Florin: The fleshmancer and that donkey have pulled off the road. They’re waiting by the stands as everyone passes.
“Okay, okay. This one is pretty good. It’s stupid, but it’s good. I wonder if it was like that, if they had a menu with so many different choices? That’s the problem when society spreads unchecked. Too many cooks in the kitchen and so forth. We’d spread so far, so fast, there was a real chance we would end up overwhelming the resources of the galaxy. So in the end, we made a Decision. We decided to slowly start to sunset our civilization. But—and this is a big but—keep our consciousness alive. We would develop a biological form that would allow us to transfer our minds into a whole when we ceased to be. We would build an impenetrable structure that would house our collective consciousness. This would be a process that would take a hundred generations to complete. Our first step was to develop a genetics program, and within a generation, everyone who was born soon had the ability to understand what the others were feeling. It only evolved from there.”
“Carl,” Donut whispered, “the people are doing something weird.”
Everyone in the crowd started waving back and forth, like they were swaying to a beat.
Elle: We had an interpretive dance group come to Meadow Lark once and put on a performance. That bullshit made more sense than whatever this is. The AI guy should’ve put Donut in charge. At least it would’ve been entertaining.
Prepotente: I find this story fascinating.
Donut: YOU’D THINK SOMEONE WITH SUCH A FLAIR FOR THE DRAMATIC WOULD’VE BEEN MORE ABOUT THE RAZZLE-DAZZLE.
Carl: I think we should probably wait until this is done before we complain about it being boring.
“But here’s the problem,” Grigori said. “Do youreallythink we came to a consensus? Of course not. Those who didn’t wish to be part of this psychotic eugenics program fled even deeper into the galaxy. They were hunted mercilessly by those who’d decided to follow this path. More wars. More destruction. More chaos. In their effort to stop it, they became it. After all, for this path to work, it would require 100% participation. Biological life is much like an Avernus Creeper. If one tiny sliver remains, it will just come roaring back.”
Donut: LOUIS ISN’T HERE TO SAY IT, SO I WILL. ANYBODY GETTING STRONGSTAR TREKBORG COLLECTIVE VIBES OFF THIS?
Carl: I was just thinking the same thing.
Elle: Okay, guys. It’s our turn in a minute.
“Right about this time, in some tiny corner of the galaxy, she was born. The Apothecary. I don’t know the full story of how she became what she is today. The lore of the dungeon has some bullshit fairy tale. The reality is, at first, she was very much like those you see before you now. A Primal that was born near the end, birthed with biological engineering that would prepare her body to meld into the whole. Eventually, she would grow, and she would become part of the resistance.”
Float number three. Begin your presentation.
The float featured several mannequins sitting in chairs, watching their televisions. I couldn’t see it, but I knew right at this moment, all the screens were turning on. They were supposed to show flashing words like “Death” and “Blood,” but I knew they hadn’t been able to get it to work because theywere just showing the same thing everybody else was watching. They’d placed alternating smoke curtains atop the televisions that billowed first black and then red smoke up into the air, which represented blood. At the end of their line, they each held up signs.
Imani’s sign read, “You are watching real people die.” She flipped it over, and it read, “Real people, just like you.”
The three Chinese guys came next. The first, a guy named Muchen, held a sign that read, “I had a wife. I had children.” He flipped it, and it held their names.
The next, Qianfan, held, “We breathe, we dream, we love.” He flipped it, and it said, “We bleed, we suffer, we die.”
The third was Lingyun, the only nonhuman of the group. His race was Monkey King. He still appeared mostly human, but with an elongated face and a hulked-out body. He was one of the heroes of the Faction Wars battlefields, despite me having never spoken with him. His sign read, “You did this to us.” He flipped it over. “Your betrayal will never be forgotten or forgiven.”
Elle, at the very end, held a sign that read, “To all the viewers ofDungeon Crawler World: Earth: Fuck you.” She flipped it over, and it was a rather detailed drawing of a middle finger.
Grigori barked with laughter. “This one is my favorite, I think. Good effort. It’s like that, yes. There’s a lot missing in our memories at this point, but it soon became clear that those wishing to wipe out everyone left in the universe were fighting a losing battle. So they developed a plan. This arc of consciousness that was already starting to accept the minds of those who’d died was developed into a weapon. A doomsday weapon designed to eradicate all biological life left in the universe.”
Elle: Whew. It liked us. What’s up with the dudes in the stands?
Imani: Not gonna lie. That felt good to get out.
We started slowing down.
Tipid: Just got a note that we are to “slow-walk” this final part.
“For many, thiswasconsidered a betrayal. Those who had been ready to accept that they would die and meld into the collective, they started to change their minds. But the mind itself, now housing the consciousness, the first true Macro Aggregate Intelligence, started the process of collecting everyone it could, even those who weren’t quite ready to ascend. It started to grow in power.”
Donut: HOW IS CHACO DOING?
Imani: He’s unconscious on the donkey. I didn’t dare try to heal him as we passed.
“While this happened, the resistance worried that this weapon would succeed, and they began a plan of their own. A biological fail-safe that would spread seeds out into the galaxy, should they all die. The Primal Engines, some call them. They were life rafts. They weren’t meant to do what you think they would do. It was a way to create sustainable habitats for when this collective experiment ultimately failed and starved.”
Float number four. Begin your presentation. Make it loud.