#iteration e

There was a sharp splitting sound.

There was nothing.

There was thrumming. You... You? Yes. You were here. Whatever that meant. Besides the thrumming that echoed through you, you couldn’t tell anything. No light, no sound, no temperature, no perception. Just you, whatever you were, in some void.

The thrumming hitched, and you finally felt something. You weren’t sure what. 

Clicking, whirring. You realize this is the first thing you’ve really heard since you... woke up? Was that what this was?

A few other senses filtered in. The presence of light. The presence of your own limbs. Memories flickered past, in pieces hard to hold onto. But it was all slowly pulling together. You were slowly pulling together. Your name, your thoughts, your being.

You sat up, slowly. You could move, then. That was good. And from the sounds around you it seemed you weren’t the only one.

One sound was different from the rest. Less mechanical. It came from a familiar face—with intact eyes again, no other bloodless gashes, and a wide grin on his face. He adjusted his blue-tinted sunglasses.

“Hey, gang,” he said—though some of you had to wait for a translator to make sense of it. “Not sure how long it’s gonna take to get you oriented, but you all seem awake enough for a few basics. I’m Katari Shimon—I’d say also known as Cole Kaes, but I’ve never used that name, just the other me. We’re currently in the back of a moving vehicle, so please keep your arms and legs inside at all times and don’t open any hatches. Your batteries should all be charged up for the long ride, so we can try and run some tests before figuring out exactly where we’re gonna send who in the end. I’m sure Amari gave you the whole spiel on that, so I won’t reiterate. I just wanna say...”

Hands in his pockets, he paused to look each of you in the eye—whether you could really look back or not. He smiled.

“Welcome to life.”

—

The game has been completed. A thread is available in the forum for any epilogue posts you’d like to make for your character. Even if your character’s AI died in-game, you may post something with the “original” if you’d like.