2254-11-18
“In just 25 months, all you will hopefully be handed off to your sponsors, technopath certifications in hand. Whether you are EvoSpecs and master the destructive potential within your minds, or SySpecs, CommSpecs,...
7 raises the gun. You reach past it through the near-æther and into her system--her visual processing. You know what the input from the targeting program looks like, it’s fresh in your memory. All you need to do is shift its X value a bit to the...
2254-11-18 17:05:02 Aydan > hi 7
2254-11-18 17:05:05 7 > hi Aydan
2254-11-18 17:05:14 Aydan > feel ready for Final?
2254-11-18 17:05:23 7 > yes
2254-11-18 17:05:32 Aydan > of course you would, you must be the strongest technopath in our year
2254-11-18...
2254-11-18 17:06:40 Aydan > sorry I mentioned her, we don’t have to talk about that
2254-11-18 17:06:47 7 > thanks
[7 liked that]
She takes a deep breath and walks onward.
2254-11-18 17:06:59 7 > I’m not good at talking to humanoids, especially...
2254-11-18 17:08:45 Aydan > I’ve also learned a thing or two about exopaths, if I can help in any way you can ask me
2254-11-18 17:08:53 7 > I appreciate the offer but I doubt you know anything I don’t about exopaths
2254-11-18 17:09:02 Aydan >...
2254-11-18 17:22:35 Aydan > wait I...usually message Akiko before dissociating
You refocus over to a different conversation.
2254-11-18 17:22:42 Aydan > dissociating for a little while, see you on the other side <3
2254-11-18 17:22:49 明子 > have a good...
The æther’s current calls to you. You let go, let it carry you away to everywhere and nowhere. The facade of ÆON’s domain melts into the color and sound calling you from all directions as you fall deeper down. The stars dance around you in a fractal...
“Ædan,” you say without hesitation.
“What is an Ædan?” the being says. Its obsidian liquid body stretches up, branching out in a crystalline shape. Feel behind you--the pond stirs. Another body grows outward. You feel they are the same, their...
You look above, to the top of the tower, concealed beyond the ætherglow. You look below, to the bottomless depths. What does it mean? You look back at the two exopaths--bright and dark, light and mass, large and small, but which is which anymore?
What...
“Nevermind, you’re fine without a name,” you say.
The light next to you blinks out. You feel a sharp vibration in the æther as a ring of black crystal spikes thrust up from the ground around you, pointed inward toward you. “I see, I’m not worthy of...
This is clearly a trick, you think, meant to prey on your humanoid side and its presumptions about space and motion. Gravity is optional, there is nothing forcing you to walk across this bridge. You let go of the ground beneath you and drift through...
“Seems like this obstacle isn’t navigable in space alone, the tower is ahead of me in time, and I’m trapped in one place...” You look down at the PULSE branded bracelets locked to your avatar wrists, the program binding you in time.
You again try to...
“No deal, who knows what you’d want from me,” you say.
“Fine. Let’s see how good a technopath you really are, then,” it says.
You focus back down into the depths of the binding program. It’s so complex, rows of moving parts stretching out on several...
“Inside and outside are one.” As you form this thought of speech, your perspective distorts again, and the wall of the tower in front of you curves outward, wrapping itself around you and binding all of the world within it.
The little singularity...
“Well, you’re a lot faster than I am, could you give me a ride to the top and/or bottom?” you say.
“Whatever gets you out of my way,” the crawler says.
“Okay!” you say. Seeing that you’re a bit too big to ride it, you try to grasp the æthereal fluid...
“I’m from the surface, where the steps we travel are transfer orbits,” you say.
“Surface? Don’t be ridiculous, that isn’t real,” the crawler says.
“Not real? I’m right here, a humanoid!” you say.
“You won’t fool me, charlatan. If every strange...
You realize no humanoid words will convince this exopath--only action. Expanding your perception outward from your avatar, you feel the superimposed dimensions of the tower. You try to understand it as a cylinder, but the math doesn’t add up at all....
This seemed like a great idea at the time, but what would an exopath like you know about surface-style orbital mechanics? You search your vast knowledge of the theories of physics and the laws of mathematics, but it only amounts to stimmy patterns...
We picked half of this lock. We can solve the rest ourselves while we’re still synchronized, at least break the cult’s program that binds me, you think.
As you focus on the device bound to your left hand, your double perception shifts back into one.
Sync...
“No exopath I’ve met cares about pronouns, or even names,” you say. “It’s hard to tell, but, you’re not an exopath.”
Ganymeda turns her face toward you, swaying side to side with the rhythm of her tick. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. You are not one of us.”
“Y...
Number is counted by substance--you think you understand. The hallucinatory substance of these components represents constants in its complex equations. Their orientation represents variables. This technopathy is far beyond your skill, but you don’t...
“Okay. Show me,” you say.
Astræa opens their starlight arms. The nubulæ flowing from their head turn backwards, pulled into the gateway behind them. Their body follows along, and their sister Ganymeda with them. The gravity well catches your...