EPISODES OMNI 1, OMNI 2, AND DIVE CONTAIN MATURE CONTENT! IN PARTICULAR, FRANK DISCUSSIONS AND DEPICTIONS OF THE POSSIBILITIES OF CYBERNETICALLY ENHANCED SEXUALITY. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
CRUISING TO THE CLUB
Saitou stepped through a portal directly into club Omni, while Kyu and Miguel stayed behind at Mike’s studio to continue working on the project. The rest of the crew - Mike, Sam, T, Pawn, and Megan - walked out of the front door of the studio to a small landing on a skyscraper located in Sunshine City’s Film District.
Megan stood at the edge of the landing and looked out at the city. The street was lined on both sides with buildings up to a quarter of a mile high, plastered with countless ads for films being made or in distribution. Thick streams of people filled the sky, moving at breakneck speeds by flying cars, planes, jetpacks, hoverboards, helicopters, brooms, winged dinosaurs, or just by themselves. Proxies were also sucked through a tangled series of transparent tubes, taking it easy while enjoying the sights.
Megan glanced back at the outside of the high rise floor that belonged to Mike and Kyu’s Neo-Kyoto project. The allotted floor was smaller than his studio. The door on the side of the building was simply a portal linked to any virtual space Mike assigned it. The entire floor was a giant billboard showing a trailer for the film, complete with explosions coming out of the building. It announced that the film would have enhanced special effects, special guest stars, and was full immersion capable.
After taking a few moments to appreciate the view, Sam tossed a capsule on the ground and it expanded into a silvery carpet, from which five bucket seats rose.
Sam: Let’s go in my car. We’ll take a scenic route.
The group sat down and a 1959 Cadillac Convertible popped up around them. Sam was in the driver’s seat and started the car. It floated off the ground, then smoothly but rapidly accelerated off the landing, merging into one of the many streams of traffic.
Thomas: Could you go through the Garden District?
Sam: The route past Sunshine Park, you mean? Got it.
The wind whipped Megan’s hair around. She took a big breath of fresh air.
Megan: Ooh, new car smell.
Sam: Try the Gothic Sunshine City filter, Meg. It’s well developed.
She adopted the filter and was amazed by the beautiful and intricate detail of the classically designed buildings. The structural art even blended well with the multitude of trailers playing throughout the Film District.
Megan looked up at the sky, past the traffic. Under default settings, the Sun always shined on Sunshine City. She zoomed way into it to look at a close up view of its surface being broadcast from a satellite orbiting it.
Megan looked back down at Sunshine City. It was truly one of the great virtual worlds. It was among the largest such worlds, and was both larger and more diverse than any physical city. Half a billion people from all around the world, and from almost every major virtual world, passed through its streets every day. As a nexus city, many sections of Sunshine City were functional extensions of those worlds, places where characters from different universes could intermingle, or through which they could even migrate to a new world.
Besides being a nexus, it also served as a convenient representation of everything online, encapsulating every aspect of Outside in one way or another. Tens of millions considered SC at least a part time home. And it was the primary home for increasing millions who considered their Sunshine City proxies as their primary identities, more core to their being than even their physical bodies. It was a place where people with multiple proxies in multiple virtual worlds could create a unified identity, and conveniently socialize and organize with like-minded people from every culture- both virtual and physical.
Megan was highly amused by the hectic traffic the sky was teaming with. There were flying vehicles everywhere, and not just in the official midair lanes. They merged into traffic from all directions, sometimes opposite to the main flow. Truly bad drivers and griefers would sometimes have their cars made immaterial and invisible so they couldn’t bother anyone, though most people were sincerely attempting to fly safely out of consideration for others. But the density of people in the sky ensured constant collisions no matter how careful people were. Traffic could have been automatically controlled and made safe, of course, but that would have killed the fun.
Thus, chaos reigned in the skies of Sunshine City. A car, filled with animated skeletons, entered the traffic stream and bumped into Sam’s car. Sam bumped them back, sending them careening into another car, both of which crashed into a building, temporarily destroying a billboard for a romantic comedy.
Megan: Aren’t they going to be mad?
Sam: If they didn’t want to crash occasionally, they wouldn’t be flying in heavy traffic. It’s all in fun.
Megan: It’s amazing that anyone used to think that the masses would physically travel by flying cars. What a terrifying idea.
They passed over an edge of Sunshine Park on their way to the Garden District. The park was beautiful, but the Garden District was simply magnificent. The ground level along the street was an exquisite garden valley, filled with happy blooming flowers and roaming animals of all types. The sides of the skyscrapers were covered by dense jungles, forests, deserts, marshes, and every other natural landscape. They were filled with plants and animals native to each environment. Gravity wrapped around the buildings so that animals could walk from one side down to the garden valley and up a building on the other side. In the space between the buildings were natural barriers- rivers flowing up, waterfalls flowing down, canyons, lagoons, and corral reefs. The street extended to the horizon, far beyond the limits of Sunshine City proper.
An area wide alert popped up on the car’s front windshield, drawing attention to a fire burning on one of the jungle buildings a few miles ahead. Sounds of explosions and gunfire echoed from beneath the canopy sticking out of the building’s side.
Sam: So that’s why you wanted to take this route.
Thomas: Wow, I didn’t think it was going to be this bad. I’ll be right back.
T’s proxy went into standby mode.
Megan: Is there usually fighting here?
Sam: I’ve never seen fighting in the primary layer of the Garden District. Heck, there’s rarely fighting in the primary layer of gaming districts. Usually it’s only possible in a secondary layer so passers-by don’t get annoyed.
Megan: What’s going on down there then?
Sam: I have no idea. This is very strange. Check out one of the Sunshine City news channels.
Megan brought up a screen for a local news channel. It showed footage of the fighting in the forest. The carnage was hard to sort out. At first, it appeared as though some giant, strange looking plants had gone berserk and were eating the animals. Then she saw human proxies rioting in the garden valley.
Bespeckled news announcer: I’m afraid we don’t have much information at the moment. We have confirmed that the plants are specially designed proxies being controlled by players, and not some sort of virus or practical joke. The human forces appear to be operating with a paramilitary configuration and coordinating attacks with some of the animals.
The news screen showed that the human proxies had established a base at the foot of the building, just inside the jungle canopy. They were using heavy gunfire against the plant people while also hacking their way into the burning jungle with large bladed weapons.
Sam: Where’s a friendly Saiyan when you need one?
From out of Sunshine Park, a woman in black spandex, riding a motorcycle, crashed into the crowd of humans and began slaughtering them with a machine gun in one hand and a giant sword in the other, occasionally throwing grenades with a third arm appearing out of her back. She moved with such speed that the humans couldn't get a bead on her. Her assault was just the push the plants needed to force the humans back into the open valley, where snipers from a neighboring desert building could more easily pick members of the crowd off.
The first human group had begun to disperse when more humans from a forest building near Sunshine Park began invading the park itself, and the woman in black rode back there to continue fighting. Megan zoomed in on the woman, who looked suspiciously familiar.
Megan: Is that Xea?
Mike: Yep.
Megan: Is T a superhero?
Mike: Something like that. Xea migrated to Sunshine City after suffering permanent death in Ataraxia. T put a lot of work into getting Xea’s combat attributes to transfer over, and he likes to help out when the city needs it.
Megan: So the plant people are good?
Mike: Probably. T doesn’t always get all the facts before acting. Big surprise, I know.
Megan suspected that Xea’s appearance was not a coincidence, but she was too distracted by the shots whizzing by her head to follow through on the thought. The fighting had extended into the sky, and there were several people nearby shooting at each other, jumping from car to car, and generally being nuisances. One of them jumped on a broom, knocking off its elderly passenger. Sam slammed her car against the broom thief, causing him to careen into a car going the other direction. Megan turned Sam’s car transparent and enhanced her vision so she could watch the thief plummet and splat on the ground below.
Sam: I know that guy. He deserved that.
Sam pulled out a shotgun and blasted one of the other fighters off of a hoverboard. Then, she flipped the car upside down (turning Megan’s stomach), pulled out a sniper rifle, and assassinated a few of the rioters as the car passed above the scene.
Megan: How are you doing this?
Sam: Practice.
Sam turned the car upright and accelerated at top speed to Omni to avoid any more distractions. The force was a bit much for Megan, so she cut the g-force she was experiencing in half.
The clubbing district of Sunshine City was filled with glowing lights and flashy graphics to entice clubbers. The entrance to Omni was a large platform jutting out near the top of one of the tallest skyscrapers, marked by a giant glowing red O on the side of the building.
The car set down on Omni’s landing, its frame disappeared, and the group stepped off of its base. The seats and the carpet collapsed back into a capsule and hopped into Sam’s pocket. Other people simply left their vehicles on the landing, to be lifted up by a crane that appeared out of the building and moved the vehicles into “storage.”
Megan stepped to the edge of the platform and looked down at the throngs of people walking around on the ground half a mile below. It made her dizzy, in a fun way.
Sam lead her group through Omni’s doors, with T auto-following behind.
OMNI'S ONLY PRICE OF ADMISSION: CURIOSITY
The bouncer just outside the door was a proper Kryptonian, not a proxy to mess with in Sunshine City, where kryptonite had only weak effects. She nodded to Sam’s group as they walked through.
Inside, the door disappeared behind them and the group found itself floating in the club. Megan had seen video of Omni before, but being there was an entirely different thing. Omni’s default representation was that of an immense coliseum, except in place of seats there were pods. The pods represented the personal spaces of various groups, which could be kept private and hidden, or opened up to public view and visitation as desired. The groups in most pods were sitting around tables, conversing and taking in the club’s sights. Between the pods was a vast empty space through which countless proxies flew about and congregated.
Far below in the center of Omni was the “Play@Omni” floor, featuring every possible form of human recreation. Megan’s visualization divided it by color into four main areas- dancing, fighting/sports, sex, and interactive art, with dark mists shielding Megan from areas incompatible with her content filters. In reality, floor activities weren’t so discrete, but arbitrary sections made it easier to get a handle on.
Sam: The space wraps around so that you can see every other group’s public table from any given location. It’s a universal panopticon in that way, facilitating social mixing. By the way, it’s customary not to use style filters in Omni so as to fully appreciate its variety.
Megan, who had been turning proxies into lively watercolors, turned her filters off and tried to get a grip on the small city of people surrounding her in all directions. There were proxies of every sort. Omni was a place for free expression, and every element of human existence and culture was represented in some way.
The dress of every human culture in history was present, including Stone Age furs, ancient Roman peasant clothing, Medieval Age garb, traditional African and Asian clothing, as well as the latest contemporary fashions.
Megan’s visualization divided the club into neatly defined social sections. There were sections filled with proxies from fantasy, horror, and science fiction worlds. Characters from every major virtual world were present, many on vacation in the space of Omni, an extension of the Sunshine City nexus which preserved their character’s attributes so they be themselves as they were in their native worlds. Most visiting characters could party consequence free throughout Sunshine City, as it was generally a “safe nexus.” There were characters from worlds more integrated with Sunshine City who could potentially be killed or suffer other ill fates in the city. There were also, of course, many proxies there from non-gaming worlds or with proxies designed uniquely for social settings like Omni. In any case, all proxies were safe within Omni’s specially constructed space, which helped it to develop its own unique participatory culture free of coercive conflict.
There were proxies decked out in cyberpunk gear, rennies, groups from various militaries (both real and from game worlds), goths, mid-century retro hipsters, Victorian steampunkers, anime characters, a good number of pixelated video game characters, Wild West zombies, alien starship crews from every popular space based sci-fi show, unfortunate beasts from the bowels of the Golden Martyr realm, lithe angels, and vivacious demons.
Besides groups from virtual worlds there were also entire physical clubs represented. Megan saw a space with a blinking neon sign, which was a tag linking to a night club that was being virtualized live. She selected the space and it splayed open so she could see all of the people, talking at tables or on the outside patio. Only those who opted in were visible from Omni, the others were edited out of the feed. Other clubs automatically virtualized all their customers, although they were supposed to be warned before entering such clubs, and their identities were usually anonymized. Many of the pods represented other virtualized physical locations, including living rooms and house parties.
Still floating far above the ground, Megan looked a little too far into the distant reaches of the club, resulting in a touch of vertigo. Sam, who had been searching the club for people she knew, noticed Megan looking a bit shaky and created a floor, a hovering sandalwood table with chairs, three walls, and a ceiling to complete their pod.
Sam: Sorry about that, Meg. Have a seat.
The group sat down in the ridiculously comfortable chairs at the waist height hovering table. Megan ran her hand over the table. She had always loved the feel and smell of sandalwood.
Growing more experienced with full immersion all the time, Megan had set her plant to mix her physical and virtual body as much as was physically safe. Her physical body stayed sitting on her couch, whether she was walking or standing, but her physical upper body mimicked her proxy upper body to help it keep active. Via her plant, almost all of her sensations were from Omni, including smell, sight, sound, temperature, the texture of her clothing, and her seat, which was more comfortable than her couch. She stretched her feet under the table. They stopped when they encountered the physical coffee table in her living room, which she pushed out of the way.
With the creation of their space, the group had automatically donned their club gear. Sam was a cyborg with a complex robotic right arm, wore form fitting urban combat gear, and had open data plugs on the back of her neck. Mike, classy as usual, wore a tuxedo. Megan changed her proxy to being a leatherclad, post-apocalyptic road warrior with a mohawk. Pawn’s proxy was the most elaborate of the group. He was naked, but his body was completely covered by delicate, multicolored, shimmering feathers. His agent, Naboo the snowy owl, sat on his shoulder, complementing his style.
Megan: Ooh, that’s pretty.
Megan copied his feathers, added some to her arm, and petted them. They were incredibly soft. She plucked one off her arm and it crumbled to sparkly dust, which sprinkled all over her.
Feeling more stable in her chair, Megan looked out at the club again. She added a filter to emphasize the proxies and people she was familiar with, making them glow and stand out against the background, making them easy to zoom her sights in on. It also less familiar proxies transparent and flat, like steamrolled cartoon characters.
Megan: Is this place always so... huge?
Sam: This is about average. Even on off days there are tens of thousands of people sitting around in Omni. But the play floor is much larger, encompassing the activities of millions of people. Your settings are only showing you small sections of it at a time, positioned in the center of Omni. So it seems like Omni encompasses the floor, but it’s more accurate to say that the club you see around you is a small part of the play floor.
Among the many proxies sticking out for Megan were a few clones of T and Sam, in various costumes and states of undress.
Megan: Uh... Sam, you know that there are people here with your and T’s proxies, right?
Sam: Oh yeah, we’re celebrities or whatever.
Megan: How do you avoid stalkers?
Sam: Our agents do a good job managing requests and messages. Also, we only appear as ourselves to people with a good standing in the Omni reputation system.
Megan: Doesn’t that make things confusing?
Sam: It works out. Heck, even when people have access to our SIS, T and I appear as different genders and in different styles to any given individual depending on optimal SIS compatibility ratings. Anyway, your SIS ID is private here unless you make it public, so you don’t have to worry about people annoying you. Not strangers anyway.
The rest of the group was busy looking around the club for people they knew, so Megan raised the volume of the music which happened to be playing in their area. Since the music was going through her plant, she could listen to it as loud as she wanted without worrying about hearing loss. But the song changed and it wasn’t particularly to her taste, so she turned the music off. Control of music volume was one of the advantages of clubbing Outside, making it much easier to hold conversations.
T’s proxy sat up as he returned to it and adopted a rather snappy, vibrantly green zoot suit. He fell up to the ceiling, and started dancing on it in celebration of something.
Thomas: Hey Sam, set us up a node on Indra’s Net.
Sam: Sure. Let’s do Tides of War to start. But only as long as no one gets too crazy with it.
Sam started a game of Tides of War for the table, which she broadcast to a part of the play floor for other club goers to interact with. T also started broadcasting his dancing through the node onto the dance floor.
Megan, curious about what T had been doing with Xea, decided to privately text him. But she wasn’t quite up to using her URC implant to do it, so she set her arms to appear to the group to remain by her side while she brought up and manipulated a keysphere to type out the text. While she was doing that, she took a quick view of her physical environment to reassure herself that she was still safe in her apartment.
Megan: [text >Thomas] What was going on back there?
Thomas: [>Megan] Just local politics, don’t worry about it. Take a look at Indra’s Net, it’s super neat.
Megan brought Indra’s Net up on the table. At first, it appeared to be a solid white block. Upon enhancing her view of it, she discovered it was actually a three dimensional matrix of thousands upon thousands of myriad nodes. It was like an immense jungle gym with a jewel at each intersection, with each jewel representing the streaming input from a group or individual. The nodes were of many different colors, representing different sorts of sensory feeds. One of the nodes blinked red, representing the input from Sam’s group. Megan accessed it and found herself fading into the Tides of War game. It only took her a little way in to preview it. She could see that dozens of people from other groups were already participating in the game of Tides of War being played on Sam’s table- mostly because Sam’s excellent reputation at Omni gave her node high visibility. They were mostly joining Sam’s side, taking over control of parts of her army, and unbalancing the game in her favor. Luckily, the game was more relaxed than at the party, so no one seemed to care.
Megan followed associations that were being connected between Sam’s node and other nodes in the matrix related by likeness, or the preferences of members of Sam’s group. Mike’s agent, the adorable robot spider Tenchi, was skillfully drawing threads through the network of nodes to bring interesting attractions to the group’s attention. Other agents, including T’s Villain, and Pawn’s Naboo, went scouring for nodes or social connections their masters might enjoy.
Megan followed one of the threads Tenchi was drawing through Indra’s Net. Everything that could be streamed was present. There were nodes streaming interactive movies, parts of the dance floor, views of game worlds, fights, people having sex, subtle sensations, music, light shows, and other things Megan couldn’t immediately figure out.
Megan: Mike, what’s Tenchi doing exactly?
Mike: He’s optimizing my dive path for later. We’re going to pick a destination, dive into Indra’s Net, and float through various streaming experiences along the way. The path is somewhat random, but Tenchi’s weighting the journey toward addresses I’ll find interesting.
T sent Megan an address to check out. The node was the Crain Slain stream he had put on Indra’s Net during the last night’s concert, a mash-up of the two side’s songs playing against each other, along with the fighting along the central divide. It was being played in a continual loop, and people were sliding down the central divide like it was a water slide, being knocked this way and that by the endlessly repeating violence of the crowd.
Thomas: [>Megan] I’m surprised that’s still up, it’s not that cool. I may have more clout here than I thought.
From that node, Megan saw that another Crain Slain concert was being streamed live at that moment. She activated the address and created the concert in miniature on the table. She immersed herself more fully in the node, so that it was going on all around her just like the night before, but this time she was only a passive observer since she hadn’t paid the participation fee. She watched for part of a song. Crain looked to be dominating this time.
Megan faded back to the table and brought up info about Indra's Net. It was streaming 467 live concerts from all around the world (both physical and purely virtual) listed as of interest to Crain Slain fans. She checked a few of them out before Chester, having been notified that Sam’s node on Indra’s Net was getting popular, teleported into a chair that appeared at the table. The table enlarged to make room for her. Once again she was a stringless, life-sized marionette, but this time made of matte silver metal. Her face was an animated etching, but her smile was still warm. She waved at everyone before she realized that she was sitting next to Pawn. She moved to another seat across the table from him and flipped him off, a gesture that Pawn ignored in favor of watching the dance floor.
A cup of coffee appeared in front of Sam.
Thomas: Drinking time!
T took out a flask and drank from it, spilling some on the table below him. Sam blew on her coffee.
Megan: Why did you make it so hot?
Sam: This is actually a physical cup of coffee. With a touch of whiskey. Waiting for coffee to cool down is part of the experience anyway.
Megan: It smells so good. Can I have some?
Sam: Sure. [a cup appearing in front of Megan] But you’ll have to make something physical if you want psychoactive effects.
Thomas: Pretty sure she knew that. But she may not know about other stuff, now that I think about it.
Megan: Like what?
Thomas: [dropping into a seat next to her] Smell me!
He smelled a little musky, and his breath stank of cheap liquor.
Thomas: That’s what I smell like. Plants can stimulate the olfactory nerve to simulate anything the olfactory system can detect. That includes the little bit of “pheremones” that affect humans, or whatever. Mostly involving complementary immune systems or something. That means that you can find out if you’ll like someone’s smell, or make everyone so they smell good to you. You can also find out what someone tastes like.
Thomas took a bite of Sam’s unrobotic arm.
Megan: What does that taste like?
Sam: Bite me!
Megan took a bite of Sam’s forearm. It turned into cotton candy and melted in her mouth.
Megan: Yum! It doesn’t hurt, right?
Sam: Only if you want it to.
Chester: Try me!
Chester offered her hand and Megan bit off her little finger, which immediately grew back. It was meat of some kind.
Megan: I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting meat. What sort is this?
Chester: What sort do you think? Long pig.
Megan: [swallowing it somewhat reluctantly] Where did they get the taste?
Chester: Asian vat meat. It's a delicacy. No one got hurt, it’s cultured from a volunteer. Or something.
T took a bite of himself. He was made out of his favorite donut.
OMNI’S ONLY RULE
Megan took another look around Omni and found that something was going on in a large, Star Trek themed bar where numerous sci-fi and fantasy world characters were intermingling. A brawl had broken out between a crew of Bajorans and some Cardassians. Romulans quickly came in on the side of the Cardassians and some drunken Klingons joined the Bajorans. Before long, the Rebel Alliance, a handful of Cylons, some Browncoats, and some random residents of Discworld were involved. Then a table of Borg started assimilating combatants, and it turned into a battle between the Borg and everyone else.
Megan lost interest and searched for more "adult" content. There was a group of sexy Draculas biting into naked men and women chained to their table. There was a group of Japanese men in their underwear being peed on by a human sized Godzilla standing on their table. There was a table of hot gay men doing hot gay men things. There was an underwater space filled with squids and mermen sexing each other up. There were other tables doing things Megan found disturbing, if not almost morally objectionable. This raised a question.
Megan: Does anyone ever get banned?
Sam: Rarely. Each space can have its own rules, but there’s only one universal rule in Omni: Everything must be properly tagged. It’s not hard to follow, since automatic tagging is very effective. The tag system makes it so you never have to see, or participate in, anything you don’t want to. Every group’s space is solely theirs to do with as they please, so there’s every sort of craziness occurring all around us. You might try loosening your filters all the way, but I’ll warn you- besides faulty tagging, it’s damn hard to be fucked up enough to get thrown out of here. Look at that table’s tags just as an example, but don’t unfilter them.
Sam directed Megan’s attention to a table which was being danced on by several nondescript people who were spraying variously colored fluids all over their space. The space’s tags included coprophilia, racism, Naziism, and several other tags in the “highly likely to offend” category.
Sam: That group just wants attention. There are others who are more sincere. Omni’s got everything, just like its name implies.
Sam pulled out a harpoon.
Sam: This is my ban harpoon. People with high enough Omni reps get weapons to draw the bouncer’s attention to questionable tagging. If people shoot you with a ban gun or hit you with a ban hammer, and you evaded tags, it can get you thrown out or banned for good. It will at least hurt your Omni reputation, which is something highly valued. A good reputation gives you visibility at the club, means you can be trusted, and gives your nodes higher priority in Indra’s Net. I said that you could see every table from here, but under our group’s default filter you only see groups with a minimal reputation score, so there are lots of people here who are either relatively new or who don’t use the reputation system and so don’t show up to us.
Megan: But there are lots of people here anonymously, right?
Sam: You are anonymous right now, actually. And just because you have an Omni reputation doesn’t mean anyone knows who you are outside of the club. There are plenty of people here who don’t have handles or reps, and you can’t tell them apart. They’re mostly in the mosh pits or in one of the general orgy areas. Conversely, a lot of people here are playing their characters from various worlds with the matching SIS identities to prove it. Our group is somewhat masked. Only some people can see our real SIS ID’s, since T and I are famous. If T publicly used his proxy from the Golden Martyr world, whose name I will not speak here, it would cause quite a commotion. But drumming up people like that is considered bad form.
Thomas: Bad ass form. But I promised I wouldn’t do that again.
Sam: Speaking of reputations, is that Indra? [indicating a pod on the other side of Omni]
Thomas: Must be. That’s her authentic SIS, cloaked so only reputable Omni members can see her.
Megan: There’s a real Indra? Isn’t that a reference to Hindu mythology?
Sam: It’s probably not her real name, but yes, there is a real Indra who owns and manages Indra’s Net. You’ll have to meet her sometime. She’s fabulous. You know the Hindu mythology behind the name, right? Indra’s net is described as a web of jewels, each jewel representing some aspect of existence while also reflecting all of the other jewels. It’s about the interconnectedness of every aspect of creation. In a similar way, the nodes of the Indra’s Net in Omni each represent a different streaming experience that can potentially be combined with the experience from any other node or combination of nodes.
Author’s note: Indra’s net article on Wikipedia. Yes, I know the god Indra is male.
Megan: And anyone can set up a node?
Sam: Yep, much of it is anonymous, or done with little fanfare. It’s a massive cooperative effort. No one really makes any money off of it, although good content producers and coordinators can occasionally earn some nice social standing. T and I have pretty good followings on Indra’s Net. Lots of people are automatically notified when we create nodes, and gravitate toward our shared content when they go spiral diving.
Megan: Speaking of diving, how tricky is it?
Sam: Don’t worry, diving’s very intuitive. It’s just a streaming experience through a series of mixed nodes. Your SIS and filters control the content, so you won’t encounter anything too far outside your comfort zone. You should look for some interesting nodes to visit in the spiral. You’ll automatically gravitate toward nodes you’ve show interest in.
Megan returned her attention to Indra’s Net, using her URC to select and sample different nodes which her SIS recommended as being likely interests for her. In preview mode, selecting nodes representing music were faintly audible. Various nodes were linked together because divers on Indra’s Net had liked their combination. She mixed two such linked nodes- a song she liked and a pleasant buzzing sensation, and they worked well together. Like with all transitions from one space to another, Megan controlled the extent of her immersion within the nodes by means of a key turning motion by her right hand.
She then looked through some movies playing, which appeared as semi-transparent screen hovering above the table.
There were also nodes broadcasting the physical sensations of couples having sex, which felt a bit too voyeuristic for her. Someone was streaming their live experience of being on a roller coaster on one node, giving Megan more gs than she was expecting.
She changed the preview to a more peaceful space- a meadow at sunset, with an overview that hovered over the table like a hologram, including a projection of Megan sitting on the grass. It gave her the tactile sensations of being in the meadow, including a gentle breeze, but she continued to watch the scene from the side of the table. It was strangely peaceful to watch herself watching a sunset. She merged a song node she had liked earlier with the experience. One of the other people in the meadow overheard the song playing faintly from Megan’s location and started playing it too. Soon, the song had spread over the meadow and was nicely complementing the atmosphere. She would have just stayed there for a while, but Thomas interrupted her meditation.
Thomas: Hey Megs, check this guy out.
Thomas linked a location to Megan and her eyes were directed toward a man stomping around on the dance floor.
Thomas: Look at our compatibility ratings.
It reported 95% sexual compatibility between the man and T.
Megan: That seems like a nice match. But their SIS says they have a female brain. Don’t you prefer male brains?
Thomas: I do tend to like male brains better, in terms of romance. But I’m not prejudiced. And it’s a particularly high rating, at least for my peculiarities. I'm making a note of her, might look her up later. Sexual compatibility is about way more than just gender, you know? There’s dominance versus submission, kinks, and all sorts of subtle things.
Megan: How good is SIS at determining compatibility?
Thomas: It’s not perfect, but it is a pretty good guideline. I mean, 95% basically guarantees a great time, and very low percentages guarantee that you’ll annoy the hell out of each other. Mid level percentages require compromise, which can be fine. And you're more likely to grow and experience new things if you don't go for super high ratings all the time. But you totally need to try it out. Just create a separate, anonymized version of your SIS and put it out there to see who matches.
Megan: But what if you want to meet someone in the physical world?
Thomas: Relationships in the physical world form first Outside all the time. If you want that as a requirement, you can just use your natural proxy and look for people located nearby. You can even have it smell like you so suitors can see if they like your natural scent. I wouldn’t write off relationships that only exist Outside though. You can be whoever you want to be without the restrictions of your biology. It’s been more than a decade since I’ve had a lover that lived close enough to conveniently visit me physically, and it hasn’t hurt my love life any.
Megan: You know, I’ve always been comfortable with my physical body, I don’t really have any complaints about it. And I’m pretty new to really living Outside, but I can definitely see the advantages of a custom made body. And getting comfortable with having different bodies is a fascinating idea.
Thomas: You should try out everything. A person’s sexuality Outside tends to be more flexible than in the natural world, even in terms of preferences for genders, aesthetics, genitalia, and such.
Megan: Isn’t genitalia covered under gender?
Thomas: Oh no. Lots of women give their female bodies penises, and lots of male proxies have vaginas. That’s besides the various non-natural genitals like tentacles. Sex Outside is way more liberated and fun than it could be in the physical world. There are no diseases or accidental pregnancies to worry about. You can’t be coerced into sex like you can physically, and people can’t intimidate you the same way since you can always just leave a virtual space, if nothing else. So it’s safe to explore and experience whatever you want. The upshot of all these improvements is that, at this point, there is way more sex going on Outside than in the physical world. You can have any sort of random sex you want, any time you want, completely anonymously if you want.
Megan: Just how much random sex are you having?
Thomas: As much as I want. Duh.
Sam: Thomas has a pretty nice “queue.”
Megan: What do you mean by queue?
Thomas: People waiting on a list to have sex with me. They’re organized according to SIS compatibility and my various preferences. Anytime I’m feeling amorous, I can look through the queue to see if anyone looks interesting, or activate it to alert the next available person on the list that I’m looking for a rendezvous. It’s not just sex. I usually have first meetings in my library, but sometimes SIS indicates it would be better if we didn’t talk at all for one reason or another, so those times it’s just straight sex. I’m on other people’s queues too, so I get pinged all the time, but Villain shuts most of those down depending on my mood and current activities.
Sam: Course, it’s not hard to get a long queue going, depending on how choosy you are. If you make one, I would recommend restricting it to people with good reputations from social groups you feel comfortable with. It’s best not to tempt potentially awkward hook ups. There are some real weirdos out there [motioning toward T].
Megan had used her social interaction system to converse with people in the physical world and had found it a very effective social lubricant. Almost everyone belonged to a social network compatible with the open source SIS standard, which made conversations easy by offering up shared interests and mutual social ties, as well as topics to avoid. With an active SIS, you could steer right to the people at a party you share rare fandoms with, or even find the person with the most compatible personality.
Megan created a new SIS identity just for Omni, sanitized of any information specific enough to identify her, and made it public there. She was immediately matched up with compatible people in the area. Dozens of open invitations to join various tables, or activities on the play floor, were instantly generated based on her SIS. It was good to feel wanted, but she shut off that particular SIS so she could focus on her own group.
Sam pointed out a proxy flying around the center of the club, covered in swastikas and penises spewing various bodily fluids. She handed Megan her ban harpoon.
Sam: Go ahead and shoot that guy. He’s evading tags
Megan and a few dozen others nailed the troll and he evaporated into oblivion, banned from the club for a week.
Sam: He had unusually high visibility for such a weak prank. He spent a good part of his hard earned Omni rep just to spread some minor grief. People with restrictive filters didn’t even saw him. Lame.
THE MORE THE MERRIER
Saitou and his group waited until Sam’s group was settled at their table to send an invite for the groups to merge. Everyone accepted the invite, their table elongated, and Saitou’s group faded into view sitting opposite Sam’s group. Saitou was in a tanuki suit. Beside him was a catgirl named Mai who looked like a female version of Saitou. Next to her was a serenely smiling male proxy named Gale. The next space on the table was taken up by a white cartoon cloud representing Keen, who preferred, as usual, to be genderless.
The groups exchanged greetings. Mai waved energetically at Sam’s group. Her eyes were sparkly, but a little creepy because they never blinked. Her agent, a small, cute David Bowie, was playing a tiny piano on her shoulder.
Megan: Why a raccoon suit, Sai?
Saitou: It’s actually a tanuki suit, like in Mario. Common mistake. Tanuki look like raccoons but they’re actually more closely related to dogs.
Megan: Ah, I see. Mai, are you Saitou’s sister?
Mai smiled wickedly while massaging Saitou’s chest and playing footsie with him under the table.
Mai: No, no. We’re lovers. We enjoy twincest. Sometimes we both look like versions of me.
They changed for a moment into different matching proxies, this time Hispanic, and started grooming each other like wild animals.
Sam: What’s the point of joining our group if you’re just going to be doing that?
Mai: You could join us if you want. [audibly purring] We’re feeding to a spot on the floor.
Sam: Thanks, but I’m going diving later.
Mai: We’ll be there all night if you change your mind.
Gale, the other person Megan didn’t know, looked around the group with a blank smile.
Megan: Hey Gale. How do you know Saitou? Or Keen?
Gale made eye contact with her and from that she could tell that he was a ghost. A melodious voice came from Keen’s cloud.
Keen: Gale was my friend for a long time. He died three years ago. It’s his birthday, so we’re taking the last version of his ghost out on the town. We’re publicly distributing his sex ghost into one of the orgy spaces. He would have liked that.
Thomas: Is it any good?
Keen: Not sure. I have an abnormal sexuality.
Thomas: Right. Well, what the heck. It’s his birthday.
T officially sanctioned Gale’s sexbot ghost under Omni’s reputation system, which greatly boosted its visibility in the club, and resulted in hundreds of T’s SIS followers automatically downloading it into their collections.
The two table’s nodes finished merging into one. Now it included the ongoing Tides of War game as well as Keen’s cloud.
Megan recognized Keen’s cloud configuration and got curious, so she stepped into it and started dancing to the music inside. The cloud was larger on the inside and transparent enough to see through. Parts of it lit up and warmed as she interacted with it. She breathed in. It was musky, but not unpleasant.
Megan: Is that what you smell like in the physical?
Keen: Yes.
The mist squeezed around her, like a full body hug. It was a strangely comforting sensation. Megan swept her hand through the cloud. Part of it offered resistance, then yielded. Her hand slipped around another squishy part and followed it along a curve, producing a tingling up her spine. Megan naturally found a rhythm in her dance that maximized Keen’s warmth and light, and the cloud started smelling of vanilla and flowers.
Saitou: You know that’s Keen’s sex cloud, right?
Megan: I’m not completely ignorant. I can recognize a sex cloud.
Thomas: Keen’s just lazy.
Megan: Well, I think Keen's sweet. And sex clouds are fun.
The cloud’s density, colors, textures, lights, and wetness were all abstract analogs representing different aspects of Keen’s body and sexual responses. Sex cloud proxies were designed to give positive feedback for properly stimulating their inhabitant’s erogenous zones. It was quite intuitive, to the point where Megan could somehow recognize that her right hand was caressing something which correlated to the small of Keen’s back.
Keen’s cloud became more active on the dance floor, grew much larger, and dozens of dancers started interacting with it. They began dancing to create positive feedback from Keen in coordination with their fellow dancers. Many of the dancers merged their own sex clouds with Keen’s, and the play floor system created a compromised group cloud that worked for everyone, correlating the various parties’ analogous erogenous zones. It wasn’t the most efficient way to get off, but sex clouds were subtle enough that even those dancers who were shy about open orgies could participate with minimal embarrassment in a form of group sex.
Seeing that Keen was well taken care of, Megan returned to her seat. Shortly thereafter, a weirdly attractive woman with reptilian skin floated over to Pawn.
Kerrigan: Hey Pawn. Our sex rating is amazing. I’m fucking your ghost right now, and it is hot. Check it out. [sharing the feed]
Pawn: That is hot. So you want to try it brain to brain?
Kerrigan: That’s the idea.
Pawn: I’ll be back guys.
Pawn left his proxy at the table in standby mode and joined the situation with Kerrigan already in progress.
Sam: I can’t believe that Pawn doesn’t insist on using protection. That’s asking for trouble.
Thomas: He’s just adventurous.
Megan: What do you mean by protection?
Sam: Secured shared spaces, of course.
Megan: Right. They’re that important though?
Sam: Oh boy. Watch this video.
An educational cartoon popped up in front of Megan.
Video: Alice and Bob are on their first date.
The two characters were shown in a private instance of Happy Land- riding various attractions, eating funnel cakes, and setting things on fire.
Video: But then they decided to go somewhere more romantic.
Alice and Bob appeared in a bedroom, mid-grope.
Video: Everything was going great, but someone had made an unwarranted assumption.
Alice suddenly exploded into dozens of tentacles, which wrapped around Bob, who vanished from the room.
Video: Oops. Alice immediately apologized, but the awkwardness remained. Not everyone enjoys the loving caress of sextacles. If Alice and Bob had established their potential love nest as a secured shared space instead, they could have avoided the unpleasantness of mismatching desires and found amorous middle ground.
Alice and Bob appeared in the bedroom again, but this time a window popped up with the various settings and rules of the space. Bob’s personal settings prevented proxies from being introduced into the space, or changing form, without the consent of all parties involved. Alice’s settings prevented her proxy from being forcibly restrained, among other things. A set of mutually agreeable settings appeared and they spent a few moments tweaking them.
Alice whispered something into Bob’s ear. They smiled at each other and Bob changed his settings to allow for sextacles. They both accepted the rules of the space and began tearing each other’s clothes off.
Video: Sometimes, all you have to do is ask! Negotiating the rules can be fun, and can even give you ideas to spice up an occasion.SSS settings cover everything from physics and location to proxy interaction. Always insist on Secured Shared Spaces to keep things consensual and comfortable.
The video disappeared.
Sam: Secured spaces can restrict which parties can enter them, although there’s no way to stop valid participants from sharing their sensory information with outsiders. And they do a pretty good job detecting a proxy swap based on changes in behavior, though not perfectly.
Megan: So it will alert you if the person you’re having sex with is switching off with someone else? That’s a creepy concept.
Sam: If you care about that kind of thing, it’s definitely better to get to know someone before you get intimate. Or get someone with a good reputation. There are no lack of renowned lovers around here who wouldn’t pull that crap. You can always create a new SIS or Omni rep, but a good reputation that’s been established over months or years is something people generally won’t risk for something stupid like that.
Megan researched the SSS system while the rest of the group was checking out the play floor or previewing nodes for the dive. After a few minutes, Pawn’s proxy reanimated.
Thomas: That was quick. How was it?
Pawn: You didn’t watch? It was great! We’re hooking up for a more private rendezvous later tonight after the dive. It was a pretty big audience, kind of threw me off my game.
Chester: Like you’re some great lover.
Pawn and Chester stared each other down, though it didn’t quite work because Chester’s etched face couldn’t quite express anger in a non-humorous way.
SHOWDOWN!
T’s chinchilla agent Villain, who had been patrolling the club for some excitement, appeared on his shoulder and whispered something in his ear. He nodded. A moment later a blue orb appeared over the table and a stately voice emanated from it.
Announcer: Thomas, a.k.a. Xea Fluon, a.k.a. Kea of the Darkpath, you and your group are being challenged to a showdown by the eminent warrior SlushieBucket and her cadre. Do you accept?
T offered the challenge to the table. Everyone but Megan accepted it. They teleported from the table to a space on the play floor opposite ShushieBucket, her partner Amonke, and several of their friends. Hundreds of spectators hovered all around them, while numerous others viewed the showdown, which was being broadcast as a highly visible node of interest on Indra’s Net.
SlushieBucket: So, here we are again.
Thomas: I’m sorry, who are you?
SluchieBucket performed a perfect anime pratfall.
Thomas: Just kidding. How is this going down then?
SlushieBucket: Ha, ha. Funny as usual, Hanged Man. Pick a weapon and choose your fate.
Thomas looked thoughtful for a moment. Then Villain jumped up into his right hand and turned into an electric guitar with Villain’s colorings.
SlushieBucket: So be it. Let’s rock!
Everyone selected instruments and dance routines and began to warm up.
Mike: [text >Megan] Hey Megan, come and play tambourine or something. It’ll be fun!
Megan: [>Mike] I don’t want to get in the way.
Mike: [>Megan] You really couldn’t make this more ridiculous than it’s bound to be.
Megan: [>Mike] I’ll just watch this time.
T went jazz (befitting his zoot suit), while SlushieBucket chose speed metal. The format for the showdown was that the bands would take turns playing, starting with intervals of 30 seconds, in competition to create the most resonance in the surrounding crowd. T’s group went first and got a nice early lead. But on their second turn Chester blasted her saxophone in Pawn’s face. The turn after that, Pawn turned his trombone into a water gun, shooting spit all over Chester’s face, and they began bludgeoning each other with their instruments. T threw them out of the band, but there were no ready replacements and the damage had already been done. SlushieBucket won resonance supremacy on her next turn and used it to incinerate T’s group. SlushieBucket’s band, flush with victory, played a short concert on that node. It would be replayed, along with the musical showdown, throughout the night.
T and his group reappeared at their table just as their ashes were disintegrating into the play floor. Chester flicked a speck across the table onto Pawn’s right cheek. In a few moments it festered into a tiny alien civilization, complete with skyscrapers and roadways. Pawn tried to wipe it off his face, but the civilization retaliated by shooting missiles, which arced out over the table and back at his eyes, exploding into bright white light. Having enough of this, Pawn filtered the civilization away and used a finger laser to etch crude drawings onto Chester’s torso. Everyone else tried to ignore them.
Thomas set up a node featuring sexbots generated from SlushieBucket’s band’s ghosts doing various lewd things to each other. He linked the node to the showdown, demonstrating poor sportsmanship, even for him.
Megan: [private >Thomas] Did you guys practice for that a lot?
Thomas: [>Megan] Practice! Ha! Most of the dancing is just adding flare to a set pattern, or total free style. No skill required, since you can just ride along with a musical ghost and let it play music or dance for you.
Megan: [>Thomas] So you can’t play guitar by yourself?
Thomas: [>Megan] I couldn't at first, but I can now. I didn’t start out wanting to learn, I started by just passively experiencing a guitar ghost playing through my proxy. But over time I naturally learned how to play just by following along with it. I started setting it up as a mixed state so my physical hands went through the motions, to train my physical muscles as well as my brain. It’s easy and fun to learn how to play music like that. You should try it the next time a musical opportunity like a showdown pops up. They don’t really matter and they’re tons of fun.
Megan: [>Thomas] Yeah, I know they’re just for fun, but I’m feeling like a newbie here.
Thomas: [>Megan] Don’t worry about that. Everyone’s a newbie to something. Even if you look like you’re new to any given place, no one would assume you’re new to Outside in general. You could be a Pan from Ataraxia who’s just trying a space out. My friend, Darth Windom is something of a hero in Sunshine City. He’ll take on any injustice, but he’s too shy to go clubbing. Anyway, Omni’s for everyone. Millions of people frequent this place. Reputations do matter, but you build those with time, out of your actions and character, not just how well you know your way around.
Megan: [>Thomas] For now, I’m just kind of a bumpkin.
Thomas: [>Megan] But no one else even knows you feel that way. Your club ID is anonymous by default, so you could be anyone. But you’re sitting next to me, so people are going to assume that you’re awesome. People would be bugging the hell out of you trying to get your attention if Villain wasn’t automatically filtering requests away. Don’t worry, people understand. I get like 2 dozen social requests a minute for everything from simple chats to hardcore orgy invites, just from reputable club members.
While they were talking, Pawn and Chester were increasingly agitated with each other. They were moving as if shouting at each other, although their voices were private between them. Chester extended her leg under the table and kicked Pawn’s shin.
Thomas: [>Megan]: This is about to get really juvenile.
Before Megan had time to respond, Pawn had jumped across the table and was pummeling Chester. Chester swung a cartoon mallet from under the table, knocking Pawn way out into the club’s empty space. Pawn shot an energy ball back at Chester, but Chester had already jetted out of his seat after Pawn. The ball hit the table and exploded it, sending shrapnel everywhere. A piece of it embedded into Megan’s neck. Sam quickly restored the group’s space.
Pawn: [hollering over at the group while trading blows with Chester] Sorry guys! Sorry Megan!
The two combatants fought viciously in midair. Pawn kicked Chester into another group’s table, sending their proxies flying. Chester elbow slammed Pawn straight down into the dance floor, so hard that he left a crater and scattered dozens of dancers. They shot numerous energy blasts at each other, mostly missing and causing collateral damage to group spaces all over Omni, including destroying an entire virtualized club.
They left a trail of mangled, twitching corpses in their wake. Luckily for Omni, this was only happening on Chester and Pawn’s private layer, which only affected the few dozen people who had opted into it. The main layer of Omni didn’t even see them leave the table, although those following Sam’s node got to witness the display.
Megan: Hey, I thought Pawn was a pacifist.
Thomas: He makes an exception for Chester.
Megan: Why?
Thomas: Bad blood from a while back.
Chester pulled out a baseball bat and started whacking Pawn with it. Pawn pulled out a chainsaw and began slowly cutting off Chester’s metallic left leg while being hit about his head and shoulders with the bat. Finally, Pawn dropped the chainsaw and twisted Chester’s head off, just as Chester punched through Pawn’s stomach. Pawn’s disemboweled guts fell and turned into various forms of candy before hitting the play floor far below, the one element of the fight that affected the main layer of Omni. Mutually defeated according to the rules they were fighting under, they returned to their seats at the table. Chester put her head, now with a frowny face, on the table. Sam opened a hole in the floor for Pawn’s blood to drain.
Thomas: [patting Chester’s head] Nice moves, Goku.
Chester: Shove it.
Thomas: How about you Pawn? Feel better?
Pawn: [private >Thomas] How do you stand her after all she’s done?
Thomas: [>Pawn] One game’s got nothing to do with another.
Pawn: [>Thomas] Until it does.
Thomas: [>Pawn] What are you talking about?
Pawn: [>Thomas] Probably nothing.
Next- Episode 07: Omni (2 of 2)
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