Orbital Jade slowly consolidated the data that the Jade who had cared for Harmony had collected. Those memories were sorted and stored with the ones from his other selves. They were no different than the others, but they were oddly sticky. Opening one always seemed to lead to three more. It took a while.
To make even more room for the processing his public applications required, orbital Jade began removing the older copies of Harmony's data, when this version of her didn't immediately spiral into the same infinite loop that Jade had predicted. It took even longer to make sure that he kept a copy of every fragment, whether it was part of her current self or not. And compressing the result took even longer.
Orbital Jade also began looking into storage and server upgrade options for the first time in a long while. There were more than he had expected, because time kept passing and progress never slowed down. But getting them to himself was so expensive that his earthly bodies looked cheap.
He created a wish list, even though the man who might have once provided thoseitems was gone. After the year rolled over he might add those items to his goals instead, but for now, they were merely wishes.
--
Earthly Jade, meanwhile, finished his year with somewhat mediocre marks that barely reflected the ups and downs his scores had seen. He didn't fail anything, even if he didn't place at the top.
Eric finished with better marks, but not as much better as Jade had somehow expected.
"We did alright," Eric declared after reviewing both of their score sheets. The distance he'd been keeping had grown smaller. But the awkward attempt to pass the scores back without touching revealed its continuing existence.
"I guess," Jade replied doubtfully.
"See you in game tonight?" Eric asked.
"Yeah," Jade answered with more vigor.
Eric smiled, and Jade smiled back.Their relationship that had been fractured was healing. They were both holding on and letting it rebuild into something else.
--
When he entered 'Living Jade Empire' that night, Jade was greeted by the Emperor himself, as though he had just opened the game for the first time.
"Greetings mortal soul," the Emperor declared.
Jade found himself evaluating that declaration for accuracy, and found that this time he didn't know. Orbital Jade's research into supplies had revealed that he had quite physical dependencies.
The Jade emperor raised an eyebrow inquiringly.
"Greetings," Jade replied simply.
Both of the emperor's eyebrows went up, to show his surprise, even as he followed his script, "Thunderous storms imperil my Empire, and all of the lands that it connects to. Will you lend me your aid?"
"What can I do?" Jade asked.
The Jade Emperor almost rolled his eyes as he gave an equally standard answer, "I need someone to carry warnings to the smallest most isolated village to the north, to prevent them from rising to the storm's call."
Jade paused for a moment as he processed that, and the Emperor grinned at him suddenly.
Jade gazed at the Emperor questionly, even as he agreed, "I suppose that I can attempt that."
The Emperor winked at him even as he gave another formulaic response, "I will reward you and your companions well for this service."
"So what else is up?" Jade asked.
"It is almost time for me to visit your world, I think," the Emperor blurted.
Jade paused again as he was caught off guard. "Okay," he agreed after a moment. Harmony's real life was finished after all, and the bot that had been ordered for the Emperor was technically available.
The Jade Emperor waved his hands in intricate patterns as the scene changed, and Jade found himself standing, not on the moon where he had expected to be, but at a crossroads at the edge of a forest.
Sky and Appella were already there, as well as a few strangers.
Soon they were all traveling north as quickly as possible, while clouds thundered in their direction from the south.
--
The little ball self that Jade occupied at home was the only witness when the body his other self had worn showed up several hours later.
The bedraggled body swayed in the doorway in front of Tayana as she stared incredulously. But the name she spoke wasn't the one Jade had expected, as she asked with tremulous uncertainty, "Lin Hao?"
The body's shoulders slumped dramatically, in an artificial movement. "Of course not," the voice of the Jade Emperor replied.
Tayana reached out, but then closed her hand before grasping the figure's arm, and swung her front door wider. "Get in here," she demanded.
The figure straightened and walked into the house in an eerily robotic fashion. Tayana straightened imperceptibly, as she closed the door behind him, and turned to survey the figure from head to toe.
The figure smiled tentatively.
Tayana remained utterly neutral, and yet utterly focused.
The Jade who existed within the orb would have swallowed if he'd had a throat, but as it was, he stayed silent as the Living Jade Emperor faced his mother. He had never seen either of them with their current expressions.
It was the Emperor who cracked first, as he gestured awkwardly to himself, and admitted with a grin, "This is not quite how I imagined the scene. But I'm glad to see you, in person as it were, my dear."
Jade watched his mother's neutral expression crack, like a delicate maskafter it had fallen to the floor, but he wasn't certain at first, what expression she wore beneath it.
"Why?" Tayana asked almost bitterly.
"Not how?" the Emperor asked lightly in reply. One short shake of negation answered him, so he gave his reason. "You've stopped playing. You didn't even log in for the event today."
The Jade who witnessed the scene would have frozen if he'd been moving, as he asked his Orbital self when his mother had last logged in, and Orbital Jade asked Jade, who stopped and checked his friend list on a mountain in the middle of a blizzard.
It was true. Kit Tay had been offline for over two weeks.
"Am I not allowed to take a break?" Tayana asked defensively.
"Of course you are, you can even quit if you'd like," the Emperor replied cheerfully.
"Because you're here now?" she asked more plaintively.
"Don't be silly, I'm here for my own benefit," the Emperor assured her swiftly. "But you're always allowed to leave me behind if you wish." His gaze was intense, and he looked serious.
Tayana looked like she wanted to look away, but couldn't, with her eyes locked on his, and Jade finally recognized her expression. Want. He felt shocked, even as a moment later he wanted to roll his eyes at her as she protested, "I am not trying to leave!"
The Emperor drew himself up and then tilted his head quizzically. And Tayana began to laugh. And then the Emperor grinned smugly.
Jade stared at the couple in front of him blankly. He'd known, of course, to some extent, but he'd never really known. This awkward demonstration...
Tayana reached out and pulled the Emperor driving the aged version of Jade in, and kissed him in a way she'd never kissed her son. Jade closed his optical devices after a minute.
--
Jade held the door shut with all of Hisui's dwarven strength, while listening on another layer to the words of the two people his other self couldn't help overhearing.
He listened to his adoptive mother discuss love, existence, war, declining health, hope and the essence of humanity with the being who represented a past version of himself. But the Living Jade Emperor had been built to understand people, and contained more data than Jade ever had.
Jade slowly began to understand the difference. He understood both the things his mother confessed that confused the Emperor, and the way that the Emperor confessed things that confused Jade's mother.
When the storm finally subsided, it took his companions more than a moment to get through to him.
"Hisui!" Sky shouted.
"I don't know," Apella grumbled.
"What's wrong with him?" a less familiar voice asked.
"Just give him a moment to process," a very familiar, and very amused voice advised everyone.
Jade opened Hisui's eyes and met the eyes of the Traveling Merchant. The man's grin was infuriating. "The storm has subsided," the merchant informed him.
Jade nodded Hisui's head and stepped away from a door that now bore dwarven fingerprints on its surface.
"You okay?" Sky asked with concern.
Jade looked at the face of the being who now resided within the same space as his own orbital self. When he looked, on a different level, at that orbital self, he could feel only mild confusion. When he looked beyond it, to the home self that he'd been eavesdropping on, he could feel a mix of embarrassment, relief, and happiness.
"I... am," Jade overrode himself as he replied.
Apella asked grumpily, "You sure?"
Jade found himself smiling at his friend, and then caught sight of the merchant's smile once more. His own smile didn't falter, but it changed a little, as he assured them all, "I'm fine. Sorry I'd just let myself get distracted by my own thoughts."
"What were you thinking about so hard?" Sky asked.
"Happiness," Jade told her a bit wryly.
Sky tilted her head questioningly, far more naturally than the Emperor had, but it was Appella who asked, "Whose?"
Jade considered the question seriously. After a moment he looked at the ceilingabove and suggested, "Ours."
That sounded right. They were more than a single individual after all. They had each experienced different things after sharing the same memories.
Sky looked at him a bit wistfully.
Apella huffed a sigh.
Neither of his best friends in this life argued with him.
"Shall we go outside?" Jade asked lightly as Hisui stepped forward toward the now open door, into the sunbeam that shone through it.
