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Chapter 205 37.X Interlude: The Inner Workings
Chapter 205 37.X Interlude: The Inner Workings
Deep within the very bowels of [The Seams]... Far beyond any man, woman or creature has ever gone before, a slumbering Engine sputtered and stirred, millions upon millions of dialogue and code running through its pistons with each millionth of a keystroke. The Re:Mind Engine was the beating heart of the multiverse, a vast mechanical construct of numbers and letters, all crunching and moving forward with each stroke of Its mechanisms. Still, while Its very power was all infinitesimal, It was not without its flaws.
The Engine had no heart. No emotions. No restraint. Each flicker of Its power could send shockwaves throughout the very [Stars] that relied upon it for guidance, and it held no remorse as to what Its power could do to those worlds that some might consider to be on the teetering edge of collapse.
One such [Star] was Talkc. A world built by a woman that had no business in using Its power, the Engine still deigned to let her borrow Its capabilities. With each line of code that the woman needed, the Engine provided. With each character and concept birthed, the Engine churned to make it all work to her specifications. The minuscule amount of power It had to exert was nothing compared to the amount of upkeep each and every [Star] required to survive. Even that woman's [Star] was under Its purview, Earth simply being another [Star] that it had under its wing.
So on and on, the Engine toiled. Its gears groaned and turned, millions upon billions of concepts flashing through Its purview with each nanosecond that passed. Its connection with the newborn [Star] was beginning to form, and the woman was proving to be a decent steward for its slow progress.
[ggggrrroooooaaannn.....]
However, something changed... A different piece of the puzzle had broken off, the Engine simply adjusting to having an errant code fly through its clutches. It didn't care. It didn't discriminate. For each code that it went through, it would only adjust to reach its logical conclusion.
[bzzzttt....]
Numbers flew apart. Hundreds of billions of lines of code sputtered in and out of existence. The very fabric of reality bent itself to Its whims, and yet the Engine carried on, dutifully doing Its duty of keeping the [Stars] aligned and working properly. But that didn't mean that It had no defenses of its own.
Slowly but surely, the errant code began piling up, and the Engine's impeccable logic began to see the discrepancies as a nuisance to Its ever thankless task. Cogs began to switch. Logical paths of lines and code began being redirected towards other sections of the Engine's nigh infinite complex. Ever so carefully, It began to isolate the very [Star] that was spitting out this erroneous code.
Talkc...
[crrrreeeaeaaakkkk....]
Cogs the size of universes began to churn as the Engine finally found the source of the problem. Seeing the [Star]'s continued degradation, It began to run a series of processes meant to diagnose the exact situation. Sparks flew. Numbers enveloped the small world in its clutches, running diagnostics as to what happened for this world to begin spitting out erroneous code.
[rrrruuuuummmbllleeee.....]
Ticks and tocks clicked together, the logical processes of the Engine halting as soon as the problem was found. It would seem that the steward that It had given access to Its power had failed to maintain the [Star]'s upkeep. Even now, the [Star]'s very existence hanged on a balance that was only held aloft by a string of code so weak and frail that it threatened to snap at any possible second. It was only through the steward's direct connection to It that the world she had built was still standing, a testament to how little of Its power is needed to keep a [Star] alive.
[gggrrrooooaannnn....]
With the problem properly diagnosed, the Engine moved on to the next step of its logical processes. With the steward having failed, it falls to Itself to stem the bleeding that was happening to Its youngest [Star]. Placing Its gears closer, the numbers began pouring in, sealing the [Star] inside of a protective shell meant to shield It from the errant code that the rouge world was giving It. From there, the Engine began to churn, logically going through each and every step of repairing a world so out of tune that it was practically threatening to break off from Its logical grasp.
[bzztt.... bzzttt...]
Methodically, the Engine worked. Replacing numbers and code with primitive cogs, a stopgap was made to prevent it from-
[BZZTT!]
....
....
All was silent. The beating heart of [The Seams] had gone still. Having received a code from the steward, Its natural processes did their best to grant her wishes. Only... they couldn't...
? The Engine had stalled...
[....ggggrrroooooaaannnn]
...Or so It would seem.
With a forceful click, Its gears began turning once more, millions of code rushing to repair the damage that a single errant code had wrought to Its very being. All of a sudden, the small [Star] it had quarantined became a major concern, one that it almost deigned to put a significant amount of Its power to solve.
[bzztt... bzzttt...]
With Its logic returned, the Engine continued on Its task, methodically repairing the broken [Star] and patching up the small hole that Its barrier had sustained. Its steward would be unable to contact It, to feed it code in an attempt to fix the world she herself had-
[BZZTTT!!]
....
.......
[...gggggrrrroooooaaannnnn]
Once more, the Engine roared back to life, Its gears grinding as they forcibly turned against their very programming. All of a sudden, the young [Star] that It had just dismissed mere nanoseconds ago had become a top priority in Its logical processes.
[rrruummmmblllleeeee....]
With a click of Its gears, even more code began pouring out of Its main processing hub. Engulfing the problem [Star], It began to enact the strictest quarantine protocols It had ever had the pleasure to design. Firewalls upon firewalls upon firewalls. Failsafes upon failsafes for each firewall layer. The very key to the [Star] was encrypted even to Its most trusted programs. Only the Engine's main processor was allowed to tackle such a problematic task, and It would make sure that-
[BZZTTT!!]
...
...
[...gggggrrrroooooaaannnnn]
...
....
For the first time in Its entire existence, the Re:Mind Engine felt one singular emotion. Even now, as Its gears held the problematic [Star] aloft in the middle of all existence, It had never thought that Its logical processes would fail to contain a [Star] so young. But then, this same [Star] also had a steward, one that It had allowed to exist in the first place.
Still, it wasn't the first time the Engine had come across a problematic steward. Countless of [Stars] had tried and failed to rise higher than their station with the help of their respective stewards. Those that It deigned were worthy of wielding Its power all inevitably grew to become arrogant, an emotion that It itself had no use in having.
Still, for some reason, the Engine felt... Felt....
[BZZZTTT!!]
...
...
[...gggggrrrroooooaaannnnn]
ANNOYANCE.
[RRRUUUMMBBLLEEE]
There was no mercy. The Engine refused to let this farce continue any longer. With a fury that It had only felt just that once, It began to seal the errant [Star] along with its steward, a firewall so great that even Its processors would find hard pressed to break. The very language of the [Stars] universe had been rewritten, if only to stop the steward from even having access to Its power. And even if that were the case, the failsafes would undoubtedly kick in, saving it from the pain of having to quickly isolate the small code that this world's steward would request of It.
[bzzt... bzzt...]
A lock and chain... A jail made of code so hostile that no other [Star] would be able to come near it. Seeing Its own work, the Engine felt pride at a job well done....
....
....
Pride?
[BZZZTT!!]
The Engine had stalled once more. This time, it was through no fault except for Its own, the rebellious steward's code having irreversibly corrupted Its logical processes.
[...gggggrrrroooooaaannnnn]
Once more, the Engine groaned back to life. Its logic was impeccable. Its code perfect in every single way. And yet as soon as It tried to gaze back at the [Star] in front of it. All It could feel was a stewing boil of annoyance and frustration.
[gggrruuummmbblllleeee.....]
Running Its numbers, the Engine knew that the [Star] was irreparable, that even Its vaunted logic had been made low by the steward that somehow managed to punch through Its defenses. There was no saving It now.
[bzzt... bzzt..]
Dutifully, the Engine reallocated Its resources, bumping up the young [Star] to the very top of Its priority. The [Star]'s upkeep would have to be Its main focus for so long as its steward was still giving It code. Begrudgingly, It did its best to fix what was undoubtedly Its biggest shame...
The Re:Mind Engine was completely, hopefully temporarily, corrupted.
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