And then....
Jason gets himself an Id, which ends up looking like himself, but in a cape and with a rather egotistical manner of speaking. Sort of like a narcissistic golden age superman. Together they set off into the untamed viscera wilds of Recursive Beast Universe. From there reports become sketchy; the last sighting of the flaming golem was at a small wilderness outpost within a bronchial pathway. Reportedly a one armed golem, now badly scratched and scuffed, with only a feeble smoldering aura, traded an asbestos coated sackful of valuable neuro-gems for 10 lbs of high quality ultra-steel, a diamond file and a brass door knob before walking back out into the dark, never to be seen again.
Charles moves to orgyverse, onto the starting planet which has been renamed "Hera". He authors and publishes a book about his time in ARM, telling specifically of his involvement in the assault and defense of Hephaestus, and then about his time as PR admin. He paints ARM as a group of unruly and often inept but always well meaning rebels and himself as a sort of fatherly figure who watches their antics with mild exhaustion as he prepares slogans and posters to sway the public away from their mistakes. The book sells well but meets with variable reviews, ARM's public image becomes one less of heroics or villainy, and more of a bunch of ordinary people with often outrageous amounts of power attempting, semi-successfully to save humanity. Accepted, appreciated, even celebrated on certain holidays, but overall not very prominent in the public eye, at least on Hera and the slowly expanding confederation of planets around it.
Charles, after doing his best to slay the indifference of the public, sets out with a few old friends from Heph to try and unravel the mystery of The Sheep and other shared hallucinations. They form a rather fringe research institute which mainly studies the effects of various hallucinogenic drugs on volunteers, primarily xenospit. They document several shared hallucinatory beings, however, none of them are the sheep or the viscera man. After several years of research they finally conclude that these shared hallucinations are generally connected to large scale disasters. The final paper on the subject deems them to be "Echoes of a sort, the result of the shared resonance of individual emotions causing many disparate human brains to function as a crude origin/manipulator-like array. This creates transitory life forms that are only able to be seen by brains that are in a state which pushes them closer to origin configuration. The messages they deliver are vague for unknown reasons, however, they appear to have the ability to subvert causality, because occasionally we see 'specters' which have no instigating event in our timeline. Our only conclusion is that they somehow altered the chain of events that lead to the disaster and prevented it from happening."
Charles work is largely viewed as pseudo-science at best, but the emerging multiworld government on Hera, guided in secret by Miyamoto, quietly recruits his independent lab and funds further work. His research eventually culminates in a precognitive array consisting of hundreds of individuals and tanks of concentrated xenospit. The machine proves reliably predictive of the fact that something would happen, but deciphering exactly what the event would be has remained hit and miss depending on how cryptic the clues are. However, somewhat frighteningly, the number of observed "Specters" continues to grow.
(Egan wrote things for Xael and Freeman to do. but as they are NPCS, I ignored his wishes)
Xael l̶e͘av̡e̴s͜ H͢ep̶hae͏st̕u̵s͜ w͠ith́ C̛h̡aŗl̢e̵s, n͏o҉ ̷dou̴bt̵ lure͘d͞ ̶in ͜by ̀his ̵s͏i͟lve̶r to̴ngue, ànd tr͢av̡els̛ ̛wít͟h h̴i̷m̴ ̛t͘o ̢He҉r̸a.͏ T̴̡́h̶͢e t̕w̶͟͠o ͏ś́́ep̴̢̨a̷̸̡r͢a̡͜t̕e̡̛ ͝w̴̡͞h̛i͜l҉e̢̧ ̸͞C̨͢҉ha͢r̷̛͡l͜͏e҉̷s ̵̡w̡͜͞o͠r̀ks̴͠ ̴̸͢o̢͜҉n ͡h̀i̡͜͝s͘ ͏̛͘b҉ơ̕͢ok͜҉̵,̴ ̶͏b̶ųţ̵̀ ̶̵͞t̶̡͞h́ey ̧̕͠co̡m͟҉e ba̶ç̛̀k͢ ͜t̀́͟o̢g̡҉͟et͘h̴̡͠e̶͞ŗ̵ ͝҉̕w͏̸h͏e̷͏̡n̶̨ ͜h̷͟͝è̵͝ ͏̷͟s̸̡͜t̸a̕͝͝r̢ts ̨u͢҉p҉ ąn̷̴̕ ͟í҉n̡̕͟s̀͜͠tì͞t̴̨ųt̶͡͏e ͏̶fo͠͝r ̸ì͟nv̢͝e̸͟s̶̛t͢҉͠i̶̛g̢a҉͝tį̀n͟g̸̡͘ ̴͢͠s҉̷̀h̵a҉r͠͠ed̨͢ ̛ḩ̸a̶͟l̴͡l̶u͞͝͏çi͢n͟a͞͠t͏i̢͜on͟s͟. T̶͢h̛͜҉̸̷ę̵̸͞͡y̕͜͡͞ ̶̧̢͝w̡͘͝͡͞ò̶̧͟͠r̡͞k̛̀͜͏͠ ̷̢̡̛͝t̴̡͘͢o̢͘͢g̨̢̧͢͠e̸̷̡̛t̨̨̀͡h̨̡̀͜͠e͏̷̨̛r̷̸̶̢ ̵̧̛̀͞f͟͜͞͞͠ó̸̷͢r̵̢͝ ̴͡s͠͏ę̴́v̸̶̨ę̷̕͜͡r̶̡a͏҉̨l̵͜ ͡y̶͢͢͠ę̴̧̢͡a̕͢r̢̀́́ś͞͠͡ ̷͠b͏̢͘ȩ͟͝f̵̷̧̛͡o̵͘͜͞͏r̀͝ę̨͞ ̴̵͟͡͞X̡́͢͝͏a̴̢͡e̡̕̕͞l͏,̶̢͝ ̨̛́͜à̸̛̛s̷̛͠ ͘a̕͘͢ ̶̨̡t̸̛̛͢è̢̨͡͡s͠͞t̷̨ ͏̀͘ś̵͢͢ù͜҉̀̕b̢j͝e̷͜ç҉̴t̸̶̡́ ̶͜f͏̨͘̕o̶̷͢ŗ̸̨̀͞ ́͞á̵̸͡ ̸̀̕͝ņ̴̷͘͞ę̷͘͘̕w̶ ̧̀͢b̵̨a̧̧͜t̴́͘c҉̧̛͟҉h̸̸̢́͢ ̕͟͢҉ó͢f̷̧̨̕ ̴̕c҉̀o͘͏̡͏ǹ̕͟͜͝c̶̨͠e̵̢͟͠n͝҉ţ͢r̷̀͟͡͞a͟t̴͏̶͞ę̴d̸̶̨̛ ͘͢x҉̨e̴͢͏͟n̷̢̨͜o̷͟͞ś̶̕͡p͘͢i͘͢t̨̢,̵̷̢ ̧ś̸̛e҉͟e̴͝҉s̵̨͟ ̸̧̛͠t̴͟͠h̨̨̢͢a̧t͟͢͠ ͜s̡͜͠҉́h̶̢̛͠e̶̴͢ ̵̸̢̧͞e̡͢x̸̶̢́͢i̷̵͠͞ś̴̵̡͟t̴̕͢s̨̛͢͝͡ ̡͜ǫ̶͡ǹ͏͘l̵̸͏y̵҉ ̧̛͟͡a̢s̛̕͢ ̸͜t̴͠h͏ę͘̕̕͠ ̀͠į́̀͜d̷é̶͜͏a̵͞ ̴̧҉ơ̵͡f̴ ̵̢̀͢s̵̢҉̵̡ò̢̨̕͟m̧̢̕͢͡ȩ́͜ ̷̷̛͘̕k͞i̷̧n̷̡͢͞d̢́͜͟ ̨͢͟o̶̷̴͘f̡̀̀͡ ́͠ģ͜͢͜͠r̵̀͏͘é̷͘͞͡a͘͏t̴̵̀̕͟ ̸̧͡͡e̛͠x̡͝͞t̶̢r̷͝͏̕a̷͞͡͠ḑ͟͞͞í̴͠ḿ̧͟͞e̸n҉̨̢s̡̢͜͠i̷̧̕͏͟ơ̸͢͜͡ń̢̛̕͟á̶̷l҉̸͢ ͏͏̷̸͞b̨̕e̷̢͏̷̀i҉҉̡n̷͏̢g̸̸̢̧͢ ̵̀͘a̧̕ǹ̡d҉͘͡,͢ ͘r̷͝͝e̷̷͜͜a͏̵́͟l͏̷͝í̷͢z̨̢̕҉i҉̴̸n͏͝g̀͢͟ ̴̸̨ş̶h̷̶e̢͝ ̶͘į̧̢̧͞s̛ ̷̧͏̸̴n̡̢͠͡͠ó͝t̨̡̀͝h҉̴̸̡̢i̶͏n͏̵̡̕͡g̷͞ ̶̢͏b̢͘͢ù̢͝҉͝t҉̶̶̧́ ̡̛́t҉̨̢͘h̛̀͝͠è́͘͝͝ ̶͟͟͏ḑ̶̵̛r̢̀͟͞é҉̸a̵̷̕͢͞m͡҉̀ ̸͠ó̵̧͡f̶̸͘̕͡ ̶̴́a҉̶̧͘ņ̵͜͡o̶̴͡͝t̀̕͢҉̡h̴͢ę̀r̶̶̛̕ ̵̢̛͡c̵͏̶̧̧ŕ̢̡̀ȩ̵̨a҉̀͟͡͠t̶̡̢̕u̷̸r̶̛͘ȩ̴̧̀͘,̛̀͝ ̵͠c̴̸e̴̷̶͟͡à̛͞s̕҉è͏s̕͏̛ ̸̴̵̡́t̡o͟͝ ̶̵̛̀̕è̢̕x̡̡͢i͡͡s҉̡̕t́͘.͟ ̨̢͢͡
Dr.Freeman runs a hat shop in Recursive Beast Universe.
Xan (Egan) descends back into the deep infirmary but is unfortunately killed by a rogue automated theater bot who pummels him to death while reciting lines from The epic of Gilgamesh. For reference, room 6 from the generated infirmary sections:
"This room holds several plexiglass boxes which, judging from the partially mummified bodies within, were used as cages for human test subjects. The cages aren't mounted on anything, they're just sort of sprawled around the room like shipping crates, piled into small mounds or sitting by their lonesome. The room itself is otherwise quite drab and uninteresting, with undetailed flat metal walls, a tiled floor and, a high ceiling with inset florescent lights. It smells of decay and dust.
In the center of the room is a humanoid, more than likely a robot judging from the soft mechanical whir that seems to be emanating from it. It appears to be human in design, though it resembles some sort of idealized human body builder or greek god, with a skin of gleaming golden metal. Its wearing a crimson cloth over one shoulder that covers part of its chest and its crotch, and a jade colored coronet on its head. Its face, however, is strange. It is hard and unmoving, like a mask, with a distinct ancient Mesopotamian design: Coiled beard, mane of curly hair, and massive brows. It speaks, or rather it plays clips of someone speaking various lines from the epic of Gilgamesh. He carries a spear in one hand. This is a medium level opponent, but very robust and extremely aggressive. Will not allow opponents to escape and will continue to chase them. Drops red key."
Miyamoto buys his way to immortality, or at least freedom from aging, before departing to Hera. He plays a large role in the creation of the new government on the planet, particularly by leading military forces against the artificial moon in orbit around the planet, destroying it and preventing manipulation of the colonists' proteins. The inhabitants of the planet, the so called "Mono-men" with their strange singular anatomy and lack of intelligence, are carefully uplifted via genetic engineering. They are turned into the loyal footsoldiers of "Guiding Hand", a paramilitary organization which functions to make sure that humanity doesn't do anything stupid and get itself wiped out. They have a public face as a sort of humanitarian aid foundation, albeit a heavily armed one which is just as likely to kill trouble makers as it is to help the victims. But they also have a rumored secret branch, which keeps tabs and manipulates governments all throughout the many universes and planets controlled by mankind. This is, of course, completely unconfirmed.
Miyamoto, who founded the Guiding Hand along with several other well connected, philanthropic individuals, lives what is to outside observers a quiet life. He was active in politics for several decades before retiring to the outskirts of New Macedonia, capital of the world government on Hera. He makes occasional appearances to the press, often to endorse this candidate or that law, but for the most part he stays out of the limelight. There is, however, a persistent rumor that Miyamoto remains highly influential within the Guiding Hand and serves as its director of more covert affairs. There is no direct evidence of this, but he does have an odd habit of traveling to areas in the midst of conflict, and remains closely tied to Hera's government and the works of Charles and his Precog Array.
He remains troubled by one fact: The artificial moon he and others destroyed was placed there in order to undermine the evolution of the Mono-men, keeping them in a primitive state. It was a preemptive strike by an alien force with high levels of technology and a foreign policy not unlike the former UWM. And as the dominion of man in this universe spreads, the chances of coming into conflict with this unknown race grows.
Pancaek immigrates to Hera along with Miyamoto and takes part in the destruction of the artificial moon, but disappears shortly after. His exact location and whether he is even alive at all is unknown to the general public. What is known, is this: The Mono-men who serve the Guiding Hand have a religion of their own, one which is unique to them. Its basic tenants and ideas are easy enough to infer, but the more complex and in depth matters are unknown to those outside the Hand. They appear to worship a pantheon of beings, about 10 were originally known but more seem to be either added or simply heard of every so often, bringing the total closer to 15. Their natures are hard to determine, as the Mono-men speak their names and pray for assistance, but their prayers are often nonspecific about traits. Com-De seems to be a warrior god while Sergeel is a protective deity, and others fill a variety of other responsibilities.
What's more interesting is that these gods have, according to eye witness accounts and even some objective data, manifested themselves to aid the Mono-men in times of dire need. In particular, Com-de seems to have manifested itself both in Recursive Beast Universe and in Terrarium universe. The first was in response to the hand attempting to control a viral outbreak and resulted in a formation called the Green Scar, a mass of burnt tissue several miles wide. The second caused the destruction of an entire contained terrarial system. The exact circumstances behind it are still unknown.
The Mono-men worship their gods in a heavily fortified temple on Hera, guided by a reclusive priest who has been seen wearing a well-made green robe with golden designs on the collar and sleeves, and carrying a large, very worn looking book, presumed to be their holy scripture. The interior of the temple has never been seen by one outside of the Hand, but there are rumors that it contains the most holy object in the religion, and the supposed source of the gods.
Joan, Dubley, and the badly beaten corpse of Xan (Egan), along with a handful of other soldiers and volunteers, mount a last ditch effort to get the artifact known as the Deathcube. They fly into the Lurker's sea of distortion shortly before everyone else evacuates to their respective universes. None of them are never seen again, but cautious probing with Extrauniversal Engines has shown that the home universe of mankind, U1, has somehow ceased to exist, leaving nothing behind. Attempting to enter U1's coordinates causes the machine to reject the input as invalid. Exactly what Joan, Dubley, the Corpse of Xan, and the other volunteers did remains a mystery.
Trier goes to Terrarium universe and sets up shop in his own little enclosed ecosystem; a living planetoid with about 50 miles in diameter completely shut in a "glass" case. He uses this planet to attempt to recreate the crystal race, and it is a rather runaway success. They spread rapidly through the planetoid, shatter the dome and begin throwing crystalline shards towards other worlds. The Guiding Hand steps in before anything major can happen, destroys the crystalline world and the escaping crystal shards. Trier's location and status are unknown at this point.
Dester returns to Recursive Beast Universe and helps develop the colony he originally planted there. It develops into "Mesenchyme" a sprawling city spread among the branches of one of the massive, wandering tree-like creatures. The basic necessities of life are found in abundance, after a little processing of flesh and blood, but the more artificial things like metal and many chemicals are harder to come by. Organic factories are eventually established to draw the needed substances out of flesh and convert them into usable forms, but the majority of "Hard" substances, as they become known, come through trade. The initial colonists find the location frightening and the prospect of living in organic structures to be anything from unsettling to disgusting, but those children born into the colony accept it without a thought. Hundreds set off from Mesenchyme and establish their own colonies; a growing web of human civilization among the distant branches, limbs and guts of the planet sized tree-creature.
Through his fame as original founder and leader of the colony, Dester amasses a tidy fortune, part of which he uses to help create the Guiding Hand, along with Miyamoto and several others. He also donates a fair amount of resources towards Project: Northern Green, though he doesn't live to see its completion. He is with the Guiding Hand during the viral outbreak that results in the creation of the Green Scar, and dies during the events. Though he never managed to start a family, he is remembered fondly by the inhabitants of Mesenchyme, both as their founder and as a leader willing to sacrifice his life in the pursuit of safety for his followers.
Sir Jackson II partners up with Christopher, kidnaps D'usse de Cognac, and lures STEPHEN HAWKING into coming to orgyverse. With their ship loaded full of booze, alots, and several pocket dimension remotes, the group sets off together in order to spread knowledge of STEPHEN HAWKING, get into many catgirl orgies, increase their dakka, and ultimately find Catgirl Prime. Many decades later one of the base units for their pocket dimensions is examined as part of routine maintenance. They open up the pocket dimension itself and find an ecosystem of inbred feral catgirls hunting herds of alots across fields of barley. The other pocket universes contain a variety of objects, many of which are alien in nature, as well as a photo album, mostly holding Polaroid images of genitalia, weapons, and weapons alongside genitalia, only broken up by a small assortment of pictures depicting unknown planets and alien lifeforms. The fate of the crew is unknown, and none of their pocket dimensions have been used in many years.
Lyra follows Miyamoto to Orgyverse and settles on Hera, but any specific details about her life are very sketchy at best. Her invisibility and penchant for going unseen makes tracking her whereabouts and activities almost impossible. Rumors and urban legends about a cat creature that saves children in danger begin to crop up around the more crime ridden areas of Hera, and even of nearby worlds. Charles, flush with government funding from his precog array, produces a children's cartoon that shows both Lyra's history in ARM and her work as a protector of children. It's all set up in an almost "Magical girl" style, and much of the details about her work in ARM are heavily censored or made more child friendly. It's quite popular among young children and reports of cat creatures protecting children from harm have gone up exponentially as a result. The truth of Lyra's actions may quickly be subsumed by the legend.
The following is everything about Steve Saint that has been confirmed or suspected with any level of reliability.
He left U1 and traveled to Orgyverse along with Miyamoto and many others. Shortly after immigrating he met with "The Doctor" VonNost, before the latter's disappearance into Recursive Beast Universe. What exactly they did together is unknown, but this is the last time that the individual known as Steve Saint has been seen in person. Shortly thereafter the first units of the "Congregation" network were seen, taking part in the destruction of the artificial moon orbiting Hera. These units were fairly unsophisticated at the time, not much better than remote controlled prosthetic or wired Sods, but they grew more adept and complex over time.
The Congregation Network is believed to be either masterminded or, in some cases, directly controlled by Steve Saint, but how he does this and where he controls it from are unknown, as are his motivations and goals. Though the actions of the Network appear to somewhat resemble those of the Guiding Hand organization, the Network is far less overt. While the Hand performs most of its actions publicly, the Network is believed to act almost entirely via subterfuge, espionage, sabotage, and assassination. They have been tenuously connected to several incidents involving dangerous or high tech artifacts or research, as well as the death of many criminals, and some seemingly innocent civilians. They are also believed to be heavily entrenched in most, if not all major human governments, as they have a strange ability to avoid prosecution or arrest. The "Death" of New Macedonia police commissioner Gordon Willis as the result of an accidental natural gas explosion, and the subsequent exposure of the fact that he was a highly complex biomechanical humanoid robot have drawn into question just how completely the governments have been infiltrated.
The Network has also been connected with Project: Northern Green and the entity known as Xan. As of now, the best guess of Steve Saint's location, if he is still alive in the classical sense of the word, is in a remote section of the "Factory" universe, where he may be using the existing machinery to create units for his Network. But there is no direct evidence for this, and even if the factory universe is being used, there is no guarantee that Saint himself is there.
Zekthal follows Dester and settles in Mesenchyme, where he spends several years compiling a lengthy tome about the use of "Space Magic" in U1. The book sells extremely well in Recursive Beast Universe, especially amongst those who were born or grew up there. Recursive Beast Universe is a non-origin universe and as such space magic doesn't work there, making the technology it talks about a subject of immense interest to those who have never seen it with their own eyes. Zekthal, along with many of his readers, leave Recursive Beast Universe and resettle on Hera or one of the planetary colonies nearby. Zekthal, with some governmental funding, pushes for the public use of low grade, heavily regulated manipulators and amps. He uses his book along with demonstrations of fire fighting using his own Microwave Amp to garner public support and acceptance of the wide spread use of such technologies. Upon the death of his physical body, he has his brain placed in a braincase and surrounded with "pimpmetal", and continues educate the public on the uses of "Space magic". He is meeting with relative success over many decades of work, and civilian Amps are becoming increasingly common.
The Entity known collectively and individually as "Xan" appears to have originated from somewhere in Recursive Beast Universe. The number of individuals that comprise the collective is unknown, but it is believed to be in the millions and growing. Their appearance is variable and they have shown a capacity to rapidly alter their physical bodies as needed, either to blend in or for offensive purposes. They are found most densely within Recursive Beast Universe, but they have been documented in most major human cities and beyond.
Their purpose is unknown, as are their motivations, but they are considered to be at least effectively malevolent due to their apathetic view of the sanctity of human life. They appear to be gathering both materials and information, though of such a wide variety that their ultimate goal is indecipherable. They may be anyone, they may be anywhere, their goals and actions are incomprehensible to mankind and their form is nightmarish. They are an alien threat which constantly walks among us. The Congregation Network seems to focus a great deal of its efforts on restraining the acts of the Xan, but the scale and nature of their war is unknown.
Auguste "Gus" Johnson, lacking the ability to bilocate like his companion Sir Jackson, finds himself stranded light years away from anything somewhere in orgyverse. Seeing this as his moment to shine as a leader, he heads to the bridge and hits what he thinks is the intercom button to address the crew. It is not the intercom button. It is the oddly placed and distressingly easy to initiate self destruct button. The rights to his life story were sold to a third rate animation studio who created a 10 minute cgi comedy short film with them. It aired exactly once.
Konrad, seeking only more worlds to fight upon, follows Miyamoto to Hera. He fights in the battle to take down the artificial moon and then, with little else to do, departs to Recursive Beast Universe. There he works as a boarder guard for a while, preventing the more dangerous creatures from intruding into the bounds of Mesenchyme. After being badly injured on the job, losing his remaining human leg and part of his colon, he is transferred back to Hera for the prosthetic, and ends up being recruited into the newly formed Guiding Hand. He travels with the public arm of the Hand for a long time, and is present at both the formation of the Green Scar and the destruction of the crystal infection in Terrarium World. Over his career in the service he is injured several more times, eventually ending up in a full body prosthetic. At this point he is transferred, first to the more rarely seen "Disaster Finger" section of the Guiding hand which oversees major threats, and then finally he seems to leave the Hand all together.
He has been spotted in Recursive Beast Universe recently, leading small bands of very high tech looking robots or cyborgs into unexplored sections of the lumen wastes around the tree-beast of Mesenchyme. Intelligence suggests he may have been recruited by the Congregation Network and is working with them to combat the "Xan" entity.
Cthunkan, bored of life as a biological demigod trapped on terrestrial landscapes, takes a ship out into space and then hurls himself out into the void. According to transmissions received at random intervals since, he is still alive and has grown quite adapted to his life in the darkness of space. He speaks of a great deal of time in suspended animation, waiting to come across an asteroid or something worth eating. Of riding solar winds and clinging to wandering space debris. He hasn't made it out of the Hera Solar system yet, though he is near its edge, and he talks about walking on the surface of the other planets or tunneling through the metallic gases of the gas giants. He says that he is large now, a ship of flesh which drops bits of itself down to explore. He has been accelerating very slowly for decades, and is finally reaching the speeds needed to reasonably move between stars.
His last message was sent as he passed the outer planet in the Hera system and entered the great dark between stars. He said that he was going to sleep, probably for a very long time, and that by the time he reached his destination everyone he knew might be gone. He wished them well.
Ulrich, under a variety of aliases, steals a fortune's worth of valuables, from rare minerals to classified plans, and carefully sells them off to the highest bidder. He makes ample use of mind manipulation amplifiers during this time and is never prosecuted, though there are several close calls. However, after a job where he stole plans from a Government installation in Mesenchyme, he was found dead in his penthouse suite. Apparently of natural causes.
Nia spends a few years as a private detective in New Macedonia before being recruited by the Guiding Hand, where she works mainly in humanitarian aid and peacekeeping, rather than as a frontline combatant. She attains a level of fame when she single-handedly defends a field hospital from attack by an insurgent group and then guns down the corrupt politician that let it happen. The Guiding Hand puts her on posters as a role model of the humanitarian corps with the motto "We will not look the other way, We will not allow suffering."
Despite this, Nia was removed from active duty and instead took a more political role, acting as a figurehead for the Hand's humanitarian works as well as their efforts to root out corruption and bring down dangerous or genocidal regimes. She became well known for impassioned speeches about the importance of personal responsibility and resistance to inhuman treatment of all kinds. It was en route to one of these speeches that she was fatally attacked. The division that she was traveling with was attacked by the forces of the military dictatorship she was currently protesting, and she was fatally injured, though she took at least a dozen of her attackers down before succumbing to her injuries. Her last words, as reported by men with her, were "Do not avert your eyes." It has become the slogan of the Guiding Hand's Humanitarian "Finger".
Petra follows Miyamoto and joins up with the Guiding Hand, but works as part of the PR division. She designs several of the group's famous promotional posters and is remembered within certain circles of historians and art critics, but for the most part she leads a relatively uneventful, if happy, life.
Maurice marries Simus, despite the latter being in a persistent vegetative state, and asks to be given the Timmy Orb. However, he is informed that the orb was neutralized, and that the pieces then went mysteriously missing from the lab. Screwed out of his unearthly destiny, he, Simus, and the entire surviving population of the Wunderkinder experiment, follow the Doctor for a time, first to Hera and then to Recursive Beast Universe. Both he and the Doctor seem to have had some interaction with Miyamoto, Pancaek, and several other former ARM members while on Hera, but what they talked about is unknown. The Doctor and Maurice part ways in Recursive Beast Universe for unknown reasons, shortly before the emergence of the entity known as Xan. The Doctor disappeared, seemingly dropping off the face of the universe, while Maurice and company went deeper into the fleshy maze beyond Mesenchyme.
There is no solid information about Maurice from this point on, but several things can be inferred. He is believed to be related to the Xan entity, though the exact connection is unknown. Many believe that he somehow created or enabled the creation of Xan. Some think that the two are working together, others that Maurice may be using the entity as a minion or lackey of some kind and that the former scientist is the guiding force behind the entity's strange actions. Or, the inverse, that Xan absorbed Maurice and his Wunderkinder and that this gave him the knowledge to work towards greater and more distressing goals. There have been sightings of Xan creatures that resemble Maurice, and some of the information and objects stolen by the entity bear a resemblance to those used by the former head of Hephaestus in his research.
Dishonored and missing, with a career and morality which increasingly mirrors that of his mentor, the fate of Maurice, his wife, and their 'children' remains a mystery.
Ryan, a former ARM member who served as a major contributor during the uplift efforts of the Mono-men, unfortunately attempts a coup. He tries to rally the mono-men under his own flag, preaching a doctrine of his own divinity and manipulating some with mind controlling spores born from his Haebi limbs. His rebellion is quickly, and violently, crushed before it can get off the ground and he, after a curt trial, is thrown into the Spider Universe. According to communications with the Sapient Spiders he is still alive, immortal thanks to his haebi biology, and has gathered a small but fiercely loyal group of supporters that have colonized his chest cavity.
Eddie starts a machine shop in New Macedonia but is killed during a convenience store robbery. His radioactive dong was donated to charity.
Mycroft moves to New Macedonia and sells his services as a hard-light sculptor. It's a very niche talent, like sculpting ice for parties, but he becomes fairly famous for it by marketing himself as a high class entertainer and creating complex show pieces for socialite parties and the like. Eventually he's recruited by Charles to be the lead artist on the Lyra cartoon. Tabloids circulate stories that he and the elusive cat woman are somehow connected, and some of the more racy ones hint at a romantic relationship. Nothing is ever proven, but Mycroft is saved from an attempted mugging by, as witnesses put it, "Some sort of shadow cat ninja thing".
Henry Phelps steps out of a shuttle on Hera and disappears into a crowd. He is never seen again.
Anton, after a long period of inactivity on Hephaestus, immigrates to Hera along with most of the surviving Hephaestus staff. He doesn't stay there though. Instead he is recruited by Saint during his short time on the planet and the two of them, along with other staff from Hephaestus, disappear. He is next sighted several years later in Recursive Beast Universe, as part of an expeditionary force headed down the Tree-beast. Judging by the many trips he has made to and from the base of the tree-beast, and the huge amount of material and technology his groups have carried down, it is safe to assume he is an active part of Project: Northern Green.
Abigail makes the move to Hera and participates in the destruction of the Artificial Moon as a medic, but dies during a hotdrop onto the station's surface.
Auron uses some of his horded cash and loot to pay for a pill made of Haebi flesh. The pill effectively transforms him into a full blown Haebi, complete with all the advantages that offers. But he lacks the funding to pay for the exact manufacturing systems he wants, and ends up taking what he can get. That done, he moves to Hera, following Miyamoto and attempting to set himself up as the construction and manufacturing source for the needs of the fledgling planet. He gets some contracts, particularly those related to work undertaken by former ARM agents, but he is soon outcompeted by Church Industries, a manufacturing company based in Factory universe that hijacked existing machinery and use private EUEs to transport finished products to any location they needs to go.
Unable to compete as a manufacturer, Auron wedges himself in as a middle man procuring goods and services for the newly formed Guiding Hand. It is a profitable service but not insomuch as to make him grand trillioniare lord of the planet. His strange, fungal appearance and barely restrained megalomania and greed results in him doing most of his business through proxies. Though his "Gold Hydra Inc" empire slowly grows, he never truly gains the power he sought. He does. however, manage to turn his wealth to good in some small ways, opening up clinics that utilized ARM medical technologies and selling civilian grade versions of ARM military meta-materials. He becomes one of dozens of faceless, vaguely philanthropic millionaires loosely connected to ARM and the Guiding Hand. Successful and rich, but never able to reach the pathological heights he dreams of.
Feyri, prone to bouts of prolonged lethargy and unresponsiveness, becomes an advocate for reform of both prisons and the way the public viewed those with cybernetic enhancements and prosthetics. But not a very good one. She tours and speaks, mostly financed by the Humanitarian finger of the Guiding Hand, but unlike other speakers her message is mostly received with apathy or half-hearted acceptance. She eventually quits the cause after a few unproductive years and is hired on by Charles to work on his Lyra childrens show, where she voices herself and acts as the motherly moral compass to the fictional Lyra. She is also believed to have some connection to Lyra outside of the show, and is often seen seemingly talking to someone while no one else was around.
Milno's true life after leaving ARM is a mystery. On the outside, he appears to have settled down in a rural area outside of New Macedonia, along with his long time companion Rose, the Armory Master. The two started a small family and, by all accounts, lead a quiet, happy life over the decades following the colonization of Hera. But there are several discrepancies. Both he and Rose appear to have had some part in the destruction of the Artificial Moon. A small amount of the "shark mist" substance inhabiting his body has been found at the scene of several crimes and odd occurrences, including the apparent natural death of Ulrich and several Xan corpses. High ranking members of the Guiding Hand, including Miyamoto himself, have also been seen visiting Milno's farm.
Eventually, Rose passed away and his children moved out to follow their own dreams, and one day Milno too vanished from his farm, taking nothing but a few family pictures and his old gear.
Anthony and Flint both stay behind on the Sword, jumping it halfway across the galaxy to an asteroid station somewhere in the dark space between the stars. There, in a massive subterranean structure, they find the computer core and memory of the AI known as Steve, along with the thousands of human brains which support his processing. They gathered everything they can, everything needed to rebuild Steve in another universe, and then carry it through to Hera.
They connect up with Miyamoto and Steve Saint, before the official creation of either the Guiding Hand or the Congregation Network, meeting on the recently colonized Hera just after the fall of the Artificial Moon. Here they disappear for several years, only to reemerge in Recursive Beast Universe as soon as Mesenchyme reaches a reasonable size. There they ally themselves with Dester, during his time as the leader of Mesenchyme, and embark on an expedition down the Tree-beast, along with Anton. Anton and most of the expedition team returns from this trip, but Anthony and Flint do not. Over the course of decades Anton makes dozens of trips down the Tree-beast, along with more men and supplies, and a sizable base is built down near the branching legs of the tree-beast.
Nearly 80 years after their trip to Steve's asteroid home, Flint and Anthony are seen one more time in Mesenchyme, meeting with dozens of other well known individuals, including Miyamoto, Charles, a robotic emissary of the Congregation Network, Anton, a very old looking Milno, and a barely visible cat creature. This group descended down the trunk of of the Tree-beast, towards the base far below. What they did and saw down there, we may never know.
The core of the thing was the creature's brain. A brain as large as a continent, spreading out to the horizon in all directions. The facility clung to the inside of its skull like a parasitic egg, metal feet dug into the skull while countless thin tendrils splayed out of its lower most section and ran off across the surface of the Tree-beast's neural tissue. Metal rods, like telepone poles, stuck out of the flesh at regular intervals, with the thin tendrils of the facility strung between them. Neural-electrical discharge rumbles across the brain like lighting in a stormcloud.
The attendants gather in the glass walled and floored lower atrium, staring out at the expanse of alien brain tissue as the project leads complete the final connections. The featureless black slabs of electronics that form an almost stone henge shape in the center of the room haven't been turned on since they were scavenged from the asteroid. They're old; almost absurdly so. Built over 1000 years ago by the best minds of the time, and used to save the species from something mankind foolishly unleashed upon itself. Everyone was nervous; this installation was far different in design from the original. This brain was far different from what the computers were originally designed to use. Would it be able to interface? Would it function as it should or were they on the brink of creating a monster? No one could be entirely sure, despite decades of work.
They finished connecting the mainframes and the leads stood together at the central console. Everyone watched as they typed in the final commands and, after a moment of hesitation, hit enter. The machines hummed to life and the system displays rapidly flashed through hardware checks, displaying the spreading signal and the sequential activation of the neural probes along the length of the tendrils. One by one everything came online. The organic structures were observed, mapped and organized; their capacities tested and stored. The computer slowly sunk its fingers into the brain and then gripped it tight like malleable clay. And then, once it had established the extent of its hardware, it began to use it. Chemoelectric signals flowed through the continent of flesh, each cell a processor for the machine. The main screen, black till this moment, turned on and a single flickering green cursor appeared. It blinked there for a few long moments, before text flowed across the screen.
>You may now stop screaming.
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Topic: Einsteinian Roulette: OOC and NEW PLAYER INFO (Read 2541190 times)