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Post by Raven8 on Sept 23, 2018 19:30:59 GMT -8
A remnant of a lost time, a time better left forgotten by many.
In this strange pseud-network, the scar of a cataclysmic event leaves a doorway into the inner-workings of the net itself. Data flows freely, energy abounds, and those not careful will become swallowed by the endless void below. None can harness it, none can control it; this is the end of the net itself, and the beginning of absolute oblivion.
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Post by Shast on Sept 23, 2018 20:33:38 GMT -8
Jax A black tear opens up in the endless expanse and from it appears Jax, followed by Hollow. While there existed no 'ground' with which to stand Jax found himself able to walk just fine. He reached out with his power to feel the land, but nothing answered. As if the network itself was just a husk.
He looks up and around, flicking his hood off and revealing his stern face, brown eyes, and shoulder length grey hair. His eyes scanned the area analytically trying to understand just what this place could be.
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Post by Gaia on Sept 25, 2018 12:26:11 GMT -8
Hollow.___
Released from the tear, Hollow descended and simply floated above the expanse of space. An interesting turn of events, to move from an area that the one was capable, into one that he was the better equipped.
Hollow had experience with the concept of a formless void, and knew that no attempt to control this essence would bear fruit - it was simply because there was nothing present to control. However, he reached out into the expanse, and attempted something that he alone was capable of doing, tapping into his own voidform control for just a moment. Rather than attempt to control the emptiness, Hollow shapes it, redirecting the spaces within the Network where the blank spots within the code existed. He attempted a simple feat with the void before him, to see if it was as malleable as the empty code he normally utilized, and attempted to shift the lack of code space into a voidform box within his hand.
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 25, 2018 20:08:24 GMT -8
The Energy Stream appears as a constant water-fall into the depths of the net, one comprised of nothing but light and data flowing at a constant, unending pace into the infinite below. In the hands of Hollow, there is no change or reaction. His attempt to bend and shape the power of this alien realm yields no results, as the energy flows through his every attempt at manipulation as if nothing was even there on its way to the event horizon below.
...but what of above? Jax and Hollow would be able to take note of the fact that the energy stream is a chasm straight down, but nothing caps its entrance.
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Post by Gaia on Sept 26, 2018 16:04:53 GMT -8
Hollow.___
How intriguing. Even with his experience manipulating voidforms, he could not command the void before him. Wanting to study it further, Hollow instead took a more direct approach, and crafted the same attempt of a voidform box in his hand from his own personal void, and dropped the box into the void below. How would his personal void interact with this one?
He glanced at his partner in his new studies, and then glanced up, wondering just exactly where they were at. It appeared as though the expanse went on and on in both ways, with no end, as the Net fell from an infinite expanse on high into an infinite oblivion down low. He attempted to float upwards, seeing if he could find the other end of the chasm - where it all began to collapse from.
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Post by Shast on Sept 26, 2018 21:48:48 GMT -8
Jax His study partner drifts up and away towards what might be the source of this fall. A good idea, and one Jax accompanies. He begins to 'climb' the invisible staircase that is the air. Following Hollow.
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 30, 2018 19:30:59 GMT -8
Once again, it's as if Hollow had done nothing. The voidform box drops into the nothingness below and loses all contact, making it as though Hollow had done absolutely nothing. ....however, the following action would be far less lost. As Hollow and Jax rise, they reach the wall of the Energy Stream and literally walk through it, rising to oblivion unknown.
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Post by Gaia on Jul 18, 2021 11:06:36 GMT -8
Joker.DB
. . .
How long had it been, truly, since that day atop the ONB's headquarters, when Joker had decided to make himself useful in some way? Those hadn't been his ideals at the time . . . he was searching for power through training, and opportunity through presence. He would never know that he was going to be led down such a path, nor that the lonely road that followed would have led him back to the very same Navi that he had betrayed in protection of his own purpose.
The unknown advisor had told him that such purpose was as much a prison as it was freedom, itself. To know one's purpose and to be able to pursue it is surely a freedom, but was it truly when such purpose was not yours to decide? He thought about his creator, the off-shot Animus scientist, and considered what his purpose was through him . . . the power, the ferocity, and a coldly calculating intellect that permitted incredibly efficient brutality. What more purpose did he have, than to be an engine of destruction? Even the nuclear generator within his core forwarded that purpose. In that way, he felt a kindred spirit to the power that even now he sought after.
Yet, Unity's willingness to merge with him and augment his abilities had led him down a different train of thought, one that was almost unnatural to his analytical processes. It was first a hunger for that power that came with the union, but Joker searched his feelings time and again since and realized it was less about the power and more for the companion. Looking about the gigantic expanse of data, waterfalling into an infinite abyss below, Joker had never felt more alone in his endeavors than he did right then, and yet he knew every step forward was not just for himself.
Those words resounded through him, again, almost in perfect agreement with the same message he had received from the nameless advisor.
"I've wanted to make my own impact. I want to change Navis' lives and show them that there's a better way to live than what they're used to!"
He looked up, and around, getting his feel of the space, casting out his senses and his awareness of the maelstrom of realities to get a better standing of where he was, and how he could access the Galaxy Network from here. To achieve his new purpose, he would leave his previous one behind entirely, and search out for something new. To accept the Crimson Dragon into his being would have been to return to his old ways . . . even for the threat at hand, it wasn't a risk he was willing to take.
That power, that purpose, had betrayed Unity and the Gravity Beetle, been fooled by Deav, was controlled by fear and uncertainty, had destroyed Creamland, and left Unity to suffer for his decisions. The Crimson Dragon that the newcomer, Burai, carried, did not have what he needed. His Crimson Dragon . . . he would conquer it on his terms, and fulfill that purpose.
To show others that what they believe in matters, to change their lives, to show them that there's a better way to live, to show them that anyone and everyone has what it takes to protect what they stand for, and to protect your team!
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Post by Raven8 on Jul 18, 2021 18:07:22 GMT -8
And how is it your impact, when you seek to use the power of another to achieve it?
On the opposite side of the unhealing scar of the net is a Navi that Joker would be familiar with. Clad in the visage and white armor of another, just as when Joker had last seen him, he stares down into the mouth of the abyss, stoic and sour in tone and expression. However, Joker would realize something more about this Navi; he's not actually there. Not a hallucination, not a ghost, but rather a personality standing amid the split in time that the Energy Stream brings with it.
Aeon: And so your choices bring you right back to me, dread joker. I told you that I'd enslave your will, and all that you do even now is proof of my words taking life.
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Post by Gaia on Jul 18, 2021 19:46:14 GMT -8
Joker.DB
He turned, as the reality monger appeared. He felt the immediate apprehension forming within his systems, and the natural willingness to defend himself rise - but, he remembered the last time his combat instincts flared up, and how well they served him. He pushed them down, steadying his gaze on Aeon. He noticed immediately the irregularity with his appearance; as if he was talking to an Aeon from the past, or perhaps from the future. He couldn't tell for certain; it was a strange split brought on by the Energy Stream itself.
Joker seemed at first hostile and unsure of the appearance, but had calmed himself down quickly enough. He still remembers the last words he gave to Aeon, and his last actions to secure even him in his plans to go forward.
". . . The words I spoke were not originally mine. They were the goals of another.
"And even if it is the power of another that I seek after, what I choose to do with that power will make it mine."
He listened to Aeon's words, attempted patronization, but did consider their weight in this moment. He knew what being a slave felt like, having been enslaved to his own misguided adherence to his purpose, and for once felt as though this action - and perhaps a few actions leading up to this - was one that he was making against such a purpose. He would not be dissuaded - but he had more to say to Aeon than to just leave him be, or to continue their usual threats of destroying one another.
"So my choices happen to coincide with where your consciousness lies, reality monger. I first sought after your power to add it to my own, so that I might surpass a previous adversary's might. I acquired such power only to lose the original source I possessed, and you unceremoniously left not long thereafter.
"More power is necessary to contend with what comes ahead, and I admit to being in need of it. If, in your eyes, that makes me a slave, then so be it. I know where I stand.
"Whereas your guidance, as you had once offered it, would make those goals easier, I will trudge on with or without you, Aeon. Your Parallax made it clear that you cannot be trusted to look past your own programming.
If you wish to be helpful, I will permit your distraction. If you do not, I need to find a way to the Galaxy Network."
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Post by Raven8 on Jul 18, 2021 19:58:02 GMT -8
Aeon's eyes narrow as he gazes into the shining abyss below, staring intently into the void without giving so much as a passing glance towards Joker. However, it's difficult to ascertain his exact reaction to Joker's words due to the black mask that covers the lower half of his face.
Aeon: I know; I'm not here simply to mock you again. The Energy Stream is far too unpredictable for you to navigate successfully; you have no way to control it, so it will send you wherever its whims may blow.
Aeon looks up to Joker once he finishes his statement, and a dark power rises throughout the area to pair with his gaze before dying down once again.
Aeon: But I can act as your guide. You seek a part of me, and regardless of its use, I desire its return from the void in which it now lies. I will guide you to the Galaxy Network, but what happens beyond that will be the revelation that is yours to unveil.
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Post by Gaia on Jul 18, 2021 20:12:41 GMT -8
Joker.DB
Joker was surprised to discover Aeon's willingness to assist - but, at least the program was honest in that it was once again just following through with its own interests at heart. Just as when he had informed Joker of how to acquire the other pieces that made up Eon, he was simply looking to forward his own goals.
If nothing else, he had his assistance as a guide, then. "Then guide as you will. I warn you that I have my own intentions for all of this . . . once I have collected this piece, and the current disaster has abated, I plan on using that energy I granted to Illia, your current host, to track you down, wherever it is I presume your creator has put you.
"I'm quite tired of it all . . . the presumption that we must only be what we were created to do, and made obsolete once it is complete. As he once said . . . there must be a better way."
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Post by Raven8 on Jul 18, 2021 20:25:02 GMT -8
No physical response comes from Aeon; he still holds his stare against Joker as the lights of the Energy Stream pulse and flow into the depths below. All that is returned is words.
Aeon: Your thinking is three-dimensional, as is a trait of your kind. Time is irrelevant to me; I will be restored eventually, and even if it takes eons for it to happen, it will happen. But for now, our goals align. Freeing my core is the step that we both need to take....
Aeon reaches out his hand and points it towards the Energy Stream. The multi-colored data streams, twisting and swirling down into nothingness, stop for a fraction of a second before they return to their normal flow.
Aeon: ....so take this step, and begin your path.
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Post by Gaia on Jul 18, 2021 20:30:16 GMT -8
Joker.DB
He didn't quite understand what Aeon was saying, but he did understand the note of three dimensions being a hindrance. Even with the power of both space and time and his disposal, Joker had noticed that he was not fully aware of what he could do with them due to his unique limitations.
Still, it did seem that Aeon was willing to help. While the path forward wasn't clear, Joker took the risk and moved forward.
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