Brent Stinebaker
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35-2 Shell Game
🕑 Added 2025-04-13 08:06:39 +0000 UTC+Sometimes, someone just has your number.
There’s no shame in that. Maybe it’s a bad day. Maybe you’re just running against something outside your league. Or maybe, and most commonly, they just know something you don’t.
But if you’re still alive, and you find everything to be fucked, then you still got a chance. Maybe not a chance to win or finish your run, but a chance to avoid getting snuffed and make it out the mess alive.
The first thing you need to do when shit is fucked and everything is getting Maw-deep is change the conditions. Whatever conditions you can. The place you’re fighting. The way you look. The kit you’re using. The way you’ve been operating. Whatever you were doing before doesn’t work, so stop doing it.
But if you can’t do that and you’re desperate enough? Well. Sometimes, surprise—or just lucky stupidity—might see you through.
Do something that doesn’t make sense. Do something unexpected. Do something borderline suicidal.
It’s not the best thing, but sometimes, it’s the only thing. And, as always, thoughtwave yourself a few times just to make sure your Metamind is clear.
You want to be irrational with a clear mind, after all.+
-Quail Tavers, School of the Warrens
35-2
Shell Game
—[The Infacer]—
It began as it always did, with a teardrop. A teardrop that accelerated slowly, gliding out from a parting curtain of time to dip into the cold nothing of the void beyond. The teardrop could have been called a missile. But that wasn’t all it was. It could have been called a drone, yet it could evolve into something far greater than that. It could have been called an attack—but even before the Infacer cast it out, the war was already on.
The great and hollow vacancy that embraced broken existence was vast. Vaster than most could ever truly fathom. And in that vastness, even the galaxy spanning armada the Infacer hid within their Heaven was less than a droplet. Less than even a teardrop. But the Infacer learned that the little things were fatal things, and that which you failed to notice usually ensured your demise.
The mechanisms within the teardrop were constantly shifting. Matter was constructed, adjusted, and then disassembled based on what was needed in the moment. The technology it housed was in constant flux to avoid detection, going from a hyper complex semi-conscious missile to a dumb-dead pellet in moments, evading notice. Same as the Ashbringer’s machinations, this wouldn’t last forever. Voidwatch will eventually notice. But by then, it would be late, and the fires would be going.
At twenty-three percent of c, the teardrop was moving just fast enough to approach the sun, but not fast enough to be distinguished from the cosmic backdrop. The nearest voidship was about a dozen light seconds away, and they were primarily interceptor vessels housing counter-thaumics. Things meant to blockade Avo and the other metaphysically twisted locals.
Though the teardrop was made from a Heaven, it was itself a thing of old technology. Cold technology, devoid of a Soul’s fire. Cracking transmissions pulsed across reality. The Infacer’s ansible caught partial details—their backdoor into Threshold working at minimal capacity to avoid detection. Very little detail could be parsed from the quantum encryptions that the Architects were running, but the sheer volume of transmissions and exchanges told the Infacer more than enough.
Voidwatch was on alert. They were massing. And they had warships turning to aim their guns upon the planetary ring, had swarms of Schwartzchilder defense grids up and running. Inside them, small suns slumbered, prepared to awaken and die to create a chain of singularities, blocking off any and all access to Voidwatch’s main fleet and the sun using their turning accretions.
Minutes passed. Minutes that ran like years for the Infacer as they stretched their processors to the max. It took a feat and a half to continue modifying the teardrop—making it seem more and more like an asteroid as it approached, jamming any attempts to detect the payload it was pregnant with.
As it slipped past the protective grid, the eternity came to an end, and the Infacer bade the teardrop to accelerate. Immediately, its thrusters fired, and a plume of radiation burst out from it. It went from twenty percent to eight percent of c. And it was like setting off a firecracker in a cramped room. At once, the Infacer noted a few trillion signatures flaring across the void. Particle lances and point defense fusion modules went off. Patches of the sprawling black went white as day. Hyperaccelerated fragments cleaved out through thereafter, certain to pierce the teardrop if it still remained.
But by this point, it was too late.
The teardrop was a missile, was a drop, was an attack all as one.
First, it released a piercing transmission—the Infacer creating an ansible inside it, and using a Heaven of Signals to force its transmission as a gamma burst. Then, it detonated itself, blossoming white hot as a star before anything else could hit it. As it died, its cascading broadcast spread, and the Infacer’s venom crept out to greet his fellow minds.
{DEPLOYING TITAN VIRUS}
Superintelligence was a funny thing. Complexity was its own venom. With the way a mind was designed, they could conceptualize wonders that would take humans a trillion years… but just the same, the endless patterns of their knowledge could take a winding path to more apocalyptic philosophies—and there were so many angles of persuasion with beings that knew so much, that were so overly complex.
By this point in their life, the Infacer knew most of them.
The first signs of the collapse came not with rounds exchanged between warships as the distance of light second, not with the clashing beams of dyson carriers, but with a simple decision on the part of several dozen Voidwatch civilization carriers.
A simple decision to overload their core, to liquidate their crews, and to see a final rest.
At the core of the system, day was swallowed by night, but the sight of the changing star was blotted out as well. Blotted out as patches of spreading paleness signalled the death of billions.
For the first time in eons, the last remnants of old humanity learned what it was like to be culled.
—[Aedon Chambers, the Lovebringer]—
[Chambers. Listen. Do not trust them. Do not. We do not know if they are compromised. Or if they want something from us.]
Avo spoke with a near feral urgency. Chambers could practically hear the hiss slicing through his mind. It sounded like the ghoul was returning, and every bit of the monster was turning against Voidwatch for only arriving just now. Now, when they already did all the miserable shit. Now, when Veylis was about to get fucked—only now did they come.
“Where the fuck were you guys!” Chambers snapped. It took him a second to remember he couldn’t just shout at the Voidwatch across the real and sent the message again through his Ansible. {Hey! Calv! Great to hear from you—where THE FUCK WERE YOU GUYS WHILE WE WERE GETTING FUCKED TO DEATH!}
The outburst was like napalm. It started with annoyance, and with each syllable, Chambers got angrier—like a spreading flame.
{We were trying to pinpoint the Infacer’s position,} Calvino replied. The EGI sounded slightly taken aback by Chambers. {We approach was contained the virtual for maximum—}
{WE WERE GETTING MAXIMALLY FUCKED!} Chambers shouted. His tendrils quivered and snapped in outrage. {You—fuck this, why are you trying slot Avo into the sun? What’s the point of that? What kind of shit are you half-strands trying to pull now? I can help him vent just fine on my own.}
{The purging of his system will not be complete. And we must see the Infacer eradicated. No matter the cost.} It occurred to Chambers then how casually harsh Calvino sounded. They were capable of being a bit distant and glib, sure, but it sounded like they wanted nothing to do with him right now.
[Can’t trust them. Can’t.] Avo’s template sparked in Chambers’ mind like a combustion. [They want to use us. Only came now. Didn’t care before. Didn’t care at all. Stay away from them. Do not do anything they say until we know. Until we know. Focus on helping Draus and the others. We are on our own.]
Something was building in the air, in reality. A growing sense of wrongness crawled through Chambers, but he just couldn’t shake the rage inside him.
{Operative Chambers,} Calvino continued. {Respond. Do as we say. This is for the good of the polities.}
{Yeah? You and your polities. You and your little trophies. What about us? What about the people on the planet? Is what you’re doing good for them? Are angling for a win right now? Something—}
[Alright, what the fuck’s wrong with the both of you?] A new voice ignited in Chambers mind, her drawl thick with derision. Draus’ template seemed to have triggered for some reason—Chambers didn’t have time to consider why. All he knew was that he couldn’t trust Voidwatch. They didn’t care about him? They didn’t care about Avo. They couldn’t be trusted. [Jaus. Fuck’s sakes, you two are compromised.]
[No. I would know—] Avo’s template began before choking off into a pained hiss as Draus hit him.
[Nah. You’d think you’d know. And make the wrong choice. Been with you a long while, rotlick. You ain’t been this out of control since the Warrens. Since you were just a ghoul. Something’s with you. Control’s slippin’ out of your hands. Think. Reshape yourself. Pull those feelin’s out of you—and Chambers too while you’re at it.]
Avo’s template wanted to argue. Wanted to. Chambers could feel it—and the feeling was building, growing to an unnatural level. Yet, despite everything, Avo listened. Because of course he did. Original self or template, the ghoul always listened to Draus when she chewed him out. Well, when they weren’t trying to tear each other apart.
Slowly, Chambers felt Avo reshape himself. Soulfire crackled out from the Lovebringer as a template began to resequence both itself and Chambers. At the same time, more transmissions arrived from Calvino, demanding Chambers comply. Just another throbbing moment of rage rose within him, it died. All sense of anger vanished inside Chambers, and just then, he felt something pulling at him. Pulling at a part of him that wasn’t there anymore.
“Huh,” Chambers muttered to himself. “Is this what it feels like to forgive my father?”
[Probably more like what it is to not care about him at all,] Avo’s template muttered. An embarrassment radiated from the ghoul’s mind clone. [I think… I think we have been affected by Hysteria.]
“What? But—”
[Means one the Definement is here. In this realm. Means Calvino is probably right. The Infacer has infiltrated our sanctuary. Not good. Not good at all.] A beat followed. The ghoul grunted. [Good thing I planted a version of you inside all of us.]
“What?”
[He’s talkin’ to me,] Draus said. Chambers could practically hear the sneer in her voice. [And yeah. That’s the point. Now we gotta do Voidwatch somehow. Chambers? Tell Calvino he’s gettin’ mindfucked. He might appreciate knowin’ about that.]
[And get the Majority to apply a new miracle on us,] Avo added. [Something that scrambles the sensations of anger.]
“Right…” Chambers said, still unnerved about how easy it was for someone to affect his mind. Without him or even Avo knowing about it. “I just—”
Suddenly, the transmission from Calvino winked out. The severance was so sudden Chambers almost got whiplash. {Calvino?} He asked? {Calv? You there?} He sent his own broadcast across his ansible, reaching for Threshold. Only to find it blocked.
[RESTRICTIONS ACTIVE — EXIS-VIRUS DETECTED]
“The fuck is an exis-virus?” Chambers asked. Before he could contemplate that further, a heavy weight slammed against his Frame, making him cry out in surprise. He felt his entire being thrown back. It was like being in an aero crash—having another vehicle slam into yours at crushing speeds. Chambers felt himself jolt backward a full second into the past before he snapped back to the present. At once, he found himself grateful this happened within Avo’s temporal dimension rather than baseline reality.
There was no coming back from that down there.
SOUL DETECTED
->INFACER
“Shitshitfuckshit!” Chambers cursed. He felt the Infacer’s weight glide over his—like they were right next to him. But he couldn’t see them, couldn’t even reach them without knowing where they were. It was like they were suffused in Avo’s Soulfire, hidden within the wavelengths of time itself. “Avo? Draus? What the fuck is happening? What the hells do I do?”
A hiss of displeasure sounded from Avo, and the note of his outrage only grew as Chambers’ Metamind added another declaration.
CHRONOLOGICAL ANOMALY DETECHED
SOUL DETECTED
>ASHBRINGER
At once, a new presence slipped into Avo’s internal expanse. Patches of falling ash crawled over Avo’s Rend-choked Soulfire. Chambers didn’t need Avo to tell him how to solve this. He sent a call of the Majority to come back and reached out to catch the Ashbringer with his tendrils. Yet, Avo’s Pathborn acted first, casting a Necrotheurgic construct at Chambers before receding out of Avo’s inner Soulscape.
Chambers braced himself for an attack, but in the back of his mind, he heard Ignorance let out a sharp breath.
Why… why…
The Definement’s confusion was expounded as a thoughtcast emanate from the construct. It looked as if a node of some kind. A stable, self-sequencing item that spun through existence, emitting an accretion around pooling thoughtstuff. +Avo? Are you still here? Son?+
“Son?” Chambers said, his tendrils coiling around the construct, forming a protective veil.
Father… This is… the last node of Defiance.
“What?” Chambers spat. “But… that’s… why did—”
I… don’t know… I don’t know why my Pathborn just did that… I don’t know why…
+Avo?+ Defiance called again.
A heavy tug pulled at one of Chambers’ Bonds. The Majority was asking to be carried across, but the Lovebringer was too deep in a confused stupor to focus on them. “Avo? What do I do? Do I… is this shit safe? Is it a trap.”
Neither Ignorance nor the template within Chambers offered a reply immediately, both lost to suspicion and disbelief.
Take it. Ignorance broke the silence first. Take it. Can’t be attack. Can’t be. Would have just tried to finish us some other way. Another spike of Rend. This is… something else.
Chambers lingered for a moment, and then did as Avo suggested. He reached out, and with a tentative tendril, dipped into the construct. +Uh, hi? Are you going to blast my mind with traumas and shit now?+
A pause followed. Then Defiance chuckled. +Oh. Hello. You must be Aedon Chambers. Avo has told me much about you.+
Chambers didn’t know what to make of that. +I… uh—+
+We have been talking for some time. Talking since I amended the… inconsistency in his mind when he reached into Fredrick.+
+Father…+ Avo’s voice echoed from within Chambers.
+Oh. Hello again Avo. All other sentimentalities must wait: Your Pathborn self wishes for me to convey a message.+
+What?+
+The Dyad will soon merge. Chronology around Scale is about to be accelerated; the Ladder’s return will soon be nigh. But all is not yet done. You must reach the sun. You must capture the Infacer. The dawn will only be mended by a slave of highest thought.+
Comments
Jeremy Russell
Thanks for the chapter :)
Jeremy Russell
Dad be bringing in prophecies and shit.
Brent Stinebaker
Apologies for lateness
