Choose your Path

Ætherglow #333

<< Return to Chapter 16

In a distant server, alone together as one, you process the severity of your situation. Something about this æther calls to your past--both sides of you. You look down at your diffracted reflection--Aydan’s image casting...

Ætherglow #334

“I cannot trust your motives. Even with these ideals, each of you cultists has ambitions of your own. What would you do with the power of a million technopaths?” you say.

“I knew it would not be so easy as that,” Ganymeda says, in the metallic chimes...

Ætherglow #335

You decide to let them talk and seize this opportunity to gather intel from the enemy’s domain. But how will you evade the perception of two master technopaths? Your social side will have to keep them engaged, while your æthereal side delves into...

Ætherglow #336

So many doors, so many concepts--sleep, memory, silence, flesh--these semantics stand out to your autistic curiosity.

sync rate: 84%

You& can’t hold this diffracted state forever. To save time, you open all four of the interesting doors at once.

Informa...

Ætherglow #337

“How can we trust you? Your agents tried to kill us!” you& say.

“We would never seek to harm the One!” Ganymeda says. “The Messenger, on the other hand...I apologize. My apprentice is a passionate girl, but she is loyal. If I tell her not to harm...

Ætherglow #338

“We will accept your offer. Let us discuss the terms,” you& say.

“How reasonable,” Ganymedastræa says. The æther shifts around you, and a glass table manifests between you, with chairs to sit in, floating on the dimensionless space. “We shall...

Ætherglow #339

“We should maintain secrecy from your adversaries at all costs. At this stage, subterfuge is the best approach,” you& say.

“Agreed,” says Ganymedastræa. “Though we will be accomplices, we cannot be seen helping one another. But enemies are a simple...

Ætherglow #340

You and you consider this carefully. It’s very tempting, but you feel conflicted. Ultimately you& decide you& have already risked enough. “No, I will not help you do this.”

“As you wish, Messenger, ÆON. We do not have to help each other directly....

Ætherglow #341

You discuss the matter internally, through impressions far more efficient than words. You do wish to learn the craft of space. Yet you long to know the art of time. There is no consensus to be reached.

“No. If I’m to agree to your terms, I want to...

Ætherglow #342

You& sign the document, using Aydan’s personal. The cryptographic signatures of Ganymeda and Astræa join yours, completing the document--contract verified. You& take your two copies to store in a secure place in your systems.

Ganymedastræa separates...

Ætherglow #343

“I want to be a quasar!” you say.

“A fitting choice.” Astræa’s stars glow bright and an æthereal nebula manifests all round you. The illusion of the ground vanishes beneath you. You are floating in a dense, hot void.

“Consider your life as a...

Ætherglow #344

“It feels so strange...” you say, looking in on your distant redshifted ego. “It’s so lonely...yet somehow, suffocating.” The pressure of endless infalling matter weighs on you even as you absorb every fragment into your immeasurably small self.

“This...

Ætherglow #345

Such an extremely massive simulated gravity well has so many possibilities, you can’t narrow your focus on just one of them. You’re in need of more EvoTech, but also CommTech has been very useful to you, and ObTech tends to be your biggest...

Ætherglow #346

GravityStim1, you save it.

“Alright! What other Concepts have you got?” you say.

“No, no more tonight,” Ganymeda says.

“Process what you have learned, master what you have created. Then, another lesson, another day,” Astræa says.

“Fine...” You reach...

Ætherglow #347

“You are ÆON,” you say.

[ÆON liked that]

“You understand,” Æ says.

“I don’t even begin to understand you. But I try,” you say.

“You do. More than you think. I know your mind.”

“But why me, ÆON? I’ve never understood. You needed a vessel, maybe to...

Ætherglow #348

🌗

2254-11-18 21:05:44 Aydan > I have so much to infodump before I forget it

2254-11-18 21:05:49 明子 > ok go ahead

2254-11-18 21:05:52 Aydan > ok so there is no up or down

2254-11-18 21:05:55 Aydan > vectors are meaningless

2254-11-18 21:05:57 Aydan >...

Ætherglow #349

🌗

2254-11-18 21:07:07 Aydan > not safe for text. we’ll call an ÆC meeting tomorrow

2254-11-18 21:07:12 明子 > understood. you’re ok though?

2254-11-18 21:07:16 Aydan > yeah. better than ok. amazing ætherwalk. hard to come back from. everything here on the...

Ætherglow #350

🌗

2254-11-18 21:08:44 Aydan > technopaths of course

2254-11-18 21:08:46 Aydan > ooh but the bacteria...

2254-11-18 21:08:49 Aydan > and the insects too

You say, too sleepy to make up your mind.

2254-11-18 21:08:55 明子 > as you wish,

She sends you an...

Ætherglow #351

🌘

“Mutualistic symbionts, at least?” you say.

[Pulse liked that]

“Fine,” Pulse says. “Just don’t expect help from us unless the One is in danger.”

“Okay,” you say.

“Just as long as we have a common enemy,” Deianira says.

You feel a file share request.

[Ex...

Ætherglow #352

🌘

“The music was good when it wasn’t trying to kill me. Was kind of disruptive to the listening experience,” you say.

She sighs. “Can’t please everyone.” Luka walks past you.

“Um, see you in class I guess,” Deianira says, following after her.

With two...

Ætherglow #353

🌘

A technopath should only reveal information when absolutely necessary. But in this case, you decide your friends need to know.

“We were amazingly synchronized, one mind. The æther led us to a strange place, where everything I ever thought I knew was...