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))