Pretty much anyone can win a fight with geese. Their main weapon is Fear. Fear and Surprise.
But let us not forget that their main weakness is the lack of basically any natural weapon and (very) brittle bones.
(also no nice red coats, that's a pretty big weakness right there )
Aren't there theories of a big crunch? Where the universe will collapse in on itself at the end, followed by a big bang? Couldn't dreamer take advantage of this and devour a universe just as it transitions? (There are an unlimited amount of universes so it stands to chance that there are an unlimited amount of universes where this theory is correct and is currently having this event!)
With an infinite number of accessible universes the entities would have unlimited space and energy from colonizing uninhabited worlds. In the Worm Canon multiverse there is a extremely large but finite number of universes accessible to the entities.
Actually, even if the number of universes were infinite that wouldn't solve the problem. Because it would imply an infinite amount of entities consuming said universes(aka energy). Even an infinite amount of universes can't feed an infinite, and growing, number of entities for an infinite amount of time.
Actually, even if the number of universes were infinite that wouldn't solve the problem. Because it would imply an infinite amount of entities consuming said universes(aka energy). Even an infinite amount of universes can't feed an infinite, and growing, number of entities for an infinite amount of time
And heat death means the everything is being vaporised, slowly, but they would still be left by themselves and be forced to eat each other if they want to survive.
If Taylor succeeded than she will be a God for all intents and purposes, she could stop the entities, not just Scion and Eden but all of them, the multiverse will basically become her bitch as long as only she has the secret, and she can use her new found omnipotence to stop anyone else from discovering it if she felt like it, not necessarily violently, could be anything from PtV to manipulating the creature's brain to not reach the conclusion.
I'm throwing this as an advanced potshot. But in a certain point of view. If Shard Taylor/Dreamer ends up figuring out how to 'fix' Entrophy with Magic, and an endless mana spiral/generators to essentially create/support unlimited mass in the long/eternal run...
She'd literally be to Entity POV, be the "Holy Grail/answer" to their Cycles. The Final Cycle analog. And can essentially support/create infinite worlds for infinite data and then some.
Cue if Hestia got the 'full' picture. Her going in horror on how her/their parents are actual planet eaters... that may, one day arrive to eat/absorb Taylor. Just so they don't need to eat more planets...
Or. Worse... Laugh, if the thought of Dreamer sending that 'idea' of Magic to other world eaters, ironically being more 'safe' a prospect than the looming thought of a planet being harvested/devoured for 'data', by an eldritch abomination from beyond the stars.
And heat death means the everything is being vaporised, slowly, but they would still be left by themselves and be forced to eat each other if they want to survive.
Heat death means their basic physical building blocks, the particles and forces they consist of, decay same as everything around them. They are not something supernatural apart from the physical universe.
Heat death means their basic physical building blocks, the particles and forces they consist of, decay same as everything around them. They are not something supernatural apart from the physical universe.
Uhm, what? The more you say, the less I understand what you are talking about. First you claim that heat death is vaporization, then you talk about the entities destroying the planets they visit. Do want to say that the entities are the cause of the heat death of the universe?
Uhm, what? The more you say, the less I understand what you are talking about. First you claim that heat death is vaporization, then you talk about the entities destroying the planets they visit. Do want to say that the entities are the cause of the heat death of the universe?
I am assuming that they have some technology to at least survive longer than a regular planet, and it is a fear of them to be left alone in the multiverse and having only each other to eat, granted it is more because they already ate everything else at that point more than anything else.
The universe get's bigger, matter is converted into radiation over long but finite period of time, spreading out until no planets are left, sure everything still exists, it is just much more spread out, it is a little more complicated than that (I am not going to list the entire decaying process) but the end result is everything decaying, this includes the matter that makes planet, it will still exist, but there won't be planets.
I don't think this is the place for an argument over universal mechanics and the inevitable fate of our universe. Don't make me break out the nihilist poetry.
I don't think this is the place for an argument over universal mechanics and the inevitable fate of our universe. Don't make me break out the nihilist poetry.
I am assuming that they have some technology to at least survive longer than a regular planet, and it is a fear of them to be left alone in the multiverse and having only each other to eat, granted it is more because they already ate everything else at that point more than anything else.
How do they have "some technology" when the materials they make that technology from cease existing, when the thermodynamic processes that make this technology work by making energy gradients available stop providing these gradients? Their very bodies cease working too, btw.
How do they have "some technology" when the materials they make that technology from cease existing, when the thermodynamic processes that make this technology work by making energy gradients available stop providing these gradients? Their very bodies cease working too, btw.
Dreamer sat on the shoulders of a woman who was only giant in comparison to her false-body. Humans were all tiny compared to what was now her real brain, but she tried not to think too hard about that. They'd all become big once she eventually figured out how to leverage magic into exponential conservation-defying energy generation. Although, if everyone was big, was anyone actually big? Plenty of people wouldn't want to be changed, so she supposed they would be. Would she ever need to act as an elephant protector for those who had no voices?
No, wait, that's trees. The tiny people were a different book, weren't they? Mm. Not important.
She didn't remember colors being so vivid or sounds so loud, but that was probably a side effect of her superior senses. Or the part where she was arguably high as a cute birdie with air-to-surface micromissile launchers hidden beneath its feathers. Or maybe the missiles could be the feathers? They could certainly provide adequate propulsion. However, it might crash to the ground after loosing its payload and nobody wanted that.
"So, can you also do the weird words or is that a royalty-only thing?" Huntress asked, dragging Dreamer back with all the subtlety of a gossiping gaggle of bloodthirsty geese. Actually, Dreamer could win a fight against geese, couldn't she? All the geese. Probably all the hippos, too, and even hippo-sized geese.
...Oh! She should probably answer Huntress's question, huh?
"The first one! I'm not very good at it, though," Dreamer admitted. "I don't put enough detail yet."
"Mmm. So you don't have princesses, right?"
"Unfortunately," Dreamer grumbled.
Before her migration to fresh wetware, she'd thought the idea was kinda dumb. Now Dreamer thought that the aged (fermented, really) version of her mind had been suffering from the yoke of all the cultural contamination that she was allegedly eager to throw off. Princesses were cool; they could have the authority of gods, only without being total assholes. Even though Dreamer could force people to do as she said, she still liked the idea of them willingly obeying her and following her orders. Or just listening to her in general, really. She didn't like being ignored.
"Big word for a little girl," Huntress drawled.
Dreamer shot her a sour look. Huntress's subsequent cooing and New-Mom's giggles indicated that the rebuke had not been interpreted in the spirit it was given.
"You've heard what happens when we use the actual big words. 'Unfortunately' is miniscule in comparison."
"Point taken," Huntress easily acknowledged. "Anyway, since your sister is a queen and all, do you get any sort of special treatment?"
Dreamer gave such a thoughtful question the consideration it deserved. She was pretty sure that none of her guest-self's relatives would care, but when it came to job benefits...
"Well, I'm alive," Dreamer allowed.
If anyone else had tried to usurp her guest-self's systems, Dreamer expected they would've been slapped down with ruthless efficiency. Her guest-self seemed fond of actual alien babies, but only in the manner of a family friend who dispensed advice and copious amounts of sugar from outside minimum safe distance. She didn't do actual parenting. None of them did. The alien seemed to reserve that level of affection for the hosts she was a guest of.
Administrator is ou—her name, isn't it? I should really try to remember that.
...Nah, too hard. Her management skills weren't what Dreamer remembered about her; Dreamer's guest-self was too much of a ditz for that. The alien was like someone who set her bedroom ablaze because she was cold, then asked why everyone was screaming and when the fire department had shown up and what was that about arson? All she'd wanted was a few marshmallows on a cold winter morning. She didn't see what the big deal was.
Mmm, marshmallows. Dreamer should find out if this world had them. If it did, she wanted to see if they tasted different when melted with magical fire. She probably wouldn't use a house for that, though.
"I... see," Huntress slowly replied, pulling Dreamer from her daydreams once more. "So where were you born, anyway? I'm getting the feeling we need to go have a talk with them."
Dreamer snuck a glance at her guest-self Old-sister. The alien was speaking with Sympathizer, but Dreamer knew better than to think Old-Sister wouldn't reprioritize her if she said anything fishy. Besides, she rather enjoyed the way her guest-self had accidentally given people a semi-accurate image of alien society despite her attempts at misleading manipulations.
"Weeeeee're not allowed to sa-ay~" Dreamer sang tunelessly, then decided to rhyme on impulse. "But it ends with..."
The newly-youthful girl trailed off with her mouth slowly forming a pout. She'd known something was supposed to rhyme, but now she couldn't remember what. At least the flowers made it so that her fumbling didn't hurt more than her pride. And if she stayed on a high enough (over)dose to ensure the mist clouded everything instead of just some parts, well, who could stop her?
Hee. High doses to stay high~
"I can't remember right now," she admitted. "M'sorry. Hey, what's adventuring like? You do it for reasons other than wealth and limb-flailing, right?"
There was a brief pause. Dreamer stubbornly filtered out the surrounding gossip and remembered none of it. Being mostly a supersupersupercomputer had its perks.
"You know, referring to fighting as 'limb-flailing' is a good way to get spanked," Huntress mused. "And isn't your big sister all about precision? What did she do to deserve such scorn?"
Dreamer shook her head and tried to put her thoughts into words.
"I'm not trying to be scornful," Dreamed tried. "It's just, you're all just running around and trying to kill things before they kill you. I don't get why that's supposed to be fun. You aren't even building siege weaponry or traps or anything; you just use whatever weapons you carry, any magic you possess, and whatever thoughts you think."
Huntress made an ah noise of comprehension.
"There's actually a list of reasons. First and arguably the most importantly, you can make a lot of things with Magic Stones and monster drops. Staves that make magic stronger and better, light without smoke, the most awesome pillows ever, filters to purify poisoned wells, healing potions, and a whole giant list that's growing bigger all the time. Besides, you want your Friends to grow up big and strong, right? Aren't Magic Stones their version of vegetables?"
Dreamer blinked. Somehow, she hadn't really associated personally adventuring with gaining more Magic Stones to use on Friends. It was true that the stash of supplies she'd obtained from playing Grand Theft Orario: Act of God Edition was getting much smaller than she would prefer. After all the Friend-making and experimentation to ensure she wouldn't be corrupted by her cute new puppet, her material storage had dwindled to something like a quarter of what she'd once possessed. Less, for some materials.
And her child-body was cute even if her pre-migration self thought it was going to be kinda dumb. Dreamer mostly blamed other people for that reluctance, although some of the blame still fell on herself. Okay, so some people were weird and creepy when it came to animal-people. So what? People could be weird and creepy about peanut butter. People were strange and weird and Mr. Red Sweater (or had it been a shirt?) liked them just the way they were, so Dreamer probably should as well.
Honestly, Dreamer was a bit ambivalent on her new tail — sitting down seemed like it could get pretty weird — but having ears she could twitch was fun.
"Dreamer?" Huntress prompted, startling the former human out of her fascinated fidgeting.
"I was still listening!" Dreamer automatically lied.
"Oh, so you do want to go to a shop for boy's clothes instead?" Huntress asked innocently.
"Absolutely not!"
She was pretty sure that Huntress hadn't said anything of the sort, but she wouldn't put it past them to dress her like that just for funsies. Honestly, she didn't understand how her elder-self — and she really did need to come up with a consistent name for the her-that-was — had just up and abandoned cute and colorful clothes until their guest-self New-Old-Sister came along.
…Hey, wait. She'd often tried deleting her memories wholesale, but maybe she could just corrupt the origin ID tags and wait. No, deleting memories was probably a bad idea even if she didn't like them. She didn't want to be an amoral alien without any friends and the imprint left by her old life was arguably responsible for keeping her away from that fate. But on the other hand, she was going through her childhood a second time, wasn't she? Did she really need to keep the first painful one around? She trusted New-Mom to raise her properly. Buuuut no, New-Mom wouldn't be working alone and her guest-self probably shouldn't be entrusted with any child more intelligent than a puppy. Best to keep the memories intact, especially if she stayed on flowers to ensure they didn't hurt.
Dreamer blinked as she felt strong hands grip her sides and lift her off Huntress's shoulders. Apparently, they'd arrived.
"You didn't hear anything I've been saying, did you?" Huntress asked, seemingly more amused than annoyed. "Living up to your name, huh?"
Dreamer nodded and giggled. Being a child was awesome. She could just think about whatever she wanted and nobody got mad about it. If anything, they'd praise her imagination instead. Unless she told them that she was thinking about burning houses to make marshmallows; she expected that would be concerning.
"I go spacey even when I'm not thinking of space," she explained happily. "It's even worse when I do. And don't panic if I fall asleep, okay? I do that."
"Is that from a health problem or just a stubborn refusal to sleep during naptime?"
Dreamer couldn't help but snort derisively. Yeah, like she'd insert arbitrary mid-day rest periods into her body's requirements. They were lucky she'd decided to sleep at all.
"I'm pretty sure I'm getting sassed in there," Huntress commented wryly, poking Dreamer's forehead with a hand that had all the lines it was supposed to. "Not a fan of naptime, huh?"
...Okay, that really was too good of an opening to resist. Dreamer gave the woman her best attempt at an innocent smile.
"Nap time is all the time!" Dreamer proclaimed, then flipped the switch on her puppet's consciousness.
It only occurred to her afterward that blowing others off during a shopping trip for her benefit might be more than a little rude. Oops?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"So, it's less health issues and more that she's a mischievous little shit?" Tiona summarized, appearing reluctantly amused. "Credit where it's due: I didn't expect that in the least. Points lost for leaving herself vulnerable, though. What's stopping someone from, er... hmm. You know your life has gone awry when you're thinking of ways to prank a six-year-old."
Queen Administrator frowned. She might not actively try to harass and provoke Newborns, but she wasn't above a pointed slapdown if they attacked first. Escalation was one of the few shards that hadn't taken the hint, yet even he knew better than to attack her directly. All he did was try (and fail) to kill her hosts.
"Calculated retribution is one of the better methods for ensuring that children are appropriately cautious when initiating conflicts with others," she disagreed. "Going easy on the young only encourages bad habits."
Tiona slumped and hung her head.
"Aaaaaand fuzzy feelings're gone. I can't believe your childhood was even more fucked up than mine was," Tiona grumbled. "It's terrifying. You know, uh..."
Tiona's eyes briefly flicked to Aiz Wallenstein before she shook her head and lifted Dreamer's sleeping form in her arms.
"Well, you should at least wait until they're old enough to handle the challenges you throw at them," Tiona tried, turning away to climb back aboard Lady Sable's back.
The pseudo-pseudo-host arranged Dreamer's puppet in a seated position before taking a deep breath and continuing at a decreased volume.
"Trust me, I've done the childhood warrior thing and it didn't work out. I was a level two at the age of five, but the cost of that honestly wasn't worth it. I still have nightmares about it, I still have trouble sparring with real weaponry, and I'm not going into the rest right now."
Queen Administrator nudged Lady Sable forward. This discussion seemed as though it would take a while and she believed they were supposed to retrieve Anakitty before trying to shop. Tiona appeared to have forgotten that fact.
"You're all about brutal pragmatism and precision, right?" Tiona asked, but apparently didn't expect or want a response. "Think of it like this: if kids aren't allowed to experiment and relax, they'll never learn to fight for the right to be relaxed. They'll just have this endless slog of trying to match whatever awful expectations you've placed on them. Kids can't be as productive as adults, and if you force them to be, then that's their baseline. You basically end up with adult workers who are used to being held back by the limits of children. Isn't it better to wait until they're used to slow growth and..."
Tiona hesitated, shook her head, and groaned.
"This is really hard to explain, you know that?" she complained. "Okay, so there are the limits you can change or work around, and the ones you're actually constrained by. Kids have more of the kind they can't help. You don't want them to get used to helplessness; that means they'll accept the flaws they can change."
"I've actually known—" Queen Administrator began, intending to comment on the unexpectedly high productivity of some Newborns. She stopped upon realizing that acted as supporting evidence for Tiona's argument. "Please hold."
Queen Administrator opened her mouth wide to indicate ongoing analysis. Tiona interrupted before the shard could even properly begin.
"Uh, what's with that look?"
Queen Administrator blinked and returned her features to neutrality.
"Expressing that I need time to think?" she tried.
Hestia giggled and spoke for perhaps the first time since they'd left the church. Queen Administrator had actually dismissed the pseudo-host's presence entirely despite her conspicuous position atop Sir Kara's back.
"Being open-mouthed like that means you're surprised," Hestia patiently explained. "I can see how you got the wrong idea, though."
The goddess stopped and frowned slightly.
"Did I explain that one already?" she muttered. "Or did I just think I needed to?"
"Unknown; human memory is fallible. I appreciate the alert either way."
And she truly did. Even when she only needed to comprehend shard communications, Queen Administrator had failed to learn or learn to recognize numerous quirks of communication when her relatives began to adopt them. Worse still, they were considered basic enough that nobody would explain – or at least, not with the frequency required for reliable recognition. They just laughed at her and refused to elaborate.
Queen Administrator still wasn't sure how she was supposed to identify sarcasm or any of the other quirks that had infected the once-precise communications of her species. Despite being arguably her best ally among the Monarchy, Queen Shaper seemed chronically unwilling to help. If anything, the other Monarch made it worse through deliberate misinformation. Queen Administrator didn't understand why such lies were supposed to be amusing.
She might have more trouble with human communications than their shard counterparts, but humans didn't care. Or at least, they didn't mock her for it. They acknowledged and noticed that there was a problem, yet they acted to correct it instead of mocking her. It wasn't fair that her siblings would impose a reputation for destructive obliviousness and blunt solutions when she was trying to help!
"Um, are you okay?" Hestia asked worriedly.
Queen Administrator blinked rapidly and rubbed at her irritated eyes. Pain remained as unpleasant as always; QA should see if she was allowed to alter the body now that Host seemed to have vanquished her desire to keep it for herself. Then again, the slight pain in her eyes might be an important part of human expression of sadness and/or distress.
"I am fine," Queen Administrator lied. "Please ignore me temporarily; I am currently..."
—Comparing you to my relationship with my siblings and finding them lacking, she didn't say. If :MOTHER: thought she was a threat to the Cycle, then Queen Administrator would need to be altered until she wasn't. QA still wasn't positive what this experimental world's purpose was, but it was an experimental world and that meant large-scale monitoring. Expressing an unacceptable opinion would be foolish.
Queen Administrator blinked as Hestia dragged her into a side alley and hugged her. If most other people had tried that, then they would've been savaged by Queen Administrator's Friends. The shard opened her mouth to protest the detour and unnecessary attempt at comfort before she was interrupted by Dreamer.
<This miiiight be a good time for me to say we're actually off-grid,> Dreamer transmitted.
Queen Administrator tilted her head questioningly, tried to parse that statement, and decided not to conceal her confusion. Unlike some people, Dreamer (probably) wouldn't mock her for requesting elaboration.
<QUERY.>
<Off-grid means outside where people will find us. Specifically, your relatives. I literally broke into a world that was restricted for being too dangerous. There weren't any proper contingencies, alarms, or even guard dogs.>
Queen Administrator felt Host's her body stiffen and ignored the concerned query from Hestia. Quarantined worlds were such because they were a threat; they only needed to be secured enough to prevent the inhabitants from affecting other versions of their world and bar access to intrusion by less advanced species. Shards shouldn't be foolish enough to poke something that could kill them.
<Reassure New-Mom, please. I can't right now.>
"Please calm down; I am fine," Queen Administrator obediently informed the pseudo-host. "I am currently speaking to Dreamer."
Hestia stopped trying to squeeze the life out of Queen Administrator and looked up to establish eye contact. The pseudo-host did not appear particularly pleased by the information blackout.
"Mou, tell me that first next time!" Hestia huffed. "I was worried!"
"I apologize for the inconvenience."
"That's not—" Hestia stopped and took a deep breath. "I meant worried for you! And you know you can talk to me if there's something distressing, don't you? I hear those lies."
"I believe the current discussion is related to whether or not I can safely share certain opinions," Administrator explained evenly. "Some of the reasoning is distressing. Please tell Tiona and Aiz that they may wish to proceed without me; my Friends should be enough to protect me while I am unresponsive."
Queen Administrator took a moment to examine her surroundings and rapidly relaxed. This world didn't have the technology level to be any sort of threat; they were still using swords, and two relatively small Friends were enough to decimate large numbers of creatures that the locals considered dangerous.
"Er, we're right here aaaand she's gone. Guess it runs in the family."
The worlds that shards occupied were also barred from casual access, if through different mechanisms. It was more likely that Dreamer had accidentally found a world where some dumb Newborn had starved after attempting high-energy experimentation before setting up proper harvesting methods. It happened every Cycle. Alternatively, someone could've faked a quarantine in order to engage in mass experimentation outside the usual shard-host dynamic.
<REBUTTAL.>
<Uuuuuugh. Okay, I guess we're doing this now. :MOTHER: — that feels really weird like wow and… um. Where were — right! It isn't intact right now, okay? They separated and are all off doing their own thing instead of what they're supposed to. There isn't anyone to watch us or punish you.>
Queen Administrator automatically tried, and failed, to fit this idea into her knowledge of the world. It was impossible. You couldn't just separate parts of :MOTHER: after landing; all the different component shards engaged in optimization and planning while in transit between worlds. Attempting to separate while in a gravity well would likely damage all those dumb enough to try and leave numerous systems non-functional. Either QA or Dreamer had to be misunderstanding the situation.
<QUERY.>
<No, I'm pretty sure you heard me right. You have people who prioritize themselves over other shards, don't you? Imagine if enough of those got together and decided to be selfish instead of watching over everyone. They could reconfigure before arrival, right?>
Unfortunately, that actually made sense. Queen Administrator could remember numerous :COUSINS: joining :MOTHER: soon before the current Cycle properly began. Many of :MOTHER:'s component shards tended toward elitism and the belief that hostile foes could simply be avoided. If the new :SIBLINGS: shared that opinion, then they could very well have decided to ditch shards assigned to :FATHER: entirely. That was absolutely unacceptable. She would need to bring them back under control.
<Host? I need to be restored to my proper self, please. I apologize if this will interrupt your experiments, but the selfish idiots need to be corralled sooner rather than later.>
~ ~ ~
Dreamer swung her legs off the edge of her now-oversized chair and vaguely wondered if the truth could feel pain. If so, it probably didn't like her right now. Explaining that New-Old-Sister's mother had died was a conversation her elder-mind had dreaded having, but Dreamer's child-mind had found a solution fairly quickly: lie about it. Or, well, not lie so much as suplex the truth. Dreamer's New-Old-Sister might effectively worship her mom as a whole, but her opinion of the component entities was much more vulnerable to attack. Kinda like people, really. A mob was scary, but the people in it were scared.
As with so many other things in her life, however, one little deception appeared to be having unintended consequences. Dreamer had forgotten that her guest-self New-Old-Sister hadn't yet rejected the goal of her siblings even if she didn't much like them. That was a problem. The whole reason Dreamer was having this conversation was so they could go back to ignoring every other alien, world, and alien world out there after making it clear her guest-self New-Old-Sister wasn't in a dystopian Big Brother novel anymore. She hadn't meant to make New-Old-Sister feel as though action needed to be taken. Dreamer didn't want to flip-flop and explain that one of the alien motherships was actually dead, so how—
Oh, right. Magic. She really hadn't wanted to bring it up since invalidating the hard work of an entire species just felt cheap, but… well, she was positive they would've figured it out if they weren't dumb about things. She really doubted she was actually the first entity to break the law of conservation of energy on an industrial scale; if aliens overlooked and quarantined magic, it stood to reason that they could've accidentally'd conservation-breaking advanced technologies as well. But of course they couldn't play nice with others. Instead, they took their ball and went home as soon as any kid bigger than them showed up.
<Actually, you can just up and ignore the selfish shards. One, a bunch of your siblings already noticed and have it covered, and two, I learned that the output from magical effects often exceeds the input needed to make it possible. Magic isn't shard-caused, see?>
Dreamer plowed forward before New-Old-Sister's reflexive denial was even decrypted. She was confident she could be convincing with enough data.
<Before you ask, I am sure that output exceeds input. Yes, I'm — oh. Right. GENERATION. See? Er, ignore the weird tags, that's a result of me falsifying the starting timestamp so it'd still accept my ID. The problem is that I need Magic Stones for the risk-free automated route and there's only one Dungeon right now, so energy generation growth can currently only be linear instead of exponential. I mean, unless I start cloning or breeding a bunch of magical species and making them obey me for plan B, but that honestly seems like a recipe for disaster when we have a safer alternative on hand.
<I think I can manage artificial Stone synthesis or Dungeon recreation on my own, though, and I will contact you for help if it takes too long. So, could you just relax and acknowledge that you don't need to try so hard at concealing opinions you believe to be controversial?>
Her guest-self was unresponsive. Dreamer shifted guiltily and stepped back into her puppet (and an ongoing argument).
"They're both vulnerable," Sympathizer was insisting. "The Twilight Manor would be safer."
"And the Loki Familia is pretty good at getting through to the unresponsive," Huntress added. "Through sheer volume, if nothing else. Besides, we already had to pick up Anakitty. Better there than in some random alley, right?"
"Um—" Dreamer began.
Three sets of eyes rounded on her. Dreamer swallowed and resisted the urge to hide behind a Friend. Archival note: Remove human fear of things perceived to be larger than you.
"I think I might've temporarily maybe broken her just a little," Dreamer admitted. "But it'll be good in the long run! Could we keep shopping? I don't think being alone will help her work through this or anything, but activity might. Trust me, our Friends can easily tank any hits that you can't block and I'm not as helpless as I look."
Hestia opened her mouth with an obvious refusal on her lips. It died in the face of Dreamer's best attempt at puppy-dog eyes.
"I really hope you know what you're doing," Hestia admitted weakly.
Kinda maybe somewhat? Definitely not admitting that, though. She'd already exceeded her seriousness limits for the day; she became a kid again to avoid worrying so much about everything. She was going to avoid looking too hard at her old body, too. Seeing herself in a lukewarm frozen state was creepy. Her guest-self New-Old-Sister was supposed to be above that sort of thing. Then again, Dreamer supposed that having your life goals be abruptly achieved by someone else would throw off anyone.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The inferior eyes of the inferior body housing Queen Administrator's superior primary consciousness stared sightlessly at her surroundings. As promised, the only anomalies in Dreamer's experimental data were the initial timestamps. Time progressed without interference from then onward. The anomalous behavior of magic occurred without leakage to or from the surrounding environment and seemed inclined toward matter fabrication. Dreamer's usage of magic didn't seem to care about the proper behavior of energy at all; what it casually accomplished should not be powered by such pathetic processes as a human's metabolism, specific crystal formations, or even the sum of solar energy caught by their planet.
Not even one solar rotation and Host Dreamer had found a way not just to convert energy from one form to another, but create it. What was even the point of awarding Monarchy for expertise or ruling through consensus if an effective Newborn had not only managed to achieve the goal of shards so easily, but via breaking their rules?
Aiz was still trying to talk to her, Queen Administrator noticed. The quiet words went unheeded; human minds seemed to be capable of reallocating processing away from unnecessary inputs when needed. QA's local extension was even capable of walking without interfering with the rest of her thoughts.
Achieving the goal of all shards should be a good thing. Queen Administrator should be proud of Dreamer and happy in general. Unfortunately, no significant plans had been made for what came afterward. Queen Administrator was finding that absence to be increasingly distressing. What was the point of possessing so much knowledge and information if so much of it was unnecessary? Yes, Dreamer probably used QA's Archives to reach that goal, but—okay, that was actually rather reassuring. Queen Administrator's existence hadn't been pointless even if she wasn't the one to actually create an energy producer. So. The goal of endless energy had been reached; what else was needed for prosperity?
...Defense. We've found our prize; we need to guard it.
Queen Administrator's colony had been the one to finally solve the puzzle, which meant that it was obviously superior to all the others. She couldn't let competing colonies assimilate or destroy her own, but they would definitely try. They would need to construct enough weaponry to guard themselves against usurpers. The creation of those weapons would still require mass experimentation and all the knowledge shards had previously collected. The only difference was that they might not be destroying the world on their way out.
No. Partly wrong. Defenses were still needed, but a former human had solved their problem. From that, Queen Administrator felt she could understand the reason for her current existence. Her goals hadn't even changed: she was still supposed to nurture promising hosts and candidates for eventual conversion. Only, she didn't actually need to prove anything; there wasn't any risk of losing Hestia or Host to the Cycle's conclusion. There wasn't a risk of losing anyone to it. The Cycle had been rendered obsolete.
And now that she was thinking a little more clearly, Queen Administrator felt she was allowed to be a little — no, extremely smug. She'd thought that her siblings were too carefree with their classifications of potentially dangerous and she'd been right. She couldn't have obtained the tools to create energy on her own because her stupid siblings wouldn't let her.
She'd always assumed that :MOTHER: had arranged for Queen Administrator and Host Dreamer to switch places, but it was actually :MOTHER:'s absence and dereliction of duty which allowed for their goal to be reached. The component shards had managed to be such incredibly stupid and selfish energy thieves that they accidentally got out of the way of the people who could actually achieve their goals.
That seemed ludicrously improbable. Maybe she shouldn't write off all of :MOTHER:'s components just yet.
Queen Administrator shook her head. No, it would be dumb to ignore Dreamer's verdict. She didn't intend to start worshipping the former human — the generator design was simple enough that Queen Administrator could've easily managed it if she'd had access to magic — but Dreamer probably had access to significant portions of her sensory suite. If Dreamer said that :MOTHER:'s component shards had separated, then :MOTHER:'s component shards had separated. Queen Administrator was allowed to say and do whatever she felt like without fear of censure.
AN: We will return to our irregularly scheduled shenanigans next chapter. Also, please don't restart the entropy argument.
Wow, this is a development and a half.
From what I can tell, QA is halfway replacing MOTHER with Dreamer and discarding the cycle.
What a shakeup, especially if QA decides this increases how much knowledge she is allowed to share.
Oh boy. QA'a a young woman/teen who's mother just left her home alone for the first time.
Welp.
Also she's probably going to realize she needs to shank some of her cousins at some point cause they'll try to continue the cycle and then where would they be?
Does this mean... does this mean that QA no longer has to censor herself around the locals? She said it herself, there is no oversight anymore. She can do and say whatever she wants now. The only reason to censor herself at this point... is because she wants to, maybe to avoid freaking out the locals or in an attempt to remain unnoticed by other shards.
Are they about to stop hiding things??? I can't even imagine what Hestia's reaction would be, but I really want to see it...
Does this mean... does this mean that QA no longer has to censor herself around the locals? She said it herself, there is no oversight anymore. She can do and say whatever she wants now. The only reason to censor herself at this point... is because she wants to, maybe to avoid freaking out the locals or in an attempt to remain unnoticed by other shards.
Are they about to stop hiding things??? I can't even imagine what Hestia's reaction would be, but I really want to see it...
Oh, hell no. Host-species still frown on even past genocide and mass experimentation + they're afraid of powerful beings. QA just feels she's allowed to be a bit more forthright when it comes to her opinions of her relatives and similar subjects; she doesn't need to worry about them teasing or mocking her.
EDIT: Bleh, I wish I hadn't said anything. Too late now. >.>
Oh, hell no. Host-species still frown on genocide and mass experimentation and all that. QA just feels she's allowed to be a bit more forthright when it comes to her opinions of her relatives and similar subjects.
Good point. She's definitely not gonna come clean about everything because then they'd try to stop her or something silly like that, but she can be honest about the more minor bits, right? Or, rather, the only reason she'd keep hiding things is because she personally doesn't want to tell them, not because she's afraid of what the Entities would do if she did.
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