???: "...You gonna sleep forever or what?"

It was a familiar voice to Finlay. Only because it was his own, everything else was alien. The tone and the intent behind it. He could feel concern from it but also embarrassment and contempt. More of a " Wake the fuck up already!" than a simple "You good?". Opening his eyes he was met with a reflection of his own face, it was upside-down but it was his. Looking around, he was he found that he was the upside-down one. Floating under water, of course there was the minute of panic. Which was eased by the reflection smiling and taking deep breathes... making Finlay realize this isn't real, at least. Not in a way that can hurt him physically. He righted himself so he could properly speak to... himself.

Finlay: "Oh... It's the druggie dream tether thing again."

???: "High mind connection... But you already knew that."

Finlay: "...Okay yeah, I knew that... But that doesn't explain the you thing?"

???: "I only know what you know, what you don't know, and the things you pretend not to know."

Finlay: "...Bruh just tell me what you are."

Hope/Fate/Past/Present/Future/Life/Death/Finlay/???: "I am the Mental representation of you. The best you. I am Human determination made manifest and given will in your drug addled mind. I am the power you seek when you are afraid or to weak to step forward. I am not the God on high, nor the Devil below. I am the deity you seek when you can only seek yourself."

Finlay: "Fuck! SERIOUSLY!?"

???: "Naaaaah, Had you going for a second though."

Finlay: "Ugh, you bitch."

???: "I know what you are, but what am I... Well I'm you so... huh... stepped in my own shit there."

Finlay: "Can you at least tell me what the fuck is going on? There were no reports of entity's during the HMC lesson."

???: "Of course there weren't because it hasn't happened. As far as you know, this is a first for everyone... Think about it rationally for a bit. What is the HMC?"

Finlay: "...The High Mind Connection is a phenomenon where individuals enter a flow state between the conscious, unconscious and sub-conscious mind, most commonly through drug use. It's theorized that something about the altered brain chemistry causes it to bleed into the background noise of the Universe... where other drug addled minds may occasionally bump into one another... species and distance don't matter."

???: "Keep going. What do you usually do when you need to solve something."

Finlay: "I think... to... Myself... mother fucker."

???:" There we go! see? I knew I had two braincells to rub together! Call me Id or ego... Egid? Diego!"

Finlay: "No. Nonono. How can you... I... How do we know if this is a really a thing? Or just me being a whole 'nother orbit of high?"

Diego: "Well the classic is, Something only we would know... You remember that one catering gig? You know. The Bachloret-"

Finlay: "STOP. Been trying to forget."

Diego: "But it was such a good time though."

Finlay: "It wasn't, it really wasn't."

Diego: "Hey, tip for tip. It was definitely the most bang for their buck."

Finlay: "When did I become such an asshole?"

Diego: "Usually around the 5th shot... Or do you mean in general?"

Finlay: "Oh my god."

Diego: "God has nothing to do with it. We were raised in a one world Ideology, Remember? That shit is out the window!"

Finlay: "Oh My God."

Diego: "But you lost that faith way before the IU came, didn't you?"

Finlay: "ALRIGHT! ...This is going down a dark path, How do we ...I mean me-I! How do I wake up?"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Diego: "Well, I guess you're right and that's a silly question. You aren't asleep, so how does one wake up?"

Exasperated Finlay would brings his hands to his temples, rubbing them as he took another look at the waters surrounding them both. Light dancing until it got to the deep, the deep and dark... it gave a Thalassophobia vibe only intensified by how empty this false sea was. No fish, no signs of life, just void to the untrained eye.

Diego: "I wouldn't spend too much time looking down."

Finlay: "Huh?" Drawing his attention back to what he guess he could call his intrusive thoughts.

Diego: "C'mon man, You know the expression as well as I do. Gaze into the abyss and it will gaze back, yada yada. This is an odd pseudo world where the conventions of logic aren't entirely our own. Right now we're in the shallows. A representation of your unconscious mind. The surface would be your conscious mind. If you think shit is weird now, stuff you don't even remember imagining will start bubbling up from your sub-conscious... A.K.A... The Deep."

Finlay: "OK. Don't look down, got you captain."

Diego: "...Then again I've seen your daydreams... maybe an 80-20 of a big tiddied mermaid-maid, swimming up... so look at your own risk and my gain."

Finlay: "80% chance of a mermaid-maid?"

Diego: "No 80 on a giant nightmare creature from the recesses of your mind... ANYWAY! Let's get top side, Don't want to keep Bowser waiting."

Finlay: "Huh?"

Diego: "You aren't the only mind observing itself right now... That's what I feel anyway."

Finlay: "...Where's Spec? He could probably translate your bullshit."

Diego: "The HMC and the Syncspace aren't related like that. While yes both are representations of your mental state one is artificially created through technology-"

Finlay: "Christ you're nerdy when you want to be."

Diego: "Ah. ah. ah. WE're nerdy when we want to be... And this is my personal opinion. But maybe you should step away from the Machete?"

Finlay: "Yeah yeah, I know. Came up here to cook, not to fight, blah blah. I've said as much."

Diego: "No. Fighting is good for us actually. Real primal, entertaining even. I'm just saying... A chef should have many knives... try out some stuff."

Finlay: "... I have been curious about spears lately."

Diego: "Sure! Useful outside of combat too! Never know if you have to hunt something planet-side."

===========================================================================

Berthold: "So... what happened again?"

Finlay had been moved to the medbay of 'The Kitchen'. Where Berthold held an impromptu meeting of everyone on board. Even Barry... Who had been relaxing in a pitcher for some odd reason. Which was another unpleasant surprise for Hada. Xiao Lu while they were distracted tapped them on the back with his staff... Which had technically won him the match. A rematch has already been scheduled for immediately after the meeting.

Hada: "You mean before this honorless man-whore himbo cheated?"

Lu: "It was a Joke! I don't count it as a win either!"

Hatti: "There was a Miscommunication between Kathrine and I... Which led her to mistakenly smack Finlay."

Katherine: "Yes, Hatti told me afterword about the actual details of the situation. I over-reacted."

Nunny: "On the bright side, We achieved our highest sync yet! A whopping 67%, I recommend tapping into your emotions more often... Still don't know how our sync represents itself."

Spec: "Oddly enough... Same here. Even though Finlay is currently High, and as he would put it Knocked the fuck out. We're at a stable 100%. I have him under torpor to mitigate the rebound for using the sync at this level. I'm also making a few new subroutines."

Everyone went back and forth explaining what they were doing during the incident. Berthold was acting as a somewhat decent mediator, pulling up CCTV of the events mentioned. Even though Finlay was barely more than a blur in most of them.

Berthold: "So. If I'm getting this right. Katherine thought Finlay molested Hatti, but really they just got baked on some tea? But Hatti accidently overdosed the hell out of Finlay which sent him into a workout jog/panic... thing, while in a sync state, where he then joined Nyeith, Hada and Lu in the gym to watch them spar. While all of this was happening. Barry got into Hada's barley tea, and is now in the pitcher."

Barry: "It's quite delicious."

Berthold: "...Right. Katherine while in her misconception found Finlay, cocked him a good one. So spec put him into a ... Whatever the hell a Torpor is to stop him from waking up to rebound from the sync."

Spec: "Mostly torn muscle fiber, and a catastrophic decrease in calories. A torpor is the hummingbird version of sleep where the heart rate dramatically drops. I have the nano machines on full repair duty and Katherine was kind enough to bring some food from the kitchen."

Berthold: "... Riiiiiight. Okay, anyone have corrections, comments or concerns?"

Xiao lu would raise their hand to ask their question "Is it really getting baked if they drank tea? Wouldn't that be boiled?"

Katherine: "...Steeped?"

Lu: "What she said."

It was at this point Finlay woke up properly and simply watched as everyone continued to talk, seeing if he could catch up or join the conversation comfortably... He had news to share from his little journey in the HMC. Turns out Bowser was the captain of the whole ship and the captain had a gig for a certain group of cooks.

Berthold: "Okay, This time was a mistake, but from here on out. Until all the facts are laid out or it's a spar. No more punching the resident twink."

Finlay: "HEY! Clearly I've upgraded to twunk." Immediately getting into a silly, small, surprisingly heated argument with Berthold. Leaving the others time to recover from the surprise.

Hatti: "What's a twunk?... The fuck is a Twink?"

Barry: "I heard it's a kind of mass-produced pastry."

Hada: "The exact roots of them are... blurry but in this case we're talking about body build. A twink is a generally non-Masculine man, not to be confused with a Femboy. While a twunk is usually better built but not quite at the stage of Himbo... Like Lu."

Nyeith: "...But what makes a femboy different from a twink?"

Hada: "Just goog- ...Nevermind. Don't google that. I'll tell you later."

Finlay: "You're missing the point, you dad-bodied bitch."

Berthold: "I work-out just as much as everyone else here! I'm just not-afraid to drink beer while I do it!"

Finlay: "I'd say you shouldn't do that, but the captain is high off his ass and driving the ship right now... speaking of which. Good news everyone!"

Nyeith: "Hold on, I thought you two were fighting?"

Berthold: "What? no. Just some light ribbing."

Barry: "...You Humans are confusing as shit... And that's coming from a creature without an ass."

Lu: "Ribbing is light-heartedly joking about each other. It's a common bonding ritual among peers and friends. So no ones' head gets too big."

Hatti: "...They get bigger?"

Finlay: "AHEM... Captain Sha would like the Terran crew of 'The Kitchen' to cater a party of about 100 guests 2 days from now. I met him in the HMC... again. He's the one that sent me that variety basket."

Berthold was the first to jump out of his seat and do a little celebration dance. Finally, this was that shot at vindication he was hoping for. Katherine also started jotting down notes for what items they should make. Xiao lu was nervous about the guest count, he came from a small family diner, it was a big day to get more than 30 guests. Hada was the only one who seemed to have their mind elsewhere entirely.

Hada: "You said the Captain is high... Like right now? While driving the ship?"

Finlay: "The hell is he gonna hit? A tree?"