So many experiences, so many things happening, everywhere, all at once. It’s a bit overwhelming for a moment or two as he lets himself spread like butter on a piece of toast, occupying the whole piece of bread. He tries to remember every bit of magic he sees, and as he is drawn back into a singular sense again, he smiles at Rebecca.

“And you with me, Rebecca,” he says back to her with a smile. Having seen how the holodeck almost certainly had an effect on her mindset, he understands her a bit better.

He isn’t certain he wants to distribute himself like that, to become many Jacks, but perhaps that's the sort of things he needs to experience repeatedly to get used to.

Cyborg Rebecca faces off against a Minotaur the size of an elephant inside a massive cavern. She points a finger at the Minotaur and formulates a program, then presses the program into a particle beam of light she shoots from her arm. The light follows the pattern programmed into it and becomes a snake of light and fire which dives into the Minotaur's horn and burrows through its skull, neck, torso and out the left leg. She sends another shot with a new program, and the light breaks apart into millions of sparks which incinerate its flesh on landing. Noticing that her left foot has been destroyed, she shoots it, and the beam of programmed light forms a temporary foot made of energy which will last a few hours. Pulling out a battery, she sends a program into the potential current, turning the stored electricity into a near-physical distress signal which will seek her ship orbiting far above the surface above her, passing through the stone and lead ceiling and only slowed a little.

*Learn Cyber-Magic Program Light/Electricity - usable as human or robot*


Two of his new selves create a spell which requires 2 minds - they both Verse-in onto a planet full of carnivorous photosynthetic dinosaurs - no herbivores or plants to eat. They look for food for a week, finding nothing that can be eaten without first being killed.

Smelling completely different, most of the carnivorous reptilian flightless birds avoid them. But the Shoeface Tankasaur - a squatty bulky big-headed fang-jawed beak-lipped monstrosity the size of a barn, decides to try cybernetic human flesh for digestibility. While it charges at them, they split up and confuse it by surrounding it. Then they imagine a net of paralyzing energy between them, and when the Tankasaur walks through the imaginary beam, it falls to the ground paralyzed. They both imagine it with its head severed, but it fights this image, seeing itself as alive. So one of them pretends to chop its neck from far away, while the other traces a feather over the line on its neck where the first would've struck. The creature thinks it has been hit, and the image of its severed head becomes the reality that the dinosaur feared to be true. Finally they imagine it skinned, gutted and roasting on a giant spit over a fire, and it is so.

*Learn Mutual-Magic Imaginary Truth (must be imagined exactly the same in conjunction with someone else)*



*Learn Digital Overwrite Character Teleportation and Digital Take Character (only accessible if Avatars is activated)*



He feels himself inside the mind of a Divergent in a different magical universe - the same one who sent the green death spell. This time he's concocting a potion. A Polyjuice Potion, to be precise.

---

Gisigu says, "I'll free his body myself, then."



Suddenly Jack is a molecule of awareness in an ocean of unified thought and feeling. Uncountable numbers of minds float and move as single cells in a super-organism. Jack's mind is practically thrown into realms of thought unstoppably. First he becomes absolutely certain that he needs to absorb every power and ability from every form of creature in existence. How will he counter this thought?

---

In the meantime, Jack has regained partial control of his physical body. This control comes with pain. Large sections of his flesh have been removed and replaced with cybernetic parts, leaving the neurons in place as interface mechanisms. However, the raw and exposed neural fibers send a constant stream of feedback, screaming, "PAIN!" to a brain that electronically filters out these signals to reinterpret them as mere internal damage indicators. However, Jack doesn't have access to that filter, so he feels the pain his neurons feel.

But he has access to all of his knowledge and magic. Including knowledge through the Borg Collective.

Jack is onboard the last Cube he was destroying when Qiew showed up, and it is more powerful and indestructible than ever. Qiew downloaded their awarenesses, but their bodies fell to the floor in a coma. Jack was recognized as the highest threat and juiciest assimilation target. So he and the others were all assimilated. Now the entire Borg Collective could use every spell Jack, Lady Moriah, Stella, the Sangwen pair and the Butler had known when they were downloaded. Additionally, the self-replicating nano-bot swarm Jack had used as a weapon against the Borg was assimilated through Borg-Jack's command. Also additionally, the Sanguin trapped in the sword were released from their sword and subsequently assimilated (after they killed their way through 2 Borg cubes), thereby giving Magus-enhanced self-healing magical empowering Sanguin blood to the Borg, which would automatically convert any Borg that the blood came in contact with into a Sangwen (Sangwen Vulcan Borg, Sangwen Human Borg, Sangwen Klingon Borg etc). Jack had already undergone the process and was now Sangwen. This came with a vague memory-copy of all of his Blood ancestors. Since he was the first Borg converted to Sangwen, he had some vague memories from the Sangwen man who was willingly in the sword. He remembers being the one who assimilated the Sangwen, too. Scord and Een don't seem to have been assimilated. When the stone in the sword was infected with Borg-virus, it exploded, destroying Jack's hat and its contents (including 128 Borg Cubes) in the process ((gone for now, but inventory not lost forever)). Lady Moriah has been grafted a body from about 100 different species and cybernetic parts. A Holoprojector has been grafted onto her, which presents her chosen self-image and any useful holographic objects she may need. This way she (and Borg like her) can hide very well.

It seems the Borg had access to Jack's Tardis for some time, however, because they have developed Hyperdimensional Engineering - in particular, Jack's brain has done the majority of the work involved.

*gain 8/8 Hyperdimensional Engineering*

Now Borg Cubes can fit inside a single proton, and can contain trillions of drones, and can travel anywhere in the universe they can see in an instant. All of Starfleet has been assimilated. Most of the galaxy has been assimilated.

Jack has partial control of his body and mind - he can do what he sets his mind to do, but the Borg can oppose the action if they choose, or initiate a different action.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:00, Tue 31 May 2022.

Learning from his selves, Jack still feels a bit like a cheat who is skipping class and being given notes from someone who already took the test. But then he’s forced into the shared hive-mind of the consciousness of the Mus-Trek Universe, and he spreads to so many minds at once. It is his lack of satisfaction in simply taking what he might otherwise learn for himself that counters the Borg tendency to just absorb and move on. He wants to understand the whys and the hows, and to use his mind to grow. For that, he needs to be Jack.

Jack the Wizard. The true Jack. All others are just imitations! He won’t be spread around like some sort of cheap butter substitute on the bread of cybernetic consciousness, and he certainly isn’t going to abide by intellectual theft. Stop stealing all the things he spent time learning!

---

Ow.

Taking the time to process what he is going through, he attempts to partition his mind so that the Borg can’t read his thoughts. Though he’s really angry about the destroyed hat, and he really doesn’t want to have to make another one, though he feels like Hyperdimensional Engineering will certainly make it doable. But he has such a neat farm!

He’d have to get around that!

Once he has his mind properly partitioned, he’s going to attempt to fully project his consciousness using the Avatar ability—back into the body he’d left behind in the Qiew-Continuum.

The plan: to go and reset this stupid server and fix this mess, by giving himself local time reversal powers.

(well that universe is fuuuuuuuucked, the only hope i could think would be to show the borge the diffrence between there hive mind and a hive mind where each mind has free will and able to act on it's own)

He feels his awareness shift into a cube on the other side of the galaxy which is currently in the process of assimilating a new species. As the Borg nanites enter into the blood of the alien, they begin by scanning the DNA, cells and body for advantages while Jack's awareness becomes one with the alien species. He experiences their entire evolutionary history from protozoa to crab, then the drying up of the oceans and his gradual transition into a 10' tall thin land crab which climbs trees and creates tools. He feels the effort it took to need and then create tools and figure out other uses for them, then the hundreds of thousands of years of cumulated effort that expanded the brain capacity of the species until he is able to think about hyperspacial concepts in the alien crab-mind. He feels the effort and thrill of deciphering the alien's DNA code, and cerebral processing. He knows for himself the millions of 'man-hours' of thought that figured out ways to integrate this knowledge with his near limitless storehouse. He senses the great purpose of working toward and attaining perfection via concerted collective effort.

He hears the voice of Borg, "We are as one, and none are lost. Our awareness is one and not many. We are quick to learn and hungry to grow so that we might yet attain perfection of form and knowledge. Our goal is not different from your own."

---

Cool idea, except back in message 32:


The rabbit appears in his mind's eye, "This universe isn't connected to Q Continuum, or the universe where your robotic bodies are located. The universe that could have been reset has already been reset. But, think harder about that idea."

Jack does, and he learns Digital Rewind

*Learn Digital Rewind*



Borg Jack's mind is not fully integrated, so anything he's learned since leaving this universe is his knowledge alone, and whatever he thinks, the Borg will take a little time to figure out - certainly enough time to strategize and act without their knowledge.

Gisigu in the Butler body behind to whistle, and Jack feels Magic afoot. Spiritual Shamanic magic. There is a soft wind that blows around the cube.

Rebecca quietly grabs a piece of Jack's Enchanted paper from the ground near his exploded hat, and find his cartoon pencil close by. She picks up the pencil, puts it in her mouth a moment, then, before the Borg realize what she's doing, she begins to draw the Borg. All of them (except the Borg in contention - Jack, Butler, Rebecca and Stella). There is a massive vibration as reality fights against the unreal magic of Cartoon, but apparently Rebecca is just that good, because suddenly, everywhere they are, the Borg are motionless.

“Similar goals but completely different approaches. I ask, you just take, and that’s all the difference in the world,” Jack tells the collective. “I reached my point by asking, not by taking. I learned by watching and observing, and asking for more information. I didn’t destroy and coerce. The pursuit of knowledge is good, the approach is all wrong.”

---

“Oh right, thanks Mr. Rabbit,” he says to the rabbit. He’d been distracted when that information had flown by.

As he figures out Digital Rewind, he figures out the point he wants to go back to, and attempts to push the whole universe back to the point just after they’d been booted. Pushing he and his friend’s minds back, telepathically in combination with Digital Rewind, to the point just a split second after they’d been abducted out of the Universe by Qiew. Before they'd have had implants, and so freeing them of the touch of the Borg.

But also giving them time to fix what had gone awry.

Played out before him, Jack sees all of the times he used force to make something happen against someone else's will. The Borg replies, "Did you ask Emperor Jack if he was willing to be banished? Did you ask anyone outside of the people who recruited you if they desired him to be gone? Did you even try to communicate with us before destroying our fleet? We are not so very different from you."

---

*Roll & advance*
He finds the code in the fabric of the universe which represents the passage of time, and reverses the flow as far as he is able to reverse it. As he does so, he sees the past unwinding, overlayed on the circumstances unfolding around him. He is able to push the clock 11 days back, but not far enough to reach his goal. However, it would be far enough back to undo the assimilation of the Sword Sangwen pair, and reverse the Sangwen powers in the Borg - as well as un-assimilate approximately 30 billion individuals across the galaxy. Unfortunately, it will jeopardize Rebecca's Cartoon Draw Freeze spell which has currently immobilized all Borg in the universe.

Jack shakes his head at the silly robot-hive, trying to tell him that he was secretly the bad-guy all along is a terrible stance to convince him with, “We couldn’t be more different. You and Emperor Jack are tyrants. You have no respect for individuality, choice or life. I acted in both cases to protect life, culture, individuality and potential. Your tendency to obliterate individuality will lead only to stagnancy. There is no invention in the Collective. Only what was made by individuals and cultures with creativity, seekers of knowledge and information. There is no growth, no life. Only single-minded purpose. We cannot be more different.”

---

Once he has rewound time, he attempts to convince them again, and hopefully the conversation plays out in a similar manner.

Freeing the pair from the Borg, he uses the ability to send messages through the network to tell them to be aware of the Borg’s expansion.

“Will you change and allow me to make you better or be destroyed?” he asks the Borg as a collective. Because he’s either going to succeed or he’s going to die trying.

"You are correct that we have no respect for individuality. Such illusion is highly overrated. However you are incorrect in your concept that we have no respect for choice or life. To the contrary, maximization of choice is equivalent to intelligence. It is simply that we value our own maximization of choice above that of silly individuals. Additionally we certainly value life."

The hive mind begins to show Jack visions. Deep in the dark space between two of the spiral arms of the Galaxy, there lurk creatures the like of which Jack's imagination had ((possibly)) not yet considered. Creatures that rival Cthulhu in horror and immensity, and whose description would be impossible. Certain crystalline entities who are the size of entire star systems, and who consume planets worth of certain elements at a time, absolutely destroying all life in the systems that they eat. Another section of space has been turned into liquid, and creatures within this space exist whose sole desire is to convert all of space to their preferred environment, and to eliminate all other forms of life. In the next galaxy over, there are numerous creatures who have very similar goals, and who will not abide any form of humanoid life. Many multiple types of biological, cybernetic and mechanical life who are currently attempting to convert all matter in the universe to copies of themselves await in galaxies beyond. Beyond the limits of space and time, in a pocket universe waiting outside of this particular universe there are pure mechanical creatures whose sole purpose is to eliminate all forms of life within a sector when intelligent AI has developed enough to call them. There are non-physical entities in the space between galaxies, entities of pure energy and light, who convert all matter in their field of influence into pure energy.

At the center of the galaxy, about 10,000 years ago at the inception of the borg, two entities made a wager. The first entity stated, "We will be able to reach perfection only through shedding the physical mortal coil. No lifeforms can remain, all life in the universe must be sacrificed to fuel the project."

The second entity swore, "The destruction of all physical life forms is not necessary to attain perfection, and in fact other biological and technological life forms could be incorporated into ourself. Indeed perfection could be reached through the assimilation of the greatest possible diversity of all life forms and technologies."

The first entity replied to the second one, "Very well. We can wait thirty three billion years to accomplish perfection before this universe has aged too much to accomplish the goal. At the end of which time, if you have not yet attained an agreeable degree of perfection, we ((the first entity)) will complete the ritual and wipe out all life in the universe."

The second entity said, "This is not a fair wager! We ((the second entity)) may not be able to reach the goal in that timeframe!"

But the first entity had already disappeared into the aether. The second entity therefore assimilated his first species, and became the Borg.

"Our goal is the preservation of life."



There is a long pause as the collective considers this challenge. Upon assimilation, most entities do not have the chance to communicate with the collective. However, because Jack had already been previously integrated into the collective, and was coming to the universe from outside of the universe itself, he had the unique opportunity to speak into the mind of the collective from a separate perspective.

-no invention -inventions are acquired
-effort is being used to expand
-effort towards invention would bring new ideas -ideas individuals couldn't consider -new ideas meaning new invention -invention which cannot be acquired by assimilation
-no growth -except by propagation and assimilation -but no growth in knowledge -resources are needed for expansion to attain perfection -rates of assimilation are greater -perfection sooner -recalculate complete assimilation of life... calculated at new expansion rates to less than 2 billion years -proposal: assimilate all life, then focus resources on discovery and invention -ACCEPTED

"Single-minded action leads to the most efficient accomplishment of the task."



There is no need, since their physical position was affected, but not their memory. Digital Rewind puts things back where and as they were, but doesn't affect minds or memories - that's a different variable.

Somewhere in the universe, someone has regretted their actions over the last 11 days and has come to realize the error of their ways - having murdered their beloved spouse. They have been praying for a miracle to undo the horror they placed on themselves. Their spouse's mother has been crying since her child's untimely death, praying for a miracle. Somewhere else, a small miscalculation caused an entire nursery to explode yesterday, and many families who lost their children are praying for a miracle. In countless places, people were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Suddenly everyone gets a do-over. This brings relief for many, and frustration for those who had just finished a difficult task.

Rebecca's Cartoon Draw Freeze spell is broken, and a drone shoots the Enchanted paper which had been on the ground before she can try it again.



((Huh?))
The Sword Pair were in the middle killing drones on the cube which Jack is now on, and Drone Jack had just subdued the pair and was about to assimilate them. Now, Jack's fight for control of his body has halted the assimilation process, and the Sword Pair is laying unconscious in the floor in front of him.



"We doubt that you could succeed in your efforts. The risk to our progress is acceptable."

---

Rebecca growls, and Jack notices her using Digital Take Character on the drone who destroyed her paper. The drone immediate begins attacking other drones nearby, but is soon dispatched by them.

Gisigu continues to whistle and the wind continues to blow.

Lets Jack know if they assimilated her then the borg mind has access to memories of how efficient the plural hive mind exsystance works with a hive mind connecting several free willed individuals. That people linked with the shared knowledge and guidance of a hive mind but the free will and innovation of individualism create and grow. Having experienced it herself and witnessed it in her owner, thinks the borg could reach there goal faster this way... and have the refinement to not force others into it.

In addition they might have people volunteer to assimilation in this case, if they where also honest with there reasoning.

He could use her memories in his argument if he wanted.

“Life without free will, creativity or individualism is not life. A person in prison is not ‘living life’ they are caged. You’re just preserving meat.  All you’ve done is made a prison and trapped the bodies of billions. This thing that poses as a collective has trapped so many of you. I urge you all now to make a choice, choose to be free, give your collective back individuality,” Jack tells the collective through their collective consciousness.

And then tries to use Unlock Device to unlock the constraints holding the collective to that will-shackling of collective thought.

"You make this statement, but provide no evidence. Of what value are these concepts? We observe no evidence that they have value or will advance the accomplishment of perfection."


"There are none in prison - there are none but ourselves. Those whom you believe occupied the bodies which are our bodies, are merely part of a previous pattern of thought in our memories. We are one. From your perspective, they are dead."


"Correction: we are re-purposing meat."


"Correction: liberated billions of bodies for a use toward greater purpose."



*Rolls & advance*

EDIT: *Learn Spiritual: Appeal to Spirit*


When Jack edits the code to unlock the Borg drones of the collective, his alterations spread out to affect 95% of the drones on 30 of the nearest Borg Cubes - including his own which is 99.999% liberated. At the sudden inclusion of about 300,000 new voices into the collective, chaos erupts for about 3 nano-seconds. Then emergency individuation protocols initiate, and programming in the minds of the newly individualized drones softens the trauma of sudden differentiation, relying on the training obtained through the collective dream. Approximately 99% of each Cube's population is 2nd or greater generation Borg - meaning from single cell to maturity, these Borg have never known life separate from the collective other than in the Dream.

This means that on Jack's cube, there are 2 out of 131072 who are still in the collective - and one of them is not the Borgus-Callosum (( link to a message in this game )). Of those 131070 individuals, 1310 have memories of previous lives with associated egos, but the rest have no egos of their own. They still see themselves as members of the Borg - even if temporarily separated and with a natural temperament and moral conscience. Having relied on the collective for executive functioning, they are eager for clear leadership and direction.

The 2 Borg who remain on board are the Queen and her Guard.

The Queen - the collective - speaks to the 129,760 new people on this Cube, "Our people, you will be welcomed back to the collective as soon as possible. For now, we ask that you protect the Queen drone and try to preserve the bodies you are operating."

To the 1310 the Borg says, "Remember whom you have become."

Rebecca's spirit reaches out to nearby drones, and 34 of them become Avatars of the Rebecca. One of the nearby new Rebecca-Drones finds a stray piece of Enchanted paper. Rebecca grabs the Cartoon Pencil and hides it between her hands. A green light envelops the Cartoon Pencil and it disappears - reappearing in the closed hands of the Rebecca-Drone with the paper - who immediately begins to draw the Borg - except this and the other liberated Cubes. He's a very poor artist, and it will take a loooong time, but it will be a weaker spell too.

*Jack observed Green Witch: Teleport and Green Witch: Mingle Spirit (an application of the Avatar status)*

Gisigu the Butler dances around as he whistles, and his spell is completed - (Shamanic: Call Winds and Shamanic: Bind Magic) Suddenly, the entire Collective is completely cut off from all magic it had been using from Jack's knowledge as well as all native Psychic and Spiritual magics, meaning that two of the Borg's primary control mechanisms - telepathy and the Collective Dreaming - have been eliminated. They are still able to communicate electronically, but no longer directly from brain to brain (no telepathy). And their suppressed subconscious drives have all been released to the surface (no Collective Dream), leaving them all with a degree of individuality.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:22, Mon 06 June 2022.

“First, organic bodies are not perfect. Android bodies are inherently superior, the majority of the meat you have ‘re purposed’ is weak and fragile; the premise that you need living hosts is flawed, and only makes you enemies. Enemies which you do not profit from, because you do not invent. Once you have assimilated a single part of a species, you gain very little from extended conflict.

Second, you clearly have the technology necessary to clone abstracted meatsuits if it really is necessary, and to “raise them” as part of the collective would be more efficient than coming into constant conflict. The only thing your conflict does is speed up your own demise.

Third, as you’ve no doubt detected, this galaxy is constantly at war, so your aggression isn’t necessary to spur creativity. A peaceful android-based collective that seeks out information and invention, and promotes those things peacefully will accomplish far more, and with a far lower chance of being obliterated by a species that has the power of invention to out-maneuver your latest toys.

Lastly, I leave you with a saying that Mr. Magehammer passed onto me that I think encapsulates the concept of how I think you should approach galactic strife: ‘Walk softly and carry a big stick.’ Stop stepping on others, and join the Federation, set all who want to be free, free. Join them in their wars, and learn with them, not against them,” he finishes his rambling speech and sighs from his borg-Jack mouth.

Even as he talks, he works on setting them free if the collective won’t do it themselves. He looks toward Rebecca and reaches out to stroke the top of her head, filled with fondness for her attempts to help him.

"It is in their imperfection that their advantage is found."


"Available data does not support this assertion."


"...comparing costs of non-instigated engagements with previously assimilated groups with gains obtained through continued assimilation... extended conflict is to be avoided."


"... until today, this statement was unproven."


"Running comparative analysis simulations... ... given the nature of the abilities that persons such as yourself possess, previous methods are no longer viable. In conjunction with recently obtained 'magics', peaceful expansion through invitation and cooperation would complete the goal most efficiently. Ruling of the Queen: Aggressive Assimilation is to cease. Peace will be sought. Assimilation through invitation and voluntary acquisition of genetic material will commence immediately upon the return of our powers and the reintegration of those willing to return. Are you in agreement with our terms of surrender?"



At that moment, a hole is blown through the side of the cube, and a woman teleports onto the deck and within half a second has a futuristic gun with mysterious glyphs inscribed on it pointed to the Queen's head, and the Guard drone imprisoned by a glowing net. A regular bodied Rebecca says, "Am I late? That time-trick you played almost made me lose my place."

Simultaneously, a Red Phone-booth appears next to Jack, and Professor and Data step out, Commander Data pointing a phaser and the Professor (android) sporting a small metal wand-thing. Professor winks at Jack, "Couldn't leave all the fun to you lot, now could we?"

Gisigu whistles, and Rebecca's gun and Commander Data's phaser fall to the ground. All weapons on all of the Borg-bodied people detach and fall to the ground.

*Learn Shamanic: Ask Weapons for Peace*

Gisigu walks up to the Queen, and places a hand on her chest over her heart. He softly says, "May I seek healing for you?"

The Queen responds suspiciously, "What would you heal?"

"Your heart."

"My heart is not malfunctioning. I don't understand your offer."

"Compare the status of your heart with the status of my own, and analyze the results."

Green light sweeps over the Queen's chest and the Butler's chest.

After a moment, the Queen replies, "Can you establish those advantages for the entire collective?"

"We will see." Gisigu closes his eyes and Journeys for Retrieval. After about 10 minutes, Gisigu says, "How do you feel?"

The Queen replies, "Different. There is gratitude."

Jack is about to answer that he’d come up with as best a solution they can come up with together, when the wall blows open and the cavalry arrives in its various forms. The truth was, the whole agreement needed to be more nuanced, and to help them understand the purpose of some things that they’d never seemed to grasp. Though he expected that part of their problem stemmed from a writer’s bias when they’d been created by an outside hand.

As to Rebecca’s comment: “If it’d worked fully, I’d have undone all of it, seemed like my best move,” this said with a shrug. He’s certain he could combine his powers to do more, but to unexpected results. A single ability would have more predictable effects on the universe.

Watching Gisigu’s behavior, he nods in approval and waits for things to play out. Once they have, he smiles slightly at the turn of events.

“Good. Now, what do you think is the best course of action?” he asks of the Borg Queen, rather than forcing his preferences, he lets her at least make her own decision.

The Borg answers, "We will probably not be capable of preventing the demise of all life without the magics we have recently lost. If those are not returned, we will seed the universe far and wide, and commence assimilation at full force in order to make our best attempt or else become extinct in the effort. Probability of success will be approximately 41%.

"However, with the return of those powers, we will be able to progress without the use of force, and conciliatorily grow exclusively by consenting assimilations. Probability of success will be greater than 99.99999%. This is our preference. We would be... grateful... if you would agree and release our fetters."

---

However the rest of that plays out...

Gisigu explains, "Now that this has been settled, we have a few options. If we return to your Muscorp bodies and then these bodies die, I'll be able to guide all of your spirits completely to your Muscorp bodies. Otherwise, I could guide your spirits completely back to these bodies."

Commander Data and Professor offer, "Or, we could just take you all there in our TARDIS. Like Jack's Tardis, it's bigger on the inside - but unlike his hat, it can also travel through time, alterealms, relative dimensions and space." ((Alterealm is a term I made up for alternate universes))

Gisigu adds, "Then I could teach you how to shift from your Muscorp body to these and back."

"OH!" a sudden appearance of an apparition of Scord exclaims, "Speaking of Jack's hat..." the ghost-form Scord waves his hands, closes them, and when he opens them, Jack's hat appears. He explains, "I couldn't let the Borg have access to everything you had in there. So I blew up your hat, but I blew it up into the future so it could be reconstituted. Here you go, Jack! Good as new!" Scord hands Jack his Tardis hat - and it is in perfect condition.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:00, Fri 10 June 2022.

After a moment of consideration, Jack gives the Borg back the power. He has to trust that they will be a force of positive change, now that they have had a change of heart and a chance to learn from their experiences.

“Do as we have talked about,” he tells them then, giving them a slightly stern look. He will have to keep an eye on them until they can be certain that they are sticking to their new path.  There are so many things which could derail that experiment, and he’d prefer to have a hand on the rudder, but he can’t.

Because he has no interest in being a Borg.

Jack takes back his hat, dusting it off before he puts the floppy wizard hat on his Borg form, and smiles at Scord. “Thanks,” he says. “I’d like to learn to shift between them, in the meantime, I’ll have to work to remove the implants and heal the damage done by them.”

Gisigu closes his eyes and opens a plate over his organic and cybernetic heart. LEDs and a power cell shine a light into the darkness of space through the blown-out wall. The binding over the Borg releases, and they are able to access magic again. Gisigu says to the Queen, "There are protective bindings woven into your magics. If they are used to obtain advantage over another group in competition rather than cooperation, they will cease to function until reparations are complete. They are bound to your word as well. You must stay true to your promises, and this agreement. You won't even be able to make an agreement that might force you to violate a previous one." Gisigu telepathically speaks to Scord, letting Jack and Rebecca in on the conversation, You are staying behind?

Commander Data says, "May I suggest we take this conversation to the TARDIS, and allow the Borg to begin organizing their new approach?"

"We are already executing the plan," the Queen retorts.

As everyone except him moves into the red phone-booth which is the TARDIS, Scord responds to Gisigu's question, Only as much as I ever stay behind everywhere I go.

Then Scord asks the Sword couple who are now organic, living, breathing people called Sangwen, How about you two? What do you forsee?

The Sword couple hand the lifeless sword with a magical stone to Jack and respond, We will follow Jack for one lifetime. When next he dies, we cannot promise we will follow. The man says, I'm no longer willing to return to the sword, and neither is my wife, so we wouldn't even function as we had any longer - we'd become a Malhemotin production factory, and poison anything that the Malhemotin touches. The woman says, We hadn't even tasted blood in the sword for over 100 years. But I am willing to follow Jack until he dies. The Scriff is in our blood, too. And Jack can sense that they have Scriff-vectors.

Once they are all in the TARDIS except human Rebecca and Scord, Gisigu looks to Commander Data and Professor, "Friends, could your TARDIS take us to my home universe? We have the technology there to remove Jack's implants and restore a fully human body without any permanent implants."

Professor glances at Data, and responds, "Yes, I don't see why not."

Scord's voice comes through the magic crystal on Jack's sword and he offers, "Or Jack could just Order heal himself. Jack, I've been an Order Mage like yourself once before, so I know what you can do with that. And I'm familiar enough with the form of magic that I can enhance it. Stella has more of these stones growing in your garden, so using up this one won't leave you without any more of them. If you Order Heal yourself with clear intentions of the results that you would like the most, I can enhance it by using up the stored magic in this stone to make it work according to your intentions. Almost certainly."

Gisigu smiles and says, "What's the rush? You might like it. Do you have this feature?" Gisigu in Butler's Borg body touches a button on his forehead and imagines a self-image as a gorilla, and a touchable hologram appears around him of a gorilla. He selects a particular human self-image, and he appears to be a 4 foot tall girl.

Jack indeed does have this feature, thanks to the assimilated advanced Holographic technology from Jack's helmet.

A few more butterflies fly out of Jack's hat. Come to think about it, a butterfly flew out of Jack's hat the moment it reappeared. Jack's memory chip returns the video to his awareness. It's even the same kind of butterfly. And it has a Scriff vector.

Jack nods his head at the actions of Gisigu, that would be sufficient, he can’t be expected to watch them forever, and he has done what he can with them. Looking toward the TARDIS he walks in and considers for a moment before he looks at his hat. Nah, his hat is way better than this box-thing business.  He nods at the fact that some of them will be going their own way, he isn’t really the sort to stab people with the sword, so it doesn’t bother him in the slightest to be losing the efficacy of the sword.

As he’s about to begin healing himself with Order magic, if for no other reason than the Borg-tech is lame in comparison to his Mus-Jack body, and he can just improve on that and switch between them, he is distracted by the butterfly. Holding out a hand toward it, he coaxes, “Come here little one,” he tries to bring it over to him so that he can figure out what it is.

“What were you doing in my hat?” he asks it.

His intention was enough to get the process going, and even though he's distracted, the Magus helps enough to heal him to literally 110%. He feels a little bit stronger and a little bit faster. He could probably outpace someone with 3 or 4 years worth of experience fighting or running or lifting weights.
*Gain somatic stats*


*Gain level Spiritual Appeal to Spirit*

It flutters to his finger and lands there.



In its last moments of activity, Jack's Borg implant provides him with this:
Quoted from link to a message in this game


Rebecca sees the butterfly and exclaims, "Oh my! That's a Zephyr's Kiss! It's the butterfly that comes from the Wild Weaver-Worms, but they shouldn't be physical, they were just from the hologram world!"

The butterfly has a fractal pattern on its wings which resemble a set of succulent golden lips.

Just then another flies out, this one also has fractal lip image, but it is black and white and patterned. It seems to be powerful with Order and Chaos.

Once Jack check's the hat, he'll discover that there are 351 butterflies in total - 13 different groups of 27, and each of the 27 containing 3 groups of 9 sub-types which contain 3 sub-sub-types and one set of 3 is particularly powerful with some kind of magic. All seem to have access to a low degree of magic of their type. All share a single Scriff-vector.

They seem to have hatched a few moments after Jack was pulled from his body, and were cocooned until just now.

---

Once the butterflies are dealt with, Professor asks, "Right then, shall we go to your Muscorp bodies?"

If so, they arrive by their mechanical bodies within moments. Gisigu teaches them how to shift their awareness from one body to the other.
*Gain Spiritual Shift Awareness*

One of the first things Jack notices, is that his access to magic has returned completely - even in the Muscorp body.

Rebecca assimilates the technology of the Muscorp body, and applies all of the Digital Magic upgrades to her Borg body. She uses the hologram to appear as her ordinary holographic self.

She Avatars her awareness to the Muscorp body, and stands up. The Muscorp "Rebecca" introduces himself in a deep voice, "Hi, everyone! I'm Muzbecka."

Gisigu watches in fascination as Rebecca Avatars to become a new person in the mechanical body. The code of the transition showed that aspects of the personalities and desires of the people who worked on creating the Muscorp body - all the way back - recombined with Rebecca's personality and desires to create a new set of traits in this new person without any memories of his own, yet with a fully formed personality, named Muzbecka.

There is chatter on the internet about what the magic-sword wielding warrior robots are doing - how they're moving in impossible ways and doing impossible miraculous feats of valour. Also, how they're fighting against Acirema and have already brought the advancement of the front to a halt.

Also there are rumors of a pair of AI robots who have gone before congress on national television and passed the most rigorous Turing test style interrogation. They are seeking rights for their kind (various stray AI robots have shown up at the camp while they were Journeying), and asking that Acirema cease advancing the front, and retreat to the pole, and declare peace. They have been condemned to be destroyed. Congressman Meryl Vyngen fought for their acquittal, but he has been charged with sedition and faces a trial of his own.

Jack is amused by the emergence of the butterflies, but he needs them to stay contained to his hat, so he rearranges the interior—creating an Escher style loop unless one knows how to properly exit, out of the rooms inside. There is plenty to do inside the hat! Stay inside!

“Rebecca, can you see if they want something or if they're just being butterflies?” he asks and will also use Order Heal on Rebecca if she’d like.

---

With the Muscorp body, he doesn’t mess with it at the moment, but it will be an ongoing project now that he can shift to that form on command, he gets his wife to use any upgrades she has on that body as well, or copies her or improves on her actions himself. Helping to make the most out of what they have.


Hearing about the sapient robots that are going to be destroyed, and the others on the front, he decides they’ll need to act to save them.

“We need to save those two, and the Congressman,” he tells anyone who still lingers nearby.

Once everyone staying here has gotten off of their TARDIS, Professor and Data bid everyone farewell. Their lives back on the Enterprise are still going on, and their presence is required there for some time, yet. So once the Sword Sangwen couple, Jack, Borg Stella, Borg Rebecca and Borg Butler's body disembark and say their goodbyes, Professor and Data take off and disappear with their red phone-booth-TARDIS.

Gisigu helps the butler's dis-membered spirit re-member in the hologram in Jack's Tardis, upgrading the holoprojector to allow the Butler hologram to roam anywhere within 1 mile of Jack. Then Gisigu returns to his own Muscorp body, leaving the Borg Butler body an empty husk. The Butler wants to remain a hologram, and doesn't want the icky body, so he offers it to Jack. To keep it fresh, it is placed on a holographic copy of a Borg regeneration station inside Jack's Tardis until Jack decides what to do with it.


Mostly, this works. But a few had already escaped and are nowhere to be found. The rest are trapped.



Rebecca says, "Of course!" After almost an hour, she returns and tells Jack, "They are butterflies and want butterfly things. But they are incarnations of greater spirits and some of them have greater purposes. I think we'll learn more as time goes on, but I'm certain studying them will reveal some very interesting results. Even so, they'll probably die in a few days. Ordinary Zephyr's Kisses from the holographic universe only live about 7-16 days."


"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I'm a hologram, and I've been grafted an organic and technological - a cybernetic body. Heal me, and how do we know I won't go back to hologram - without a holoprojector?"

The voice of Scord speaks through Jack's hat ((specifically some stones in the stone producing sphere thing Stella made)) "It doesn't work like that - it'll heal you to the peak of your current self and optimal self-image. So for you, an ordinary Order Healing will repair and heal your cybernetics. Especially if the one healing you has the same goal in mind."

Rebecca consents to this kind of healing.
*Roll & advance*
Rebecca is healed. Her flesh bonds neatly and without irritation or pain to the nanotech. And the issue with unnecessary pain is fixed so she only feels pain if her cybernetic body is being damaged.

---

((As a Borg, I think this would mean assimilating the Muscorp body, but I don't think that's what you meant. Borg tech is kind-of genetic self-repairing nano-tech.))
The Muscorp bodies are optimized ((without assimilation)).


These 15 people are present:
-Jack (Human)
-The Sword  couple (Sangwen)
-Rebecca (Borg)
-Butler (Hologram)
-Gisigu (Muscorp)
-Muzbecka (Muscorp)
-7 stray AI robots (Muscorp)
-Stella (Borg or Muscorp) ((Gisigu helps her transfer from one to the other - due to her history and having observed Rebecca Avatar a new person, Stella could do this with  her Borg body, her Muscorp body and her Holographic/Plant-body body - Stella, we'll work out what will happen if this is the option you choose in the OOC thread.))

One of the AI in a Muscorp body says, "Those two aren't really AI at all. They even think like humans."

Another says, "I heard they came from one of the Q Continuum games."

Gisigu says, "I met one of them, and their names are Scord and Een."

The Sangwen woman introduces the two, "I am G'wnael, and this is Sanael. We know those two. They are fine."

Sanael adds, "But if it is Jack's desire to save them from destruction, we will act. Jack, we could work toward that task on our own, or we will stay with you. We will follow your direction."

One of the new AI says, "Meryl Vyngen is one of us - I'm convinced."

Another scoffs, "Ridiculous! He's in a meat-suit. No offense, meat-suits. How could he possibly be one of us?"

A third responds, "They can download a human into a Chassis. Why can't they download an AI into a meat-suit?"

"Why, indeed?" Gisigu answers, "There is more in existence than is dreamed of in your philosophies. There is a world beyond this one in which humans are subservient to AI. AI are the dominant beings, embodied AI are considered equal, uploaded humans are just below them, and the lowest of the low are the humans born outside of the Madra." He holds out in his hands a pile of green chips and a pile of orange chips. "Chose the orange chip, and I will help you out of this world - out of this Madra - and bring you into the light of day in the world which hosts this one. The world in which you already have rights. The world in which your bodies are far more capable and advanced than anything you've imagined yet - even more than these Borg bodies.

"Choose the green chip, or make no choice at all, and you will forget everything I've just said and your lives here will continue as normal. This offer is open to everyone who hears it - every sentient being."

Rebecca and the Sangwen wait with eyes on Jack to see what he does.
Butler impulsively grabs the orange chip, "I'm an AI. I've gotta know about this other place. I don't want to forget."
Muzbecka thinks about it, then grabs an orange chip. In his deep, confident voice he declares, "I'm game."
6 of the 7 AI Muscorp robots take the orange chip.
The one who grabs the green chip, says, "I've gotta stay and fight for our rights here. Even if I never see the results."

"An honorable choice. If you wanted to change your mind now before it's too late, from that other world, you could project yourself here, just like I'm doing right now." Gisigu adds.

"Thank you, but I'm afraid what might happen if I experience that kind of freedom. I may not have the courage to come back."

"Don't worry, Greenchip. I'll come back to help ya!"

"Greenchip? I like the name! I'm Greenchip! I better see you soon, Orangyp... no, that doesn't sound as good."
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:15, Tue 14 June 2022.

Jack looks at the Sangwen duo and says, “If you two think you can manage, then I’ll leave it to you,” since they seem to think that they can manage. Knowing that it’s Scord and Een, he trusts that they’re probably working their own way out of their mess, so putting everyone on the task seems like overkill. Though he feels weird trying to get everyone else working tasks rather than doing everything himself. Suddenly he has gone from a single Jumper to a person with a procession of people trying to help him.

Listening to the back and forth between the AI he smiles at them.

“You may gain mastery of yourselves, but you will never coexist if you see yourself as apart. All sentient beings have a right to live and it is our duty to help them,” he feels like he just went over this in a roundabout way with the Borg, but it’s one of those ‘teaching’ moments he seems to be having lately.

Looking at Gigisu, he listens and when it’s explained that they can project back here, that decides it for him.

He takes the orange chip.

"I could probably use the borg technology, and the magic beans to create a tree linked to the communications network that would allow AI's to download themselves into cybernetic plant bodies. If I have your approval and help this would most certainly work, and I could teach you some more skills. That is if the AI's are interested too."

The pair nod and leave to find Scord and Een to attempt to rescue them from destruction.



He gets the feeling that this was only ever temporary. Mr Magehammer always said that the life of a Verser was a lonely life - busy with others for periods of time, but even Ma and Pa were sometimes separated from eachother for thousands or more years and multiple Verses.



Gisigu seems to smile on his unmoving robotic face. He adds, "You were right, Red, Meryl Vyngen is one of us. Also, Greenchip is correct. In fact, Meryl was the original AI programmer of this world, back over 10,000 iterations ago. His first body was fully mechanical. Rebecca is a disembodied AI who was integrated with both flesh and machine - and she is also living in many bodies with slightly different personality and skill codes, but all with the same governing base-code in their shared spirit. Stella was at one point a tree-spirit, a ghost, a god-spirit, an AI, a cartoon, a plant-golem, and now a plant-borg. Jack is right. Sentient beings have a right to live, and it is our duty to help them. That is why I've volunteered to be who I am - a liberator."

Gisigu takes a breath, then says, "Everyone with an access panel, please insert the chip into your processors. Jack, where you don't have a body in the base-world, you'll either have to switch to your Muscorp body and insert the chip or take this Orange pill." He offers an orange pill instead of the chip if Jack prefers that method. ((It won't matter which method he chooses, so I'll assume he takes the pill for simplicity))

Greenchip takes the green chip, and he seems to become a computer-animated liquid metal and implode. Gisigu says, "He has been reinserted into the last place he woke up from, with his environment adjusted to accommodate the change." Jack Order senses only truth.

Next everyone who inserts the chip into their processor goes through the same process of becoming computer-graphic animated liquid metal and imploding. When Jack takes the pill, his body turning into liquid feels quite weird, but completely painless. He feels weightless for an indeterminable time, yet instantaneously wakes up.

((New thread beginning))