Нова Проспект / Nova Prospect: Shotgun Senorita (Цири)

Shotgun Senorita (Ciri)

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:06

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Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:11

Even after spending half her life on the run, Ciri could not complain about her lack of education. Ever since she was a child, she had had to read countless treatises on the art of war, draw magical diagrams from memory, and memorize bestiaries. She'd thought she knew how the world worked - before she'd asked that unfortunate question.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:12

Less than half an hour later, she found herself buried under a pile of unfamiliar concepts. Cyborgs. Half-human half-golems who had traded flesh for carbon fiber (without going into detail, she thought the word was another name for iron) to enhance their natural abilities - the witchers had accomplished the same with mutagens. The Internet, an invisible web allows thoughts, sounds, and pictures to be transmitted instantly over distance.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:24

Magnets, the energy of lightning, the attraction of things, here called gravity - Jennyfer taught Ciri how to control these forces with thought. Here they are available to any peasant who can't even catch a glimpse of a spike in the magical flows.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:24

However, Ciri didn't fully understand how it worked. She asked question after question until Adam started talking about Ohm's Law and Gauss's Theorem. These names were more reminiscent of occult orders than science. Solomon's Key, Gauss's Theorem.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:25

"Trust me, it's as much magic for most people as it is for you. You don't need to know how it works to use it."

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:25

Ciri was not satisfied with this state of affairs. There must be something useful from this world. Something she could tell the men of science, something that would make life on the Continent better. People spend years learning these sciences, Adam reassured her.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:28

Magic, as it turned out, was mentioned only in an ironic context, as something for which there was no explanation - and everything had to have an explanation, they thought. But the ways of Destiny are inexplicable - no matter how much she denied the idea, the higher will always have plans for her.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:27

"Tell me more about your gods," she asked, "or what do you believe in?"

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:27

Maybe religion will explain why they believe in these laws and theorems. Adam found the question amusing for some reason.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:34

"Most do not believe in intelligent design. The days of organized religion are long past."

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:38

She didn't hold a particular faith, but she wouldn't deny the existence of something above human intelligence. A world where no one is worshipped, where everything can be explained? Very unusual.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:39

Ciri pondered her answer for a couple of moments and decided she had misspoken.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:39

"Who do you think created the world?"

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:35

"The most common theory is the Big Bang."

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:12

"But the Big Bang didn't just happen by itself, did it?"

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:12

"At least no intelligent being is responsible for it," Adam replied. "So where were we? The cameras..."

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:40

Ciri listened half-heartedly - her head was beginning to splinter from the amount of information, not to mention the fact her legs were shaking from fatigue.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:41

The future had come to this world in an uncommonly uneven way - while some lived in tall, glowing towers, others lay in the streets without food or shelter. Ciri envisioned a society where everyone could control natural forces regardless of magical ability, somehow... fairer.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:42

Not even the whores of Novigrad have that detached look. It's as if everything going on around them is so disgusting that the world of one's dreams is the only way to escape.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:43

The streetlights flickered alarmingly with unnaturally bright red light. It smelled more like familiar shit than this sour-sweet rotten stench. Longing mingled with fear, and Ciri prayed they were getting somewhere.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:43

Adam stopped in front of the massive door of an abandoned building - both the door and the building itself were suspiciously unremarkable. Ciri was haunted by the haunting sensation that someone was watching them.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:45

"Locusts came out of the smoke," Adam said as he jammed the button.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:35

An invisible mechanism kicked in, and the door slid open in two. It was pitch black inside.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:45

At the end of the corridor was a small windowless room, too cramped even for two people. When Adam pressed another button, Ciri's heart sank as they began to plummet downward.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:46

As soon as the doors opened, deafening music hit her eardrums. The drums thundered so furiously that they were declaring holy war on silence. It was impossible to keep one's sanity in this din.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:48

\\"Inside this illusion, everything feels real to me. Synthetic ecstasy as she spreads her legs....."

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:32

Yeah, high art. At least "The Girls of Wicovarro" has rhyme.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:32

"No need to get into words," Adam cleared his throat.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:49

The local bard's voice had an unnatural mechanical quality as if he were not a human being. He wasn't visible, though - the gray haze made it possible to see only flickering lights and the outlines of figures in the hall.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:50

Adam asked the guard, huge as a stone troll and with the same "meaningful" expression. He nodded.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 16:51

They waded through the frenzied crowd. It was hot as a bathhouse: many of the girls were in their underwear. The couples pressed against each other, moving so rhythmically that Ciri wondered if she was dancing.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:31

Mr. Armitage has been expecting your arrival. The door slammed silently shut, and there was a long-awaited silence.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:31

The room they found themselves in was like the womb of an iron beast: steel arches in the shape of curved ridges, glossy marble walls, and smooth leather furniture. Everything was black and gray and white, everything... slimy. The abode of a rich madman.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:30

Ciri turned around, hearing the rustle of wheels.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:36

The man in the black coat was hunched over, huddled in a mobile chair. If Adam was only half metal, the only thing that resembled a human being in the stranger was the mad, piercing eyes. The iron had grown into his body like a tumor, making it impossible to tell where the flesh was and where its semblance was.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:16

A cylinder of black liquid of some kind; threads stretching to his wrists. Something told Ciri that the unfortunate man's life hung on that thread.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:14

The guards hovered over the man, identical, like two porcelain statues. They had the kind of haughty faces that only high-society beauties have.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:14

"Interesting interior," Adam said; he was clearly not a big fan of small talk. "Giger?"

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:12

Ciri saw that Giger was in his coffin. Oh, how could you make such a creepy thing?

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:13

"I had no doubt, Adam," the man grinned, his white teeth perfectly straight, "that you were a great admirer of biomechanics. Yes, old Rudy was a visionary ahead of his time. All today's masters can do is chew their vomit in the hope of giving birth to something new."

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:37

He spoke in that slow, dragging way that people who have nothing to lose and nowhere to hurry usually do.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:37

"Do I know you?" Adam inquired coldly.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 14:35

"I don't need to know you personally," the man hissed in a nasty wet cough, "... to know everything about you."

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:12

The mask of the hospitable host threatened to slip from his face now and then.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:11

"Are you Wintermute?"

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:11

"The man laughed hoarsely. On his legs, at the very junction of iron and flesh, there were monstrous scars. Ciri would have preferred this life to death."

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:10

"We're a couple of evolutionary turns apart, but I appreciate the compliment. Armitage. Willis Armitage."

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 17:09

"What do you want?"

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:13