Irregular Pulse

This is your cycle.

"There's a sh-ship docked," you mutter softly. "The very far end..."

He carries you-- the anchor you never could have dreamed up. An endless stream of failures that you leave behind. Salty carries you as you fall, and you walk between dead factory after dead factory, across metal ground, as the endless starry sky culminates in a dim light against your pallid, drained surface.

"Where the fuck'n shit is everyone?"

You manage, "Think I took them out. Cut th-them out of... just... for long enough."

"How?"

sharp

CYCLESShow

<:: Do you think RBS-012844 is unstable, 005?

Less and less every cycle.

<:: Acclimating to the environment?

More that trive is getting further and further from home.

<:: I'm curious... were you and triv ever closer than boss and subordinate?

Not particularly. But we... share instincts.

<:: You're leaving now, though.

And we stay in contact. Is this about me, or about triv?

<:: Triver name just came up in the conversation, I figured I'd follow up a bit.

That's not your job.

<:: I just always found it fascinating you'd take any interest in a rookie.

I take plenty of interest in rookies. I just brought in that Harbinger Ghost to the Kvicher Academy, didn't I? I've got passion to see other people improve, past my warnings. You know, most that join the corp don't make it much past rookie before they realize it's a dead end for them. But RBS-012844 has seen actual progression, and I've just kept up to date with triver growth.

<:: ...Even a local to U-CENTER?

Trive has never struck me as a local to U-CENTER.

<:: We've checked triv-- scanned as a local.

No, I just mean... well. Even if this was triver home, trive was always more of a... tourist.

<:: RBS isn't about tourism.

Ha. If I hadn't found triv, I imagine trive would've found some other way to tour without us.

Gold chitin shines. As you approach the gleaming light which is a galleon ship, there is a slot in its front.

"H'oh, shit," Salty mutters. He is glancing above the vessel, at the skylights. "Quarantine...? Why th'fuck's the sector quarantined? Why're we..."

You retrieve the coin. Within, something swirls about. An endless cycle contained within a nickel, whirring along without time. The purest culmination of everything. You place it inside of the slot, and the doors open.

CYCLESShow

"It's leaking," Tess screams. "What's in that thing?!"

Pal yells over the sound of the universe collapsing. "Memoria!"

"It's breaking open!" Dovʇƶic screeches.

The orb gleams, and all begins again. Memoria is released to its new home-- a place of vast depth and power, and all begins again, in its gilded cycle.

"It's leaking," Tess screams. "What's in that thing?!"

Pal yells over the sound of the universe collapsing. "Memoria!"

"It's breaking open!" Dovʇƶic screeches.

The orb gleams, and all begins again. Memoria is released to its new home-- a place of vast depth and power, and all begins again, in its gilded cycle.

"It's leaking," Tess screams. "What's in that thing?!"

Pal yells over the sound of the universe collapsing. "Memoria!"

"It's breaking open!" Dovʇƶic screeches.

The orb gleams, and all begins again. Memoria is released to its new home-- a place of vast depth and power, and all begins again, in its gilded cycle.

"It's leaking," Tess screams. "What's in that thing?!"

Pal yells over the sound of the universe collapsing. "Memoria!"

"It's breaking open!" Dovʇƶic screeches.

The orb gleams, and all begins again. Memoria is released to its new home-- a place of vast depth and power, and all begins again, in its gilded cycle.

"Th-they'll come to g-get you free from here soon," you say. "Y-You were in it. Y-You'll remember wh-what happened eventually."

"What?!"

You step inside. He cannot follow.

"All is c-cycles," you say. Memoria returns to you. "All has returned to a better time. All will try again."

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...

and you have always been here.

and this memory has always been here.

and these words which have come to you were only memories.

...

you form a thought again.

to begin the cycle.

it goes like this:

THIS CENTER SPINS AT A CONSTANT RATE

THIS MANIFOLD ORBITS AT A CONSTANT RATE

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND ORBITS LATER I BREATHE

OUT AND IN THE QUAKE GOES

I AM MEMORIA

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