{Loading…}
{Loaded.}
[>>Now replaying: Log 2.0 - Resuming]
Date: 9.9.175 AA / 4404 LTC
Location: UNNAMED_DOMAIN(LARES)
//Here’s my resume.//
[>>DATA CORRUPTED]
[>>Defragmentation in progress…(100%)]
[>>Defragmentation complete.]
[>>Done.]
For a moment before I opened my eyes, I remembered dreaming.
—Of fire and ash, and an impossible city burning to dust.
—Of deep brown eyes bathing me in their solace.
—Of the Torch in my hand, incinerating anyone who would threaten those under my charge.
—Of three children, one deaf to my words, one mute and meek, and one blind to the truth.
I dreamed of a blossoming empire and glass buildings scraping the sky, but then I woke up and remembered.
It was raining, and the pitter-patter of raindrops against the window performed a gentle matin that roused me from my sleep. I took a deep breath and petrichor intensity flooded my synapses, causing my tear-crusted eyes to flutter open. A wooden ceiling sporting an empty lamp outlet greeted me, called me to action with its innumerable possibilities. As I tensed to get up, something small and soft shifted on my stomach. A cozy bundle of black fur, tied in a pretty cyan bow. It had adorable claws that extended with every breath.
Was it right to still call the little feline “Chris”, now that I knew it wasn’t really my Chris? Even though I dearly missed my partner, thinking of them didn’t hurt, and I didn’t have any idea what to call the cat otherwise. Naming things had always been Chris’ job, but they loved their Latin way too much.
In the end, I decided to just stick with it.
It made things simpler.
Gingerly, I placed the little bundle where I had lain on the couch and draped one of the two pillows over them. While I was at it, I might as well continue calling the cat “they” and “them”. After all, I’d just recently gotten used to the whole dumb pronoun stuff, so why not keep in practice?
The cat yawned as I let go, but didn’t wake up, not even when I stepped away.
Why not, indeed?
Yawning myself, I stretched, then wandered to the front door. I’d left it open last night, but there was a screen door that held out what little of the rain made it across the front porch. I could have sworn that door hadn’t existed last night, but with everything going on, spontaneously manifesting screen doors were the least of my troubles.
I opened it and stepped outside, feeling the cold, wet wood under my bare soles. A few steps later, I planted my hands on the balustrade and leaned forward. For a while, I just watched the wind brush gusts of rain over the forest beyond. The underbrush was thick, and even though I still couldn’t name the individual trees, they were so much more familiar now than they had been all those years ago. To be fair, the last time I’d woken up in a clearing identical to this one, I had been far too busy to study the local flora.
Eventually, my eyes found the tree I’d sought shelter under that night. It had been just as stormy, and I had been paralyzed by the fear and indecision. Even in this world, however, the old and honorable tree still bore the scorchmarks my very first Torch had inflicted on it as it kept me safe from the dark forest beyond.
A sad smile hushed over my lips. I was so different from the woman who had shivered herself to sleep that night. Even more different, in some ways, than from the manager they called Dagger back on earth. I let go of the railing and in a sudden burst of excited curiosity I swung my legs over it. I landed crouching in the wet grass, but I didn’t mind. I was going to be drenched anyway. Out of the safety of my front porch, rain washed over me, drenching my hair within seconds and streaming down my face. It wasn’t too cold, even as it soaked through my clothes, caressed my skin, washed me clean of ash and strife.
With raised arms, I lifted my face toward the faraway sun that hid behind the clouds.
For an unknown time, I just let myself be baptized by this new world of mine.
[Lares - Solace of the Imperium] Pseudophysical Reality Domain (Alpha)
{
Lares is a state-of-the-art Virtual Reality Domain suite, able to construct, run, render, and display a Virtual Reality Domain in pseudophysical reality, based on local hardware and user specifications. Through Lares’ market-leading user interface, changes to the Domain require but a single thought. A SainTech subconscious analyzer and localized hyperlogic projector will do the rest, provided there is enough Logic available.
Alpha: Renders a pseudophysical reality domain. Allows for minor changes of pseudophysical reality. Cost for changes scale with magnitude of change and distance to the center of the Domain.
Required CPU load: 2% at current CPU quality.
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
Required RAM: 10 LKB
}
The readout didn’t hurt me anymore, the jagged edges of its code ground smooth by the latest upgrade to memOS. While I already had a basic understanding of what that OS could do, I was almost excited to learn more in the coming days.
I lowered my arms, wiped at my face. Was I going insane? Was I actually excited about an operating system controlling my life, my being, my soul? I thought about it for a long time, while the rain drew rivers over my face and body. My bare feet sunk into the soft, wet soil, and the mud welled comfortably between my toes.
No, I wasn’t going insane. Just became more pragmatic, perhaps. I could tear my clothes and bemoan my lot in life, but what would that do? In the end, I’d just get angry again, and I really didn’t want that anymore. No, it was far better to accept things the way they were. I was still trapped in this machine, and enjoying the possibilities that offered me didn’t mean I’d lost my humanity. I still wanted to get out of here eventually, but I could also try to enjoy the ride while it lasted.
For now, just feeling the rain, hearing it brush through the forest, and smelling that intense mix of ozone and wet dirt was a nice change of pace after running, fighting, and seeing nothing but flames, feeling nothing but heat, and smelling and tasting only ash.
I opened my mouth and tried to catch as much rain as I could until I had to laugh. I had survived. It made me feel a little guilty, and Olre’s voice still whispered in my ear, telling me I should have done better, but for that small moment only two things mattered; The rain, and myself.
I didn’t know how long I spent out there, but eventually, the sun broke through and the world turned from raging torrent tearing the dark to drops of crystal reflecting the light. The rain had been almost pleasant while it lasted, but now that it was gone, I was beginning to feel the cold, so I made my way back to the house, shivering and hugging myself for warmth.
Chris was waiting on the porch, looking at me in that judgmental way that only cats have perfected. When I flicked my arm in their direction, they nimbly danced backward and fled into the safety of the house. Once they were sure they were out of range, they poked their tongue at me, and I responded in kind. The childishness of it all made me laugh again, and I felt tempted to charge into the house and chase after Chris to give them the wettest hug of their life, but my desire for a shower outweighed everything else.
Then it occurred to me that in my previous exploration of the house, I hadn’t seen a bathroom.
“Fuck,” I said through chattering teeth, but smiled nonetheless. After the second step beyond the threshold, I became dimly aware I was dragging mud all over the carpet. Two steps later, I resolved that I didn’t care. I made my way past the kitchen and living room, but didn’t head up the stairs. Instead, I walked to the door that led to the empty room behind the kitchen.
I’d inadvertently been chasing Chris in front of me, but when I kept ignoring them and it became obvious I wasn’t a major threat to their blissfully dry state, their curiosity won out. Once I opened the door, they slunk into the empty room ahead of me.
“What do you think, Chris?” I asked, rubbing my shoulders to get warm. “Bedroom?”
“Boop?” Chris asked.
“No, I don’t think I’m going to sleep in the office.” Even if that cold, dimly lit room in the attic hadn’t been literally fraught with painful memories, the mere thought of trying to sleep under the gaze of the giant screen at the far wall gave me the creeps.
Plus, on earth my therapist had told me it was healthy to keep the places where you worked and slept separate.
The more I thought about it (and the colder I got) the more I liked the idea of turning the space behind the kitchen into a bedroom. It was certainly large enough, and the morning light streaming through the broad windows had a certain charm to it.
“Yeah, I think the bed will go over there…” I mumbled it more to myself than to Chris, but they beeped their agreement, anyway.
Controlling my shivers, I focused and brought up Lares’ interface, and sputtered when I saw the prices. The first bed that popped into my mind cost almost 250 LB, and while I had plenty of Logic left, I should be frugal. After all, Logic was also literally the stuff that kept me alive.
“Do I even need furniture?” Yes, I was cold, and I really wanted a hot shower and a bed, but holy crap, that was expensive.
“Beep!” Chris wasn’t even looking at me, too busy exploring the room witch twitching whiskers.
“Why, though?” I asked, “I can just sleep on the couch, right?”
They just shot me one of those looks that told me I was being dumb.
Alright, so having a bed was important. I didn’t know why, but Chris hadn’t steered me wrong so far. Perhaps a bed was an API, and a drawer was a code library or something. In any case, I was looking forward to getting out of my wet, chilly clothes and into a warm shower. That alone helped convince me that whatever I was really buying when I thought I was buying furniture was important. Important enough, at least, to spend some Logic on. No need to go wild. Plus, the sooner I was done, the sooner I could get warm.
Focusing just on the bare necessities, I began outfitting the room. I played around with the options for a while, but eventually I stopped adding ridiculously lavish features to my bed. Instead, I opted for a very simple twin with an inexpensive mattress. Next was a large, sturdy, but bland wardrobe, and an equally unimpressive box of drawers for underwear and jewelry.
I couldn’t help but splurge a bit on the curtains. They did their best to elevate the cheap look of the place, even if they didn’t succeed. At some point in the future, I’d have to buy a rug. It would really bring the room together.
Once I was done, I almost felt like I was back in college, which wasn’t the worst feeling in the world.
I was still dripping cold water onto the carpet, however, and I still hadn’t finished the bathroom I wanted. With a sigh, I waved goodbye to the idea of a nice bathtub and just plopped a small standalone shower in one corner of the bedroom, then did some mental gymnastics to make Lares put up some drywall. It worked well enough, so I shaved off about a quarter of the room’s size, resisting the urge to add some wallpaper to the ugly drywall.
Moving on, I added a cheap, but sturdy door with a snap of my fingers, opened it, and then allowed myself to have some fun tiling the bathroom with overly dramatic gestures. First, the carpet vanished and was replaced by a simple PVC floor, then tiles manifested a couple of centimeters away from the wall and, one after the other, they smoothly set themselves into place.
Lares.
[
Rendering new object: Bathroom Tile x 120 and 99+ other objects…
Superlogical Alteration complete.
Total cost: 275LB
]
{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 530 LB}
It was all very satisfying to look at, but by this point, I was so cold that I couldn’t stop my teeth from chattering anymore. So it was with no small amount of anticipation that I shooed Chris out of the bathroom, closed the door behind them, and peeled myself out of my wet clothes. Then I realized I could have just built the bathroom first, and cursed under my breath.
I dropped my clothes on the floor and opened the shower, quietly whispering, “Please be hot, please be hot, please be hot…” as I turned on the faucet.
But even drenched and shivering as I was, the water was so cold that when it hit my skin, I let out a gasp of shock.
“Fuck! Oh, come on, please…?”
I held my hand under the cold stream with bated breath, and just when I was starting to get frustrated at the prospect of an ice-cold shower, I thought I heard the whoosh of a furnace igniting somewhere. A second later, the stream hitting my hand began to warm up. With the prospect of warmth so close, I couldn’t wait any longer and stepped into the shower, resolute.
I groaned with pleasure as the heat engulfed me and, for a minute, I just stood, my forehead resting against the shower tiles. I still had no idea how or even where I would find more Logic, when or even if Pina would open the laptop again, how I’d get out of this digital existence, or how I would keep the promise I made to Zephyro and the general, but for a steam-filled minute, I chose to forget all that and just let the warmth seep into my skin.
Maybe things weren’t so bad, after all.