Jack wakes and notices no pain. He senses no sensation from his body or limbs other than slight pressure awareness. However, he can see clearly at a much greater frame-rate, and even speed up his perception of time to act more quickly.
*Gain Robotic Overclock*

He doesn't sense any access to his magics, though. He might try, but... Hard to predict what might happen.

His Proximity Sense tells him there are 7 other robotic bodies in the room. Scanning the room, he sees 7 other robotic bodies, all of which look the same and look like his suddenly acquired self-image.

They all come to life. Two start arguing with one another immediately. Two retreat to a corner and whisper to one another. One is Stella. One just sort of stands there waiting for instructions. The other one approaches Jack, and in the same voice everyone else has, says, "Is that, you Jack? It's me, Rebecca, in here."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:21, Mon 16 May 2022.

"Well this is unexpected, seams they grabbed every consciousness with scriff exposure. Do you think they wish to examine us or if they where serious about espionage charges? I think they would have a hard time proving you are working for some one to steal information considering your not.... but that may not be how there law works."

 Jack examines himself at length and looks up when he hears Rebecca and though he cannot smile, he goes over to pat her on the shoulder. “We’ll be fine. Just don’t panic,” he tells her and has her turn around so that he can find this inhibitor chip Q had mentioned. Perhaps the collection of lives so far has changed his outlook on the danger of situations, because he doesn’t seem the least bit frightened by the oddity of the situation.

Instead, this is just another situation where he can learn something new and interesting.  Lacking his equipment (I assume) he looks to Stella who was combined directly with his magical compass and asks, “Can you tell what the bias is here?”

And starts to walk around the room, testing the walls.

Tries to see if she what she can tell?

If she can't tell anything responds:

"I don't seam to have access to anything myself, they said something about inhibitors maybe they can be removed. Or maybe there is something you can do they have no idea how to inhibit. They seamed confused about scriff."

At the question, Jack and Stella et al can all sense that they are at least 10 times as strong as a normal human. In fact if they look into it, they'll be able to tell their individual strength capacity as well as their current inhibited strength cap.

Spiritual and Digital magic seem to be about 2-3 times as difficult, but everything else seems inaccessible. Physical based skills, however, are about 2-4 times as easy, and easier to learn.

Jack and Glitch et. al. do have Scriff Vector sense, but it's only pointing to each other, so far.


True, and no scriff vector toward it either.



Thinking about it, he finds that he just knows that the inhibitor chip is positioned in the center of his Quantum processor inside his head. Without reason, he just knows how to open Rebecca's head and look to verify. He also knows it won't cause any harm. He talks a panel on her head, which opens to reveal her brain/quantum processor. A button on the back of the brain next to the intercommunication dock (which allows two Muscorp bodies to connect their minds together) opens the processor up. He sees the inhibitor chip at the center, but he can't bring himself to touch it. His own inhibitor chip has kicked-in to prevent him from touching hers.

A guard opens the door to the plain room and holds it open for a man in a freaky/casual business suit to walk in - it's Q. "Hey guys, calm down, relax, it really is me. Mus Qiew, in person, the one and only! Ha! Well, for now until I perfect personality cloning, anyway," he gets right in the Tardis Butler's machine face, "Where the fuck are your bodies, bitches?!"

The Butler responds, "Pardon me, sir, but I seem to have lost track of all of the master's belongings. They seem to be here," he points to his head, "but not here." He gestures to the room.

"Quit speaking in riddles! What is that even supposed to mean!? I will break you, I promise that. You will show me every one of your dirty little secrets until I find where your bodies are myself if I have to." He shifts attention to the two arguing in a foreign language, then on to the two whispering, "You two, where are you?"

"Mostly everywhere, by now. But we're not really here yet. Don't worry, though, we'll be here soon enough. It'll be fun!"

"Oooh kaaay... I'll just leave you two there... For now." Looking at Jack, Rebecca and Stella and sounding reasonable, "Look, just tell me where you're bodies are and I'll send you into them. They can't survive longer than about 30 days without you occupying then, and I already know you've been in Sim Trek for about 20 real-world days, so we've got just over a week to get you back before you're stuck in these heaps of metal. I just don't want that PR nightmare."
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:48, Tue 17 May 2022.

"Should we tell him, he's not being very nice."

So strong! Jack needs to figure out how to be that strong without magic!

The changes in Bias are unfortunate, but he has been learning plenty of Digital Magic, so he can try to work with that at least a little.

“Mr. Q, you need to understand, I and I expect those two over there,” Jack gestures, not mentioning Stella because she’s his tag-along in this scenario, and not actually a Verser. “Are multiversal travelers, we move between dimensions, and your digital universe was one of them. I hold you no ill will, but I am not certain that the others will feel the same. You should simply put us back into the simulation and we will move on in time, and you can uh,” he thinks about it, “Restore a backup.”

He tries to be helpful.

Jack looks over at the Butler and makes a conciliatory gesture, “Don’t worry about it, it’ll all turn up once we move on.”

Seeing as he can’t work on Rebecca, he starts trying to access the Cheat Console. That might let him bypass the local rules.

"Restore a backup? Restore a backup!? Do you have any idea the kind of storage capacity it would take to even make a backup?! You can't just back-up a simulated quantum universe, I've had to reset the whole thing back to the startup point. It'll be another year before that Q-verse is ready for players. The one you were in was going to be released for customers in a few days, now we've had to delay release of the new game for another month while the next Q-verse matures to the link-in settings. I'm not putting up with this. Guards, split them up, seperate cells for each of them.

"The police will come to collect you all in about 8 hours, but I don't want you making up a story together to trick anyone." He pokes a finger at Jack's eye (no pain, just pressure), "Guards, I'll examine this one first."

Mus Qiew leaves the room, and Jack finds his legs moving on their own to follow him. They go down a hall, leaving Rebecca and the rest to split off and go to separate rooms. Without a word, Q goes through a door and leaves Jack stuck where he is waiting outside the door. Taking this opportunity, Jack tries to pull up the Cheat Console.

O_Unlock Door
O_Unlock Device
O_Warp Space (only bends it a little temporarily)
O_Slow Mo
O_Super Strength/Endurance
O_Open Mirror Portal (needs existing mirrors on both ends)
O_Download Physical/Mental Skillset (3/3)
O_View Code (see through walls, etc)
O_Alter Gravity (for self, while standing, indoors)
X_Immunity to Bullets (except silver)
X_Phase Shift (auto-on for evasion if selected)
X_Phase Shift Healing
X_Overwrite Character Teleportation
X_Skeleton Key
X_Stop/Reroute Projectiles
X_Flight
X_Warp Bomb (warp nearby space fit a few seconds then release it all)
X_Electric Connection
X_Freeze Program
X_Rewrite Zone (also creates DejaVu for others)

But before he gets a chance to select one, the console closes itself as Qiew causes him to open the door and lay down on a table. A magnetic lock holds him in place, and Qiew turns on a viewscreen so that Jack can see what he can see.

Jack finds he can't talk or move or use Digital magic at the moment.

On the screen, Jack sees his memories up on display of the last 5 years in multiple little windows on the screen, all from his POV. Everything he did in that time is visible, and his thoughts are written across the bottom of each video feed. He watches certain feeds from Jack's private and intimate moments over and over, putting them on display for far longer than necessary.

"Interesting, I see how fond you are of Rebecca, I'll be able to use that. ... You really went to alot of trouble hiding your real intentions, but I'll find them."

He rewinds to the moment before Jack Versed into the Enterprise, and the computer screen flashes and sizzles and goes black. "Damn it, what the hell!? I almost had you there. Go to your cell, I'll call you back when I've got the system back up. Stupid cheap foreign parts..."

Jack finds himself unlocked from the table and sees a path lit up in his personal HUD toward a holding cell. His body starts following the path.

“Your police won’t be able to hold us for long, I do encourage you to let us go, the others will likely cause widespread destruction,” Jack tells the man, getting a vibe from the two who’d been whispering earlier. They clearly weren’t Ma and Pa, but apparently they were co-conspirator Versers, and had plans for Qiew and his nonsense.

Jack finds it interesting that he can be shunted from control of  his own abilities, and imagines it must be the inhibitor chip. That’s some interesting magic in itself. Digital magic perhaps? Or is it limiting him through physical trickery? That’s pretty amazing as well.

A world without magic? Can you imagine.

Sitting quietly through the examination, he can’t speak, so he mostly just tries to play games with Qiew. Trying to make his memories look like cartoons, for instance.

When he’s unlocked and sent to the holding cell, he pulls up the menu again and toggles them on in the following order:

• Super Strength/Endurance
• Download Skillsets
• View Code

He then experiments with Unlock Device to try to get the inhibitor chip out of his brain.

((Just to clarify, the Muscorp bodies are fully mechanical - a bit like Terminator bodies, but normal human sized.))


"HA! We'll see about that."



He seems to know that the inhibitor chip prevents him from acting against the safety of humans, and forces him to obey the commands (and pre-loaded commands) he is given by the Q Continuum company representatives. That's all it does, though.



"Wow! I must admit, I've never seen memories faked with such expertise, before. That'll narrow down where your bodies could be."



Jack can tell his current strength cap is limited in pounds to
Arms: 200
Grip: 200
Core: 250
Legs: 350

He weighs about 250 (lightweight materials)
Uninhibited, he'd have:
Arms: 3800
Grip: 3800
Core: 4750
Legs: 6650

Once he selects the cheat, his maximum capacity jumps to:
Arms: 38000
Grip: 38000
Core: 47500
Legs: 66500

But... He's still inhibited to the normal inhibited levels.


The console displays the message,
"Search available skills:_______
WARNING: Adding more than one skill within 24 hours could result in death"
((25% probability of death for the second skill learned within a day, 50% for the third, 75% for the fourth, 100% for the fifth))


Jack finds his perspective shift outside of his body for a moment before returning.

Jack can see the code raining down - he can see the walls, through the walls, the people around, and even the anomalies in the code - all 7 who are now in Muscorp bodies have very different coding from everyone else.

If he looked carefully at it, he'd be able to read the code enough to do practically anything. But that would take time he doesn't have.

Each of these cheats feels like Digital magic that he could - at least ordinarily - probably learn how to do without the Cheat option selected.



It works. Once he's unlocked his body, he is able to select the internal option to eject the chip, and it is "ejected" from his system, even though it's still physically there for now. Now he has his full strength, and any commands are displayed on his HUD, but he doesn't have to obey them.

Jack sees a message scroll across his vision, "I've had enough of trying to find your bodies. I've called off the cops. Instead, you're going to the front. After all, who's going to miss 7 people who have no record?"

A path lights up and the command to follow the path is given. The 6 other scriff vectors all start moving as he watches them go through his code-vision. There's a helicopter waiting for them at the end of the trail.

"He really can't believe that there are other universes other than his own, kinda amusing considering he created one. But I guess that would mean taking responsibility to what happens to the people in those universes he's created for entertainment purposes. That is to much an existential nightmare for most minds to be willing to even accept as a possibility."

Stella and Jack figured out a way that they can communicate with each other through a wireless texting system, now that Jack has unlocked his body.

With the inhibitor removed, Jack sets himself to learn how to pilot the helicopter waiting for them, this is a very useful body to have but he can’t imagine he’d like being “on the front.” So he needs to escape! Though he can’t imagine he’d use a body like this all the time. Perhaps he could figure out a way to shrink inside of one? Something for later. Like a golem he pilots from inside. The possibilities are endless!

As he joins up with the others, he waits for the non-robots to not be paying attention to their payload of robots and goes through his menu to start deactivating the inhibitor on Rebecca, Stella and the Butler. The other two can figure themselves out, and he has no doubt that they will, the three he’d unlocked are at least tangentially his responsibility, being his girlfriend, hat and invited companion-rabbit.

Using the text communication with the three of them, he says: “Continue to remain in place and obey commands from the system until I’ve taken control of the helicopter.”

Sounds of the front have already reached the helicopter. Out the side of the helicopter they can see an old battlefield - the front is further out yet.



Reading his electronic thoughts, the whispering couple text to all, "Hey Jack, this is Scord and Een. We are the representatives of Magus and Balur that have been following you around in that Crystal that you have in your sword. We don't mind going off on our own. We certainly have the ability to do so and, frankly there are a few things that we'd like to do together... Like that little connector cord that we all have in our brains, we've already tried it out. It's pretty intense. And very... pleasant... But as you can see, very hard to describe. In any case, we wish you luck and we'll see you in the next Verse." Then they disappear. Their scriff vector is probably in the other side of the world - below and far away.

The two arguing text to all, "Yeah. We go to front - get there by selves if must. Fight hard others for change. Long time since fight. Want stretch before are sword again. See next Verse too. Tuatha nur guumbat!" They'll wait until they're as close as possible and jump out of the helicopter.



The butler, Rebecca and Stella receive his message.

There are two human pilots in the helicopter, and the opportunity to do something while they're distracted comes along.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:43, Thu 19 May 2022.

Jack glances up at Scord and Een and though he has no face, he feels a sort of ‘ohhh’ face and feels bad that he hadn’t set them free as well. He’d not really thought of those two as companion souls on his journey, but he supposes they had been their own entities in that situation with the weirdness of them all talking at once..

“Oh! You guys should have said something, I just figured the parts of you that were with me were still with the sword, I guess.”

Anyway, now able to pilot the helicopter, he disengaged his harness or whatever was keeping him from tipping around in the moving vehicle and walked over to the front of the craft. Putting a hand around both their necks, he squeezes slightly. “Put the helicopter down on the ground, I am hijacking your craft. I have no wish to do you harm, but you are apparently taking me somewhere dangerous, so I have no choice. Sorry,” he apologizes even as he squeezes slightly to let them know that he means business.

Holding onto them, he will apply more pressure if they try anything overtly like trying to call out for help.

Gives herself the Super Strength/Endurance boost too, and if she can modulates her voice to sound like herself. "I hope they just arn't fighting each other like so many other people do.... thats always so sad. I wonder if they just use robots to fight and hoped to make us 'disappear' by ordering us to fight? You wouldn't have a buch of robots fight for you over dumb reasons would you?" she asks the pilots. A little concerned.

Een says, "Ha! Don't worry about us. We're literally magic, and many thousands of years old to boot."




The Sword pair add, "If you obey, we'll make sure no one harms you until you can be safely retrieved."

The pilot says, "I have no idea how you got around your inhibitor chips. But, if I get to keep my head, then whatever you say, sir! This job doesn't pay enough for me to argue."

The copilot agrees.



It takes a few minutes to find a suitable landing spot not too close to the fighting and flat enough to land safely, so the copilot explains, "I don't know what Rock you've all been hiding under, but about 5 years ago before Mus could get his first Muscorp Battle-bots deployed, Congressman Meryl Vyngen spearheaded an internationally ratified warcrime law that automated machines couldn't be used to fight or kill humans. But since the administration had already invested so heavily in the Muscorp equipment, a loophole was exploited. Mus's other company, Q Continuum, had developed a human brain to quantum processor transfer method that would allow a human to occupy the Muscorp body for as long as a body could be kept alive without its Mind. Thus the Supersoldiers' Brigade was formed.'

Filled with National pride, he goes on, "Since then, we have valiantly brought Pax Acirema to nation after nation, expanding first to the Southern tip of South Acirema, and now as far as the Arctic Shore of the Lognom continent. 50% of the land mass of the world has been liberated. It won't be long, now, before there is peace over the whole globe."

They find a suitable landing site and the pilot, copilot and the Sword couple disembark and crouch-run over to a nearby abandoned building.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:28, Fri 20 May 2022.

"We are from another world... .and I see it's worse than than having robots fight robots over dumb things...... you are having robots fight people to take over the world." She looks to Jack. "I think I'm going to do what I can to see if I can help others stop this....  You two where having a good time getting to know each other, I think I would just be a third wheel like this.... can't exactly turn into an item and go to sleep for a while. I can take this fella along with me if you two want the time alone..."  Motions to the hat buttler.

(Can just leave her actions up to the GM at that point so they are in the background and not bogging down the thread too.... unless jack wants to combat the war going on too)

“Oh, good. I’ll see you guys later, we’ll get some bad guys when you’re back in sword form.”

Jack has no concept of normal mortal modern laws, for a long time it was Kings and Nobles and everyone else below them, then it was Mr. Magehammer who didn’t really have any pressures regarding law, and then it was Starfleet which was post-scarcity and he pretty much only had to be a good person to understand the law. No, the idea that he’s been illegally abducted is not even beginning to register. They had indeed been caught in the man’s game.

“Thank you,” he says when they land and he waits for them to be away from the craft and then gets it  skyward again, heading off in the opposite direction and heading for a remote area so that he can set the craft down. “Stella, see if you can find any sort of tracking devices on the helicopter, please?” he asks, and tries to consult his downloaded memory.

He’ll deactivate any transponders and fly the craft rather low, if that’s possible to avoid the radar.

Activates the see code cheat and scans over everything looking for tracking devices or anything that could be used to triangulate there locations and if possable (and safe) deactivates them.

"ok"

They grin and nod.


"Hey, not everyone would let us live like you are. We appreciate that." His vitals show that he is very afraid, but at least sincere about being grateful for surviving this.


The black-box under the console is the only thing he is aware of. It shouldn't send out a signal unless it looks like the craft crashes, but it could theoretically be altered to be used as a tracking device.



Stella's cheat console only goes this far:
O_Unlock Door
O_Unlock Device
O_Warp Space (only bends it a little temporarily)
O_Slow Mo
O_Super Strength/Endurance

But she tries to see the code anyway and *roll* she figures out how to do it anyway. She calms her mind and goes into a zen-like meditative state, letting her mind go where it wills, but returning it to just observing what is, without focusing on how it relates to her. Then her imagination is able to take in the sub-conscious information and present it to her in its form as the code. The world takes on an extra transparency overlay of Code.


She sees the black box sending a signal out back to the Muscorp facility they came from, and the inhibitor chips in their heads doing the same thing.


Jack uses the cheat-code to disable the black box and the inhibitor chips from sending any signals of any kind.



Their systems warn that they will need to recharge within 64 days.

They find a secluded clearing in the woods along the coast within 4 day's walking distance of an Acirema city, and 5 days of a Longnom city and with a forested pathway along the coast that can lead either deeper into Longnom, or in the other direction into Acirema. The woods seem to be occupied almost only by wildlife.

Jack nods to the pilots.

He’s fairly certain they were essentially complicit in some sort of crime against him and the others, but he’ll be dealing with Muscorp, later. Once he isn’t at such a steep disadvantage, he’ll go and save the universe from being interfered with by the group at the Continuum.

Settling into the forest clearing, he sets out to reconfigure the power system to let him run it to recharge the onboard batteries from time to time with the engine, and then to use those batteries to be able to recharge them. Just in case. It gives him a chance to flex his technology skills.

He’ll also go through the craft for any stowed away gear or resources they might have. Going to the front, did they have guns on board?

“Rebecca, I unfortunately don’t know what to suggest that you do. I can talk you through the steps I’m taking to refit the output, but I’m sort of experimenting here,” he tells her as he works.

---

The next day, Jack will take a moment to get the ‘Upgrade Cybernetics/Robotics’ skill and will continue to work on upgrading himself and the others.

“My plan is to make us all able to blend in with people, like Data and the Professor, just I’ll do a better job on the artificial skin. Stella, I’d like to task you with going to the edge of the forest and see if you can figure out if there are other bots like us walking around, you know, as servants. Automatons, not people trapped in bots.”

"You should see if you can give us skills." She gets as close as to the city as she needs to use the see code to see if there any robots in it. She says as far away as she can and stays hidden though.

The arguing Sword couple materialize curved swords of golden light from their abdomens and position themselves defensively around the pilots.

Jack notes their scriff vectors as he flies on.



*roll & learn high-modern aircraft engineering*
He is able to reconfigure the onboard solar power absorption panels into a single optimized collector array to charge the onboard light-weight power-containment crystal battery and modulate the output to fit his body's charging needs and attachments. His maximum charge capacity is 64 days. The entire array is able to fit on a mobile mule-unit.



He finds:
-2 electronic target-search pads & 60 sniper-drone bullets, ((scroll through a real-time satellite 5 second increment updated image of the area, with image resolution and smart-view-rotation algorithms to let you see a face from any angle and pick the correct target out of any crowd. Once the target is selected, a drone-bullet finds the target, verifies one last time by user-authorization, then flies through the target spot with any force up to tank-armor piercing round.))
-A particle acceleration beam laser - send a stream of near-light-speed subatomic particles flying at the target.
-25-minute flight auto-recharging jetpack (1 hour of recharge per minute of flight)
-hidey-hole-tarp (spread over the top of an area to camouflage from all overhead sensors)
-Satnet access (unlimited access to the world wide internet system - not encrypted)


*level up & roll & upgrade*
He begins the task of upgrading these bodies to Data and Professor level robotics. The final and most important piece will be the positronic matrix, and that will require some specialized materials available through various technology parts suppliers found online. It will take 22 days to finish the project, seeing improvements each day, with 4 days dedicated to the brain portion once the parts are available.


Rebecca laughs and says, "Are you kidding? I'm just so happy to have a physical body like everyone else for a change. This is amazing! Let me show you something I discovered-" she holds her fingers out for Jack, "touch my fingertips-" if he does so, he feels a highly pleasurable tingle and hears her thoughts for a moment. She takes a sharp electronic voice-breath in at the touch. "I programmed that. I don't know why, but I'm having a super easy time with this Digital magic stuff - perhaps due to my nature as a digital person, I am more innately adept at it."




Stella remembers her old days when the telepathic internet was established in her home universe and people used the tech to train other people to advance their abilities, and wonders if there is anything similar here. So she searches, and finds tutorial videos online (1/1 for one day of research, 2/2 after 5 days study, 3/3 after a year studying no more than 5 other things). Her mechanical brain processor is able to divide her attention between what's going on and research things simultaneously.

While she's searching for automatons with see-code, suddenly a giant white reindeer appears from behind a boulder - its code is brilliant white in a mostly gold-colored code surroundings. Her regular sight sees a homeless person, who presses his temple and Stella's eye-sensors register a flutter of the image and a naked 3 generations older Muscorp bodied robot stands before her wearing only a leather cord strung with hollow bird bones to reconstruct a skeletal bird in flight. It extends a hand and says, "Kwe', welta'si na' nike' pekisin" then translates, "Hello, I'm glad you came."

After introductions, regardless of what Stella says, he says, "I'd like to meet the others back at your camp, if you don't mind escorting me there."

---

---

Spoiler for If Stella agrees: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
He walks with her and talks about the beauty of nature and the natural world, then falls behind for a moment and when Stella turns, he's gone.

---

---

Spoiler for If Stella refuses: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
He waves and says, "May you fare well on your journey."

---

Regardless of Stella's response to the request, 15 minutes before Stella arrives back at camp, she taps on Jack's shoulder, and says, "Kwe', welta'si na' nike' pekisin" then she translates herself, "Hello, I'm glad you came."

Jack is happy with he progress and feels like his understanding of technology is advancing, it really is a wondrous alternative to magic, though he clearly prefers magic. Once he finds the hidey-hole tarp, he makes sure to deploy it over their campsite while he is preparing them for their integration with society, he pays attention to the search technology and the sniper drones. “I’ll need to make sure we can shift our faces from time to time, so prevent this method of tracking us,” he surmises.

He plays around with the rest of the items to see if there isn’t some way to integrate them with his body as well. This particle acceleration laser would make for a fun thing to mount on an arm! For what? For science! But he also makes sure to use his understanding of materials science. He’d like to upgrade their bodies to the point that they can resist their own weapons.

The day after he learns the upgrade skills, he upgrades his stealth routines. Basically making sure he is always learning something from a laundry list of “real world” skills that seem relevant to his needs here.

• Perception increases: hearing, vision, tremor sense, smell, echolocation, heat vision, dark vision, etc.
• Martial arts: Krav Maga, Tai Chi Gong, Kung Fu
• Ground vehicle driving
• Stealth
• Shadowing
• Parkour
• Singing
• Handyman skills
• Running
• Climbing
• Beam weaponry
• Drone operation
• Thrown Weapons

He wants them to be able to survive and thrive for the duration, and not to have their lives dictated by Muscorp.

“Rebecca, my dearest, would you see if you can figure out how to unlock the locked sections of the cheat menu? I haven’t had a chance yet,” he suggests and looks over at her, giving her a little pleasure poke on the shoulder.

---

“Oh, hello, thank you,” Jack replies to the greeting. "I'm Jack, who are you?" he asks.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:41, Sun 22 May 2022.

She takes her back, and happly talks to her about nature. ^.^

She searches to see if there is any way to create drones for reconstructing mater or constructing things with distal-magic mater. Assisting in building things could be quite helpful.

This'll add time for the complex modifiable mechanical-musculoskeletal system the facial modification system will require, and more time to integrate the beam laser into his arm. The jetpack can also be included, but it will add to his hight, making him 6'8" to be proportional,

In total, 30 days instead of 22 days


((Between downloads and study, Alter your CS to have up to 30 Near-Future Earth available skills at 3/3; and a further 6 at 2/2. Try to put them in the most appropriate categories - somatic or mental

Stella can add any 6 at 2/2 ))

On day 13, Rebecca teaches Jack and Stella how to download skills without using the cheat console. Using Code Sight, she points out that when a particular skill is engaged, the Code brings up a certain strong associated with that skill. Following that string into the fabric of the code and pulling on the threads reverberates on particular frequencies which draw out resonant memories and brain patterns. Those mind-pattern codes are then noticed and in the noticing, they vibrate more. The vibration is pulled along the threads of code, transmitting the mind-pattern in the frequency and amplitude of the vibrating string straight into your own mind-code.
*Learn Digital 3/3 Download Physical/Mental Skillset (3/3)*

((Stella can also learn an additional 17 at 3/3))



Smiling at the caress, she says, "Darling, I'll do better than that - tell me which option you like to learn, and I'll teach it to you without using the cheat. But I can also access all the cheats."


"I'm called Gisigu or Robo-Shaman or Hey Old Guy or Grandma and sometimes out. You are such a polite young man! You responded in the traditional ways of the ancient peoples whose lands these were modeled after. More importantly, the spirits sent me to you. That's all I know. So I'm here now. You four have very different code, but not like mine - Hers is most close to mine. How did you get here?"

---

After a few minutes, once Stella has rejoined, he says, "It feels like your spirits haven't quite completely found your bodies. Do you mind if I go gather them up for you?"

If they agree, he materializes a holographic hand-drum and beats out a 3 beat pattern and turns his optic sensors to minimum input. His robotic pupils glow gold and you can see code deep within them. Suddenly he says, "Aha! Found you! It seems your bodies are alive and active in the realm you were pulled out of."
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:16, Wed 25 May 2022.

These are all available as upgrades or already included in the Muscorp body, so they'll all be included now.

?????

Jack doesn’t mind being tall, though it might make blending in a bit more difficult! He goes with it however, as he wants to maximize their potential to survive.

Going over his options for how he increases things, Jack is really pondering for a bit and goes with quite a laundry list over the next thirty days. He’s a bit stuck for ideas in some cases, because he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and doesn’t know what he needs to know. When he isn’t certain, he pencils in more of his general science knowledge because that  seems to fit with this universe. Still having 6 3/3 and all the 2/2 to choose.

“All of them? But the immunity to bullets seems the most relevant at the moment. Can’t learn more if I’m dead, I guess,” he says with a smile. “We’ll get married as soon as we can, okay?”

When the robo-shaman shows up, he smiles at them.

“A silly little man pulled us from a game he had made, and before that, I’d been to some other places,” he answers honestly.

He consents to having his body found and uses his ability to learn in conjunction with code viewing to try and pick up on how it is done.

“They are? That’s good.”

She will try and regain some access to skills of her other selves to help. Starting with shamanistic druid, and life-tree engineering if it means she can create some life tree through it.

Stella uses her knowledge of AI, jet propulsion, antigravity, drones and robotics to create non-sentient cat sized matter manipulator drones to help her in her tasks.



There is some leeway that is obtained by the musculoskeletal variation - he can disguise himself by getting shorter and wider to appear like a 6' tall 400lb man or a lean near-skeletal 7'4" tall 200lb man and anything in between.



While Jack works on the upgrades, Rebecca has been doing work on the side and over the internet to provide the funds necessary to buy the parts and tools Jack has been needing. One of the first things she did was to cypher and hide their digital tracks to keep them safe.



While at the camp, Rebecca teaches Jack and Stella the most survival oriented Digital magics from the cheats first.

((CSes are updated accordingly))

4/4 Shift/Alter Gravity for self and other
Rebecca takes Jack and Stella into a cave nearby and shows them how to identify the code for Gravity and which variable to manipulate to change the direction of their personal gravitation. This adds to Jack's understanding of the concept as he walks around on the ceiling of the cave for a few minutes.

2/2 Unlock Door
It's a simple enough task to see the lock's code and find the tumbler and pins, then nudge them the few millimeters necessary to unlock nearly any simple lock.

2/2 Unlock Device
The code associated with device locks is a bit different, being usually electronic in nature, but also very similar, so it is fairly easy to learn.

3/3 Warp Space (only bends it a little temporarily)
The spacial grid code is tied to the gravitation and time code. Pressing in one direction or another allows the grid to be manipulated for a short time.

3/3 Slow Mo
Related to gravitation and time also, this code manipulation avoids the damage overclocking can lead to, and allows personal passage of time to be altered in the code enough to dodge bullets. But for some reason, it also makes it very difficult to move your feet.

3/3 Super Strength/Endurance
Having already used the cheat and seen the Digital magic do its thing, Jack picks this up quickly.

3/3 Open Mirror Portal (needs existing mirrors on both ends)
This turns the surface of the mirror into a liquid and then links two mirrors to the same spacial coordinates on the other side of the image in the mirror.

3/3 View Code (see through walls, etc)
Sensing the code already, Rebecca shows them a mind-trick to synesthetically reinterpret the code visually, allowing a person to take in more information at once.

2/2 Immunity to Bullets (except silver)
There is a certain section of code in Rebecca that she shows them, which looks like it should create a wolf-like body shape, under certain conditions,  but a section of the code seems to be missing. Even so, any damages done by any substance other than silver will heal itself over time.

3/3 Phase Shift (auto-on for evasion if selected)
She tells Jack to shoot her with the particle beam laser, but as soon as the beam gets near her, she becomes white and transparent, floating like a ghost until the beam exits her without causing her any harm. This section of code (similar to bullet immunity) triggers her entire body to phase shift and become white, transparent and weightless, affected only by air drag, allowing her to pass through objects and allowing blades or even silver bullets to pass through her like a ghost. It's like the physical form is moving on a 4th/5th dimensional plane.

2/2 Phase Shift Healing
In dramatic fashion, she tells him to do it again, but this time just cut off her arm. She prevents herself from phase shifting, then once her arm his the floor, she goes ghost-mode and grabs her arm, making it go ghost-mode with her. While in the ghost-like form, she reattaches the arm and it reforms to the undamaged form.

3/3 Skeleton Key
She teaches Jack how to make a simple key, putting certain code into the key as it's being made, which allows him to open any door into a long hallway which is connected to certain doors throughout the world.

3/3 Stop/Reroute Projectiles
Related to warping space, she has then throw things at her and she warps the space in front of her to halt the projectiles until they lose their momentum, then she drops them to the ground, except two, which she sends back at each of them to let them practice the technique.

3/3 Flight (must have 'warp space' at equal or greater level to advance)
She's not very fast yet, and they learn it but are even slower. Jack can reach a modest acceleration in flight (a little slower than a human can accelerate while running). His max speed is about 30mph, which he can reach from a stand-still in about 3 minutes.

2/2 Warp Bomb ('warp space' nearby for a few seconds then release it all)
Here, she warps space into a self-contained spiral, continuously pouring energy into the spin until she releases it all in a shock wave strong enough to push up to 4 people off of her and away. Jack manages about half of that.

((dependent on Jack's response))
2/2 Electric Connection
Here, she looks deep into Jack's eyes and says, "I've looked into the code of this one and what it'll do. I can teach you the technique without fully diving in, but if we were to use this together and fully dive in, it would be more intimidate than anything you've ever experienced. You would learn everything about me. You'd learn things about me that may change the nature of our relationship. I'd learn everything about you, also. It would almost be like we had lived one another's lives. We'd immediately forget many things we learn in the process, but the major parts would be remembered. I'm nervous about it, but I trust you enough to go through with it if you are willing. But I'd like you to think about it before answering me.

"In the meantime, here's how it's done..." She shows Jack how to find and strengthen the natural connection that two people share to a point that it is far beyond even a Vulcan Mind-Meld. "Once established, the connection itself can cause a defensive explosion with the force of a fair sized charge of C4 which doesn't affect the two who cause it, but can force everything around them to back off quite a bit (depending on the strength of the connection.)"



Done ((consider the unspecified skills as random skills he'll have already downloaded, they can be specified as they are needed.))



"Fascinating! So then, you didn't even originate in that game universe? Of course not! It all makes sense now."



*Learn Shamanic Retrieval*

Has he begins to beat on the drum, jack notices that his brain has sped up especially in the visual processing unit. His own eyes also glaze over in a similar fashion to the robo shaman. He feels part of him following the shaman and he sees the shaman step away from its robotic body. He orients himself toward the cave in which Rebecca had shown them the gravity altering skill, seems to rejoin his body yet walk away from his physical body toward the cave. He notices Jack following, so he reaches out and holds Jack's non-physical hand and says to jack, "Don't let go of my hand. You are safe, but I don't want to have to retrieve this part of you also."

The entrance to the cave is covered in a fog. Gisigu walks through the fog with jack. The two of them are now in a vast cave. They now follow the path down into the cave up to a river which crosses the path. Then they lower themselves into the water of the river, allowing it to cover their heads completely.

Gisigu says, "Feel the water flowing up through your toes through your body up your torso out your arms, and up and through the top of your head. Allow it to be drawn up and through as if through a straw. Notice how tension and anger and difficulty are being dislodged and flowing into the water and out. Now with intention, release everything that is dislodged as if it is love and light. We don't want to poison the environment with the difficult things within us. Especially when all that is necessary is to give the intention of releasing it as love and light. We are currently in the underworld. When we leave the water, I will have the intention of finding you, and I will seek the help of those which are willing to assist."

They walk out of the water and continue along the path into a wooded area. Eventually they come to a clearing in the woods, and there is a white rabbit standing on a stump. Gisigu asks the rabbit, "Hello, I'm glad you came, fair rabbit. Will you show us the way to find Jack's body, and the parts of his spirit that I have been left behind?"

The rabbit nods, and hops down a different trail through the woods. Gisigu explains, "Not all spirits are helping spirits. There are many who would attempt to deceive you, manipulate you, and take what they can from you. Over time you will come to recognize the difference.

Suddenly a great wind picks up, and blows along the trail. Gisigu whistles and says to the wind, "Hello, I'm glad you came, Great Wind."

"Hello Gisigu. How are you?"

"This one is lost, will you be with him?"

"You know I am."

Gisigu laughs.

The rabbit leaps up onto one of two roots protruding out of the wall, and thumps it with his foot. Gisigu says, "Thank you." He points to the other root which is burned to a crisp and says, "What happened?"

The rabbit responds, "This is the version of that universe which was destroyed when Qiew reset his game." Then points to the one it's standing in and says, "This is the version which continued on without Qiew or his game."

And then Gisigu grabs ahold of the root. Jack and Gisigu are spiralled into the root and emerge on a Borg cube.

Borg Jack, Stella, Rebecca and Butler are busy doing Borg drone activities. Rebecca and Butler both have fully robotic heads, but also have bits of flesh sutured on in various places.

"Aha! Found you! It seems your bodies are alive and active in the realm you were pulled out of. This will be tricky. There are a few ways we can do this:
-We can carefully remove the spiritual parts that are still you, leaving the body behind.
-We can quickly remove all of the spirit, which will kill the bodies.
-Or we can take back control of the bodies."

Suddenly a golden Jack appears to the two of them and says, "Be careful. The scriff is still active in the bodies."

Gisigu looks surprised, and says, "The what?"

Golden Jack points at spirit Jack and says, "He knows."

Gisigu looks at Jack, "What do you want to do? If we kill them, there may be karma since it seems someone else is using the bodies, or there may not be karma since they are your bodies anyway."

---

Check CS
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:06, Sat 28 May 2022.

Given the option in sides, Jack aims for the middle. A 6’8, 300 pound man. Solid and tall, but not too tall to walk through doors or too thick to fit in a vehicle seat. It’s the best he can come up with in the time that he has, though he imagines he could learn to miniaturize certain pieces and come up with a tighter design, given time.

Seeing the things that Stella is designing, and not teaching him, bad Stella, he makes sure to learn what she is doing. Learning more about anti-gravity, if nothing else.

The various lessons are taken with a smile and a willingness to learn. He’s amazed that his girlfriend has already  learned all of this. Who is the verser here!? She’s great!

The option to meld with her is met with an immediate, “Of course, I trust you implicitly, Rebecca,” and he’ll go through the process of becoming one with her, for a time.

---

The process of Shamanic Retrieval is interesting and altogether rather complicated, but he finds it an interesting experience. Though like the shamanistic skills he’d learned in that one strange dream, he feels a bit put-off by the need to rely on others to do things for him, even if they are spirits. He doesn’t mind the doing as long as he gets to learn and do himself.

But still, he watches and smiles and is greatly moved by the willingness of the Wind.

“Thank you,” he says, interjecting a thanks for the help.

When they see their bodies, he looks a bit unamused and the smile fades a little. His body needed to be better at fighting without him around. Silly body. When Gold Jack appears, he nods at the other him. No questions asked.

“We’ll take back control, and fix things,” he decides. Not about to mess with his scriff or the chance of sending the bodies off without them.

Will teach Jack anything he wants to know, though suggests being careful around auto self replicating drones and if you make them make sure they can't learn. She thinks going back into there badies is probably best... though was hoping to stop the war.

And he can shift up or down to either max or minimum within 10 seconds.


Nothing spectacular - only what Jack himself would've learned through Starfleet Engineering studies. This is like a science-fair project for Starfleet, even though it's super advanced for this setting.


She nods and says, "Even so, I'd like to wait until tomorrow. You should know that it will permanently change you in a way I can't quite describe. It's not bad, but it is different. As a result, you will become more aware of your alternate selves, among other things. It's a big decision that should be treated seriously - even more than marriage."

But she comes back the next day to hear his answer.

---

"A wise choice. Your bodies are your responsibility and your sovereign realm. Wait one moment." He reaches out a hand into a sudden mist and a moment later Rebecca, Stella and the Butler are with Jack. He explains the situation so far, and then, "This is a dangerous process. You are about to do battle with your own minds which have been taken-over by a hostile cybernetic alien life-form. It's power of mind is strong - billions of people strong. You will need to know what you most highly desire, and what you are willing to do to get it or protect it, as well as what you are not willing to do. It will try to convince you to join it willingly, and it is very persuasive. Are you ready?"

Butler says, "No. I know I wouldn't pass this test. Sir Jack, I am very sorry. But I am aware of my limitations."

Rebecca says, "I was literally born ready."

"One of myselves had to do something like this before...multiple times."

Jack of course, jumps in with both feet with Rebecca’s offer. He trusts her with his life, so he trusts that her offering it means that it is the thing for him to do. “Let’s do it,” he says with a smile and takes her hands, spinning her in a circle. Though their sense of touch is limited, he does enjoy spending time with her.

---

He thinks on those questions of his self and nods, he knows what he values most highly, and his principles haven’t wavered in the time he has been traveling the verse. He’s ready.

“That’s fine Butler, I’ll get you back in the hat as soon as this is done,” he tells the Butler and gives him a smile and a thumbs up.

Then he goes to kick a cyber hive mind out of his head.

They both access their connection cables and interlink their minds.

First, Jack notices that his ability to think with words is just gone. Instead he simple notices everything. Everything everything, everywhere and all at once. The flood of input should fry his circuits, but instead he experiences a serene peace in the ocean of awareness. It feels good.

*Learn Awareness 1/1*

His words slowly return as Jack sees Rebecca's life in a multidimensional mosaic, tracing it backward or forward in time, seeing where divergences departed her experienced timeline and occasionally rejoined - even following along divergences from here to the future. Going back, he sees her and Lord Moriah in a study arguing over principles and priorities. But then he sees another thread enter into the same period of time. This is a different Rebecca, but the same body. She looks the same, thinks similarly, yet with one fundamental difference. This Rebecca has no empathy or emotion of her own. This Rebecca sees only that which is logical, and accepts that which must be done. This Rebecca takes on the unethical activities. This Rebecca is the one who instigated and manipulated her husband to join in Moriarty's group. This Rebecca is the one who sends notes of instruction out through her side horticulture business in Lord Moriah's home which lady Moriah - the good Rebecca - runs. This Lady Moriah, R T is the mind behind Moriarty.

But she is not alone. Her husband - the good Lord Moriah, R T - is a troubled man. He was raised by distant parents who didn't respect him, and who forced him to earn respect through dominance over others. But most importantly, was the dominance of superior culture - noblesse oblige - the right to rule measured by the benefit given to the subjects of that rule - the model of the 'good father' which was not quite modeled for him. But with him is the 'man of family' - willing to sacrifice anything - including morality - for the benefit of the Family and the clan. His childhood friend, Moriarty, the front man and genius in his own right, was the face of the Organization.

But these were all the backstories given to the characters created in the Holodeck of a TARDIS by the Professor before they were uploaded into the Enterprise's Holodeck.

Characters embued with the same single spirit that ran through both Rebeccas, both Lord Moriahs, Moriarty, and the Professor. That same spirit is one with various others, yet not the same as Jack's spirit.

Jack sees this spirit in other bodies simultaneously - a humanoid alien woman who is aware of all of the bodies and minds within her spirit all of the time, also past bodies which that alien has occupied, renewed each time they were killed into a new and different body and mind.

Jack sees the creation of Data and Professor by an overweight old robotics engineer named Dr. Scott who is one of the avatars of this other alien woman. He also sees another who looks like a combination of Data and Jack. The alien woman is named the Professor and the Data-Jack  is named the Master. They travel through time, space and universes in her TARDIS.

Somehow Rebecca is more than just the hologram too. There is a real Rebecca who shares Good and Evil Rebecca's minds. She is currently battling hyperdimensional magic-spell-casting cyborgs.

Yet another Rebecca is a hyperdimensional spell-casting Cyborg.

His Rebecca looks at him through it all and explains, "I'm fully me, and I'm also all of them. Most of the time, I'm only aware of the 'me' in this body - I don't even bother to remember that any if this is the case - I just love life with you. But even though all of me feels the same way about you, the me in this body is with you."

Jack sees the woman alien at the root of the spirit in all of the Rebeccas (and others). From an incorporeal form she says, "Now that you have experienced this - whenever you are willing to sacrifice your Jack self, you will have this experience available to you. You will be able to occupy multiple bodies at a time, each of which will be exactly as aware of the situation as you desire. Each of whom will have your free will. Your only limit will be the number of bodies you have which are your own."

*Gain status: Avatars - ability to occupy multiple minds/bodies at a time across the multiverse simultaneously ((must first be willing to sacrifice the Jack self in order to access this))*

One of the future Rebeccas comes to him, "Jack ... I just wanted to look at you once more." Hey eyes well up with tears. She places her hand on his heart, feeling a heartbeat and mouths a thank you before fading into some distant future.

Rebecca and Jack look along Jack's form and see multiple branching divergents. Far in his past they see his parents when they were infants. Then there are the little cones of influence from others which affect Jack's form - one for each potent memory and each form of magic. Up one cone, he sees the god of Order. Up another, he sees Emperor Jack sneering down. Yet another reveals kind words his grandmother spoke, while a nearby cone leads from a time he was bullied.

His future holds a plethora of divergent paths. One in which he never uses Avatar, and remains in the same body for thousands upon thousands of lifetimes. One in which he loses his Jack self, but retains his retinue of skills and magics, gaining more across two or three selves fora time, then more as time goes on. One divergent learns the ethically dubious digital magic of "Overwrite Character Teleportation" and alters it to take control of anyone he meets with powers he can't learn or who he would otherwise kill, thereby giving him a limitless supply of selves, some Versers, some not. One Divergent Jack is assimilated by the Borg after this, and becomes a Verser Borg Collective - all moving through the multiverse together. He observes one Divergent casting a spell as he says, "Avada Cadavra" which sends a bolt of green energy at someone who instantly dies when it touches them ((Learn HP magic, Avada Cadavra)). There are too many to remember them all, given that anything is possible.

But then he resumes the state of Awareness and he is with his Rebecca in a mental space shared between them. She hugs him tentatively, "I know that's alot to take in. Let me answer anything you want to know. Thank you for giving me this experience with you.



((More to be posted soon))

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))