Giant Day Out

The Giant Day Out (GDO) was the largest jump mob ever held. It began on Wednesday, June 8, 2022 and continued for three days. The GDO was conceived by teen heartthrob Mack Turbush just two days before the event, which he only mentioned in passing on his Flashtalk account once. The idea spread like wildfire over Wormnet and took on a life of its own; over 10 million people participated.

Flashtalk

hey guiz its time for a jumpmob!! see you wendsday @ 8am GMT in the khangai nuruu term... MONGOLIA BITCHES!! show up, shout "i love mack" and go home. 30 secs tops. see u there!!

WWC Bandwidth Limitations

Prior to the GDO it was assumed that the Worldwide Wormhole Complex (WWC) had limitless throughput, as point-to-point wormholing had until then been instantaneous. However, instead of arriving simultaneously at the Khangai Nuruu terminal as the jump mobbers expected, most found themselves trapped in some sort of limbo between inbound and outbound terminals. At first they were presumed lost, vanished from the physical world entirely, which would constitute a wormhole catastrophe on an unimaginable scale. Fortunately, the WWC simply held them in a queue to wait for bandwidth to become available.

This was not without its own drawbacks, however, as the latency was quite severe. Most people who were trapped in the queue remained there for hours; thousands were trapped for days without food or water. Their confused families grieved for them as if they had died; employers refilled their positions with others when they failed to appear at their jobs. Chaos ensued in Mongolia as harried jump mobbers stumbled from the wormhole, some shouting "I love Mack," most unable to form coherent thoughts or words. Those who attempted a return journey after the planned 30 seconds found themselves trapped once again in a lengthy logjam and at least one died from thirst in transit. Many were afraid to try the wormhole after the trip to Khangai Nuruu and instead settled there as best they could, though provisions were too scarce to accommodate them all and several dozen more died on the Mongolian plain. One even died as a result of being transported into a functioning Freezerwave device.

Aftermath

Turbush issued a public apology following the failed jump mob. "I'm sorry to all my fans. I mourn with you. I cry with you. Nobody knew this would happen, it was just supposed to be a little fun. I'm so, so sorry." He was dropped from the cast of his upcoming blockbuster, Bikini Wars and his career never recovered.

Jump mobbing declined sharply in popularity following the incident, and another event the scale of the GDO was never attempted.

Published under the terms of the CC BY 3.0 license.