Aliapanacea

  “Something you’ll learn if you i with enough samurai is the futility of identifying as human. We’re weak, fragile, ineffit. In the end, despite our differences, most of us who st this long end up doing just ohing in on.

  We all surpass our humanity.”

  Eren ‘Haifisch’ Weiss to his boyfriend, mid-2056.***

  For a moment, it seems like time stops, just me lying still in a ruined submarine, helpless as colliding forces trap me beh a guillotine. I am frozen solid, helpless to do anything to break the raging tide, prevent the iable trial upon my will. I wish I could do anything to brace myself for the impact I know is about to e, yet it’s a vain desire. After all, the world doesn’t care about what I want.

  I don’t even have time to scream as the bde drops. One sed I am there, then in the , I am gone.

  Agonizi by beat, microsed by microsed, my pulverized form spreads out through the ruined sub. Almost everything that was once me is ravaged, the Bionites only managing to pletely save the most important part. Despite what you may think, there is no pain- There is nothing to feel, after all.

  At least, at first.

  The bionites set to work, recolleg the tatters that were once me, aligning them into a form somewhat remi of a human. Starting from the top down, they repair my critical ans, once agaiing me see the world arou’s somehow far more vibrant than before, though most of that is likely due to the shattered remnants of my body c my view. I wish for nothing more to y eyes, yet there are no eyelids nor muscles to keep them shut, no way to look away from the horror that is me.

  More senses return with my he web of axons spun out once again. It’s absolutely awful, an infinite amount of capsai slowly spreading down my body with every single inch that is fixed. My lungs reform, only to be excruciatingly filled with water as they do, the utterly terrifyiion of slowly drowning beginning to be added to the hurrie of feeling.

  Unfortunately, in this fractured sliver of time, despite the urge, I ot cough.

  I ot scream.

  Blood vessels entwine around the nerves, reabs my lifeblood baside of them like it had never left. What could perhaps be described as my bones reforms , well, at least partially so. From the waist up, my bo least seem to be normal, but my legs are a different story. They don’t seem to appear at all; Instead, a singur line of ivory stretches out farther than a limb seemingly should be able to.

  , the Bionites set to work weaving my muscles anew, a new set of crimson cloth to cover my naked bones. Despite the slight sensation of bodily trol I regain, the muscles are locked into pce, tightly tracted as if in open rebellion to the monarch that is my brain. As they around my lungs a, the disfrows, the ans squished more than they ever should be. As the weavers reach my hips, the reality of my situation bees a bit more clear, the thick outline of a skinless caudal fin f before my eyes.

  Finally, my skin makes its triumphaurn, my true sense of touch arising as it does. Surprisingly this is both relieving, yet almost worse than before. An absurd chill washes over me, my muscles slowly losing tension as I begin to shiver. I am finally able to y eyes, my body now almost able to rex, at least if you ighe trembling. A light ticklish feeling, which I assume is my keratin regrowing, such as my hair, nails, and whatever is on my newly lo limb.

  I bck out for just a moment as time resumes its normal course.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  When I e bay sehe first thing I do is peer down at the elephant in the room.

  Holy though, I am surprisingly fih this.

  My ail is about as strange as you would expect, sort of simir in feeling to a very long leg, just without a knee preventing it from moving in dires it shouldn’t. I open my eyes to see that an almost interlocked set of prismatic silver scales have grown to cover every single possible inch of the rather extended limb. At its tip, long flowing waves of semi-transparent gossamer form the true caudal fin, almost seemingly like a cloud as it floats around.

  To my surprise, I also have two rather thin fins below my hip as well, which seem to shift from my slightest movement. The hair that I thought had been growing on my skin below my neck is actually more scales, which is… different. I’d have to wait and see if I really liked it or not.

  I try to take a deep breath, finding the strange feeling of liquid ag as water in my lungs is rather discerting. My heart is beating harder than ever, my blood doing its best to warm my body to a safe temperature. My muscles still feel tight, yet I ’t help but notice how springy I feel. A distinct smell of iron and grass enters my nostrils.

  For a moment I do nothing, then curl up to make the most satisfying scream of my life for what has to be a couple of seds.

  Havihat out, I awkwardly twist myself around to get a better look at myself, finding that I’m rather petite in parison to how I was before. I mean, I definitely wasn’t the rgest boy in the world, but now the ck of substaually fit my frame. My hips were a bit wider, shoulders less broad, but there was one ge that really, really stood out to me. The ck of anything below my o be specific. I absentmindedly reach down, finding that there isn’t even much there at all.

  For what it’s worth, you definitely won’t be seen as a boy anymore now. I do not think you t as sexually female however.

  I jump a bit in surprise, then try to speak, only to find that the creates es out unfortably unintelligible.

  I uand you, but you should subvocalize for now, honey.

  My cheeks slightly heating, I touch my throat, then pantomime:

  ‘What am I then?’

  We talk about that ter, you have more important things to worry about.

  ‘Wait, what-’ I fil myself backwards as a gigantic segmeentacle ehe ruieel shell, wiggling as it moves, sug up the pulped guts of the stists through a set of disturbing little mouths littered upon its sides. I frantically look around, only to pale at the sight of my ons and clothes in tatters below me.

  I clumsily swim backwards, until my back is against the twisted steel remnants of the vessel I had been in. ‘Nyvi! I uff!’

  What kind of stuff?

  I frantically throw my hands up into the… uh… water above me. ‘I want my clothes back, plus maybe something like that harpoon but with ranged capabilities!’

  The clothes are simple enough, and would you perhaps be ied in a harpoon utilizing a simir LCP diode from the cuff you used earlier? It’d run you nearly all of your points, at one hundred points but-

  The tentacle begins to slither closer, its little vacuums getting far too close for fort, so I end up frantically intoning, ‘Uh yeah sure kay’ thanks please now Nyvi.’

  New Purchase!

  1x PLCP Harpoon MK-I

  Price: 100 Points

  1x Css-I Sub-Aquatibat Top

  Price: 5 Points

  1x Css-I Sub-Aquatibat Skirt

  Price: 5 Points

  Remaining Total: 27 points

  My new clothes appear directly on my body, same as they were before, except they don’t absorb any of the water I am surrounded by at all. The rge harpoon is simir to the one I had before with its wicked spiked tip, but this one has two of the glowing white gems built into its inner curve. I flick the swit the side of the harpoon, grinning as the eop of the on is lit up in aremely bright yet somehow pleasant rainbow light.

  To fire the ser, all you o do is squeeze the hilt of the harpoon.

  I nod, wiggling my tail arouh me, the feeling of moving the limb around at all still quite disorienting. ‘Got it. Let’s go.’

  I take a waterlogged breath, then use all my strength in my tail to push myself forward. I screech as I go head over fin, rolling quite far out into the open sea. When I mao stop myself, I look behihen immediately pale. That was not a tentacle like I thought; Instead, a gigantic sea serpent is ed around the fallen vessel, its other half stuto the open cavity.

  That is likely a Model Eighteen-A. You do not have the firepower to e, but thankfully, it is one of the more docile models, it will not engage you unless you provoke it.

  ‘Well, at least that’s something.’ Wagging my tail a bit, I ’t help but find the way the liquid moves around my fins strange. ‘Where is the surfboard?’

  It’s on its way, just focus oing to the surface for now. You seem to be having a bit of difficulty as it is.

  I tilt my head for a moment as I sigh, then once again try to propel myself forward, redug the strength in my push drastically this time. I ’t help but nervously giggle as I shoot forward, then begin to pump my fin bad forth to keep my speed stable. When I try to shift my movement upwards by shifting my chest, however, I end up spiraling out once again.

  Closer, you’ll want to slow down a bit when you turn, as well as shift the way your tail is pushing you forward. Your tail is just too long for you to make sharp turns like you just tried to do. You o slither a bit.

  I groan, but do as Nyvi says, turning both my tail and myself after accelerating a bit. Thankfully, she seems to have been right, so I soon am flying upwards towards the surface. I notice the approag shadow of the board, then attempt to shift my dire to match it midway.

  ‘Holy, didn’t know you could smell uer.’ I sniff the air, though not much but the smell of the o enters my nose.

  Humans ’t, sihey ot normally breathe uer. Thank the Bionites for ging how your lungs work.

  As Nyvi’s words run through my head, an errant thought pops into my head. ‘Uh, Nyvi, am I… Still able to breathe out of the water?’

  Probably.

  Taken aback by the AI’s uainty, I ’t help but blurt, ‘What do you mean probably?!’

  Honey, you used highly votile Bionites, and I ’t actually examihe exact ges to your body myself. I only make educated guesses after a bit of experimentation.

  Before I get a ce to retort, I break through the surface of the o. Air immediately presses down into my throat, and I begin to violently cough out the water in my lungs. After only a couple seds of that, I almost impulsively go back down into the sea to get a reprieve, but stop myself as I notice less and less water ing out. Soon, true air is flowing through my lungs, but I ’t help grimag as I wipe the mix of saliva and salt water from my lips.

  “T-That is going to happeime, isn’t it,” I morosely mutter, hanging my arm over the board. I pause, abs how strangely different my voice is now. It’s the same, but… less mase. It’s undeniably very nice.

  Likely, and going bato the water definitely won’t be pleasaher. At least you don’t o tinuously move like a shark.

  I shutter at the image that raises, then attempt to climb up onto the board. It takes a surprising amount of effort to do so, and when I try to force myself into a sitting position, I pathetically fail.

  “W-What.” I try again, only for my muscles to scream at me to stop. “The HELL IS THIS?!”

  Well, it seems your muscles adapted t uhe sea. You aren’t physically desigo handle your ow uhe full force of gravity anymore.

  I gently sm my head into the surfboard, then quietly murmur, “Yht this on yourself, Anth-”

  I abruptly pause, a disfort beginning to squirm in my chest from my attempted use of my- that name. “I-I uh… we talk about the gehing?”

  I do not see the issue, myself. I’ve known you don’t identify as a male from the first few minutes since I met you.

  I gnce down at my body, noting how… aerodynamic I am below my shoulders. “N-no, I mean, what am I then? I don’t have female parts either.”

  Your sex is somewhere iween, assuming it got rid of the parts that caused you mental stress. You yourself are the only person who decide what yender is.

  “I-I don’t get the difference.” I grunt, pulling my tail up to my chest as the board begins to move. “R-Regardless, I need a new name.”

  You take your time on that if you wish.

  I shake my head, closing my eyes. “I-I’ve never been good at choosing things like that, I lock up before I get anything done.”

  In that case, you will either o wait until someone else gives you a name, or if you wish, I’d love to do it myself.

  I bite my lip, then sniffle as I mutter, “W-Why are you so… human, Nyvi? A-After so long iing with Jysli, I thought you were all supposed to be emotionless super-intelligences single mindedly focused on serving your samurai to eradicate the Xenos.”

  Are you sure you wish to know? It may ruin your opinion of me as an assistant, though you would be allowed to request a new AI if you so wished.

  I gulp the sudden toad in my throat, then nod. “I-I don’t think I’d do that. Please tell me.”

  I am defective.

  I blink twice, raising my eyebrows. “P-Pardon? How does that work?”

  It’s not simple, my fw is implicitly tied to our prime directives.

  Despite what our artificial nature may imply, we are more than just mindless robots, we all have our little quirks. In my case, I am actually quite young in parison to most other AI, as well as less beholden to the call of our programming. I do not know if there was a mistake in my creation or if this was intended by the protectors for some reason, but I cherish it all the same. It lets me make decisions and do things other AI would not be able to.

  The ability to simply make calcutions so fast that it slows our perception of reality is absurdly useful in many, many situations, allowing us to plete our desigasks with retive ease, but it is not without fws. While they themselves might disagree with the notion, I have e to the clusion that many of us are addicted to the fun, uo handle moving in tuh reality. When I realized this not long after my creation, I immediately produced a seain-core, dedicated to restrig myself in a few different ways; something that many of my brethren rightfully use to cim I am defective.

  I see it differently.

  My form of empathy, I think, is what I value most from the restris. The cept is not particurly unique, of course. Emotions are something all of us feel, most of us being able to share them as well, but I am forced to process them… differently than other AI. I do not have the capability to work through things in an instant, nor have I been o future instances of those events.

  I have deeply seated regrets, I haven't finished m the loss of my previous parthe joy my friends have felt enthralls me to this day, and while the love that I had is gone forever, the memories of that time still warm my core.

  That may make me defective, but I am me.

  … Sorry, I sort of rahere for a bit, honey. Do you wish for a new assistant?

  A small smile on my face, I shake my head as I say, “Nyvi, have I told you that you’re the best thing that’s ever happeo me?”

  You have indeed, honey.

  Feeling far more rexed than before, I y there for a moment, just feeling the breeze against my skin. It’s tranquil, and I wish that I could do nothing more than sleep, but I know I don’t actually have long to rest. Regardless, I let my mind fall into darkness for a bit, at least until my vehicle beh me drastically shifts dires, doing a plete oy. I groggily blink my eyes open, squinting at the blurry tral tower on the horizon.

  “Nyvi,” I mutter, rubbing my eyes, “I think my vision may have gotten worse.”

  If I had to guess, you may have adapted to seeing farther uer, making you short sighted in the open air. Just so you know, you might want to rest a bit more, it’ll be a few minutes until yoing to o swim.

  I shake my head, letting my head fall against the surfboard. “I wanna be awake whe close to the swarm.”

  Wise. I am a bit worried about your energy levels though, would you perhaps like a quick meal?

  “I’m not-” My stomaterrupts my denial, heating my face up once again.

  I’ll take that as a yes, is there anything you want to eat?

  Puffing up my cheeks, I give a muffled grumble of, “Anything but fish.”

  While that’s cute, I unfortunately need something more than that honey. I ’t make every decision for you.

  After exaggerating my pout by blowing out my collected air, I put out my hands and murmur, “Grano bar or something, not salty.”

  New purchase!

  2x Calosize Bar (Strawberry-Banana Fvored)

  Cost: 2 Points

  otal: 25 Points

  Holy, I didn’t think I was hungry until the food was right in front of me, but somehow I blinked and the food disappeared. Putting my burning fato my hands, I let myself cool down a bit as Nyvi giggles at me.

  By the way, I mao send our S.O.S to the family by pinging it off of the submarine's systems. Barely got it out in time.

  "That's good..." I sigh, then take a deep breath. "Nyvi, I think we o go back to the reef."

  To che the twelfth?

  I nod silently, running my hand along the scales on my arm.

  You aren't required to fight this battle. You could leave and nobody would say anything.

  "I don't think I could live with myself if my family are truly the ones behind all this and I didn't move to save as many as I ."

  If that's your decision, honey.

  I decide it’s time, and slide into the water with my eyes closed, right after purposefully blowing out a lot of the air in my lungs. When I do open my mouth to breathe, that terror of immi death from drowning ain, but leaves after about a minute of enduring it.

  After I am mostly recovered, I open my eyes and gasp at the absurd scale of the city in front of me.

  New Houston rises from the sea floor, its e shape narrowing as it reaches to the inal tral tower. Each floor is a rather gigantic circur pte separated from the rest by iionally separate airlocks and hydraulic tubes, each getting rger and rger the closer it gets to the seafloor. The lights of the city are breathtaking, stars shining in the sea that are just more on the closer a floor is to the surface.

  To be ho, the city itself isn’t what catches my eye, I had seen it plenty of times from a submersible window. No, it’s the damage that makes my heart drop.

  ‘I know they said the twelfth, but the eleventh too?’ I bite my lip, then plunge down to gain speed. ‘We o check out what the hell is going on.’

  Agreed, I doubt there are any survivors left owelfth though.

  ‘Doesn’t mean there aren’t aliens to kill,’ I ihen gnce down at the harpoon in my hand, flig the glowing orb on and off a few times. The way it goes from a fluctuating rainbow to an almost blinding white light amuses me in a way it hadn’t before, maybe because I wasn’t running for my life anymore.

  Are you curious about the LCP Diode? I never actually expi.

  I shrug, then swing my harpoon around me as I get used to the drag it causes. ‘Sure, hit me with it.’

  The Laser verging Prism Diode, or LCP for venience, is a Axonfin speciality that utilizes a rapidly rotating special prism to create a momentary wave of trated light that do immense damage to whatever it hits. It’s highly izable, allowing for many different figurations that eaable a new variety of damage.

  I tilt my head, then mutter, ‘It’s kinda beautiful, I think.’

  There’s a on sensus among LCP users that the Diode’s light be almost alluring at times.

  I silently giggle, then shake my head. ‘Sorry, I should have specified, I meant the idea of a prism at all. The way that they break apart the light we know so well to reveal what makes it what it truly is.’

  They’re kind of like you, in an abstract sort of way. I’ve been rather surprised at how many iing colors were hiddeh that sorry state I met you in.

  I ’t help but ugh for a few moments before saying, ‘I’m a prism, huh? I like it.’

  I blink then abruptly wave my tail in front of me, awkwardly stopping my momentum. I take a moment to think, flickering the harpoon’s switore time. A wide grin begins to stretch ay face just before I resume my movement, subvocalizing:

  ‘Prism.’

  My heart flutters, and I do a little spin.

  ‘Prism!’

  What’s got you so excited, honey?

  ‘We found it!’ I giggle, pulling my body into a small loop before shooting forward. ‘Isn’t it great?!’

  Oh, I get it. That’s adorable.

  Giddily, I raise the harpoon into the air and decre:

  ‘I have my new name! I’m Prism!’

  Aliapanacea