Chapter 19-3 Weapons of Ontology (II)

Chapter 19-3 Weapons of Ontology (II)

Regulars are an easy problem to solve so long as you have a nuke or a couple of nasty miracles on hand. But if you gotta handle them through conventional means, well

I got two suggestions for you there: dont; get more people.

Honest fact of the thing is that the Regs aint like you or me. They dont think like us. They dont feel like us. They don't hurt or even break like us. Theyre beyond discipline. Beyond morale. Concepts and feelings become yes-no binaries to them when they get their orders, and the amount of time they spend deliberating or responding is closer to zero than any other number.

Sure. Ive killed plenty. Gotten the drop on some. Got into knock-down-drag-out-brawls with others. Experience and creativity kept me alive. And I still ended up crawling away more dead than alive most times. Hells, sometimes not even that.

Get a phylactery if you can, consangs. Youll need it.

When you get the chance, you should run a Reg vicarity first then change over to your standard gutter squire. Feel the difference. See the way they act. The former doesnt really make material errors. Theyre efficient. No hesitation. No missteps or incompetence. They dont suffer from sheathe dysmorphia or non-inflicted psychosis, so if you want to drop them, hardware damage is the way to goand you will need to kill every last one to consider the run done because they dont break, and they sure as shit dont run.

If a Reg youre shooting at is missing and you cant find them? Theyre hunting you, and you need to move. And trying to grind them down using a Necro is a dicey affair considering their wards and how liberal they are at disrupting zones they cant control.

Remember, these half-strands cut their teeth on Glaives and Incubi. This is esteemed company youre running in, so you better perform.

Okay. If youre still with me so far, you might be saying Tavers, you old bitch, you just spent the last minute tonguing Highflames asshole! When am I going to get some practical advice on snuffing them.

Alright. Heres a crash course.

You fight based on your objectives. Jobs done? Retreat. Get out. The attrition isnt worth it. Not done? Well, its time for some on-site condition shaping. You want to push this away from urban combat or close quarters if you can, and grind them down on a tactical level. Control the environment. Employ explosives. Lots of them. Constant. Flood the zone with drones if you have them so someone else can get shot. And never fire first. Fire only when youre certain of a kill, because when you kill a Reg, the others will know, and theyll be lining shots back to you through their Phys-Sims without a single shit given to their dead comrade.

Again. Theyre not like you and me. Theyre more like weapons than people. Instruments, if youll let me be a smartass. Not really that different from the ghouls if you want to look at things that way.

-Quail Tavers, School of the Warrens.

19-3

Weapons of Ontology (II)

Draus didnt burn like all the others. Where most other egos were concrete entities wrapped by wards and layered with surface thoughts, the Regular was aberrant in its fluid ability to self-direct while accepting external pressures.

All minds are molded by feedback. Indeed, it isin the clash between nature against the state of ones nurture where the sculpture of personality is carved into shape. During years of growth and formation arises a fusion between experience and genetic design.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøv€l-B1n.

Not quite so for Draus. If the other templates were perfect spheres, then she was a fracture. A crevice. Something that interfaced with the broader existence by letting it pass through her instead of internalizing the world outside within the depths of her mindscape.

Where even formidable minds like Abrel had limits to what torments they could endure before cracking, Draus was practically an elemental embodiment of will and action Her template moved among the others templates almost as if in a vacuum. Her memories were slippery even to Avos fire, and softer emotions like empathy or sorrow could only brush her person; oil passing upon water.

{I dont think Ive ever seen a psychometric reconstruction of a mind like hers} Calvino said, sounding almost disturbed.

Avo, for his part, was consumed by fascination as he examined and slotted Draus just beside his base mind. So close, he wondered how her consciousness hadnt collapsed on itself with all the parts it was missing. Little wonder even the Incubi strained to null a Regular. What was there to strike? With so many gulfs across her personhood, certain traumas might slip through her openings without striking anything foundational. The heartbreak of leaving a lover, the death of a parent, the genuine joy of having a comrade Things known but not truly felt.

Even now, the chief sensations Draus felt when interacting with the cadre were excitement, determination, and savage delightthe kind closer to a ghoul ripping into flesh than a person chasing their dreams.

Ultimately, when judging Draus template in her totality and comparing its comprising sequences with the others, an epiphany sparked within Avo as he understood what a Regular truly was. More than being hyper-functional psychopaths, they thrived on their lack of humanity without being crippled by it. In some incomprehensible fashion, they operated without even thinking, body and instinct already knowing what to do without any deeper cognitive processing.

In the simplest sense, she was evolving away from needing a consciousness without losing her governing intellect, growing to become a set pattern of self-adapting responses nested in whatever sheathe they were assigned for the operation.

{Data cataloged,} Calvino said as Avo and Draus stared each other down, their egos bridged by a stream of rushing fire. {Her mind seems to be adapting to be able to take in selective feedback from her environment without true internalization. Learning with near-perfect data filtering. And unlearning or unadapting from undesired behaviors in an instant. Its like her perfection of self barely existsand is impersonal at that. Like an object to be regarded. And what she goes cataonic instead of losing her mind. There are no real borders to damage. Only unvalued mind space to lose.}

Template-Draus spoke for the first time within Avo, and her words were tinged with wry amusement, greeting the others around her as if they were a passing notice, annoyed above all else that she couldnt exercise violence upon them. [You didnt tell me how loud this godsdamned place was gonna be. Or how brittle you all are.] Her eyes bore deeper into his. [Cept for you, I guess. Youre like water now. Unbreakable. Easy to drown in.]

She was speaking of his hunger. How it used to guide him. Compelled him. Something beneath thought.

That, more than anything else, gave them symmetry. The fact they could understand and conceptualize the world regardless only pulled them closer.

My kind is all urge, Avo said. You are living action. More intellect than awareness. Seems we share an envy.

[Seems so,] Draus said, casually accepting the changing state of things.

Overlapping her template with his cognitive core, his awareness narrowed into a tunnel. Peripheral considerations or ruminations ceased to be. The world became of three tracks. Pastfor review. Presentfor acting. Futurefor anticipating. He knew what he had to do right now, and muted annoyance prickled inward. Wasting time was a bad habit. He stopped doing it.

Infusing Draus with all the memories and thought processes he had from Abrel, the Paladins, and the Fallwalkers, he checked her Rend, anchored her enhanced template back within her sheathe, and then liquefied her brain. He caught her corpse via her implants before it could collapse using his newly imbued magnetism, his segmented Echoheads parting into a constellation of hovering discs to direct his bioelectric field.

Placing her back into her chair, he turned away from her just as reality began to scab around her, drawing a curious response from Dice.

[Well, thats was somethin new,] template-Draus said. [Never got to feel myself die from inside another body before. Whatever myself means anymore.] The Regular's contemplation lasted the barest second before she moved on. [Cant say I knew what to expect, becoming a simulation. Expected more burning.]

[Oh, trust me, it gets plenty painful in here sometimes,] template-Chambers said, cutting into the dialogue. [Like when we got Rashed.]

All it takes to dismantle a poor build is just a death. We have time to ourselves now. I think it is time to put our suggestions and desires into practice. Experience and adjust how our canons might work in practical circumstances.

[Hells] Draus laughed, [this is a lot better than just sitting around and thinkin bout shit.]

Need testing grounds. Places where well be hard to notice. Where Heavens can hide.

Tavers cleared her throat. Well. I think I might be able to help with that.

Got recommendations? Avo asked, turning to glance at her.

Got a favor I could call in, Tavers clarified. Might take a day or two depending on how busy he is.

Can we trust this favor?

The squire threw back her head and laughed. Ha! No. Thats why I have blackmail. And a bomb planted inside their nu-dog.

Hearing these words caused Dice to hug her kitten tight and hide it away from Tavers.

Insurance. Good. Avo grunted. Suppose we should sync our suicides after Draus gets back. Start with initial prototypes?

Yes, Kae chirped, shuffling with excitement.

Ah, shit, Chambers giggled, time to kill myself and get me some new Heavens.

You guys have no idea how weird hearing this conversation is, Tavers deadpanned.

***

Multiple Heavens Enhanced

Grafting Completed

Generating Summation of [PROTOTYPE] Builds

User - {Avo}

[Woundshaper] updated to [Woundmother, Architectress of Sanguinity] - 6,122 THAUM/c Total (Heaven/Hell)

[Zephyr of the Nine-Paths] updated to [Fardrifter, Seeker of Horizons] - 3,100 THAUM/c (Heaven/Hell)

[Datacaster] updated to [Techplaguer, Mechanical Contagion] - 150 THAUM/c (Heaven/Hell)

User - {Jelene Draus}



[Twice-Walker] updated to [Simulacra Resplendent, Legion of Self] - 6,211 THAUM/c Total (Heaven/Hell)

[Rimelost dismantled]-> Domain of Ice x1; Domain of Navigation x1; Domain of Endurance x1

[Bullet-Breeder] Grafted

[Bullet-Breeder] updated to [The Arsenalist of Unceasing Ordinance] - 2,899 THAUM/c Total (Heaven/Hell)

User - {Aedon Chambers}

[Lushburner] updated to [Bio-Igniter, Flesh-for-Fuel, Fire-for-Flesh. Fetish-for-All] - 1,100 THAUM/c Total (Heaven/Hell)

[Starvations Envy] Ungrafted (Stored in Stillborn)

[Snake-King] Grafted

[Snake-King] updated to [Fucktopia, A.K.A Rash Central] - 522 THAUM/c Total (Heaven/Hell)

User - {Kae Kusanade}

[Aegis of Tides] updated to [Maelstromer, Warden of Wind and Wave] - 1,080 THAUM/c Total (Heaven/Hell)

User - {Dice}

[Runebreaker] updated to [Runemade, Shadow-Devouring-Bright] - 1,933 THAUM/c Total (Heaven/Hell)