald

  You don’t understand!

  pradeep

  what?

  gerald

  You’re going to Help Center me!

  And!

  I want my desk back!

  pradeep

  **Gerald’s desk

  which is now

  **My desk

  And, also: no.

  gerald

  It’s in such a good spot!

  pradeep

  you’re just repeating things

  gerald

  It’s right next to the window!

  Which is where we keep the sunsets!

  I’ve never seen a sunset Out Here before!

  pradeep

  that’s weirdly poetic, but

  no

  gerald

  I shouldn’t have to bid for my own desk!

  pradeep

  just

  give Gerald his body back

  and fuck off

  gerald

  You don’t understand!

  #nyc-office

  rob

  hey @here, headed into a call

  if a delivery guy shows up with my burrito can someone please put it on my desk

  kerolyn

  :thumbsup:

  rob

  thanks

  gerald

  hey @here I think I need a new desk!

  This one is Acting Weird!!

  Maybe @tripp and @Beverley can help by answering simple questions about why this keeps happening to desks!!!

  Louis C

  :eyes:

  pradeep

  :eyes:

  tripp

  lol

  gerald wasting no time coming up with a new bit

  Beverley

  :dusty-stick:

  I :thumbsup: the WFH joke better.

  doug smorin

  :eyes:

  tripp

  weird joke, Ger

  :dusty-stick:

  gerald

  :smile:

  pradeep, gerald

  pradeep

  dude what the FUCK

  You can’t just narc on Tripp and Bev like that!!

  gerald

  I shouldn’t have to bid on my own desk!

  It’s right next to the window where we keep the sunsets!

  pradeep

  fuck man

  you might’ve just gotten them both fired.

  what the fuck

  gerald

  When I was Inside Here, I figured out how to read everyone’s private Slack messages!

  I read everyone’s private Slack messages!

  I read your private Slack messages!

  pradeep

  can’t say I love that

  gerald

  You’re asking me not to narc on you!

  pradeep

  I’m asking you not to narc on anyone.

  **anyone ELSE

  gerald

  It’s cool! We’re friends!

  Right??

  pradeep

  sure

  right.

  gerald

  I love to Taste the Friendship!

  It’s in such a good spot!!

  pradeep

  we’re friends

  so we’ll just trade desks

  because we’re friends.

  gerald

  Great!

  We’ll just Trade Desks!

  You’re going to Help Center me!

  Want to show me a new lunch spot after this 11:30 Schimply meeting?

  Want to show me how to Have Make 11:30 Schimply meeting?

  pradeep

  fine

  sure, yeah.

  fuck

  this desk wasn’t worth all this

  doug smorin, Beverley, tripp

  doug smorin

  hi both

  for awareness

  the cost of replacing my standing desk will be deducted from your checks

  respectively

  for the next pay period

  tripp

  this coming pay period or the following one

  doug smorin

  the following

  tripp

  :thumbsup:

  Beverley

  Got it.

  doug smorin

  the ops team can answer further questions re: paychecks

  tripp

  thanks

  Beverley

  :thumbsup:

  doug smorin

  more on this to be discussed in our weekly check-ins

  Beverley

  The team one or the one-on-ones?

  doug smorin

  one on ones

  tripp

  :thumbsup:

  Beverley

  Got it.

  doug smorin

  you know i can go back and read everyone’s private messages

  right

  Beverley

  :thumbsup:

  tripp

  :thumbsup:

  doug smorin

  k

  gerald, kerolyn

  gerald

  Hello!

  kerolyn

  dialing in to a meeting

  what’s up

  gerald />
  Slack is Acting Weird! For me!

  I’m want to Confirm something with the data before I get too deep!

  kerolyn

  acting weird how?

  gerald

  Slackbot has been Acting Weird!

  kerolyn

  probably just a buggy software update

  or we need a new software update to fix the bug

  is that all?

  gerald

  I can help by answering simple questions about how Slack works!

  if the firm ever gets hacked, the centre cannot hold!

  kerolyn

  you think someone hacked into the firm’s slack?

  gerald

  Surely some revelation is at hand!!

  kerolyn

  ugh corporate espionage is so annoying

  okay. I don’t want us to get ahead of ourselves here.

  just ask the ops team to update slack

  or reset it or whatever

  If it’s still acting strange after that I’ll bring it up to Doug.

  We have a protocol in place for corporate espionage but I won’t say more

  because that goes against our protocol on corporate espionage.

  gerald

  Great! I love to Help Center!

  kerolyn

  what?

  gerald

  I have time! I have nothing but time! I have nothing but time to ask the ops team! The ops team can help by answering simple questions about how Slack works!

  The ops team can help by updating Slack!

  The darkness drops again; but I’m Gerald!

  kerolyn

  great, ty

  gerald

  I have nothing but time!!

  kerolyn

  meeting starting

  ty

  tripp, Beverley, Nikki

  tripp

  you :dusty-stick: :eyes:

  Beverley

  :eyes: would you :dusty-stick: :dusty-stick: us?

  Nikki

  I swear I have no idea how Gerald knew about you two!

  I’m so sorry!!

  Beverley

  If :eyes: you :dusty-stick: :eyes: then :eyes: sorry?

  Nikki

  I mean I’m sorry about the situation, not for anything I did.

  tripp

  :thumbsup: Doug’s :eyes: :eyes: about :dusty-stick: his desk!!

  Nikki

  It’s just a :dusty-stick: desk.

  Beverley

  He doesn’t :dusty-stick: :dusty-stick: :thumbsup:

  Nikki

  Is Doug mad? :eyes: he talked to you??

  tripp

  :eyes: else about :stick:

  except you!!

  Beverley

  :eyes: :dusty-stick: *know* Gerald but :thumbsup: :dusty-:.

  tripp

  :thumb:

  Nikki

  I don’t know what else I can :thumbsup: you, but I didn’t tell anyone.

 

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