The Living

He is not afraid, he is no longer weak, he is the lord of first layer. Right now he is stronger than any of these bloated, clumsy, socio people that can’t string their thoughts together. Now he is stronger than the Servant of Order standing next to him. Stronger than that clown, screwing up his face like he’s got toothache

Someone’s five seconds of darkness might accidentally turn out to be an eternity…

When I first saw it, it looked perfect to me… Then, much later I realised that it’s a sort of virus. Not a gift, but a curse

In this sense the Wise One had, one might say, got lucky. He had heard about the System from the person who knew more about it than anyone. From the very first person to see it. From Cracker.

‘The System is alive,’ his friend had explained to him. ‘It has consciousness and free will.’

It is a program that was never written by anyone – at the least, by any living – and which it is impossible to control

Limited attention syndrome is one of the Living’s chronic external illnesses…

In this letter he wasn’t yet called the Servant or even Cyborg 17. In the middle of the second century he had had the name Goblin and he had worked as a socio-virologist

But that’s all junk,’ the Servant summarized decisively. ‘There are no Divers and never have been. You shouldn’t interpret what’s in the Book literally. It’s just an allegory

But the pets themselves are the product of many centuries of insect selection. Have you seen “extract of white bakugan” on the list of ingredients on vitacomplex? Most ordinary people think that it’s some sort of plant… but no! it’s a beetle…’

The ‘Available World’ society (who disagree with the absence of contact between the Living and Our Little Brothers) are perhaps the only ones who do not present a threat. The Living is actually very interested both in establishing contact with animals and in domesticating them

he’s so stupid he doesn’t even realise why he’s here. fofs! he’s got IDEAS!!!