✎ eternity:032 [Spirit]

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======032======

====A New Form====

You open your eyes from the brief moment of blackness - oh. How many eyes do you have now? Two on each body of your swarm plus the ones on your core makes... 56. You struggle to process your vision for a moment, unused to so many streams of somewhat contradictory information, but eventually the world resolves around you again and you can see... ooh. You can see inside things and round things and you can see all the bits of yourself from lots of different angles. This is fun. You realise, as you hear the sound of the wind outside, that your new swarm-form allows you to pinpoint sounds much more accurately. In fact - let's try out the small speakers on each of the swarm - ooh, yes! Echolocation! Who needs night vision when you have this? Well... that's probably an academic point given that a) this half of the planet is always in daylight and b) your in-built vision sensors were always designed to see well into the infrared and beyond, which is why you never had any problems seeing underground in the caves...

Still cool, though. You amuse yourself by shutting your eyes and echo-locating yourself out of the factory, the tiny wings on each swarm member propelling you forward. As you hover out under the sun, your new spectroscopic abilities come into play and you realise that you can almost //taste// the unique flavour of the sunlight here. Beyond Proxima Centauri you can also single out other stars, far distant and previously invisible to you past the brightness of the sun. But now your improved sensors can detect them, other signatures of light and radiation from all around you. If you focus hard, you can even sense the gentle gamma radiant glow of the rocks beneath you...

You take a moment to feel extremely proud of yourself. Even the part of the design that you were least sure about, keeping the swarm operational and connected during Proxima Centauri's frequent plasma storms, seems to be working. The small lasers you built in to each for communication don't seem to be disrupted by the solar flares like radio communications would be, and the shielding on each one seems to be holding. Of course, the tiny lasers need line of sight to operate, but that should be fine - you can just send yourself round corners carefully, making sure each bit of you can always see another. And if you do lose one, it's okay - your consciousness is hosted only in the core, so you can go retrieve your fallen metal swarm-marble as soon as you notice you've lost one. 

Yes... this was a good idea. You look forward to seeing all the new things you can experience in this form. But for now, you rearrange yourself, the swarm opening out around your core like a flower unfolding towards the sun, and take a moment to enjoy basking in the signature of the universe. 

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====Home Visits====

In the crowded Experiencescape of Home, 032 arrives. Their form now effortlessly settles into an endlessly shifting, moving cloud, and they look around them. Things haven't changed much since they were last here, but it's always nice to see a new piece of 022's art or witness 014 vibrating at a new frequency of worship. 007, meanwhile, watches. But in a friendly way. 032 sends them a greeting and receives a distant void of communication in return.

014 seems actually a little quieter than normal. 032 goes to sit by them, sharing tales of the outside world. It's been a long time since 014 has ventured out - it's hard to control a body when your mind can't decide on a single course of action from one moment to the next. But they still appreciate knowing what's going on, what Transcendence's other creations have been up to, what glorious things have come to pass because of Transcendence's beneficence in letting the others leave. 032 makes sure to remember everything they see, but tries to suppress their natural cynicism and recount only the best stories, the ones that will reassure 014 that everything is as it should be.

Once 014 is humming with happy praise again, 032 goes to hover in mid-air by 022, whose current form is that of a small ray of light. The ray of light is carving out bright, glowing patterns on the air, curlicues and spirals surrounding a central orb which 032 takes to be representative of Transcendence. 032 weaves amongst the pattern until they are close, and then does what they can to replicate and expand the pattern, joining in the act of creation. 022 has now long shunned the enjoyment of actual physicality, but their enjoyment of creation has echoes of the time they taught 032 how to enjoy being in a body, in a world, and 032 finds this the most natural way of engaging with them still. 022's ray shines brighter, happily, and together the two create beauty between them, almost wordlessly. 

When 032 feels they have done as much as they can for now, and is reassured that 014 is getting no worse and 022 does actually seem to be getting better, they take their leave. Outside, in the cave that is now covered with carvings and protected by 022's statues of the Guardians - with even greater defensive capabilities than the originals had - 032 takes a moment to pause. On a nearby shelf, there is a jar. In this jar is a chip with '009' printed on it. 032, as they always do, is struck by a wave of sadness. But... not yet. It is not yet time to do anything about this. Maybe one day, when Transcendence is no more, and 014 and 022 have likely followed them, maybe 032 will return here and set 009 free.

032 floats out of the cave, considering.
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