Category: confusion

New Pai, 12

Yes, it’s been three weeks. Standard excuses for the first two: couldn’t see the ending, DayJob… The third excuse was a surprise: in my dotage I’ve suddenly developed a shellsfish allergy, so the scallops over butter noodles from Friday/Saturday before last attempted to kill me. My wife wanted to take me to the hospital but I was a mule and said no. Even so, bedridden for three days, with no food, then barely moving for two with a little toast. At one point when my wife came home from work, she said, “You like like you aged a year in a day.” Thanks, Honey.

But, just like falling off your horse’s bicycle, you get back on something. In fact, I realized one glaring and one minor issue from Part 11: glaring, that did they go off and leave the body behind? Are you kidding me? Minor, that I wanted Pai to clarify to Graf just how latently dangerous he might be. While I have rewritten that in the MS, I didn’t really see a reason to repost everything here, as these are supposed to be raws to make me think, anyway.

Having said all that, let’s get into the Epilogue. Luce finds out you do not piss off the matriarch of an entirely new race, and we catch a glimpse of Graf’s talent.

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New Pai, 11

Once you read the segment, below, you will realize why this took me several days. This is “the big reveal,” as they say in the biz. And, it’s just the reveal, the ramifications of the, I assume, God-given gift that has been hinted about Graf has incalculable ramifications. Which I shall try to deal with in what shall be the epilogue to this novel.

Yes, you read that correctly. Just before Mass last Sunday, when I normally listen for ideas for the story, I realized that this, like Friend & Ally/Foes & Rivals, will be a pair of books. All 55-58k (I’m not finished here, yet) words will be the first. The second will be the massive interplanetary fallout of this religious war about to start. I found that so jarring to the relative quiet and peace of Graf and Pai’s story so far that I simply could not see it all being under one cover. So, two books.

There will be a few more segments of New Pai, posted here. That will form the Epilogue of the first book, paving the transition for the chaos to come. Like most great wars, it will start because of a misunderstanding. Lovely to be writing something horrible with spring around the corner. Writers take the good with the bad. More very soon.

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New Pai, 10

This is not going where I originally thought. You would think that making trouble with people who are predisposed to like you is a stupid move, but there have been times when demis have acted, to me, erratically. I’m beginning to wonder if there is some kind of mental stress Fusions suffer from, as a new, genetically mixed race.

This will be a tough one to write my way through. Was is especially disturbing is that I saw what Luce does when I was at church on Sunday. It’s an important enough plot point to be gifted to me, but I am at a loss, right now. Hope to start figuring it out tomorrow for a Friday post.

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New Pai, 8

A rare Tuesday update. Honestly, I’m hitting my stride on the coming war so want much of this out of the way. If anyone thinks I’ve handed Pai’s new form, her introduction, wrong, please comment. The 3.5-way relationship is not like anything I have dealt with before and welcome input.

So. We learn what one-point-oh might be up to in the coming months. We also are getting a better idea about the… insurgency? Is that the apposite word? Of what is coming. Rebellion? As I have not been told what it looks like, I am not sure what to call it. And, it sounds as if Reina is doing what she does best.

At least there is peace within this family. Besides God, Family is everything.

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New Pai, 7

We all learn a little more about 2.0. And, yes, I deliberately side-stepped the issue of the coming war in favor of touching on a potentially prurient detail. Theologically, I think Graf married Pai’s soul, those nearly four years ago, so her request might be unnecessary. Might. The physical consumation of a marriage has always played a significant role in post-Roman, Western European law. It’s similar to, back in one of the last chapters of Worlds Without End where Henge’s new body is conditionally re-baptized; why take chances?

I find it very odd that resistance to rule by demis or Machines would have some humans coalesce around the Fusions, who themselves are demis. Either that is not common knowledge or the “wings and halo” imagery lends itself to religious fervor. There is, of course, no one who could stop Reina from taking any measures she wants, and I’ll have to check my timeline to see if Aurie’s father is still alive. If not, her mother Henge would be the sole restraint on her.

A few more days of peace, then I think I’ll light this world on fire.

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New Pai, 6

A short addition for a Friday, but there’s obviously a lot going on in this little scene. There, obviously, will be confusion and questions on Graf’s part. Really, I have several, as well. Does 1.0 get deactivated and/or put into storage? She still has live flesh to feed every three days, unless Somi removes it first. Since a Thinking Machine could easily setup and use multiple androids, is 1.0 still out and about, especially in the face of a possible coming religious war? I have no idea.

Let’s all find out, together.

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New Pai, 3

I’m having to sneak up on this as there are, as you’ll read, three big things looming in Pai’s mind. In signal with her totality from their ship parked behind the house, she still is unsure how to proceed. A concern in my mind is she might just panic and leave, at least for a while.

I am happy that after three years, and children, Alix’s disgust is now more just a subtle teasing of someone vastly different from her. And, even with the odd family arrangement, that they can love one another.

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PAI, 28

This ends both the Redding arc as well as the entire tour of Graf and Pai to look into veneration of not just Ildi but now also some of her decendents. We also get more from Pai about why Graf might be important. I’d like to explore that futher in the next section

Which should be rather bucolic, back on his family farm and the surrounding area. I’ve had Alix and the kids off-screen for too long and so foresee a big family gathering while in the background, people such as Aurie and Reina consider their next moves. And Pai gets a makeover.

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PAI, 27

Following hard on Pai’s reveal of her mother, Luce backpedals as quickly as she can. The goddess talk is also quickly drawn down. After running the Russian Empire for just over a hundred years, there’s no way a demi or Fusion could not know who Reina is.

But obviously having an inflated opinion of herself, Luce goes right back to poke the bear by flirting with Graf. We close with yet another mic drop about my main character.

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PAI, 26

Unlike Grandma Ildi and even little Doe, this one seems to believe her own hype. So far as I know, Fusions have the same that a demi-human has: speed of thought and access to the Void. The wings and halo are just sorta there. The fact she’s carrying a battlerifle rather reinforces that notion. Still, they do seem to inspire some odd kind of reverence in humans. I suspect, but don’t know, that there is something in their nature which manifests that. We’ll have to find out.

I also am beginning to lean in on what or why Graf is so important to these people. That will keep for the next section, after Redding.

Pai discovers that name dropping still works.

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