????-??-??
Floating in the æther, there is no up or down. You watch its current flow over you, under you, around you. Your hands are unreal, they cannot touch the stars. Your skin is false, it cannot feel the cold of the deep....
2254-08-10 14:34:52 Aydan > hey! guess who just got a device integrated into its brain to allow her to finetune their level of consciousness? me, Aydan, I did
2254-09-10 14:35:16 Synthesis-03 > that’s great! how do you feel?
2254-08-10 14:35:20 Aydan >...
2254-08-10 14:36:23 Aydan > let’s meet at your house
2254-08-10 14:36:26 Aydan > or is that too presumptuous, maybe let’s meet some neutral place in between?
2254-08-10 14:36:30 Synthesis-00 > very decisive aren’t you Aydan?
2254-08-10 14:36:33...
2254-08-10 14:38:19 Aydan > okay. maybe I can invite my new friend who I think is still in town
2254-08-10 14:38:27 Synthesis-03 > great, can’t wait to meet them
You sit up a little and take a sip of the water next to you. Then you open a new mental tab...
2254-08-12
Leonov Park is in the oldest sector of Korolev City. This module was one of the first permanent structures built on Lunar spaceside, nearly 2000 months ago, a sign helpfully tells you as you step off of your train.
The dome is smaller than...
You glance at the Electrical System. Your eyes meet and then you both look away awkwardly. You wait to see if they say anything.
“Oh, uh, we met last week, at that corpo bullshit,” she says.
“Yeah, we met in battle, you could say. Well it was actually...
“I think the LuNats have some good points, the Moon would benefit from a unified state, a stronger cultural identity apart from Earth,” you say.
“Very LuNat of you,” Lexi says.
“Be careful with political movements, Aydan,” Synth says. “They can be...
You decide that you are in no real danger, and send the signal to Natali to leave you.
You climb in the other seat of the vehicle, and the Electrical System climbs in and sits in between you two, on top of the rail behind the two seats. Synth turns the...
“What’s it like being a plural system as technopaths?” you say, as you ride along the tunnel.
“Oh! I think they go hand in hand,” Lexi says. “Gives you more perspective you know? More diverse thought patterns. More unpredictability. Good stuff for a...
You decide against saying anything to Synth, but message Lexi instead:
2254-08-12 13:12:13 Aydan > I think he hit it...but is that the best idea outside ina dome?
2254-08-12 13:12:17 Électricité > don’t worry, they know the wall tolerances
“Feel better?”...
You take a look into the device. It hasn’t been updated in three years, surely there’s something you can exploit. You can’t connect to the broader æther, but your own local package manager repos could tell you something. Once you identify the system...
[CW: child abuse]
“Wherever you want to go,” you say.
Synth nods, and leads you straight ahead.
The complex of rooms ahead, the Medical Wing, are stripped bare, with wires left hanging where once machines ran. Shelves lay empty, covered only in dust.
“No...
[CW: child abuse]
“They weren’t curing anything, they were making cyborgs of their own,” you say.
Synth walks past you out of the room and down one of the hallways. You and El follow.
“Fanatics driven by an obsession,” Synth says. “To create the...
[CW: child abuse]
You suppress your fear. It’s just an echo, you remind yourself. You’re just feeling the emotions of Synth’s memories. You look back up at the cultist-scientist’s face. The illusion reaches out and touches your head, and you feel a...
“No, they were definitely tall, with four eyes. Back there and in here,” you say.
Synth freezes in place. “That’s not the signal I was sending you.”
“Could it be explained by normal hallucinatory drift?” El says.
“No, I don’t think so,” Synth says....
“Going down there physically could be a bad idea. Let’s investigate ætherside,” you say.
“I agree,” El says.
“Okay. I know the æther here well, just stay with me,” Synth says.
“Someone should body guard,” El says.
“Here.” Synth draws their gun and...
Your instincts do their job and you shield your mind with all your focus. Your liquid barrier pushes the spectral avatar away from you, but throws you off balance. The still-materializing setting spins around you. You do just what you’ve been trained...
You think better of rushing ahead and turn to your Systemization training. Your familiar manifests from the æther, in its three-scroll-unified chaotic attractor shape.
“Alright you cute little mathematical curiosity, go follow that light.” You...
“We should go look for your systers,” you say. “Do you have any way of locating each other?”
Synthesis-04 shakes their head. “We’re cut off. The server is too unstable, so we can’t find each other’s coordinates. But I know where they might go.”
They...
Caught between the two with no certainty, you decide to retreat and reconsider your options. You reach for the wall and pull open a previously unseen door, creating a gateway to a random node in the server, and run inside, letting it slam shut behind...
With æthereal fire all around you, there’s nowhere to go but up. Letting the simulation of gravity and momentum carry you, you run up the spiral stairway.
Synthesis-05 responds with an orb of white-hot flame thrown your direction. You turn to face it...
Synthesis-05 closes in on you, white sparks leaping from their hands. You reach out to reconnect with your wayward familiar and signal it to return to your side. The wall next to you opens up and your little chaotic attractor appears.
You suppress all...
“Let’s get some answers and put a stop to this,” you say.
[Synth liked that]
“Let’s go.” Synth heads up the stairs toward the infinitely distant light.
“Up there?” you say.
“That leads beyond all the trappings of the operating system, down to its most...
“No! I won’t listen, I won’t fall for it! Get out of my head!” You reach out for your implant to pull yourself down into a deeper dissociation. Whatever flaw exists in your defenses must be deeper than you can see.
The room and the spectral avatars...
[CW: child abuse and death]
“The human side, which can be cruel for no reason, and enjoy it,” you say.
[Électricité liked that]
“Yeah, I agree,” El says.
Synth nods. “Anyway, let’s leave this place, for good.” Synth heads back the way you came from....
“Our first priority is protecting ÆON from falling into the control of the Chosen of ÆON. Æ’s a sentient being and deserves freedom,” you say. “Will you help us?”
[Synth liked that]
“I don’t know about ÆON Ærself. But maybe I shouldn’t just be thinking...