Alan
"AlienShip? SpaceShip?"
He looks at you questioningly. You think he either has trouble understanding the question or can't find the answer for it.
Stick with Irine and support her actions, after thinking and pondering over this recent existential connection and the possible lack of it.
Irine is currently meditating, so you think the best you can do for her is make sure she is safe and remains undisturbed. Which is why you choose to stop Ike from messing with her.
As for River... you aren't 100% certain. After all, he
is a being of magic, so it is hard to use pure reason to come to a conclusion.
He said his species is supposed to be good at forming connections, so maybe the reason you felt that way is that he formed some sort of connection with you?
Or maybe it could be that you were feeling him close to you because he was actually close to you. After all, he did say he would be watching.
But then, if that's the case, then what could this recent feeling, this... void mean? Did he leave? Did something happen to him?
If pure reason can't be used to come to a conclusion, then perhaps the answer is in your subconscious, in your feelings. And your feelings tell you... You have a bad feeling about this. Whatever River's disappearance could mean, it is not something good.
Campaign, Ike!
Place Irine upside-down in a corner (sort of like a sat down position, but with the position of the legs and head reversed), then return to speaking with Rickman.
"NewNest? OldNest?"
"NewNest." Rickman responds, after some thought.
Theri prevents you from having some fun with Irine by explaining to you that doing that would be wrong and impolite and that it could hurt Irine's feelings or worse hurt her if she is casting complex magic because she would lose her concentration and might even accidentally hurt you even though she's certain she would feel really bad about that and that a good friend must not hurt their friends or their feelings and that... well, you tuned her out after that point, but you're pretty sure that's the gist of it. It's nice to know that even with giant ears you can still choose not to listen to things.
<D, my change mechanic as originally designed isn't entirely here. My body data for changes and my rebirth mechanic both went out through my links to external storage that was integrated with the implementation of how physics worked in my home universe, using the laws of physics themselves as a storage medium, and as a result those same laws of physics demanded the rebirth to occur in the event of my death. As I said before, when I designed myself, everything was integrated with each other, the flame manipulation, shapechanging, rebirth, telepathy, and my links to the universe itself were all actually just different aspects of the same mechanism. I don't think that's the way you Entities design things. You segment things, your designs are less organic. So I suspect if we look for where the heaviest redesign occured, we'll find a central nexus where my abilities were split apart to be worked with and on individually.>
<I dunno girl. Maybe it's the way I think about things. But I can't see a giant soup of interacting energy that can do everything. Well, I mean, I can, but it's not very helpful. I don't have a problem with highly coupled systems, but there's a line between that and... more chaotic things. Complexity and stability and sentience tend to dislike that, it's hard to maintain in general... It's the difference between a human and an amoeba and even that would lying about amoebas because even those have some segmentation and specialization, they aren't all just one thing. You only see systems like that in outsiders. Well, no, I mean, the outsiders we tend to meet, not you.>He focuses more on searching than thinking of a response, leaving large gaps between the words.
<Then again, now that I think about it, you could mean this in a different way. Could be that the communication channel is mostly integrated, like a brainstem and the laws of physics are segmented appropriately. Really, I can't judge without seeing the whole picture. Maybe if I recover enough energy, I'll have a chance to get closer to you and see the bigger picture. And show you how good a proper soul-merge can feel.><Anyway, looks like we're here.>This area is surrounded by the remains of something that looks kinda like a sphere or a sack that looks like it has mostly broken down. From its walls a structure as indecipherable and complex as the others around here rises towards its centre, like a broken mountain range. The structure twists around impossibly, like only things in dreams can do, stabbing its peaks through its centre and outside of itself.
You can sense a lot of different energy here. Remnants bearing either
his or
her energy, with his being closer to the edges, where the holes are, while hers is more focused towards the centre. However, the most interesting thing is
D's energy, connected to the peaks through channels of energy that look huge from your perspective. It feels like the energy has borrowed into them and through and "deposited" new layers of energy throughout the structure and its surroundings.
<So. That's interesting.>But if this is his-
<Well, I think that's enough for now.>When you regain your senses and open your eyes, you feel quite tired or maybe just a bit out of it. The others are still around. Theri is between you and Ike and is apparently giving some sort of speech about why friendship is the best thing ever.
<Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to rest for a minute. Poke me if you need anything.>With that, he retreats back into himself and lays quiet. You don't know if he's actually that tired or if he's just doing it to avoid talking to you.
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Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1127008 times)