"What an interesting report...I must confess, I hadn't fully anticipated the events that have unfolded up to this point. Most mortals wouldn't typically have lasted this long, even in their own timescales" V'aquisa muttered while slowly strolling around the physical edges of her office, staring out each of the three wall length windows idly as she passed them by. Each window view showing an entirely separate city skyline; Shanghai, Seoul, and Tokyo respectively.
V'aquisa sighed before giving way to a low chuckle. "It feels like it's about time for an upgrade don't you think?" The Goddess looked back at her PRIME secretary with a devious grin.
"Oh yes, Mistress. Currently, I believe the mortal Elizabeth is ready, far sooner than I had expected however. No wonder
He
had chosen her, she really is something special." Heliya replied with a giddy energy that literally vibrated out from her void body as what could only be described as some kind of chromatic aberration. "Considering that I am the observer for this project, may I be allowed to take on mortal form and set things up myself? Mistress."
"As long as you follow the rules I've outlined. Don't assume I'm unaware of your true desires Heliya." V'aquisa relented. The Goddess would have been more attentive to the infinity cube project, had
He
not given her opportunities for other assignments.
* * *
Alice
"So.. It's not broken. Completely." I sighed, placing the still white cube down onto the kitchen table where Mei Lin was eating a bowl of cereal for breakfast.
"What does that mean exactly?" She asked, raising a brow quizzically.
"I can still link to it, but most of the systems are shot. Corruption and errors everywhere. It's almost like... Remember when you used to speedrun Big Tiddy Dreamers: Cavern of Cleavage?" I asked, rolling my eyes internally at the name of that stupid game, but the jiggle physics was absolutely on point. Mei was a pretty popular Vtuber who ended up playing mostly eroge games. The big hook for her streams was that she had motion trackers on her tits that mapped directly to her virtual avatar. Of course, people thought it was a gimmick at first, until her big, literal, titty reveal stream. Which sent her numbers skyrocketing into some of the top female streamers internationally, even more so on the few times I would chime in. Mostly just as an excuse to play games with her. Otherwise, I was usually either studying, in the lab, or drawing/animating some absolute bazongas.
"I used to do what? I.. Oh, oh! Yeah, I remember now!" She blushed hard. "What about it?" Mei Lin took another few spoonfuls of cereal as she pondered about her new history, likely comparing and contrasting them with the previous timelines she'd split herself from.
"Well, it has absolutely nothing to do with the game in particular, but there is an interesting story we talked about in one of my old physics classes." I chuckled, thinking back to when we had first started going to university. "A speedrunner was live streaming Super Amiro 64 when their character suddenly teleported upwards totally out of nowhere, which gave them faster time for the level-"
"And what does this have to do with the cube?" Mei Lin interrupted. "..Sorry, continue." She mumbled after a moment. It wasn't unusual for her to be a bit impatient, but genuinely apologizing for being rude was rare. From what Mei had told me about her previous three-ish histories, the extra politeness likely came from the first, when she'd made me a lesbian. The ones after that seemed to be where her pompous attitude had been more deeply rooted.
It was bizarre to think she'd made me a lesbian, allegedly at my own request? Before apparently reshaping me into her sex pet, then altering our relationship so we'd been dating since high school. Even re-adjusting my confidence and power-play preferences. All of which just seemed incredibly bizarre to me.
The cube's data corruption resulted in a good majority of its information being even more inaccessible than before. Luckily, Elizabeth's profile was perfectly intact. So using theirs as a reference, it was safe to say a lot had definately changed.. Whoever was operating the cube seemed to have a somewhat limited but crucial anchoring of awareness from their current reality. Additionally, the causal shifts revolved around the target instead of the user, meaning relation between them was another factor to consider. My past had been overwritten each time she used it on me, so from my perspective, everything was just how things were. I was the original.
I did however remember being frozen by the cube, same as with Ryan, but only the second or third time. Possibly due to the length of time I was targeted among other factors I'll have to consider later.
It was also important to note that while her various selves were somewhat different in their personalities, experiences, and such; Mei Lin only had one mind. I had no idea how much blended between each previous iteration, but I concluded that there
was
some level of internal self correction. Regardless of whatever shielding the cube provided. Otherwise, it would be too much for the average human brain to handle.
"It's ok babe," I reassured, reaching across the table to gently caress her hand. "Anyway. The speedrunner was doing everything they could to figure out how to replicate the glitch. Yet, in the end, it was deemed practically impossible. Concluded to be a single-event upset from a stay cosmic ray-"
"So you're saying the data was corrupted from radiation damage." Mei Lin interjected before getting up to put her bowl away. This time she didn't apologize, which felt weirdly comforting since it was closer to what I would have expected from my somewhat bossy, pridefully arrogant girlfriend.
"Something like that. I'm not entirely sure it's radiation in the way we understand it, but possibly some kind of exotic particle equivalent." I shrugged, grabbing a peach from the table centerpiece.
"Are you going to fix it? I mean, it
is
still your PhD project." Mei replied, turning around and leaning back against the counter.
