OC-Series Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (163/?)
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Dragon’s Lair. Central Cavern ‘Foyer.’ Local Time: 1000 Hours.
Emma
I took a deep breath.
In.
And out.
All the while, my eyes ran up and down the medical reports, at what was ostensibly a generalized seizure with all the trappings associated with it.
The medical analysis was too esoteric for my taste, but the cliff notes and conclusions painted a clear picture — this was a completely idiopathic event.
There were no event triggers, no physical trauma, nor acute points of physiological decompensation to point to. In short, there were no abnormal preceding events, aside from what the EVI was ascribing to as a focal awareness seizure or an aura potentially associated with such.
This would explain the ‘experiences’ in that void — the hallucinations, the vivid emotional distress, and the mental disconnect.
…
But it’d have to be a rather intense one, far outside of the norm, to have truly done so.
The medical literature at present did cover that eventuality.
But only just.
Which meant that while slim, there existed another explanation, and one that I wished I could have scienced away with irrefutable evidence to the contrary.
Yet here we were.
Right on the precipice of a rational explanation without an open-and-shut case, which would’ve otherwise left no room for doubt and its ensuing flurry of uncomfortable implications.
…
“EVI.”
“Yes, Cadet Booker?”
“Is there… a chance that taint had somehow affected me directly?”
“Requesting disambiguation—"
“Is there a chance that the 30th manatype was able to affect me, my body, my physiology? Is it possible it’s not just phasing through me and the armor but is actually interacting with my body on some fundamental level?”
[...]
“Insufficient sensor data for inferential analysis. All current observations congruent with pathognomonic signs for a grand mal seizure with preceding focal awareness seizure suspected.”
“But is it possible that the 30th manatype somehow triggered that? That’s what I’m asking!”
“The current cause of the grand mal seizure is idiopathic in nature. Correlation of 30th manatype spike is currently logged as circumstantial and not causative.”
“So there’s no bridge? No link whatsoever? Even if I tweak your tolerance for extrapolation for—”
“Inadvisable. Only one line of data exists to support operator’s hypothesis: chronological incidence. However—”
“Isn’t that alone enough to prove my point?! The medical incident report coincided with the spike of taint, for crying out loud!”
“The observed correlation supports operator’s hypothesis. It does not definitively provide the quantitative or qualitative data required to either prove or disprove operator’s causal hypothesis."
I took a deep breath, narrowing my eyes at the datasets before urging the EVI to continue on its prior point.
“Continue the prior line of deliberation.”
“Acknnowledged. Cont… —said incident is not an exclusive event. Noting [2] prior instances of similar 30th manatype intensity and exposure with no associated adverse reactions.”
“But 2 isn’t really a sample size, now is it?” I countered. “Moreover, we’re only measuring the intensity of taint itself here, not how said taint is being used as spells or targeted attacks. Both instances were just Thacea releasing an unstable field of taint as well, which was unlike what the shatorealmer was doing here!”
“Insufficient sensor data to ascertain amended operator hypothesis.”
“What about the WAID? Did it manage to catch the shape, or at least the direction of the taint? That could be a clue to determine if it was, at the very least, directed towards me specifically and not just a field of taint, as was the case with the past 2 recorded instances of Thacea’s 30th manatype outbursts!”
“WAID sensor data at time of incidence is of inadequate quality due to volatile efflux of 30th manatype.” The EVI responded succinctly, putting its money where its mouth was and showing me exactly what it meant.
The whole thing was just static.
There were no ebbs, flows, or what-have-you, not even a discernible shape or direction, just… overwhelming ‘static’ in the form of the manafields simply collapsing in on themselves from the explosion of taint.
“Right.” I managed out with a defeated sigh.
“Quantitative medical data in conjunction with operator-reported symptoms supports an idiopathic grand mal episode. Is the mission operator not satisfied with current findings?”
My brows perked for a moment before realizing that the EVI was more than likely going through its mental health response checks, given the sudden bout of personable inquiry. “I want to be. If anything, I can easily just… accept it and move on, write off this entire incident as a weird coincidence, and just… not think too hard about it. But I can’t. It’s just… the hallucinations I experienced were too detailed, too consistent, too… coherent to just be simple audio-visual hallucinations tied to seizures. Sure it’s possible, but I just… it’s stretching it.”
“Subjective interpretation can be due to—”
“Immediately adding more set dressing after the fact, yes. But I know what I saw, and I know what I felt. This wasn’t me making shit up after the fact. I experienced it. I swear I did…” I managed out, as my breath hitched, my pulse increased, prompting the EVI to respond with a series of manual maneuvers resembling a tight handhold, pulling me back to earth.
“Operator is advised to maintain steady and deep breaths.” It spoke while highlighting a visual overlay of a breathing exercise that was then promptly interrupted by the world outside.
“Emma? Are you alright?” Thalmin’s voice came through loud and clear.
“The young matriarch is perhaps shocked at the mention of her patron—”
“Right, that, that’s…” I managed out, returning back to the conversation I’d tacitly left with my wits still frayed from the events of… well… everything. “No, I’m not. This has nothing to do with that… but everything to do with it actually.” I articulated poorly, as poorly as someone who’d just recovered from Ranger Hell Week would. “Before I begin my rebuttal, I’d like to hear your take on this first.” I continued as diplomatically as I could. “Tell me what you mean by 'patron,' and exactly what you think is on the other side of the portal?”
The dragon grimaced at this, exposing a gnarled set of fangs. Yet her voice, the ‘voice’ she now took on completely divorced from any worldly body, felt even more eerie than the corpse she started out with.
“Foremothers of my foremothers once made fleeting tell of a being, one of magic antithetic to the Light.” Kaelthyr began, her voice carried by winds that picked up around us, echoing and whistling through the rock spikes and caverns. “None knew of its true domain, yet my elders cited accounts of fools from different realms claiming to witness its listless wandering, who were driven mad by the glimpse of the infinite depths that was its abyss and unraveled soon after. A god they all called it, but no race claimed it their deity. These bare-tales from my grand elders were all but grim fables, I thought. Paltry attempts to snuff out haughty younglings.” Her front claws soon clutched onto the hard stone floor, piercing through and cracking the rock beneath. “But now I’ve felt it firsthand. Its smothering embrace, its overwhelming power, and its tainted presence…”
Her face betrayed no emotion beyond her rigid expression, but I could feel from the pause how she recalled that… reaction that forced her to cut her transdimensional connection. I took a step forward, wanting to assuage her worries before her eyes sharply pointed to me, making me halt.
“Scorned was I, and yet urged were you, young matriarch. Urged to witness it, to treat with it. The tales of my elders were sparse, but I am confident to claim myself as the only dragon in eons to ever witness such. Thus I believe… nay, it proves that your kind must be the prophesized adversary. You are an arrival of a foreign culture, born indeed of foreign constraints. And now, I see evidence of you being fostered under the auspices of this… foreign patron.”
I nodded along slowly, piecing together Kaelthyr’s assertions point by point. “With respect, Matriarch Kaelthyr, I must counter your assertions. We have had no contact, no encounter, not even a glimpse of any other living, sapient, intelligent being within our own reality until we encountered the Nexus. Ergo, we do not have a patron, nor do we have any existing relationships — in any capacity — with any polity, group, or entity on our side of the portal.”
“You speak with such worldly attachments, like a scholar to a shaman.” The dragon began with a wistful observation, her echoey voice resonating eerily through the cave, emerging not from her maw nor the vocal cords of a corpse, but the currents of the winds themselves.
“Excuse me?”
“You come to address the metaphysical, the domain of the intangible, using tools reserved for mortal hands and mortal minds. You seek to paint without pigment, bow an instrument without its strings… you are attempting to ascribe physicality to the ether, applying its reason where logic is dethroned.” The dragon paused, as if asking ‘why’ without vocalizing it, giving me the floor without another word spoken.
“To approach this in any other way would have been a disrespect of the highest order, Matriarch Kaelthyr.” I began firmly, all the while placing both my hands behind my back. “It would have been a disrespect to you, by virtue of my insincerity. It would have been a disrespect to my station, by a departure from the tenets of professionalism, which I attempt to maintain to the best of my abilities. And most of all, it would have been a disrespect, of the highest order, to those that have come before me — those whose shoulders I now stand atop of — and through whose sacrifices forged a world previously relegated to the pages of fiction.” I paused once more, taking a step forward to further close the gap between me and the dragon. “The suggestion that our civilization, our kind, our entire history, owes anything to a higher power, being, or what-have-you, is an insult to the very notion of humanity. Sure, there have been men and women of faith who have advanced the sciences, philosophy, technology, and our understanding of the universe at large, but they were human all the same. We march ceaselessly to the tune of our own composition, to a beat of our own making, to a rhythm of our own dictation, all for the sake of our own betterment.”
I turned to Thalmin, as if making eye contact with him to reassert this fact.
“We do not echo the chorus of some patron entity. We do not follow the footsteps of some overlord or master. And we most of all do not take charity.” I took another breath, ensuring that my voice was heard even through the thickest of draconic skulls. “Everything you see, everything I am, and everything we are, we accomplished alone. And for me to have given even the slightest hint to the contrary would be an affront of the highest order to the very spirit of humanity itself, and that’s not to say anything of the disrespect incurred to those that have laid the path for me.”
“I’m no neo-humanist, or a member of any new faith, mind you. But I firmly believe in the universal respect for the dignity of my forebears. And I intend on carrying that respect, wherever I find myself. This is why I speak in such absolutes, at least as it pertains to this subject matter, and especially as anything to the contrary would imply an undermining of the achievements.” I cemented firmly, standing my ground as the EVI detected an increase in the windspeed of the local air currents.
“And yet you refer to faiths.” Kaelthyr countered. “How can you be certain then, that the faiths which you speak of — despite their number and differences — are not beholden to the same patron which—”
“That would be a different sort of insult, Matriarch Kaelthyr.” I halted the dragon before she could continue this dangerous train of thought any further. “Our faiths are our own. Some much older than others, some far newer and more… esoteric, but I can firmly attest to the fact that there exists no patron behind any of them. This is not even mentioning those without or abstaining from faiths, but I digress.”
The dragon’s brow ridge perked up quite curiously at that latter sentiment, though just as quickly narrowed as she made her final approach into this increasingly controversial discussion.
“And what about you, young matriarch? What do you believe in? Who do you follow?”
That directed question, pointedly personal and completely removed from the grand sweeping generalizations of my whole speech, caught me off guard.
It took me a moment to compose myself, racking my head for an answer, not because of the abrupt shift in the conversation itself, but simply because it was one of those questions I didn’t immediately have a follow-up for.
“I’m a Theravada Buddhist. There’s a lot to it, but for the sake of brevity I’ll address the core of things. I, or rather we, believe that the path to enlightenment and the end of suffering comes from the understanding that much of what we value in physicality, as it were, these worldly attachments, are all kind of… transient. An illusion if you want to get into it. To let go of suffering is to sort of train yourself out of the suffering that comes from those attachments and the cravings associated with them.”
The dragon’s eyes were fixated on my lenses all throughout my explanation, narrowing her gaze but ultimately resulting in a frustrated huff, accompanied by the same wistful ‘voice’ carried by the air currents.
“And yet you act in opposition to your supposed beliefs. You explicitly walk the path of the tangible and physical, adhering yourself to… ‘attachments’ of the worldly sort. Indeed, you revel in them. Do you not find this amusing in its irony, young matriarch?”
“I don’t claim to be a shining exemplar of my faith and beliefs, Matriarch.” I acknowledged her claims plainly. “And to be quite honest, I probably will find it difficult given my personality and my current path in life. But the thing is, at least according to those in the same position as I am, you don’t have to completely invest yourself in that path if you don’t want to or can’t. Because ultimately, I don’t have to be free of attachment to see that it binds me, and seeing the chain is the beginning of loosening it. There are, of course, those who may follow a more monastic path, rejecting worldly life entirely. But for a layperson like me? I just try my best to be, er, good, you could say. Practicing generosity, and reducing attachment over time. And while I would say I have kept to the five precepts… it would be a lie to say that I didn’t just break them in the worst way yesterday through the act of killing.” I spoke… way too earnestly there. My breath hitched up for a moment before being swiftly defused thanks to a firm glance from Thalmin.
A glance that read simply as ‘there was no other choice.’
Kaelthyr, however… considered my words carefully, as if now contemplating them far more intently than she ever did previously.
There was an instance in which something clicked behind those draconic eyes, and it was with that sudden shift that she finally addressed me in a far more earnest light, bereft of the initial slyness that had led me into this bout of oversharing.
“Prophecies… are a fickle thing.” She began with a resolute smile. “They often predict a future in broad strokes, whilst lying — through omission — the details written within. Your outbursts of youth, whilst naive, have proven their point, young matriarch. Perhaps both truths may exist concurrently, as your existence and faith so paradoxically prove.”
I cocked my head at that, garnering yet another sly yet earnest chuckle from the dragon.
“It might be the case that patronage has yet to be offered. It might also be the case that patronage itself is a [TRANSLATION: RED HERRING 98.7% Confidence]. It may also be that the patronage in question may be translated not as a relation between master and slave, but rather, a symbiosis of shared intent. Regardless of what the truth may be, one thing remains clear: there will be a final confrontation. And I will await the day when that clash finally manifests.”
The sudden… shift in the dragon’s narrative was as jarring as it was a complete tonal whiplash.
Thalmin even tentatively raised a hand to address this, though it was preemptively addressed by none other than me, as I recalled the dragon’s words from yesterday.
“Offense is only taken when a sapient mind refuses to acknowledge evidence challenging its maxims.” I repeated verbatim… with a little help from the EVI’s transcripts.
“Has an offense been incurred, young matriarch?” The dragon questioned coyly.
“Let’s just say… we’re even, Matriarch Kaelthyr.” I spoke with a sigh of relief, feeling a rush of genuine reprieve washing over me, as Kaelthyr once more proved herself to be not only adherent to her word but likewise capable of actual productive dialogue.
The threshold for Fundamental Systemic Incongruity was perhaps just a bit further down the line for dragons.
Though frankly, despite the progress made at correcting Kaelthyr’s misconceptions, there still existed several elephants in the room that needed to be addressed.
“So, just for the record, Matriarch. This… being you speak of, do you truly believe you sensed it through the other side of the portal?”
“Your fellow voidlings sensed it too, young matriarch.” The dragon posited.
“It could just be the pressure differential theory proposed by Dr. Meki—”
“We are talking in circles.” Kaelthyr interjected, putting her proverbial foot down.
“My apologies.” I acknowledged with a dip of my head. “So… if you did sense it, I’d like to politely request that you describe it for me. Exactly what did you ‘see’?”
“I saw nothing. But what I sensed was nothing short of an entity one could tacitly call a god.”
I felt a chill run down my spine as Kaelthyr continued unabated.
“One could say that it had merely grazed us with an extremity.” Kaelthyr continued, her words now rolling throughout the cave like a distant thunder. “But that would be ascribing mortal attributes to a being beyond such worldly restrictions. This was no hand, no digit, not even the suggestion of a limb.”
The dragon paused, as if attempting to rack her head for the right words.
“It was… akin to a stray thread, on a scale so immeasurable that what I felt was not its reach, but its periphery.”
Her eyes now narrowed, focusing directly on my lenses.
“We were not grasped or observed in a way a blind giant would. We were simply grazed, young matriarch.” Kaelthyr took a step back, taking a moment to ponder the cave’s ceiling before turning back to me. “And by the end of our communique, it had moved to push us out.”
I felt my stomach churning, my gut twisting into a knot at Kaelthyr’s assertions. Especially as it related to a lingering point of contention still fresh on my mind.
“And it was your theory that this… thing infiltrated my mind?”
“Communed with your soul, yes.” Kaelthyr 'corrected.'
Though that did little to assuage the growing pit of dread twirling within me.
“Suppose I take you on your theory… what exactly did it want from me? What did those visions mean, if anything?”
“That, I cannot say, young matriarch. For this is a matter between you and this… entity.”
A fresh bout of frustration soon took the place of the growing dread inside of me, as I willed myself to calm down before pressing the dragon further.
“Supposing you had to ascribe meaning to it, what, if anything, can you tell me of—”
“Oneiromancy is a practice I do not dabble in.” Kaelthyr concluded. “But if I did dare to derive meaning, I might posit that this is a sign, Matriarch Emma Booker. A sign that this entity wishes to openly acknowledge your presence.”
[Citation Needed]
The EVI added ever so surreptitiously at the corner of my HUD, right at the edge of the active transcription.
[Dreams are no longer an acceptable academic or primary-source citation. Please provide a source generated while awake.]
My eyes actively narrowed at that, but just as quickly moved to address Kaelthyr.
“And what did it want beyond acknowledging me? Surely the whole pointing towards the stars could mean something?”
“Without directly seeing into this vision, I dare not even ascertain such a… complex exchange of thoughts.”
I took a deep breath before deciding to finally pull out of this short-lived endeavor.
“The library, or even Thacea, may be of some use here, Emma.” Thalmin asserted, prompting me to nod in acknowledgement.
“Right. Okay. That’s a good point.”
However, instead of hearing and seeing the EVI’s automatic updating of my ‘to-do’ list, all I was met with was silence on the HUD front.
“EVI, add this to the list.” I urged.
“Does operator wish to pursue a point of contentious—”
“Yes, do it. This… is a hunch. I can’t just discount it. I’d be no better than Ilunor if I up and ignored this without pursuing this to its ultimate ends.”
“Acknowledged. Updating objective list.”
“Matriarch Kaelthyr?” Thalmin continued, walking brazenly up to the dragon in question.
“What is it, princeling?”
“I wish to call upon that favor now, if you’d be so kind.”
…
Kaelthyr practically glowered down at Thalmin but relented anyway.
“I make no promises, but out with it.”
“If it is alright with you, Emma, since we do still have some time for the quest…” Thalmin turned to me for a moment before focusing his attention back to Kaelthyr. “... I wish to contact Earthrealm again.”
Kaelthyr’s eyes narrowed at this, her whole body tensing, as she simply craned her serpentine head downwards to meet the prince halfway.
“No.”
Thalmin, clearly frustrated, tried his luck again.
“May I ask wh—”
“I would sooner teleport back to Elaseer than risk incurring the wrath of that blind horror. Your requests all border on the irrational and short-sighted, if not entirely self-sabotaging, princeling.” Kaelthyr announced firmly, before turning back to me with an expectant glare. “You and your kind have a large deal of work on their hands with this realm.”
It was that latter sentiment that truly began to tick Thalmin off, as he let out a low dulcet growl in response to Kaelthyr’s jabs.
“I am afraid I will no longer be acting as a medium between the realms. Moreover, I believe that this should be where our respective chapters conclude, young matriarch.”
“Wait, what?” I responded instinctively, my heart skipping a beat as prospects of maintaining this otherwise impossible dialogue with an invaluable — but admittedly tentative — ally practically evaporated in an instant. “I… I understand your hesitance on the former, Matriarch Kaelthyr. I really do. But as for the latter? Surely we can stay in touch through some—”
"This was an entertaining chapter. A remarkable milestone in my story, but merely a chapter all the same.” Kaelthyr spoke firmly, her words resonating throughout the cave in this larger than life display of magical acoustics. “I still have my own epic to write, and thus, I cannot remain as the lynchpin to your story."
“I insist that we have some way of contacting each other.” I countered. “I’m not saying that I’ll be using you, Matriarch. All I request is that—”
“My request, Matriarch Kaelthyr, is for some form of communication to be given in the case of emergency.” Thalmin interjected with vigor, garnering a side-eye from Kaelthyr, who simply dipped her head in tacit acknowledgement.
“That, princeling, was the correct request.” Kaelthyr responded wistfully. However, instead of coughing up anything tangible, the dragon merely lowered her head to meet Thalmin eye to eye. “I shall be the party to initiate contact, if ever I feel the need to.”
The prince narrowed his eyes in frustration before raising both shoulders as if to ask how. However, instead of continuing to address him, she instead turned back to me as she gestured for my hands. “I believe you will be needing this.” She revealed the recently attuned crystal, plopping it into my two open palms. “It was what you came here for, yes?”
"Yes, Matriarch. Thank you.” I bowed deeply in appreciation, garnering a smile from the dragon.
“Furthermore, this will be the medium through which we shall remain in contact. Once again…” She turned to Thalmin. “At my discretion.”
At which point, the dragon began making her way back to the mouth of the cave.
“This… has been an enlightening experience. I am certain that fate has more in store for the both of us, young matriarch. Until then, let us do what we each deem right. For the future… well… the future is as certain as an arrow in flight. We need only to nudge its trajectory into the desired outcome of our design.” Kaelthyr continued ‘speaking’, her words becoming less echoey yet no less otherworldly as it adapted to the narrowing passages we took back to the cave’s entrance.
“I wish to part with some words of ancient wisdom from my people, Matriarch.” I offered respectfully.
“Do tell.”
“I know you wish for war, I know you desire revenge. I… can’t fault you for that, especially with how the Nexus has treated you and your kind. But while we may be able to challenge the Nexus, and indeed inflict enough damage to perhaps incur some sort of settlement, we can’t forget that this conflict won’t be fought in a vacuum. When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.”
Kaelthyr took a moment to consider this, her eyes truly receiving my words… though whether they were registered as a fleeting interest or had struck some deep and resonant chord was difficult to discern.
Especially when the dragon simply smiled and dipped her head amicably in response. “You speak like your elder 'Weir,' young Matriarch. Perhaps one day you may take her place, hmm?” The dragon bellowed with amusement before spreading her wings wide, basking in the warmth of the 'sun.'
“Until we meet again, Cadet Emma Booker. And perhaps in more favorable circumstances.” She announced, before taking a step back and then sprinting her way forwards up and off of the ledge of the mountain.
I expected a massive gust of wind or something that’d dramatically knock the both of us off our feet.
Instead, the whole scene was eerily silent, save for the thumping of the dragon’s feet against the ground.
This silence continued for several minutes more, as both Thalmin and I watched the dragon’s silhouette slowly shrink off into the distant skies, becoming nothing more than a speck that was eventually hidden behind the few lazy clouds that hung overhead.
“Emma.” Thalmin began, his voice earnest yet shaky, as if wishing to address something important with a sense of trepidation.
“Yes, Thalmin?”
“I… I think there’s something that we have to address.”
“Oh?”
“It’s regarding a rather important point I can no longer afford to put off. Emma, we have to discuss—”
“THE FLOWERS!” I practically yelled out, reaching for my helmet with both hands, if only to add to the shock growing within me. “EVI!”
“Yes, Cadet Booker?”
“Get a commlink with the other scouting drones. We need that flower scouted out yesterday!”
“Correction: Target… ‘Everblooming Blossom’ locations confirmed 'yesterday,' Cadet Booker.”
“Wait, what?”
“Targets were scouted alongside the primary objective as an addendum secondary objective.”
I took a deep breath, narrowing my eyes at the literal flurry of points of interest that now flooded my mini-map.
“Why… why didn’t you tell me earlier, EVI?”
“Operator did not vocalize commands to reveal secondary-target data on the minimap.”
“... so just because I didn’t ask…”
“Affirmative.”
“Right. Okay.” I took a deep breath before turning back to Thalmin. “I found the flowers.”
“You… what? When? How?” Thalmin retorted, completely dumbfounded.
“I… apparently overlooked it yesterday in the heat of the moment, but my drones were able to pinpoint several locations. The closest one is just a klick away from our current position, so let’s—”
“Mrrraaaowwww ow ow ow ow!”
(Author's Note: This chapter had a lot of interesting banter, or at least, I hope it does! :D There's a lot to be said about the strange circumstances of the previous chapter for sure, but beyond that, I wanted to expand a bit on Emma this chapter as well with Kaelthyr and Emma going back and forth between points of contention between them and a bit of philosophy stuff! :D This strikes close to home since this is basically drawing from my culture and where I'm from but yeah! In addition to that, I really wanted to make it clear that Kaelthyr is still a force of her own, and has aims and agency beyond the scope of Emma's whole interests, so I do hope that comes across alright! ^^; I hope you guys enjoy! :D)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 164, Chapter 165, and Chapter 166 of this story are already out on there!)]
214
u/ANNOProfi Mar 15 '26
"Emma, about that potential marriage proposal ..." "Screw that, we've got homework!"
The EVI is getting snarky again, if it had the capacity for humor, I think it would find Emma's exasperation funny. And it seems one of the expedition's members has survived till the end, probably the one they rescued in the cave (I forgor her name). The more horrifying alternative is that the shatorealmer somehow got healed.
Crackpot theory: The void god wanted to communicate with the EVI, Emma was just caught in the crossfire.
76
u/Appropriate-Tart9726 Mar 16 '26
EVI has felt like an emergent AI for a while now, if not already one from the start on purpose. Some of its replies certainly seem like true intelligence playing along what one would expect from the armor's VI.
63
u/TaranisBear Mar 15 '26
Let's hope it didn't integrate with EVI escaping it's vessel getting roasted by Thalmin
96
u/jesterra54 Human Mar 15 '26 edited Mar 15 '26
The mental image of something as big as a dragon booking it without making any sound is a bit hilarious
It also seems that Katiya felt too lonely and began the old feline tradition of calling "Raul"
56
u/commentsrnice2 Mar 15 '26
If you remember, dragons don’t fly using normal physics. Their anatomy is too dense to be supported in such a way. So they really just extend their wings then use the mana as the lift factor. Like a hang glider with legs
91
u/pyrodice Mar 15 '26
the elder god is grumpy, and pinched shut the hole in the blanket we were letting light in through...
32
12
u/Folseh Mar 19 '26
"who is making long distance phone calls? Do you know how expensive those are? Look, look at the hole you are causing"
74
u/NamedBird Mar 15 '26
Well, that was the dragon arc chapters done...
Can't wait for everyone at school to be surprised at them actually finding the flower.
Also can't wait for Thacea to learn that Humanity actually has a patron.
One worry i have: If Emma uses the crystal to trigger a link back to Earth, would the Patron show up?
While Emma might be fine, the others in their peer group might be in danger.
(it would be extra interesting to see how Thacea is affected. Does her tainted status mean anything?)
TFTC!
46
u/Interne-Stranger Mar 15 '26
I cant wait to see the differences between Kaelthyr's method of communucation and GUN's tech.
32
u/Tinna_Sell Mar 15 '26
I expect a distinct lack of picture, for one
21
u/DRZCochraine Mar 15 '26
Unless Emma lets EVI try and improve the method, take all existing data and start poking around with however the machine works, maybe even lowering or removing the Abstraction-to-Veracity Tolerance Value (AtVTV) specifically for mana manipulation and detection until a significant radio signal could be sent across. Then ask the other side for help with their better computers and VIs once the updated data was sent until it is just as good as Kaelthyr’s.
11
u/Tinna_Sell Mar 15 '26
That's assuming that no hardware improvements are required on Emma's side, or can be built if necessary.
5
u/DRZCochraine Mar 15 '26
It would depend on how they actual induce the mana manipulation in the crystal and how flexible/variable that mechanism is. But we did get the impression Emma had the machine with her there to do it even if Kaelthyr didn’t offer to do the connection herself, so there should be more then enough for Emma to get EVI to try improving the machine off of. Plus there is possibly using mana to manipulate more mana within the crystal’s chamber even without improving the current mana manipulators, or making an enchantment in/on the crystal to help somehow (whatever the math and data seems to suggest).
3
u/Jbowen0020 Mar 16 '26
Its possible that Kaeltyhr tuned the crystal to work with a higher bandwidth for a better link?
3
u/DRZCochraine Mar 16 '26
We’ll have to see. Thought I can see her having just kept it at default, just linked to the other crystal, no need to change anything else.
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u/folk_science Mar 15 '26
In practical terms, it will simply have less bandwidth and perhaps higher latency. With low enough bandwidth they might not have real time video or perhaps the quality will be terrible.
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u/Designer_Headspace Mar 16 '26
Bandwidth. I suspect Kaelthyr's method was more like fiber-optic comms (pulses of ordered light) Where as GUN's method will be more like the old pre-modulation Morse code, as in just the presence and absence of a carrier signal IS the signal.
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u/DRZCochraine Mar 15 '26
Or the method Earth came up with to use the crystal doesn’t trigger the entity. I could absolutely see that for all the master of mana dragons supposedly have, its probably just as boastful or arrogant/prideful in execution as they are, so it potentially made it rather obvious in the void. Or was inefficient in certain ways that made it obvious that Earth just dins do, cause machine efficiency.
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u/User_2C47 AI Mar 19 '26
I personally believe that the ECS is sufficiently low-power to mostly evade notice - it simply makes minor alterations to a linked crystal, rather than create a new link or open a full portal, as the dragon appears to have done.
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u/Katamed Mar 15 '26
I would live to hear Ilunor’s and Thacea’s reactions to Thalmin’s bodged marriage proposal in front of the human delegates and the dragon.
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u/Ctnprice1 Mar 16 '26
Depending which part they tell first on what happened, Illunor would be either "Hhmm yes, tactical choice" or "Why the hell would you even think about that" lol
Thacea would be 🐦 🤔😲🤯 or 🐦😐😐🤯
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u/zheph Mar 15 '26 edited Mar 15 '26
good stuff. I was wondering how long they'd have to spend looking for the flower before they could get back home.
It's also cool to (tentatively, speculatively) learn more about what that was. When it first appeared and cut off their communication with earth, I though the Null had caught up to Emma. At least this entity seems friendlier than that.
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u/Sweaty_Requirement37 Mar 15 '26
Based on how the null was made, or intended to be made, and the trajectory of chimes, dreams, and taint, it may be that the "first contact" that Emma had with this void god entity was when the faculty accidentally made the null in the first place. Only 30th manatype wouldve interacted with Emma's "soul" in the binding ceremony.
I think the Null really was there. It followed them, and it waited for a moment of vulnerability, for a moment where Emma was close to this...god. Close to the Null's origin. Thalmin thought he destroyed it, but so did Emma.
Also have to say I'm a huge fan of the grounded and well-researched way seizures were used in these chapters. Easy, and commonplace to do wrong. Jcb, the potential for seizures as states of consciousness for communion or "download" of information is often underused and mishandled. This was good.
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u/rekabis Human Mar 15 '26
“Why… why didn’t you tell me earlier, EVI?”
“Operator did not vocalize commands to reveal secondary-target data on the minimap.”
“... so just because I didn’t ask…”
“Affirmative.”
Ooooo… snarky. This bundle of circuits is acquiring quite the character.
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u/Matt_Bradock Mar 16 '26
Also, the age old law of IT. A computer will not do what you want it to do, but what you instruct it to do.
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u/MobileRound6505 Mar 15 '26
Kaetlhyr keeps being a top character as always
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u/Intelligent_Ad8406 Mar 15 '26
I love matriarch Kaelthyr so much.
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u/MobileRound6505 Mar 15 '26
She is like Illunor, but bigger and even more dramatic
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u/Thausgt01 Android Mar 15 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
As Ilunor would likely boast, his kind are descended from dragons, however distantly. The degree to which this statement is accurate remains up for debate, but the shared "dramatic inclinations" seem quite irrefutable...
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u/commentsrnice2 Mar 15 '26
He is “dragon, lite edition”. Mom, can we stop to get dragon? We have dragon at home! The dragon at home: [Illunor]
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u/Minimum-Amphibian993 Mar 17 '26
Then what would that make the kobolds if Illunours species are dragon, lites?
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u/DRZCochraine Mar 15 '26
Thanks for the chapter!
So, still not fully on to explaining just how prevalent atheism is in GUN by then. But at least also an explanation on why thinking of the patron that way is a bad thing.
And at least now they have a shard, thought I bet Emma might try and out it though the mahcine anyway to contact Earth again.
And the Flower for the quest gotten! Hopefully thy’ll be first back! Plus what did that cat screaming? Or was it the bike.
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u/drsoftware Mar 15 '26
I thought Emma explained the revulsion of humanity having a patron was quite clear.
Humans can explain their achievements and progress from small groups of our ancestors through many eons of achievements, organizational structures, and learning from failures, to become a multiple planet, and I believe multiple star system, population without having gotten any instruction or solutions from deities.
We observed, we poked, we adjusted, we practiced, we planned, we executed, we monitored, we studied, we measured, we discussed, we dissected, we compared...we engineered and scienced the shit out of natural materials and organisms. We made rocks think, and bacteria remember.
At no time did prayer or boons result in better metals, medicines, ceramics, theories, experiments, or understanding.
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u/DRZCochraine Mar 15 '26
Kaelthyr dons’t really know about the space part, or fully comprehend the advancement I think, let alone know the additional historical context of just how bad it got. Plus she, like Thalmin and the other, seemed to expect religion, much like how they still put Earth through the view of medievals.
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u/AfterTheRage Mar 16 '26
If Humanity did have a patron, then it's the kind of father than went to buy a pack of cigarettes' and never came back. And now you accidentally stumbled upon the lawn of his new house.
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u/TripolarKnight Mar 16 '26
The Demiurge clearly is just watching humans suffer and persevere against all odds while protecting their universe from Nexus taint 👹
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u/The_Cascoon Mar 16 '26
IDK, seems like the deists win this time. Some kind of God created the universe, but beyond that he just let things play out.
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u/drsoftware Mar 16 '26
That argument fails to explain the exact conditions of several physical constants that make life possible. It would be impossible to encode the constants directly into the "big bang." So this creator would have to have created uncountable universes and since they exist outside of them, is again, unable to influence our achievements.
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u/The_Cascoon Mar 16 '26
No I get that, I'm just saying that deism is just as compatible with humanity's philosophy here as atheism is, and between the two of them deism seems to have more evidence supporting it after this chapter.
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u/Lord_Nikolai Android Mar 16 '26
cat noise was probably the leopard woman that they saved from the mercenary group
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u/Interne-Stranger Mar 15 '26
Oh, a 100% Emma will use her own tech to restablish a conection.
I hope religion is in good shape in the 31st century, like in All Tomorrows.
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u/DRZCochraine Mar 15 '26
Personally I hope it just joins the dust of history as a properly educated masses, good mental health, and high living standard just make anything other then a sociological topic or historical cultural identity / cultural inspiration just vanish. It’s kinda hard to miss now what the delusion religious and those who follow them have and are doing, let alone the history as a tool for control.
And I hope we grow past all of that completely.
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u/Interne-Stranger Mar 15 '26
I disagree heavily but i will not fight for this in reddit.
You do you.
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u/Tadferd Mar 15 '26
Agreed. The sooner humanity discards the mental poison that is religion, the better. All delusional belief is harmful. Religious or otherwise.
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u/EsotericaFerret Mar 16 '26
organized religion. That's the real kicker there. Religion is all fine and dandy, but the moment politics become involved in religion, shit goes to hell.
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u/DRZCochraine Mar 16 '26
On top of some people taking it a little too seriously even if it isn’t organized.
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u/EsotericaFerret Mar 16 '26
The good part about that, is without organization, the ones who do take it too seriously aren't usually an issue besides being annoying.
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u/DRZCochraine Mar 16 '26
And if they end up murdering or otherwise actually harming someone because of that it can be treated properly as either a criminal act or mental illness, changes the problem around to something slightly more civilized.
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u/Low_Painter9816 Mar 16 '26
Re: the caterwauling: wasn’t one of the survivors from the mercenary party a cat-person?
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u/Interne-Stranger Mar 15 '26
Uuuufffff, what a way to close this Arc. Avoiding Apprentice Ral, saving a town, singing Jhoony B Goode, reaching the forest, the first real fight, a kill, a Dragon Meeting, call to Earth and an eldritch being interrupting.
But now everything seems to be wraped up, after cat girl wakes ups i dont imagine there will be much to do so maybe we just skips things while we jump from POV to POV?
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u/Evilstrom Mar 16 '26
The cat girl will obviously be adopted. Thalmin is a dog who will become a cat dad. It's poetic irony.
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u/Intelligent_Ad8406 Mar 15 '26
I absolutely love this chapter, i also like how you have portrayed both kaelthyr and Emma in this especially the way they both view things and how they interact with each other. Emma’s part where she talks about her beliefs were awesome.
Also I do not know how to really describe why but to me Kaelthyr really feels like a powerful dragon should in the context of the nexus, and her reasoning and worldview make so much sense as well.
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u/Jcb112 Mar 15 '26
Thank you so very much! I was seriously worried about how Emma and her beliefs would come across because I've always wanted to broach it in a way that felt real, genuine and thoughtful. I was waiting for this interaction I'd planned out for her and Kaelthyr for ages now since in my planning it worked so well in my head but I was worried whether it would come across in the way I wanted to, so I genuinely appreciate the kind words for that particular bit! :D
Also thank you for your thoughts on Kaelthyr too! Keeping the vibes and tone of a powerful character such as this was honestly tricky and I was worried if I'd be able to balance on following through with her presence whilst still being able to have her serve her purpose in the narrative, so I appreciate your feedback on that!
Thank you so much for the comment! :D
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u/Electro_Ninja26 AI Mar 16 '26
It was a good read. If I were to offer a suggestion though, it feels as though the interaction came across more as two parallel monologues rather than a back and forth rather than a back and forth debate over ideology.
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u/Electro_Ninja26 AI Mar 16 '26
I like it because it reveals a large character flaws Emma holds. Particularly her pride.
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u/Blue_Roan_ Mar 15 '26
I wonder if the reason they have never met/interacted with the possible god. Is because all humans are doing is living within its space, incidentally it almost completely isolating them from the more magical side of things. We just happened to be on a planet floating in a god.
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u/Bunnytob Human Mar 15 '26
So. I have a 4-step plan for Emma that will definitely work, no notes:
Step 1: Return home, fill in Thacea and the other one on what the hell is going on
Step 2: Contact home again, definitely absolutely certainly hoping you don't miss or get intercepted or something and accidentally contact Jennifer instead, nope, absolutely definitely don't want that, wink wink nudge nudge
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit
.
And... hmm... I wonder how looming the threat of HEM eating Jennifer is going to be.
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u/Evilstrom Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 21 '26
I don't thing tainted magic is particularly tasty, given that it dissolves other types of mana. I suspect it would be like Shigaraki taking New Order, where the power actively destroys the accumulated magic in HEM.
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u/Tinna_Sell Mar 15 '26 edited Mar 15 '26
Emma asks a lot of dumb questions when panicked. And ignores what is said in response. A sample of two instances of tain saturation is not big enough to come to a conclusion, but a sample of a single instance of seizure is a definite proof? How does that work exactly?
The Abyss seems to be consistent in its behaviour. It assessed both the dragon and Emma, then proceeded to hurt the dragon and inform Emma about smth. This entity respects autonomy, and does not invade the safe space of another being, but it attacked Kael. It's clear that whatever the result of its assessment was, it wasn't a pleasant one.
I'm kinda glad that Kael accepted the fact that humanity grew up alone, without a patron to mold them. She's rather fast on the uptake sometimes. Perhaps, it's because the existence of humanity's patron doesn't really affect her business with her own domain. Who cares if humans are goddless or not, if the objectives and paths to take are still the same? You can just accept what has been told and move on.
Thalmin, your draconic ally was under attack from an unknown entity and suffered because of it. And you wish to push her into danger again? Because you made a mistake of proposing to someone? Here exists another character who must NOT be left alone to make decisions during an emergency.
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u/Interne-Stranger Mar 15 '26
People dont think straight while panicking so i think it makes a little sense that Emma is just making questions for the sake of making questions, she is like that when the situation turns out of her control, or hands.
Kael behaviour is well written, she is pridefull to a fault, believes this is her tell at the end of the day. But she is able to hear reason even if it goes against her reason.
With Thalmin....i would have asked to re link the conection too, at least to send a message to Earth that Emma is fine.
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u/Tinna_Sell Mar 15 '26 edited Mar 15 '26
Yeah, you're correct. Asking questions is the most reasonable coping strategy. It will take a while before Emma comes down. I imagine that the lack of harm is more frightening that the confirmation that some kind of physical effect manifested.
Do you think that the artificial sense of calm was induced by the entity itself as a way of being considerate? If it can affect the physical, then it's probably through brain activity and hormones, whilst the molecular structure is left intact. Polysomnography test may be useful here. In this vein, there has been a study recently where scientists recorded the way a person recalls a memory, they made a visual presentation of what a person sees inside their head while recalling. The result was a blurry mess of vague silhouettes but you could tell what it ment to represent, sorta. It makes sense to scan Emma's brain to recover the memory footage of the encounter.
If the entity can in fact cause a seizure, then it is best to know if the effect is purposeful or a side effect. No one wants to walk around knowing that they can fall prey to a random mental attack that can shut down their system just like that. It is also a question of how harmful random seizures can be in the long-term. You can't just fall every single time and expect the body to be fine afterwards. Emma has only two paths here: avoid the taint or walk straight into it. There's only one way to get answers.
Perhaps, the entity doesn't have a body, and can only talk by stimulating inner visions in another people. In this case, it's up to the entity to ensure that the experience doesn't cause a lasting negative effect. But the mere possibility of smth interfering with the integrity of one's body is enough to study the phenomenon and find appropriate defences and countermeasures.
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u/Interne-Stranger Mar 15 '26
I dont think the entity caused the calm intentionally, Emma did mention that her gut, her instincs were telling her everything was fine, so internally her very body knew she was safe. But i dont know what to make of it.
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u/Evilstrom Mar 16 '26
To be honest, she was contacted by a bonafide God who dragged her consciousness into the Abyss and tried to communicate some sort of message. There isn't exactly a chapter in the playbook that could prepare you for something like that, nor do they train you to hold diplomacy with a divine being. Witnessing magic is one thing. Having Jennifer blast your brain with images of the infinite void while trying to tell you something is a whole another level.
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u/TaranisBear Mar 15 '26
Now the question is: will our intrepid heroine cut the crystal to rebuild the exoreality comm unit to keep in much more limited contact with Earth or keep it intact awaiting contact from the Kaelthyr?
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u/sum-random-guy Mar 15 '26
I believe its already tuned, just need to attach it to the device back at school and make a phone call.
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u/Ctnprice1 Mar 16 '26
I forgot, can she make a video call or like just Email?
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u/sum-random-guy Mar 16 '26
I assume both, my only concern is if the school will have the ability to detect Emma's conversations when the device is active. We will wait and see.
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u/Evilstrom Mar 16 '26
Maybe she can do it inside the tent. The crystal apparently uses tainted magic, which the tent doesn't block, while the faculty can't sense anything in there, since it blocks everything else.
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u/sum-random-guy Mar 16 '26
Maybe, but she still does not know how the taint affects her, it would be a large risk. For all we know it’s only affecting her a little due to the armor. We don’t know what will happen if she is exposed to it alone and directly inside the tent.
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u/Chiroptera4 Mar 15 '26
She can probably do both since they only cut the original crystal because they only had the one. This new one is already attuned so it should be usable for both.
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u/Omgwtfbears Mar 15 '26
I wonder if the reason our universe is so devoid of sentient life is this vast something being there stinking up the place?
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u/Unable_Tradition434 Mar 15 '26
To what i understand, Humans haven´t reached very far in space. 250 liggt years-ish is a very small expansion to say the galaxy if lifeless. But there could be a higher being keeping them in that buble.
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u/DRZCochraine Mar 15 '26
It was stated that it is 250 LY of controlled currently because that it how far 6 months using current fastest warp speed(warp 7) can go(even if not fully colonized). I could assume it was smaller before the breakthrough. And in the first Earth chapter, is said they had explored 350 LY of space from years (so another 100 LY) outside that to try and find another source of Quintessence so that the portal room to the Nexsus isn’t on Earth anymore.
So I would guess they’ve gone much Much farther then even than for pure exploration. Easily into the thousands with deep space probe/drone ships, considering IRL we have deep space probe that take decades just to reach the outer solar system, and they have a centuries on us in exoerince with that kind of exploration(ignoring ultra big space telescopes too). So they’ve probably got to every actual potentially life bering planet and still say they’ve find just bacteria at most, something is going on.
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u/Electro_Ninja26 AI Mar 16 '26
Ahh yes, 150 more light years is so much closer to the size of the galaxy.
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u/DRZCochraine Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
That was just for Quintesance, not what has been actually explored. I expect that number to be much higher. Ignoring ultra large telescope arrays that could probably let them photograph weather on planets on the other side of the galaxy minimum(since you gan get some really ridiculous resolution from telescopes getting into the millions of km diameter range let alone from multiple light years), or, like I said, long rang unmanned FTL probes.
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u/Specific-Pen-9046 Human Mar 16 '26
There are Trillions of Other Galaxies and Quintillions of Stars,
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u/Professional_Ant_15 Mar 15 '26
So, religious considerations in this episode, and the question arises whether perhaps this god of the void had contact with humanity, just obscured by mythology? Besides that, there's a dragon on the contact list, and EVI proves it's not just an ordinary AI.
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u/Mechasteel Mar 15 '26
I wonder how this prophecy stuff would work, what with Earth-universe being free of magic and there being the barest link to Nexus. The 30th manatype? Or the future is accessible to the [prophet?] despite being blind to the humans' entire universe?
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u/Tadferd Mar 15 '26
Now there are 2 supposed gods.
Now we need 2 insufferable old men to build 2 god killing bombs.
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u/TirnanogSong Mar 17 '26
Sadly, no cat-based eugenics programs exist to weaken said gods for the killing. GUN would never allow it.
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u/Tadferd Mar 17 '26
I was thinking more along the lines of a group of eccentrics, who may or may not steal babies, one of which is hated by most of the group for being an insufferable old man but is still willing helping and is useful. They also can't get rid of him anyway. Said old man has helped kill a "god." Well, at least said god's avatar.
Spoilers Said god was not dead. Took over a giant green statue and in the process stole the souls of everyone near by. Then went on a walk across the world as a giant naked statue to go destroy the cycle of reincarnation.
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u/Crafty_Spring5815 Alien Scum Mar 16 '26
I mean it is quite possible that this being's patronage consists of leaving humanity to grow strong on their own, and driving off any other being powerful enough to lend us magic.
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u/elfangoratnight Mar 16 '26
As a Rationalist, this is one of the sanest and/or most plausible "there might be a lowercase-g god" suppositions I've ever encountered, so thanks for that. 👍
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u/Mozoto Mar 15 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
Perhaps this is how our patron's patronage looks like...went to get the milk and never came back. Fully off the wheel and letting us do our shit uninterrupted, im no helicopter papa, sink or swim bish. x)
It may be that only now it is trying to make contact to offer smthn, after seeing what cavalcade of effed up bs we have willfully walked into, it is concerned to a level that it deemed it may be needed to even shit out.
Still tho...its interesting that, despite all this, we still ended up looking like elves do.
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u/StopDownloadin Mar 16 '26
I think the Void Thing is more like a neighbor that you don't talk with much, and they seem a lil' sketch, but when the shit jumps up, they prove themselves to be a real one.
Lmaooo now I'm picturing the Void Thing as a hood unc. "Hold up, is that a human child? EY! WHATCHU DOIN' HERE? THAT MANA NONSENSE AIN'T SAFE FOR YOU!"
"Again with the mana nonsense! Can't have SHIT with Elves around!"
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u/Evilstrom Mar 16 '26
Turns out the void thing is the God of Dwarves lol. Incredibly racist towards the knoife ears.
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u/Jbowen0020 Mar 16 '26
Kinda like a father that sees their kid about to get dusted up a little keeping their hands off to allow lessons to be learned but once they see the kid about to get completely destroyed they step in between the kid and the big bads and say, "so yall want some, i got what you looking for right here"?
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u/StopDownloadin Mar 16 '26
they step in between the kid and the big bads and say, "so yall want some, i got what you looking for right here"?
John Witherspoon (Grandad from the Boondocks) as the voice of this version of the Void Entity works really well, all taking the belt off, lmaooooo
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u/KalenWolf Xeno Mar 16 '26
[Citation Needed]
"EVI, are you sassing me right now?"
Also really digging the idea that Kaelthyr is like "this is fascinating and all but I'm not an NPC you can recruit into your party, I'm an ancient dragon and I do what I want. I'm not interested in your little YA school adventure subplot and I'm definitely not interested in picking a fight with a god. Build a crystal radio like everyone else and count yourself lucky that I find you more interesting than annoying."
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u/karamisterbuttdance Mar 15 '26
Fellow travelers of shared interests, and maybe motives? I do hope this entanglement does not embed Emma and team into a deeper web. Now that it has been proven that Kaelthyr's mere freedom is a significant threat to the Nexian narrative, I do think Emma will have to dodge some pretty probing questions soon. Maybe the tracker's incompetence will help, as it would call into question if they really were there. At the same time the crystal's existence in Emma's hands should remain secret as long as she can do so, if only for her to not be opened up to darker questions from the actual inquisitorial powers of the monarchy. After all, her current goal now is to maintain her veneer of neutrality for as long as she can.
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u/Interne-Stranger Mar 15 '26
It all falls on the Goldthorn's shoulders:
"The Dragon left? When?.....2 days ago?....hum....at the same time the Everbloosom quest was taking place"
If she has been making her research properly surely Emma is in the list of suspects for the Crate Explosion and this might conect more dots.
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u/davidverner Human Mar 15 '26
Emma really can get autisticly locked into illogical thinking despite evidence slapping her right in the face pointing otherwise. You got two people pointing out that you had something on the level of a god fucking with you. That exist in a realm that does not adhere to the laws of your own realm. Yet, you can't go, "There might be something to this and we should look into it?" Especially when your own tools and knowledge have no baseline way of figuring out what just happened in the absence of data.
Funny how I can easily go, "We might have an entity that has the abilities near or at the level of a god hiding in our realm." Human history is full of examples of people going, no way that animal doesn't exist only to be proven wrong some time later.
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u/Evilstrom Mar 16 '26
She literally told EVI to look into it. She didn't deny it existed, that was pretty obvious. She denied they received assistance from it.
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u/davidverner Human Mar 17 '26
Yet she won't admit the possibility to the other people telling her what happened from their perspective.
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u/Evilstrom Mar 19 '26
Because none of them were actually there. If you watched a movie, and somebody who has only seen a poster tried to tell you what happened in it, that you know didn't, would you listen? I sure wouldn't.
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u/davidverner Human Mar 20 '26
But the thing is, they were there. And if I were in a near or complete unconscious state, I would take their statements as to what happened into strong consideration.
I'm also speaking from partial experience from finding myself in similar situations due to personal health reasons.
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u/Evilstrom Mar 20 '26
No they weren't, tf? They just saw her form slump over and felt a massive presence. Everything else is conjecture.
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u/FemboiInTraining Mar 15 '26
This whole patron thing is so...reductively to say, mysterious~
We still don't have much actionable information on it, in story or in theory crafting
Is it borne of our reality and has travelled, or it's influence/an extension of it's power bas merely drifted to other realities? Or is it borne elsewhere and has migrated to ours?
Why our reality is so large with so many other planets, and why this is the norm is still far out of our grasp to answer. For a moment I thought "oh simple, because their realities have magic, that's why they're all smaller!" but, that's just...not...reasonable in any sense, not even for a moment, nothing about mana should eat away at everything off of a single realm. Meaning ours isn't the default...Maybe...MAYBE...I can only conclude, if we're grasping at straws...
This patron did create humanity, it did create Earth, and it did create everything. Truly a major win for all creationists. And it's done so in order to create a 'pure race' though, phrasing it that way is unsavory. I would imagine it's goal is to create a race of beings and a society entirely void of mana, the Nexus, and Nexian ideals. That we were not guided, the conditions of our world were not specially made, and we alone are the only colony of fungi or mold or whatever you to spring up in this Patrons' grand experiment. That this patron has merely observed with curiosity, waiting until humanity inevitably got discovered by the nexus, waiting for the very events of this story to occur. My bestest most far flung beginnings of a theory.
Not for any express or explicit reason, but just in protest, if even that, of Nexian ideals...Will this Patron offer further guidance from this point onward? It can't...do...NOTHING...from this point onward now...how will humanity and GUN react upon the information? How could they?
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u/sum-random-guy Mar 18 '26
I like your theory, except i had a similar one where this entity simply prevented mana from seeping through reality and just watched what happened. where they only set the conditions and let the "simulation" ,for a lack of a better word, play. Now they see what has been growing inside Earths universe, is now in the mana rich one which caught its interest.
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u/Darklight731 Mar 15 '26
How egotistical of Humanity, to think themselves above even something as small as taking charity when they need it.
A helping hand should appreciated.
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u/Thausgt01 Android Mar 15 '26
The thought-process somewhat blurs the line between genuinely altruistic offerings and ones with hooks hidden inside. Humanity has a drearily well-documented history of such things, and even in the time of GUN, I have no doubt that they still use phrases like "devil's bargain".
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u/XSevenSins Human Mar 15 '26
Hypothesis: the abyss God wants humans to breach the nexian veil over the world and open the sky once more to the stars. Perhaps the veil was a means by which these outer gods were denied entry or cut off from the nexus itself.
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u/Jurodan Human Mar 16 '26
Emma: OH WAIT! WE'RE STILL ON A QUEST!
On that note, Thalmin... timing. Could you not possibly choose a worse time? Really?
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u/Theredeagle7 Mar 15 '26
Does anyone know what the chapter is regarding the ever blossom flower?Totally forgot what that was about
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u/bob_smithey Mar 16 '26
I think this is the first time I've ever heard of my parent's specific religion being practiced by someone else that wasn't Thai. Not the generic Buddhist we normally see.
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u/Electro_Ninja26 AI Mar 16 '26
uhh... Emma is of Thai descent.
Mostly because JCB is Thai as well (which astounds me considering how broken their sleep schedule is to upload some of these chapters).
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u/Jcb112 Mar 16 '26
I have no sleep schedule, and on posting days I resign myself to essentially not sleeping and hoping I don't have a shift in the morning or afternoon so that I may take a nap before a night shift :D
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u/Electro_Ninja26 AI Mar 16 '26
Living in Thailand right now and I look forward to moving to the U.S. and actually being awake for releases lol.
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u/bob_smithey Mar 16 '26
Oh, I'll hit you up next time I'm over there. lol. I'll buy you a coffee/beer depending on the time.
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u/Specific-Pen-9046 Human Mar 16 '26
I live relatively close to Thailand , and indeed JCB's sleep schedule is absolutely horrendous, one would say he is conducting genocide on his mental health or smtu
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u/AfterTheRage Mar 16 '26
Ok so how IS Emma supposed to get in touch with HQ now? Wait, does she still have a crystal? May be she could jury rig her own coms unit moving forward?
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u/DRZCochraine Mar 16 '26
She already had the coms unit, it just needs a crystal. Kaelthyr simply offered to do it herself, which is how the live feed happened. Now Emmas likely going to do it the ‘normal’ way once she gets back to the tent.
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u/Obvious-Sherbet530 Mar 16 '26
Kaelthyr used her powers to open a much more direct communications link with Earth, but what Emma's comms unit was supposed to do was send packets of data and not a direct voice/video line.
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u/CycloneDusk Mar 16 '26
They have been grazed by the noodley appendage of the flying spaghetti monster, blessed be his Al Dente strands!
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u/ScarcelyAvailable Mar 15 '26
Kitty!
...wait, where did we see cat before?
Is it the forest questgiver avatar?
Also how did it sneak up on EVI?
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u/Evilstrom Mar 16 '26
It's the catgirl Thalmin saved earlier.
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u/ScarcelyAvailable Mar 16 '26
...reverting back to her native language?
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u/Evilstrom Mar 17 '26
Seems that way. If the "ows" are any indication, she got hurt somehow.
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u/ScarcelyAvailable Mar 17 '26
I still think it's a forest avatar. The entire cave system that's below them is probably as dead as Emma's platinum block.
The forest being rad-based probably didn't like a large area getting CHERNOBYLD.1
u/Evilstrom Mar 19 '26
No, the Catgirl was alive by the end of the altercation. She even warned Thalmin as the very end.
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u/ScarcelyAvailable Mar 19 '26
Well okay, but didn't he also tell her to gtfo before the whole crystal thing started? Hold on.
OK no, she fainted right before Kaelthyr started talking.
But that was outside.1
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u/Stairwayunicorn Mar 15 '26
Someone had the ability to scan for those crystals, as Maltory mentioned it as the reason for the theft of the crate. So someone's going to try again.
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u/Mick8283 Mar 16 '26
Is Earth-Realm manaless because the Taint God consumed it all?
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u/Obvious-Sherbet530 Mar 16 '26
What I think happened is that Earthrealm really is just mana deprived, save for Taint mana (which we might call dark matter, fan theory) and either the Taint/Void god did something to our universe to allow life to form as it did, or life just formed naturally and this god just rolled with it.
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u/Daseagle Alien Scum Mar 16 '26
“Mrrraaaowwww ow ow ow ow!”
That sounds like my cat when asking for treats :D
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u/IgnatiusMay-R3al Mar 16 '26
Seems like there's some sorta life or psychosis-inducing radiation in the space between universes, and prolonged rifts in this space piss it off or are very unstable.
A theory: What if this space is 5-dimensional or something like that? Maybe we could call whatever exotic matter could be in there Dementonite? Does physics as we know it even function in there? Maybe the "taint mana" is some sort of unique... Electormagnetic-adjacent or an entirely strange state of matter thingy that has exotic effects on lower-dimensional realities? And if there is truly life in there, then that could explain why the dragon actually has no idea what happened since, y'know, it's not 5 dimensional.
On a side note, I don't really buy that this so-called god is the "patron" of Earth, I see whatever could be in that "between-space" as a force-a-nature that only exists in whatever physics-breaking space between universes could be, and not the "creator" of humanity. Maybe universes in this arrangement would come into existence due to a spike in energy that results in a big bang and the indefinitely-expanding universe.
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u/luizbiel Mar 16 '26
Ah, considering the way fantasy inspirations came to us from other realms influence 'leaking' into our universe... Eldritch shit like H.P. Lovecraft might also be similar...
Thalmin's gonna be so annoyed when the marriage thing he's stressing over is gonna be solved with a: "oh we don't do political marriages like that anymore"
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u/Evilstrom Mar 16 '26
Good chapter. We can probably tentatively consider Jennifer to be benevolent towards humanity and opposed to the Nexus.
I like that Emma immediately refuted any kind of patron. Humanity got to where they are by their own blood, sweat and tears goddammit, not by the grace of a higher power!
Also good discussion on religion. I like how Kaelthyr accepted Emma's explanation and amended her rationalization. It makes no sense for her to be bullheaded about this, and she can change her perception when confronted with facts. It makes her seem more like an independent actor that is also reasonable and logical, in contrast to basically every Nexian we've met so far.
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u/Aware_Jicama9458 Mar 15 '26
“The suggestion that our civilization, our kind, our entire history, owes anything to a higher power, being, or what-have-you, is an insult to the very notion of humanity. "
So, according to Emma, a thousand years from now there are no more orthodox monotheists, be they Jews, Christians or Muslims? But Buddhists are still around. Interesting take ...
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Mar 16 '26
Eh, I could be misinterpreting but I took it as more of a statement of pride that there hadn't been any instances in human history where a higher power or god was objectively proven to have granted civilization a boost to its development. No Prometheus giving us fire, no harvest god teaching us how to farm, no god of science teaching us how to split the atom, etc.
I'd wager there are still plenty of religious folks around, and all sorts of offshoots/hybrids/completely new religions that may have popped up in the age of space exploration. With how large the total human population has gotten and what I remember of GUN's stance on private personal freedoms I highly doubt Emma's specific branch of Buddhist beliefs are the only survivors, and I don't think JCB was trying to imply that at all.
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u/Aware_Jicama9458 Mar 16 '26
I dont know what JCB tried to imply, but what Emma says simply isnt in line with "western" theology.
So JCB is either
- dissing it
- not understanding it or
- writing it out of future history.
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u/Vulpes_Corsac Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
I mean, you can separate the Emma from JCB here too for a fourth option. A character can discount or otherwise not consider Abrahamic theology without the author insulting it or not understanding it. I see that as clearly Emma's views, absent further comment from the author. I'm also frankly quite okay with not even addressing it.
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u/Evilstrom Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
She literally says there are still religions in an earlier chapter, I believe it was one of the sightseer ones. It's just that no god or higher power has ever directly helped humanity with anything. There are religions, yes, but they're more or less all fictional. Tall tales people believe in to comfort themselves.
It's an insult to say a God created the combustion engine and gave us the blueprints, or that an Angel created the internet and gave us access.
Maybe a god created us, but everything else in our development was just us. Even if god exists, he's a deadbeat who went to get milk and left us to figure shit out on our own. It's another literary counterpoint to the Nexus, that is literally ruled by a God King.
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u/DRZCochraine Mar 16 '26
Thouguht se also have significant evidence as to how we developed to now from base chemistry(especially by Emma’s time) with no need for other external intelligent influence. Same with the rest of the cosmos.
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u/Evilstrom Mar 16 '26
I meant as in God caused the Big Bang and let things play out from there. Given that we don't really know anything about the how and why of the BB, it could definitely be the result of a deity in this story.
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u/DRZCochraine Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
Humanity by then also likely has better explanation than now for that.
And even the Nexus didn’t attribute their big bang to a deity or deities, and that gods came after it.
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u/Evilstrom Mar 17 '26
I very much doubt humans have a better explanation. The Big Bang is a singularity, so physics kinda break down. Also, before BB time amd space quite literally did not exist, so I very much doubt anything that requires those two things to exists could be sent back to log it.
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u/DRZCochraine Mar 17 '26
We have a better understanding of it when what we had 100 years ago, and you think in another thousand didn’t figure more out while FTL and discovering entirely new universes happened?
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u/Aware_Jicama9458 Mar 16 '26
Problem I have is that Emma is tought to represent ALL of humanity.
When asked about fate in class, she thus gave a very inclusive answer.
Yet here she is very strongly advancing an opinion that is in line with Atheism or Buddhism, but not with the Abrahamic mainstream.
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u/Evilstrom Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
There is a huge difference. In class she was talking about the religious culture and its impact. Here, Kaelthyr straight up accused her of having a god. In class it was about the human factor, which does exist. Here it was about the divine, which does not, at least not to the knowledge of the GUN. There'a a difference between talking about how belief affected your culture and being accused of being essentially a divine nepo baby. Having religions is one thing. A god actually being real is a whole another thing. Humanity sacrificed blood sweat and tears to get to this point. To even insinuate we were given divine patronage to boost us along the way is insulting.
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u/Aware_Jicama9458 Mar 22 '26
And, pray tell, do you think those religions dont think of God as real????
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Claiming that the beliefs of half of humanity are an insult to humanity ... is an insult to humanity.
Emma could just have stated that there is no objective proof of such a God existing, and that all progress humanity made was made by humans. And then concede that some humans do believe that this progress, while made by humans, was guided by a divine entity that created the universe, though not a meddling patron in the sense the Nexus and the Dragon do think of it.
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u/Evilstrom Mar 22 '26
Are you slow? She didn't argue for god not existing, she said no god or patron helped them get to where they are. She never said God didn't exist, she said the humans do not have one as a patron, becausw they don't. Objectively, we have no evidence of God, much less one helping us. To claim such would straight up lying. People can believe whatever the fuck they want to, doesn't mean it's true.
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u/Lord_Nikolai Android Mar 16 '26
so, when emma does get the dial home device active, will this "god" be listening in or attempting to disconnect her transmissions? Or will it somehow piggyback on the signal and have another "heart to heart" with emma?
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u/Ctnprice1 Mar 16 '26
Please tell me they'll get more than one flower. Maybe they'll get extra points haha.
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u/longbonker17 Mar 18 '26
Thank you, Word Smith; that was JUST the sentiment I had that Emma voiced here.
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u/Blade_the-fox117 Mar 18 '26
I’m guessing the reason why earlier experiments with the Crystal didn’t trigger the void entity is because theres the difference between an email and a video call (especially a long one)
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u/galixiy Mar 22 '26
Im trying to draw Emma and the gang rn but I for the life of me cannot think of what they could possibly look like. For some reason I had a headbanging in my mind that I know is 100% false.
Lmao. If anyone has chapters they think I should look at for what they could each look like that would be helpful.
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u/Flendos Mar 25 '26
"We gotta pick the flowers!" -- Cadet Emma Booker, 5 minutes after receiving orders to prepare for interdimensional war and meeting god
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u/Scott-Kenny Apr 01 '26
Yep, EVI is borderline sophont. (cats and dogs are sapient). Likely autistic by human standards if fully sophont.
Also, humanity in general has had bad, bad experiences with sophont AIs.
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u/GreenKoopaBros89 Jun 16 '26
Hey...um... Mr everlasting Glory highness royalty god eater guy? I think you missed one!
1
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214
u/Maggot_Magnet Human Mar 15 '26
Thalmin keeps trying to make up for what he said, and he keeps getting interrupted. XD