+...And this marks the thirteenth declaration of General Assembly for Highflame since its founding.
Details are still sparse at present, but we have reliable sources claiming that the High Seraph herself, Veylis Avadaer, is set to address the gathered host of her forces for the first time in over nineteen years.
Other notable figures summoned to attendance are Osjon Thousand, the famed first disciple of Zein Thousandhand; Uthred Greatling, patriarch to increasingly infamous House Greatling, esteemed Authority, and a major pillar of the Chivalrics. Draeg Hausen of House Hausen and Vernetta the Twain of House Vallors have put their names forth to serve as his bondsguard in case a formal injunction is issued from the Choir of Seraphs.
Additionally, we have rumors that Saraka eld’Drachna, a Stormtree Bloodthane recently rewarded with the distinction of esteemed adversary, has been invited to the Assembly and stands among the Impartialists to ensure the balance between biased parties.
Currently, the Assembly is set to convey in three weeks and will coincide with the trials declared by Chief Paladin Naeko.
That’s all for today. This is Annel Andras, reporting for the Watchtower.
Now, onto the weekly street squire deadpool.
-Watchtower Special Program
16-2
Inventory (I)
{Avo… This is a nightmare. How are you still sane with all these voices screaming inside your mind? How? Just how many people have you killed in the past day alone?}
A laugh of disbelief escaped from Calvino as the download completed and the copied template of the EGI came mind-to-mind with its non-coldtech alternates. It took the artificial intellect less than a second to trawl through Avo’s mindscape and upon completion, disbelief filled every bit of data it possessed.
Moments after Denton disconnected from Threshold, new menus and features began to sprout through Avo’s mind. Chief among these was his new personal neuro-assistant which was essentially a copy of Calvino.
Dry amusement spread through the ghoul as his flames reknitted all previously claimed templates with but a thought, dragging the EGI’s incredulity higher and higher.
[What’s up, consang,] Abrel said, speaking with a mind laced with bitter irony. [Welcome to the burning shithole. Population: us. Did the ghoul get you too? Don’t tell me he ate an entire voidship this time.]
[An EGI,] Benhata followed, sounding more startled than surprised. [And willingly bound to us… I… This is…] A pause followed. [Ori-Thaum would have given entire sovereignties to possess one of them for study. And all it took for you was a conversation.]
Template-Chambers snorted. [Maybe you guys are looking at this the wrong way, eh? Maybe… if you weren’t all boring mind-fucking half-strands, the cool void people would talk to you.]
[This it?] Lip asked, narrowing her perception at Calvino. [That what they look like? Floaty kinda sun-shaped ball?] Disappointment coiled through her person. [I was expecting something more… god-like.]
Strings of data danced through Avo’s Meta-integrated Neurodeck. This time, however, he understood the information being conveyed–the coding dissolved into direct doses of information fed into his cog-feed.
{You’re welcome,} Calvino said, the acknowledgment of its deed sounding more distracted than proud. {There are… thousands talking at once inside you. Most people would have gone insane or drowned in the sheer influx of clashing egos.}
+Not most people,+ Avo said. +Also have two Heavens inside me that argue. Always arguing. They’re usually louder.+
To bring in the final two members of the grand assembly that was his gestalt, the Woundshaper and the Galeslither’s biting dialogue arrived as the wind screamed and blood clapped to the sound of thunder. Between the deafening noise, two fragments that once stood as gods barked insults at one another even as Avo fed the voices from within his Frame into his mind.
“Contemptible cur. What do you know about art? What do you mongrel people know of creation? All you do is flee and hide–the god of running and cowardice. Oh, woe is me I live in the desert and my people are outcasts. Have you considered breaking the problems instead of fleeing from them?”
Unshaken by the Woundshaper’s insults, the Galeslither whistled a savage tune. “I have protected my devotees for years beyond counting. I am not a great god. I make no lie of this, but I am a just god, and a loved god. More than you will ever be. All you are is fortunate–a survivor in a pit of misery nourished by half-sane savages too stubborn to leave the hell they were born to, and too weak of spirit to abandon the abuser they created to spare themselves from the monsters in the dark. Creation. All you create is horror and travesty. You say you are a god of buildings and architecture as well. Well, I have walked the skies but looking back across my past, why do I not recall any crimson structures reaching high enough to touch my domain?”
“And why would I grace the realm of the worthless with my finery?”“Because I have known gods like you across my existence, Saathwu. You are a tyrant when you have power and a synchophant without. The only realms you refuse to touch are those beyond your reach–”“Nothing was beyond my reach! Nothing! If you were so protected, how did you fall then? Hm? Did the winds finally get tired of carrying the cattle you call people.”“I have heard you insult them enough!”
{Hm,} Calvino summarized simply as Avo partitioned the two realities again. {Well, I can say that you are the closest embodiment to a walking madhouse I’ve ever seen. And we’ve simulated some very strange things in our time.}
“Avo,” Denton said, cutting through the internal conversation, “is the download complete?”
“Yes. Calvino’s here. Loaded as a voice in the back of my head. Fits in with all the minds I’ve collected already.”
{Well, I like to view myself more like a tenet or respected guest than a mentally obliterated and forcibly forked mind-slave.}
Avo bristled at such a disingenuous assertion. +Not slaves. More like prisoners. That I use sometimes. To help me think.+
The templates erupted into loud expressions of sardonic surprise and gasping shock.
[Hear that, consangs?] Lip roared. [Rotlick says we’re not slaves. We just prisoners. That he doesn’t pay. And channels to do his thinking for him. I think he’s stumbled on a revolutionary system of control.]
Never one to miss out on some sneering, Abrel joined in. [Really? Is that what this is? We’re all equals and totally not governed by some self-modifying mind-attuning fire? Wow. Amazing. Hey, Avo, can you please kill yourself painfully so I can laugh and curse at you for what you did to my brother and friends? Thanks a lot you cannibal piece of shit.]
[I mean… I'm just happy to be here,] Chambers chuckled, entirely honest.
[We’re not,] Benhata said while all the Talon and Shadow templates backed him up. [I literally got my mind eaten after I accepted a session. Just dead in an instant. My family’s probably wondering what happened to me and where my body went.]
[He bit me like a fuck-ton of times before I died,] Glitch mumbled. [He already had blood powers and shit. Don’t know why he needed to take a few chunks out of a joy-fiend like me.]
[Boo-hoo, you fucking losers,] Corner spat. [Oh, the ghoul snuffed me. The ghoul nulled me. I didn’t get a chance to–shut your cunt mouths up and take it. Are we New Vultunites or what? Way I see it, we got off easy. We’re still here, right? These versions of us are preserved from the Big Nothing. Plenty of half-strands will give money to the Guilds to have something like this.]
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Calvino sighed. {Again. Madhouse. Denton’s recommendation that you don’t mention or manifest the “help” was a wise one. The whole interview was an exercise to see your self-perception while we gauged your other traits but this… well, we expected some moral laxity but you might’ve boldly gone where no person–or even monster–has gone before–stop feeling proud about it. This isn’t a compliment.}
And with a single decision, the pleasure drained out of the ghoul.
{Huh. Denton said you were shaping yourself but… front row seats really elevate the scene.}
Dragging his focus back to Denton, Avo smirked. “Showing Calvino my personal space. It seems to like its new home.”
{Like is a strong word… so is home.}
[You don’t get used to the creepiness,} Abrel said. [It doesn’t get better.]
“Let’s go through a few checks first,” Denton said, business-first as usual. “You should have access to Voidwatch’s internal network through me. Let’s be efficient about this: Access the Inventory with your mind and requisition an ansible.”
“Ansible?”
"Personal Hyperwave implant,” Calvino and Deton said concurrently. “It allows for communication through generated wormholes.”
Avo blinked. “Sounds closer to a Heaven than coldtech.”
{Mastering the natural world goes a long way.}
Avo did as Denton said thereafter. Directing his thoughts through the Neurodeck still remained odder than using the Metamind. Even with Calvino filtering codes and directing the path of his thoughts toward where they needed to go, the menus and interfaces he sorted through inflicted a distance on his person.
For all the sophistication and advancement the coldtech neuro-aug possessed over its Necrotheurgic cousin, it was more like a construct of the second degree–something that operated like a rig around the mind rather than a crude sleeve for it.
The Metamind on the other hand was something that you were. Taken from you. Made from you. Built around your base ego as scaffolding and a fortress and designed to endure far beyond the shattering of your baseline sanity.
{You gotta understand we didn’t really have metaphysical entities capable of attacking memories or information itself during our heyday,} Calvino said. {And if you want the Neurodeck to work like a glove, we should probably deactivate safety mode.}
+There’s a safety mode? Why?+
{To keep citizens from driving themselves insane by modifying their own minds recklessly using the deck’s functions.}
+Already doing that using my Conflagration.+
{Yes. That, and there’s also your inability to stay dead. It’ll be interesting to see if I come back into existence feeling like myself when you resurrect or… ah, I’m going to have you take all kinds of risks that Aegis might deem “unethical” for other operatives. Ghoul detail might not be so bad!} Calvino cackled.
The growing realization that the EGI wasn’t going to be some stuffy voice whinging about his actions but more of a post-moral advisor sparked Avo’s amusement. He joined in his new companion with a low hiss of laughter.
Denton narrowed her eyes. “Did you encounter something funny in the Inventory?”
“Yes,” Avo lied, turning his chuckle into a very serious grunt. A progress meter began to load as a cord of data reached out and connected with Denton’s Neurodeck.
{ACCESSING INVENTORY}
Beginning upload of neural-profile…
“Is this going to be like–” The world flashed around Avo and he shuddered as another iteration of himself loaded into a white and featureless room.
“Greetings, Avo-001.” The monotone voice was coming from all around him, but more uncanny was the fact that he felt himself in two places at once. “Welcome to the Inventory. Please wait for the update to conclude.”
{You can make your avatar walk around with just a thought,} Calvino said. {It’ll be a bit strange to control two bodies with one mind at first–} Avo delegated one of his submind’s toward the new task and suddenly the simulated body felt just like a limb. {--Or I can just eat my words. Anyway. A few things about the Inventory.}
“There are a few things you should know about the Inventory,” Denton said, unknowingly repeating Calvino’s first words. “Not everything will be made available for all situations. Category green implants and equipment should work across all circumstances, but there are specially coded items that might experience catastrophic failures in certain areas or times of day.”
“Heavens and ruptures?” Avo asked.
Denton nodded. “Currently, you should have access to specialist military hardware. You’re codified as an operative so things like asking for your own voidship to glass the city will likely not be approved.”
{It’s also a waste of resources,} Calvino sighed. {Idheim is a hard, hard target to crack. Too many defenses. Too many Heavens. Too many innocents stacked on top of each other. We could do to this place what we did to the Ludds and only burn a quarter of this pebble.}
“What you will have access to,” Denton continued, “are top-line implants and personal modification, tactical scale arms and equipment, full-spectrum intelligence updates from Aegis, full-immersion skill-soft trainers, along with additional auxiliary features such as personally commissioned bioforms or androids.”
[Fuck-ing bullshit,] Abrel seethed jealously.
“How good are the implants compared to the FATED?” Avo asked. “Like Abrel Greatling.”
{Well, don’t tell her this but we have purposely given them midline modifications and said it was our cutting edge–mostly as a joke.} Of course, Calvino spoke these words knowing full well template-Abrel could hear it.
The Greatling twitched with hate shivers. [You sow–you motherfu–godsdamned assholes.]
“Going to be better than you soon,” Avo whispered, taunting the girl in his mind.
[Lick my–] She paused, noticing Chambers’ leering interest washing over her, waiting for her sentence to end. [You know what, I’m just going to stew in my hate quietly for a moment.]
A cheer went up among the Silvers and Benhata saluted Chambers begrudgingly.
[There truly is a purpose for everyone in this city,] Corner said, speaking with a questionably offensive faux-wisened voice.
[I hate all of you and hope we all die painfully,] Abrel concluded.
“Update completed,” the voice within Inventory said. “You may now make requests of the system. Warning: your current district does not allow for the following items.”
A short list of three million and two banned requestables filled the totality of the room around Avo. He wouldn’t have known just how many pieces of kit were beyond his reach if not for Calvino telling him first and his subminds achieving the same a good while after.
{Most of this is stuff that uses fusion,} Calvino sniffed. {Probably Omnitech trying to create a new spectrum of energy again.}
+Like them the least?+ Avo asked.
{Imagine if a simpler, cruder, crueler parody of yourself appeared trying to ape and defile your greatest achievements?}
+So. My brothers.+
{Oh, you understand already! Yeah. Like that, but they might actually cause all of human creation and technology to collapse if you don’t fix their problems every other week.}
+Didn’t think it was that bad.+
{It’s worse. Now, think ‘ansible’ in the Inventory to test the graft out.}
Doing as suggested, Avo felt his avatar shudder again but felt a new weight lodged in the base of its skull.
REQUISITION: PERSONAL HYPERWAVE ANSIBLE (JumpCOM-XIII) [CATEGORY GREEN MODIFICATION]
CAPABILITIES: INSTANT COMMUNICATIONS WITHIN THE SPAN OF LOCAL SYSTEM – CAPABLE OF BEING BOOSTED LIGHT YEARS BEYOND WHEN CONNECTED TO FARCASTER STATION
PLEASE TEST DEVICE NOW
A menu expanded across the center of Avo’s vision, and a single choice was highlighted at its core.
CALL -> SYSTEM ADMIN
He accepted the option, and from within the simulation, he felt a sudden thrum in the stem of his skull as a cylindrical weight began to build.
SYSTEM ADMIN: HELLO
The voice answered him with a faint echo in the back of his mind. The suddenness of the connection was uncanny.
AVO-001: Quick
SYSTEM ADMIN: You can make additional adjustments using your Neurodeck’s mod settings for controls and other quality adjustments.
Thoughts sped through Avo’s mind. Slowly, his fangs widened into a grin as the solution to a present problem he faced dawned.
AVO-001: Can I request more than nanosuite for the graft?
SYSTEM ADMIN: Please make your case before pending approval.
AVO-001: Want in-field communication device for cadre. Something not reliant on Necrotheurgy.
SYSTEM ADMIN: Acknowledged. Please hold.
And just as the administrator lapsed into silence, Avo’s Sanguinity sensed Draus’ return as she stepped back through a junction on the floor below, her body a misshapen map of oozing wounds.