A Plunge In Infinity

🔴 TRIGGER WARNING - Drug Use 🔴

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"I swear to God! If this cacher even thinks about caching with me Imma -"

"Calm down Richie. He's here..."

The limo pulled up in front of the two junkies. The front window rolling down with poignant slowness, revealing an angry looking organic with an Artificial nose. He squinted at the junkies before throwing them a Disc, rolled back the window, then drove off to a nearby hover platform.

"That -" Richie stooped down to pick up the Disc. "I swear to God! Maxie! If he does that cache again we're getting another -"

"Deal, Richie." Maxie agreed, unable to contain himself. "Come on, before the droids show up."

"Cache the droids! We should just short circuit the cachers! Let me tell you -" Maxie let his friend ramble as they hovered. Richie needed his fix badly and Maxie could feel his receptors pulsating as well. His Display showed he would be going into cardiac arrest if he didn't slice up soon.

They entered Maxie's apartment. The coffin's location on the outskirts of the Central District was unheard of for a junkie, but Maxie's parents were both Electricians, and successful ones at that. They loved their son unconditionally, showered him with all the comforts of a post-singularity society - spoiling him until the day they died.

They destroyed him.

The junkie sat down next to his friend, their teeth chattering from the anticipation. His friend took the Disc, flicked it twice, set it on a tray on the floattable. The Disc started to bubble ever so slightly... blue?

"The cache is going on, Maxie?" Richie stomped his foot through chattering teeth. "Have you ever seen blue bubbles before? Caching fool thinks he's gonna poison me I swear -"

Richie grabbed the tray but Maxie grabbed his hand in anticipation. "Relax, Rich." Richie set down the tray.

"But Max -"

"You wanna call Big Boy again? Hmmm? Do you?" Richie grew quiet at the expression on his friend's face. "No? Then shut the cache up. Hmm? I've been chattering for a fix all day.

"And to answer your question, no, I haven't. But I've heard they could bubble in different colors depending on the psychedelic. Big Boy did warn us this was a special package."

"He always says that... caching fool -

"It's done, look..."

The bubbling stopped, coalescing into a blue outer layer on the Disc's surface. Hands trembling, Maxie broke the Disc in two. "I say... we do it all at once, Rich. No portioning it out this time... hmm?"

Richie nodded, mouth practically frothing. He picked up his half and placed it firmly inside his exposed forearm, while Maxie placed his half on the inside of his left thigh. For both junkies, these were one of the last pieces of exposed flesh.

Each slice removed a piece of flesh - Artificial flesh did not work. Some poor bastards also discovered that the inside the body also did not work. The purity of the organic did not matter either, eventually they would have to stop using. Those that reached that point usually decided to end the suffering rather than continue living, as Disc withdrawal is one of the most painful experiences a person could, and often couldn't, endure.

The two junkies lay in the coffin, eyes in the back of their heads, limbs unnaturally contorted.

Maxie felt like he was dreaming - weightless in the ever expanding and contracting void. If said void was comprised of nothing but colors. Colors that didn't exist, yet here they were, sprawled out in their majesty for Maxie to behold.

His thoughts... what were thoughts anyway? A physical construct created by the Overlords. Yes. Maxie did not need thoughts. Same as the Companions... Meaning... The Companions were products of the primal Humans, maybe they creates us? And not the other way around...

Maxie was swimming in this discovery. His strokes were fast, sure, purposeful. The colors swirled around him, ever upward, ever downward. Maxie drank it all in and it only continue to feed him, and feed him.

Ever fed, ever hungry. And one. One with it all. Yes, this was what life was about.

Maxie climbed, and fell, and climbed -

A bump. A thud. A bump. A thud. Somewhere...

Thud.

His left thigh... pressure. Something was pushing him. Something was pushing., pushing...

The colors dimmed and the void parted. A borg - no, a man - no, Richie. His head was pressed up against Maxie's thigh, limp. Limp. Mmmmm. The colors started their retaliation, stronger this time, more vibrant, brighter -

Until a buzzing made the swirling stop completely.

The void curtain still remained, but the magic was missing. Maxie felt like he was treading deep waters with no salvation in sight. But he did not panic. Panic was for Humans, and Maxie had discovered the secrets behind his own mortality.

New faces now: Artificial and organic. Who were they? Whoever they were they were angry, or annoyed, or confused. Regardless -

"He survived." A feminine voice said. "The scanners say he ingested the substance, Commander, and survived..."

"Has our search finally concluded?" A male voice. "Can he hear us?"

"By all accounts, yes. But not by choice."

"Can he perceive us?"

"By all accounts, no."

The colors started to swirl, slow but steady.

"His resume is impressive, sir. His parents were valuable contributors to the Whole."

"Our gene hypothesis was on to something you say? Interesting..."

"Perhaps..."

"This is truly wondrous..."

The swirling began anew. Maxie noticed a different magenta so alien that his entire being focused on it. And in the distance, calming voices continued to vent. "Take him, sister. Leave the other one. A necessary price for progress." The magenta was vast, and volumetric, and his. It was his! And the sudden warmth he felt was his as well, it had been his since the day of his birth - he saw that now, clear as orbit skies he saw it. And in the midst of the torrent a voice, assured and proud.

"You will do great things, son."

The voices vanished, and Maxie was swallowed whole.

Yoyo. To all those confused - Good. 😂 That was kinda the point of this one. Although I know the cannon, and I think it's more obvious than I would like it to be, the miss directions in this story were intentional.

Obligatory shout-out to the 🍕PIZZA🍕 gang, 🤙 gang. 🤙

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Image source.

Have a great week folks! 😏