TURNING POINT FIVE

Leon realises his obsession with the past must end. He kills his mother, but has no time to grieve. He connects to the ImpVerse using a ‘dirty’ connection and feels a deep sense of interconnectedness and humility. He locates the lock using cryptic clues, after almost losing himself in his returning memories. Leon realises his lack of memory is likely by design and confronts Ms. Penumbra, who deflects the blame to an overzealous Variel. After great difficulty, Jem and Leon open the lock. Emmet appears and tells them they have doomed the ImpVerse.

CDQ

Will Leon be able to find a way to end his mother’s suffering in The Real, reconnect to The ImpVerse and open the lock?

Step One

Leon realises the depths of his selfishness and terrible mistake: his mother suffers, the porting machine is locked and security is on their way. Leon decides his obsession with the past must end. Leon kills his mother as everyone watches. He is distraught but has no time to grieve. Leon decides to use an unfiltered, ‘dirty’ body connection. Nort tries to talk him out of it, but eventually agrees to tether his connection. Leon cuts himself and thrusts his arm into the biological fluid. He must reconnect to The Abstract and find a way to open the lock.

Step Two

Leon senses the shape of the ImpVerse - a tiny bubble of frantic human conscious in The Abstract. He feels humility, interconnectedness and something else, watching. Leon searches the ImpVerse using a crytpic clue supplied by Ms. Penumbra to try and find the lock, using memories he does not have. He manages to tear a hole in the ImpVerse and two memories return: a friend’s death and one of his mother. His mother’s memory absorbs him, until her watch triggers his connection with the present. He returns with an understanding of where to find the lock.

Step Three

Leon strangely is not detected by AI security and Leon figures his lack of past is by design. He confronts Ms. Penumbra, who lays the blame firmly on an overzealous Variel. Leon locates the lock: a clock tower, identical to the one in The Real. They cannot figure the lock, until Leon realises it is tied to a conscious. They work in tandom to unbind the cogs of the clock. As they work, more memories come to him. As the last cog opens, Leon feels the ImpVerse shudder. Emmet appears and tells them that by opening the lock, they have doomed the ImpVerse.

CDQ Answer

Yes, he is able to reconnect to The Abstract and open the lock with Jem’s help, but in doing so, he has doomed the ImpVerse and the billions of conscious there.

Character Arc

Leon moves from horrified and distraught — through humility, warmth and gratitude for his memories — to — a deep horror of realising he has played a part in dooming billions of souls.

Moral Dilemma

Murdering his mother in The Real and ending her suffering, in the hope she will return to the ImpVerse versus trying to find another way by accessing the ImpVerse. Risking his body and mind by connecting to The Abstract through the fluid. Momentarily indulging with his memories in The ImpVerse, or immediately pursuing his quest to find the lock. Refusing to open the lock in revenge for Ms. Penumbra manipulating his memory over a lifetime, or continuing with the mission.

Step Three Extras The lock proves tricky. it does not behave in a linear fashion - it jumps forward and back in time and seems to rely on shifting connections to each other - linked through memory, sense and stuff like real memory does. As they do, memories return to him. Leon is drawn into the the unravelling of the lock. He knows of mechanisms. Each of the cogs signifies an aspect of the lock and the person behind the lock. Ms. Penumbra recognises some of the memories as the cog is decyphered, but is disturbed by other aspects of his life. Some cogs are larger and contain memories that she does not recognise. There are other relationships, other moments she does not recognise. There are so many that she does not know. They are likely inconsequential memories though. Why would you use your cherished ones? Leon and Jem unravel the mechanism, taking careful note of the arrangement as they go. They have to reseal it. The connections between the memories are important. They are linked by feeling or sense. Together, they explain the journey, but not the man behind the lock. Leon feels a conscious behind the cogs - but he is unsure if that is just his connection to creating a skin that is doing that. As the lock is opened, Leon’s childhood memories gradually return to him. He rediscovers aspects of his past that explains his present state - a scar, an aversion to a bar, his mother, childhood friends and memories and suspicions of Variel. He realises that Variel may not be who he thought he was. He makes a note to speak to him when he returns - worth putting in? Maybe this should just be a joyous moment… probably. He struggles to remain focused, and realises that this must be what it is like for other people. He feels The Abstract start to flesh the memories out, and he does that for a few, before stopping the process, so he can experience them as he should. As faded, distorted versions of the past. He will fill them out later. And relish what they have to offer. Ms. Penumbra reverts to the appearance of her former self as the lock nears opening. Leon and Jem do not say anything. They are too busy. Jem discusses putting the lock back together. They need to ensure that no-one knows they have been there. Ms. Penumbra, now appearing as a young woman, tells them that the lock will do most of the work for them. There are protocols in place. They will only be loosening the fabric a little - just enough to allow Emmet to come through - the forces will push back. They will likely have to hold it open. The lock opens and the ImpVerse shakes. Emmet appears, and tells them they have destroyed the Impverse.

Leon realises the depths of his mother’s suffering and knows he must return her, despite having triggered the porting machine’s security protocols. Suunto reconnects and Hamelin manages to shut down the alarm, but knows security will be on their way. It hits Leon how much his selfish obsession with the past has ruined his life and decides it must end. He kills his mother and sinks into despair. Suunto tells him to leave, but he insists on find a way to connect. He decides on using a dangerous and ‘dirty’, unfiltered connection, instead, and thrusts his bleeding arm into the biological fluid.

He senses the shape of everything - the ImpVerse and the conscious within. He senses a great conscious watching. He locates the lock and bring Jem through. As she works, he senses his mother and his memories return to him. He ruminates as he assists Jem. There are a few difficulties, but they overcome them - they tinker with memory and code. They are locked with memories that Ms. Penumbra recognises.

The lock opens the ImpVerse shakes. They have started the unthreading process of the ImpVerse. Leon feels it. Another huge mistake.

A man appears - Emmet. He does not recognise her, but starts to remember, then rejects her. OR maybe he is not there at all? He tries to reseal the lock, but cannot. He cannot remember anything from The Real to lock it with. Even Ms. Penumbra has faded from him.

Option One Emmet is not there. Ms. P takes a heavy dip. Everything is gone. Her life a waste. The power she has gained, pointless. She feels her memories deeply here. She can either try and revert here, or reconnect and fail - have that moment of realisation so her end provides what she wants, but not what she intended. A bittersweet prison in her body in The Real.

Option Two Emmet is there, but does not remember her. He barely remembers living in The Real. His memories bind the ImpVerse, along with the others. She sinks, then becomes enraged. Her rage permeates through the ImpVerse. She is tilting the balance. She is thrown from The ImpVerse, back to the real.

Option Three Ms. P tells Leon to leave. She will stabilise the ImpVerse. He does not. She promises him temptations - she knows how to save his mother from the fluid. She can do that for him now she is here. She can even return her to The Real if he wants, in a new body. She will do that for him. He does not agree. He knows there is no going back. She becomes enraged. Leon knows she wants control of the ImpVerse. He dreads what she will do if she gets that much power and control. He decides he will need to help restore Emmet instead. She fights against him, but there is nothing that can be done in The Real. They are non-physical here. They are only conscious. Ms. P returns to The Real. If she breaks his connection with the fluid, he will be pulled from his connection. He knows what she is going to do, but knows he has only a short amount of time to reseal the lock with Emmet behind it. They figure how to redo the lock, but it will involve a memory sacrifice - all of them. Leon realises that he has to do it to ensure Emmet can return. When he does it, he realises that he is creating his own prison. It cannot be Emmet. Emmet has a word about sacrifice and tells him he can to the realisation much earlier than he did. Leon tells him he has spent a lifetime getting here. Sometimes, it takes a lifetime to realise that you are not meant to be alone… or something. Leon knows that by becoming the structure of the ImpVerse, he will be alone - forever.

She tempts Jem by saying she will return Fix to her in The Real, with a body, and make sure they are well taken care of in the new ImpVerse. She is tempted, but knows that it is not the right thing to do. She will stick with Leon.

Ms. P - return to The Real, tries to find Leon in the goo to kill him. Demensia starts to drift in. She curses. The transition team are at the door. She sends a message to Suunto, who tells her she is ready. She finds Leon as the transition team enter. They try to talk her out of the pool, but she knows that they will not shoot her in here. If she has a demensia episode, she will be easy to remove from the vat. She curses her fortunes and tries to say the phrase, but she cannot remember it. It is behind the veil of demensia. She loses touch with where she is. There is the familiar sound of the forest and she imagines the vat is the rainforest pond where she and Emmet swam. She swims through the vat and starts to sing a song - the phrase is said and her memory bomb fires, although, this time, it locks her into her memory - is it Emmet that gives her what she wants by blocking her return?

*Making it clearer The lock opens. The ImpVerse shifts. Ms. Penumbra reverts. Emmet does not remember her. Ms. Penumbra distraught and angry. Emmet is more concerned about the lock. Ms. Penumbra does not care. Leon most definitely does. Ms. Penumbra decides she will be with Emmet behind the lock anyway. She will help him remember. The lock is formed.

THE CONFLICT Leon battles himself to become locked behind the wall. He is alone and observing the world around him, but this time he is doing it for others, not himself. Ms. Penumbra’s conflict centers around Emmet. She is rejected by him. How does she react? Tries to take over the ImpVerse? Kills Emmet? Does Emmet throw an aspect of himself to her? He removes the part of him that she loves and gives it to her. She is happy momentarily, but realises that man he is not the man she remembers. She has ideolised him and she senses aspects to him that she used to tolerate, but does not like now. She has been alone for too long and she too has changed. She wants to strip away parts of herself as well - all the things she has done to be with him. She wants to revert, but hesitates as she will have to give up all that she has gained. She falters. She knows she must return to The Real and transition. She can strip away the elements of her life and return to being who she was, so she can live the fantasy. She can be happy with him. But she knows that she cant. She cannot go back. It would undo all that she has gained. All the power she has ammassed. She is not that girl anymore. She is powerful. She wants it all. She wants ImpCorp.

ENDING

**Ms Penumbra returns to her body and get locked in a dementia spiral forever? Leon becomes The ImpVerse, but finds a way back so he is not isolated forever - with a body and a little jade rhino…

Step One

Leon realises the depths of his mistake and his mother’s suffering and knows he must return her to the fabric of the ImpVerse, but the porting machine has locked down. The rats establish a link to Suunto, and Hamelin shuts down the alarm, but Leon knows the damage is done. Security will come to investigate. He realises his selfish quest to try and recapture what he has lost, has been detrimental to everyone and himself, and likely ruined his team’s greatest score. He must find a way to end his mother’s suffering and reconnect to The Abstract before security arrives. Leon decides his obsession with the past must end. Leon kills his mother, as Suunto watches through her connection. He is distraught but has no time to grieve. Suunto tells him to leave before security arrives, but he insists on finding a way to connect. Leon decides to use an unfiltered, ‘dirty’ body connection and bypass the safe port connection. Nort tries to talk him out of it, but eventually agrees to tether his connection. Leon cuts himself and thrusts his arm into the biological fluid.

CDQ

Will Leon be able to find a way to end his mother’s suffering and reconnect to The Abstract?

Step Two - temptation to return

Leon senses the shape of the ImpVerse - a tiny bubble of frantic human conscious in The Abstract. He feels humility and the interconnectedness of it all. He senses his mother amongst he fabric, and hopes it is all of her. He fights the urge to abandon The ImpVerse and float away in The Abstract. He senses a great conciousness there - he feels like it is watching. He uses the information provided by Ms. Penumbra to locate the lock. He has to ‘remember what he has forgotten’. Memories return to him from the fabric of the ImpVerse, previously bound by his mother and Variel and Ms. Penumbra - it connects him to the fabric and enables him to see. A variety of memories return - he is drawn back to the times, both good and bad. He is tempted to stay in the moments. They feel real to him - even the ones in an Abstract den remind him of who he used to be. That part of him yearns for it, but he knows it is not him anymore. He dwells with his mother and almost forgets himself. He is reminded of what he needs to do at the last minute and returns to his quest - maybe the imagery of a clock, or the intruding memory of fixing a clock that started the whole quest. No time has passed - this moment could be reworked some more - especially with memory. - Leon has been shaped over a lifetime to be the key for Ms. Penumbra.

Step Three - Figuring the lock

The lock is hidden in plain sight at the entrance to The ImpVerse. It is the portal that is used to enter the ImpVerse, something he has seen thousands of times before, and considered odd, but never realised was so out of place - a large clock. Leon folds the space around the clock, just as he has done before to reveal what lies behind The ImpVerse. This time though, he is finding his way to the inner workings. He uncoverse the internal mechanisms of the large clock, which strangely resemble the ImpVerse version and the one in The Real. He is confused, but continues. He forms a link with Suunto and brings Jem in. She is amazed by the intricacy and how the mechanisms feel different to anything she has experienced before. Ms. Penumbra enters the area, following via Leon’s opening. She tells them abou the lock they are opening - it is conscious based. A memory link to a founder. They are here to free him. They ask questions, but she just says that she made a promise that she is here to fulfil. The plan is to open the lock, allow him to enter the ImpVerse, and seal it again. It will take only an instance, but it will be enough for him to come through. The get to work.

Step Four - Unlocking the ImpVerse

The lock proves tricky. it does not behave in a linear fashion - it jumps forward and back in time and seems to rely on shifting connections to each other - linked through memory, sense and stuff like real memory does. As they do, memories return to him. Leon is drawn into the the unravelling of the lock. He knows of mechanisms. Each of the cogs signifies an aspect of the lock and the person behind the lock. Ms. Penumbra recognises some of the memories as the cog is decyphered, but is disturbed by other aspects of his life. Some cogs are larger and contain memories that she does not recognise. There are other relationships, other moments she does not recognise. There are so many that she does not know. They are likely inconsequential memories though. Why would you use your cherished ones? Leon and Jem unravel the mechanism, taking careful note of the arrangement as they go. They have to reseal it. The connections between the memories are important. They are linked by feeling or sense. Together, they explain the journey, but not the man behind the lock. Leon feels a conscious behind the cogs - but he is unsure if that is just his connection to creating a skin that is doing that. As the lock is opened, Leon’s childhood memories gradually return to him. He rediscovers aspects of his past that explains his present state - a scar, an aversion to a bar, his mother, childhood friends and memories and suspicions of Variel. He realises that Variel may not be who he thought he was. He makes a note to speak to him when he returns - worth putting in? Maybe this should just be a joyous moment… probably. He struggles to remain focused, and realises that this must be what it is like for other people. He feels The Abstract start to flesh the memories out, and he does that for a few, before stopping the process, so he can experience them as he should. As faded, distorted versions of the past. He will fill them out later. And relish what they have to offer. Ms. Penumbra reverts to the appearance of her former self as the lock nears opening. Leon and Jem do not say anything. They are too busy. Jem discusses putting the lock back together. They need to ensure that no-one knows they have been there. Ms. Penumbra, now appearing as a young woman, tells them that the lock will do most of the work for them. There are protocols in place. They will only be loosening the fabric a little - just enough to allow Emmet to come through - the forces will push back. They will likely have to hold it open. The lock opens and the ImpVerse shakes. Emmet appears, and tells them they have destroyed the Impverse.

Leon senses the fluid and the consciousness watching him from within it, before finding himself in The ImpVerse. He senses everything for a moment, and he resists the urge to be absorbed by it. He can feel his childhood memories entwined within the fabric of the ImpVerse bubble. He is momentarily in awe. He can sense his mother too, slowly making her way back to the fabric. He feels her touch, every so briefly, and it warms him. He should have dealt with his grief much earlier than this and said goodbye to his past. He creates a connection to Ms. Penumbra who tells him the location. He makes his way there, but finds his memories seeking his conscious. He experiences them again, as he remembered them, and he enables them to fade to what he would remember them as and adult. The Abstract tries to restore them, and he does let it for a moment, before deciding that their fading into abstractions is what memory does. They start to form connections between themselves and he feels a sense of completion as they do. - or do I let this happen as part of opening the lock? He realises that if he had just done what is best for everyone, the memories would have returned to him. He locates the lock and calls Jem to him….

Step Four

Opening the lock - it does not behave in a linear fashion - it jumps forward and back in time and seems to rely on shifting connections to each other - linked through memory, sense and stuff like real memory does. As they do, memories return to him. They overcome some obstacles. They want to be paid. Ms. Penumbra agrees. She transitions, but appears without her memories. Leon has to implant them into her - he is the connection, which adds a lot of strain onto him. She transitions in The Real and uses Leon to return her memories to her via Suunto. He is tempted to peak at them, but does not. He is not her. She returns to who she is presently, but with an edge he has not seen before. She has removed Emmet from her mind?

Ms. Penumbra

wants emmet, then to become a god. The lock opens. She is rejected. She cannot fathom it. Leon tries to calm her, and she attacks him. Emmet banishes her to The Real. She returns to her body and prepares to jetison Emmet from her mind, along with the other prepared elements. The ImpVerse is collapsing, but she is determined to make it back to where Leon is. If she can, she can control the fall of The ImpVerse and build it anew, with her at the center of it all. A God. She finds herself unable to reconnect, and becomes enraged. She will bring it all down if she cannot control it. She sees the transition team arrive. She is trapped. She prepares to fire the charges but it swiftly taken by a an episode. Dementia overcomes her, she says the words in a daydream and the parts of her mind are ejected and she is locked in her memory of Emmet, where she remains.

CDQ Answer

Yes, he hopes that killing her in The Real will return her to The Abstract and the ‘dirty’ connection with the strange fluid will enabel him to make connection to The Abstract again.

Character Arc

Leon moves from horrified and distraught — to — having a deep sense of reconnection to his childhood loss, and a recklessness and determination to

Moral Dilemma

Thoughts on the Ending - minus Ms. Penumbra

Leon dips into The Abstract. He can see she is still intricately connected to The ImpVerse. Her being back in The Real has only trapped her, nothing else. He realises that his selfishness has caught up to him. He has made it worse for the person he was trying to save. He has to free her instead, and say goodbye to her. He cannot see her from within The ImpVerse and cannot see her from outside of it either. She will be returned and absorbed by the biological. There is nothing he can do to save her. He has caused this because of his selfishness.

He made it this far because of the others in his team. He has some skills, but he has made a life of pretending to be other people and escaping The Real. He has been pretending all of his life. It is time he saw himself as he truly is: a self-centered person who is never genuine. He is always wearing a mask, pretending to not be himself. He cares for the team, but his focus has been on himself, not repaying them. That has been a by-product of his own selfishness. It was luck he was part of this, and he has abused the team’s trust of him again. He wanted his memories, then abandoned that for his mother and the other things have just been a byproduct of himself. He even lied to himself why he was here. And now he must fix it. To show himself he is not the addicted, selfish person he has become recently. His addiction was his selfishness. It was always all about him. All the wilderness did was hone the dedication to his own selfishness - revelation.

He has to kill her and return her to The ImpVerse and let her be absorbed by the biological solution. He hopes to say sorry to her, but knows it is unlikely. He will just have to hope she understands.*

He tries to detach her from the machine, but Ms. Penumbra tells her he can’t do it like that. She is part of the system. She has to stay like that until their job is done, or a team will be there instantly. Leon is forsaken. She will suffer in The Real for however long it takes for them to complete the job. He has an impossible choice - his mother or the job. The problem he caused, or the others want solved. He wants to free her, but realises if he does, it may stabilise the delicate balance present in The ImpVerse and put their plans in jepeordy. - or does he have to kill her before he enters? It is his leap of faith. He has to kill her to free her and hope she goes back to the ImpVerse.

He knows it is his mother, but he still has to kill her. He cannot work the machine, so he has to find a way to kill her. He cannot step into the fluid either - it will pull at him and drag him to The Abstract. Ms. Penumbra complains that he is focused and passes him a small gun she keeps with her. She tells him it is his problem, so he has to deal with it. She has to disable the alarm first though, and the life support. He has to shoot her in the head and avoid the life machine. Any attack on the machine will set off an alarm. The flesh is expendable. He has a great struggle, then shoots his mother in the head. He hopes she has made it back to the ImpVerse, although almost certainly, she will be absorbed by the biological fluid.

Leon sits with the horror of what he has done. His selfishness to try and return his mother to him - just like a child - has led to this. Ms. P tells him that nothing has changed. She will be back where she always was. By killing her body here, which he did not know about until less than a day ago, has likely restored her. Information can be a curse, she says to him. He was better off not knowing. There are so many things she wished she did not know, but here they are. And they have a job to do. And he wants the team to get paid, doesn’t he? He still wants to find those memories he cherishes the most, doesn’t he? So the mother thing didn’t work out. It was always a long shot. A son’s job is to cause pain to their mothers in some way. He just mangaged to figure out how to do it all at once. He does not laugh. Her body seeps into the biological fluid.

Leon wants to mourn, but the pressure of the job is building. His mother’s body sinks beneath the surface of the fluid and he feels the pressure of Suunto making connection in his mind pocket. He has a job to do. He needs to right the wrongs of his selfishness and get it together. He is at the source, and has a way to access what he needs to access the lock. He opens his mind to a calm Suunto and reassures her everything is going to plan. Ms. Penumbra laughs, but tells him the lie is a good one. He tries to connect to the port again, but finds he cannot. It did not like what he did before and has labelled him as a threat. He tries again, but realises he may have messed up again. He thinks, but the pressure builds. He knows that the machine is blocking his contact. He needs to find a way, and decides that a dirty link, just like he used to do with Nort - through blood - is the only way to connect to The Abstract and the ImpVerse, although he risks getting sucked in. Leon uses the knife that killed his mother to cut his forearm. The blood drips into the fluid - each drop sends a pulse through him. He knows it is dangerous, but he has to try. He contacts Nort again to hold onto him and tells him what he is going to do. Nort is worried, but settles when he realises it will be a religious experience. He wishes him luck and tethers himself, and the acolytes, to him. He thrusts his hand into the fluid and he feesl the rush.

Leon gains access by using the fluid and manges to get Jem with him in the lock. He senses his mother in the fabric of the ImpVerse and finds his memories moving amongst the fibres. They flood back to him and he feels the warmth of the discovery, although they are not complete moments. Most are just impressions and he recognises the fabrication that is The Abstract working to refashion them into something mroe than they really are. They are accurate representations, but for now, he wants to experience them as if he had them in The Real, just to know what it would have been like. He feels a comfort, but also that it is not real.

She works with Fix to open the lock. Their connection starts to falter with each stage of the lock opening, and Leon asks Ms. Penumbra what is happening there. She can sense the machine trying to filter him out and she tells him she will work to maintain his connection. She ties a cord around his torso, hesitates in attaching a breathing mask to him, stabs his limbs several times and tips him into the fluid - Leon does not know this, but feels his connection strengthen. She has likely killed him.

Everyone gets paid before the final mechanism is opened. The lock opens, which sets up a process - There is a moment where Emmet emerges from the lock and meets Ms. Penumbra. He does not remember her and it sets of a chain of events for Ms. Penumbra.

Emmet is purged from the forest and reveals they have destroyed the ImpVerse. He was holding it all together. It is inevitable and he cannot stop it happening. It means the ImpVerse is doomed. The lock was stopping him from departing. It bound him and the founders to the ImpVerse. - there needs to be a moment in there involving Ms. Penumbra, where she is dealt a devastating blow that sets up her fate. Leon should not battle with her, she should have to realise her doom.

Leon can sense the threads unravelling. He reaches out to them and binds them to himself, thereby saving the ImpVerse. He can sense them because his memories are already bound to them. He just has to reverse the connection to them and use his memories to bind everything together. He gives up his memories, but realises that they do not serve him any purpose. He is who he is without them. They are not who is, or even who he was. They are merely a narrative of a former self.

He senses his mother’s connection and pulls her from her body. They have a brief moment before he pushes her through the ImpVerse and lets her go with Emmet, wherever they are going to.*

Leon finds himself trapped, and having to bind the lock again. He summons Jem and Fix to help him do just that, and he finds himself slowly fading from her. He has an emotional farewell and finds himself locked in, alone. The biological solution helps to close the link behind them. He can sense the ImpVerse, but his knowledge of what happens within it only comes to him like memories come to him. They are not precise, and mainly connections and lose impressions.thin it only comes to him like memories come to him. They are not precise, and mainly connections and lose impressions. He senses the jade rhino in the forest and goes to search for it - but the reader does not know it is the jade rhino, unless you want to have them have an emotional moment, knowing he will not be alone - that is a better ending.

Epilogue - the team are having a celebratory drink on the rooftop of the building. They are rich, but have lost Leon. His body is now part of the biological soup that links the ImpVerse and The Real, thanks to Ms. Penumbra tipping him in the vat. That has been his saviour. He has a permanent link that is more than his body. He arrives in a new body. He has returned. And he brings Fix along with him. Or, he has another way of interrupting The Real.

He sinks to rock bottom. He sees her agony, her pleeding, but he has to steel himself. He has everyone depending on him now. Ms. Penubmra wants what she wants, his mother needs to be free, and the team want to get paid. There is so much at stake. He needs to be ready. He needs to put his selfish needs aside and focus on opening the lock.

*TP6 is the end battle - it is where he gives up his memories to seal the lock and save the ImpVerse. He is the only one. Ms. P wants to tear it down now that she has been rejected - or try to stop her from doing it herself. She tries to tempt him to return to The Real - she can return his mother to him in The Real - give her a new body. She can live out her life with him. He knows it could happen - the technology is so close. Leon offers her a choice as he takes control, and Ms. P tries to attack him with what she knows of his past from previously being part of his mind, but he is not concerned. The past is has made him and he is slowly feeding his memories into The ImpVerse and repairing the damage. He is becoming the ImpVerse. Her attack is the manipulation of what she knows of him, but he has learned it is a version of his past self she is referring to. He is not that person anymore. Although it is only now that he realises, what he will miss by being alone. He has regrets about not making the most of his time with others, and wished he had time to remedy that. He has led a selfish life, when he should have been more thankful for them and been present when he had the chance to be. At least he has had a chance to realise, and he is thankful for that.

The last element of the lock is inserted, and he draws Jem to him. She sees what he is doing and protests, but realises that it is the only way. He asks her how he can make sure the lock can never be opened again. She refuses, before realising that it is necessary for the safety of everyone. He needs to make sure the lock cannot be opened, especially by himself. Who knows what an eternity alone will do to him? She adapts the lock and twists it to be external. It will need one of Leon’s memories to open it now. Leon will be inside. His memories lost to the fabric of the ImpVerse. It will be as good as impossible to open. Leon will have no access from within. Leon closes the door.

*He can sense the ImpVerse, but his knowledge of what happens within it only comes to him like memories come to him. They are not precise, and mainly connections and lose impressions.thin it only comes to him like memories come to him. They are not precise, and mainly connections and lose impressions. He senses the jade rhino in the forest and goes to search for it - but the reader does not know it is the jade rhino, unless you want to have them have an emotional moment, knowing he will not be alone - that is a better ending.

*Epilogue - the team are having a celebratory drink on the rooftop of the building. They are rich, but have lost Leon. His body is now part of the biological soup that links the ImpVerse and The Real, thanks to Ms. Penumbra tipping him in the vat. That has been his saviour. He has a permanent link that is more than his body. He arrives in a new body. He has returned. And he brings Fix along with him. Or, he has another way of interrupting The Real.**

He does falter when she talks of his mother and what she will do to her, but he knows that he cannot control that. He has to give her away too.

Leon distraught - mother trapped and broken. Leon has his realisation. Ms. P tells him if he wants to save his mother, he will have to find the lock and open it. The lock is a dampener between The Real and The Abstract. Open it to get what she wants, and he will be able to reach down into The Real and find her…. nah.

Leon is distraught. He has a revelation about his selfishness.

mother has emerged from the vat. he wants to kill her but realises that if he does, she will be returned to where she was and absorbed anyway. Maybe he does this? Maybe he has to kill her and this is the moment that makes him sink to nothing… then why would he bother changing? it would be a massive issue for him. Maybe Ms. Penumbra can tell him that if he opens the lock, he will still have a way of saving her.

lock is opened and ms. penumbra wants Emmet to come out and Leon to go in. Emmet refuses - it would taint everyone, the way Leon is.

STEP ONE and TWO

*Leon dips into The Abstract. He can see she is still intricately connected to The ImpVerse. Her being back in The Real has only trapped her, nothing else. He realises that his selfishness has caught up to him. He has made it worse for the person he was trying to save. He has to free her instead, and say goodbye to her. He cannot see her from within The ImpVerse and cannot see her from outside of it either. She will be returned and absorbed by the biological. There is nothing he can do to save her. He has caused this because of his selfishness.

He made it this far because of the others in his team. He has some skills, but he has made a life of pretending to be other people and escaping The Real. He has been pretending all of his life. It is time he saw himself as he truly is: a self-centered person who is never genuine. He is always wearing a mask, pretending to not be himself. He cares for the team, but his focus has been on himself, not repaying them. That has been a by-product of his own selfishness. It was luck he was part of this, and he has abused the team’s trust of him again. He wanted his memories, then abandoned that for his mother and the other things have just been a byproduct of himself. He even lied to himself why he was here. And now he must fix it. To show himself he is not the addicted, selfish person he has become recently. All the wilderness did was hone the dedication to his own selfishness.

He has to kill her and return her to The ImpVerse and let her be absorbed by the biological solution. He hopes to say sorry to her, but knows it is unlikely. He will just have to hope she understands.

He tries to detach her from the machine, but Ms. Penumbra tells her he can’t do it like that. She is part of the system. If he removes her, there will be a team of people enter their chamber in a few minutes. She has to stay like that until their job is done, or a team will be there instantly. Leon is forsaken. She will suffer in The Real for however long it takes for them to complete the job. He has an impossible choice - his mother or the job. The problem he caused, or the one others want solved. He wants to free her, but realises if he does, it may stabilise the delicate balance present in The ImpVerse and put their plans in jepeordy.

*He sinks to rock bottom. He sees her agony, her pleeding, but he has to steel himself. He has everyone depending on him now. Ms. Penubmra wants what she wants, his mother needs to be free, and the team want to get paid. There is so much at stake. He needs to be ready. He needs to put his selfish needs aside and focus on opening the lock.**

Ms. P explains the lock is ImpCorp’s control of the ImpVerse. Anyone could transition through without the lock. There are many of them, funneling the conscious though, giving ImpCorp power over this domain. The conscious always transitioned here, or at least that is what they think, anyway. ImpCorp just found a way to control who gets access. The whole thing is a lie. They created a block in the dam and hold them to ransom. It is the perfect control mechanism. She wants him to open the lock to allow her to free Emmet. He is locked in there. She needs him back, he needs his mother back. If he opens the lock, she will be free to transition. When the lock opens, she will shut down her life support and she will pass peacefully. After the lock is opened, she will momentarily be able to transition to The ImpVerse freely, without ImpCorp knowing she is there. They will maintain a conscious link to her at all times. He needs to do that because time may misbehave there. The conscious link will mean he is tied to his body. The machine serves a purpose - it keeps them tethered to now. She tells him to get in there, open the lock and she will shut down her life support when he does. He agrees and enters The ImpVerse to locate the hidden lock. He needs to free his mother, open the lock and get the team paid.

The reality of the situation though, is that the lock holds the ImpVerse together, using Emmet’s conscious as the lockpin. Ms. P has been feeding Leon’s memories into the fabric of the ImpVerse ever since his childhood memories became part of it. She has been planning his return to open the lock. She wants Emmet free, and is planning on opening the lock, and having Leon take his place. Or is she just planning to have Leon familiar enough with the threads of the ImpVerse in order for the lock to be found? Maybe he has to follow the tendrils of his memories and have them returned to him in order to find the lock? This makes more sense in a way. The lock can’t actually be found as a conscious cannot see the lock. Leon has been able to punch through The ImpVerse so easily because he is connected to the fabric of it through his memories and his mother and the jade rhino. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

His realisation: his selfishness and arrogance has caused this. Following his impulses achieves great things, but also isolates and hurts those around him. He needs to put himself aside for once, and do what is best for everyone, not just himself. He cherishes the team, but has been using them to fulfil his own agenda. He needs to be better and he needs to return his mother to The Abstract. He lost her long ago and he needs to let her go. I need to dwell on this moment. -He wants to kill her to return her to The Abstract, but Ms. Penumbra tells him if he does, the ImpVerse will be disrupted and she does not know what will happen after that. He should have not messed with it. The best way forward is to complete the job. There might even be a way to solve it from the inside. She is taking him to the depths… or… she will kill her once he does what he needs to do. Leon hates it, but there is no other way. -He makes contact with Suunto via the rats and keeps it secret that he has returned his mother. He draws Jem and Fix into his head and they get to work on accessing the machine using Hamelin’s rat as a link to the outside. They cannot get direct access to it. It appears that the job is over. -Leon decides to access the pool directly, using a dirty link - through blood. Suunto advises against it, but Ms. Penumbra thinks it may work, although it is dangerous. Leon wants to do it - but the risks of not coming back are extreme. He is physically connecting to the source. No port. Just flesh to Abstract charged flesh. And he knows it will hurt. He secures his connection to Jem and Fix in his mind pocket and cuts himself. A slow stream of blood hits the ooze and it reaches up for him. He gets flashes of connection and it scares him. The world around him shifts from rainforest back to the real. Ms. Penubmra connects him to a life support pack first - she wants to know that if his body gives out, which it likely will, that he will not die straight away. It will give him time to come back. Or in Ms. Penumbra’s eyes, enough time to fool him to thinking he still has a body to come back to. He has come back from the dead once, but best not to tempt fate again. -He connects by thrusting his arm into the ooze. He feels it pull on him physically, and he has to struggle to hold on. It drinks from him, trying to suck at his blood. Then the wave of Abstract hits him and he is obliteratred. -His conscious seems to tear apart and journey the entire ImpVerse. He gets a glimpse of what is beyond it, and has to struggle to pull himself back from dispersing into the nothingness. He does not find his heartbeat, but does sense the screaming pain of his body, somewhere. -His first instinct is to find another way to free his mother, then go to find his memories - he can sense those and gets a glimpse of one memory. But he dispells that idea. He has to locate the lock and get Jem and Fix to open it. He realises they are no longer with him. He scours the ImpVerse to find them, but they are no longer there. He lost the connection. He thinks of finding them, but knows the priority is the lock, first. He contacts Ms. Penumbra, who is surprised he is still alive - the life support is assisting of course, but his body has not failed yet. She is not sure how long it will be though. -He locates the lock, with her assistance. It is at the center of the connection between The Real and The ImpVerse. Leon senses it’s sensitivity and the balance it provides to the ImpVerse. He questions if they should be messing with it, and Ms. P tells him it is not going to do anything that cannot be undone. They are going to open the vault and steal something. That is all. Leon is hesitant, but realises that this is what he agreed to do. He has to trust her, which he is hesitant to do. She reassures him that The ImpVerse will be fine. -Leon finds the location of the lock - it is a pinprick that forms the connection to The Real. It underpins the entire fabric of The ImpVerse. Leon has been exploiting these types of pinpricks his entire time reaching into The Abstract. He and Nort would find a tear, and use a memory to punch through to the other side of the ImpVerse, using their memory as a tether to their bodies and to The Real. He reaches into the pinprick and fees himself change. He feels a change, but cannot pinpoint what it is. It just feesl as though he has left something behind. He tries to sense his body, and it is still there, but it is as if he has left his conscious behind. -He reaches back and finds Jem first. She is confused - he is talking as if they have already started the job. They haven’t. It is the day before the job was meant to start and he is dead. How is he contacting her? Is he not dead? Leon realises he has left time behind. He is confused. He is in ImpCorp right now. They are doing the job right now. Jem tells him to fuck off. It is a cruel trick he is playing. She has wept over his body. He tells her something that she said to him on his return from the dead, and she agrees that it is something she would likely do. She is confused still, but when Leon draws her into his mind pocket, and though to the junction of The ImpVerse, she realises he is for real. He says he has no idea what is going on, but is appears as if time is broken here. Leon summises that the whole purpose of the ImpVerse is to look back, so why would time be the same here as it would be in The Real. He considers what his mother told him of The Abstract and The ImpVerse and her life - she has existed far longer than anyone should. She was ready to accept her fate. Time must has slowed for her as part of the fabric. He considers the days he spend with his mother. Were they just days? He remembers existing there much longer now than he remembers. Was it weeks? months? His depiction is fuzzy, but he does remember so much of that time now. The memories of his time with his mother come to him. He spent weeks with her. How did he not remember? Or is that just something he was dreaming? He tries to concentrate, but he struggles. His childhood memories call to him as well. He can sense them now. They are entwined in the fabric of the ImpVerse. He can sense the Jade Rhino, running the perimeter of The Abstract - always running and searching for him. It is more wild beast now though. It has existed for so long - he cannot fathom how long - hunting to return to him. He wants to go to it, he wants to find his memories, he wants to free his mother, and he knows if he spent enough time here, he could figure out a way to get it all back for himself. He would just need to… He catches himself before he drifts away and refocusses himself on what he needs to do. There is so much more at stake than that. He is not that selfish prick anymore - the final temptation… -He strengthens his bind to Jem and his location. She starts to examine the lock, but does not recognise anything. She continues to examine it, and memories from his childhood start to return to him. They float to him through his connection at the source. He experiences their fuzziness and responds as a child would to the moments. The memories are all emotion and questions and so physical. His determination to do a handstand - hour after hour of trying, manipulating his body, asking and experimenting. The faces are blurred, but there is an impression - ask Tiina about how she remembers. He knows that the memories will be fleshed out by The Abstract, but he wants to enjoy the fuzzines of them. They are the way he should remember them, if her were still alive. He wonders if he will be a changed man like he thought he would when they all eventually find him. He thinks there will be a change in him. -Jem uses Leon like a tool to get the shape of the lock. She eventually figures out the extent of it, but tells him it is too big for her to do alone. She tells him he has to get Fix to help her. He is unsure if he is able to. It was hard enough to get her in on it. She tells him that it is a non-negotiable. It’s a lock that needs to be worked from many directions at once. It appears to be integrated into something larger. It is the strangest mechanism she has come across, and he need to figure it out. She needs Fix for that. -Leon reaches for Fix and finds him. He is currently on a job with Jem. It is the moment just before his death. He has reached back further into the past and found him, alive in The Real. He is confused as well as he does not know where he is - he is currently on a job. How can he be here as well. He doubts his sense of reality, and asks Jem how she can be with him too. She’s currently working beside him working a lock. Jem realises that he is talking about how he is still alive. Leon and Jem have a moment to think, and Leon knows Jem has had a realisation. If he is still alive, then she can stop him from dying. She can prevent the most traumatic event from happening to both of them if she tells him. Leon just tells her ‘wait’ and she is silent. They have a lock to figure out. -They get to work on the lock, even though Fix is confused. He is facinated by it, and Jem and Leon can see there is a change in him. He appears lighter than he is now. Death has changed him, although in essence, he is still the same. -Leon finds more memories. They come to him slowly, and he realises he could reach out and get them all if he concentrates. He feels the connection to Jem and Fix wobble, so he concentrates on the lock. He reaches into the lock and Jem and Fix look back to him. He has made everything clearer for them. They unlock one aspect of the mechanism, and Leon senses a change in The ImpVerse, but it is a subtle one. As if a thread on a thousand thread count sheet has come undone. -Another memory comes to him. They are flowing faster now. They have his scent and are flowing to him on the threads - drawing the shards together and finding their way to him. He relishes another for just a moment, but does not allow himself to dwell. His focus needs to be with the team. -Another part of the mechanism opens, and they find themselves part of a milky, transluscent bubble. He can sense the rainforest behind it. Why the rainforest? -Another part opens. Jem is looking stressed. He tells Leon that she has to tell him. Leon says it would not be a good idea. They shouldn’t mess with things that have passed. She tells him everything, always, and she is not going to keep the most important thing from him. Leon knows he cannot stop her, so he tells her to do what she thinks is best. She asks Fix where he was/is and when. He cannot tell her the date - he never can without looking it up - but can describe the job intimately. He also tells her she made him an amazing desert as well - who makes strawberry icecream anymore? who cooks anymore? It confirms to Jem that he is at the moment just before his death. She realises that if she tells him exactly how he dies, she can prevent it. Fix realises that both are from his future, and wonders how the hell any of this is possible. Leon does not know, other than there is something different about this place. They decide that if it is his past, that he does not want to know what happens in the future. The fun of it all is not knowing. Jem tells him he is about to die. Fix tells her that is why he does not want to know the future. She tells him what happens - he makes a rookie error and electocutes himself - and he has a moment to digest it. He asks her why she told him. She says because she misses him in The Real. The ImpVerse is not the same. She is in The Real, he is in the ImpVerse. It was not meant to be that way. He asks about what they are doing in this part of the ImpVerse. Leon tells him they are opening a lock for Ms. Penumbra and he is currently dirty-linked to the source of The Abstract and ImpVerse. Fix is amazed and proud of them both and tells him he assumes the payday is obscene. Jem confirms that it is. He smiles, and tells her to quit her complaining. If the money is grand enough, then she can live like a queen when they… err… she makes it to the ImpVerse. That is what they have been stealing for all these years, haven’t they? She tells him that she does not want him to die. He tells her that if dying is what he needs to do to ensure his queen gets what she deserves in The ImpVerse, then that is what he will do. They need to get back to work. -Another layer of the mechanism opens and Leon can see a sillouette appear on the wall. It moves in flashes. The team are disturbed. Leon gets sense of a man behind the wall. Is this what they are unlocking the lock for? He contacts Ms. Penumbra by following his thread back to her. She is where he left her. She says that he has to be quick - she is in the middle of something. He asks about the distorted time. She says it is a thing. It is how they developed The ImpVerse so quickly. She asks about the lock. He says it is opening. Almost there. She wants to use his portal to bring her there when it opens. He says he cannot. There are already two there with him. He can barely hold that. She says she is working on solidifying his connection to The ImpVerse. He should feel a deeper connection soon. Leon does instantly (Ms. P has cut him in a couple of places and dumped him in the vat). -The lock opens and the forest becomes transparent. They cannot enter the forest though. It is immersive. They are stuck in their bubble. Leon is trying to figure it out. Jem and Fix go from rejoicing at their success to being puzzled. The lock is in pieces before them, but there is nothing to steal and nowhere to go. Leon examines the forest, then asks Jem and Fix what they think. But they are no longer there. They are gone and he cannot sense them. He tries to call Ms. Penumbra, but they are cut off from The Real. He does not know what to do. He senses something moving in the dense undergrowth.

Maybe he opens the lock - everyone disappears - he realises that he has to sacrifice his memories one at a time to open the next lock and enter the forest?

When the lock is open, a man is sucked out of it into the ImpVerse the the threads of the ImpVerse start to ping. Maybe he makes it back to The Real, Ms. Penumbra thanks him. He is on his way out. Ms. Penumbra enters and the ImpVerse is falling apart. She does not care though, as Emmet is there. He tries to return to save the ImpVerse, but he cannot. Leon is there and has to make a choice to sacrifice himself. He has to use his memories to secure the ImpVerse, just as he has got them back. He locks himself away where Emmet once was to save the ImpVerse, but sacrifice himself in teh process. Emmet leaves Ms. Penumbra, who returns to The Real - and retreats into her own mind. She has an episode she does not recover from.

It is a memory lock. He has to give up his memory in order to open it. He has just got it back and it annoys him that he has to give them up to open it. The memories of one man hold the ImpVerse together. With him gone from the portal, there is nothing to stabilise the ImpVerse. Leon has to take his place.

Memory lock - Jem hits trouble. Fix cant figure it either. He is enjoying a memory when he feels the lock pull on it. He figures that to open the lock, they have to give it memories. Jem tries to, thinking she will be able to, but it does not want her memories. The same with Fix. Leon realises that his memories are the only ones that will open the lock. They are already part of the ImpVerse. He gives the lock a recent memory of no importance, but the lock does not move. He tries to give over a recent memory -but nothing happens. It has to be old memories and he knows they have to be cherished ones. He cherishes the moment he has just regained, and gives it to the mechanism. The handle spins a click. He does it again, another click. And again. He realises that the handle has to spin so many times. He will not be able to spin it all the way, unless he gives up everything. - step six? He gives them away, and notices that he is no different without them. He is who he is right now, even without his memories. He sees the foolishness of his quest. He would like to have the memories, but realises that they are not an integral part of who he is. He is who he is as he has experienced those memories, not because he has remembered them - almost, but not the perfect revelation. He has to give away all the memories he has just gained in order to open the lock - the climax. The final thing that needs to happen is that he has to give up the Jade Rhino and the memory of his mother - his truly cherished one, to do something spiffy - maybe free her and be absorbed into The ImpVerse. Although, he will not allow ImpCorp to rule. He will be the one to do it.

Ms. Penumbra frees Emmet, even though she knows the consequence is likely that the ImpVerse will implode. She thinks that they are all dead anyway, so why would it matter. She wants to be in the bubble with Emmet, but Emmet does not want to stay in the bubble. He wants to be free of it and will not stay there. He needs to go to The Abstract. Something calls him. Maybe it is that to be in the bubble, you need to give up all that you have - including your memories - to stabilise the ImpVerse. That means she will have to give up being her and sacrifice the memories of her and Emmet. They are what she cherishes and has relied on all thoughtout her life to sustain her. They are her worth. Some one loved her. Just one person. She was not going to give that all away.

Maybe Emmet gave up his memories in order to stabilise the ImpVerse. He did it voluntarily as it was better than existing alone. He does not remember Ms. Penumbra. He gave those memories away completely. - that would be a good counterpoint to Ms. Penumbra. It would hurt her deeply. She could try and share them with him, but he would likely reject them. They are not his own.

How does Ms. Penumbra react? Not good. - she can return to The Real and try to destroy the ImpVerse, or she can

The lock is opened by Jem, but nothing happens. As far as she is concerned, the job is done. Fix disappears. Leon tries to get him back but he is not there. He realises the that the lock was likely holding the ImpVerse together. They need to put it back. But it is gone… A man emerges from the forest. He is Emmet. He laughs and tells them they have just doomed a billion consciousnesses to The Abstract. No containment without the ImpVerse to told them there. Jem is horrified. Leon tries to figure a way back. The good news for them is that it hasn’t happened yet and is happening. They are in the middle of it all. The forest is life creeping through.

Leon tells Ms. P, who wants to be there with him.

She arrives and tells him that the lock is not open. There is more to it that this. She needs to get into the forest. They are not done. The lock room does not like her being there. She is tainting the calm. She returns the The Real - she has troubles of her own.

Fix also feels his connection to Jem slip a bit.

Emmet says it is because opening the lock has destabilised the portal. Emmet starts to fade. He cannot hold himself here anymore. The Abstract has been calling him, like it does all that inhabit the ImpVerse. He has spend an eternity in here, watching the lives of humanity - as a God. But a lonely God. He tries to reenter, to stabilise the ImpVerse again, but he cannot.

Emmet is freed and emerges from the forest.

Leon’s memories return to him in force. They have returned from the ImpVerse and he cherishes them. This was what he has been fighting for.

He reaches for his mother, who is in The Real, still suffering. He can see her now, and reaches down to her, establishing a link to her body and stopping her heart? Where is the tension? He needs to struggle more.

Ms. P arrives. Emmet does not recongise her - he purged her from his mind and has lived an infinity without her. She loses her crap. What was the point of all that power she has attained if she cannot have him? Then she realises that it was about the power. If she takes his place in The ImpVerse, she can have all the power she wishes. She can look into the lives of anyone - she can secret away those who have worked to spite her and make their enternity hell. She can use her power to control the ImpVerse. She will be a god. OR will she just fight Leon and be returned to The Real, where she will be trapped in a moment with Emmet, and live that way forever? Maybe she returns to The Real and starts to kill the founders? Maybe she sees the transition team on the other side of the door, but they cannot get in. They have to wait for authorisation. She realises she has to give the team more time, so they goes to the door and tells her she is coming out, but is not interested in getting shot. She will go and be transitioned in a proper way, with a glass of whiskey, looking out her window at The Real. She negotiates that arrangement, and leaves the room. She meets again with her executive friend, who apologises for the transition team? Or do the team just kill her anyway? It has to be a brutal end. Does Suunto refuse to return her memories to her, in revenge for her manipulation and betrayal? It would be a kindness to her instead. Maybe that is what Leon does to her? Maybe Leon manages to defeat her by stripping away all of her trauma and leaving her with love at the center of the ImpVerse, to be with Emmet? Maybe the takes her cherished memories of Emmet, and uses them to stabilise the ImpVerse? She ends up losing the memories that have sustained her, leaving her a power hungry, twisted and bitter woman to exist with out power in the ImpVerse, with no connections to the conscious of others.

She is devistated and flips out. Her anger rocks the ImpVerse - fix feels it.

WHY HAVE THEY BEEN TAKING HIS MEMORIES IF THE LOCK REQUIRES HIM TO HAVE THEM TO OPEN IT UP - HAVE THEY BEEN WEAVING THEN INTO THE FABRIC OF THR IMPVERSE SI IT DOES NOT REJECT HIM? - the long game. Leon can feel the threads give way, perhaps, as his memories flood back to him.

He feels the connection strengthen and he brings her through. She is agitated, and peels back her image to be that of a young woman. There is something about her that is most definitely not young though. She has an aura that she cannot remove. It is the stain of what she has done. Her innocence and wonder has gone. Leon does not mention it. He recognises the changes in her. Whatever she wants, she cannot be the person she used to be. He reflects on that a moment - or is that too obvious a move - yes. This doesnt feel right….

They struggle to undo the lock.

Emmet is free - who is he? How does his personality impact? Calm God? Vengeful God? Skewed by time? Changed so much by his experiences most likely. He is not the same person Ms. Penumbra wishes him to be. He has moved on from humanity. He has been trapped in the void for so long, watching everything unfold in a billion lives, he has become detached from whoever he once was. He has experienced their lives so completely that he has lost all sense of who he used to be, and who she was. He does not remember her at all. She has obsessed over him. - life experiences change you and make you who you are. You are connected back to your conscious of who you used to be, but once those links go, or enough time passes, you are not the same person.

*Ms. P must have a revelation after that. She is not the little girl anymore. She wanted to be her again, but Emmet has made that impossible for her now. She wishes to go back. She returns to The Real and rewires her memory bomb. She tells Suunto she does not want her memories back anymore. She tells her to keep them. Maybe she can use what she knows. She awaits the squad and wires her thought bomb to explode everything, apart from those memories involving Emmet. She fires it, and her world becomes only him. She destroys who she has become and all of those experiences and turns back into the girl she once was, just before her transition. She will live in The ImpVerse as that girl, reliving her memories of Emmet. Or maybe Leon pushes her from the ImpVerse, and she returns to her body. Struggling, she adapts the memory bomb to destroy everything that is not Emmet and her in an attempt to remove the part of her life that lead to failure and the deep hurt she feels. She removes everything and returns to being that woman. Or does Leon do that to her? He takes his new found powers as a God and strips away everything that she in The ImpVerse and returns her to The Real? Seems a bit cruel for Leon to do. MS. P needs to control her own destiny. With her plans ruined, she adapts and explodes her mind bomb, and traps herself in her memories of Emmet.

OR does she not react well to Emmet? She infuses herself with the lock to control the ImpVerse herself, but puts into the lock, her memories of Emmet. It makes her harsh and the ImpVerse starts to change. Leon has to fight her somehow?

she needs to transition and have her memories returned to her. Or will she not bother? Will she not make it?

What does Ms. P want? She wants Emmet, but he rejects her and is not the same as he once was. His experiences have changed him, and hers have as well. What does Leon want? To free his mother and get his memories back. He wants to undo the results of his selfishness.

Emmet - who is he? He was a scientist deeply in love with Ms. Penumbra, but she was more reliant than he was. He was trapped and lost and mourned his disconnect from the Real. He was lonely, and lost and took the chance to bring people through to the ImpVerse. He warmed to his role of being the one who protects and guides. When the small pocket he sustained grew too crowded, they devised a way to expand it, but it meant that Emmet had to become the barrier that held the ImpVerse in place. He had already spend decades alone at that stage, with fleeting moments with those from The Real, so he knew it was a way to share his world and the lives of others. He helped create the lock the bound him, but it had to be infused with his conscious and memory. That is the way this place works. It relies the conscious remembering a life, and bringing it through. He knows Leon already. Parts of him are already part of the threads that mingled with Emmet’s and the founders. Emmet cannot redo the lock he created. He infused it with his own memories of his life, and those memories are so far gone, that he does not even recognise them anymore. He only remembers the memories of those within the ImpVerse now. He has lost connection with his own and cannot use them to bind the ImpVerse again. His time as a God are at an end. He will go to The Abstract. He has felt it calling to him for as long as he has been here, which is no time at all, and yet seems an eternity. He is currently holding the ImpVerse together, but there is not much time to go. Billions of souls will float with him.

When the lock unlocks, his connection to Jem and Fix break. They disappear. Emmet reforms, but does not recognise Ms. P, even though visually she appears as she once was. He does not remember their relationship. It has been an eternity for him, and his life in The Real is nothing to him. It is compared to his memories as a baby. He knows he was there, but cannot remember any of it. He even doubts that he was there, sometimes. Maybe he has always been a creation of the ImpVerse?

Leon realises that he and the team have doomed millions of souls. Ms. Penumbra must have known. She was going to doom everyone just to free him. Her selfishness is astounding…

Ms. P is distraught. She has wasted her life on this quest. What she has done in order to achieve it is unfathomable. Only to have him reject her after all she has done for him? She rages against him and her anger spreads throughout the ImpVerse. Emmet’s hold on the ImpVerse weakens. Leon has to step in to help him sustain it. She rages and Emmet has a spark of memory. He remembers her name and says it and she calms. He remembers himself though her memories and realises that she has spent her life trying to free him. He is compassionate, but tells her that he cannot be that man again. She cannot recapture what is lost, no matter how hard she tries.

OR She destroys the memories of Emmet and tries to rule the ImpVerse? Nah, doesn’t quite make sense. She wants to control ImpCorp, and the ImpVerse. She wants them both.

Leon, realising that billions of consciousnesses are at stake, sacrifices himself by entering the lock and pulling the threads together. He has to sacrifice all of his memories to do so. He also knows that by doing so, he will be able to pull his mother through from The Real. She will be able to transition. He will be locked away from everyone, but will be able to see the whole of humanity, like Emmet did. It seems like he is punished and Ms. P is rewarded… He becomes the fabric of the ImpVerse, but is able to punch through into it using the Jade Rhino. His memories permeate the fabric of the ImpVerse, so he can manipulate the threads to be what he wants them to be, meaning he can interact?

Kills his mother in The Real and he has to get into the lock to ensure that he can save her and Fix, along with billions of others? Sacrifice instead of selfishness. He gets his memories and his mother back, but is dead.

This works, but there needs to be some more tension or modifications to make it work. The logic makes sense. Maybe more tension with the mother? Ms. P needs to have more of a say here.

*The lock opens, which sets up a process - Emmet is purged from the forest and drifts away to The Abstract. It is inevitable and he cannot stop it happening. It means the ImpVerse is doomed. The lock was stopping him from departing. It bound him and the founders to the ImpVerse. - there needs to be a moment in there involving Ms. Penumbra, where she is dealt a devastating blow that sets up her fate. Leon should not battle with her, she should have to realise her doom.

*Leon can sense the threads unravelling. He reaches out to them and binds them to himself, thereby saving the ImpVerse. He can sense them because his memories are already bound to them. He just has to reverse the connection to them and use his memories to bind everything together. He gives up his memories, but realises that they do not serve him any purpose. He is who he is without them. They are not who is, or even who he was. They are merely a narrative of a former self.

He senses his mother’s connection and pulls her from her body. They have a brief moment before he pushes her through the ImpVerse and lets her go with Emmet, wherever they are going to.

*Leon finds himself trapped, and having to bind the lock again. He summons Jem and Fix to help him do just that, and he finds himself slowly fading from her. He has an emotional farewell and finds himself locked in, alone. The biological solution helps to close the link behind them. He can sense the ImpVerse, but his knowledge of what happens within it only comes to him like memories come to him. They are not precise, and mainly connections and lose impressions.thin it only comes to him like memories come to him. They are not precise, and mainly connections and lose impressions. He senses the jade rhino in the forest and goes to search for it - but the reader does not know it is the jade rhino, unless you want to have them have an emotional moment, knowing he will not be alone - that is a better ending.

Ms. P ideas - she needs to be involved.

She is rejected by Emmet. He does not remember her. She is devo. He tells them they have destroyed the ImpVerse. She does not care. She wants the control of the ImpVerse instead. She starts to bind herself behind the lock. She tricks Leon, but has her connection broken and returns to The Real. She is with Rankin, who tells her she has destroyed the ImpVerse.

She is embraced by Emmet. He wants to drift off. She wants him to stay. He says he wants to go more than stay with her. She is devo. He leaves. She rages and decides to take his place instead. She will be a God. She will make him stay and take the power for herself - it doesnt make sense.

Her moment of realisation is that she has been working to gain all the power to free him. Her mistake has been thinking he would feel the same as her. The world is hard. She has been harder. She will not let him destroy her like he has. She has harnessed all the power and now they want to take it from her? ImpCorp? Emmet? ImpCorp took Emmet away from her. They took everything. She will bring them down. No. She will control their precious ImpVerse and claim it as her own. If she were a God, she could know everything. But she can’t. She would be trapped behind the tendrils of the world. But if Leon were there, she could find a way through. Nope, the story logic does not work. She would be trapped like Emmet. What does she want then?

Maybe Ms. Penumbra succeeds in getting behind the lock, but before it closes, Leon manages to punch through with the aid of the Jade Rhino. They are going to be trapped in there. Leon manages to fight her somehow, and she is returned to The Real. She is captured by Rankin, who knows what she has been up to. He did not know she was still hurting. Ms. P holds on to her trauma, and tells him it is all hers. He tells her he cannot let her into the ImpVerse now. She is too unhinged. She will be transitioned. She spits her venom and says her life is hers, not theirs. They do not deserve to have what she has gained. She sets off her mind bomb and it triggers a memory of Emmet. She is caught in that loop, again and again.*

*The story logic being trapped behind the lock was maybe a deception. Emmet is not trapped at all. Maybe he is a willing prisoner. His sacrifice means that everyone survives in the ImpVerse. He has had the ability to return to her, but he has not. He moved on, she didnt. He preferred to be a God instead. She would have given up being a God for him. The lock has opened and Emmet starts to drift away. He cannot hold himself there and there is nothing he can do about it. He tells them they have doomed the ImpVerse. All those consciousnesses will no longer be shielded from the call of what lies beyond. They have doomed them all. Ms. P has to watch him drift away, knowing that she has freed him, but he never wanted to come back to her. He drags Leon’s mother with him. He realises he must try and hold the fabric of the ImpVerse together. He is told that the ImpVerse is memory, and so is the lock. They are connected through the fabric of the ImpVerse, and he feels her suffering. She has a moment with Leon, and he says his goodbyes. Leon feels the ImpVerse start to unthread. The lock was holding everything together. Ms. P decides that she will be the one to take his place. She will hold the power. If she holds the ImpVerse together, she will be able to control what happens in The Real.**

An alarm sounds. Leon panics. He has screwed everything up. He has to hide. Luckily, there is an abundance of doors. He makes his way to the back of the chamber, followed by a rat. He slips into a room, finding it is filled with workers, attached to The Abstract. Leon slides into the room, only to find there are a few workers returning from The Abstract. Leon quickly slips himself into a pod and acts as if he is also returning, making sure he is one of the last to leave. He watches as a couple of the team make their way to his mother and start to laugh at the situation. They are confused as to how she could have made her way back. One casually types something into the console and there is a juddering of his mother’s body before she is still. Leon hopes they have managed to end her life, although he is also not certain that she would have made her way back to the ImpVerse. He has a small, momentary panic, before realising that his primary concern is to blend in at this point. A small security team stand at the entrance to the vat room, but they are waved away by some workers - just another corpse glitch. He is noticed by a member, who smiles. He makes sure he smiles back, and they have some polite chit-chat about just starting. He does falter in his conversation, but recovers enough to cover his tracks.

Tags: #template

#turningpoint

Links: Chasing The Rhino Masterlist

Date

July 16, 2022

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Previously

# # TP5 - S3 Sequences [[TP5]] Leon locates the lock in the heavily populated arrival gate to the ImpVerse but soon discovers his lack of past means he is undetectable and