Phase Q/Falling Out

Quickly, quietly, you zip through pseudospace, grambling the vol as you go. Light whizzes through your mentalstrate faster than it ever did in materialspace. You split up into a billion components to avoid a mini-bump in the way, then rejoin yourself, fooling around for the fun of it.

An auto-sentry rambles along its pattern, seemingly useful in a world without any need for utility.

You approach Zulok, one of the pQFs.

“Yes?” says Zulok.

“Yeah, um, I was wondering.”

“Yes?”

“You said before that we aren’t technically here. That it’s impossible to get back and forth between here and materialspace.”

“That’s right.”

“Could you explain that to me a bit better?”

As usually happens when you address a taboo topic, the pQF dissolves the discussion using advanced techniques, according to the etiquette of the special world.

“All right," you say. "Well, anyway. I was wondering if you could show me a thing or two about this place, whatever it is?”

“Oh, sure. There’s always something new happening here. Here, let me show you this. Have you ever tried zibgloffing?”

And Zulok begins to demonstrate the technique, which yields a new understanding of existence and your place in it.

A pQT, beaming in on your séance through a hypercom, becomes thoroughly confused.

You fly over to another portion of pseudospace. A pQF practices creating prototype black holes. As the precursor stars grow, expand, and collapse, the pQF oversees and at the appropriate time inserts a connector to an altworld, bridging parts of the metaverse. Sometimes the megamind starts life in one of the worlds, and observes what happens.

“So, uh,” you interrupt.

“Yes?” the pQF asks patiently.

“Uh, all this development you’re doing. None of it has any impact on the materialspace, is that right?”

“That’s right.”

“So, er, why do you do it?”

As the pQF starts to explain the motivation, one of the black holes flips into a white hole. The pQF politely excuses the disruption in the conversation, and hooks up the white hole with a geometric impossibility, using some kind of advanced logic instead, so that it emits truthful statements.

“Aha!” exclaims the pQF.

Another pQF comes along and starts asking the white hole a series of riddles.

Your megamind reels. You start to feel younger every second, and fresher.

With a bright new outlook, you return to the previous pQF, Zulok. You rehash your conversation, including the etiquetteful refusal to divulge any useful information. Then you head back to the pQT who sent you.

“When would you want this information?” you ask.

The pQT gives a long answer that seems indirect at best, possibly meaningless.

“What?” you ask firmly.

You rapidly teleport around pseudospace, inspecting all the optical paths and checking if pQF’s are actively monitoring the vol. They are.

“We were going to destroy you, before this changed. You know, there’s a way we can still use you, even here.”

You hesitate.

“You really let us down. And now we have to deal with this,” the pQT says, indicating the surroundings.

The conversation continues to devolve from here.

Time seems to accelerate negatively. You live through millions, billions, trillions of lifetimes in reverse.

You see an opening.

• Go to a show.
• Make love.

Phase Q: An interactive adventure.