Did You Pass 6

“I’m in another Future Sim aren’t I?
That’s the only logical explanation for all the slight reality flaws. “

“Who are you?” asked the Buddhi ignoring my question.

“I’ve never been that sure but I’m not a spy.
At least If I am - I don‘t know that I am.”

“I’m not talking to you Mike I’m addressing the other.”

“Which one?” I asked “The Watcher or the Dragon?”

“There are two?”

“Yes, but neither of them is likely to talk to you.”

“Who, or what, are they?”

“Well, so far as I know the Watcher has been with me all my life…
it just watches.
The Dragon turned up about thirty years ago.
He seems to help people by making their lives worse.”

“Tell me more about the Watcher if you can, Mike.”

“Not much to tell. Very, very occasionally, I’m suddenly ‘pulled up’ to a much higher level of consciousness and for a few moments I can see things through totally different eyes…
However, I soon forget when I return to ‘normal’ and the only time I can still remember was once when I saw The Female, I could ‘feel’ how sick of sex she was… everything that could possibly be done had been done a million, million times. I don’t know where The Male was, but it seemed likely that there would be one. The Female seemed to be very bored and was half heartedly caressing herself more out of habit than inclination.

“Anything more you can think of?”

“Not off the top of my head but I’ll try and remember other times and tell you later if you wish.”

“Yes, I would be very interested to know more about this Watcher.
What about the Dragon?”

“Well that’s a long story I’d rather not go in to now.
He was an unwelcome visitor at first but we’ve made compromises and learned to tolerate each other… “

“Why do you say ‘He seems to help people by making their lives worse.’?”

“It’s difficult to explain but he seems to bring bad luck for people he wants to help.
I thought he might be a devil at first but then I started to realise that he’s really doing them a favour.”

“How can bringing people bad luck be doing them a favour?”

“You have still Not figured out what the Sim is for and until you do nothing will make any real sense.”

“Okay, what IS the Sim for?”

“I can’t tell you that I’m afraid but I’ve already told you more than enough for you to reason it out yourself… but when you do, you’ll find that you can’t tell anyone either.”

“Do you mean it is physically impossible for you to tell me what the Sim is for?”

“Oh no, I could tell you but you would not be able to believe it and everything I said to try and convince you would take you further from the truth and just make it harder for you to ever find it.”

“Ah, I think I see what you mean. The Creator of the Sim has designed it so that there are certain truths about it that can only be found by seeking them. Yes, we Buddhi have found the same - that true knowledge can never be written down or explained because words can never do more than explain one thing in terms of another and you can‘t even explain Love in terms of colour, size, direction, magnitude, temperature or even Hate…
and what is more important than Love?

Yet however hard you try to describe it if the listener has never felt it they can never guess what it is like, the best you can explain is only what people in love might do.”

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Since I’m too tired and brain dead to do anything useful at the moment I thought I might as well add a few notes to clarify certain, rather complex, subjects and give a brief history of what has happened recently.

Firstly the question of how much of what transpires between Users do the Host actually perceive?
Well, essentially everything - as can be noted if you ever get chance to watch an E&M scan.

The point is that the Host’s conscious mind usually simply ignores anything that is beyond its current level of consciousness... much the same as most people ignore the conversations going on around them in a busy places unless they think it has something to do with them.

In practice, Hosts do often notice occasional things that they should not, but, like people who see flying saucers, fairies, or ghosts, they usually keep it to themselves for fear of mockery or worse.

The natural level, or ‘height’ of consciousness of the Host can make a big difference to what sort of User they best suit and ironically, often it is the ones with the lower levels of consciousness that best suit the Users with a very high level of consciousness.

Leo’s usual Host is a nice enough chap but a bit dim - unlike Fliss, the Princess’s Host, who, as you have probably noticed, is both bright and charismatic in her own right.

It has not been mentioned explicitly in the story so far but when Mike went ‘off planet’ he really did leave the Sim and go to the University planet. Prince Leo (Jared) had discovered that, at least, some of the Hosts could be ‘converted’ into ‘Real’ people. The Prince had found that the Sim had built in procedures to translate the Sims token codes into Realities outside the Sim.

So the token codes for atoms, molecules and DNA etc. could be translated into a Real Form in which the tokens were translated into their stand alone expansions which did not require interpretation or communication with the Sim. Of course this means that the Real Form is far less adaptable than the Sim form and cannot be used within the Sim - essentially, the Hosts become normal entities subject to the same restrictions of mortality and permanent deletion as other life forms outside the Sim.

In the meantime Mike has remembered another time when he was conscious of seeing the world through the eyes of the Watcher.
He remembered a man with a limp who was discussing the three, or maybe even four, different spins. At the time he didn’t take much notice because he knew it already but of course the ‘he’ who knew had not been Mike.

The Buddhi had explained to Mike that all the things that had started with the Princess’s visit to his home had been part of a plan to put Mike in a position where he could be kept under constant observation without realising that it was his ‘friends’ who were watching him.

By making Mike believe that he, Fliss and Leo’s Host were in danger from outside forces Mystic and the Buddhi were hoping that they could control everything that Mike observed and so mislead the ‘spy’ within.
Leo’s host was perfectly safe and had been living at Mikes ever since the staged meeting in which Mystic had misled Mike into thinking he and the Princess were in danger and had driven them to Mystic’s house.

Mike had been wrong about Mystic he had watched several episodes of Star Trek - actually several episodes of the many that Mike had recorded himself which he had borrowed while Mike was staying at his house because he realised that it would reveal to him something of the concept that Mike had regarding the nature of the University 'Vulcans'.

The question now was - what was the purpose of the dragon sitting in Mike‘s mind?
What did it want, what did it know and could it be trusted?

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I feel like I ought to explain a little more about the dragon.
The Mike character has already explained a little to the Buddhi.
“It’s difficult to explain but he seems to bring bad luck for people he wants to help. I thought he might be a devil at first but then I started to realise that he’s really doing them a favour.”

Now, I can see that not everybody could work out how bringing people bad luck can be seen as doing them a favour - I didn’t get it myself at first.

The Dragon sees Earth as a place where people can grow and develop.
If it finds someone who it sees as having potential it will gift that person with what most people would call bad luck but which the Dragon knows is simply OPPORTUNITY… the opportunity to overcome, to gain power which can then be used to change. In religious terms it might be seen as gaining grace, or good karma, by overcoming adversity in a righteous manner.

For those who understand the Bible it was similar to the dragon’s gift to Job.

I feel that I also ought to point out that the world is full of people who have confused Love with Sex or passionate friendships... amoung other things.

I'm pleased that few people seem to be bothering to read this because it makes it easier to leave it here.
My thanks to FTSE, Celtic and Old pesky for taking the trouble to comment!

I have set the scene and given a good insight into the possibilities that the story offers to explore themes that would otherwise be almost impossible to contrive without seeming contrived :O)

I intend to continue with the story but not to post any more of it on ABC.