+There’s something inside Shard-1’s mind. It’s… a memory fragment, I think. Looks pretty frayed. She might’ve broken it off from the half-strand that nulled her. Scrying now–agh fuck… Talon-1, I got a glimpse of what happened to Strike Cell Mongoose. They’re all nulled too.
We’re gonna need more Incubi.+
-Talon-6, Strike Cell “Flameater”
13-14
Denial
+The Helix,+ Avo said. +Why does it matter? Went from trying ...
2023-06-29 19:41:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe guy who pulled my ass out from that Incubi grease fire showed up yesterday. Just popped into the back of my head and said hi.
Fuck me, but that’s humiliating. And here I was thinking I was some kind of nova-hot Necro. Always fishes dwelling deeper in the waters, I guess.
First thing he started talking to me about was my wards. Apparently, my modified Ashthrone Shedskin was leaving a bit more of my emotional resonance behind than I expected. Would’ve b...
2023-06-28 17:27:48 +0000 UTC View Post+ATTENTION+
PRIORITY 0 ALERT INBOUND:
Incubus,
You are to suspend all other ongoing operations and preparations immediately. A situation of paramount priority has transpired.
As of thirty seconds ago, Council Elder Mwaba D’Rongo’s mindguards have been entirely neutralized. The cause behind their deaths is pending investigation, but details remain unclear.
Presently, however, the elder’s mind is undefended. 2023-06-26 19:29:16 +0000 UTC View Post
“Once upon a time, there were Nine pantheons. Nine pantheons for the nine great and terrible tribes who carried with them twelve different histories. In each history–”
“What happens before?”
“Hm?”
“Before the once upon a time? What happens before then?”
“...That’s a good question. Might be something better answered by your mother, but I believe the clearest answer is that it’s of dubious canonicity.”
“D...
And with this Heaven, I divorce us from the atrocities of the past and wed us to the future we are to become. I hope that through the promise of this Ark we all form new bridges, new communities, and from our joining bear the seeds of unity to grow beyond the soil of our discord.
Don’t give up on hate. Not even I can overlook the breeding torment of our past. But where we old and scarred will falter, our children and the ones after will be unburdened—to be and love and ...
2023-06-23 20:11:57 +0000 UTC View Post+Why is my mind still whole? I know what you are, Priest. Mercy is not in your nature. Take your retribution. Strip me of my personhood. I do not fear you. I do not fear this. The great work will continue–+
+Hold on, I’m not here for that. I’ve seen your measure too, you know. You’re not a very good person, Mwaba, but you are loyal–Guild before life and all that. A real good Massist. Well, I got something to tell you that might offend those sensibilities. But I’...
2023-06-21 12:03:19 +0000 UTC View PostHow many of you remember the dream? Jaus’ dream. The shit we were all promised when they packed us into these big fucking megacities and told us the future was coming.
I remember seeing all those vids… drowning in those vicarities of the first pioneers going up into the void. The ones where they push the Ruptures back from the dark and reclaim reality? I remember. I remember, doing it, but I can’t quite remember what was said.
When I was younger, I reci...
2023-06-19 20:15:00 +0000 UTC View PostThere are not many adversaries that can null one of our Strike Cell, and what happened down at Mazza’s Junction went far beyond that. I’ve experienced something like that only once.
Shard-2 went down first. We pulled the Scry-Cell out afterward and rotated “Swordfisher” in.
As for what followed…
My best estimation as to what happened with Mirror-Convex was the unknown managed to get access to their proxy via an Auto-Seance stored with...
2023-06-16 19:29:42 +0000 UTC View PostI ran up against the Incubi a couple of times. Nasty biz, but I made it without getting nulled.
Trick with them is to make chasing you a bother. Most times, if the Incubi are after you directly, you’re fucked with a capital F. They don’t come after someone without all the details. Second most common way you end up coming across them is when you’re on a dive of your own.
Usually, that means you’re fucked too, but with a smaller case f.
F...
2023-06-15 19:43:32 +0000 UTC View Post+ATTENTION+
PRIORITY 1 ALERT INBOUND:
BEGINNING PROXY SYNC…
Good morning, Glaives,
Approximately six hours ago last night, one of our cells was exposed and burned. Details can be found within the mem-data bearing the task designation “Broken Glass”
Effective immediately, all contacted Glaive teams are to enter the Yuulden-Yang Sovereignty to find and extract missing Incubi assets.
Or terminate should t...
2023-06-14 19:07:34 +0000 UTC View Post+I was thinking…+
+Oh, no! What happened?+
+Kae… Come on, I think sometimes.+
[Giggle] +I’m sorry. You try. Oh! I’m sorry, what were you going to ask?+
+So, this is about my hubris–the one tied to my “Breaker of Arms” canon. I’ve been thinking about what you told me, you know? About how canons are supposed to be necessary flaws or each miracle to integrate. Like a… single point of agreed impossibility between our subrea...
2023-06-13 18:38:26 +0000 UTC View PostIt begins with a society feeding a story to a Soul while accompanied by a sacrifice. From the ephemeral confines of baseline reality, history–like a gestalt of collective memory or a single aligned instance between cultures and communities–waters the flickering seed of mythology.
And from there sprouted the beginnings of the pantheons.
Again, I look back at history and I feel my chest clench. So much lost. I understand why but the pain remains.
And it is in ruination that we divine the vessel that will be our deliverance. Flesh must be flayed and bone must be broken before steel assumes its rightful place.
To abandon suffering before self-construction is delusion in practice is blasphemy of the self.
It is in witnessing the flaw that the mortal witnesses the face of apotheosis. The dismembered will never forget the worth of what they lacked, the blind the world unseen and seen again, and the sickene...
2023-06-11 17:03:41 +0000 UTC View Post+You work way too much, you know that?+
+Hm? Sorry, I was trying to match background details between the Painter of the Pale Morning to the Claimant of Dawn. You know what’s so interesting about them? They’re too different gods separated by two different cultures–thousands of kilometers apart! But their myths are so so so similar. It’s clear that one group of nomads took inspiration from an existing entity in Kosgan highlands and ventured into the heart of Burnside ...
2023-06-09 18:51:09 +0000 UTC View PostI have no idea why the hell Voidwatch made those things. I don’t. I also don’t want to know how Highflame managed to strike a good enough deal to afford them.
What I can decisively say is that you don’t want to get hit by one of these. Not one damn bit. They’ll grind against your cognition for one. Sure, if you got a Meta your mind won’t be overwriting outright by whatever tech-virus-shit that’s inside those shards, but damned if they aren’t loud. And damned i...
2023-06-08 17:58:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe Reverie Mark-II Exocortex is a pretty handy piece of kit, but it won’t be replacing your Meta anytime soon.
It's a tangible implant, main benefits being:
What makes a good Necro…
Hell. Let’s start makes a mediocre Necro. Easier there, and it’s still hard.
Alright. I need you to do two things at the same time, alright?
First, you gotta be able to just… drown in someone else’s life. Their emotions, their thoughts, their everything. You got to feel as they feel and not lose yourself. Not for a moment.
Then, I need you to give absolutely no fucks whatsoever about their pain,...
2023-06-06 15:21:40 +0000 UTC View PostThe Conflagration is more than an “advanced trauma pattern.”
Voidwatch has hidden much from us–secrets that are near impossible to tease out with the deviance between our spines of power and “technology.” Yet, for all that they withhold, there are still things that leak. Expressions and functions of their devices make their uses evident when they clash with the world.
Take their Ego-Screamers for instance. A beautiful piece of technology defiled by ...
2023-06-05 14:18:00 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s…. Understandable why Voidwatch would veto the project, but I still reserve the right to be upset.
Imagine. A fully modern Heaven of Strong Nuclear Forces–can you even conceive of the things we could do with such a Heaven? The canons we could weave! All those lives would be spent toward world–no, galaxy–altering purpose. Or–or something like a Heaven of Electromagnetism–agh!
Disappointment! Disappointment!<...
2023-06-03 19:49:09 +0000 UTC View PostIn deeds, not oaths.
In acts, not rituals.
In practice, not prayer.
We bearers of the scriptures, though ever faithless, do pledge our undying virtues to serve the commonwealth of the peoples of Idheim and beyond.
We, severed of cults and chains, bind the flesh of divinity toward greater ends.
Our task is the cessation of the longest cycle. Our oath is the cessation of power. Our duty is to Guild and polity. 2023-06-02 10:01:39 +0000 UTC View Post
+Jhred Greatling’s Frame is gone; Elder D’Rongo just got arrested. I severing this proxy. It will be the last time I use its memories to contact you. I won’t remember our near-term conversations after this. I suggest you dispose of your own memories somehow.+
+Received. Do you… have any idea what happened? Any leads? Highflame’s inner channels are claiming Abrel Greatling’s entire cadre got wiped out and that she got picked up by Chief Paladin Naeko of all people.+
<...
You know what’s the sign of a real Necrojack, Avo? Using someone to solve the problems they created.
Look at the dive we just did. Were we richer than the Instrument? No. Not even close. Were we smarter? I’d also say not enough for it to matter. But we knew all his habits and flaws, and he wasn’t even aware we were there.
How much did we need to modify his memories for him to do what we wanted?
Not at all. Right.
Being a Ne...
2023-05-30 19:26:51 +0000 UTC View Post+Our Glaives are dead. The Agnos is gone.+
+What? How? The Paladin was–+
+It’s not him. He’s good and snuffed. There was an unforeseen variable.+
+Unforeseen? Unforeseen? The Conflagration should have left her little more than a vegetable. How did she–+
+Not the Agnos. A Regular. Former Regular Jelene Draus. She ambushed field cell three before they could move to support. And then she intercepte...
2023-05-29 17:16:10 +0000 UTC View PostDon’t fuck with the voiders.
I’m serious, consangs. Just don’t.
I know most the other Guilds talk about Voidwatch and their “Enjoined Governing Intellects” like they’re the softer, coldtech version of Omnitech, but the truth is they’re better than us. Older than us. Hell. If it weren’t for them, we’d be nothing more than savages and enclaves now. A bunch of broken half-strands living in shit-heap worshiping our new Fallwalker gods.
<... 2023-05-28 19:01:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe Shattered Weaveress
Or
The Fortress of Daughters
Part 1
Sky-Flower didn’t budge when her sister first called for her to head to the outer walls, claiming she had spotted a group of men fleeing across the green. For as long as she could remember, her sister was the sort for fantasy and false sightings, keen to excite but slow to consider.
Sky-Flower’s resolve lasted only as long as the other priestess-daughters began to leave all around h...
2023-05-28 16:58:22 +0000 UTC View PostHeavens are comprised of a unified retelling of a story. This is what makes them so hard to counter–they don’t need to make exact sense in the broad scheme of things, but as long as enough people repeat the same rituals and mutter the same prayers and worship the same scripture, a sort of pattern forms in existence.
Something that lets the Heaven embed itself into a few central concepts.
Where hubris and Rend come in are...
2023-05-24 19:43:37 +0000 UTC View Post“Chief Paladin Naeko. What do you think you are doing?”
“Arresth–Arresting you. Why? What’s it to you?”
“I’m being arrested!”
“Oh. Well, then. If you don’t resist, you won’t be hurt. Everything will be fine and keen.”
“This is… you.... Age has finally frayed the last of your senses you flatblooded mongrel–”
“Ambassador Kitzuhada. A moment. Did you know this elder here has been...
2023-05-22 18:44:07 +0000 UTC View PostDespite their legality, thinkeasys continue to be popular with street squires and high-end memory dealers across the city. With all the restrictions and intellectual property licenses laced into various phantasmics and memories, there had to be a place where people could go to think dangerous thoughts.
With a dozen or so old golems from some defunct corp, a few bottom-sphere Fallwalkers looking for imps or favors, and a decent cell of Necros lining the exterior with Incogs,...
2023-05-21 16:17:54 +0000 UTC View PostI have been writing Godclads for 7 months by this point. The story currently numbers 524k words or so. A hefty number and we're only about 20-24% of the way through.
With the posting 11-2, we are shifting from volume 2 to volume 3 of the story, but before going forward, I would like to make some additional quality changes and developmental improvements.
For volume 2, my general self-rating is presently a 6/10.
The best aspects are the characters, the conceptualization ...
2023-05-18 20:10:14 +0000 UTC View PostWhat do you mean his Frame is missing? That’s impossible. We’re the only ones who can secure and remove it. None of his canons are running either–no Rend–this place is stable. No Rupture.
Euthanize three more. We’ll see what’s wrong once his Heaven manifests.
-Agnosi Thanatech Regarding Jhred Greatling’s Liminal Frame
11-2
Epilogue: A Break Between Storms
A beat passed. They all studied the silver as a general mood merged into a ge...
2023-05-18 19:57:46 +0000 UTC View Post