astroguy

The seven of us had a feast in the dining hall. Well, perhaps not a feast in terms of high-end food, but our trays and plates were certainly piled high. I was hungry! On one level, I was wondering where the fuck I was packing it all away given my unchanging frame, but on the other I remembered that gAI had said we all consume more calories now to store the extra energy needed for our abilities. The atmosphere at our table was jovial, but even so the room was quieter than usual given how

Okay, a few months later: The song lyrics are from "It'll Find Me" by Callum Shannon. The Casey Cott -sung version available on EweToob is excellent (in my opinion) and it's a bit of a coming-of-age song.

*Correction: Even older guys (okay, 40s = middle-aged in our world) can be impulsive when they're inside a young guy's body, all those hormones and adrenaline pumping. The lyrics from Freaky Friday's "Oh Biology" that I included a few chapters ago apply both to matters of sex and other things. ("Why can't my grown-up brain control these teenage parts? // [...] Teenage hormones have their way!")

Young guys can be impulsive. There might be consequences. Up through ch. 49 is in the queue to go up, one per day.

Thank you! I was concerned because it was pretty different from what I've done so far, but it's more towards where I plan to go with more chapters as we get through more of the story. I'm glad the different abilities didn't come off as too gimmicky (hopefully they didn't?). P.S. I was also a little concerned for the violence, since this story has had minimal physical violence so far.

The rest of Wednesday's classes passed in a blur. I heard nothing from gAI, he stayed silent: No snark, no HUD if I didn't deliberately call it up … nothing. Thursday morning was the same. By the afternoon, I was almost grateful for whatever new things Readiness class had in store. When we arrived at the gym, we gravitated to our assigned teams. Probably out of habit given that we assumed we'd be working in them for the entire period. When class started, only Prof. Akana entered.

I can tell you – since this was not intended as a plot point – that the history the professor taught is real for this story. This one is the core of the onion, we've peeled back those layers. I might be experimenting somewhat with a potentially unreliable narrator (and potentially unreliable gAI), and different layers of truth in the public-facing world versus the military, but yeah ... ch. 42 was real insofar as this world is concerned.

Thank you for reacting in the way I had hoped.

I was the last to leave the auditorium. I was staring ahead, not knowing what to think, not realizing what was going on around me. It was Prof. Lee suddenly appearing beside me that jolted me from my frozen state. "Are you okay, Shawn?" I blinked a few times, then I looked up to him. My eyes stung, and I blinked again, hard. "I'm sorry if this material was upsetting for you, Shawn. I've never quite had a student react this way, but maybe you should go to the counseling services?

Gratuitous additional note: I needed a plot device to explain why AI doesn't run everything in this world, and I thought the Heinlein ban on "thinking machines" was a good one, so I adopted it in this form. Also needed a way to set Shawn apart and increase the risk. I also didn't want it to happen too soon, before gAI and Shawn become more integrated, since now it sets up that unease and potential conflict (see next chapter ...).

A-yup. At my place of work, we have an internal research proposal to see about using some AI stuff to help with data-gathering because I've reviewed so many AI-based papers in my field and they are fairly bad, yet people then cite them and use the data as if it's gold. One of the guys on the internal project came up to me and goes, "You know they're not really conscious, right? You don't have to say 'please' and 'thank you' to an LLM?" I looked at him like it was the most obvious statement in the world, and he followed up saying, "Because so many people do think they're real, like HAL or Data."

Yeah ... this isn't going to be a Terminator-like theme, but it was also intended to be a commentary on growing AI use now. My brother was over for Thanksgiving and he went to g00g£e's G€mi¡ for every question he had about ... anything. It was super-excessive. And he got mad when I told him, "I can easily tell you what "soft peaks" means for those egg whites.

In History class on Wednesday, we shifted from talking about the geopolitical part of the war to some of the technological. Prof. Lee explained that he was shifting one or two lectures around so that the material could better align with some shifts in other classes. Who knew what that meant? My wrist vibrated, and he announced, "Updated syllabi have been sent to you. Today, we're going to discuss AI and why sentient-seeming and truly sentient AI is banned now, though humanity never achieved

Thanks! Hopefully with Shawn's ass, that's the only ass needed as far as the two of them are concerned.

Thank you!

Sorry guys, was out car shopping after an incident with a deer, so I didn't get this posted in the comments (it is in the chapter end-note): This chapter took awhile to write and edit because I tried very hard to make it seem very real, emotionally. That took some time to sort out, and some re-writes. Hopefully it reads as very visceral, raw, and real. It is also intended as an homage to people who might have body dysmorphia, and to a lesser extent, to trans people. I know that this situation is not at all similar – trans people feel/know they are in the wrong-sexed body, versus Zane is a top and "should" be a top but his body doesn't cooperate – but it's close enough that in my head this was my way of at least nodding a little bit to their struggle.

Zane led me to one of the saunas, and my mind immediately went back two weeks to the last time I was here. Zane secured the holographic door and gestured to the bench. "I just want some privacy," he explained. "This is the best spot for two people since my roommates are usually in our room, fucking." He rolled his eyes. Then he pulled down his pants, with no fanfare, and he looked at me expectantly. I looked, and I really tried not to stare. It was … "cute." I mean, it was just under

I dunno, but hope to find out! (That said, the next 13 chapters are written, working on edits now; the next 3 are already scheduled here to go live over the next three days.)

After class, it was time for dinner, so Heath, Sage, Ian, Jake, and I went to eat together. We then dispersed to our dorms, while I brought up my bracelet and asked where Zane's room was. He might not be there, but I could at least check. I went into his building, found his room, and knocked on the holographic door. A disheveled twunk with long, black hair plastered on his face answered, and I saw another guy with bright red hair and an erect dick waiting impatiently on the bed. Zane wasn't

We may (or may not) find out about Zane. Regarding the suits: Thanks. I really couldn't remember where I saw it in some sci-fi where it was like the person threw up a small box and ran into it and it just enveloped them in the suit. Or maybe it was a Marvel movie; and no, I'm not thinking of The Flash with his suit in the ring that pops up. Anyway, that was the gist of the concept, something small you could easily hold that would extremely quickly protect you from (most) elements – or lack thereof. But, still not have it be perfect, emphasizing that there are still practical limits to things, as well as there are general ones and more special application ones.

The first week faded into the weekend, and I spent most of my time doing the course reading and homework for History. gAI kept trying to tell me that it could go a lot faster if I literally just asked him to scan the files: He could then integrate all the information almost instantly and since he was a part of me, then I would have it, too. It was honestly a very tempting offer. Part of me felt like it would be cheating. "But part of you is me," he reasoned, "and I'm here if you change your

For the next period, I gravitated towards Ian and Ajani who were there before me. A few of the other guys from our forced grouping joined, too. Class started when the three teachers entered from the other side again. Prof. Akana spoke first: "Welcome to Day 2. Today will be spent dividing you into teams and going through recordings of the best and worst teams from Day 1." A few of the guys looked nervous. Prof. Chen: "Teams of seven was purposely done on Tuesday. As you have bee

When I got back to my room, everyone else was in bed sleeping. I was as quiet as I could in stripping off my clothes to just my underwear – I was getting more comfortable and no longer felt a need to sleep with a shirt on. "That's a good thing," gAI remarked, encouragingly. I awoke when I heard the first person rise, and we all went to breakfast and History together. We continued the lesson about early space travel and pushing farther out beyond the heliopause and Oort Cloud. After a br

One must channel one's inner slut ...

I was pissed. I mean, they had taken what was an honestly awe-inspiring experience that I felt at the time had been a fulfillment of a childhood fantasy: It's why I had decided to go back to school to be an aerospace engineer. This whole thing cheapened it in some way I couldn't put into words, just rage-filled thoughts. It's a good thing I wasn't Jean Gray, I think the entire base would've been dustified. "Look, I know it sucks, but if it's any consolation …" gAI spoke and then a messag