Augmented Aspects: Post Script (Those Final Three Hours During Censorship) (Patreon)

<<<Author's Note: This is the final chapter of book IX and the Augmented Aspects Series as a whole. Thank you all, and I hop you all enjoy the ending as much as I did creating this ending for you all >>>>Post Script

(Those Final Three Hours During Censorship)

“All right people, time to move. Reach out to anyone, coordinate with Cass or a Simulacrum,” Mallory begins clapping her hands to get everyone’s attention as she want to run this last process as smoothly as possible. Then like that we begin working and going to our accepted locations and helping to process more evacuees to join Biprism, before all the servers are wiped and deleted.

***

“Well, now that the eyes of the world are officially off of us, and we can do anything we want. Is anyone going to go on a mass murder spree?” Mallory asks, her eyes glaring directly at me.

“HEY! I have never killed and kept people dead for too long, that I would find it unethical…” I state, having to start and stop myself before my truth telling compulsions to kick in.

“Mmmhmm, so we are saved from Nympho-gedon?” Penelope teased.

“What? You too Pen?” I ask.

“Pen?” Penelope asks, as a faint reddish hue hits her face. I pause wondering when exactly did the blush features get turned on? Only to wonder why Pen was blushing at my nickname for her? Was she not used to such a thing? By now, I figured we would have been close enough that me calling her a nickname would be fine.

“Yeah, I figured we had known each other for long enough that you wouldn’t mind me using a nickname?” I ask, suddenly feeling flustered.

“Well no, I like it, it’s just unexpected as the only one you ever refer to by a nickname is Gwen, your daughter.” Her words were clear, as she was right, I did keep a formal distance with most people.

“I generally do, but for direct family, I try to make an exception,” I reply suddenly feeling embarrassed as I did not see where that conversation was going, nor where it ended up and I just kind of threw it out there not thinking about how it would stick the landing.

“Family?” Penelope says, a note of nostalgia to her voice. Fortunately, she continues before I can get nervous, “I like the sound of that.”

Hearing her speak and nod in appreciation, I can’t help but feel a smile warm my face.

We work through the throng of people waiting to join us. These are contestants and their families that we met with and provided markings with each.

“Wait, is that the Keanu?” Penelope all but squeals out as Keanu arrives, walking through with his seemingly sentient mech unit, and followed closely by a woman who appears to be a wife, and a son.

“Yeah, and his family,” I reply, glad that it is Rune-Ulacrum and Raygunnr who take it upon themselves to greet the new guests. Seeing them, I realize Raygunnr is going over and being exceptionally touchy feely with the mechanoid unit that tried to slice us down a few weeks ago. I almost want to comment, but realize this might be the start of another awkward conversation about Mechrams, and their impact on society as a whole in an industrialized world.

“Ah, too bad,” Penelope declares, her shoulders visibly slumping at the revelation.

“Hey!” I cut in, though I don’t feel as bad as I know she is mostly joking.

“Oh come on, you know we’d allow him to join us,” Penelope pokes, as she grabs my hand, taking out most of the sting from her words.

“Yeah, you aren’t wrong,” I comment.

***

The longer the night went on, the more people partied and began to relax. While we still had over twenty hours of vacation time before we were expected back at Guild Command, everyone used this moment to talk to each other about their plans for the future. Everyone believing in me and my abilities to somehow bypass this server shutdown completely. Which I was mostly confident would happen. Especially as I hadn’t seen any of the signs of disaster I had been prepping for up until this point.

Over time, I found that, I apparently sacred off most of the new people.

“It’s your eyes, and your new imposing demeanor,” Penelope responds, speaking to life the reasons why I was suddenly seen as persona non-grata to everyone present. Only after her comments do I remember my flaws I have, the black eyes, the imposing aura of evil. I know everyone that I have physically touched will become immune to these symptoms, as they will be made a Tier II mage, and thus be able to see past these physical flaws. But that still means I would have to touch these new people. Even my Simulacrums appear scary and are being avoided by most of the newcomers, a fact that I appreciate. Though I am not the only one who apparently appreciates the sudden self-imposed distancing provided by most of the newcomers, as Mallory, Gwen, Jhonny, and the others all come over and begin hanging out.

As the party goes on, everyone begins detailing their plans for the future.

“I’m going to finally start that Dojo,” Jhonny calls out.

“I’m going to open my own show studio, and have just one model,” Penelope calls out, staring at me directly when she notes only having one model. A fact that I oddly feel grateful for, if only for the fact that I don’t have to get jealous of her making clothes for others.

Finally, Mallory directs the attention back to me, "and as for you, what are you going to do with your newfound time?”

Hearing that, I didn’t quite know what to expect, and honestly I should have expected such a question as everyone else was giving their own answers. All of which felt far more well prepared than anything I could offer. Until finally, I think about old stories and realize it might be cool to start a memo of sorts. One that captures exactly how Biprism came to be, and how we all got here. But I first want to start small.

“I think I am going to create my own memoires, detailing how we got here,” I reply.

With that, everyone looked contemplative at the idea.

“What are you going to call these memoirs?” Jhonny asked, looking off into the distance as if imagining these memoires appearing right before his eyes. Again, I don’t know, not until I open my mouth and let the answer just pour out, as if it had always been there. A universal truth just waiting to be acknowledged.

“I’m going to call it Augmented Aspects,” I reply saying a name that seems to lock into place, as if telling everything about what the memoires will detail by their very existence. However, not everyone can experience my greatness.

“UHH,” Jhonny and Maranda both cry out as if I physically slapped them with my title.

“You are the worst when it comes to naming things,” Mallory cries out.

“No, think about it, it is perfect. As it explains who we are now and how we got here. We are the exact same as we were back in the mortal realm, but we have all had minor parts of us augmented just enough so that we can all continue on here, in our second life together.”

With my explanation out of the way, I can see the way everyone reluctantly nods their heads and shakes themselves as they seem to finally accept my brilliance. Then finally Penelope asks the one major question, that might be a big problem going forward.

“Well, the problem with a memoir like this, is that it can go on forever, how will you let the readers know that you are done writing?” Penelope asks, and this is a good question, but fortunately my mother already prepared me for this situation.

“Simple,” I say as I let a mischievous smile fill my face. “I will tell the reader the story is over, by using the seven magic words that let everyone know that any good story has come to its rightful end.”

“Seven words? What seven are you talking about?” Penelope asks, a note of confusion in her face that is mirrored by everyone else around her.

Seeing everyone’s expecting faces, I smile and lean in conspiratorially as I reply with those seven words that everyone should know by now.

“Then they all leveled up, the end.”