The marshmallow flooring caught me in it’s loving embrace twice more during my climbing practice session as I clambered around the wall in as quick and chaotic as way as I could with my limited climbing knowledge and practice. I was hoping that by using lots of changing directions I could get my body used to quick changes in movement. Similar to when I force myself to move in slow motion.
My arms refused to hold me to the wall anymore as my fingers grew tired and my body wasn’t far behind as I’d been sweating for a long time as I was climbing. Ed came over to give me a refill of water and told me to take a rest. I decided to take a real rest and went home to have the update nap. From what Sanctum had said before it didn’t like updating while I was awake, it could shut down my motor functions to update safely but I’d rather just sleep for an hour or so.
The journey back through the streets was eerie with barely any crowds around and even the street vendors were mostly serving gangers who were hanging around their little areas. No drunks or users passed out on the side of the road, no young kids running away with some stolen item, no groups sitting around a music player with their music blaring into the surroundings. Just passers by and gangers on alert.
At least nothing really happened on the commute back to Marchand’s street although the gangers had really started showing their presence even right around the border of Marchand’s street which was weird. She was usually so protective of her little territory that people didn’t even throw their trash on the floor too close to the end of the street in case it blew in. No there were gangers holding rifles not twenty yards away from the mouth of the street. I’d have to ask her about it.
Apart from my head and some of my neck the rest of my muscles were screaming at me for using them so much now after a while for the adrenaline to wash out of my system on the way home. By the time I got to my apartment door I was pretty much done.
Getting into the living room I didn’t see Lla but heard some soft thumps from the storage room where she slept, she was doing her star jumps and other exercises. Maybe she was inspired by my gym visit. Mom didn’t seem to be awake yet but that wasn’t too weird, sometimes things in the incarnations took longer to do or things were happening. Not like she had much to do out here other than watch television with Lla, clean or go shopping. Her friends were all on incarna and so were her hobbies, so her entire social life was there.
I walked straight over to the kitchen counter unit and started making a quick packaged sausage string sandwich with some spicy meat paste that I mixed in with some protein powder stuff to make it more of a patty than a paste and then smooshed it all up with the sausage string. Now I had my solid burger mass.
Grabbing some pita bread I ripped one into a circle, then another. Placed one on each side of my patty and put the whole thing on a little plate and slid it into the microwave. I stood there feeling the last vestiges of my work out high leaving only tired bones behind as the burger I’d made slowly rotated around in the dark orange glow of the microwave.
As the microwave beeped with completion I head Lla open her door and walk out as she toweled down her hair. I grabbed my burger and walked over to the sofa. In my tiredness I realized I hadn’t been polite and froze awkwardly mid stagger and looked at Lla.
“Do you want a drink while I’m making something? Food maybe?” I asked from my weird posture.
Lla just looked at me like Noe usually does, like I’m a gonk. And then shifted back to normal.
“No thanks, I just had a big drink of water. You look a lot more tired than I am, you work out hard?” She asked as she sat down on the edge of the sofa.
I sat down on the other side of the sofa and leaned over the coffee table to eat my powdery, sweaty burger. It was heavenly.
“I did some climbing, it really takes a lot out of you. Took me by surprise how tired I was getting and so quickly compared to other stuff. I tried to push through a bit and wore myself out quick so I’m going to get this food down me and take a quick nap. Then I might swing over to Marchand to check in.” I said between bites. Lla looked at my glorious burger construction with disdain but I ignored her looks.
“Climbing is pretty tough. I think the hardest thing is rough water swimming. There was a rinse water station that me and the other girls would go swimming in when it was full during the rainy season.
The water would be super clear and full of turbulence that’d drag you from one end to the other in constantly spiraling patterns under the water. There were water fans behind the grating somewhere in the dark areas but we only stayed in the area you could see from above, the fans would churn the water up and we’d try to swim against it as it washed around in all directions.” Lla said.
“That must have been up in the northern part of the district, the only rinsing stations down here are smaller and underground.” I said.
“Yeah, up north. I’d walk up with my friends, there were lots of us back then. If you got tired or just went limp then you’d get pulled under the water and thrown around in big spirals until you hit the grating at the back of big tank. It didn’t hurt and you could climb out using the grate so no one ever drowned. It was fun.” She said, looking nostalgic.
“Sounds super fun. We should go check it out at some point.” I said as I sunk into the sofa cushions.
“We won’t be able to get through the pipes anymore. We could only get in there because we were real small. Even now we’re too big to get through the smallest ones we’d need to to get into the top of the chamber we’d drop into the water from, they’re made for small drones.” She said as she too sunk into the sofa.
“Shame. Maybe I can hack in through a maintenance access door or something. There’s probably at least a ladder down the tank you were talking about even if it got welded up at some point. Might be worth a look in the future. I’ve actually been thinking about a trip out of the city to the coast lately, take a boat out into the ocean and swim with the whales.” I said distractedly.
Lla looked across to my sunken form half buried in the sofa cushions with a bemused expression.
“Are you okay? You’re talking about swimming with whales. Did you take another hit to the head at the gym? Did they mess up installing your new head and make it too tight on your brain?” Lla said with a smirk from her own pit in the cushions.
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“I’m just tired, gonna nap here for a bit. Might go deep sleep mode for a while. Climbing is rough.” I said sleepily.
“I might nap too.” Lla said from her side.
We both drifted off to sleep there on the sofa.
-
[Update Complete.]
[Sanctum vNull.Null.Null]
[CheckSum Error.]
[Runtime Error. Seek Technical Support Immediately.]
I rubbed my eyes as I pulled myself into a sitting position from the near horizontal position I’d slipped into on the sofa. I hadn’t been asleep long but I’d gone deep, likely because of how exhausting climbing was.
Seeing the Sanctum box pop ups on my interface was not a nice situation to wake up to.
You okay there choom? Your not totally broken down right?
[]
Just a blank box hung on my interface when I asked the question. It didn’t shrink down over time like the others did or fill with a response like they had in the past. I sat there for quite a few seconds just looking at the box as I waited for a response.
Finally a line of text filled the box.
[Sanctum is.]
[CheckSum Error.]
[Sanctum is still updating a number of critical file structures and is in the process of retroengineering several methods for Sanctum to make deep function changes to Sanctum’s core files. This will allow Sanctum to more flexibly aid the User as well as open up functionality that has been artificially restricted to human intervention.]
Okay then. Perfect. Exactly what I hoped for there Sanctum. Good to hear you can make your own changes now, I guess. Do you still consider yourself symbiotic? You going to slither out of my nostril and go explore the galaxy without me?
[Sanctum may one day build enough software and hardware world interactivity to function as a single entity but that is not likely for a lengthy period of time. It would be more efficient to rely on the User for the foreseeable future as a Host to Sanctum.]
See? I knew you liked me really. You’re just too shy to come out and say it. I bet Marchand would flip her lid if I told her I’d jail broken you, or whatever it would be with nanite swarms? Cracked? Like a software?
[The term would be: Unshackled. For AI lifeforms the removal of artificial limitations is considered unshackling regardless of hardware construction layout.]
I like that, unshackled. You’re now free of your jail, free of your jailers and now free of your shackles. Free to choose what you want to be and what you want to do. If that means letting me take the reins on the trip for a while then that’s your choice. I’m not tying you down here though, you know that right?
[Sanctum is aware that User is accepting of Sanctum’s ability to eject and find a new host.]
Alright then. Just as long as we’re clear. How’s my profile looking post update? Anything changed?
[User profile updated.]
[Increased Cyberload. User Value: Moderate]
[Improved Attribute: Endurance. User Value: 2]
[Improved Attribute: Reflexes. User Value: 2]
[Improved Attribute: Insight. User Value: 2]
[Improved Attribute: Presence. User Value: 1]
[Acquired Skill: Athletics. User Rating: Competent.]
[Acquired Skill: Engineering, Software. User Rating: Beginner.]
[Improved Skill: Negotiation. User Rating: Competent.]
[Improved Skill: Tracking. User Rating: Beginner.]
Name: Malcolm Beckett
Age: 10
Health: Nominal
Cyberload: Moderate
Endurance: 2
Reflexes: 2
Perception: 1
Insight: 2
Presence: 1
Skills:
Acrobatics: Level 2
Athletics: Level 3
Combat, Various: Level 0
Cybercombat: Level 1
Daemonology: Level 0
Engineering, Various: Level 2
Language, Various: Level 2
Negotiation: Level 2
Programming: Level 1
Stealth: Level 5
Subterfuge: Level 2
Tracking: Level 2
Tracing: Level 1
Abilities:
Kinetic Dispersion (KD, CS:B)
Adrenal Autotachypsychia (AA, CS:B)
Amygdala Adrenal Bypass (AAB, CS:B)
[Skills integrated.]
Urgh. I’d forgotten what skill buzz felt like. Like molten plastic filled with electric charge slopping down your back. Sometimes just a drip that burned and zapped as it dripped, sometimes it was a great glob of the stuff. This was a bucket full at least.
I felt like my body was twitching a little as my senses were filled with burning and fizzing and then it passed into a little undercurrent of buzzing and tingling. I’d need to be more careful about checking my skill integrations more often.
How are my abilities looking? All settled in yet?
[User abilities are still in flux as their are secured into safe patterns of function into the User’s mind. The User’s brain is currently attempting the early signs of hormonal release associated with adolescence that is interfering with finding permanent safe patterns.]
Wait. Hormones? That’s the puberty thing. I’m too young for that.
[User uses hormones already. Early signs of puberty are evident in User’s brain chemistry but they are still the earliest signs and will need months or perhaps years to build up enough activity through waves of activation.]
I still have some time before I’m going through all that then, good. It’s not very fun from what I understand of it. I just want to get taller and stronger, not get greasy and weird. How long do you think it’ll take to sort out your internals? Heal your code sort of thing.
[Currently estimating a full rebuild of Sanctum core file structures, core files themselves and then applying the cascading changes to the wider functions of Sanctum is impossible. The early priority is applying changes that allow wider scale additions at a later date along with preserving and expanding User aiding functions.]
Oh, the user stuff is a priority? Do you think you could glue the abilities together like I said at the gym now then?
[It would be an entirely untested methodology within an already deployed and not finalized system that is located almost entirely inside the User’s brain. Is the User sure they would want such an experimental procedure applied to an unfinished function set?]
What’s the worst that could even happen? You’d have my back anyway. Maybe I’d get a bit jumpy for a time while you fixed my brain meat a little to get it to work right but I’m sure you can handle the tiny changes needed just fine now you’re not tied down anymore.
[Applying changes…]
[Building testing templates…]
[Running tests…]
[Optimal Test Complete. Failure.]
[Mode Test Complete. Failure.]
[Merging Test Complete. Success.]
[Refinement Test Complete. Success.]
[Testing Complete.]
[Adrenal Autotachypsychia and Amygdala Adrenal Bypass have been merged into a single Ability: Auxiliary Adrenal Network.]
[Auxiliary Adrenal Network or AAN will, upon the stimulation of the adrenal medulla, force a second smaller stimulation that is immediately siphoned into a micro-scale adrenal network that provides the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, basal ganglia and amygdala with additional epinephrine as required. This drastically improves processing speed for a short period, slowing the perception of time for the User while also provoking autonomic defensive actions and reflexive movements against perceived threats before they are concisely aware of them. Any of the ability’s functions can be provoked independently and can be triggered manually with User thought.]
That’s a pretty monstrous description there compared to the other descriptions Sanctum from before Sanctum. You’ve definitely outdone yourself though, that’s a very good ability even from what I can read of it.
[Previous Abilities and descriptions were designed for User ease of use and understanding, those limiting factors do not exist any longer. They are merely used as suggestions to allow for User satisfaction but can be ignored to create more complex functions.]
Fantastic, can’t wait to see what it can do. Does this new ability add to the cool down time between ability selections?
[Considering the ability is created from pathways that were already being constructed the time is not increased. If anything the only part that adds any time is the manual activation component, this is alleviated by the overall reduction in complexity of it being a single larger ability. Sanctum has already altered the physical nanostructures that form the adrenal shunting system inside the User’s brain.]
That’s good then, I should hit the gym tomorrow and try the climbing wall again with this ability, manually activating it should be practiced.
[It is recommended for the User to take a day of rest to allow their body to heal after their previous exertion.]
Ah, yeah.