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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 empathic link request. You accept it, immediately feeling her intense autistic excitement and anticipation. You lie down, letting her warm emotions surround you like tranquil water, keeping you afloat a moment longer.

2254-11-18 21:09:03 明子 > so you probably know how slime molds can farm bacteria. they absorb them into their plasmodium all the time, and they’re able to expel the ones they don’t like and keep the ones they do

2254-11-18 21:09:11 明子 > some of those, they eat, but others, they actually culture, creating stable populations of them inside their plasmodium, giving them nutrients and maintaining a comfy environment for them. endosymbiosis

2254-11-18 21:09:19 明子 > this way they can have a portable food supply, allowing them to travel greater distances to new food sources. revolutionary

2254-11-18 21:09:26 明子 > but the insects, in this case instead of using a symbiotic organism as a food supply, the slime mold offers itself as food instead, allowing certain flies and beetles to feed on and lay their eggs in their æthalium, their fruiting body

2254-11-18 21:09:33 明子 > the larvæ live inside the slime mold æthalium and feed on it. by doing so they get covered in slime mold spores

2254-11-18 21:09:39 明子 > when they reach adulthood, they leave, carrying the spores with them and dispersing them. so the slime mold offers its own body as food in exchange for spore dispersal service, a mutualistic symbiosis

2254-11-18 21:09:47 明子 > both of these are not dissimilar from the symbiosis slime molds have with humanoids, particularly with technopaths!

2254-11-18 21:09:55 明子 > you may not realize TLA’s diverse ecosystem is home to a large number and variety of slime molds as well! they are an essential part of a healthy self-contained biosphere. but most of them are tiny and transparent and you would never notice unless you were looking for them

2254-11-18 21:10:00 明子 > I should show you sometime ^^

2254-11-18 21:10:04 明子 > but did you know they also have applications in electronics?

2254-11-18 21:10:11 明子 > in fact slime mold plasmodium is electrically conductive and the voltage and amperage our augments use doesn’t harm or bother them

2254-11-18 21:10:16 明子 > we can easily control the growth and movement of slime molds using nutrients. once you get plasmodium connecting one metal contact to another then congratulations the slime mold is now part of your circuit

2254-11-18 21:10:23 明子 > seems like a lot of trouble to go to to build a PCB right, but consider the benefits of a device that is self-repairing. damaged slime mold circuits naturally reconnect themselves in a matter of hours

2254-11-18 21:10:29 明子 > they can also survive in extreme thermal and radiation environments that can damage even traditional copper curcuits. the adaptiveness of life is something we can technologically exploit

2254-11-18 21:10:34 明子 > so biocircuits find their place in deep space applications. but it’s also not unusual for technopaths to incorporate them into our own systems

2254-11-18 21:10:39 明子 > some like Professor Reina have even integrated biocircuit components not only into their nervous system but into their metabolism! if you have to feed your body you might as well feed your symbionts at the same time.

2254-11-18 21:10:46 明子 > and at that point where does the technopath’s body end and the symbiont’s begin? or the machine for that matter? we are symbiotic cyberorganisms after all. endosymbiosis. like a lichen but for math

2254-11-18 21:10:51 明子 > I believe this indicates technopaths are the beginning of not merely a new species of hominid or new type of technology but an entirely new domain of life, born from recombination and endosymbiosis not unlike the origin of eukaryotes

Wrapped up in her words and warmth, floating in a feedback loop of both of your blissful emotions, you don’t know when you fell asleep.

🌘

But it was good sleep. The next morning, you feel fully recharged. Walking out in the garden, surrounded by the plants and knowing underneath lurks an entire world of insects, mycelium, plasmodium, microorganisms, you suddenly feel a profound connection with all of it--your world, spinning around you to hold you close to her shell, cycling gases in an unthinkably complex chemical process of many symbiotic organisms and machines all made mundane. It feels, for a moment, æthereal.

You are making your way to the path to the pond at the world’s edge, when suddenly something feels off. You slow your gait, sensing around you for any signal sources. You identify them--right in front of you, left and right. They appear before your eyes--two classmates hidden from your gullible sensory processing by surface-level ObTech. Each of the girls drops her hand onto one of your shoulders, stopping you.

On the left, the first year girl from Archæasteri--Deianira, a colonial girl taller than you--distinct white streaks on the sides of her short black hair. Her light brown hand holding you in place has a crudely drawn tattoo of the Sagittarius symbol, its arrow pointing right at your neck. You see on her other hand, as she reaches to manipulate the terminal on her left arm, a similarly imprinted symbol of Venus.

And on your right, a girl in second-year purple, with light brown skin--you see your own eyes reflected in the solid bar of her silver sunglasses, with the unruly black hair on top of her head creeping down in front of them.

“Pulse,” you say.

“Quite an interesting message I woke up to,” the second-year girl says.

“We are to cease all hostilities, and recognize you as the rightful Messenger of ÆON,” Deianira says.

You focus your mental shield against them. “You planning on obeying that order?” you say.

“I trust the wisdom of the Sage of Stars,” Deianira says, releasing you.

“And I won’t oppose the Sage of Time.” Pulse takes her hand off of you and turns away. “Doesn’t mean we have to be friends, though.”