Etcetera

Myriad Reality

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Nice. No real preference so just meeting new people works for me :)

@Chiliarchy

Feel free to jump into any post with @Dynamics or @Spiritblitz. They're in a cyber world right now (not the digiverse though).

Myriad Reality

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Ah. Yes, of course.

*Smiling, I procure what appears to be a tourist's map of Union from thin air and present it to Vector, pointing to a spot about three quarters of the way down, a few miles from the spaceport.*

We are here. There's free autocar service across the whole city; you flag them down like a taxi and program where you want to go. Failing that, the metro runs directly to the spaceport. At some point in the next four hours, you're going to want to visit Aunt Jane's Cafe on 300th and MLK and ask for Lucy. They'll have your ID papers ready; you won't get through the entrance checkpoints without them.

My associate's currently en-route to the spaceport; she'll be waiting for you past security. She'll take you from there.

@Tank O The Lake

Are we to expect much resistance up to that point?

Myriad Reality

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Excellent. I can have you and my associate on a suborbital flight in six hours, and in Hong Kong in eight. You'll need to be at the municipal spaceport in four. In the meantime...

*I reach into my pocket and retrieve a black and gold card.*

Enjoy yourselves. See the sights, live like kings. I'll pay the tab.

@Tank O The Lake

*Takes the card from you*
I assume we'll receive more logistic information from you shortly?

Myriad Reality

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The blacksite's underwater in order to shield it from cosmic radiation and nuclear fallout. Well, that and the moral ramifications of what's being done there. What they're working on, well...

*I nod.*

Genetic data, cybernetic tests, even some work into psionic waves, brain waves. Some of it they gained from experiments that'd make Doctor Mengele blush, but it's good data nonetheless. If you want to make humanity more interconnected, that's your first place to start.

@Tank O The Lake

*Taps my left-hand middle finger to my thumb a few times*
I think, my friend, that we have ourselves a deal.

Myriad Reality

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*Perks up at the word dispatch*
Killing anyone is off limits. That's against everything we stand for.

@Legend

*Lifts a hand*
I'm certain we can find an amicable way of preventing interference without resorting to utter violence, yes.

Myriad Reality

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Yes. Yes it is. The ascension of humanity by that power.

*I sigh, thinking.*

If I were to tell you that we have aligning goals, would you believe me? I think that we both value humanity, and we both have thoughts of what can be done to help them from their present sad state. If we were to cooperate, I think we could make something beautiful.

@Tank O The Lake

*Raises my eyebrows with a smile*
I had hoped you would say something like that. What do you have in mind?

Myriad Reality

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Intriguing.

*I look to the side.*

It would require... expertise. And likely, on some level, a modification of the very nature of entropy. Such is, unfortunately, rather beyond my grasp.

@Tank O The Lake

*Nods*
No doubt, one of the most difficult challenges mankind has faced. And that's part of our journey—uncovering the path to a utopia where death has lost its power.

Myriad Reality

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I am indeed such an individual.

I struggle to see that panning out in any way other than murderers making garish mockeries of their victims to their families.

@Tank O The Lake

Then in straightforward terms, you end someone. You inherit their weakness, and their sufferings become yours to bear. They weigh on you, inescapably as you lose grasp of what makes you yourself. Kill the sick, and acquire their pain. Kill the fearful, and your choices haunt you. Kill a child and lose your emotional grip. Your every choice is second guessed. Your reactions slow, now bearing two lives' worth of intuitions. Your senses are overloaded but your mind clouded. You experience a tugging on your heart as you pass a hospital and realize you can't remember whether the faint memory belongs to you or to the one you adopted into yourself. Their dreams, values, visions, all made a piece of you. Every ordinary joy becomes an indictment. You live as an immortal tribute to a purpose that cannot be fulfilled.
*Clasps my hands behind my back*
And that is a fate worse than death. Not to mention the social consequences that would inevitably arise.

Myriad Reality

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*I cock my head.*

Elaborate.

@Tank O The Lake

We cannot simply wield the power of death to end the power of death. But instead, imagine a new society, with new rules. Those who end a story must carry its unfinished weight—its suffering, its responsibility, its purpose. A world where death anchors you to the life you robbed, and saps a piece of your soul to replace that which was lost. Forever carrying the burden of the vacuum you created, a permanent, living memorial of everything you destroyed. A world where death turns into a mercy, and mercy cannot be stolen.
*Scratches the back of my head with a smile*
But you also seem like the kind of person to prefer practical steps over a sermon.