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2254-06-01 16:47:39 Aydan > something strange happened

2254-06-01 16:47:46 Synthesis-00 > Aydan I am gonna teach you how to make a fucking report later. you gotta give me more than that...

2254-06-01 16:47:58 Aydan > right, well, it started when three people invited me to this gathering

2254-06-01 16:48:04 Synthesis-00 > STOP. this is an in person convo. where are you?

2254-06-01 16:48:08 Synthesis-00 > nevermind found you. stay there. also obscure your location better next time you message someone

They arrive in just a few minutes, out of breath, with a bag in their hand.

“Terminal.” They hold their hand out expectantly.

You unstrap your terminal from your sleeve and hand it over, and Synth drops it in the plastic bag, lined with a grid of wires.

“Interface,” they say.

You shut down your neural interface and remove it from your neck, handing it to them. The disorientation of loss of signal hasn’t gotten any easier. You can’t imagine how you used to live this way all the time.

“What, do you want my uniform too?” you say.

“The full body interface has no transmitter, that’s fine.” Synth takes their own terminal and drops it in the bag. Being a third year student, they have a fully internal neural interface by now, linking all their major nerves to an implant in their skull. The only thing they lack is an internalized terminal system, which they should receive midway through this year.

They seal up the bag. “You might have guessed this is a Faraday cage. Now we can reliably speak privately.”

“What about your interface though?” you say.

“I can’t very well remove that... But I’m fully isolated from the local network, and do you really think a third year candidate of the Evocation School would be so careless as to not shield themself? I would know if someone unexpected was in my head. So, the gathering.”

“I thought it was kind of suspicious that three people I know were invited just today and seemingly around the same time. But I’m a lot more concerned that when I asked ÆON to investigate, Æ experienced another one of ÆR visions of the future and it hurt ÆR pretty bad.”

“That is...very concerning,” Synth says. “We can’t ignore the coincidence here, we should assume these invitations, given to people who would invite you, were targeted. And the exopath’s experience, we should assume this whole thing is a trap for you and ÆR. So it would be completely foolish for you to go, I hope you agree.”

“I’m not going to. I’ll tell everyone not to go,” you say.

“Good move. Then, I’ll handle it from here.”

“Okay.”

Synth opens the bag and hands you your devices. “Lucky people stopped being foolish enough to put microphones in handheld devices like this ages ago.”

You connect the interface collar back around your neck and plug your full body interface into it. The return of the local network is like opening your eyes from the middle of an anxious dream.

“I’ll be in touch,” Synth says, taking off in as much of a hurry as they arrived.

What to tell your friends...how to tell them you’re not going and neither should they... So far, the only one who you’ve even mentioned anything about ÆON or the cult to was Zeta, who helped you out when you were attacked in the æther.

Author’s Note: this was a multi-select poll, something we don’t yet have the capability to do on this site but we are working on it.