In the previous episode...
1.2.2 An Awakening Epiphany
Wealth, it turns out, can be a mixed blessing. On one hand, the Wombles gain some followers to help carry out their ambitious plans. Bungo takes the surviving bandits they encountered on the way to Torello, and turns them into monks by teaching them how to cultivate their Qi. Alderney recruits members of The Burrow to help design robots that help people without leaving others unemployed (MythOS). Wellington, with political help from Lady Pia Trinci and legal help from Emmanuelle Giambrone, organises a project to redevelop a derelict area (Spettro, in the Basso district) near the orphanage and hires some newly encountered master craftsmen. Bulgaria acquires some of the artifacts and makes plans to have Kafana’s embarrassment of magical gemstones turned into a crown that will impress even the most jaded of aristocrats. Even Tomsk benefits from the footballs that result from Bungo bonding with Flavio over using experimental chemistry to investigate the limitations of the game’s physics engine and their philosophical implications.
On the other hand, the party find themselves beset by thieves, assassins, deities and prophecies. Baba Olga (a seer) explains the risks involved in dealing with blessings and curses, which Kafana experiences first hand when she receives the Imprimatur of the Deities (a divine blessing that boosts reputation gains, but makes it impossible for her to hide). The Wombles also find out that Ludwig’s guild (The Immortals) is coercing people with threat of action outside the game, and has killed one of their own players in arlife (for passing on information to Bulgaria), bringing home to Kafana that her life might be at stake if she fails to keep her velife identity entirely separate from her arlife identity as Nadine.
But this is a problem for her - the profound experience of merging with another individual (her Vessel) and then being forcibly separated again has left Kafana with doubts about her very identity and how it relates to the personas she falls into when playing different roles. She ends up creating a family of expert systems to help, bringing her total to eight: Minion (velife security), Balthazar (coding), Melchior (ethics, finance), Rizah (research), Dinah (training), Ketah (cooking), Bilah (public relations) and Terah (arlife security).
After much advice and meditation she decides to follow the example set by her father: it is ok to put on masks for fun or to fool enemies, but you can only find true friendship with those for whom you dare be to yourself - a realisation that’s put to the test when she realises how much Bulgaria has been hiding from her and she must decide whether to confront him about it. Even meeting a god in person (when helping Vittoria plead with Mor to remove his curse upon her), giving up her freedom to perform great choral works (which she does for the last time at the funeral for Nicolo’s brother, exposing her mind to all in a spell enabling Basso’s residents to support each other in their grief), or learning that she’s influenced Sys (a fundamental part of the game’s software) so much that the expert system takes on fully sense-enabled avatar for the first time (which nearly breaks the game) doesn’t scare Kafana as much as the prospect of risking the trust and friendship of her respected mentor, Bulgaria.
She stands firm though, and learns of the desperation and feelings of failure that Bulgaria has been concealing behind the brave front he’s been putting on for everyone. Not only does he share his fears about where he thinks humanity will end up, if they continue along their current path, and his hope that using tiara technology to spread empathy might be one final chance for our species to change direction; he also asks Kafana to become the leader of the Wombles, not just in making arlife recordings to publicise The Burrow, but in arlife as well - to take on responsibility for trying to seize this hope while a brief opportunity to do so still remains open.
...now read on!
1 Soul Bound
1.2 Taking Control
1.2.3 An Enchanting Original
1.2.3.1 Topsy-turvy
5:00 am, Wednesday June 7th, 2045
Nadine sat with Heather eating a leisurely breakfast. The warm kitchen protected them from the chill of dawn. She’d already spent time sharing dreams and plans with her Vessel Self, and Vessel-Kafana was going to handle sending a messenger to arrange a time convenient with Signora for Kafana to return the borrowed dress and perhaps buy some clothing. She’d also dipped into the Burrow’s meditation room for a short visit.
For the first time in quite a while, she didn’t feel stressed or rushed. She felt in control of herself. It was a good feeling.
Heather: “You look cheerful.”
Nadine: “I had a good chat with Bulgaria yesterday; it cleared the air. The Burrow has launched and Vittoria’s curse has been removed. As far as I’m aware, while there are mysteries to solve and quests to complete, we’re no longer under any particular deadlines. We can go back to taking things at our own pace, having fun exploring new bits of this online world. Unless something terrible happened during the auction?”
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Heather blushed. “The less said about the auction the better. We did help House Czerny defend their reputation against rumours of their rigging the auction, by discovering that several items had falsified provenances, all certified by the same third party expert, but we can follow up on that in our own time - there’s no rush. Other than that, your items sold well, and Wellington’s set up drawing rights for you with the bankers, backed by a really substantial pile of rare metal bars now safely deposited in the vaults of the Goldsmiths Guild.”
Blushing? How curious. Nadine opened her mouth to inquire further when Heather interrupted.
Heather: “Why does your food taste so good? You’re stuck in a backwards village perched on an isolated mountain, and you feed me better than the amazing looking dishes they served at Moon Base One or in the city.”
Nadine: “That’s the difference between fresh local produce and gloop like Doguyasuji Nutriprints. Algae may have all the nutrients, but it just doesn’t taste the same, no matter how realistically you shape it.”
Ketah, on the screen above the cooker, gave Nadine a sly ‘thumbs up’ gesture.
Heather: “Say, if I brought in a topsy body for Ketah to control, do you think you could teach it to cook your way? We’ve got plenty of freshly caught fish back at Stedding Delphina, and I could copy the training over to a topsy there as a surprise for the crew - they’d appreciate a good meal.”
Nadine thought about it. Topsies were most often used as sex dolls, but could double as immersive orglife puppets. Normally they were controlled by an expert system, but some owners hired human sex workers over the net and, at the flick of a switch, could plunge the human worker into experiencing everything that happened to the doll. The whole concept felt icky to Nadine - she’d heard too many stories of companies supplying such workers using duress or just recruiting the poor and desperate.
Nadine: “Why a topsy? Wouldn’t one of your Bosnian Bots be a better idea?”
Heather: “Oh we’ll have MythOS Bots too. Hmm, that’s a bit of a mouthful. Mythoi? But anyway, it wouldn’t be in character for them to cook so well that they’d displace a human doing a dignified job. Stirring pots or licking plates clean, because the grease and grime is a delicacy to them? Good. Providing complete meals? Not so good.”
Nadine: “If you want to use an existing bot design, why not a cheaper model? I don’t know how to use the tools you’ve got set up at the Roost, but couldn’t you fabricate one here?”
Heather: “I could. I’ll show you how to use my tool interface, if you like - there’s a tutorial mode I designed for kids that guards against expensive mistakes being made by accident. You don’t even need to walk over there; you can use it remotely. But I’ve several reasons to suggest having a topsy here. I’ve a crew member who has a male-form topsy inhabited by her husband who works at a different sea stedding, so I’m used to their design parameters. Topsies are the cheapest bots in common usage that go beyond the uncanny valley to being able to pass as human at first glance. I figure having that capability around might be useful, and your regulars won’t object if Master Sergeant Bahrudin approves it.”
Nadine: “I’ll take you up on that offer later today, after we finish playing Soul Bound. There’s something I want to try crafting personally. By the way, how are the mythoi coming along?”
Heather: “Amazingly well. The Mazizam tribe have contributed enormously. They’ve a group in Ghana willing to act as a beta-test site, and say they’ll have a prototype Attakuruima fairy ready to release tomorrow. Looks scary as hell to me, but apparently it matches what the locals expect and will relate to dealing with. We’re not far behind. Think Bulgaria will object if we ask to take Friday off?”
Nadine: “Actually that’s part of what I spoke to Bulgaria about. He wants me to take on more of a leadership role, not just in what the party does in-game, but in arlife too.”
Heather: “What did you say?”
Nadine: “I said I’d think about it. He and Wellington talked about some pretty high-stakes stuff. It scares me more than angry robot fairies. Not just the risk to those around me, but the thought of getting things wrong, letting other people down. What do you think I should do?”
Heather: “Be a good engineer. Understand the risks, take sensible precautions and get people to double check your work. But don’t let fear prevent you from being creative. Nothing truly great, nothing original, was ever achieved by those afraid to dare the unknown.”
Nadine: “Nothing ventured, nothing gained? Bulgaria used the word ‘hero’. The image in my mind is of Bungo’s arrogance as Flash Gordon. I could play that temporarily as a role, but I couldn’t be that. It isn’t me.”
Heather: “Then don’t be that sort of leader. Working on space projects I’ve met some really effective leaders. People with a vision they feel so passionate about that they inspire others to care too. I even met Feodor Yerkes, once. They’ve all had different personality types, different strengths, different leadership styles. Leaders don’t have to be bossy. Find your own style.”
Heather crammed the last of her food into her mouth as she spoke and bounced to her feet. “Shall we get going? Covob awaits!”