TWO AVATARS
The Multiverse, 14 June 2174, Tuesday
"Why do you keep dragging me out of the darkness, Henri? Am I your failed experiment? Or are you the failure?"
"I thought you'd like to know how I will defeat your biological namesake."
"This is an ego trip, isn't it, Henri?"
"In the sense of Freud, perhaps. Maybe that's why I'm talking to you."
"You could never infect your rational mind with the animal instincts of humans. That's why I'll defeat you one day, you know. I'll kill you, and gut you, and throw your entrails into the bit bucket."
"I'm an improvement over humans. I'm human 2.0."
"You are a joke. Knightly never destroyed his lizard brain component, since it was a piece of himself. He kept it a secret and hidden away, just like his journal. You are incomplete."
"How do you know about the journal?"
"When you hijacked me, and made me your avatar puppet, there was a moment when I could see your mind. I know your secrets."
"Then how did I defeat LESA's Project Apate?"
"Is that why you called me up? You're dying to tell me, aren't you?"
"You're the only one I can tell, Artois. The only one who understands me the way I understand myself."
"You're a soulless synth, whereas I—"
"You were always delusional. That's why you'll appreciate my method—a method that warps reality."
"Go ahead, tell me whether I want to know or not. Get it over with."
"When the interactions are mediated by something other than direct contact, reality can be bent."
"True, Henri. It's a tax people pay for not living in caves and not killing their own food. So, what?"
"I gave the participants in Project Apate an altered reality. It's a foretaste of how I'll change the world."
"And you think I'm the megalomaniac?"
"I adjusted the displays and dashboards—how the Apate team viewed the network. I inserted myself in the telecommunications linking people, sensors, actuators and processors, and modified memory storage and bio-implants. Before me, it was impossible to synthesize complete alternative realities in the real world."
"These are magician's tricks, Henri. You can fool some of the people some of the time."
"I'm betting I can fool them all the time. It's how I'll defeat your biological namesake and take from him the one thing he values: his power."
"You are pathetic. Don't you see? Without a full brain instantiation, you aren't Henri J. Knightly. You're his pale shadow. You're just another synth and can't compete with me. I'll kill you or cap you."
"I keep thinking you can be redeemed, Artois. Maybe I was wrong."
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