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This story is part of the UFAW Story Setting and features NeoMythicals which are introduced in the story A Brand Neo Day. This story should stand on its own, but a better understand of Neos can be gained by reading that story first. A summary of Neos can be found here
The blue and white metallic Frost NeoDragon looked on as 100 ton hoppers of cavorite ore hummed past on the single main track. At 2000 feet the arch bridge over the Mirrabella Gorge was nearly as wide as the gorge was deep, but its location hundreds of miles inside the boundaries of Twelve Canyons Federal Reserve did an excellent job keeping the tourists, BASE jumpers and "amateur" thrill seekers away. Of course this was just this sort of virgin territory Vormanx sought out to ply his craft and make a name for himself. A video shot here was sure to be seen, not buried under hundreds or thousands of similar search results, and as the end of the train buzzed past, the 7 foot tall techno-biologic anthro grabbed his gear and hustled onto the stone ballasted bridge decking aware of the 17 minute window before a train of empty cars was due to pass in the opposite direction.
Reaching the midpoint of the bridge Vormanx stepped out onto one of the small refuge platforms cantilevered off the side of the bridge. The Mirrabella Gorge had been described on the forums as a mashup between the Amazonian rain forest and the Grand Canyon . The mining company that owned the railroad clearly had an eye on the credits of future tourists when it built the bridge in plain view of the magnificent Silver Thread falls, which dumped 32,000 cubic feet of water per second to the bottom of the gorge half a mile below. Just staring out over the jungle made Vor go all tingly inside, but the Neo hadn't come to the edge of the known multiverse for a view and a few snapshots.
The hard shell case Vormanx pulled out of his pack had his name stenciled on the top, with three large red X's standing in place of the normal one to match the username he had chosen for his video channel. Popping the case and waving his hand over the contents, the three softball sized camera drones lifted themselves out of their foam lining and hovered dutifully in a row off to one side. Turning back to face the emptiness of the gorge, the shiny metallic Neo flared his wings and arms out to the sides of his body and belted out a great roar before proceeding to sprint in place and stretch himself out. As soon as Vormanx felt sufficiently pumped up and in the zone he closed his eyes and allowed the familiar magics to flow throughout his body. For an instant the Neo appeared to blur and then where one had stood there were two.
"Whoooo hooooo! I am fucking stoked!" crowed the fully flesh and blood Frost Dragon. "Are you ready for this brother because I sure am. Look at this place." The organic Vormanx strode to the railing, looking out at the natural beauty before him with fresh eyes. "Simply magnificent. The video is going to look amazing and you're not going to have to worry about any air vehicles or RV's or fucking advertisements. This place is virgin man. Completely untouched. I don't even think anyone has had proper camera equipment out here except for that PBS documentary and a couple of railfans."
Organic Vormanx's mechanical brother stood behind him, also impressed by the view, but still able to keep his composure. His hard metal plating was anodized in an almost identical pattern to the flesh brother's scaled hide with most of the body being blue, except for an ice white that covered the belly, wing membranes, and dorsal stripe.
"It is truly a sight to behold. Before we begin why don't you tell me what you are going to do just so that I can be sure that meaty brain of yours didn't forget anything."
"Sometimes I wonder if you're my brother or my mother," Organic Vormanx zinged back before sticking out his tongue and kicking a small stone that bounced harmlessly off Mech Vormanx's metal thigh.
“Flesh is weak, go over your stunt," the mech replied calmly as he dispersed the camera drones in order to calibrate them for the light and air conditions around the falls.
"Alright, I'm going to start with a drop off the bright to build up speed then soar up to the protrusion, skim the crest of the waterfall with my hands then curve back on myself, catch the water and let that push me into a corkscrew spiral for about 1000 feet then pull out of that and use the momentum to do some high speed crossing patterns through the mist stream before finishing with a high speed dive and zoom straight up the stream as far as I can go with a final controlled plummet down into the lake," rattled off Organic Vormanx with a smile of anticipation. "Now are you sure the drones are going to be able to catch that wide shot of me shooting up through the mist because that's the money shot."
"I know how to do my job brother. In fact you know that I know how to do my job. And by me telling you that you know that I know..."
"Alright stop right there Mr. Roboto I think we’re both good to go here, but I need you to vet a change for me," said Organic Vormanx as he walked up to the edge of the bridge. "Now that I'm here I was thinking I could start with a handstand on the railing. In fact I could do the intro like that and you have the camera inverted so it looks like I'm starting right side up before rotating 180 degrees. That tends to seriously disorient bios watching in 3D which will make the rest of the video pop out a bit more."
Mech Vormanx walked over to the railing and quickly ascertained its strength and stability. "Alright, that works, but I'll need to pull a drone out of position to get that shot because I can't rotate my head around a point only three feet from the ground."
"Sure you can. Just take it off."
"Wha?!" Mech Vormanx exclaimed with a look of consternation.
"Take...your...head...off. C'mon. Don't give me that look, we've done it before. Why do you think we bother to split?"
"Because nobody watches videos of Neos doing stunts because we're overpowered superbeings?"
"Yeah, well that and because you're a 400,000 credit AI camera rig."
"Oh? So that's all you think of your better half?" Mech Vormanx responded, placing his hands on his hips in mock outrage.
Organic Vormanx kicked another stone into his brother's leg, making a metallic clang.
"Stop that! If you put marks on my body, it shows up when we merge!"
"Come on man, we'd better hurry, because that next train is getting close. You ready for this?"
"I believe that you are the one who needs to be "ready", replied the mech as he disengaged the connections that held his draconic neck to his body and made sure the wireless link was up and stable.
"Ok, I'll do the handstand, when I signal you do the rotation and as I finish get your head back on."
Mech Vormanx manually "nodded" before turning his head upside down. His organic brother took a few deep breaths before flipping up onto the railing. Every muscle on his body was rippling as his arms supported his weight and his myriad other limbs tried to keep from flailing about.
"Three...two...one. Hey there everybody, this is VormanXXX here, and I have a real treat for you all this time. Right now I am deep in the Twelve Canyons Reserve just a few thousand feet from what is popularly known as the largest shower in the explored multiverse."
Mech Vormanx pulled back and rotated his head back around to "reveal" both his brother's orientation and the stunning vista that lay behind.
"You know since I got all hot and nasty hiking out here I could really stand to cool off right about now so let's go for it."
With a bit of a grunt Organic Vormanx performed one inverted push up on the railing, then another and finally on the third he launched himself off the bar and tucked into a diving somersault disappearing from his brother's field of view before reappearing back above the horizon of the bridge deck making a beeline for the falls. The planned shot now in the can Mech Vormanx followed suit jumping off the bridge and kicking the anti-gravity coils in his wings hard to overtake his brother and be in position for the hand skim. Keeping careful track of the drones, Mech Vormanx reached the falls just in time to capture high speed video of his other half passing just inches above the mass of boiling water as it fell over the precipice jutting out several hundred feet beyond the canyon wall.
Organic Vormanx curved gracefully back around to carry out what was the most dangerous part of the sequence, getting pulled into the water and dipping a wing so that it would carry him down in a violent tight corkscrew. The mech had to be on his game as well as being just slightly out of position would not only ruin the shot aesthetically, but also what Vormanx hoped would be the signature fully immersive 3D shot of the day. As the flesh dragon plunged lower and lower and spun faster and faster the robot began to worry as his brother flew past the planed pull-out point, but dismay turned to relief as Organic Vormanx pulled out a half second later and worked to build up speed for his crossing patterns. With the most challenging performance element now behind them the focus turned to the camera work as Organic Vormanx blasted back and forth through the stream of mist, hitting it with blasts from his frost breath which created brief explosions of ice crystals and a spectacular light effect. All that was left was the final upward spike into the stream followed by a rapid descent into the lake on the canyon floor.
Far above at the top of the waterfall the husk of a large tree, carried by the river from the place it had grown for centuries, crested the lip of the waterfall and fell into empty space. Mech Vormanx, hanging back so to not contaminate the wide shot, was splitting his attention between the three drone feeds and his own visual stream which was zoomed in for the close ups. By the time the tangled black mass falling through the mist registered in the AI's awareness and triggered the need for action there was nothing that could be done. From the mech's primary point of view the organic frost dragon was there one moment, sparkling in a cloud of ice, and gone the gone the next, caught by a mass of twisted branches.
Acting on core programming the robot broke his links with the drones and rocketed downwards, trying to catch up with the falling tree that had so suddenly swept away his brother. There was a sharp crack as the mechadragon went supersonic, the limp body of his brother growing larger in his targeting reticle. For a brief instant some of the AI's higher functions thought that he actually might be able to reach his brother in time, but then the cold logic of the situation kicked in. He was going too fast and his altitude was too low. For a quarter of a second the synthetic dragon's overclocked mind wrestled with the decision of flying on to die with his bio-half or saving himself to live alone in an uncertain future.
Vormanx chose to live.
Flaring his large metal wings the dragon mech poured every ounce of his power into his anti-grav coils, slamming on the brakes and arresting his forward momentum while at the same time veering away from the large pile of debris that had gathered at the point directly below the crest of the waterfall. Tucking his wings just before impact the mech ploughed into the swampy ground, tossing up mud and peat while blasting out a crater 5 feet deep. As soon as his sensorium had recalibrated itself the robot was back on his feet and flying towards the pile of debris. Summoning the emergency services through the global communications grid Mech Vormanx ripped and tore at the unyielding wood with his sharp metal claws until the truth could no longer be denied. Sinking back against a branch the metal dragon's head, arms, wings and tail all slumped down into a position of abject despair. His brother...his soul, was dead.
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"I don't think there is anyone here who wasn't touched by his kindness and compassion. It didn't matter if you were a newb or veteran, if you needed help or advice he was always available if people needed him. I think we should now take a moment of silence to remember our friend. He died doing what he loved."
The dark Brunswick green NeoDragon stepped back from the altar in the communal ossuary where the bio dragon's bones would be laid to rest. The Island of Heil had become a magnet for all manner of "extreme" sports enthusiast and the memorial service for the organic Frost Dragon known as Vormanx had packed the cave with Neos and non-Neos alike. As news of the tragedy there had been an outpouring of support, but Vormanx's closest friends and roommates Fleur and Raskin stepped up to handle the arrangements to help ease the burden on the half of the Frost NeoDragon that still remained.
"So shall it be done," stated a female Red NeoDragon in a solemn voice before turning towards the rather despondent looking dragon mech that was standing off to one side. "V-Vormanx, was there anything you wanted to say?"
Vormanx shook his head, his optics burning a hole in the rock in front of his feet. Every time he heard the name, his name, his name that was now his name alone, a wave of incalculable pain and grief surged through his crystal processor burning in the pathways that left him feeling numb and depressed.
Fleur turned back to the assembled crowd. "Thank you all for coming. Vormanx would be..." Fleur stopped herself suddenly feeling awkward. "I...I mean Vormanx is very glad you came. We have a poster outside for you to sign and then we're going to have a great party down on the beach to celebrate the spirit that was taken from us, but...but rest assured Vormanx will be back and better than ever. Isn't that right?" Fleur laid her hand on the mech's metal shoulder prompting Vormanx to nod weakly.
The assembled crowd applauded politely before splitting into the group heading directly to the beach and the group wishing to offer what remained of Vormanx their personal condolences. The events of the day were turning out to be more than the mech-half was up for and after the first few people he shunted off handshake duties to a personality emulation while telling himself that he would listen to the heartfelt words later.
"But it's not like he's really dead, is it? I mean you have all the memories and personality stuff still inside you so they can just bring him back, right?"
The question tripped the failsafe in the emulation and bringing it directly to Vormanx's awareness and breaking his ongoing focus on the floor. Standing nearby Raskin quickly tried to pull the inconsiderate human away, but Vormanx's cold metal hand got there first.
"What? Do you think we're toys they spit out in some factory?" growled the mech, his voice soft yet chilling. "My bio-half is dead. He's dead and he's never coming back. Understand me hewman, you will never grasp the magnitude what I have lost."
"I...I'm sorry," the man stammered as he tried to pull free of Vormanx's grasp.
Vormanx suddenly let go and pulled back reverting his gaze to the floor. "Forgive me. That was uncalled for."
Raskin snapped at the human as he hurried off and then turned back to Vormanx. "Don't apologize to the pink skin. He was just being ignorant."
"What, you think Neos have treated me any differently? You had to threaten the guy that runs this place to accept my bones and the government still won't give me any sort of death certificate." Vormanx paused as he choked up with emotion. His eyes dry only because he lacked the capability for tears. "Most...most of my so called friends won't even talk to me because it makes them uncomfortable."
Fleur came up behind Vormanx and gently embraced him. "Why don't you come down to the beach? You always love a good party and you have real friends there."
The red could feel the hard metal somehow tense up under her. "P-Please don't make assumptions about things I like anymore," Vormanx said in a soft voice.
Raskin leaned in to look Vormanx in the eyes. "Vor, I know you're in pain, but you can't forget that you're still Neo. This isn't a problem as long as you're still alive. Just see the social worker tomorrow and she'll help you get fixed. Until then you should listen to Fleur and come to the party. You have a lot of fans there and there's plenty of glow to help take the edge off."
"I'm going to pretend you didn't just suggest that," Fleur snapped as she smacked Raskin upside the head sending him reeling. "Don't drink to get drunk Vor, in fact you probably shouldn't drink at all."
"I wasn't planning on it, but you're right, I should go to the party. Vormanx cared about his fans and colleagues and they are grieving too."
"Vormanx still cares," Fleur responded pressing the tip of a claw into her friend's chest with a look that informed the blue and white metal dragon that the issue was not up for debate.
With a shrug Vormanx allowed his friends to lead him down to the beach where he could focus on the present instead of the past.
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The robotic frost dragon stared out a window in the Heil social services office while he waited for his assigned counselor to arrive. The building was situated on a verdant slope outside of the town the humans liked to call Bayport and provided its occupants with views that could be easily mistaken for a display wall stuck on demo mode. The dragon mech had taken to tapping his claws on the translucent desk when the door opened and a NeoCorn mare with a traditional silver hide walked in prompting Vormanx to stand.
"Ms. Silverfeather?"
"Please, call me Lilly," the scantily clad NeoCorn said as she gently pressed her soft pink nose against Vormanx's metal neck. Via a mechanism unknown to the mech, the Uni's touch somehow injected a strange noise into his internal data network that produced a strange calming sensation. After breaking contact Lilly smiled and walked behind her desk leaving the more logic driven synth slightly dumbfounded. "Please, be seated. Now, I was reviewing your...situation and as I am sure you are aware this is not the sort of case that we typically handle here."
"Rest assured I am well aware of how uncommon my "situation" is," Vormanx replied, a slight edge to his voice.
Lilly fiddled with some of the personal objects on her desk. "Well yes, your condition is certainly uncommon, but we have had some experience dealing with some similar cases so just relax and know that we're here to help."
Vormanx shifted uncomfortably in his chair as Lilly brought up a projection of his case file on the large wall to his right, sending him link to the soft copy at the same time.
"I did have one question before we begin Mr. Skr...Skkrrggnn..."
"I don't mind if you use the translation Lilly," said Vormanx, cracking a bit of a smile as he watched the equine struggle with his clan name. "Unicorns usually have a tough time trying to fit their mouths around my last name.“
"Yes...thank you. I did have one question Mr. Icewing. It said that magical resurrection methods were not successful, but there is no other information. Did you know what...happened there?"
Vormanx sighed as the air went out of his posture. "NeoBlast was one of our...sponsors. Vormanx liked the taste of it and he...we..." The robot dragon sighed again and sank lower in the chair. "I drank a lot of it."
"I see," replied Lilly flatly as she added the words "Insufficient Spiritual Strength" in the section detailing the resurrection attempts. "Those so called energy drinks are becoming a real problem," Lilly commented as she continued to fill in some other parts of the case file. "All that processed junk they put in there just hollows people out. As tragic as your condition is Mr. Icewing ," Lilly looked around then leaned in close, "a few weeks ago some parents brought in their child that they said had been acting "strangely". Turns out that thanks to diet of energy drinks and excessive VR use he faded into nothing more than a personality emulation. Having to tell parents that their child was no longer a sentient being was probably one of the more unpleasant things I have had to do in this job."
Lilly's story, which had been naively intended to make Vormanx feel better about his own situation instead had the opposite effect as he considered VormanXXX's association with the product in question.
"Don't worry, I'm done with NeoBlast. I'm never going to touch a drop of that crap as long as I live," Vormanx growled.
"Well, you won't see any objection from me," smiled Lilly as she sat back in her chair. "Alright, now you're here so you can get better and first of all I want you to know that your condition is fully covered. The standard treatment is to clone your bio-half and send it through a rapid maturation process where we provide it with all of the memories that you have retained and also shape the personality to ensure optimal blending. "
Vormanx's mouth dropped open as he sat up in his chair. "What? Are you serious? That's the "treatment"?"
"Is there some sort of problem? I mean I know it will take a few years to complete..."
"You think I'm worried about the time it takes? Ok, aside from the fact that you're proposing to grow a sentient biologic being like they're some sort of replacement organ, do you really think that you can just recreate what I lost with memory implants and brainwashing?"
"Mr. Icewing I assure you that this treatment is the current standard of care. Others who suffer from your disability have seen, on average, an 85% personality restoration," Lilly shot back, her ears slightly pinned as she took offence at Vormanx's accusations.
"First how the hell do you measure that? Second I clearly just heard the word "average" in there and third no matter what the average I don't want to risk losing one of those thing that made Vormanx special. You might not believe it, but I wasn't just some thrill junkie. Vormanx was an entertainer… an artist. And you just can't go mucking about with that."
"Please Mr. Icewing," Lilly continued as she tried to show the patience her job required. "The restoration figures indicate that the personality of the resulting neo is exactly the same in all the major areas with deviations only occurring among various minor preferences."
"I...I just don't think I can replace my bio half like he's some kind of a part."
"What do you think would happen if the roles were reversed?"
Vormanx stiffened in his seat and then pushed out the air in his heat exchanger since he already knew the answer.
"We'd send your personality specs and last memory backup over to the folks at NeoTek and we'd have a perfectly compatible synth-half show up by the end of the month which would achieve better than a 95% personality restoration in the resulting Neo," Lilly continued. "In case you forgot Neos are an equal blend of synthetic and biologic. Our mech splits are not somehow disposable."
"No, now it just seems that both are splits are disposable."
Lilly quietly got up from her chair and walked around to where Vormanx was sitting and offered her hand to help him up. She then led him across the room to a comfortable white couch where she followed the slightly confused dragon's lead in sitting down.
"Alright, I believe there is something else at play here and that's why I am bringing you over to the couch," Lilly said as she laid her hand on Vormanx's metal thigh while lightly pressing the rest of her soft body along his. "First you need to understand that neither split is disposable. Let's say that they had been able to recover your bio's soul before it moved on and then transferred it into a cloned body, would that be acceptable to you?"
"Yes, of course," Vormanx nodded.
"Well aren't backups just a form of synthetic resurrection? I know it's not a perfect analogy, but I think it's close enough."
Vormanx nodded again.
“Now consider the situation where all the backups have been lost and your bio-half needed to merge with a completely new AI. I know cloning is a bit more messy, but at the end of the day you are still creating a new sentient being to replace one that was lost. Some might call that unethical or immoral, but the reason we believe it is the right thing to do is because it saves the life of the Neo by healing the surviving half. The alternative is to leave a Neo dead, a split damaged and another split left uncreated.”
Vormanx took a few moments to stare out the window to gather his thoughts.
"I've spent so much time split that I have become intimately aware of what my brother contributed to the merge. Without his contribution the Vormanx I was...the Vormanx I want to be just won't exist. That's why I hate it when people keep calling this a condition or an injury or a disability. It's none of those things because Vormanx fucking died! The Vormanx that people cared about and who did all those stunts and made all those videos died and he's never coming back."
The mech laid his head on Lilly's shoulder as she put her arm around his and pulled him close.
"If all your memories and personality had been wiped away forever and your brother was sitting here don't you think he would be saying the same thing? You're diminishing your own self-worth because you're in grief and you probably blame yourself for what happened. I'm going to get you some help with that, but you can't let your sadness be the basis for actually letting Vormanx die, as you put it, by refusing the treatment that will bring him back."
The robot dragon exhaled again. "You're exactly right that I blame myself for my brother's death and that I'm terribly depressed over it, but that's not the reason the thought of cloning up some replacement bio-half and merging with it makes me sick. It just feels...fake. Hell, what the fuck would our fans think if my brother just showed up again all fine and dandy after being crushed by a tree? VormanXXX doesn't fake things and cloning my brother would not only make his death meaningless, but it would also mean everything he ever did was fake because it means no matter what the danger he put himself in there was always a reset button just in case."
Lilly gave Vormanx another hug before shifting positions to view the display wall. "Listen I might not 100% agree with you, but I'm willing to defer to your judgement. Still, your only other options are to find another biologic half to go through a rebirth process with or you can go through a bio conversion yourself and then we can try to code you up a new mech half to be reborn with. The second method has little more flexibility because it is possible to make adjustments to the AI after rebirth."
"Well, I'm nixing the the second option right now. The last thing I would do to recreate the old Vormanx would be to use me for the creative spark," the metal dragon chuckled as some amusement crept into his mind.
"If you sign a non-disclosure agreement I can provide you with the files of most of the current candidates for neo-conversion. Any of the mundanes would jump at the chance because your selection would automatically write their ticket, but you need to be absolutely sure that person you select is "the one" because not only are mismatched personalities dangerously unstable you won't get a do over if it ends in "divorce"."
Vormanx nodded as he mulled over his new choices. "Thank you Lilly, this was more helpful than I thought it would be. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'll figure out something. Maybe Vormanx just needs be allowed to die and I can just move on to something else in life. "
"I will respect your choice as long as it is made of sound mind. Still, it would be a shame if the old Vormax never returned. I went through some of your videos and you had real talent there...BOTH of you had real talent."
Vormanx nodded as he got up from the couch. "Thank you again. I'll be in touch.
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Raskin walked into the living room munching on a bag of fried insects and sat down next to Vormanx who was cutting up a variety of root vegetables and meat into evenly sized cubes.
"Hey bud, whatcha doing there?"
"I am cutting vegetables and meat for the stir fry later tonight," Vormanx replied with a subtle lack of feeling.
"Well make sure you cut up plenty of garlic."
"I will cut up sufficient garlic."
"No no, more than that."
Vormanx looked up at Raskin briefly. "Ok, I will get more garlic when I have finished these."
"Um, are you ok Voy, you sound weird."
"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"Because you sound weird. It's almost like...oh by the Great Lord are you using that fucking personality emulation again?!"
"No, why would I do that?"
"Because you've been busy ever since you got back from seeing that social worker last week...Wait why the fuck am I talking to your EMU. Hey Vormanx! WAKE UP!"
"I am awake, please stop yelling."
Raskin delivered a forceful punch to Vormanx's hard metal shoulder resulting in a slight metallic ringing and the green NeoDragon cursing in pain.
"If you need my help with anything just ask. You're going to spill the vegetables."
"Alright, if that's the way you want to play it," Raskin growled as he fished a marker out from between the cushions. Removing the cap he reached over to draw something on Vormanx, but before he could touch pen to metal the robot dragon's hand shot up pressing the knife to Raskin's soft metallic hide.
"You might want to rethink your current action," Vormanx hissed.
"Um...am I talking to Vormanx or the Emu?"
Raskin felt the knife press in harder.
"Ah..." said the dark green NeoDragon pulling back his hand.
"Why were you going to draw a penis on my face?"
"Because you're using a fucking emulation. Not only is that rude but you Emu is dumb as bricks."
"It's more efficient than having to pay attention to every little thing that's going on and I have important work to do."
"The real Vormanx never used an Emu."
"Well the "real" Vormanx isn't here right now and I happen to like the idea. If you want both the real Vormanx back and dinner stop fucking with the emulation, which by the way wouldn't be so "stupid" if the old Vormanx had ever bothered to use it from time to time," grumbled the mech. “Oh, and if you want my attention the alert word is "banana". I don't want to get blue on Fleur's nice couch."
"Wait, who just tried to stab me there..."
"Did you want something or not?"
"Well I kind of wanted to know what you were up to over the last week. I'm assuming you're doing stuff inside your head, but you haven't really said anything about it."
"Well since I didn't want to do that cloning thing I told you about I have been looking for a new partner from the pool of candidates for Neo conversion. I signed an NDA so I can't really divulge any information from the database and at that point I figured it was better if I just kept to myself while I sifted through it," Vormanx explained.
"Well, why are you telling me now?" Raskin asked.
"Because the candidate pool is completely useless to me. Everyone in here is just too...too...competent. Let's see here. Harvard, Harvard, Yale, West Point, IIT, Oxford, Stamford, CEO, Princeton, Harvard, His Excellency, it goes on and on and on. The people who get selected for conversion are the fucking cream of the crop. I've never held a steady job in my entire life and I currently live on a sofa."
"At least it's a pretty nice sofa," Raskin pointed out, "but why are you choosing from the mundane list? It's almost a given that they're going to be all overqualified. You might have better luck looking for a fellow supernatural since they pretty much just need to pay some money and pass a background check. I am sure there are more than a few who share your more...casual approach to life."
“The problem is that because it is so much easier for an existing supernatural to qualify for neo conversion there is no good reason for one to partner with me since they can just blend with a brand new AI coded up with a custom personality based on their own."
"There you go being all down on yourself again Vor. You have so much experience any couch bum dragon would be lucky to have you."
Vormanx let out a brief snort of amusement. "Ok, you got me there, but even if one did want to join up they sure as hell aren't going to be inclined to give up their name and important life details just so some semi-pro extreme stunt performer can live again. At best I'd end up a hyphen."
"One might say that bringing Vormanx part of the way back is better than never having him come back at all," remarked Raskin in his most positive voice as he moved to put his arm around the mech's shoulders.
Despite his friend's best efforts Vormanx let out an audible sigh and dropped his head to stare into his lap. "There is another reason anybody with choice in the matter would never want to merge with me. I... I'm damaged goods. The death of my bio half is something I will never get over. Anyone blending with me is effectively signing themselves up for a lifetime of therapy. Even if we later "split up" I am sure those memories would stay with them forever."
Raskin immediately felt very uncomfortable as he hugged his metal friend close and tried to think of something reassuring to say. "I wish you'd be more open about what happened. If you shared more of your experiences that day we might be in a better position to help you."
"Nobody sees the video," Vormanx said flatly.
"Shared experience therapy has been shown..."
"Nobody sees the video!"
There was an awkward pause as Vormanx let the anger drain from his face and concealed his teeth behind the structure that took the place of soft biologic lips.
"I know I'm sounding obstinate Raskin, but it's not my decision to make. Vormanx...the restored Vormanx, in whatever form that may be, is the only one who should decide how to handle the data from that day. I can't make decisions now that might have serious ramifications for my future self. Seeing the sensory stream replayed could either trigger quiet reflection or a full blown panic attack. There's no way to know until Vormanx is fully restored."
"Can't you just suppress all memories you have? You don't need to be reliving that event over and over again. If you go and destabilize your personality that's not going to be good for the future Vormanx either," Raskin suggested.
"It doesn't matter. The events of that day have already burned themselves in to my psyche. If I block the raw memories it's just going to leave all sorts of dangling pointers and that can make the psychological issues that manifest even more difficult to treat. "
"Oh...I didn't realize that," said Raskin. "Is the therapy working at all?"
"Honestly the search for a new partner has probably been the most helpful thing I've done because I can devote all of my processing power towards it and push out the more distracting feelings," Vormanx answered. "Listen, I know you want to help Raskin, but when the core of my being is tweaked to create an instinctual response to protect my bio-half and then I fail in that?" Vormanx let out another deep sigh. "There isn't much short of somehow restoring the old Vormanx that will ease the pain."
Raskin suddenly glared at his friend. "Alright Vor, at the risk of sounding like a complete jerk you have to stop feeling sorry for yourself. There are plenty of things you can do to ease the pain, but they all involve opening up. Just because you're literally made of metal doesn't mean that you have to act like it. Your bio-half certainly didn't need you to give him backbone so I don't see what you are trying to prove now. "
Vormanx raised his head and looked away from Raskin as his hands clenched into fists and quivered as a wave of anger passed through his mechanical body. Slowly he turned back with a steely glare.
"Alright then, why don't you split and I'll help you understand."
"W-what? You want me to sp-split" Raskin stammered.
"Yeah, split and I can show you."
"But I haven't split in 10..."
"You said you wanted to help me and to help me you need to understand my pain. So split..."
Grumbling Raskin got to his feet, clearly not relishing the experience of becoming two beings of far more modest capabilities. "Fine, I'll split ok? Whatever, it's no big deal."
The dark green NeoDragon assumed a position in the center of the room and closed his eyes. After a second or two the entire creature seemed to blur and move apart from itself leaving a hard metal mech of similar design to Vormanx standing on the left and a biologic dragon covered in soft dark green hide standing on the right.
"Are you happy now?" both said in unison.
"Ha, look at you two," Vormanx scoffed. "You're saying the same things and your bio-half is already getting twitchy. If you split more often you wouldn't look like a fish out of water."
"Why did you want me this way?" the pair spoke again in unison.
"Catch," Vormanx yelled, throwing a carrot at the mech-half who easily plucked it out of the air.
"Ah, I see. To pelt us with vegetables," said Mech Raskin as he handed the carrot over to his brother, the differentiated experience breaking their sync.
"Please, have a seat," Vormanx indicated to the metal split.
Organic Raskin shrugged as his brother sat back down on the couch.
"Now then, I want you to unlock your skullplate."
The glow and composition of Mech Raskin's virtual eye on his flat optical sensors changed to provide the illusion of widening. "You want me to do what?"
"Just unlock your skullplate. We're all friends here."
Raskin's bio-half nodded and there was a soft mechanical click before Vormanx grabbed a hold of one of the green robot's horns and pulled off the thick metal plate that protected his core processing elements. Vormanx casually reached inside and plucked out a square lump of teal crystal causing Mech Raskin's body to immediately go unresponsive below the neck.
"You have removed my motor processor," Mech Raskin noted, his calm voice betrayed by the alarm contained in his head and eye movements. "You are making me feel uncomfortable."
"Good, that's the point."
Vormanx casually turned back towards the mech's fleshy brother, casually picking up an object from the table.
"So what exactly IS the point of all..."
Organic Raskin didn't get to finish his sentence as Vormanx leapt to the attack, quickly putting the weaker biologic dragon into headlock and pressing the now activated energy knife to his soft throat.
"Vor! What the fuck are you doing?!"
"Shut up meat!" Vormanx shouted, a touch of crazy creeping into his optics. "I'm putting on a little show for your other half so he can feel just a taste of what I've had to go through over the last month."
"Vormanx!" The robot's voice was stern yet calm. "This is not funny. Put down the knife and let me up."
"Oh? And what are you going to do if I don't?"
Mech Raskin sat there and glared icy daggers at him.
"Yeah, there's nothing you can do except sit there and watch as I take this knife and use it to cut into your little bio-brother's soft flesh."
"I know...I know you're not going to hurt me Vor," the bio-half squeaked as his voice went up from fear. "You're my friend. Just stop fucking around...you've made your point!"
"Didn't you just say how watching my bio-half die again and again was going to derail my personality? Well how's this for coming off the tracks!"
"If you hurt my brother I will fucking KILL you," Raskin's mech-half growled.
"Ohhhhh, yeeees, there's the anger. There's the need to defend your flesh no matter what the cost. Do you feel it? Seeping into every byte in your mind?" Vormanx hissed, his mouth twisting into a sick carnivore grin. "I'm am going to stick this knife into your soul and it's your fault because you let me immobilize you."
"I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU," the other mech roared, his head banging up and down on the couch. "DO YOU HEAR ME?! I WILL RIP YOU APART WITH MY BARE CLAWS!"
"You feel the rage, now feel the PAIN," Vormanx shouted back plunging the blade into the bio's neck.
"RRRAAAARRGGGHHHHHH!! " Mech Raskin bellowed as the situation overloaded his AI and left him unable to form words that could express the level of anger and pain he was feeling.
The bio-half also cried out, but due to the lack of pain or discomfort it quickly became evident that the knife had been set on safe rendering it no more harmful than a laser pointer. Still, Vormanx could feel the dragon's racing heart and panicked breath and quickly changed the headlock to a loving embrace.
"Please...please forgive me," Vormanx's voice was small and scared as he whispered into Organic Raskin's ear. "It was the only way I could show you how I feel. Half measures wouldn't trigger the response."
"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHRRGGGGG!" Raskin's mech half continued to roar, completely oblivious to the other events taking place in the room.
"You...you could have warned me there," panted the bio dragon as he struggled to get himself back under control. "Deep down I...I knew you wouldn't hurt me, but...for a few seconds there you may have had me convinced otherwise."
"You will understand what I did when you reblend. Just let me pack my things and leave before you restore your brother's ability to move. If he finds me in his current state he will kill me. I have no doubt about that," Vormanx lamented.
"Don't be silly Vor. Your pain is real...all this," Organic Raskin gestured toward the still bellowing mech, "is temporary. The truth is," the bio dragon paused for a moment," the truth is if anyone needs to apologize it is me. I have felt somewhat uncomfortable around you since the accident and I have not been as supportive as I could have been. I guess I figured you'd just get fixed up like bio splits who lose their mech and we could just get back to our regular lives."
"It's not just you Raskin. Everyone is either judging me for getting my soul killed or looking for excuses to avoid me because my disability makes them feel awkward. If you or anyone else were to ever experience what happened that day via the sensory stream...I fear they they would never be able to look at me again."
Organic Raskin wanted to tell his friend that he was wrong, that nothing could ever come between them that way, but one look at the unconsolable state of his mech brother lead the bio dragon to conclude that Vormanx was probably correct.
"Allow me to attend to my brother and I will meet up with you later tonight. He and I may have a slight difference of opinion over converting you into scrap metal, but I believe he will come around. "
Vormanx nodded and slinked out of the room while one Raskin comforted the other.
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The orange rays of the late afternoon sun glinted off Vormanx's blue and white metal hide as he sat on the black sand beach not far from where he lived with Raskin and Fleur. Allowing his mind to be distracted by the constant back and forth action of the waves, the incoming tide was now sending water rushing over his outstretched legs.
"You know that sand and salt water aren't the best things for mech bodies," spoke a familiar voice as a pair of dark green hands tried to massage Vormanx's shoulders.
"I think you might have me confused with a Chevy Vega," purred the metal dragon, his optics narrowing. "So did you decide to forgive me or are you just getting ready to rip my head off," Vormanx sighed.
The soft green hands gently worked their way around the mech's hard metal neck, tapping their claws playfully on the surface. "I told you my mech half would come around didn't I?"
"I didn't realize your bio-half was getting to call the shots," Vormanx smiled. "Although I guess I sort of suffered from the same problem."
"Let's just say my splits know what facts will convince the whole. While your method was rather crude I must say I had never before engaged those particular aspects of my AI personality. The thought that my actions may have brought harm to my bio-half was...distressing to say the least."
"If I hadn't already spent so much time split I am quite certain I would have allowed myself to die that day," Vormanx reflected. "No matter how old the Neo, the splits still need time to fully develop as individuals. That might be something you might consider helping yours with."
"That noticeable eh? I'll consider it, but it's not like I frequently need an extra set of hands to document wildlife."
"You never need it until you need it, Raskin. Didn't your parents ever teach you the value of the buddy system?"
"My parents think two's a crowd," Raskin grumbled.
"So, I guess you'd like my help making dinner," Vormanx yawned as he began to extract his legs from the sand.
"Certainly, but there's no rush. I could help you relieve some of your stress. Since sharing some of your negative experiences might not be wise for either of us, perhaps we can share a positive experience instead."
Vormanx extended an arm for Raskin to help him up. "What sort of "positive experience" did you have in mind exactly?"
"I worked up something this afternoon while you were out here. Come on back to the house and I'll show you. Um, just make sure you wash off because Fleur will kill me if you track sand in the house again."
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Vormanx winced as he felt his remaining wing lifted from its mounting socket leaving a large open hole on the upper part of the mech dragon's blue metal backside.
"Don't be such a baby. I didn't make a sound when you took mine off," Raskin gently scolded.
"It doesn't feel as nice when I'm all metal," Vormanx grumbled.
Raskin set the wing assembly on the rack next to its mate then picked up the pair of blanking panels to plug the holes.
"Sometimes wings get in the way," said Raskin, stepping back to admire the view. "Wow, you really look nice when your figure isn't all obscured."
"Thanks, I'll pass along your compliment to the forging machine that manufactured the parts."
Raskin reached up to install the plates. The Generation 5 bodies were much less lumpy and jointed than older designs, but were still covered in mechanical seams and inflexible plates. Nevertheless the designers had worked hard to ensure that the mech splits would have a pleasing organic shape that would serve to improve the look of the blended whole.
"You weren't built Vor, you were born. Well, you were at least indirectly born and just because you could have been built doesn't change the fact that you weren't."
"That's not helping me that Ras," Vormanx said looking over his shoulder as the nearly black NeoDragon gently pushed him towards the pile of pillows and other soft cushions that made up the former's personal sleeping space. "I don't even know why we're doing this. It's not..." the metal dragon dropped his head. "...it's not like I am equipped for this sort of thing. That part of me was entirely my brother's contribution."
Raskin gently helped Vormanx down onto the soft pillow bed before taking a seat alongside his former lover, his soft hands rubbing the mech's hard metal shoulders. "Your body doesn't define your mind Vor. You're equipped to feel love aren't you? You still have the desire to share intimate contact with other people. To express tenderness and receive it in return."
Vormanx continued to stare down into his featureless lap. "What about Fleur? I wouldn't think she'd approve."
"It was her idea," Raskin whispered into the mech's ear before gently nuzzling his neck. "Just because you are synth doesn't mean you deserve to be isolated and alone. Now just relax, I have a little surprise waiting for you."
Vormanx allowed himself to be eased into the bedding as Raskin's warm body snuggled up behind him. Although both Neo and mech split were fully synthetic, the differences in their construction would normally preclude such close and personal contact, but although Raskin was slightly uncomfortable it was a small price to pay to comfort one of his closest friends. Vormanx let out a slight gasp as he felt the Neo's nannos enter him and begin to form their connections. A number of access requests popped up in the mech's awareness and he did not hesitate in approving every last one. Suddenly the real world faded away as the neo switched over all of Vormanx's sensory feeds to his own control and a brief instant later the robot dragon found himself in a dense old growth forest, the ground completely covered in ferns and thick moss.
"I guess I should say "welcome to my happy place"," Raskin grinned, stepping out from behind a tree, his hide blending in to his species native habitat.
"Why did you bring me here?" Vormanx asked, still not able to let himself sink into the moment.
"Because here I can do this..."
Almost like magic Vormanx's simulated mech body was replaced by the soft blue and white synthetic flesh of his Neo form. While neo mechs were equipped with a sensory system that provided tactile feedback that would be the envy of even naturally evolved organic beings it was still a poor substitute for the full spectrum of sensations generated by a blended neobody. As the flood of familiar feelings and data permeated Vormanx's sensorium the erstwhile mech gasped, raising up his hands in disbelief before running one against the other before moving on to his arms and sides. No action of Vormanx's was too small to inform his consciousness. From the twitch of a tail to the gentle sway of a wing membrane, it all combined to make Vormanx feel truly alive for the first time since he had split on that bridge overlooking the waterfall.
"H-how? It feels almost...real."
"I found some software that allows you to use some of my spare processing capacity to generate a simulated sensory stream at about 85% of the detail of a physical body. It also allows me to inject some of the data coming in from my own physical form so that the experience doesn't feel canned," Raskin answered, walking up to Vormanx and resuming the neck massage on more yielding flesh.
"T-thank you, but...I-I don't know. This doesn't feel right. This isn't my body...I...I shouldn't be using it."
Raskin gently turned Vormanx's head around so he could look into his friend's eyes. "I know you don't feel you deserve it...I know you don't feel the equal of the Neo, but in the here and now you're the one and only Vormanx. You can't think that you're "stealing" his body because it is yours to look after. Someone needs to keep it warm for the day when the old Vormanx is restored."
Vormanx said nothing, his body language tense and hesitant.
Raskin moved his head in close to whisper into Vormanx's ear again. "You can't punish yourself without punishing him..."
Vormanx blinked, then his entire body began to quiver slightly before the frost dragon lost all control and collapsed into Raskin's waiting embrace, the tears that had been denied him so long now flowing freely. Despite the days' previous demonstration Raskin was shocked by the true depth of the sorrow that now overwhelmed the artificial dragon. As some of Vormanx's thoughts and emotions began to spill over across the link it only exacerbated Raskin's capacity for empathy and soon the comforter was clinging just as hard to the one first in need of comfort. For the time being all other thoughts and desires were no longer relevant as both minds sought solace in each other.
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Struggling with the door Fleur managed to finally get her latest find inside the house along with her wings and tail. Dropping a few of her other bags she carried the large wooden cigar store Indian into the main room where Vormanx was laying on the couch, an old school book in his hands, but clearly zoned out as his mind surfed the web.
"Banana.”
"Ahh!" Vormanx woke with a start, his head shooting around so he could focus his optics on the person who needed his attention. "Oh, hey Fleur. Woah, is that real or a reproduction?"
"It's real, and I think I might have a couple of projects it might be useful for," replied the red NeoDragon as she hefted the carving into an unclaimed corner of the room.
"Oh, the drone arrived while you were out. It had the olive oil and the fresh pasta you ordered. I figured you wouldn't mind if I got started on making the meat sauce."
"No, not at all and thank you Vor. I wasn't looking forward to having to deal with that." Fleur turned to leave then stopped. "Oh, I ran into your social worker...the Unicorn...Lilly. She wanted me to remind you to request a treatment extension or you'll lose eligibility for coverage in a few weeks."
"Oh, yeah," Vormanx sighed. "I need to do that don't I?"
Fleur gave him a strange look. "Excuse me? You're damn right you need to do that. I get the point that it's hard to find a partner, but from the way you've been handling things lately I'd almost say you had given up. When was the last time you ever bothered to interview someone?"
Vormanx put the book aside and looked up at Fleur. "You know, maybe I have given up, but...that's probably not the best way to put it. All my options for restoring the old Vormanx just...aren't good. I mean you know all about that stuff, but lately thanks to my therapy and what you two have done I'm feeling a lot better."
Fleur was silent for a moment. "So you're just going to let the old Vormanx die?"
"Come on, don't call it that. It's more like a retirement," Vormanx mused. "There's nothing that says that I can't keep on living like I am or maybe get an upgrade or turn bio and go back through the process that way. All that seemed like a betrayal before, but now I don't know. Things change...I've changed. The old Vormanx is only worth bringing back if I can actually bring him back and if that really is impossible on his terms, well, that is something I should be willing to accept." Vormanx smiled a bit. "The star that burns twice as bright may only live half as long, but 97% of them leave behind a perfectly happy white dwarf."
"I never liked that show," Fleur noted.
"The metaphor was about stars."
"Well just make sure you keep your options open. This is really something you don't want to burn your bridges on, but if you're truly happy as you are then don't let anyone pressure you one way or the other."
Vormanx nodded and lay back down on the couch leaving Fleur to go into the kitchen to check on the sauce. Setting up her Emu to wash the dishes and chop the vegetables and garlic, Fleur busied herself simulating a number of recipe modifications she had come up with earlier in the day. Suddenly she was spun around and forced into the embrace of an abnormally cheerful Vormanx.
"I found him!! I can't believe it I found him!"
"Ack! Vor! Careful I'm holding a knife. Who exactly have you found??"
"Remember when you said that I'd "never find a new partner zoned out on the web?" Vormanx bubbled. "Well in your face! My laziness saves the day again!"
"What are you talking about Vor and what did I tell you about using my voice!" Fleur growled.
"I, found, my, new, partner!"
Fleur cocked an eyeridge. "What? Just 20 minutes ago you said you had given up and you're standing here saying you found the one true person you want to magically merge with in order to recreate your previously deceased persona. Um, color me skeptical?"
"You have to see the video," said Vormanx, pushing a video link into her awareness. "It was just posted a few days ago."
Fleur engaged the link and found her point of view shifted to the inside of a cramped and rather worn out cargo compartment of a short duration shuttle craft. The production values were decent, but still rather amateur with unbalanced audio and only a rudimentary olfactory stream that was clearly slapped on in post. Standing in the center of the POV was a rather pleasant looking biologic anthro dragon with scale coloration that ran on a gradient from dark red on his head and backside to bright orange on his belly. The dragon was wearing some sort of compact breather pack and had what looked like mini-thrusters on his feet, hands wings and tail. The action picked up as soon as the stream had finished buffering.
"Hey there YouTube, KedraHalfDragon here and first I wanted to thank all of my fans who supported my fundraising effort for this tribute stunt. There were a lot of haters out there that thought I was just trying to cash in, but as always my fans are super amazing and you guys made it possible. Now I know this is a few months late because I had to raise the money and do all the planning, but I think that's sort of a good thing because it will help remind our community of the amazing contributions of Vormanx, who lost his bio-half while shooting a stunt at Silver Threat Falls."
//"So your criteria for a new partner includes ego stroking?" Fleur chided.
//"Oh shut up and just watch."
"Vormanx has always been a big hero of mine, in fact he's the whole reason I've been trying to make a career out of entertaining people and pushing the envelope. I only ever messaged him a few times, and uh, I never really got to meet him, but I always felt a connection"
Kedra casually opened one of the emergency boxes, pulled out a flare.
"Now I know I was really secretive about what I was planning, but as I saw it the best way to honor Vormanx was to finish one of the stunts he had in the pipeline...or at least one I assume was in the pipeline because he only mentioned this place offhand once in a tweet."
As he spoke the anthro dragon peeled the protective plastic off one end of the flare before igniting it.
"So anyway, this one's for you Vor. I really hope that day we'll get to see you in action again."
Kedra went silent as he continued to hold the burning flare out in front of him, the cabin of the shuttle slowly filling with acrid smoke also soon began to overpower visuals in the stream. Suddenly a red light went on over the door in conjunction with a loud warning klaxon.
"Oh shit! I think the captain thinks we have a fire back here!"
Kedra quickly put a pair of goggles over his eyes and pushed the breather mast over his nostrils just a second before the door blew open sending Kedra, the smoke and a casually placed snowboard out into the cold vacuum of space. The POV followed placing Fleur far about a super massive comet outgassing water vapor as it slowly approached a bright yellow star.
//"I would rate the camera work as acceptable," Vormanx commented. “Kedra sometimes gets a little far away from the camera drones and some of the cuts are a bit jarring, but its not the worst I've seen.”
The two neos continued to follow as Kedra used the thrusters to catch up with the snowboard and clip his feet into it.
//"What the fuck!" exclaimed Fleur as she watched, her power fluid increasing its flow. "He's not even wearing any environmental gear!"
//"I know! Isn't it great?!" Vormanx laughed. "Scales are nature's space suit."
With no air to slow him down Kedra's velocity increased rapidly as he fell towards the planet sized comet. Nevertheless the half-dragon maintained control in his dive using a combination of the mini-thrusters and whatever portion of his flight magic was still effective without air. The POV pulled back to slow the track Kedra was making in the comet's vapor trail.
//"Look at him," said Vormanx in awe. "He's doing it. He's got the same spark my brother had."
//"He's added sound, there's not supposed to be sound in space. It's pulling me out of the moment."
//"You gotta try just being in the moment Fleur. Do you know how rare comets are with this much exposed ice? Let alone comets this size?"
Kedra angled himself so that he touched down on one of the comet's broad icy slopes at a high rate of speed. From there the style shifted seamlessly from an orbital dive type to a winter sports type, the POV moving around Kedra as he cut wide turns down the virgin comet ice.
//"This is why I ran in here so quickly. This is why I know he's the one. As soon as we...I...the old Vormanx heard of this comet we knew we had to do something like this, but all some little half-dragon named Kedra needed was just one little hint of our idea and takes it and nails it. He fucking nails it."
//"Isn't this more of a dwarf planet than a comet?"
//I'm sure according to astronomers everything is a dwarf planet, but nobody is going to click on that video because skiing down a comet is 20% cooler."
Kedra continued to ski down the icy slope turning the occasional trick as the surface began to resemble an exoatmospheric terrain park. As the rocks got thicker Kedra ducked and weaved between, occasionally missing a wipeout by mere inches. Even Fleur grew silent as she was drawn into the combination of skill and danger. Finally emerging from the boulder field and out onto a long flat plane Kedra made a sweeping arc along the ice, gradually bringing himself to a stop. Unable to speak to the camera drones due to the lack of ambient air Kedra give them a jubilant thumbs up before pulling out a heavy metal plate that had printed on it a still from one of Vormanx's videos showing his neo-self surfing down a river of lava with the dates of the incarnation's birth and death. Kedra gave another thumbs up before running off toward the shuttle that had returned to fetch him before his breather pack was depleted.
With the sensory stream finished both Fleur and Vormanx were pulled back to reality.
"Damn," Fleur said with a surprised look on her face. "That really got my core pumping."
"What do you think of him?"
"Well, I can definitely see the similarity to your old bio-half. He's probably a better fit for you than any of the other so called candidates Lilly sent your way."
"As you can see he still needs a lot of help with the technical aspects of the video production and his insufficient attention to safety almost demands some form of outside intervention."
"Hold on a minute there. It appears to me that you might be trying to compensate for the death of your bio-self by trying to intervene with someone who reminds you of him."
"And what if I am? I know what I what I brought to my relationship with my other half and this Kedra needs me in the same way or he's going to end up as splat on a rock."
"You had just better be damn sure of yourself because if you shove someone into a psychologically convenient box it won't end well," Fleur warned in a stern tone of voice.
"I know you have absolutely no reason to, but you have to trust me on this. I've already booked a portal reservation and I should be able to get to his house in two hours."
"Come on, I think you should at least wait for Raskin to get back to give you a good second opinion. Or at least talk it over with Lilly, or your therapist."
Vormanx was clearly getting antsy. "I...I can't wait around. I have to go now. When restoring myself seemed like some some impossible dream I was ready to let it go...but now? No, no way. This Kedra is the one and I'm not going to let him get away. Hell, given the stunts I saw in that video he could be dead already."
Fleur grabbed Vormanx's shoulders and looked into his optics as they darted around.
"Vor...Vor...look at me Vor. Right into my eyes. Yeah...you gotta calm down. You sound like one of those insane powered armors running around looking for pilots to fuse with. If you show up like this you're going to send that Kedra running away screaming no matter how big a fan he is. You've got to cccaaaalllmmmmm dddoooowwwwnnnnn. Ok?"
Vormanx reduced the flow of air through his heat exchanger as his system core gradually ramped down.
"Thank you Fleur, but I still can't just wait around for Raskin to get back. I always knew I would be able to identify what I was looking for when I saw it and that time is now. I'll go nuts if I'm stuck here trying to reason things out with Raskin."
Fleur nodded. "Just don't get yourself or this Kedra hurt, alright?"
Vormanx nodded then literally ran out the door.
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A light mist clung to Vormanx's metal as he made his way past the abandoned lumber mill and up the main street of what had been once a vibrant logging community devastated by automation, plunging demand and new environmental protection rules. While thinned from decades of logging, examples of the local flora still soared hundreds of feet into the air making the entire community feel like it was part of one Earth's flagship parks. The dwellings that formerly housed the mill's workers now contained all manner of artists and other countercultural individuals that had moved in to squat when the last corporate owner was dissolved. Most of the buildings were unpainted and showed off the sickly green color of the local timber supply. Stopping in front of #80, Vormanx confirmed that he indeed was at the correct location by checking the ownership of the camper shell equipped pickup truck that sat in the muddy driveway. Stepping over a pair of canoe paddles left askew on the front step Vormanx knocked on the door. The sound of uneven footsteps soon followed and the door swing open.
"Whoa," was all the unkempt human could utter as he stared up at the Neo-mech with bloodshot eyes.
Vormanx leaned down for a moment to smell the human and confirm the presence of cannabis and several other "medicinal" substances. "I am looking for Kedra Half-Dragon."
"Kedra's not here man."
"Then I suggest you..."
"Hold on, I'm here!" called out a voice from somewhere within the house. "Dude, I told you I was..." Kedra stopped as he finally reached the door and looked up. "Whoa."
Kedra was in his human shape, about six feet tall and oozing fitness. He was wearing baggy cargo pants and an dark orangeT-Shirt promoting lava-diving with the phrase "Feel the Burn." The half-dragon's hair was jet black with shiny red streaks that those in the know would be able to identify as hints of his trueform as opposed to idle fashion statement. Similar "tags" were also visible on the back and sides of his neck in the form of isolated red scales. Vormanx immediately administered the sniff test to Kedra as well, and to his relief discovered his potential new soul was clean.
"Um, hello?," said Kedra, unsure of what else to say. "You know you look a lot like..." Kedra's eyes immediately went wide. "Vormanx? I...I thought you were dead! I mean I know Neos can...avoid death...that way, but, I mean, you just sort of vanished."
"I am sorry for the uncertainty, but I felt unequipped to speak for my complete self on his social media accounts. Anyway, may I come in? I wish to speak with you..." Vormanx then glanced back at the burnout who was now rubbing his fingers up and down Vormanx's arm. "...in private."
"Yeah, s-sure.," stammered Kedra as he shoved his friend aside so that the oversize robot dragon could pass. "I mean I guess this is about my video. D-did you like it?"
"I found your work to be highly innovative and had a style that reminded me of my own," answered Vormanx as he took stock of the house which seemed to be filled with a mix of fast food wrappers and outdoor gear. The century old floor creaking under the robot's weight, Kedra lead Vormanx through the messy rooms and out onto a patio deck that had been added on to the rear of the structure. Stepping lightly to make sure that the DIY project would not be stressed beyond its limits, the metal dragon waited for Kedra to close the door before continuing. "In fact that is why I came out to see you. Until I saw your tribute video I had become resigned to the fact that Vormanx, as everybody knew him, was dead and his legacy should be retired. However it is now clear to me that you have the same creative spark and personal energy possessed by the old Vormanx. I don't know how else to put this so I'll just come right out and say it. Would you like to join with me and bring Vormanx back?"
Kedra was silent for a moment as he considered what the robot had asked of him before letting out a soft sigh. "Listen man, I really appreciate the offer and I know that you...you and your other half that is, were just starting to hit the big time and listen I think that would be a great thing to build on, but...I just couldn't live with myself if I just piggybacked by success on someone else's brand. That might work in music, but I don't think it would do as well in this arena. Besides, Vormanx was a person, not just some name on a YouTube channel. I could never just take his place and come on, I'm a red. The fans would never buy it."
Vormanx suddenly looked very confused. "Excuse me?"
"That being said my technical skills still need a lot of work, but usually I'm having to do everything on my own. Perhaps if you would work with me, you know, as my cameraman, I think we could make a great team. I...I'm nowhere near as skilled as you are,, but I totally think I could learn. I mean look how much I've improved already." Kedra began to fidget in his seat as his level of nervousness increased.
"So you think I was asking you to take over Vormanx's video series and general net presence?"
Kedra's eyes darted around. "Um...yes? I'm...I'm sorry if I was assuming something incorrectly there. Please, I meant no disrespect."
Vormanx couldn't help but chuckle. "Relax Kedra...I believe we have simply had a small communications failure. Let me restate what I am looking for. I want you to magically blend with me and resurrect the old Vormanx NeoDragon. Now do you get what I am asking?"
Kedra stared at the mech dragon.
"Hello? Kedra?"
Kedra continued to stare at the mech dragon.
"Is there something on my face or do you have some sort of affliction?" said Vormanx as he waved his hand in front of Kedra's face.
"Ahhh! Stop that!" snorted Kedra as he batted the metal claws away. "What the fuck dude! You're going to come here and ask me to donate my...my person to resurrect your bio-half? Are you insane? Yeah I'm a fan, and yeah you were a major inspiration in my life, but I'm not just going to go and end myself just to bring the old Vormanx back. Fuck that noise."
Kedra moved to get up, but the robot grabbed his human-shape arm. The reaction was immediate as bright red scales flowed up and down the skin as the human clothes Kedra was wearing were absorbed into his rapidly expanding body. Pulling forcefully away from the mech's grasp Kedra assumed a fighting stance.
"If you think I'm going to let you bodyjack me you've got another thing coming! I'll make you rip this body apart before you get a single scale off my hide," Kedra snarled.
"Don't move!" Vormanx shouted back.
"Fuck you robot."
"Don't move because your deck is about to suffer structural failure under our combined weight!"
Kedra froze as his ears picked up the alarming cracking sounds coming from beneath his feet. Vormanx immediately spread his wings and lifted himself off the deck, he then hovered forward, sliding his arms under Kedra's and lifting the anthro dragon up into the air. Kedra immediately began to struggle, but stopped himself before he made the mistake of trying to physically bite the mech's hard impervious covering. The ride only lasted a few seconds before Vormanx dropped Kedra off in the middle of a meadow down the slope from his house before landing and crossing his arms.
"Thanks," Kedra managed a bit sheepishly.
"Anyway I'm not here for your body Kedra, I'm here for your mind."
"That's worse!" Kedra shouted.
"You know what I mean!" Vormanx shot back, clearly getting frustrated from his inability to connect with the person who was ostensibly his soul mate. "I am not asking for a sacrifice, but instead offering an opportunity. You have all the qualities my other half did and by joining with me we can bring him back."
"Yeah, but it still means giving up who I am."
"Do you think the process would somehow treat me differently? If I am to give up anything it will be no less than you would. Perhaps the fact that there are millions of people out there who would give part of their male anatomy to become a Neo will put your concerns to rest."
"There are millions of people who would do a lot of things," Kedra sneered. "That doesn't make it a good idea. Why the hell are you even asking me? Everybody on the forums said that Neos could just fix this. Clone the bio-half and put in memories and shit."
"Tell me Kedra, what do you think of that process?"
Kedra thought about it for a moment before answering. "I think it sounds fucking disgusting and I think you made the right call not doing it."
"Good, I'm glad we're on the same page." Vormanx looked around before continuing. "If you join with me not only do you resurrect the person that inspired you, but you will also achieve your dream of being able to do what Vormanx did for a living."
"I thought I told you before. I want to achieve things on my own."
"If you continue on your current path Kedra, you'll die. I've seen your work, you're barely in control. It's just dumb luck that you aren't in some half prosthetic body by now. You're not achieving on your own...you're achieving by cutting corners. I won't deny that getting reborn as a Neo isn't a bit of a corner cut itself, but at least it's safer."
"Ok, you got me. Maybe I press the boundaries a bit further than I should, but it's only because you synths like you keep raising the bar,” Kedra snapped, a bit of underlying resentment showing through. “Still, tell me why the hell I even need your supposed generosity? I'll just go sign up for Neo conversion on my own and get a nice fresh AI brother who's not some creepy stalker."
"Go right ahead," Vormanx scoffed. "Enjoy getting the runaround for years on end because you're a half breed, but then again that won't matter because you'll need the extra time to save the couple million credits CASH the process requires."
Kedra sat down on the ground and dropped his head into his hands. "Fucking hell, you can't just offer this sort of thing to people out of the blue. Arrrrggggghhhh! "
"I know you'll say yes," Vormanx chuckled.
"Fuck off asshole, you don't know anything," Kedra grumbled.
"You're thinking about what it must feel like to fly through space without the need for a ship or suit, touching the ice rings of a gas giant or the plasma of a star's corona."
"Get out of my head! Ugh, how are you doing that!?" Kedra glared up at the still standing Vormanx. "Oh fine. Maybe I'm a little interested. If I agree what the fuck happens to me? We get in the merging room, my biologic distinctiveness gets added to your own and I wake up in the afterlife?"
"You wake up as you, just with shiny skin, ripped good looks, a few new memories and a smattering of new personality traits and personal preferences."
"Well, um...what happens to you?"
"Same thing," answered Vormanx.
"Um, I don't think that makes sense. Wouldn't one of us sort of be the master?"
"Our blended mind is his own master. When Vormanx is restored he will be Vormanx, but he will remember both of his past lives, each of which would be equally real to him. I mean the merging of two well established independent minds can in no way be considered common practice, but as long as the minds are compatible the joining will be seamless."
"And if we aren't compatible?"
"We get split and begin years of therapy," the mech responded dryly.
"Hey, if you're paying I could probably already use some of that." Kedra sighed as he idly picked a purple lupine-like plant and stared at it to help calm his mind. "IF I agree to this, and by the way I haven't decided anything yet."
"Yes you have."
Kedra gritted his teeth. "IF I agree to this I want your word that at some point soon after we do the rebirth thing you split and let me decide if I want to continue as Vormanx and if the answer is no you let me just walk away. That means neither you nor any of your friends will grab me and re-do the merge."
"I don't know if I can exactly make a promise that my merged self is bound to keep, but you have my word for whatever it's worth," Vormanx sighed knowing deep down inside that such an unfortunate outcome would probably prompt his self-termination.
"Second, I want there to still be a place for me in this new relationship. When we're split I'm Kedra, not some faux bio-Vormanx replacement...at least not full time."
"No, of course," agreed the mech, "the alternative would just be weird. Oh, I have one condition of my own."
"You're not really in a position to be making demands you know."
"Calm down, this is important. Basically I don't want to deal with NeoBlast. We don't take money from them...we don't drink it. In fact that applies to any Neo energy drink. I don't want Vormanx to be associated with those products anymore. It's dangerous and I refuse to profit by it."
"What? That's like half the rev..." Kedra stopped when he saw the pained look in Vormanx's optics. "Ok, ok, no NeoBlast. Who boy, why do I get the feeling I am going to get some interesting memory dumps."
Vormanx didn't say anything, but offered Kedra an arm up.
"Thank you Kedra, but like I said I knew you would come around."
"Gods, did I just get engaged on the first date? So what is the next step, do I fill out a form or something?"
"There are multiple rounds of psychological battery testing, a background check and interviews with a variety of social service workers," replied Vormanx.
"I probably shouldn't have been so quick to poo poo the bodyjacking idea," Kedra chuckled as they started back towards the house.
"Live and learn Kedra."
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Raskin, Fleur and Lilly stood together in the Heil Cybernetic Center's small Neo rebirth facility. In front of them was a conversion chamber, the fluid already drained from the upright tube that held Vormanx's shiny new Neobody. A display screen silently ticked down the time remaining in the 5-month long conversion process.
"Mmmm, you smell nice," purred Raskin as he slid his head over to sniff at silver NeoCorn's long flowing mane.
"Back off dragon!" Lilly snapped, causing Raskin to jerk back is surprise as the unicorn's teeth came just a few millimeters from his own soft hide. "I'm not in the mood for that today."
"Anything you'd like to share?" Fleur glared back. "You're ears have been pinned back all morning."
"This is a stupid idea and I can't believe I ever want along with it," she sneered.
"Excuse me?" said Raskin, lifting an eye ridge. "If I remember correctly Vor said that you put forward the idea of finding a new bio to merge with."
"Yeah, but I didn't think he'd actually find one. None of the people in the applicant pool were remotely compatible, I was just trying to help him make his own determination that the standard course of treatment was the best, but oh no, your friend had to just run into his new "soul" on the net," Lilly grumbled.
"I'm not sure I care for your attitude," said Fleur, making her body language more assertive. "What problem is it of yours where Vormanx finds his new bio-half? It's not his fault the standard treatment is too repugnant for him to consider."
Lilly spun around, her ears fully back. "Listen dragons, there’s a reason we do things the way we do. When your friend goes crazy because of the voices in his head and roasts a few tourists down at the mall it's my tail on the line."
"Kedra passed all your "tests" with flying colors," Raskin pointed out. "I don't see what the problem is."
Lilly snorted. "Vormanx isn't searching for dates or trying to integrate with a mech suit AI here. Knowing if two completely independent minds can successfully merge isn't something we are good at testing for yet. Your friend there is going to have two different sets of memories and even if the personalities line up the cognitive dissonance might well be sufficient to unhinge him." Lilly brought her ears back up and sighed. "That is why we almost always create one half of the equation in Neo rebirths. The results are much more predictable."
"You mean it makes your job easier as a social worker," Fleur scoffed.
"Don't go there!" Lilly snapped again. "Did it ever cross your mind that perhaps I actually care about your friend? I want nothing more than to see that Vormanx has a good outcome, but if this little stunt doesn't work it will kill what's left of Vormanx."
"Vormanx is strong," said Raskin. "He'll be fine."
"He will kill himself," Lilly stated plainly. "Perhaps if you dragons had a bit more empathy you'd be able to see how emotionally vulnerable he is right now."
Fleur approached Lilly and gently took the Uni's hands in her own. "It's high risk, high reward. Vormanx wouldn't have it any other way...not even his mech half. You have to have faith that he knows that he's doing. I guess that's something we've just come to accept."
"Couldn't you at least have talked him out of changing Kedra's species? It's like he didn't feel this was enough of a challenge as is."
"It's a branding issue," said Raskin. "Vormanx couldn't just change from a frost dragon into some red dragon. You are aware he has a pretty large fanbase right?"
Lilly tossed her head. "Right off the top of my head I can name five ways Vormanx could change his appearance without hybridizing his genome."
"What don't you get about Vormanx not faking things," Raskin growled.
"Quiet you two...do you hear something?"
The trio turned back to the rebirth chamber to find that the counter had reached zero and the restored Vormanx was tapping firmly on the inside of the tube.
"For the love of..."
Lilly walked over and triggered the release button causing the front of the tube to raise up with a bit of a dramatic hiss. Fleur and Raskin were immediately on hand to help their friend take his first steps out onto the cold floor.
"Happy birthday!" Fleur exclaimed as she gave the disoriented NeoDragon a loving nuzzle. "Look, I even brought some balloons."
"Ugh," Vormanx groaned. "Remind me not to die ever again. I feel all weak and tired."
"Your body was just completely rebuilt by nannos," said Raskin. "At least you've still got that new polymer smell."
"Welcome back Mr. Icewing," smiled Lilly, her attitude doing a complete 180 for Vormanx’s benefit as she reached out and pulled him into a loving embrace. Under her fingers she could feel the new Neo’s smooth hide quiver as parts of his mind were engaged with new forms of tactile feedback.
"I...I don't think I'm all ice anymore," mumbled Vormanx as Lilly pulled away and left him to look down at the subtle red highlights that now adorned his body. "I guess I should call myself Vormanx 2.0."
"Hey, think of it as a free hide job," Raskin offered. "In this day and age who doesn't indulge in a few aftermarket upgrades now and then?"
"Yeah, new hide," said Vormanx as he began to gently rub his own fingers along his smooth metallic skin, a slight purr escaping his throat.
Raskin suddenly chuckled a bit as he looked over towards Fleur who rolled her eyes. "Hey Vor? Your mech split sent me a message before the rebirth process and he figured you probably wouldn't remember it."
"Wha?" Vormanx responded in a daze as he continued to explore his restored body.
"I should probably just read it. The message says "tell Vormanx to stop staring at his fingers"."
Vormanx immediately froze then slowly dropped his fingers down from in front of his face. "How he fucking...yes mother-."
While everyone had a good laugh the NeoDragon's attention didn't stay focused for long as he soon became caught up by the smells, sounds and flashing lights in the conversion lab.
"Vor, you look like you're having some problems there," injected Fleur.
Lilly reached in and gently took charge of one of Vormanx's hands. "We talked about this remember? You're duplicate experience sets are conflicting with each other as being a Neo is now both an unknown and familiar experience. Hopefully the feeling will pass with time." Lilly then turned to the other dragons. "Get him home, but don't try to fly. Vormanx needs a relaxing environment where he can stabilize."
Raskin gently grasped Vormanx's shoulders and steered him toward the door, as Fleur gathered up the balloons.
"He's going to have fun with these in the transport," said Fleur looking up at the brightly colored orbs. "Thank you Lilly for all your help. I know you're skeptical, but that really feels like the old Vormanx."
"I hope you're right. Just make sure he doesn't forget his followup psych evaluations and if you see any signs of troubling behavior please don't hesitate to call. I mean that Fleur. The best way to be his friend is to make sure we can give him the help he needs."
Fleur nodded and rushed off after her friends.
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"Look, now he's just completely spaced out," Raskin observed, clicking his claws in front of Vormanx's face as the three dragons sat in the back of the ground transport van. "I don't know what's going on."
"I assume the attention word should still be the same. Banana!"
"Gah!" Vormanx cried as he woke with a start. "Hey watch it! That's disorienting. Did you ever consider just gently shaking me or something?"
"What were you doing?" asked Fleur.
"Apparently Mr. Roboto didn't feel "comfortable" answering any of my correspondence so I have 13,273 unread e-mails to sift through. Raskin, next time you run into my mech split hit him over the head with a pipe."
"Can you stop making me the enforcement mechanism between you and your splits? It's starting to get awkward," bemoaned Raskin.
"Head, pipe, do it," Vormanx growled before staring off into space again. "Gods, how many idiots are going to ask if I'm dead. What am I going to say? I'm mostly dead?" Vormanx was quiet for a moment. "Oh, I could have said that. Damn, that would have been apt." The NeoDragon suddenly gasped. "That's it! Yes...yes...perfect. Raskin, check out my headline reply."
The red Neo blinked as he checked Vormanx's social media profile. "Um, I don't get it."
""Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated"? Um...I don't get it either," said Fleur.
"What the hell is wrong with you guys. Mark Twain? Famous 19th Century human author?"
"I guess that's funny for people who care about that sort of thing," shrugged Raskin. "Which now includes you apparently."
"Yeah, I traded in my full dragon form for a wealth of human cultural knowledge. Oh wait, 73% of my viewers are human so I guess I'll get to relate to them better." Vormanx shot back with a snarky zing.
"Still not worth it.," said Raskin.
"It's really no big deal Rasky," Vormanx smirked, patting his friend on the shoulder. "If I ever need someone to lift heavy objects I'll know just who to call. Oooo! I can get a saddle too."
The van stopped and the three Neos squeezed out in front of their house. Vormanx looked excited as he continued to find himself in the situation of everything being new, yet familiar.
"Welcome home Vor," sad Fleur as she gave the hybrid frost dragon a hug. "It's been terrily dull here without you."
"I went down to the market earlier and bought a whole Elk for dinner," said Raskin. "I hope that's still your favorite."
"Well no promises, but its making my mouth water," Vormanx smiled.
"Why don't you go up to your room and get acclimated while we do the rest," said Fleur as she opened the door. "You still know you're way around right?"
"Yes, I'm not suffering from amnesia even if I am still encountering some difficulty knowing about what I know. Feels a bit like blindsight," Vormanx mused as he started up the stairs.
As the Neo Frost Dragon ascended the stairs he found himself alone for the first time since his rebirth an hour or so earlier. Despite the enormity of the situation Vormanx had been able to slide by, following Raskin and Fleur, talking with them on the bus, allowing them to distract and guide him. Now the restored Neo was on his own with his thought patterns free to swirl and evolve on their own. The conflicting perspectives of walking up the same stairs for the thousandth time with doing it for the very first began to make Vormanx feel dizzy. Closing his eyes helped, but he was still unsure of how strong the effect would be when he actually entered the room. As the clawed hand grasped the handle he was suddenly confronted by a completely different and not at all expected realization.
"You sentimental fool," Vormanx cursed as he pushed the door open and strode into the room.
Looking around he found it exactly and he had left it a little over a year before. In fact he could be sure nothing had been touched even without conducting a visual inventory because his mech-half had made a point of not entering the room for any reason, taking up residence in the downstairs common areas instead. However misguided Vormanx felt his mech split was he did have to thank him as it ended up allowing the Neo to have a more singular experience of discovery.
Even for a building scaled for 7 foot tall dragon-kin the room was large, taking up about half the space on the upper floor. Along the far wall under the window with an ocean view was a long pile of pillows and blankets that provided more flexibility than a biped style bed and would allow him to sleep soundly with his wings on. This excited the Neo somewhat because despite having an anthro shape Kedra had spent the majority of his time as a human as it was simply more practical for someone in his financial and social situation. About a third of the room was a DIY holo-cave where Vormanx could produce and edit his videos in 2D, 3D and fully immersive formats as well as entertain himself with any media or games that required physical interaction. The remainder of the room was filled with a wide array of personal mementos, modular storage and high tech detritus. Vormanx had always considered himself to be of modest means, if not downright poor, but picking up a spare cybernetic arm that was easily worth more than Kedra could make in 6 months caused him to guiltily reflect on the tasks that would occupy his restored life.
"Neo problems," Vormanx scoffed, recalling the popular micro-blog. "For most beings winding up half dead would be considered a miracle."
A ray of sunlight had illuminated a chair and Vormanx sat down, his eyes scanning across the photorealistic artwork he had spent several months painting on the walls of his lair shortly after he had moved in. It depicted his family, his clan, and various key moments from his childhood high in the volcanic peaks of Heil where the damp ocean air combined with the altitude to create the niche habitat that gave rise to his species. He looked at his parents and remembered how much they loved him, even if the expression of that love somewhat muted by the culture-induced indifference the older generation of dragons exhibited towards their offspring. Vormanx couldn't help but compare the Neo's upbringing to Kedra's, who was the unwanted bastard child of a sleazy red that liked to pleasure himself with hewman women. Used as the outlet for his mother's frustrations and blamed for her problems, the half-dragon had struck out on his own as soon as he was able to find a community that was not prejudiced against him.
Sitting there in the chair, unsure if he was living in poverty or splendor, Vormanx mulled the two competing narratives that were emerging. Was he the hero, rescuing a talented yet downtrodden half breed from a life of obscurity and death or was he a selfish manipulator out to exploit a desperate outcast with the promise of riches and luxury just as the red had exploited his half-mother. Knowing that he could simply ask his bio-half what he thought Vormanx began to compose a note in his mind before once again he was brought to a screeching halt by an emergent memory.
"This is getting ridiculous," Vormanx grumbled as he got up and picked up the folded piece of paper that had been slid under the door at some point in the past. "It's like I'm stuck in a poorly coded RPG."
The Neo unfolded the paper and smiled as he "remembered" that he had already achieved his past-lifelong goal of learning to read and write the dragon language
"Dear Vormanx, if you are reading this it means that I was successful in atoning for my greatest shame by restoring you to life. I worked as hard as I could to make sure that everything was exactly how you left it. I never felt the need to say this when we were together as I assumed it was simply not necessary, but I have since learned the hard way so I am saying it now. I am nothing without you and I need you more than anything else in the multiverse. Please continue to live your life in the manner that made me so proud to be a part of you."
For a few seconds Vormanx felt touched. He had earned his happy ending with Vormanx-MechaDragon and Kedra-HalfDragon coming together to restore what had been lost. It was a triumph of fate over adversity. Then the dragon's hand began to shake and tears started to run down his broad cheeks.
"PS: You might want to inform your parents about the events of the recent past. Try as I might I was unable to do it myself. I apologize for my continued weakness."
"You metal ass! Why...why didn't...why didn't you just...just..." Vormanx let out a long soft moan as his mind began to engage with what his mech-half had kept under wraps for so long. The thing he had explicitly warned Kedra about. The thing that Kedra had no choice but to ignore since to back out then would have been unconscionable.
By wondering why the mech couldn't tell his parents Vormanx knew why. By contemplating his mech-half's shame it became his own. Vormanx was completely unprepared to confront the depth of the despair that Mech-Vormanx had lived with for those six months. The emotion was alien in its rawness, burning through the symphony of biologic feelings like a blast from an air horn. The emotion wasn't fleeting or part of the background, but front and center in Vormanx's awareness like someone had flipped a switch then welded it in place. The AI had its own mechanisms to cope, to block things out or otherwise ignore the pain, but Neo Vormanx wasn't an AI and he knew that he had just taken the first few steps of what would be a long journey.
Then things got worse.
"Whoooo hooooo! I am fucking stoked!"
"No! Please no...please," the Neo pleaded, ducking his head and grabbing the back of his neck as he tried to block out the memory,
"Are you ready for this brother because I sure am. Look at this place."
"I don't want to think about this...I don't want to think about this!"
<Kedra-HalfDragon:00:41:53> Yeah, those are all rumors. I don't think we're ever going to find out, but you know that mech was recording the whole thing. Oh man, that shit's gotta be intense. I hope they release it one day."
"Aw fuck you Kedra. I hope you're fucking happy."
The events of that day didn't play out like a movie, they simply came to Vormanx, appearing in his awareness as the corrections in his neural structure triggered their release. As Vormanx became aware of something the latent curiosity of his biologic half would unconsciously summon the actual recording which would then play until Vormanx's mind found a way to quash it. The game of cat and mouse with his subconscious soon devolved into an endless loop of action and reaction that quickly left Vormanx mentally exhausted.
Try as he might it soon became clear that the horrific memories were not something Vormanx could ever hope to suppress. His mech-half had saved every detail of that day knowing the healing process would require them to be re-lived. His bio-half craved the thrill of witnessing such an event, even if such a craving was self destructive. Feeling the pressure of two against one Vormanx finally gave in and plugged himself into his mech-brother's feed and simply let it run, allowing him to experience not only every byte of sensory data, but to feel the thoughts and emotions of his mech split as well. By the end it wasn't the ominous march of inevitability that got to Vormanx, nor was it was the near suicidal desperation of the mech. It was the simple sight of the bio-half laying in the twisted pile of wood and debris, his limbs bent in impossible angles, dark red blood seeping from open fractures, a missing eye. Cancelling the sim, Vormanx dropped to the floor and promptly threw up, the dry heaves continuing on for some time after he had expelled the meager contents of his digestive system. When the waves of nausea had passed the Neo sent his friends a feeble excuse as to why he wasn't hungry then curled into a ball trying to have faith in the old saying that time heals all wounds.
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Raskin knocked on the door and after hearing no response gently turned the handle and walked into Vormanx's room. The frost dragon was sitting with his legs folded in the middle of the room staring at a baseball sized crystal sphere that flickered with a blue-white light. The thick metal skullplate that normally protected the sphere and everything else inside Vormanx's head was sitting neatly beside him.
"Hey bud, you there?" asked Raskin as he gently shook Vormanx's shoulder, breaking the trance. "I brought up some of the leftover Elk for you."
Vormanx blinked and looked up. "Thanks," he stated rather glumly. "I'll eat it in a little bit."
"Come on man," said Raskin with an air of concern, "your neurosphere is not a nightlight. You've been staring into that thing for the better part of a week. If you don't get some proper nutrition and sunlight you're going to end up like those kids suffering from VR addiction."
"It's an effective meditation technique and I think you would agree that it is better than attempting to dull my pain with glow."
"I understand the grieving process Vor, but now you're starting to show signs of depression. Besides the fact that you're barely functional you have to go in for psyche exams, they're going to notice if you have a problem," said Raskin as he slowly edged his tail tip around, ready to pounce.
Vormanx glared up at his friend. "You know the healing process takes time. Weeks of intense meditation is the way these problems should be handled, not getting a dose of super fun happy vibes from a unicorn."
"There's a difference between meditation and using neural feedback as an escape." Without warning Raskin snapped his tail up knocking Vormanx's neurosphere up into the air where the Red snapped it up with his claws. "Now if you don't let me put this back in I'll pull off the wireless and not give you a choice in the matter," Raskin continued.
Vormanx lifted his lip slightly to show his teeth, but reluctantly turned and leaned his head back to allow his friend access.
"By the way," said Raskin as he carefully fit the sphere back into Vormanx's head then retrieved the skullplate by one of the attached horns, "it’s a full day past the agreed upon time. If you won't do it on your own I'm going to have to insist."
"I'm noticing a pattern here," Vormanx sneered.
"Yeah, when you don't take care of yourself someone else has to," Raskin snapped as the skullplate locked in place. "Now you promised Kedra that after a week you'd split and give him the choice of staying with you or not and I foolishly agreed to ensure it happened. Now just do what you have to do so before this gets really awkward."
Vormanx's annoyance melted into a look of desperation. "Please don't make me do this Raskin. I need more time. I've been nothing but miserable and he's going to bail, I just know he is."
"Vor, I..."
"Please Raskin. Without him I won't exist anymore. I...I just need more time so I can get better."
"I don't know what to say dude. The agreement was for a week and Vormanx keeps his word. Hell, I'm not even in a position to negotiate."
Vormanx nodded then looked back at Raskin, his eyes fiery. "You don't let him leave the room, you got it?"
"Oh no...not this. No...I won't do it. Just no...no no no."
"I'm your friend, he's not. I'll let him out, but you just make sure we get back together."
Raskin cursed as he put the plate of food down and headed for the door. "Your intrapersonal drama is really starting to get annoying here. Just deal with the issue and try not to involve me ok?"
Vormanx snorted as Raskin slammed the door leaving him alone with his thoughts. After what felt like an eternity the NeoDragon looked at himself in the mirror for what was potentially the last time, trying to fix the image of his colorful metallic hide firmly in his mind. Then with a deep breath he activated the splitting spell, feeling the energies saturate his body before a moment of disorientation. The Neo appeared to blur and then where they had been just a single being there were now two, one biologic, one mech. As Kedra struggled with the feelings of being soft and weak and needing to breathe, the mech dragon was paralyzed by the likelihood that he would soon once again be abandoned.
"Ugh damn that was unpleasant," groaned Kedra as he latched on to the robot's body for support. "No wonder Neos don’t like splitting. It makes you feel all naked."
"I'm sorry," the mech began, his voice small and weak. "I'm sorry I ruined things."
"You're damn right. I mean just look at me...I'm all blue!" exclaimed Kedra as he looked at his body in the mirror noting that blue scaled has replaced the red/orange ones on about 40% of his hide. "What the hell man. I know you didn't tell me this was going to change my species and I also know it was an intentional omission so don't try to defend yourself. Hmmm, it might not be all bad. I wonder what happens if I try to use both types of breath at the same time?"
The robot stared at Kedra, unsure of what to make of his behavior.
"So...brother, have you decided to stop feeling sorry for yourself or did you want to spend another week sitting in your room? Personally, as much as I love your little "lair" here I would greatly prefer to go out and do some of those NeoDragon things you promised me in the brochure."
"Do NeoDragon things? You mean you don't want to...leave me?" mech Vormanx managed.
Kedra's eyes went wide. "You mean you actually thought... Gods, you're so down on yourself no wonder we felt all depressed. You know I get grief, but you're taking this way too far. Ooh, is that elk?"
"How can you say that!?" the Neo mech said a bit more forcefully. "You know what I went through!"
"Yeah, and I also saw how you brought him back. Do you think your old bio-half would want Vormanx to become all Emo and depressive? I'm here to enable you to heal the real way and not the "I'm going to turn off this memory" AI way, but instead you pulled my contribution into your black hole of sadness," said Kedra as he started to devour the food.
"Wait, you're blaming me!?" cried the mech, getting indignant. "I don't get to choose how we feel when we're blended. That's purely a group effort. Did you stop to think that maybe Vormanx felt sad because that's what he should be feeling?"
"Never underestimate the power of positive...or negative thinking. When you expect to feel sad you'll feel sad and your expectations are so strong..." Kedra paused for a moment to let his emotions cool and polish off the last of the elk. "I want you to make a commitment to being more positive."
"Come on. Don't give me that infomercial crap."
"We tried it your way, now we try it my way."
"It doesn't work like that...we don't take a vote and then watch as Vormanx magically follows our orders," mech Vormanx complained.
"We need to change your expectations so that your funk stops crushing our merge. Vormanx keeps his word so make a commitment. It will make a difference, trust me."
"Ok, I'll try to be more positive."
"Louder...and don't try, do."
"I'll be more positive!"
"Wooo! That's more like it! Hey, here's another idea. Eat before you split so I'm not all famished."
"You know you're getting awfully demanding..."
"Fist bump!"
The action caught the mech a bit by surprise, but in the act of reciprocating the spell to recombine the two halves of the split Vormanx was activated and after another blue and light swirl effect the hybrid Frost NeoDragon found himself existing again.
"What the hell was that!" groaned Vormanx as he grabbed onto a table to steady himself against the disorientation and went through the events of his short term memories. "Be more positive? Maybe you should have also suggested a book that could change my life there Kedra." The Neo looked down at the now empty plate sitting on the table. "Oh! Little fucker you ate all my food!"
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"Hey, looks like you made it," Raskin remarked as Vormanx emerged from his room, a big smile on his face. "You see? I wasn't worried."
"Then why are you still standing by the door to stop Kedra from making a run for it?" Vormanx observed, raising a brow ridge.
Raskin laughed. "Hey, you got me. Anyway, looks like you're going out. I guess Kedra's little pep talk worked."
"Yeah, I should probably go do something exciting. It is my job."
"Well, stay safe and don't get into trouble and before I forget," Raskin leaned in towards Vormanx's ear, his hand reaching down to lightly grope the other Neo's firm metallic blue ass. "Sometimes overcoming loss is something that requires the help of others."
Vormanx instinctively pulled away as he suddenly realized what Raskin was proposing. "I...oh wow...um. Yeah...I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that anymore. I kind of prefer only females now."
Raskin pulled back with an apologetic expression. "Say no more. Sometimes it takes a little while for the new preferences to emerge after a rebirth."
"What?! New preferences? Oh no," gasped Vormanx as he pulled up the pertinent information. "They can't do that can they?"
"Can and did. Anyway don't sweat it, there's no rush," smirked Raskin as he turned to head back downstairs. "I know where you live when you're ready."
Desperate to clear his mind of yet more weird memories Vormanx walked out onto the balcony that stood over the entryway and then quite casually made a running leap off of it, rolling as he hit the lawn before popping back to into a standing position.
"Yeah, that's the stuff I'm talking about," Vormanx grinned feeling an extra jolt of power pass through the superconducting fluid in his power network.
Flaring his wings out and gently testing their movement the NeoDragon tried to figure out what sort of muscle memory he had ended up with. Neo flight and bio flight were similar, but Vormanx had a sneaking suspicion he would end up in a faceplant if he tried using his wings in their intended configuration.
"Fuck it," said Vormanx as he strapped on a pair of goggles and engaged the basic flight mode which caused his wings to stiffen. Raw power began to flow out from the fusion core in his chest, energizing the anti-gravity coils in his wings. Throwing notions of efficiency to the wind, Vormanx let rip and blasted off into the air like a rocket, the ground falling away beneath him. The instant he exceeded the sound barrier it was as if the whole promise of rebirth had finally been realized. Vormanx felt like a new person, although not in the sense of never having existed before, but in that he was renewed and rejuvenated. As the blue of the sky gave way to the blackness of space, Vormanx watched as the planet curved off towards the horizon, the solar radiation increasingly warming him against the cold stratospheric air. A few minutes later Vormanx cut off power, content to coast to a stop then fall back the way he came.
Laying there in the infinite quiet the Neo feel like a fool for brooding in his room all week, for continuing to harbor feelings of blame and self doubt. Kedra wasn't being exploited and the mech-half wasn't weak. The long ordeal was over for both of them and there was nothing left to do but get on with life, but after all, wasn't living life to the fullest what he craved? As Vormanx dropped back out of the Mesosphere and the presence of air became more noticeable a broad carnivore grin appeared in the Neo's face as the wheels turned in his head. In a one two combination, Vormanx first grabbed a hold of his wing roots and then triggered the mechanisms that would release them from his body. Then, reengaging his magic Vormanx felt his body go blurry all over as the neo was split in twain.
Kedra hadn't really thought through which of the resulting splits would inherit the vacuum rated goggles, the air in Vormanx's heat exchange system or even who would be holding the detached pair of Neo wings, but the organic dragon got lucky on all three accounts and immediately began to start performing a series of acrobatic maneuvers on top of his mech brother who was now in the position of watching his now wingless biologic-half flirt with certain death. Of course having to hold onto the wings for dear life meant that Mech Vormanx was unable to do anything about Kedra’s antics except yell and scream, a nearly useless endeavor in the airless environment 40 miles up. When the air was finally thick enough to not cause instant death Kedra raised the stakes yet again as his scaled melted away leaving behind a naked human shape dragon-kin falling through the sky at near supersonic velocity protected only by the falling body of a robot dragon who was doing everything he could to keep his trajectory stable.
“This is amazing!” Kedra shouted over the rush of the Stratosphere. “I’m naked, but I don’t feel cold at all! If we were near a volcano we could do sort of a reverse sauna thing using my immunity from heat!”
“What the fuck are you doing! You’re going to kill us both! When I get my hands on you I am going to rip your genitals off and eat them! Do you hear me?! EAT THEM!”
Kedra pointed to his ear and shook his head before using Mech Vormanx’s horns to do a handstand. Although the increasing air pressure was now slowing their descent the ever logical mech was keenly aware that even impacting the ground at “only” terminal velocity would result in a joining neither of the two Neo-halves would find particularly pleasant. As Kedra finished up with another round of tricks he finally noticed the look of terror in the Mech’s optics, which, combined with the fact that they were now passing through clouds, prompted the bio-half to roll his eyes, wrap his arms around his robot brother and initiate the merging spell. Even then it still took a while for Kedra’s adrenaline fueled rush to get burned away by the AI’s overwhelming sense of alarm as it dawned on the neo that trying to re-attach his wings while falling at 150mph might not be the most trivial of tasks. Plunging through 10,000 feet Vormanx reoriented himself so that he was hanging vertically from the large drag inducing wings. Maintaining his vice-like grip on the roots he slowly pulled himself up, twisting his body so that the stump of the wing could line up with the open sockets on his back. After the second locked into place with a reassuring series of clicks Vormanx maneuvered around to see the ground rushing up less than 1000 feet away. Pulling up with all the force his wing structure was rated for Kedra just clipped the top of a conifer as he leveled out over western Heil.
“WOOOOOOO HAAAAAAAAA!”
Flaring his wings Vormanx arrested his forward momentum and stumbled in for a landing, falling to his knees with both physical and mental exhaustion. The neo felt giddy with excitement as he jumped around on the unmowed field, shouting and pounding his fist in the air. Turning slightly Vormanx saw a pair of familiar faces flying towards him.
"Raskin! Fleur! Oh my God did you see GAK!"
Together the shiny red and green NeoDragons slammed into their blue and white friend, pinning him to the ground.
"What the fuck GET OFF OF ME!" Vormanx roared as he struggled to throw his surprise attackers off.
"You can thank me later," Raskin snarled as he jammed a hand-held device into the back of Vormanx's neck and triggered a series of strong energy pulses that disrupted the neural energy contained within the Neo's sphere, knocking him unconscious. "Grab his legs Fleur. We've got to get him back to the house."
"I don't know what good it's going to do. Videos are already spreading all over. He'll be lucky if the air traffic control people don't come looking for him."
"If anyone asks he was celebrating his return," Raskin grunted as Fleur helped lift Vormanx's 600 pounds of cybernetic hardware up onto his back, "but if I can't talk some sense into him it might also be his swan song."
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As Vormanx's mind regained the ability to form coherent thoughts, the NeoDragon found himself living in a world of static and garbled data, unable to even pull together a basic virtual environment. As time progressed the error rate in his sensory feeds diminished to a point that allowed him to regain a basic awareness of his surroundings. Soon his sensorium was back to normal, but while the blocky distortion was gone from his visual stream the effects of the stun device on his consciousness lingered, manifesting themselves as an intense headache.
"Ooooh," Vormanx groaned, trying to roll himself into a standing position, "what happened?"
The Neo soon noticed that he was not making much in the way of progress extricating himself from his bed. The good news was that the cause was readily apparent and simple to fix. The bad news was that it was a fix he utterly incapable of carrying out on his own.
"Who the fuck did this!?" Vormanx yelled staring at his arms, legs and wings which had been detached from his body and piled up across the room. "You'd better get up here and put me back together right now or I'll...I'll..."
"You'll what?" Raskin asked as he walked into the room ahead of Fleur. "Hmmm?"
Vormanx glared at his friend and tried to will his arms back onto his body only to be greeted by an error message explaining how his magical systems had been disabled.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," Raskin sneered. "Alright, you and I are going to have a little talk and then I am going to leave you here to think about what you've done."
"Stop talking to me like a fucking hatchling! You can't keep me this way forever and when I get my limbs back I'll make you pay for tazing me."
"Try it and you'll be split back into your two halves and put on existential ice for all eternity," threatened Raskin with total seriousness. "Lilly put Fleur and me in charge of "monitoring" your condition. That means all it takes is one message from either of us to social services and you'll be finished so can the fucking bravado and listen closely."
Vormanx stared at Raskin unable to believe that his closest friend had just threatened him in such a way.
"Why don't we go over some of the material that Lilly left us?" Raskin continued. "Signs of personality instability include dramatic mood swings...check...erratic behavior...check...insufficient blending of personality traits...wow, you've got the top three."
"I'm not crazy Raskin, I was just trying to have some fun," Vormanx hissed between a clenched maw.
"In case you weren't paying attention you went from being clinically depressed to reckless thrill seeking in the span of an afternoon. Hell I don't know, maybe you were still depressed and that little stunt you pulled was a suicide attempt, but you seemed to be having a pretty fun time doing it. The logical explanation is that blending Kedra with the Vormanx mech has created a new being who is dangerously bi-polar and represents a threat to himself, his splits and the general public."
The red Neo proceeded to let his words sink in and watched as Vormanx's tail tip began to quiver with emotion and his icy glare softened as it was redirected towards the bed.
"Listen, I'm still your friend and that's why I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and chalk this up to some post-rebirth jitters," said Raskin as he tried to be more comforting. "You need to get it together or Fleur and I aren't going to be able to protect you. You realize you have to go in for follow-up psychological testing right? You remember how much Lilly was against your little "experiment" in the first place so if you show up all depressed or she keeps seeing you endangering yourself she won't hesitate to pull you apart and label you defective."
"Great," Vormanx grumbled, still a bit choked up, "I'm a week old and I'm already having an intervention."
"It's because we love you," said Fleur as she moved in to gently snug the limbless synth.
"We're here to help you as much as you need us to," said Raskin, "but I also know that the old Vormanx had a lot of tools at his disposal to keep himself centered. I suggest you take the time to use some of those before seeking more clinical interventions."
Vormanx sighed. "Fine...I'll see what I can do. Um...can I get my arms back?"
Fleur smiled and rubbed his horns. "Why don't you just stay here for a while? We'll be downstairs. Just yell if you need us."
The frost dragon closed his eyes as the two other Neos turned to leave.
"Hey wait!" Vormanx exclaimed, his eyes flying back open. "I can't get on the DragONet."
"Oh, yeah," Fleur smirked, "I pulled all your com modules and put them in over on your workbench."
"What!? UGH NO! You fucking...I NEED that!"
"You need to self-reflect, not play games online," admonished Raskin.
Vormanx let out a deep growl,
"We can remove that too if you're not going to play nice," said Fleur as she closed the door behind her.
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Vormanx found himself tickled back into wakefulness as the first tendrils of the morning sun danced across his face. Raising himself up from his recumbent position he was overjoyed to discover that he once again had use of his arms, or at least an arm as the matching twin lay just in reach along with his two legs at the end of the bed. Vormanx had spent the previous 18 hours first being bored, then playing some classic single player games in his virtual space and finally falling asleep after attempting to meditate. He understood how serious the situation was and went as far as to feel a bit guilty for not taking more of an active role in attempting to resolve it, but it didn't take him more than 5 minutes after his friends had left to determine his course of action.
Fitting his left arm into the proper socket and then rotating the assembly to lock it in place Vormanx took a moment to savor the sensations from his techno-biologic cyberbody as the new part engaged with his core systems and started contributing a stream of data into his tactile awareness. Technically only a week old the thrill seeking Frost Dragon loved being a Neo. He was neither clunky like his mech split nor prone to death and injury like his bio split, but personality traits such as the mech's cool headed wisdom or the bio's Joie de vivre were flickering on and off like a lighting unit that hadn't been firmly secured in place.
With both arms now back in service the NeoDragon had his legs back on in no time and figuring he had no use for his wings that day the Vormanx turned to the mirror in order to reinstall those components that fit into locations outside his normal range of vision. Staring back from the mirror was a single face, his face, the shiny face of the Neo Vormanx, but unlike almost every one of his kin, what was going on behind that face was significantly dependent upon the mindset of two free willed individuals that weren't just chips off each other's block.
"You two need to knock it off!" Vormanx snapped at himself in the mirror not knowing what else to do. "You're here for me, you got that? For better or worse that was the deal and your bullshit is fucking me up. Do you hear me? You're fucking me up!"
Vormanx's frustration finally boiled over prompting to him punch at the mirror, only managing to stop his fist a few millimeters from shattering the glass.
"Of course you can't hear me. You don't exist when I exist...well at least not in the way that matters," the dragon sighed. "You can make me all pissed off or depressed, but ancestors forbid I should be able to sit down and talk to you about it."
Vormanx flared his nostrils and grabbed onto the edge of the table hard as he tried to make himself look as intimidating as possible.
"You might not hear this now, but you're sure as hell going to remember it. Kedra, you need to exercise some better judgement and Vor, I know what you're going to do so you'd better be fucking careful. If you screw me up I'll..." Vormanx growled as he realized he had absolutely no way to realistically threaten his splits. "Just do what you need to do and that's the end of it. No more drama!"
With the ultimatum delivered, remembered and written to his data store Vormanx stormed out of his room and down the stairs making a beeline for the back door.
"Um, are you ok there? I heard shouting," inquired Raskin as he looked up from his cup of coffee.
"I'm fine," said Vormanx.
"Where are you going?" asked Fleur showing some concern.
"Out..."
"For?" Raskin asked.
"Talk therapy...if I don't come back avenge my death."
Vormanx didn't wait for a reply as he walked with determination out of the house and across the dew covered field to the tree line at the base of the mountain behind their property. The Neo knew where he was going and hoped that the long walk to get there would hopefully calm him down, but instead he only felt more conflicted with half of him eager for the confrontation and the other wary of its consequences. The one thing he could agree with himself on was that there was no way in hell that he would vindicate the pessimistic predictions of a Unicorn. Upon reaching a small pond tucked in an indentation high up the side of the mountain Vormanx stood in the middle of the moss covered shore, the mid-day sun streaming down through the trees.
"Alright you two, you wanted it? Then have at it."
Engaging the spell like a well practiced pro the singular Vormanx blurred out and was replaced by his two splits, one clearly fearful, and the other seething with rage.
"Wait!"
Kedra's plea for mercy was cut short when the mech's metal hand closed about his throat and slammed the bio dragon against a tree, his feet left dangling helplessly in mid air.
"I...can't breathe...Vormanx," coughed Kedra as he struggled in vain against the mech's overwhelming strength.
"Somehow I don’t find this an issue. After what you just put me through Kedra, that’s the least of your concerns," hissed the Mech as the bio's razor sharp claws failed to find any purchase on its metal plating. "You will NEVER do something that stupid again, do I make myself clear? I've lost my soul once and I would rather face the recycler then ever having to go through that again. You know the hell I went through. Never again Kedra...NEVER AGAIN!"
"Gurk...ack...uck...errrk."
"And don't think I can't threaten you Kedra. I will break your body short of death if that is the only way I can keep you from endangering yourself and if I am reading his little message correctly I believe that our big brother would agree with that approach."
"Urk...NO!...I...eek."
"Now I want you to promise me that you will exercise better judgment from this point on."
Kedra made a vague gurgling noise as his legs kicked and his eyes started to roll back into his head.
"PROMISE ME!" mech Vormanx bellowed.
Kedra managed to focus his bloodshot eyes on the robotic dragon and nodded weakly. Satisfied mech Vormanx threw his adopted bio-brother to the ground leaving him to cough and gasp for air.
"Being Neo is not a license to dick around. There are consequences to your actions," the mech continued to pontificate.
"Are you fucking crazy?" Kedra squeaked. "You just tried to kill me!"
"And don't you forget it," mech Vormanx sneered. "If you're going to die it will be at my hand, not your own."
Kedra mumbled something unintelligible before pointing a yellow glowing claw at the robot, rendering him immobile.
"What have you done to me!" mech Vormanx roared in surprise and anger.
"What's the matter brother? Can't overcome a simple hold spell? Oh wait...I forgot. You don't have a soul," Kedra gloated as he struggled to his feet. "You know maybe I wouldn't have been so desperate for a little fun if you hadn't plunged us into a depressive funk. Perhaps you should stop blaming others for your own problems."
"How dare you!"
"Why don't you go chill out?"
With a wave of his hand Kedra sent mech Vormanx flying through the air dropping him into the deepest part of the lake with a satisfying splash. A toothy grin formed on the face of the biologic dragon before he collapsed to the ground in utter exhaustion. Rolling over onto his wingless backside Kedra looked up into the blue autumn sky as lines of sunlight filtered down through the trees. Kedra was not sure how long he had lay there when he finally heard the sound of footfalls squishing up through the mud and dam moss at the water's edge and a bipedal robot dragon lay down next to him, strands of aquatic grass hanging from his horns. After a while laying together in silence Kedra spoke.
"I'm still pissed off about the blue scales..."
"Hmmm?" asked mech Vormanx.
"I distinctly remember you telling me that the rebirth process wouldn't change my appearance."
"You're still mostly red."
"That's not the point. You said I'd look the same."
"Well I lied. The process changed your species so along with the good you get the bad, which I guess in your opinion is a few blue scales. Since you're so handy with the magic just wave your hand and change how you look if you care about "brand identity" so much."
"I know, but I just wanted you to know that it still bugged me."
"Vormanx saw the red on him and you don't hear him complaining," the mech snorted.
"Well duh, Red is better," Kedra chuckled as he rolled over to sit astride the recumbent metal dragon.
Mech Vormanx raised an eye ridge. "Are you proposing that we engage in some sort of makeup sex?"
"W-what? Um..." Kedra stammered as his problem with being insufficiently red vanished. "Don't get me wrong, you're quite fetching, but I think you're missing the hardware for that sort of thing."
"Thank you for the compliment. I see your new programming is starting to take effect," Mech Vormanx grinned. "I guess it just takes meat brains take a little extra time to fully adjust."
Kedra froze up as he wrestled with the growing realization that he was now finding males attractive in the same way he had always found females.
"Damn, looks like he locked up and needs a reboot," said the robot as he jammed a metal finger into Kedra's sternum.
"Gah! Stop that!" Kedra glared back as he batted the mech's hand away. "Is there anything else you neglected to tell me about the rebirth process? It didn't make me female or something did it?"
"I knew I forgot something."
"Watch it," said Kedra sitting up on top of his brother, "I know how to update your firmware."
"The only other thing you should know is that I did ask the rebirth folks to retain that scar on your right arm. I figured if you didn't want it you could have easily had it removed by now."
Kedra looked over at the cross shaped patch of slightly discolored hide on his upper right forearm. "Thanks. I had kinda forgotten about that."
"I meant to ask how you got that, but the opportunity never presented itself."
"Just me being irresponsible again," Kedra sighed. "I was doing a trick next to some hot engine components and came into contact with a stray piece of metal when I got buffeted by some turbulence. I sort thought that the scar looked cool so I just left it there. May I thought it would teach me a lesson or something."
"Let's hope that combined with my little refresher that it does," the mech-half quipped.
"Speaking of body art didn't Vormanx have a tattoo? I think it was supposed to be a sun located here, on his left pectoral," Kedra noted, pointing to himself. "I don't remember it when we were merged."
"That was..." the mech took a breath, "...on my old bio half. When he died it went with him."
"Oh," Kedra replied first looking down before suddenly rolling off his metal brother and standing up. "Come on, get up. I have an idea."
"Um, what kind of idea exactly? Did you want to go for a swim? The water is...refreshing."
"No no, no time. I have a really great way we can express our commitment to each other and I don't want to lose my motivation."
"As much as you find me sexually attractive we are not a "couple". We are the two components of the Neo Vormanx and he should be the focus of our concern."
"Fine, I have a really great idea that can help express our commitment to Vormanx via our commitment to each other," said Kedra as he squatted down and launched himself into the air only to land back on his feet a short distance away.
The mech snorted in amusement. "You might be a hybrid, but you're still the kind of dragon that needs wings to fly."
"Well why didn't you put them on before we left!"
"Our mutual friend decided that walking would be more cathartic. Can't you remember what we did two hours ago?"
"Oh I'm sorry, I guess I'm not a DVR like some people I know," Kedra snorted.
Acting with trans-biologic speed mech Vormanx grabbed a hold of his bio-half and promptly threw him into the lake. Bobbing back to the surface Kedra stuck out his tongue.
"Hey look at me, I can float! Why don't you come back in Vor, the water is de-lightful."
"What about your "big idea"?"
"Bah, I guess it can wait. After all isn't it my job to throw a little biologic randomness into the mix."
The robot dragon rolled his optics and sighed before taking a running leap into the water wondering how well an impudent bag of meat could float with a half ton of metal grabbing onto its ankles.
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Vormanx staggered out of the basement door and collapsed into one of the chairs around the kitchen table breathing heavily through clenched teeth. Raskin looked up from where he was marinating cubed beef for that evening's meal and raised an eye ridge.
"Are you alright? You...or one of you was screaming pretty loudly down there."
"I'm fine," winced Vormanx as his throbbing right arm filled his awareness. "It's just a little pain, nothing major."
"Is that a new tattoo?" asked Fleur as she walked into the room.
"My splits are fucking out of control," grumbled Vormanx as he rubbed the stylized sun that circumscribed the cross shaped scar on his right bicep. "They'll be lucky if I let them out for solstice."
"How did the laser welder work for you? I haven't been able to use it as much as I had intended," Raskin casually asked as he tossed some spices in with the meat.
"It worked fine," Vormanx hissed. "Didn't you hear the screaming?"
"I sure did," Raskin replied, the corners of his maw turning up slightly.
"I see you're still bitter about the whole threatening to kill your bio-half incident," Vormanx growled.
"Me? Nah...why would you think that?" Raskin sneered not doing a very good job of looking innocent.
"Well I think it looks lovely," Fleur interjected, "very symbolic with the cross inside the sun."
"Thanks, I think that was the point. Kedra called it a bonding experience and said my mech half needed some "positive pain"."
"You might not want to mention that bit to Lilly," Fleur offered.
"No shit. Anyway, I think I'm better now. All I have to do now is rebuild my online presence, social contacts, event schedule and start working on new performances and material." Vormanx slid further down in the chair and sighed. "Who thought being dead would require so much work."
"Well it isn't so bad when you consider the alternative," said Raskin as he finished up with the meat and left it to soak in the bag. "Anyway I'm glad you’re feeling better."
"Thanks, I'm still a bit scattered, but I'm actually starting to feel like me. I don't know if I'm the same as the old Vormanx, but the strong emotional swings are fading and the double vision from two different sets of memories is happening less often although I assume it might pick up again once I start leaving the house," Vormanx mused. "If I had to be honest I'm actually starting to have fun with it. Not many other Neos get to have these sorts of experiences."
"You're a thrill seeker," said Fleur. "All the dull off details in your life are exciting again. The trick is to allow your mech-half's sensibilities balance out Kedra's more self-destructive tendencies."
Vormanx laughed. "Be careful what you say about my splits, they'll remember everything you said to me."
"All the better reason to keep them bottled up for a while," said Raskin, as he sat down at the table to join his two friends. "You're the star attraction so don't think you owe them any more than living your life to the fullest. I'm sure some day some person will be able to create a philosophy class around your story, but if you try to be too introspective now you'll just wind up going in circles."
"I hear you," said Vormanx. "First I'm all guilty that I stole Kedra's life, but then I hold out my hands and I immediately switch over to thinking about how fucking cool it is to be Neo."
"Then you go back to being guilty?" Fleur offered.
"Hell no! Then I think about how I have enough fusion fuel on hand to fly between here and the dark side of Naxos before the meat is ready to go into the stew," exclaimed Vormanx, getting that excited look again.
"And what would your logical side say to that idea?" Raskin asked assuming Vormanx was just joking around.
"That since he dumped all the old space flight sensory recordings to external storage that I need to make some new ones?"
Raskin chuckled. "Touché. Well, since I don't see any point in arguing with you just check in with ATC and don't be a derp. I don't care what sort of frantic call I get from your robot brother. I'm not letting 20 pounds of grass fed Angus go to waste while I'm off rescuing your ass from some unnamed crater."
"10-4 Ras. Fleur, would you care to join me?" asked Vormanx as he got to his feet.
"You know, I think I would," replied the green female NeoDragon.
"Oh come on, I just got done cubing all the..." Raskin growled before accepting the fact that he was the odd dragon out. "Fine,I'll just drop everything and go fly around the moon. I say, kids these days, grumble grumble."
"That's the spirit Raskin! Best of all this way you won't have to worry about me doing something "irresponsible"."
"Or we'll all get sucked into a warp intake."
"Hush!"
{{#if:k|{{#if:|
{{{2}}}
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Vormanx sat in the middle of Media Lab 3 at the Heil Northside Library carefully adjusting the sound dynamics of the room to match that of a typical household viewing environment. The blue and slightly red Frost NeoDragon sat facing the black standby screen as he interacted with the virtual controls visible only to himself, an occasional swiping movement by a hand or claw providing the only indication that somebody was still home. It was only the feeling of a soft warm touch on the back of his neck that startled Vormanx back to full attention.
"Ahhh!"
Whinny!*
The dragon blinked looking up at the tall silver NeoCorn who had somehow slipped into the lab without him noticing.
"Lilly! Oh...um...what are you doing here?"
"Someone missed a few of their required checkups and since I saw your name on the lab reservation list I figured I'd make an exception and come to you," Lilly said with a slight hint of annoyance.
"Oh...I've kind of been busy with my work and all. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have spaced on the dates, but I was spending time in places without reliable DragONet access."
"Your work is not as important as your mental health you know," chided Lilly.
"Oh I'm sorry, some of us actually have to pay for their meals instead of just bending over and chowing down," Vormanx shot back.
Lilly tossed her head. "Well I guess the process didn't inhibit your draconic arrogance."
Vormanx blinked then looked back toward the screen. "I'm sorry. I've just been under a lot of stress trying to get my comeback videos out. I have to strike just the right tone or my fans might not buy it. Actually two sets of fans seeing I'm now representing both VormanXXX and KedraHalfDragon."
Lilly sighed as she gently dropped her face into her hands, her ears pinned back slightly.
"Oh come on!" Vormanx protested. "I need to split Kedra out any time I have to do a stunt with a bio component and all he asks for is the opportunity to do a few independent projects. There's nothing wrong with that."
"The fact that Kedra is an independent being means there are all sorts of things that could be wrong with that."
"Trust me Lilly, there isn't. Now if you'll excuse me I have some work to do," said Vormanx, his irritation starting to show through.
"Do you mind if I stay here and just watch?" Lilly asked.
The dragon was silent for a moment unsure how to respond. "It will be up in a few days if you want to see the finished product. I'm just doing quality control stuff today. Making sure it looks good in 2D, 3D...4D...mobile devices, etc."
"I'll leave you alone if you wish, but I would like to see your new work. I mean I watched all your old videos so I can make an independent assessment on how things may have changed."
Vormanx's tail twitched as he assumed that this was just another way for Lilly to psychoanalyze him.
"Alright, just...well...anything for a fan," he answered, managing to give the NeoCorn a little smile. "Just sit down wherever. I'm going to start with a basic 2D non-interactive projection so like I said, pretty boring."
The screen flickered to life with a couple simple opening titles before cutting to a shot of the neo VormanXXX strapped into a snowboard at the top of a downhill run.
"Hey everybody I'm VormanXXX and boy is it good to be back. I know there have been a lot of rumors about what happened to me and where I've been. First I wanted to apologize for the general lack of communication. I love all my fans, but I was just not in a place where I could maintain my public presence and I'm sorry if that caused any of you to worry about me. Regarding the accident I'm trying to put a lot of that behind me, but if you're looking for additional information I've put everything on my blog because today I am going to be focusing on the future, not the past."
Vormanx glanced over at Lilly whose normally expressive face and ears had now grown completely still, not yet giving any hints to her assessment of his performance or personality.
"I also wanted to welcome all the fans of KedraHalfDragon and I hope you're liking the new, combined website. For you guys there are going to be a lot of new features and for my own fans the site should have all the great stuff you have come to expect. Anyway, for those who haven't read my blog you might notice that there is quite a bit more red on me than there was before and yes that means I am being brought to you today by Kedra's wonderfully generous sense of adventure. Since I literally would not be here without him go ahead and click on that donation button or buy one of his t-shirts and show him your thanks...although the money all goes to me in the end."
"Excuse me? I don't think so," said a red and somewhat blue biologic dragon as he walked in from the other side of the screen. "You can't get rid of me that easily Vormanx and I want my fans and your fans to know that all my donations will go to fund my own unique series of video productions."
The on screen Vormanx gasped with some mock surprise. "KedraHalfDragon! How are you here?! You're supposed to be part of me. I mean I can't exist if you're standing over there talking."
"Well I went and sought out an ancient dragon who taught me a powerful spell," said Kedra matter-of-factly.
"Oh? What was that?"
"Adobe Premiere. Here, have a drink."
Kedra tossed a beverage can from his side of the screen over to VormanXXX who casually plucked it out of the air.
"Showoff," the Neo sneered before popping the top and taking a long drink. "Mmmm, that's quite tasty. What is this fine beverage?"
"That's Neo Nectar with 100% natural energies that will give you the power to get up and do what needs to be done," said Kedra.
"Ah, and I see the label says that it's in biocompatibility group B, so for our many human viewers that means that Neo Nectar won't kill you...immediately, so drink up."
Lilly snorted and pinned. "I applaud you for dropping NeoBlast, but you really shouldn't encourage humans to drink a beverage designed for techno-biologic mythicals," she admonished.
"Actually, it can decrease obesity by replacing a human's gut bacteria with nanobots and studies show..."
"Just...don't tell me any more Vormanx, I don't want to know," Lilly sighed.
"So, besides plugging our new sponsor and stopping you from stealing my donations why am I out here and why do I have a snowboard," Kedra asked.
"Well I know what whenever "change" happens on the internet everybody gets all buthurt and can't resist getting into massive arguments over which was better, the original or the new and improved version," said VormanXXX.
"Of course! Anger's what the internet was designed for. Well anger and porn."
"I propose solving the new vs old debate by having a good old fashioned head to head competition because nobody could ever possibly argue with the results of that."
"Good idea VormanXXX. How about we each take a run down the course and have our performances judged by an assembly of experts."
"Way ahead of your KedraHalfDragon. In fact before I came up here I collared PurpleSith, CaptainCanuck1911 and IcePhoenix to judge our little competition. In fact we'd better hurry up before they find a way to get the shock collars off."
As the video cut to a true split screen for the actual head to head competition a movement in his peripheral vision prompted Vormanx to look over and catch Lilly in the act of yawning.
"L-like I said this is just the version for people watching on basic display screens. The whole run had cameras mounted along it so the immersive version will allow you to place your PoV anywhere in the action and you can even view both the runs simultaneously. Y-you should really give it a try...to get the real...experience."
"I'm sure it's wonderful," Lilly smiled. "You don't have to try to impress me. I'm here for other reasons remember?"
Vormanx sank back in his chair finding himself desperately craving the unicorn's approval for some reason.
"After adding up the scores from all the judges we have a result," declared the shimmering blue-white NeoPhoenix. "KedraHalfDragon came in with a score of 437. VormanXXX your score was...452!"
"Well at least you won," remarked Lilly as she watched VormanXXX jump up and down for joy. "Would have been a shame to go through all this hassle and lose to the person you were ostensibly trying to improve."
"See, I knew I was being judged" Vormanx snapped. "Does the rubric say I have to show improvement over my splits? Is there a percentage target I have to hit as well? I don't need social services to tell me I'm an improvement and for your information I didn't even bother to film the scenario in which I lost."
"Quiet, I'm trying to watch the video," said Lilly, moving the ear that had been listening to Vormanx complain back toward the screen.
"Well congratulations VormanXXX there's no shame losing to you because I have a sneaking suspicion that no matter how hard I train you'll always wind up better than me," Kedra remarked with a wink before "pushing" the Neo's half of the screen out of frame. "Anyway, enough of you, it's time for me to take over the video for a bit. As one of VormanXXX's splits I have knowledge of most of the general details of his fan correspondence and while I was walking around today chatting with the esteemed assembly of experts I realized that there was one specific fan request that he receives far more frequently than any other. Unfortunately I have a sneaking suspicion that old VormanXXX is never going to act on it or even acknowledge it, but he's not the boss of me so let's change locations."
The scene abruptly cut from the touristy landscape in front of a winter sports lodge to the cramped cargo compartment inside an orbital shuttle. The rear cargo ramp was lowered and the whine of the engines filled the media lab while a somewhat more bundled up Kedra stood in front of the camera.
"Right now we're hovering over the Holmann glacier on New Dæhlie. That's a 7000 foot vertical drop strewn with crevasses, boulders and big chunks of ice, but also a lot of nice tempting fresh powder," Kedra yelled over the engines as the camera PoV moved past him to get a good shot of the glacier that cascaded down the side of a massive dormant volcano. "Now I know that many of you, including my robot friend here, are thinking that I would be nuts to attempt to ski down such a slope...and they'd all be right. I'm not anywhere near skilled enough to pull off such a feat, but the good news is that I don't need to. That's because the #1 most requested stunt doesn't involve me at all, but instead is for VormanXXX's mech split, aka He-Who-Is-Never-Seen, to step out from behind the "camera" and do something in front of it for a change."
The camera's PoV suddenly shook back and forth indicating its disapproval.
"Don't think this is all some act ladies and gentlemen. I thought this up when we split for the last piece and for the last 5 days I have been coming up with excuses not to re-merge back so Mr. Roboto here had absolutely NO warning."
Mech Vormanx's PoV turned back into the shuttle showing the other extreme performers who were now on their feet and ready to apply an appropriate amount of peer pressure.
"Best part is we previously convinced Mech Vormanx to take off his wings cause the "ship was too small" so you're not going anywhere but out the back buddy," came Kedra's voice as the Mech's PoV began to look around for some means of escape before turning back towards Kedra who was now holding his own camera. "Come on brother, stop recording and strap on some skis."
The camera PoV shook back and forth again.
"Wait, why am I even asking you?" Kedra remarked. "After all I'll be the one editing this!"
With that the camera PoV abruptly switched to show a rather shy blue and white metal robot dragon trying to render himself invisible.
"Come on Kedra, this isn't funny. You know I'm not one for the extreme stuff," the mech pleaded.
"Vor, without your persistence none of this would have been possible. The Neo Vormanx would be forever dead and I would be living in a dump still on the amateur circuit," said Kerda, a hint of emotion in his voice. "It's time for you to step into the limelight and show the world your bravery."
All the assembled extreme athletes and daredevils began to applaud, shouting their encouragement at the bashful mech. Mech Vormanx let out a sigh and hesitantly picked up one of the specially designed skis, looking it over intently as if he was trying to block out the rest of what was going on.
"I've...never done this before," the mech whimpered.
"Sure you have!" Kedra exclaimed as he slapped the dragon mech on the back. "You possess all the skills and experiences from your Neo self plus I sent you a hyper accurate topology map of the glacier so your AI should have no problem pounding out the most "efficient" path down the mountain. I mean aren't you always trying to teach me to be logical about this sort of stuff?"
"Being "logical" means to not do it at all because due to the rather large gap between theory and practice!" the robot protested as he clipped into the skis and shuffled to the open loading ramp, looking down onto the white expanse before him.
"Well I guess that's true...in theory" Kedra snickered. "Now on the count of three. One...two..."
The NeoPhoenix gave Mech Vormanx a sharp push on the count of two and the sophisticated synthetic life form fell screaming from the plane. A small laugh from Lilly at her client's plight gave the Neo Vormanx a bit more confidence about how both his video and his new life were being received. As the mech shot down the glacier at speeds well over 100 mph Vormanx began to recall the sheer terror of plunging down the field of ice and rock having to completely rely on the accurate processing of information that was outside of his conscious awareness. Finally being able to step back from the production process the Neo was finally able to appreciate how his mech half was now experiencing the same strange dual channel experiences that he had become accustomed to.
After a minute the mech had managed to stop screaming and focus more on the excitement of blasting down the hill. After two minutes Mech Vormanx was actually beginning to enjoy himself, cries of joy erupting from his vocal modulator as he passed within inches of house sized rocks and ice blocks. Then, without warning, an edge dug in and the robot was flying end over end, impacting the rocks and ice instead of gliding over them. Mech Vormanx hit the face of the glacier hard and bounced a bit before the mech's PoV stabilized looking towards the sky as he slid a bit further before coming to a complete stop. Letting out a sigh the mech looked over at the sparking stump that was all that remained of his left arm.
"I knew this was a bad idea," Mech Vormanx grumbled.
A few seconds later the sound of icy footfalls could be heard before Kedra's head popped back into frame staring down at the viewer.
"You still with me buddy?"
The mech growled.
"Bah, I knew you'd be fine. Oh, you dropped this," said Kedra as he plunked Mech Vormanx's missing arm onto his chest plate. "Anyway thanks everyone for watching. I hope all of you who wanted to see Vormanx's mech-half try a stunt now see why we don't do it that often. Um, positive comments would be much appreciated because it looks like my life partner is a little mad right now. From myself it's great to be here, from Vormanx it's great to be back and from the mech?"
"It's great that I can crush your windpipe as easily as opening a jar of pickles."
"Well there you have it! See you next time!"
The screen went dark and Vormanx looked nervously over at his case worker, unsure about how she would respond to the antics of his splits.
"So...what did you think?"
"You...all of you have an amazing chemistry and I think you're going to go places. I mean if you want my honest opinion," said Lilly, allowing herself to smile a bit before setting her ears back slightly. "Still, even if you were ultimately proven right with your decision you still took a big risk. More often than not the best decision is to go with the standard treatment. It's the wisdom of the herd."
"Oh what a surprise...the Unicorn says I should have followed the herd," Vormanx mocked.
"And the Dragon engaged in risky, potentially self-destructive behavior," Lilly responded sticking out her tongue.
Vormanx had a bit of a laugh himself then sighed. "So do I still need to come in for those follow up sessions?"
"Why would you? I've just finished my final assessment closed out your case," said Lilly as she stood up and gave Vormanx a gentle nuzzle. "Just keep up with your ongoing mental health treatment plan. Your line of work can become a self-medication to mask underlying psychological issues."
"I will and thank you for all your help. I do appreciate what you've done for me and I understand your concerns. By the way, if you ever feel like a little extra excitement in life, sort of break away from the herd a little, you know how to get in touch with me."
Lilly tossed her head and looked back at Vormanx, her ears flicking about playfully. "Well you are one of the more interesting people on the island...at least from a psychological perspective. Might be worthwhile for me to take a walk on the wild side as the saying goes, but just do me a favor and leave your splits bottled up. No offence, but I find them a bit...incomplete."
"Yeah, their antics can get a little irritating," replied Vormanx giving the unicorn a carnivorous smile as she headed for the exit. Turning back to his work Vormanx's levity suddenly turned to dread as he realized he would surely face punishment for his disparaging remark.
"Aw come on guys...I didn't mean it!" the NeoDragon pleaded, but deep down Vormanx knew there was no point arguing with himself.
{{{2}}} 
The End 
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