iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

A theoretical structure? What was he talking about? Veronica looked at the computer before her but couldn't make heads or tails of some of the data. The measurements used were baffling. "...yeah, alright. Let's go through. It can't be worse than home, right?" she forced a laugh, then folded her

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Someone else may have seen it and might be coming out toward it, although she didn't know who it might be. Any signs of human life in the area was long covered with weeds or thin rods of dying grass, and even as she thought it she glanced to the side and saw a long-rusted car chassis on the side of

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Approximately 30 feet wide and 30 feet tall, it was just large enough for Clive to fit through if he lowered his tail, which made her wary about why it was here. Had someone created this portal to lead them somewhere, knowing only Clive could have detected it? No. That was a dangerous assumption.

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moving, although she couldn't hear that as much as she could see the legs moving and the sound, so often heard, repeated in her head. "That's the portal?" Her voice was rough and she leaned forward, a hand raising to rub the grogginess out of them. A swirling vortex of light shimmered in the air.

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2 days of travel had them arriving in Nebraska. A land of small rolling hills, mostly desolate landscape, with vegetation gathered in small ditches, the life reaching up toward the sky for a last desperate grasp of sunlight. The only sound was the wind and the mechanical whir of Clive's legs

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"What's wrong, Clive?" she noted that they'd stopped moving and brushed some hair out of her face, groggily pushing herself so she sat upright in the chair.

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Until they weren't. "She'll be better off here," she reminded herself, the words repeated so oft that she barely registered they'd been whispered at all. "She doesn't have Actium and these people can protect her. And I have to do this." A mantra that had become a daily event. A morning ritual.

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she asked him to? The next week was filled with her tearing her heart in half. Every step, every mechanical whir of his feet, felt like a hook connected to half her heart was being pulled out of her chest, one half named Veronica and the other named Clarice. They were inseparable.

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stopping. She hadn't listened. His upgrades made him better, made him a more powerful protector for her, his subject, but... what about her? Had she gotten better? Over the months since they'd found and joined Haven Lake, what had she accomplished that wasn't just Clive blowing something up because

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soon after, the only tie that she'd think to follow in order to ask the space man. So instead, they left. Veronica watched as Clarice hugged Claire, then turned around and climbed into the SKRPN shell and they headed off, heading due East. He'd rambled on about how far he could travel without

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something new, something better would appear. But that wouldn't happen if they didn't close the portal. She'd meant to ask the space man if he knew how to close portals, but he left, vanishing overnight with his daughter and by the time she went to ask, he was nowhere to be found. Lorelei left

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do back home. Like die. Die in a pointless, bloody battle to close a portal, not to save humanity. Humanity was gone. With her death, the last remnant of humanity on that Earth would be a chapter closed, but maybe something else could spring up one day. From the ashes of their broken world, maybe

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Veronica @iconofwrath.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

It made sense, at the time. Clarice had a new family. A family that knew how to take care of each other. A brother, a mother. Titles that she never would've had back home. This wasn't their world. It wasn't their turf, not their fight. They were outside of the natural order, and there was more to

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She let out a shaky breath, then did as Eddie instructed. "I feel... incredible, honestly. I- I didn't know that that had to happen. I'm sorry I scared you." At least, she assumed she did. "...ready to go back to the harvest?"

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Veronica @iconofwrath.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

equally imposing. It was as if nothing had happened, although there were no Christmas lights coming from her back anymore.

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Veronica @iconofwrath.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Veronica woke with a start and then stood up and shuddered, pressing her hands to her face. She got onto her feet and stretched, feeling as if she'd gotten a full night's rest and the best sleep in the world. "Wow. I- Eddie?" she stepped beside Eddie, then mimicked her pose, trying to look

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It's something tangible that will help her feel grounded, so she's quick to accept and climb onto Eddie, wrapping her arms around her and her legs around her waist. "I hope I don't explode," she whispered. "I don't think I will."

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felt like it was fogging over.

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“N... Yes. Yeah. I'll-” Veronica cleared her throat, then pulled the shirt down and looked back at Eddie, her eyes wide with fear. Her hands folded tightly over her chest and her knees were bent inward, a tremble running through her body. She was terrified and had no idea what to do. Her brain

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She stopped walking, then turned toward Eddie, then thought of it and turned back around and hiked her shirt up the back to show the spine. “It's glowing?! What colors??”

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Veronica turned but didn't stop walking, confusion clear in her purple eyes. “What's a Christmas tree?”

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alternating red and blue LEDs—and that was certainly *not* happening last they spoke.

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“I feel good today,” she said with a confident smile. There wasn't any deceit in her eyes; she wanted to work, and she felt up to it today. With a spring in her step, she began to walk faster toward the fields, eager to work. Through the thin material of her shirt, her spinal column shimmered with

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Veronica was thin. Thinner than she was when she got there, and she didn't have a lot of meat on her to begin with. “I've been sick a lot. I've always been sickly. I don't know how to talk to the doctors. So I don't. But I'm ready to work.”

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|| Eddie and Arlo are making me lose my shit laughing

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Veronica @iconofwrath.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Something to do! “Here!” she stops running, then heads to the field to start working.

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Existing. Day after day. Doing the chores. Seeing the same streets. Time felt like it was being accelerated. No one talked to her, so she buried herself in books and tried to forget what happened back home.

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Veronica @iconofwrath.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

I don't know cows. Almost all native animals were extinct in my time.

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Veronica @iconofwrath.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

“I've been here too long to still not know why they're called cowboys but ride horses. Or, rode. Why aren't they horse boys?”

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Veronica @iconofwrath.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

There's a commotion going on and she's heading out to investigate.

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Veronica @iconofwrath.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Formulating a plan to deal with the Legion.

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Veronica @iconofwrath.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Our two schools were very different. A lot of knowledge was destroyed or lost over the years...

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Veronica @iconofwrath.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

If only it had only been a few times that I'd had to order Clive to kill another human.

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Veronica @iconofwrath.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

"Vivian told me of other settlements we can send people to. I can make sure they get there safely and travel with Clive and them to make sure they can make it there." She gave a decisive nod. "Can you do all of the collars at the same time?"

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Veronica @iconofwrath.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

That was a point that she hadn't considered. This was just like when all the Clivebots teleported to the underground city... too many mouths to feed and not enough resources. The only time she'd seen more than a handful of people in the same area. Veronica considered that and rubbed her chin.

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It's dark in there? What- "Sorry," she turned on the stool to more directly face Cienn, "you can do what now?"

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were so few where I was from. But if the Mayor, who usually advocates for peace, tells me that we need to eradicate them? I don't have any kind of hesitation left in me to tell him not to kill them all. How would you get them out of the collars?"

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"Clive is going to do what Clive does best. The Mayor said that they needed to be eradicated. He's built to eradicate things." It seemed a simple enough solution to her. She let out a small exhale, then looked at the countertop. "I don't like the idea of him killing so many humans, not when there

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