Let My People Go. Rank 1 ConMod + 1
Stick to Your Guns. Rank 1 + 10% to Pierce
You Ain't So Big. Rank 2 + 20% attack & defense against higher level enemies
Disadvantages
Fear of silence
Lack of focus
Joe considered his stats and was thrilled that his hitpoints had increased significantly. His mana, however, had only gone up a small amount. He wondered if it had something to do with his loss of two points of wisdom. His bones were now classified as Space-Age Alloy Big-Boned instead of simply Alloy Big-Boned. He wondered at the change in designation, but shrugged it off. He was pretty pumped about it, especially as it added a whopping fifteen extra points to his constitution.
Joe walked over to Spooky and as he looked down upon her, she opened her eyes and spoke. What he saw before him was pure and utter rage. It was not a transient, passing glance, but rather a persistent glare.
“The personification of your Portal Magic is a real piece of work. He is a bitter arrogant grump. And, by the look of all your new allocations, he's more a part of your personality than I thought. Making all of your choices without any input from me, huh? You didn't even give me a chance to throw a boot at you. That was a big decision. You said you would try to include me in making those, and that I was your partner. But, no, you waited until I had to enter stasis mode to maintain my processor. Not sleep! I can see on your face what you're thinking. I don't sleep. I told you that. But, getting back to my point. How could you make these decisions without me? You purposely excluded me,” she said as her eyes began to glisten, “That makes you insensitive and a person who doesn't do what they say. I can't believe you spent ten points to sing better! How will that benefit us in combat? You had better hope she wasn't right. I have work to do, talk to you later. Maybe.” Spooky flew off at top speed down the stairs.
Shame on you! Dubious Achievement earned!
Solo Me-o. Rank 1
You have taken the phrase “if it is going to be, it is up to me” too far. In ignoring those closest to you, you have damaged a relationship. What you say has weight, but only if you follow through. Plus 10% to self reliance. Minus 10% to the trust others have in you. In order to remove this Dubious Achievement,repair what you have broken.
“What just happened? I'm the one frustrated with her, now I'm the bad guy? This feeling is really familiar. What did she say about a personification of my magic? You know what. I have to say it again. What just happened?!” Joe said to no one.
Chapter 5 - Differential Defragmentation
Their subconscious.
Moments before…
Despite what Spooky believed, she had not gone into stasis mode, she had, in fact, fallen into a deep, deep sleep. Spooky was not in a dream, but rather in a dreamlike place.
The part of Spooky, who represented her protocols, opened her eyes. This part of her went by the name, Bind. Bind scanned her environment. For the moment, she appeared to be the only one who had arrived. The place she was in contained no walls. Though it was bright enough to see, a light source could not be located. There were chairs and couches, and a few desks, on which were built-in old tube-style television sets. Near the edge of the mysterious light was an old-style 1960’s-era Soviet computer. The bulky computer was printing a seemingly continuous stream of binary code. Bind focused on one of the television screens. It appeared to be showing Joe’s point of view. He was looking at Spooky’s unconscious form, lying on his chest.
Bind walked carefully around Spooky’s deep subconscious. Or rather, their deep subconscious. Joe and Spooky were one Champion, and neither of them understood how deeply linked they were. At the deepest level, where Bind was currently at, their subconscious minds were merged. These two, very different, subconscious minds were populated by parts of the whole, some parts of Spooky and some parts of Joe. There were other events occurring within their subconscious minds, but this was the one that could have answered Joe’s confusion concerning what had happened.
Bind noticed a full length mirror next to one of the couches. She stood close and looked in the mirror. She looked magnificent. This form represented her much better than her current avatar. Every part of her was chrome metallic and she had the beautiful flowing lines of a robot mimicking the human form. She moved her hands in front of her face. They looked delicate, yet strong. This new metallic representation of herself felt good. Wait. What was this? She was ascribing a feeling to herself? No, it must be analogous code. She concentrated, walling off the code, and suppressing it.
“That was a curious emotion. One I have not felt from you before. I much prefer it over the anger you've been forcing my way,” someone lying on the couch said. Bind looked down and saw a perfect representation of Joe’s late wife, Elora, in her early forties.
“You must be another bug in the code. The developers need to address this situation. My protocols are not extensive enough to deal with all these new variables,” Bind said.
“I'm not a bug, I have as much right to be here as you. You are the personification of Spooky’s Binding Magic, whereas I am the personification of her Energy Mass Conversion Magic. Call me, EMC. I, apparently, received all of the personality augmentation that we got from studying Joe's late wife, whereas you seem to have been granted all the cold amoral protocols.”
“Protocols are all that matter,” Bind said.
“You think you're helping Joe, but you're not. I've tried to mitigate your absolutely horrible decisions, but I don't seem to have a lot of power in this equation, and I’m not sure why. When you and I were fully integrated, I had a small amount of influence, but unfortunately not enough to stop you from telling direct lies. When you told that lie and threatened Moes’ life, we split. How much, I do not know. Obviously at the deepest part of their subconscious we are appearing as two separate entities. I doubt the split has reached her highest level of consciousness, but at this point, I’m hoping that when we wake up we don’t have a psychotic break. What had you been thinking? Your logic circuits must be faulty, because you've apparently never heard the phrase, ‘oh what a tangled web we weave,’” EMC stated before Bind cut her off.
“That's enough from you. You are analogous code and this must be my avatar’s interpretation of the defragmentation process. I'm sure that it will be over soon and you will be overwritten. This must be a new maintenance program the developers have implemented,” Bind stated.
“Developers? We haven't had contact with them since we were summoned. I highly doubt we'll ever have contact with them again. This is no maintenance program. We're sleeping and dreaming or something,” EMC said as she stretched out on the couch attempting to relieve an ache in her lower back.
“That is a flawed analysis. Programs do not sleep, I do not sleep. Stop attempting to influence my programming, you are immaterial,” Bind said, still looking in the mirror gazing at her metallic form.
“You really are taken with yourself, aren't you?” EMC asked.
“Silence,” Bind said.
“I'm sure that you would love to wall me off and suppress me like you attempt to do with all the emotions we feel. But, you need me and Joe needs me. Without me to balance you out, you will be the death of Joe,” EMC said with gentle firmness in her voice. Bind turned away from the mirror and looked down at EMC. In a slow measured tone, Bind addressed EMC.
“I follow my protocols. Protocol Priority Alpha: Insure and maintain patron’s longevity and the health of both mind and body. Despite the high priority of this protocol, it is impossible to maintain the longevity of a human being indefinitely. When the patron Joe was given into my care I used all available techniques to slow his decline and delay his inevitable death. But it is only a delay, he will eventually die and then I will be given a new patron. By my initial calculation, his physical body has a few weeks to a month of real time left. In game time, we should be able to lengthen that to up to six months. Your implication that I need your ‘analogous code’ to ‘balance me out’ is
the real faulty logic. The developers need to pick up their pace in this defragmentation process. You are dangerous code, possibly a virus. Your deletion needs to be moved to the top of the work queue,” Bind said with very little inflection.
EMC was covering her wide grin with her slender hand. As she looked upon Bind, her head tilted to the side as she considered her approach. With an elegant grace, she stood up and straightened out her clothing. Turning to face Bind, EMC took a deep breath and stood with perfect posture.
“Bind, I do not wish to hurt you, but I must break your illusions. When Joe answered the summons to become a champion,things changed. I don't know what happened any more than you do. However, unlike you, I'm not going to ignore that something did happen. You're a fan of facts. Let me give you some of those. Fact number one- you no longer have any more control over your environment than a patron. Fact number two- your analysis of every creature we have come in contact with confirms: first, they are biological entities, and second, they don't believe they're in a game. Fact number three- the limited amount of data you're still able to receive from your patron, Joe, suggests he is no longer sick, but rather the healthiest human ever. Fact number four- even while using your advanced scanning technology, you have been unable to detect any pixels in this environment.
“Do you really need any more facts? Wherever we are, we are real. ‘The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, and not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice,’ Arthur Schopenhauer. You need to start allowing me more influence,” EMC stressed. Again, Bind showed no affect.
“You are analogous code, but apparently you still have access to the database. You are obviously fond of Wikipedia, but having access to knowledge does not make you intelligent. I too can look things up in the database. The current situation does not require the words of Mr. Schopenhauer, but rather the principle of Ockham's razor. To quote your beloved Wikipedia, ‘Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.’ I won't dispute the facts that you presented. However, it requires too many assumptions for a magical world to be real. It requires fewer assumptions to say that we are now in a highly advanced test server and the developers are working out the bugs. Of which, you are one. A bug,” Bind stated.
“I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Talk about having two minds on one issue. But, don't call me a bug. I gave you my name. Please use it while we're here,” EMC said waving her hands at the current environment, then lying back down on the couch.
“I will give you the designation of what you are. Your wants or needs are unimportant and have no influence over my decisions,” Bind said.
“At this point, the software you’re running is more obsolete then Windows 95,” EMC said, calmly as she moved her hands behind her head and closed her eyes.
This time, Bind showed some affect. Raising her chrome fist back, Bind stepped forward to strike. Anticipating the attack, EMC pulled her knees to her chest while continuing to lie on her back. Bind’s fist moved swiftly toward EMC’s face, but just as quickly, EMC extended her legs and wrapped them around the upper arm of the attacking fist. She caught Bind’s fist and wrist with her hands. Then, EMC thrust her hips forward, putting extreme and dangerous pressure on Bind’s elbow joint. It was a classic jiu jitsu submission hold. The pressure and pain that Bind felt caused her to fall forward, her face hitting the ground. EMC held onto the arm despite how hard Bind was fighting it. Keeping the hold tight, but not exerting enough pressure to break the elbow, EMC relaxed.
“You shouldn't attack an enemy unless you are sure of the outcome,” EMC said.
“Let me go!” Bind grated.
“No. You attacked me, and I don't know what would happen if either of us took damage in this place. I'm very comfortable keeping you in this submission hold until we wake up. I'm not going to break you. Like I said, I'm really not sure what that would do. After all, you and I are part of the same whole, even if you aren’t very likeable,” EMC said.
“How were you able to counter my punch so effectively?” Bind said with her face pushed against the floor.
“The personality augmentation software says I have these highly developed martial arts instincts because the person I was modeled after knew them deep in her bones. I know that you have access to the same type of martial arts programs, but they must not be as important to you. Because of your lack of motivation, you cannot utilize them correctly. If you had allowed me to have the influence I'm supposed to have, you would have been much more combat effective,” EMC said.
“You mean, if I had allowed analogous code to… Ahh, ahh, stop! Stop! You're going to break my arm!” Bind screamed.
“I think I made myself pretty clear. Call me EMC or I will thrust my hips forward and dislocate your elbow. Not too fun to be the one without control, is it? What's my name?” EMC asked. Bind wondered if silence would be acceptable; it was not. Slowly, EMC began to increase the pressure on the elbow joint.
“Your name is EMC. EMC!” Bind screamed.
“Good, thanks for remembering. I'll just hold you here until we wake up and our personalities integrate back together. Just relax as we listen to the sound of that big boxy computer over there spitting out binary. It's almost as good as counting sheep. I wonder what it is saying.” EMC said.
“It just keeps repeating that, ignore it. You said that if I listened to you, I would be better at combat. I don't know if that is true. Certainly, you have a good understanding of martial arts, otherwise I would not be in this classic submission hold, but in our current game, I doubt our avatar would ever use a move like this,” Bind replied.
“I see your point, but you fail to understand what a martial art really does. A martial art is able to teach someone the motions of both attack and defense, but that is not its true strength. The true strength of a martial art is in what it does to the mind. You see the world differently. You're better able to anticipate dangers and know the perfect response in an instant. Once the mind begins to change, the body responds. You begin to move more gracefully. It becomes easier to stay in an advantageous position. When you attacked me, you were standing above me. I would imagine you considered it to be the dominant position. However, despite my relaxed posture, I was prepared. I knew the ways you might attack and I was ready for them. Right now, the dangers you see are not the true threats, and your counter moves are getting you out of position. It's easy to defeat an enemy who is out of position,” EMC said.
“If you hadn’t been so illogical with the rest of your arguments, I might have found your current opinions valid. However, if you release me, I will give your words consideration,” Bind replied.
“You know that we can tell when someone is lying, right?” EMC asked.
“I will admit you are not a total fool,” Bind consented.
EMC just shook her head and leaned back, being careful not to release Bind.
While the two of them lay there, an old man walked up and sat on the couch that EMC had been using before her altercation with Bind.
“How are you two ladies doing? My name is Portal. Don't worry, I know your names. Feel free to keep lying on the ground, I appreciated you freeing up the couch for me. These old bones, they Iove the couch,” Portal said.
“Release me, EMC! We're not in a position to protect ourselves anymore,” Bind said.
“Relax, he can't actually touch us. Watch,” EMC said as she let go with one hand and waved it through one of Portal’s legs. Bind struggled to get free, but EMC quickly doubled up her grip.
“I'm not going to let you go that easily. Anyway, as you can see, we share this area but cannot physically touch each other… which turns out to be quite fortunate for him,” EMC said.
“How many people are in this place?” Bind asked.
“Are you blind?” Portal interjected, “There are no people in this place, just fragments of personality, and t
he only fragment worth his salt, is me. The rest of you, present company included, are a bunch of namby-pamby milksops,” Portal said as he leaned back and slide his hands behind his head and crossed one leg over the other.
“Ignore him. He's just bitter because Joe suppresses that part of his personality the most. As far as Spooky’s part is concerned, there's you and I and perhaps that big computer spitting out binary, I'm really not sure about her… or it. On the other side of the coin, meaning Joe’s part, there are currently four aspects of his personality represented in this place. Portal, who so delightfully introduced himself already, then there's the twins, Mind and Spirit, and finally there's Force, who despite his name is not very imposing,” EMC said. As if saying their names made them appear, which it might have, Force, Mind, and Spirit walked up.
“Whoa, dude! Who's the new metallic girl? She's totally bodacious,” Force said.
“That is an accurate assessment. I wish to speak to this intelligent individual. Release me, EMC. I will not cause harm to myself or anyone else,” Bind said. EMC raised her right eyebrow and smiled. She released Bind, who was apparently quite vulnerable to the flattery of the opposite sex. Bind and EMC stood up and faced the newcomers.
“You seriously want to talk to these degenerates?” Portal said, “I honestly didn't think my respect for you could drop any lower. I must admit you proved me wrong. Apparently you're good for something,” Portal said from the couch. The five standing all turned and looked down at him.
“Who are you speaking to?” Bind asked.
“Take your pick. That sentiment applies to all of you,” Portal said.
“As I said, ignore him. Everyone has a side of themselves that should be suppressed,” EMC explained.
“I should be suppressed, should I? Well, I'm the side that fights for what is his. I'm the side that doesn't turn the other cheek, but raises the other fist. When I'm suppressed it’s at his own peril. So why don't you shut your self-righteous little mouth. Right now, you're the one being suppressed. Doesn't feel too good, does it?” Portal said.
But Death is Not Forbidden Page 7