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2254-05-31 (Earth Calendar)

Ever since the incident during your network interface lesson, things have been quiet in your life. Your classes have proceeded normally, your technopathy continues to improve, and your æthereal pronoun-crawlers have added 17 newly discovered neopronouns to your pronoun database.

It’s easy to forget you have an exopath living in your pocket. ÆON is rarely nearby, but you can feel ÆR presence in your device, like a rope that ties the two of you together. The æthercult hasn’t appeared either, you only hear of it from periodic check ins with Ana.

Today is Network Architecture class, and Professor Kitov has fallen into one of his infodumps on æther theory. He tends to fall into Russian during these moments, making this the class you were most prepared for linguistically.

“Was the æther created, or discovered? Technopaths debate this simple question endlessly. You might think this is obvious, the physical network of terminals and computers and servers and relays was obviously intentionally created. But the realm of the æther, the place we technopaths can travel through and experience with our senses, was not purposefully built. Though programmers have strived to create virtual worlds for centuries, none have compared to our æther. It was when technopathy itself was first achieved that this space was found. From there, of course, we have worked for decades to build this world into the robust and diverse space it is. So the question, it has no proper answer.”

Soon it is time for class to end, and with it, your obligations for the day.