+Hey, hey, FATELESS. Wake up and breath in that tension. Another Guilder skirmish just broke out again in Nulrein of the Sarmarth Sovereignty. The parties involved might shock you this time: Stormtree and Ori-Thaum… but fighting themselves using each other! Confused? Well, let me break it down for you:
Rumor has it that two cadres of Stormtree Bloodthanes were contacted by Clans Kitzuhada and D’Rongo of Ori-Thaum to cause a few “accidents.” Somewhere along the way, both sides ended up meeting in the middle, and what we got was a wonderful clusterfuck of same-color violence.
Never a dull day, huh, consangs?
Anyway, with shit coming apart everywhere and the trial less than four days away, the Guilds forming their lines along the borders for what could be the next big one. For those of you that are trying to buy your citizenship lotteries… maybe wait a few days to make sure that your ascension doesn’t become a draftee in a war you don’t want to fight.+
-Cala Marlowe, THE FATELESS Thoughtcast
27-1
Induction
GHOSTS - [451,311,331]
LIMINAL FRAME (V) - 671,000 THAUM/c
UPDATING INFECTION…
INFECTION - [1.21%]
The future formed and broke around Avo in brittle streams. Chronology flowed like a construct fluid and glass, breaking and transforming with the shifting of variables. Combining Alysim’s fractured experience with what was stolen from Zein, Avo honed his temporal awareness as he applied his ascended cognition to read the currents of time.
->DEFINEMENT: PRE-COGNITION (XII) - “I am already in motion. I am a decision made. I am an action irreversible. I am the cascade of consequence, narrowing away all other possibilities, until there can be only one.”
The tapestry came alive around him as Naeko’s palm dispersed. The Chief Paladin had teleported them back into New Vultun straight from the Sunderwilds, his Heaven painting channeling their ontology across space using violence interpreted from the midnight downpour striking against cracked plascrete.
DEEP-NAV UPDATED - DISTRCT [LOATHING]
Back within the embrace of the city, countless trails of gold spiraled outward as Avo’s new Definement struggled as it adapted to the sudden spike in information density. They were standing amongst a stack of self-propelled containers converted into trailer homes. Someone had forgotten their laundry outside their window, the palliative rains drenching cloth and splashing off plastic.
It was but weeks ago when Avo came here for the first time. The district of Loathing. The place where he was formally introduced into the hidden war for existence through Ninth Column at the Easy Armistice—the same place he would formally induct Naeko, Kare, and Maru as well.
WARNING: COG-CAP AT 23%... 36%...
Secrets within minds flowed into Avo through his splinters and Hysteria. With his influence occupying a full percent of the city, his subminds devoured secrets with ravenous delight, subsumed hidden conspiracies lurking in the dark, listed potential recruits for the coming war, and burrowed ever-deeper into the city’s architecture.
All the intelligence flowing through him became a symphony, with minds betraying actions and decisions well in advance.
Veylis and Alysim knew the Path as outsiders gazing in. Their simulations were created from patterns of behavior of observed and deliberate incentivization. Avo stood the inverse. He faced the world as a constellation of egos, each of their consciousness painting a portion of a temporal canvas, feeding detail into his awareness.
“So, we’re supposed to wait here until your ‘contact’ picks us up?” Naeko asked, eyeing their surroundings with a frown. A voidship plunged down through the clouds in the near distance, glistened with dancing neon as it vanished into an open silo within a docking complex. Most FATELESS who lived in these makeshift containers were technicians who spent their days jocking service bots.
Rough as the place seemed, it was no den of crime. Not that either of them needed to be concerned about that. Avo’s Definement of Ignorance kept them from being noticed, and even if they were, what was a street tough going to do against the Overheaven of Conceptualization and the Chief Paladin of New Vultun.
Curiousity filled Avo as he estimated the time till Denton’s arrival.
ESTIMATION - 1 MINUTE 35 SECONDS
Very soon. Just enough time for him to perform a test.
Shrinking his awareness to encompass only the denizens of the trailer park, Avo felt his cog-cap plummet. The potential Paths he perceived lessened from twelve million to two thousand, and as his ghosts swelled out from him, he copied every detail from his surroundings and fed them into a spontaneously sequenced memory simulation.
BEGINNING SIMULATION…
PROCESSING POSSIBILITY PERMUTATIONS…
APPLYING DOMAIN OF (CHRONOLOGY) TO EMBODIMENT OF (CONCEPTUALIZATION)
The patterns of time and mind intermingled within him as his conception of existence separated into layers. Countless scenarios played out in his mind at once, detailing the expected progression of events until Denton’s arrival. In [99.964%] of futures, both Naeko and Avo remained unnoticed and unbothered. In the remaining [0.036%], the most amusing instance Avo observed was of a makeshift joy-lab the street across combusting due to a user error: A small issue with a predicted death toll of two.
Unless one knew about the extremely unstable Rendbomb sitting on the ground just a trailer above. As things turned out, the Joy cooks weren’t alone when it came to questionable dealings; their upstairs neighbor, Meldene Yund, owned a particularly large sum of imps that she couldn’t pay…
Thankfully, her borrowers accepted recompensation in the form of favors as well.
From there, another Path expanded outward, Avo building on it as if it was a sequence itself, crawling through minds and assembling all the fragments of a budding conspiracy. Through this, another simulated future grew out of his first one. A Rendbomb was set to detonate in a lightrail running between the Sarmarth and Nwagtch Sovereignties. The ultimate point was not terrorism, but to kill a designated target—the daughter of a rival Syndicate head scheduled for a tour across Light’s End.
As things stood, her death was certain.
Unless an outside variable intervened.
REND CAPACITY - 34%
SIMULATION CONCLUDED
Avo nulled all the guilty parties with a thought. One girl was saved; [11,315] Syndicate Necros and executives melted into his Soulscape, their templates budding as their egos were slowly digested through his splinters. He spared Meldene Yund, but only after casting her instructions to surrender the bomb to the Exorcists.
“Avo. Ride’s here. You can stop that creepy starring shit now.”
He blinked using Alysim’s eyes and finally noticed a sleek, silver aero hovering just in front of them. Lights went on in the surrounding trailers. Denton had arrived.
“Yes,” Avo said, using Alysim’s voice for now, kept his divine hidden. He mused briefly on his most recent experience: both stabilizing Alysim and using the Paths incurred entropic costs. But that wasn’t such a bad thing. He really needed to do something about the crime in the city, after all. Free up the Paladins for what was needed ahead.
And ultimately, Pattern-Nullification served nicely as a tool of absolute destruction.
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Yes. This could work quite well.
Entering the aero, Avo bumped into the Chief Paladin as the man glared daggers at Valerie Denton. “Good evening, Chief Naeko.” She greeted him without any change in expression. Maru and Kare sat awkwardly beside her on a bowl-shaped couch.
“Hello, Chief Naeko,” Kare coughed.
The man’s frown deepened. “I just wanted you to know that I always knew you were a part of some shit like this. You stank, Denton. Everyone knew you were a spook. Just didn’t expect you to be a—a ghoul’s spook.”
The woman remained impassive. “That was a more recent development. Please. Have a seat. It won’t be a long trip.”
Naeko shook his head and did as she asked. As he stepped on, his considerable mass made the aerovehicle bob momentarily. This did provoke a quirked eyebrow from Denton.
“You still haven’t told me where we’re going,” Naeko said, planting himself down on the couch. “I thought we were going to do the whole trust thing.”
“We are,” Avo replied. “But better to conduct things at the Easy Armistice—one of the few places Kae doesn’t remember going.”
Naeko nodded darkly at that. “I don’t think she’ll be that bold. Not when I’m around.”
“Maybe not,” Avo said. “But you’re not always around. Not like how she is. I’m not losing anyone else to her.”
Naeko fell quiet at that. The silence stayed for the rest of the ride.
***
Draus already had a planar booth reserved by the time they were allowed into the Easy Armistice. As they found their seats, Avo found himself stepping onto an island comprised of high tempo beats. Sound was the governing Domain at play here—sound overlapped with Space and Matter.
Already waiting around an oak table were Draus, Cas, Green River, Shotin Kazahara, Essus, and Aedon Chambers. The latter two were seated across from each other, eyes locked in an unblinking glare off. The last members of their cadre manifested as phantoms, Cala Marlowe drifting upside down over the party, and Dice standing in the corner, Sunrise buzzing over her head and the EGIs manifested via their avatars.
The individuals Avo recently Ensouled remained within their cells. Perhaps they would be brought in at a later time, but some distance between certain assets was preferable.
Also included was the uplift—the cat. The creature was perched on Dice’s head module and noticed Avo the moment he entered. Back in the enclave, he saw that its accretion was filling out quite nicely. Voidwatch’s augmentations were coming along nicely.
+Ugly,+ it thought at him, while scratching its face haughtily. +Ugly. Stupid-likely-too.+ The thoughts came fast, but they were all understandable.
Just a shame about the uplift’s attitude. So far, it demonstrated no aversion to its growing consciousness, but plenty of antipathy toward Avo. +Stupid.+
+Rude,+ he told the creature.
It replied with a sarcastic mental hiss. +Hungry. Bored. Still ugly. Go away.+
Avo grinned and decided the first thing he would teach it when it was whole of thought was manners. But that was for later. Right now, there were several very pressing matters they needed to resolve.
As he settled into his seat, Avo caught Draus giving him a questioning stare. +You’re gonna wear this guy all the time now?+
+Yes. Intend to use him as bait against Veylis.+
[Lamentable fate,] Alysim sighed.
The Regular grunted as she understood. +Have her take you into her Paths, and give you a way to get at Kae?+
+That’s the broad intent.+
+Well. I guess we ain’t completely out of options yet.+ She shook her head and cast a brief glance at Naeko and the other Paladins. +You sure about them? This is a lot of meat we’re addin’ to our warhost.+
+Yes. Naeko is… Think you might like him. Sometimes. Will find him pathetic at others. Powerful. Broken. Think I can fix him.+
A wry look came over the Regular. +Enjoyed your private time together, did you?+
He responded with a flat stare. +You’ve been spending too much time with Chambers.+
+You take that shit back.+
Shotin chose this moment to look away from Chambers to give the Chief Paladin a double take. “You gotta be fucking—” He turned and hissed at Draus. “Hey. What the hells are you playing at, Gold? What is this shit? Why is he here too?”
Green River was of a thought, but she kept herself silent on the other side of the table, her fox narrowing her eyes in suspicion instead.
Naeko himself had his own misgivings about the situation. He made them known by cupping the back of Avo’s skull as he leaned in and whispered: “Hey, motherfucker, what is this?” He pointed at Shotin and Green River, before offering Kare and Maru a sharp stare. “Are you using the Paladins as some kind of recruitment pipeline? Or were they always working with you.”
“Recent acquisitions,” Avo grinned. “Essential to my coming plans.” Or were. Kare’s capture might have left them compromised as well. “Good. Everyone is here. Lot we have to discuss.” A beat followed. Avo readied himself. Best to get the worst part out of the way. “Starting with Kae Kusanade’s capture.”
Chambers snarled a curse under his breath. Across from him, the Seeker’s eyes grew wider than saucers. “I’m sorry, what the fuck?” Avo injected both him and Green Rivers with the necessary memories. The recoiled in disbelief while the woman casually lifted a hand to provide a palm for her fox to plant its face against. “What the fuck! You got the star witness—and the creator of your Frame—captured by the High Seraph herself? And she’s—she’s some kind of time-jumping—the Gatekeeper’s compromised too?”
Shotin Kazahara looked like a man in desperate need of a drink. “Holy shit. I’ve been a part of some bad ops, but my ass has never been pre-splayed open for someone else to fuck it like this. Jaus. Fuck. Doesn’t she know about me and River? Are we compromised already?”
Avo answered honestly. “Possibly.”
“You—fucking idiot…”
“Hey, shut the fuck up, Silver-fucker,” Chambers sneered. “If it wasn’t for him, you and your niece would be being used as meat-puppets, doing tricks for the Low-Fuckers of Noloth.”
And Shotin wheeled right back at Chambers. “Eat. Shit. She wouldn’t even be involved if it weren’t for you fucks. I should—”
Whatever he was about to say died as a dismembered penis suddenly materialized into existence and launched itself against Shotin’s lips. “Get him, Fucktopia!”
From behind Chambers, two rows of layered cocks flexed in acknowledgement. Additional penises separated from the swarm, began the outline of a face. “You don’t talk to my consang that way! It’s rude! You’re being rude!”
Stunned silence overcame the unprepared. Draus simply growled in frustration. “Godsdammit, Chambers. Not this shit right now.”
Another cock snapped out at Shotin—which broke him from his startled stupor, made him swat the genital aside. Spatial reality pulsed. A demiplanar stack collapsed upon them—only for Naeko to casually stop it with a rapidly-formed palm.
“Alright,” the Chief Paladin sighed. “That’s enough.” Mists held both Chambers and Shotin in place—were reluctant to touch the Fucktopia at all. As Naeko leaned over and whispered to Avo. “If he even so much as touches me or my Paladins with that thing, you’re gonna need a new pervert.” Avo grunted in agreement.
Which seemed to mark the end of things.
Until Green River spoke. “Did his Heaven… just speak?” She said, fox wary of the Fucktopia. Suddenly, Naeko went rigid and studied the Heaven of Biology once more—his behavior shared by Shotin.
“Yes,” Avo said, rolling his eyes. He would need to get this out of the way as well. “Can awaken gods with my Frame. Can do it to any Heaven. Unimportant right now. Will answer all questions about it later.”
Slowly, Naeko’s head drifted back to stare blankly at him. But before his exhausted contempt could fully register, he finally noticed the EGIs present.
{Ahem,} Kant said. {Hello, Chief Paladin. I hope your experience with our operative has been a conducive one so far.}
“Okay,” Naeko sighed, sagging into his seat, giving up. “Fine. You guys are here too. Why the hells not.”
“Thank you for restoring the calm, Chief Paladin,” Avo remarked. “Now. To the problems: Kae has been taken; the Gatekeeper is compromised; we are compromised; Zein isn’t at good at killing as she imagined. To the actionables: need to adapt all runs, operations, and dives; need to move or hide the enclave somehow; need to prepare for the coming trial; announce ourselves as a polity; and prepare a raid on Veylis’ Paths to save our Agnos. Positives: I have fully infected over a percent of the city; have more Godclads to Ensoul and Heavens I can awaken; have someone that Veylis doesn’t expect to be alive.”
He took in everyone’s faces and thoughts after he finished. The mood was about as bad as he expected. Cas shrugged. “Well. Shit’s kinda fucked. But hey, when’s that ever been different?”
“Since the end of the fucking world is just a year away,” Shotin murmured, struggling to adapt to present circumstances.
“Welcome back to the war, Chief,” Draus said, staring Naeko dead in the eyes.
The man somehow sagged further. “Holy shit.”