"They never suggest that you have to play the hand genetics dealt you," Silent agreed. "Any more than they force real-world diabetics to keep giving themselves in-game insulin shots. The body here is fashion. An outfit you put on, or a tool to beat particular Challenges."
"And yet everything," Far added, in a lower tone.
"The Cycogs are also the ones that focused everything around the concept of Core Unit," I pointed out. "We wouldn’t even be having this discussion if they hadn’t used self-image as a starting point. Which, even if Cycogs and lan are somehow real, isn’t something they needed to put in a virtual simulation. It’s something they chose to include."
"You’re right," TALiSON agreed. "And my avatar choices don’t bother me when I’m playing things like Veil. It’s only when I’m socialising with real people wearing my so-called self-image, or I see that damn patch."
"We don’t even know if a true self is something that’s an issue in the future." I said. "Dio, what’s it like to grow up as a Bio of The Synergis? Uh, as an average Type Three?"
I expected Dio to drop down from the drifts of light above, and experienced a mild shock when te surfaced from the toe of my boot. Riding along? Resting?
[[Most Bios raise their offspring on crèche worlds,]] te said. [[Primarily because infant lan is negligible, and crèche worlds have many more safety precautions, along with educational facilities and peers for socialisation. Type Threes usually cannot safely transfer between modals until their teens, at which point they’re permitted to experiment with different forms, if they wish. Occasionally Bios choose to never live in anything but their own original shape, and even of the majority that try a number of changes, perhaps eighty percent retain something similar to their initial appearance for their Core.]]
"So there are worlds that are almost all kids at school and their parents?" TALiSON asked. "Are classes broken down into the good-looking kids, the athletic kids, and the lo…the unpopular ones? Or are all Synergis children born good-looking?"
[[It’s rare that genetic traits that are strongly outside averages are maintained. Otherwise, approximately a third of Type Threes use trait selection rather than the random combinations of unassisted conception. Random combination remains the most common, however, in part due to a belief that individuality is an adjunct to strong lan development. If you were all bland reproductions of some Golden Mean of agreed beauty, would you have a lesser sense of self?]]
"What about race?" Silent asked. "I’ve noticed that all the NPCs I’ve seen so far have been darker-skinned."
[[That is partly fashion. Race, in the informal construct of the term, has been subsumed by sub-species, although there are still some regional distinctions among pure Type Threes that correlate well enough to your major continental variants. Statistically, hm, the average Type Three has a light brown skin, wavy brown-black hair, and dark brown eyes. They are raised in neutral expression on a crèche world, primarily in this quadrant or Elorha Quadrant.]]
"Neutral expression?" Far said. "We talking reproductive sets? Or lack thereof?"
[[Yes. That was a variation that came from Kua-roa, the most advanced of the Type Three Enclaves. They went through several phases of violence based on strict notions of gender roles, suffered a near-extinction event, and chose to mandate a neutral state as a result. Kua-roans reproduce entirely through assisted conception and gestation, entering affection-based partnerships rather than sexual ones, and leave to The Synergis if they wish to sample other expressions. We observed that neutral early development seemed to remove some of the factors that undermine lan progress in Type Threes—and several of the other Bio species—and encouraged the practice generally. It’s voluntary in The Synergis, but at this stage approximately seventy percent of Type Threes are born neutral. Perhaps ten percent remain so, while almost half of the whole eventually use neutral as a base, but shift between one or more of the other potential expressions to experiment with strengthening their lan, or for recreational or partnership purposes.]]
"Is this a genetic level neutrality?" I asked. "Or are you just controlling, um, suppressing the expression of the chromosomes?"
[[For the majority it’s genetic, but some choose a surface adjustment. We leave that up to the parent, since our preference is to influence trends, rather than waste time pressuring individuals.]]
We digested this reminder of Chocobo status, then I sighed, and snagged one of the drinking bulbs from TALiSON’s net.
"So the main thing you’re saying is that we’re all just potential engine parts, and no-one cares what we started off like, or plays the no, what are you really? game?"
[[To a certain degree, the precise opposite,]] Dio replied. [[Because it is such a prestigious thing to be high lan, there is immense interest in the genetics and development of anyone nearing triple digit rank. And Bios maintain all manner of factional division, and will care passionately about the most unexpected things. But to change your Core Unit for personal preference, or to strengthen your synchronisation, or to optimise for other forms of Challenges, are all unremarkable things.]]
"But since we weren’t raised in The Synergis, we’re still probably going to feel a little conflicted," I said, firmly. "Oh, Nova made it." I waved, and added to TALiSON and Far: "Our fifth for the gauntlet series. We’re trying to show her that we’re the kind of guild she’d want to join."
"Pity we’re all so thoroughly drunk, then," TALiSON said. "I wasn’t expecting to wait this long to watch the System Challenge."
Nova had ditched the magical girl outfit for a blue and white chignon and a dress of two pieces of sheer cloth-of-gold artfully pinned along shoulders and arms to produce something that on me would probably resemble a homemade poncho, and on Nova somehow became a vaguely Grecian piece of elegance.
"I didn’t think I’d make it back here in time," she said, sitting down near me. "Getting down from space takes a while."
"Putting in zero-G practice?" Silent asked, handing her a drinking bulb.
"It sounds like we’ll need it."
TALiSON blinked at her. "Is that a tiny cat on your shoulder? Does this game give pet rewards?"
"My Cycog," Nova said, with a sideways glance. "Temi."
The teacup-sized cat—black with a four-pointed star on its forehead—blinked at us with eyes that glowed the same luminous white as the mote hovering above my foot.
"It feels wrong to squee over our alien overlords," I said. "But that’s a very cute synth, Temi."
[[Thank you.]]
Dio said something in the wibbling notes of the Cybercognate, and Temi responded by leaping to the ground, curling into a black ball, and rising out of the synth to float off into the crowd above.
"That’s the only language they don’t auto-translate," Nova remarked. "I wonder if it’s possible to learn."
Far moved his foot toward the black ball, then drew it back. "It’s probably rude to pick aliens up, or the shells they leave behind. If I get drunker, make sure I don’t step on it."
"They’re apparently very sturdy," Nova said, lifting her drinking bulb and sniffing the built-in straw. "What is this?"
"It’s called thousand fruit punch," TALiSON explained. "Every bulb is different."
There was something different about Nova beyond the clothes, and it took me a full minute of consideration to decide that she wasn’t just dressed older: she had physically changed to a twentyish version of herself, rather than the mid-teens look that had gone with her magical girl homage. I’d already known she was older, because the game didn’t flag her age, but found the differences more disconcerting than if she’d turned up in an entirely unfamiliar body.