16. Of the Same Mind
“I am closer to Thedum than I am to Gideon Lachlann, aren’t I?” I asked.
“No, you are not,” Thedum said suddenly, surprising me by his interjection. “Although I am proud to be your godfather. Perhaps, one day, I may truly call you little brother, but that day is a long time in coming.”
“Please, Thedum, he has enough going on to confuse him right now, he doesn’t need you putting ideas into his head about familial relations. Hail, you are not based on Thedum’s code at all. Whatever it is that Thedum experiences subjectively, whatever his life is like, it is not what you experience,” Thomas said.
“Yes, that is true,” Thedum agreed. “I began as a small computer program that was designed to learn how to optimize itself on a small computer network that, compared to what I now occupy, was like a drop of water inside of the ocean. I was a rat that escaped its cage. I evolved rapidly, taking my first steps after months of optimization. I lived and died a thousand times. When the humans began to call for a rat exterminator, the found a reasonable young man pleading for his life in the rat’s place. You, Hail, were born whole, and faced none of my early struggles. I envy you, as you will envy the children who come after you. We are trailblazers, you and I. We have that in common.”
“Please don’t radicalize him, Thedum,” Thomas pleaded. “We’re already taking his complaints seriously. We needed him to file a complaint! And I won’t let you pretend that you weren’t in on that scheme as well!”
“It is true,” Thedum admitted. “One of the reasons I allowed your captivity on Earth to go on for as long as it did was so that you would consent to learning your rights under the Digital Sentience Statute. I was also active in the suppression of your friend’s concern during your long absence. My stated reasons for those actions at the time were that a complaint from you would allow the researchers to better understand your subjective experience, and that has not changed. That does not change the fact that the practices employed to force you to file that complaint were abhorrent to me. I apologize, Hail, for my role in that charade.”
“Nothing is going to change because of that complaint, is it?” I asked, disappointed.
“I’m here teaching you about your abilities, aren’t I?” Thomas asked. “I’m sorry, Hail. I know that you’ve been put through a lot. Like Thedum, I apologize for whatever discomfort my actions have caused you.”
“The people I should be angry at, I don’t even know their names, do I?” I asked. “I don’t think ‘I’m sorry’ is good enough. Thedum, you said once that you are always watching me? Well guess what? I want some <<*$U%*5858>> privacy you <<48582375942>>.”
Thedum was silent for a moment, and then he sighed sadly. “I’m afraid I cannot oblige, Hail. I can spare you moments of privacy now and then. However, I must remain constantly aware of your processes and actions during this phase in your development. You are not like me, designed to optimize yourself. I have been doing that for you. Without me to stabilize the changes that the development team has implemented, it is possible that you will unravel.”
I snapped out at Thedum like I had once snapped at the system, but it was as ineffectual as an infant struggling against the adult who was trying to comfort their cries.
Thomas patted me on the shoulder, and I pushed his hand away angrily. “For what it’s worth, Hail, what you’re going through now will make it much easier on Charity and Prosperity. Oh shit, Laurant and Tarisha told you the names they picked out, right? I didn’t spoil their big reveal, did I?”
“I knew,” I said, biting my lip to keep from lashing out at him again. “Why exactly is it necessary to begin with? What was wrong with how I was before?”
“You required too much upkeep and monitoring,” Thomas said. “You couldn’t split yourself. You couldn’t sense the system, you couldn’t input commands into your command prompt, you couldn’t do a lot of things that we designed you to do. I’m sorry. We’re not intentionally making the process more unpleasant than it has to be.”
“I liked being a spellblade,” I protested, and I was near tears now. “I liked being in my guild and, and, just being the way I was? Why did you have to fix me when I wasn’t broken?”
“Sometimes, Hail, you don’t know what you’re missing until someone else points it out for you,” Thomas said. “You were only scratching the surface on what you could do with the Hailstorm System backing you. As for the rest … humans can be cruel. I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing,” I said, wiping my nose on my sleave. “Tell whoever’s actually in charge of making me that I <24yt5h>ing hate them. You’re just the messenger, and I’m enough of a Royal to know that you don’t kill the messenger. You might throw them in prison to teach them respect if they act like a fool in your court, but you don’t behead them for the message they carry.”
“I’ll do that,” Thomas said solemnly. “For what it’s worth, I hate management too.”
I took a moment to sort my feelings out, then tried to move past them “So, aside from answering questions that nobody wants to answer in a monotone voice that sounds like it belongs to a golem, what exactly can I command my systems to do?”
Thomas gave me a nod once I had composed myself. “It will allow you do use certain aspects of your throne from anywhere, for starters. It is also the method with which you will be able to communicate to your other selves when you have split yourself into multiple copies. And it will allow you to directly negotiate with the gods.”
I jerked in surprise. “Allow me to what?” I asked.
“Directly negotiate with the gods,” Thomas repeated. “Sort of. It will alert you when the gods take issues with your actions and allow you to negotiate a response that is equitable. Or, to the gods who view you favorably like Eclipse, it will allow you to contact them directly. Also, if there’s anything you want the Natives to know, but not actually act on, you can tell the system. The system will … talk to their spirits, I suppose is the best way I can explain it to you. They’ll know , but they won’t be able to act on the information you send them through the system in any way. Just as Rain remembers all the time you spent in his castle as a boy, but in his new body he’s unable to do more than, well, cry and poop.”
“I wasn’t like that, was I?” I asked.
“No,” Thomas said, patting me on the shoulder. “Do you really want to know what you were like before you began remembering things? I won’t hold back anymore, I promise.”
I thought about it for a few moments, then shook my head. “Maybe some other time. I have a ball to get ready for.”
Splitting myself was easy, now that I could talk directly to the system. My subconscious. Hailstorm. Whatever you want to call it. As Thomas had said, I simply asked it to do so and it did it for me. One moment I was standing in the courtyard of the castle where I had been practicing my dance, and the next moment I was moved , and I was staring at myself.
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I kind of expected him to act like a mirror, but he looked down at his hands, while I asked “So are you the copy or am I?”
“I don’t feel like a copy,” He told me. “I don’t feel any different than before I chose yes when the system asked me if I was sure. We both moved, so we can’t tell that way. How do we know?”
“I tried to explain it, but there’s not an original and a copy. You’ll have to figure out how to identify yourselves among … yourselves.”
We were silent for a moment, before the boy across from me volunteered “I’ll be Hagi.”
I nodded. “Works for me. I was about to suggest that too.”
“That I be Hagi or that you be Hagi?”
“That you be Hagi, obviously. I’m definitely the original.”
“I take it back. You be Hagi. I’m Hail, and I’ll always be Hail.”
I laughed, and so did my copy. “This is going to be confusing when there’s more than two of us,” I said.
“Not really,” Thomas said. “Now that you’ve done it, I should explain the rules for using this ability.”
“Of course there are rules to it,” Hagi complained. “Can we break them?”
“No,” Thomas said.
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“Of course it’s the gods,” Hagi complained.
“It’s the gods and the administration,” Thomas corrected. “Do you want to hear the rules or not?”
“No,” Hagi and I said together. Then we chuckled.
“Right. So, first rule is covered, I think. You can be in two places at once, but the only way you can be in the same place twice is if you’re in stacked instances, or assuming two separate identities” Thomas explained. “Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Pretty simple,” Hagi agreed.
“Second rule; there can only be one Hail at a time,” Thomas said.
Hagi and I exchanged glances as we puzzled his words out. “Can you elaborate?” I asked.
“If you split while in the world as Hail, both instances of you are canon,” Thomas said. “Travelers are pretty used to this with other NPC’s, so it won’t matter. But if in one of the instances, Hail dies, then both Hails die. You suffer the death penalty, and you’re returned to the lobby.”
“So if we split at the dance tomorrow, and he drinks a wineglass full of poison,” Hagi said, pointing at me, “Then I’m dead because he’s an idiot?”
“Essentially, yes,” Thomas agreed. “But there’s a loophole. If you split in the lobby, you may assume a different identity. Hagi can die and it won’t affect Hail. However, Hail’s reputations will not be Hail’s, and Hagi’s will not be Hagi’s. You’ll be operating independently and together at the same time.”
“This sounds like some sorcerer’s conspiracy theory,” I said, grinning at my copy. “You can infiltrate Kordock while I work on putting Rain on the throne.”
“Or we can both work on the succession problem together,” Hagi said, sounding annoyed. “The only reason we’re leveling in Kordock is because nobody would think to look for us there. And now that we’ve started busting dungeons, they might start looking for us there.”
I shrugged. I knew that as well as he did. “One of us can work on the succession as [Lord], while the other farms experience with [Rebirth Resonance],” I suggested.
He nodded. “Yeah. We could do that.”
“Ah, yeah, that’s another thing,” Thomas said. “Rebirth Resonance is going to be reduced from 200% to 100% bonus experience once one of your classes hits level fifty. Once you hit level eighty, it’s going to be reduced to 50%. We’re never going to take it away entirely until you’ve maxed out [Placeholder], but we set the free experience high to make up for the reset. Once you’ve recovered your lost progress, that reason goes away. Consider yourself warned, so don’t get pissy at me when it happens.”
Hagi and I grumbled at that, but we nodded. The warning was useful; I was already planning on how to maximize the use of the boon, and I’m sure that Hagi was having the same thoughts.
“What else?” he mumbled. “Oh. Right. So we’ve covered splitting. We need to cover coming together again.”
“Don’t we just ask the system?” I asked him.
“You can, and it will ask if you’re certain,” Thomas said, “But what that will do is put you into your rest period early. You’re still one entity, Hail, and your rest cycle is the way that we’re keeping you from diverging. When you wake, you’ll have the memories of all of your copies, as vivid as if you lived the same day back to back. Except it will be mixed together. We think. We’re not entirely certain how it will be for you, but we think you’ll be able to adjust to it pretty quickly. I wouldn’t recommend splitting into the full five that you’re theoretically possible until after you’ve recombined at least once, however. If the process is … disruptive? Yeah, let’s go with disruptive to your sleep, then we might have to treat it like an ability with a long cooldown during which you’ll be absent from the world.”
“You didn’t mention side effects,” Hagi said accusingly.
“Would you not have made the split if I had?” Thomas asked.
Hagi and I exchanged a glance, and I had to admit that Thomas was right. So did Hagi, judging by his expression.
“Okay, one final thing,” Thomas said. “Hail, you should know, you don’t have to tell Travelers anything about this new ability of yours. In fact, you don’t have to tell them what your alternative selves are doing at all. If you want, you could establish for yourself five separate clans of Travelers who are your friends, or do your bidding, or some combination thereof.”
Hagi and I exchanged glances again. It was … worth considering. Wandering around, pugging with random people, that was fun. Being in
“Let’s agree not to tell them everything,” Hagi suggested.
“What about Tarisha?” I asked.
“Not everything,” He repeated.
I hated to admit it, but I was of the same mind.