Brent Stinebaker
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15-15 Watchers On High (II)
🕑 Added 2023-09-05 19:12:40 +0000 UTCLook, if you’re running a Neurodeck, you’re going to want to turn your Meta off. It’s as simple as that. I’ve seen people try to run both at the same time, but if you’re not using one of those Omnitech Thresholder-patterns, the deck flips shit when ghosts swim through it.
Okay. Very basic lesson in Necrotheurgy: When a ghost is extracted from a person, that’s like a major facet of their post-mortem cognition. All the thinking they were capable of and all their most critical memories were deprived of animation. What this allows a Necrojack to manipulate, however, is information. Sometimes information in its most foundational form.
You’re following, right? Good.
Now, imbued with scirekinesis, you start moving and twisting critical aspect of what is known in systems, and seeing that soft and hardware of the Neurodeck is aligned to your mind, and your Metamind is like a metaphysical deck in that is constantly and actively altering your consciousness with all the additional memories, emotions, and understandings channeled through your phantasmics…
Oh, shit is right. Oh fuck might be even more apt.
Listen. I’ve tested both. The voider’s Neurodeck is far and away the more convenient, superior, and effective enhancer if we had to choose, but the problem is that we aren’t living in the void. The problem is we’re here in the biggest of the big. Decks can’t actively protect you from mem-cons like Metas can. Decks can’t form phantasmics or jack without some kind of connection in the real. And thanks to the Sprites Omnitech keeps creating with the repeated deletions of their “Material Intellecti,” not even non-human cognition from alteration.
That doesn’t mean your purchase is useless, however. It just means you have to be focused and clever about how you’re using it. Right now, the Deck is a reliable secondary asset if you want to jock or stream void-transmitted content and see beyond this little well the Guilds have built for us, but you’re keeping that Meta if you know what’s good for you.
I know you’re trying to apply for citizenship under Voidwatch. I know everything you’re doing to qualify for their safe passage program and all the imps you have to offer toward Omnitech’s Thanagild to pay off and waive your death obligation to become your own person. And you’ll do it. You’ll make it. You’re so close, but you need to slow down.
If you let Omnitech find out too early, they’ll screw the legs out from under you. They don’t want you to leave–they don’t want anyone to leave. And a surefire sign of betraying your wants is getting that deck grafted before the time is right.
Be patience. Don’t fall before the end.
-[Redacted] to [Redacted] on Neurodecks and Metaminds
15-15
Watchers On High (II)
Draus tapped Avo on his shoulder before anything could follow. “Hey. I’m gonna go on a bit of a jaunt of my own. Got some things I need to do.”
“Someone you want to snuff?” Avo asked.
She offered a quiet laugh. “More than one. But that’s a side-gig. Still have a barge I never picked up along with all the shit inside it. Gotta take care of that aliong with some other ‘whos and whats’ while you have your little meetin’ with the voiders.”
“Don’t want to join in?” Avo asked.
Her bio-rig’s helmet clicked together, encasing her face behind an insectoid aesthetic. “Nah. They’re askin’ for you. Sounds like an invite-only kind of thing anyhow.” Wordless, she turned to step out through the passage and froze mid-step. “There is one thing you might-could do for me. I’ve heard things about the kit they had…”
He understood. “Want new guns?”
Her smirk could be tasted from the emanations of her thoughtstuff.
[Ever the Regular,] Abrel muttered.
“I see,” Avo said, releasing a quiet hiss of amusement. “Any specific designs you want sampled?”
“All of ‘em. But who knows what they’ll allow you. See what you can do. Kits always reliable. Don’t want to be usin’ our Heavens for everything. Shit’s loud.”
“Take Chambers with you,” Avo said. “Maybe Kae too. Good for us to continue acclimating to each other’s… eccentricities.:
The Regular regarded the other two and shook her head. “Ain’t gonna be that rough of a run, consang. Have your half-strand do the jackin’ thing in the meantime. Seems to me like a better use of his time. Kae can spend her while thinkin’ up how to optimize our Heavens.”
“Yes. I concur.” The Agnos’ agreement came with a bit too much haste and vigor. Try as she might, the leak of her discomfort remained. She could kill, but the action felt vile to her, and the feeling of death brushing her senses sickened her.
He could remove her aversions with but a thought–sculpt everyone around him to what he thought their ideal psychologies to be. The option was there, ever-teasing, ever-tempting, but his flames stayed his own. Such a simple transgression struck him as a betrayal of more than trust but assumptions. He was gauging their effective worth from his own narrowed perspective. Burning each of them into his mind as a template would indeed benefit of an immense scale, but he wanted the choice to remain theirs.
For what worth was absolute power if he was so keen to betray personal ideals out of impatience?
“Yes,” Avo said, studying each of his companions. “We should all find our own uses. Introspect. Practice. Become the gods we each wish to be.”
Paradoxically, Chambers’ derived the greatest inspiration from these words. Strange how he valued his own development when his self-esteem was tied to what praise he could earn from his peers. He was no freer than when Avo took him prisoner before. Now, however, his bondage was one of affection-seeking, like an abused hound granted a better master.
It was… interesting to study, but Avo would see a true person forged from the ruins of this half-strand someday.
That, to him, resonated as an act of true artistry: a construct of finalized personage.
The cadre parted thereafter in a multitude of directions. Cas pulled Chambers away to begin the initial shaping required for the cults. Hushed threats and tempered pleas flowed from the Columner to the half-strand as the former begged the latter for decency, saying such things as “I’m trusting you not to get me with a mem-con when we sync” and “If you’re watching a vicarity right now, please stop.”
Poor fool.
Kae remained within the cell. She inquired from Avo the total thaumic mass of his Frame and how many ontologics he had for grafting before accessing the volumes of Elder Mythos bequeathed by Walton. Though her mind was now freed from the Conflagration, the fragmentary nature of her thoughts remained. Her thoughtstuff skipped from topic to topic, moment to moment, as she began a vivid discussion with herself about potentials and possibilities.
Enthusiasm animated her motions as she drowned herself in her passion anew.
An aching twinge pulled at him as he left her alone along in the phase cell. Kae Kusanade was not like them. She did not belong here. Her like was bound to the triumphs and heights of the city, to be making great works and griding creations of progress from the whetstone that was her mind.
She fell by misfortune alone, by no fault of her own. She was simply too skilled at her chosen profession, and too willing to see things turn for the better. Walton had to burn her life. Highflame had to seek an upper hand. Ori-Thaum had to deny what they couldn’t control.
Now, here she was, practicing her gloried art among monsters and cultists, plotting against the towers from where she was cast.
She deserved better.
The intrusiveness of the thought assailed Avo. Sympathy boiled beneath the surface of his cognition as the templates looked on at the Agnos with a mix of shame and sorrow.
[You SIlvers will face deliverance for this,] Abrel said, judging Kae with muted pity. [The Agnosi weren’t to be touched. That was one of the few rules we all agreed on. There isn’t a spit of honor inside any of you for what you helped do.]
The Shadows ignored the seething Godclad while Benhata sighed. [Spare me the honor bullshit. Highflame isn’t a stranger to these games. You’re just being willfully blind.]
[We conducted ourselves in accordance–]
[The Seraphs just change the rules when they need to do something that contradicts their ethics,] Benhata said. [Did you know that? That your masters just lie when things get too hard–]
+Enough,+ Avo cast, his talons clicking upon the stairs as he followed Denton back up into the dormitory. +Blame is total. Blame falls on everyone. Two for using her. One for breaking her. Me for just existing. The hurt’s been inflicted. She works. She strains her mind with tasks so she doesn’t need to think. She hides from her losses. But they will need to faced. And we will make it right for her. And make this all matter for everyone.+
[You’re going to hunt down our Glaives,] Benhata recalled. A sound of keening despair escaped from his mind as he realized what he was going to be a party too–and how its entirely outside of his control.
+Going to do more than hunt them. They have greater use than that. Kae will have vengeance first. But we will use what is claimed to sink deeper into the Guilds. We will find a way to mend the rash.+
Reaching into the room using his Sanguinity, Avo felt for any changes since he had last been back and clenched what felt like a hovering oval-shaped chair of some manner bobbing in the corner of the room. It’s size was substantial–and more importantly, appeared aligned with his dimensions.
He had a sneaking suspicion that speaking to this so-called Aegis wouldn’t be that different from descending into active unconsciousness to facilitate a deep dive.
“Before I got interrupted earlier, I wanted to speak with you about your personality and how you present yourself…” The “Glaive” looked over her shoulder and regarded him with an uncertain glance. “Aegis and the Consensus know what you are. I briefed them about your background relationships, habits, and actions thus far. None of this will come as a surprise to them.”
“Good. How did they react?”
“The approved the interview,” Denton said. “So. That’s better than expected. But I suspect that this is likely built more on their trust in my judgment than their appreciation for your abilities. You are… volatile. Unpredictable. And capriciously brutal.”
The directness of her critique came as a slight surprise to Avo. Reliable Denton. Diplomatic Denton. Careful Denton. Now, she was playing the role of an instructor. These words weren’t a venting of frustration but a highlight of potential vulnerabilities. She was trying to prime him against his own nature so he might present himself as some manner of civilized creature.
Fortunately for him, he didn’t need to fake such a change. With but a thought, he began to culture more strands of humanity through his sequences and memories, growing emotions and wants in him that never were before.
“I can make them feel like I’m a real person,” Avo said, keeping the rasp out from his voice. “Don’t worry, I have myself under control right now, but if you want to take preventative measures–”
“Before I give you this injection, I need you to understand the dangers I’m exposing my people to,” she continued, ignorant or apathetic to his shift in demeanor and speech.
“Your people,” Avo asked.
“You can already guess who I really belong to. When the Nerve-Mesh Neurodeck is fused to your brain matter, you’ll realize there are things you can do with the Sprite that you couldn’t before. That’s because you now have functional hardware. It’s also going to expand the number of people you can jack, burn, and null by a substantial margin. The stars will, in a way, open up to you, and you’ll glimpse a new hunting ground filled with memories and contents unconsumed–at least for as long as the nanosuite’s half-life lasts. I need you to promise me you will not harm the people.”
He regarded her with new understanding. This was more than just fear. This was the marriage between anxiety and trust expressed by a being with ironclad control over their expressions. She was effectively walking a warg through a flock of lambs and telling it not to feed, for on the hill beyond stands a judgment of hunters, and perhaps through them he might rise even further than the rankness of his rapidly departing beasthood.
“It will torment me,” Avo said, letting the truth twist out from him. “But I have been tormented before.”
Denton stood, turned, and fixed him with a final resolute stare. Her met her gaze unshifting, unblinking, and for a beat, their perceptions remained two spear-tips picking at one another as if lockpicks instead.
Finally, her head dipped as she climbed the last three steps into the threshold of the room and led him to his chair. In the far corner knelt Essus, muttering quiet prayers and whispering nothings to the wall as his accretion crested and fell on waves of tumult. He did not turn to regard Avo upon hearing the ghoul’s entry, but tensing of his shoulders signaled his awareness.
“Have a seat,” Denton said as clicked the back of the nanosuite. The sides of the injectable were unlatched and folded backward to form a pressure--based delivery mechanism as she gestured for him to lower his head. The needle was the thinnest he ever seen and the way the nanos swirled within the tube, lashing and craving for his presence instilled him a sense of unease.
“Such is what our prey feels when we take them in our embrace, master,” the Woundshaper said. “All fear their devouring. All fear their replacement. To be less than–then apart of something unfathomable.”
He overthrew his worry and lowered his head regardless. Denton had gone far to secure this opportunity for him. The time to betray and bind him was long past. The present was built upon trust and truth, and regardless of what was to follow, he would try to be less…
Unstable.
A few buzzing bees darted by Avo as extensions of Sunrise’s colony stood witness to his subtle augmentation.
“I’m going to administer the contents under your eye. You’ll feel a tickle first. It will spread through your central nervous system. You’ll want to be seated in case of any twitches and spasms that might follow, and then, after approximately thirty seconds, you’ll receive an inquire asking you if you accept the installation of the Nerve-Mesh Neurodeck. Just blink twice at the yes option.”
“Like my cog-feed?” Avo asked, forcing his head still using internalized haemokinesis. The glint of the tip drew closer, and with inhuman dexterity, Denton slipped the injection between folds of fiber and flesh without ever arousing any pain.
“Not exactly.” Denton squeezed the folded clamps of the injection. The lights along the nanosuite flashed green and the word “injecting” pulsed as a holographic for a heartbeat. The substance entered through his left optical cord like sand crawling behind his eye.
There was no tickle at first. It was more than an inch that spread, and he fought the urge to scratch at himself using his own blood before the graft was completed. A delayed note of interest spread through him as he regarded the now emptied injectable once more.
This was why the Guilders seemed so soft to him regardless of their heightened enhancements. Their grafts were delivered with comfort and with symmetry in mind. For an enforcer, a better arm came with the cost of losing an arm first, and chrome demanded a steady supply of immuno-suppressants, tweaks, and bi-monthly grafter visits at the least.
The FATED never felt the weight of their ascension–never knew the pain of the blade before their vessels were imbued with new edges to its potential.
But Avo did.
More than anyone else the city, he knew what it was to go from having all gifts denied to claiming highest bounties.
{Initializing…}
{NERVE_MESH V10.22}
*APPROVED ON TRIAL BASIS
{Would you like to begin installation (yes/no)}
He did as Denton said. And only then did the inch become a tickle as a new HUD overlapped with his cog-feed.
{Good morning, applicant.}
The voice was a unified chorus not so unlike what he heard when speaking to the Hungers. Avo looked toward Denton seeking answers but she just remained silent. “Applicant.”
{If you are seeing this message, this means you have been tapped for Operation Revisionist, and the Conensus would like to offer you a position in Aegis. Your interview will initialize upon the installation of your Neurodeck. Please remove all other aspects of interference and ensure that you are in a safe and secure environment before uploading your stack into Threshold.}
Comments
Brent Stinebaker
Chapter 60% done. Fixing some inconsistencies.
Arcane
I hope the meeting goes well.
