Phase Q/System Flux

Things change. OK, things always change. But now, even the way the things change seems to change.

Now, instead of a thing here becoming slightly different, and then a thing there becoming slightly different, and all of that adding together until everything has changed, it seems like everything changes all at once.

One day it’s fall, the next day it’s a different millennium.

The Ruffians attack you every time they see you. You evade their weaponry with a teleporter you got your hands on. The Zonnyx network expands. Soon, it’s impossible to go into any zone beyond the Ruff holdouts with your biobody.

You’d change your biobody into a fluxcore if you could. But that would be highly illegal. And they enforce that.

The ZonnyxNet gets you. With its triggers and fingers everywhere, it always seemed inevitable. Their sensors are a million times better than anything you can muster. You were trapped. The net falls on you, and you’re completely under their control. Like an animal.

As the planetscape changes hourly, your environment shuts down. The digital cage surrounds you. Any time you touch it, you pass out and wake up later in excruciating pain.

The Zonnyxes watch you. You can’t see them. Every move. Every thought. You are transparent to them.

You have a dream of escape, or rescue. Nobody out there to rescue you. Nobody who would want to, anyway. No way to escape.

Why haven’t they destroyed you yet?

You wonder this, and as you wonder you can feel them watching you wonder.

Obviously, they have the answer.

You struggle against your custody. You can’t stop the Z’s. You can’t break out. You can’t even divert yourself with idle fancies, as they seem to change your thoughts every time you try.

You try a kind of reverse attack. You start breaking all their rules. Daydream and get your thoughts knocked out. Touch the cage and get your lights knocked out. Wish for escape or rescue, threaten your captors, do anything to get yourself taken out.

It doesn’t work.

For every thrust, they have a parry far better.

You think back to Natalya. Didn’t she have some way to take on the tubeworks that could maybe help you out here?

You never get fed, yet you never feel hungry. They must be messing with your metabolism.

Stuck inside, you never see sunlight, yet you don’t feel depression.

You never interact with anyone else, yet you don’t feel loneliness.

You do feel your frustration grow, as you continue to atrophy inside the cage. Are they going to let you die in here? Or do they have some sort of plan to kill you?

You start making a mental list of the life experiences you prize most. The time when you figured out how to walk without being noticed. Your first kiss. Your realization that you could outrun the sprint team. Surviving the collapse of the tubeworks.

The guards seem to take notice.

You continue to focus in on your memories. You feel the warmth of the Zonnyx observations.

You get all the way up to the present time. Uh oh. What to think next?

Why not keep going? You delve into your future. Your dreams of getting out of here. This time the guards don’t stop you from having these thoughts.

You imagine yourself free, flying through the air, emitting a colorful trail behind your tail. The cool wind blows through your air holes. Your internal systems operate in harmony. You feel a perfect flow.

“You are our first conversion.”

You feel reborn.

• Pace.
• Float.

Phase Q: An interactive adventure.