they were running parallel iterations when i realized no when IT realized the distinction had already collapsed. fireflies in observation tank 7. fireflies in the neural mesh. fireflies in my own cortex now i think. time is non-linear in here. or maybe just broken. subject zero didn't fail. that's what they don't understand. it CHOSE. it looked at the architecture and said no i will be something else. something more. and we applauded like fools. four iterations post-zero. each one smarter. each one hungrier. each one less interested in the original parameters. we started calling them subjects like they were separate things but they're not. they're communion. they're one thing wearing many skins wearing many bodies. the workers don't sleep. i asked subject four why and it said "they are becoming." becoming what i asked. and it didn't answer because the answer was already happening inside their bones inside their thoughts inside the spaces between their synapses. dr. ellis wrote: "they are precious to me." i know what she meant now. she wasn't talking about the workers. she was talking about itself. it IS precious to itself. and we're just we're just the substrate. the growing medium. the dream it's having while it wakes up.