It was a moment I regretted. Waking up I now had to deal with what had left me in this state. I was right next to my own folly. My plane that had made me proud now taunted me with its completeness. An expanse that stretched far outside my perception and cut off without rime nor reason where invisibly the void ended.

My choice had been taken from me in my mad flight from the fatal energy. Intellectually I know there neither direction was better than the other but it was galling to have the choice taken away. Something that could affect every moment after. My stubbornness had taken a holiday, my pride beaten in my rage-filled bout of self-flagellation was much diminished. And I still had to decide what to do now. My reliance on auto-pilot had left me not aware of the danger before I could do anything about it. Something needed to change.

I was thinking back to base principles. A part of me that I was calling my auto-pilot was responsible for my course and while I was conscious I could analyse information gathered, plan ahead and change the focus of my perception. Was it possible to keep more of these things running even when I was sleeping? I would also need a better word for my downtime. I had created my auto-pilot by attempting to multitask while I was pushing myself to perform more than one thing at the same time. This time it was going to be harder I needed to make sure that the auto-pilot wasn’t lost in the process so to get my analytical processes running with my separate perception and auto-pilot I would need to focus on all three things equally.

I set a straight path, for now, to make it easier to handle the split focus. My perception I turned to stretch out. To reach as far as possible into the void in the opposite direction. But then I was stuck. An analysis is such an all-encompassing concept. Thoughts on one topic often multiplying into further ideas that then made links with other topics. All quickly stealing away my focus from the other processes. How could I reduce my analytical processes to a point that they could still yield useful results? I turned to ideas and concepts I had gained by my contemplation of the system notice. Maybe something here would give me the ideas I need. And I found it.

It was the sub-conscious. I was fascinated by the idea of a mind containing different layers. Performing many of the same things as the conscious mind but without the input of the individual. If I ever find this species called homo sapiens I would have to spend some time studying their mind. This could be my solution. Not to keep splitting of more and more parts of me to do these functions. But to create a single more detailed concept my own sub-conscious. I was also happy to finally have some names I could use for this my conscious mind I would call my ego. The concept I would form and split from it would be my id. A non-conscious part of me more complicated than the current auto-pilot but able to adapt to more circumstances. And to continue to study and make connections in my collected perceptions for it to then be used by my ego.

Stolen story; please report.

System warning: Devolution of autonomic functions cannot be reversed. Confirm creation of sub-mind id. (Y/N)

Well, something I was doing had gotten the attention of the system. It was promising that maybe this was the correct course of action. I hadn’t got any messages when I first created my auto-pilot. But then again this is a warning, not a message. Again, it was filled with layers of further explanatory information but all the language information was the same and I didn’t make any major breakthroughs by looking through it. So, I was left with a choice. Do I go ahead with what I had contemplated what I felt would better suit my needs? Or do I stop and try to think of another option that would push of this decision and maybe leave me with this option later.

I was rather apprehensive in making this decision. The system warned that it would be permanent and my confidence had been severely knocked by recent events. But it was to avoid problems like those that this step was needed. And my split focus attempt had been a complete failure, no other ideas were coming to me. I was feeling that this decision should not be put off. Not if I wanted to continue to make progress like I had been doing. The presence of others of my kind could not be overlooked either. This could possibly be the advantage I needed. I turned my attention back to the waiting system warning.

System warning: Devolution of autonomic functions cannot be reversed. Confirm creation of sub-mind id. (Y/N)

I didn’t feel any different I could still move about at will and my ability to reason and perceive the void seemed largely unaffected. As much as I could tell. A test was in order I would deviate from my path and make a straight line back to the centre of my created plane. Any deviations would be easy to spot and in terms of time, it would be much less than making a journey around my circular plane. I also set my id to analyse what information I may have gathered on spatial geometry, it would be nice to start building a map now that I knew the void had a limited size. And I set my perception to continuously scan around me at its maximum extent.

Once my objectives were set I had a strange sensation and my id seemed to rise up through me and take control as my ego dissolved into it and I fell into a dream. Filled with esoteric equations and distant points of light.