Neophyte World Builder

Chapter 132: Interface Facts

CROWN

I’d expected a simple message in return.

I got much more.

Duck perked her ears and looked at me, but I just shrugged. Mentally, I hit the ‘Yes’ button to allow Orpheus in.

A minute or two later, Orpheus emerged from below, walking through the phantasmal projection of my world.

She lacked her usual Victorian dress today, wearing a simple bathrobe tied around the middle with a belt. Her hair was left loose, a vivid purple tumble down her back and swept away from her eyes, which still maintained dark circles beneath them. The bags under her eyes weren’t as pronounced as they were her last visit, and I hoped that was a good sign.

The clothing was a little weird, though.

“Here you are in your ‘control room’ again.” Orpheus looked about with a deep sigh. “I know that it is hypocritical coming from me right now, but you two should both rest while you can. Once the incursion wave begins, you may find yourself very busy. The mental fatigue will be enormous.”

I shrugged. “I did earlier, for a little while. It’s… actually kind of slow right now?” I looked at Duck, who nodded confirmation. “We’re keeping the time dilation a little low at the moment just in case something slips up, but I haven’t seen any crises.”

Orpheus yawned and nodded, dropping herself into a chair. My chair, actually, which was a little annoying. Then I remembered I had a huge stockpile of Sanctuary Points left over from construction, and just summoned another one to flop into. I inhaled a deep sigh.

The scent of honeydew tickled my nose.

“About the reason I messaged you… you did get my message, right?” I peered over at the bathrobe-clad woman, who was rubbing the bridge of her nose with pinched fingers. She looked different without her glasses.

“Let me ask a few questions, first.” Orpheus used her free hand to wave in the air, as if brushing aside my question. “Even with the time difference, I don’t want to stay here for long. If I didn’t want to save every last bit of energy I’d just leave a Terminal here.”

I frowned, raising a finger to address the obvious problem with that statement, but Orpheus wasn’t finished speaking.

“Your little anomaly hasn’t caused you any major issues? Her attitude seemed a little disruptive to me, so I must admit I had some worry.” She steepled her fingers. “What is the situation there?”

Duck flicked an ear, and I picked up on her annoyance right away, but she wisely kept her mouth shut this time. I sighed.

“She’s doing fine.” I leaned back in my ‘new’ recliner and crossed my arms. “She does have quite a mouth on her when you talk to her, and she’s pretty… lackadaisical, I guess. At least, she behaves that way in person. But as far as I can tell, she’s very serious when it comes to doing her job. She’s keeping the System running and even tweaking it and suggesting improvements now and then. She hasn’t stepped on the role of the dragons in naming things, either.”

“Good. That is good.” Orpheus entwined her fingers together and placed them on her lap. “It is sometimes hard to tell if they’ll rebel or not. It is still a good idea to have a contingency plan in place, just in case she decides to stop doing her job. It’s especially true because your spontaneous generations tend to be very into talking back.”

This time Duck didn’t remain silent, flicking her tail in annoyance. “I’m right here, you know. I’m getting a little tired of pretending I can’t tell when you’re talking behind my back.”

The comment only made Orpheus look at Duck again, and shake her head. “We are not doing so right now, are we? And you must admit you are hardly a normal Terminal.”

I saw Duck’s tail twitch, and knew I should step in… but I’d never seen her be so direct in speaking to Orpheus. It wasn’t that they’d never interacted, but as I briefly thought back, I realized it had all been very distant and professional, even as Duck was irreverent to others like Ember.

This was interesting.

Duck almost stopped anyway, and glanced my way. I just shrugged at her, so she took a breath and continued talking.

“From the moment we met you – we meaning when you first met Crown here – you’ve held back things and in hindsight been pretty suspicious.” She gestured vaguely at nothing, before continuing her rant. “You’ve left out details, drove us onward with the threat of some vague soul damage, and noticed a lot of anomalies. Now that we have one we can handle you’re hinting we should just get rid of her. An actual person, formed no differently than you.”

Orpheus remained silent, watching Duck’s increasingly animated motions. Duck’s tail was lashing in agitation, and her arms made broad, sweeping gestures.

“Is that how you see us, too? We’re useful to you right now, but if Crown starts thinking maybe he’d be better off in another cluster, would you just recycle us?” Duck stopped her wild gesticulations and crossed her arms. “I can stand being seen as just a tool by you, because Crown doesn’t see me that way. But he’s just a tool to you, isn’t he?”

As Duck made that accusation, she thrust a finger out toward Orpheus… who watched her quietly. The High Administrator adjusted her bathrobe and considered the sudden outburst from my Terminal.

I couldn’t blame her. Duck had never expressed any sort of thoughts toward Orpheus even resembling this before. The sudden hostility and suspicion was… unnerving to me, but I couldn’t even say it was misplaced. Nothing Duck had said was wrong, exactly.

Orpheus waited for several moments. When Duck didn’t continue, and I didn’t chime in, she finally sighed and tapped her chin.

“You ask a lot of questions, and you again demonstrate your independence from Crown.” She glanced at me, then back to Duck. “Although I notice you did not use his less serious name in this accusation. Why is that, I wonder?”

This time I did speak and intervene… on Duck’s behalf. “Don’t try to turn the question around.”

The High Administrator looked at me, then back at Duck.

“Very well,” she finally admitted. “Yes, if it became necessary to save the cluster, I would recycle the two of you. This does not mean that I would do so unless it was a last resort. I have been blunt about the possible cost of failure, but I do not enjoy it. This is desperation, not dismissal.”

Orpheus lowered her eyes. “As for recycling Crown should he join another cluster… should he come to that decision, he would likely do so before I had the chance to exercise that power. Once outside of the cluster he is untouchable by me, short of my own incursions. I would heavily recommend you do not do so, considering you are still somewhat reliant upon the interface. You would likely be able to survive without it, by now, but it would be difficult.”

Duck opened her mouth again, but Orpheus held up a hand to forestall further accusations.

“I’m aware that I have been less than forthcoming to you, but it was not due to any malicious thoughts on my part. I truly thought I was doing what was best for everyone when I chose to hold back information.” She tilted her head back. “And occasionally I simply did not realize it would be relevant, so said nothing. That is a mistake, not malice.”

I watched as Duck narrowed her eyes, but this time I had to step in. “Maybe it would be helpful if you answered the question I sent.”

Settling back in her chair, Orpheus took a breath. “This would be a good opportunity to provide you full details, instead of telling you not to worry.”

She looked at both me and Duck, then nodded when she saw we were both paying attention.

“You ‘smelled’ something. This is normal. What is happening is your soul – and what you perceive as your mind – is adapting further to your new existence. I am sure you are still using a Perception Filter, but that attempts to adjust to your beliefs and does as little work as possible.”

Duck tilted her head. “So why is it letting us smell you then? Are you saying you actually smell that way and we’re just now able to smell it?”

“No, it is not quite that.” Orpheus shook her head. “You are instead now interpreting me partially through your own lens. The filter puts me into an appearance much like what you might think of me as. When directly looking at me with your soul, you would see something still too alien to comprehend. Instead, the interface is translating me into something you can understand, but which is closer to my actual self and behavior.”

I sat up and rested my arms on my knees. “I’ve been noticing you seem a lot more… human, lately. Are you saying you’re not getting more human, I’m just getting better at understanding you and this interface is making me perceive that as more nuance in your actions and appearance?”

“Something like that, yes.” Orpheus smiled. “Nothing to worry about, as you can see. You are not getting less ‘human’ as you put it, simply expanding your horizons. I would actually be curious if Duck even sees me as human at all.”

She looked over to my Terminal, and I frowned as I glanced to Duck as well. The elf girl was fidgeting, her tail low and swaying. I’d never even thought to ask if she saw Orpheus differently.

“At first, I saw you the same way Crown does,” Duck replied, one finger scratching the base of an ear. “Later you showed up as an elf. I guess the more I got my own identity, the more you looked like that. But lately it’s been different. You look like a haptix now.”

I squinted at Orpheus and tried to imagine a giant octopus-like being sprawling in the recliner she was in. Duck’s imagination was a lot more developed than I’d thought.

“This interface seems so useful I can see why other clusters would want it… or feel jealous. I can’t imagine how something like that was made.” My admiration was genuine, in this case.

“It really is,” Orpheus agreed. “It’s incredibly complicated, and woven into the metaversal substrate. I will admit that when you finally unveiled your ‘System’ I had a flash of admiration. I know that you borrowed some of the interface to do it, but it was still the kind of leap of creativity that I’d expect of Pleiades. If you had more experience, you might have more understanding of it than I do. It has quite a few similarities with your design.”

I lifted an eyebrow, but Orpheus slid out of the chair and sighed before I could question her more.

“In summary, nothing to worry about… but watch this Akasha being.” She tightened her bathrobe’s belt and nodded to Duck. “If you mistrust me… well, I was ‘born’ in a similar fashion. Perhaps I am a result of an experiment that lead to the interface. Something to consider.”

It really was something to consider… but right then I once again had the feeling that I was forgetting something important.

What was I missing?