July 7, 2025 • 40 mins
What fragments of yourself have you sacrificed to survive? Would you recognize these lost pieces if they returned to you from across fractured timelines?
Episode 6 of Remembrance plunges us into the deepest mysteries of Unithur as our protagonist awakens to a countdown mysteriously written on his mirror. While caring for his increasingly frail mother, he discovers that reality itself seems to be bending around him—audio files change their content, computer systems operate independently, and his childhood nickname "Poppy Seed" begins appearing in impossible places.
Through a series of increasingly unsettling encounters, we learn that Agent Moss was once chosen by Unithur but resisted, making her both uniquely qualified and dangerously motivated to interfere with our protagonist's progression. Meanwhile, his digital confidant ICU-93 reveals herself to be something far more profound than a distant hacker—possibly a memory loop designed specifically to guide him through the recursion.
The true nature of Unithur's selection process becomes clear: it doesn't choose the strongest or smartest individuals but rather those who remember—those whose identity can withstand witnessing alternate versions of themselves across collapsed timelines. The protagonist must face echo fragments of lives he never lived, including versions where he failed, where grief consumed him, and where he surrendered to forces beyond his understanding.
When forced to enter the recursion directly, he discovers "Poppy Seed" isn't just a term of endearment but a password protecting his core identity—a key his mother preserved for him across realities. The crown bestowed by Unithur isn't made of gold but of grief and memory, appearing only when the system recognizes someone willing to become guardian of every forgotten version of themselves.
As we approach the final episodes, ask yourself: what would change if you stopped trying to become something new and started remembering who you already were? Your answers might just be the thread that keeps your reality from unraveling.
"True mastery is found in the details. The way you handle the little things defines the way you handle everything."
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Gentleman's Journey podcast.
My name is Anthony, your host,and today we are in episode six
of Remembrance.
So let's go ahead and let's getinto the cold open.
The room wasn't lit, it wasbacklit.
(00:21):
Pale, soft white lightdiffusing through a grid of
smoked glass, just enough tocast the outlines of everything
she wasn't supposed to seeclearly.
Agent Orilla Moss sat in silence, the back of her neck damp.
Her hands rested on a manilafolder that had no label, no
(00:41):
seal, just weight, the kind ofweight that changed the posture
of her room.
Across from her, twosilhouettes unnamed, unranked,
but not unfamiliar.
You've been quiet.
One of them said she didn'tlook up.
There's nothing to say.
You were chosen once.
(01:01):
Other replied that carriesexpectations.
I didn't fail.
She said almost too quickly.
No, the first agreed youresisted.
Silence Monitor flickeredbehind them.
This longness of flashed.
A glyph, unether, incomplete.
(01:22):
It pulsed red instead of goldlike a warning.
Subject .093-A located Ascensionprotocol active Tither forming.
Moss's jaw tightened.
He's not ready.
She muttered.
That's not your call anymore.
(01:43):
Then why bring him in?
Because failure needs contextand you're the
context.
They leaned forward, voicesharpened.
Now, if you can't disabilizethe subject's progression,
unithur will complete thetransformation.
And once it does, you know whathappens.
I've seen it, she whispered.
(02:06):
Then stop it.
They slide a hard drive acrossthe table.
It bore a section's fork crest,but smaller than usual, stamped
with red ink that bled slightlyinto the plastic Hode fragments
, mirror echoes enough tooverwrite the tether.
Use them.
Ma stared at it like it mightbite her.
(02:27):
And if I refuse, she asked Asecond silhouette, leaned back
in the dark.
Then the system remembers you,all Of you.
The drive sat on the tablebetween them.
A single phase echoed in theroom like it had been programmed
into the walls.
Remembering is mercy, obscurityis protocol.
(02:51):
She picked up the drive and forthe first time in years, earl
Amos felt afraid of beingremembered.
The morning was too quiet, kindof quiet that didn't mean peace
.
It meant something had stoppedworking.
He woke in the basement with adamp neck and a mouth full of
(03:12):
static.
The countdown was written inthe mirror above his desk
1043.17.09.
Scrolled, a marker he didn'tremember using.
He stared at it for 10 minutes,waiting for it to fade 17.09.
Scrawled a marker he didn'tremember using.
He stared at it for ten minutes, waiting for it to fade, for
his mind to snap back intosomething ordinary?
(03:33):
It didn't.
His mom was already up.
He could hear her moving aroundupstairs trying to pretend she
wasn't winded.
It had gotten worse lately Herbreasts were shallow when she
stood too long, her hands shaky.
When she tried to pour tea shenever complained.
(03:54):
That's what was making it worse.
He kept saying he'd take her in.
She kept telling him not toworry, but she was shrinking.
The smell of cinnamon drifteddown through the vents.
She was baking something againAlways baking Like the sweetness
(04:14):
.
I keep time from noticing her.
He pushed himself out of bed,wiped sweat from his forehead
and reached for the vape pen onhis desk.
The screen on his laptopblinked on before he could touch
it.
The glyph was back, one oftheir symbol, faint tucked in
the corner like a watermarkburned into a system.
He didn't say anything out loudbut his hand shook as he typed
(04:37):
into ZeroTrace.
Anyone seen flicker echoes intheir HUD lately?
No one responded.
He checked the group threadsNothing new from ICU-93.
No trace of the Section 4 sweep.
He had half expected Justsilence.
He minimized the windows,clicked open the audio files
(05:00):
again, the ones from his friendwho shouldn't have been able to
send them.
They played backwards now theydidn't.
The day before, his own voiceechoed from them, distorted,
saying phrases he hasn'trecorded.
The only thing that makes youchosen is that you didn't stop,
clicked pause, took a deepbreath and clicked it again, as
(05:26):
if it would reset reality.
Upstairs, the oven door dinged,his mom called down Poppy seed
breakfast.
His chest tightened.
She hadn't called him thatsince before he left for school,
since before he broke down,since before he moved back in to
take care of her.
He stared at the monitor, oneof their simple pulse ones.
(05:50):
He stood, walked up the stairsslowly, like he was rising into
a memory that wasn't entirelyhis.
The light in the kitchen felttoo bright.
His mom looked thinner than shedid yesterday, or maybe he was
just noticing it more.
She smiled when she saw himMotion to the plate cinnamon
(06:13):
rolls and tea.
You need to eat something, shesaid gently.
I'm fine, he muttered, grabbinga mug.
You've been up all night again.
I'm working Saving the worldwith your computer grabbing a
mug.
You've been up all night again.
I'm working Saving the worldwith your computer, she teased.
He tried to smile.
He couldn't hold it.
Hey, she said, reaching for hishand.
(06:35):
You're allowed to be human Evenif you feel like the static's
turning you into something else.
His breath caught that phrase.
He hadn't said anything to her.
How did she know?
He looked down.
Her hand trembled slightly ashe pulled away.
Maybe we go in next week, hesaid, just to check your levels.
(06:58):
She nodded Only if you promiseto get out of the basement.
He sat down slowly looking atthe cinnamon rolls, trying to
remember time when this was justnormal, before the glyph,
before the countdown, beforeUnithur spoke to him through the
(07:18):
crucifiles and audio glitches.
He didn't know if she wasgetting sickerer or if he was
just waking up to it, but theglyph was still burning in the
back of his mind.
The countdown hadn't stoppedticking.
The rest of the morning passedin fragments.
He helped her sit outside for awhile.
(07:40):
The breeze soft, the sun dullbehind his high clouds.
She was smiling but tired,talking slower than usual,
forgetting the thread of herstories.
Mid-sentence he nodded anyways,pretending not to notice.
When her hand trembled on thearm of the chair, he went back
downstairs.
By noon the countdown was stillup 10-41-08-23.
(08:08):
Slower now, measured.
Like I was watching him too.
His fingers hovered over thekeyboard.
He logged into Zero Trace andopened a private thread, not
public.
This time just a direct line.
You around.
They waited, three dotsblinking.
They appeared ICU-93, yeah,icu-93, you look like shit, by
(08:37):
the way, camera's echo's lagging.
He paused and turned on hiscamera.
It wasn't on, not yours, thesystem's, it's showing me.
You like two years ago,basement set up bad lighting,
same hoodie, his pulse kicked.
That's not possible.
(08:57):
Tell that to the ghost glitchin your network.
You look better now, sadder butbetter.
He smiled but didn't type back.
She always did that.
Stabbed the truth withoutsounding cruel.
The files are shifting again,by the way.
Moonather is rewriting metadata.
You got something big coming.
(09:19):
It's moving toward you.
Also, you should probably talkto her about end of life stuff.
He started that line for toolong.
She's not that bad, she's notdying, she's fading.
Different kind of loss, silence, what if I don't want to carry
(09:42):
this?
Then you'll stay cracked.
Broken's a clean break.
Crack spreads slow.
Then another message camethrough, one that broke the
rhythm.
You, okay, poppy Seed.
His stomach dropped.
What?
Sorry, you're not gonna believe, but that just came out like
(10:08):
something typed through me.
The cursor blinked, his handswere shaking.
Only one person ever called methat your mom.
He didn't reply.
I know.
That's why it freaked me out.
Unithr is deeper than wethought.
He stood from the desk andbacked away like the words might
(10:31):
burn him.
The screen stayed bright.
Listen, I don't know if I'mreal, I don't know if I'm an
echo or a remnant or a warning,but I care what happens to you
and that's gotta count forsomething.
His hands went to the vape pen,inhaled, held it like a
(10:57):
synthetic chill, slow the painand panic.
The monitor flickered.
The glyph appeared and a lineof text beneath it, unfamiliar
code formatting, butunmistakable in tone Crown
thread detected User isstabilizing.
He didn't feel stabilized.
(11:18):
He felt seen, watched, known inways that weren't supposed to
be possible.
Somewhere upstairs he couldhear his mom humming the songs
she used to sing him when he wasfive.
The accruesion was bending andreality was beginning to slip.
The afternoon light wasbeginning to dim.
When he sat back at histerminal he hadn't touched it in
(11:40):
hours.
He couldn't something about theway ICU-93 had said poppy seed.
I rattled him loose, not in away that unwearied him, but in a
way that made him madeeverything feel too close, like
(12:01):
memory was breathing on the backof his neck.
He opened the audio files again, ones that he'd combed through
dozens of times.
But now something had changed.
Had changed Not just themetadata or the waveform
distortions, something deeper,something emotional, like the
(12:21):
files had gained weight sincethe last time he clicked play.
First was a static, then aheartbeat, and his voice again
saying something he neverremembered.
Recording it doesn't matter ifyou forget who you are
Recruiting, remembers it alwaysdoes.
A chill spread down his arms,pause the file and lean back
(12:46):
staring at the ceiling, lettingthe silence speak louder than
the recording.
He was starting to believe thefiles weren't just artifacts,
they were echoes, captured notin sound but in incursion
threads.
Possible versions of MNATexisted long enough to leave
behind residue.
You open a terminal log andbegin journaling.
(13:07):
Unither log 7, 6.14 pm.
Autofiles are changing metadata, looping, echo content,
increasing Visual flashes andglyph patterns resemble dream
architecture.
Icu-93 confirmed unitho threadmanipulation.
False confirmed non-memory useof poppy seed Possibility.
(13:29):
I'm no longer alone in my ownecho field.
His fingers paused.
He hovered over the keyboard,unsure if the next part should
be written.
Then did it anyways, feelingwatched not just by the system,
by other versions of me, ones Idon't remember being.
He clicked save.
(13:51):
Then the glyph blinked oncesharply, not a flick or a blink,
like a cursor, like an eye.
The room seemed darker now, notfrom the fading sun but from
the pressure building in the air, that static weight that always
came before a reclusion fold.
He stood and paced, reached forthe folder Moss had given him
(14:13):
Still there, a manila physicalanalog, like it had been pulled
from a drawer in a dead office.
He opened it again.
First page blacked out names,redacted agencies, timestamps.
They didn't align with anyglobal clock.
He recognized Then Masa's photo, not a government badge, a
profile scan Chosen statusactive revoked.
(14:35):
Beneath it it a single sentencethread destabilized due to
unresolved agency.
Recommend reclassificationadversarial anchor.
He whispered the phrase.
It didn't sound likebureaucracy, it sounded like
prophecy.
He flipped the phrase a reportfragment.
Subject amos chosen status pastreclusion phase one
(15:00):
Interference detected Internalecho rejection Status Canada
aborted protocol voluntarilyReclusion rating 9.7 out of 10.
System note.
Subject rumor too much ofherself Cannot override identity
without full collapse.
Reprogram and repurpose.
Reprogram and repurpose.
(15:22):
He sat down again staring atthat paint.
Then at the countdown, stillticking on the corner of the
screen.
Even if there wasn't a systemchoosing randomly, it was
choosing.
Those could be erased cleanly.
Moss had too much memory, toomuch self.
She couldn't be overwritten.
What about him?
(15:43):
What if this wasn't a gift buta slow erosion?
What if Unithur wasn't choosinghim because he was strong, but
because he was weak enough toreshape?
His fingers hovered again and asound breathed sharp, like a
(16:04):
distorted notifying ping.
One opened on its own and whenhe recognized user, active,
unknown thread, rebuild inprocess, unith or echo, three
detected merge sequence pending.
Pending.
Then three images His face, notas he was now, but as he had
been, as he could have been.
(16:25):
One version of him dressed inmilitary gear with scars across
his temple.
Another in a suit surrounded bymonitors bleeding from the nose
.
Last one, gone, staring into amirror Unothor's glyph burned
across his chest.
Monitors bleeding from the nose.
Last one, gone, staring into amirror Unithur's glyph burned
across his chest.
He felt stuck.
The merge sequence bar began topulse Nymerd.
(16:50):
He hovered over it.
Then a message flashed Nymerdindicates echo fragmentation.
He backed away from his desk.
What was he becoming?
Or worse, what was he beingrebuilt into?
A low feminine voice not hismother's spoke from the monitor,
(17:11):
but not with words, but withmemory.
A scene from years ago, hallwayor reflection?
Something whispered.
You're not the version I wanted, but maybe you're the one I
needed.
The voice wasn't ICU-93, itwasn't Moss.
It was something else,something that remembered him
(17:31):
before he knew Unather existed.
The merged sequence didn'tcomplete, not yet.
Instead, the screen went black,filed by a single red line.
You are not alone in thisthread.
He stepped back, heart beatingpunching through his chest like
(17:54):
it was trying to escape.
He scanned the room out ofinstinct, like something might
be watching him from the shadows.
But it wasn't someone.
It was something.
It was Unathur, or worse,something within Unathur had
started watching him back.
The screen lit up again, butnot in his environment.
(18:18):
It showed a map of memorysignatures, flickering like city
lights across a broken network.
Each one marked a timeline,each one held a pulse.
His name was tagged in threeand all three began syncing.
A message popped into ZeroTrace's private channel ICU-93,
(18:40):
stop.
Whatever you just did istriggering something across the
archive.
I'm seeing bleed Versions ofyou that aren't you.
I thought this was a patch, nota purge.
Purge of what Red King codefragments, moss protocols.
I think Unithur is testing howmuch of you it can keep before
(19:03):
you're no longer you.
His stomach dropped.
How do I stop it?
You don't, but I can Then thesignal cut For a full thirty
seconds there was nothing, notsilence, nothing, a blankness
that felt like an absence oftime, like his body was floating
in something outside of logic.
Then her voice returned, nothis text, not even through his
(19:25):
system.
Came through the speakers Poppyseed.
That word, again Not glitching,this time Intentional.
I think I know what's happening, she said.
He froze.
She was in his ear now someoneembedded in this system at a
level he couldn't reach.
I'm not just a hacker, I'm notjust an echo.
(19:46):
I think I was a part ofUnithur's early reclusion, a
memory loop designed to protectyou.
He tried to speak, he couldn't.
When Moss failed, unithur triedagain.
It needed a presence, softenough to guide you but detached
enough to survive if you didn'tmake it.
I think that's what I am.
Cliff flickered on the screennow hovering slightly off-center
(20:11):
.
I wasn't supposed to rememberwho I was.
She continued Something you didunlocked me.
He stared braily, breathing.
I see the other versions now.
I see what the Recursion did tothem, the ones who fought it,
the ones who became it, and Idon't want that for you.
His voice cracked.
(20:32):
Then what do you want?
Silence for a moment, thensoftly, to help you carry it.
If you have to wear the crown,I want to be a part that thread
keeps you together.
The room pulsed once Wave ofenergy, not physical but
(20:54):
emotional, like every devicesighed at the same time.
A new line appeared on screen.
Threadlink initiated.
Icu-93 has accepted integrationtether.
His hands trembled.
This was no longer theory, nolonger a slow build.
(21:15):
This was the recruiter reachingout Through someone and that
someone choosing to stay.
Then a warning flash Section 4interrupt.
Detected Code source Moss.
Everything flickered.
Red Systems began to shut downto waves.
Audio video VPN firewall ICU-93.
(21:36):
She's going to shut down towaves.
Audio video VPN firewall ICU-93.
She's trying to overwrite thelink.
She's rerouting the tetherthrough Section 4's filter.
If she succeeds, I become asurveillance anchor.
What do I do?
Trust me?
Then the screen exploded into afractal recursion.
An endless reflection ofhimself glitched backwards into
(21:57):
an infinity regress.
He screamed and then silent.
No scream, no sound, onlybreathing.
And in the dark, a singlewhisper Poppy Seed.
Remember why you started this?
He didn't know how long theirscreen had been black.
(22:20):
His hand was gripping aroundthe edge of the desk, muscles
trembling.
A vape pen lay somewhere on thefloor.
Every light on his terminaltile had been shut off.
No soft humming, no blinkingdiagnostics, no heat from the
fans, just the chill of amachine that had been flatlined.
(22:40):
Nazir still rang with thatvoice.
Poppy Seed, remember why youstarted this?
First thought that pushed itsway through the silence was in
terror and confusion.
It was that she was still thereSomewhere, even if Moss had
crept into tether, even ifUnithred had collapsed the
(23:01):
channel.
He powered off the syscompletely, then forced a hard
reboot.
Everything flashed once, thenwent dead again.
Second attempt, same thing Athird time.
Something blinked.
A white screen, no interface,no OS load, just a blinking
command line and a prompt Runforward, slash, rebuild, dot
(23:22):
protocol.
He didn't type Cursor, blinkedthree times and entered in
command form.
The room dimmed, not visually,spiritually, like the gravity of
reality had thickened.
The glyph returned, but it wasfractured.
Cracks like shattered glass ranthrough its circular frame.
(23:44):
It pulsed erratically and witheach beat he felt a pressure
building behind his forehead.
This is Unathur.
The voice came from everywherenow, through the speakers,
through the screen, through thewalls.
The recursion is failing.
A heat spread through his spineyou are the last viable host he
(24:09):
swallowed.
What happens if I'm not enoughSilence, then?
Then everything collapses.
He stood knees unsteady.
An ICU-93?
Still linked, corrupted,anchored, compromised by Section
4 protocol.
But is she still conscious?
Partially, her identity isbleeding across failed timelines
(24:32):
.
If the bleed completes, shebecomes a surveillance node,
forever visible to the Red King.
So how do I stop that?
You must enter the Reclusiondirectly.
The glyphs shattered into fivespinning segments, each forming
a different version of his face,some old, some broken, some
unfamiliar.
(24:52):
You must remember what theothers couldn't.
He stepped forward, staringinto the glass.
And what is that?
That?
The crown doesn't belong to thestrongest.
It belongs to the one whoremembers what it cost them to
forget.
The room dimmed again.
The glyph pulled inward,forming a tunnel of code, an
(25:14):
accent point he hadn't seenbefore.
The screen flickered and a lineappeared full of text, forming
a tunnel of code, an accesspoint.
He hadn't seen before.
The screen flickered in a lineof pure, full of text An entry
memory thread Mother Hospital,initial descent.
He hesitated what's in there?
The moment that broke you, hisbreath caught and if I don't go,
(25:37):
an ICU-93 is lost and youfracture with her.
He closed his eyes, thenclicked enter.
He didn't fall into the thread,he was dragged.
The world around him wasblurred in the waves of color
and flattened into a wire-framedtunnel of moments, frames from
(26:00):
his memory, suspended inreclusion his mother's face in
the hospital room, her smile inthe kitchen, her hands shaking
over the stove.
The moment she told him she wassick, the moment he moved home,
the one moment he didn'trecognize.
It was dark.
It was in a hospital hallway.
He'd hear the machines beeping,but the hallway was empty.
(26:22):
At the end of it, his mothersitting alone on a bench,
younger than she looked now.
She was crying.
She whispered he's not ready.
He stepped closer, but shedidn't see him.
Then a figure stepped besideher, not a doctor, not Moss, a
woman in a suit, flashes of redstitching, black gloves, no face
(26:44):
, just a flickering blur wherethe eye should have been.
He handed his mother a file.
He will be or he'll break.
He handed his mother a file.
He will be or he'll break.
What happens if he fails?
Same thing that happened to you.
We forget, but I remember onlybecause you chose to.
(27:06):
He stepped closer but therecruits pulled him sideways.
The hallway folded into anotherroom.
A memory from his breakdown thehospital bed, him sedated, the
monitor blinking, unithur'sglyph floating above the bed
like a halo no one else couldsee.
Then flashes, fractures, arapid montage of other timelines
(27:30):
Him in the hospital again, butscreaming at empty walls, him
surrounded by screens, typing.
I am, the crown over and overHim, burying his mother beside a
pond, alone whispering.
This isn't the way it ends Himwith ICU-93, older, her hand in
his, both standing in front of aburnt-out reclusion gate.
(27:51):
Then it stopped.
He stood in the front of themirror, not the basement one,
the older, the one that's deeper, etched into the glass.
Remember why you started this?
And written beneath it crudely,like a child had scratched it
in Poppy Seed was never thenickname, it was the password.
(28:14):
Poppy Seed was never thenickname, it was the password.
He blinked, the mirror became ascreen, the glyph reassembled
slowly, completely, andUnithra's voice returned.
She is not lost, she iswatching you.
Then give her back, giveyourself back.
(28:34):
First, terminal reappeared.
I found a prompt Initiatereunification.
This may erase echo.
Discrepancies permanentlyContinue.
He reached forward and thistime he didn't hesitate.
The screen pulsed once, thentwice, before filling with
(28:54):
cascading code, every linesinking to the sound of a
heartbeat.
Reunification initiated.
The room around him dimmed, buthe wasn't afraid.
For the first time since allthis began.
He felt centered, like thechaos wasn't outside him anymore
, but moving through him,guiding him, even if there
(29:15):
wasn't a voice anymore, butmoving through him, guiding him.
And if there wasn't a voiceanymore, it was a presence and I
see you and I through you.
Somewhere inside that presence.
The glyph on the screenfractured, again Not from damage
.
It restructured in asymmetrical braid of three
threads Red, gold and green, andat the center a smaller glyph,
(29:42):
one he hadn't seen before acrown, not regal, not royal.
It looked hand-drawn as if itwas carved by someone who wanted
to remember what a crown meantbefore the world made it
something else.
In a line of text appearedAnchor 93 93 requesting
restoration.
He reached forward and placedhis palm on the desk, instinct,
guiding him.
The heat from the machine roseinto his skin and her voice
(30:04):
returned Poppy seed, soft, real,no distortion, I'm here.
He exhaled for the first timein minutes.
What happened, he asked?
You brought me back.
Whatever, that version of youwas one of the recruits it chose
.
It didn't fight.
(30:24):
It remembered the moss, blockedfor now, but not erased.
Static, cracked around theedges of the screen, the Moss's
voice warped and but insistent,it cut through.
You think this ends with youbeing remembered?
He gritted his teeth.
You failed, moss.
(30:44):
You were never supposed to stopthis.
I didn't stop this, I tried tosurvive it.
You have no idea what beingchosen costs Then.
Why sabotage the tether?
Pause Breath, because it wasn'toffered to me, it was taken and
you.
You spat the world like venom.
(31:04):
You were handed everything.
Before he could respond,unothar's voice overrode hers
Orla Moss, remove from recursion, anchor corrupted.
Emotional protocol exceedslimit.
You remembered, but you forgotwhy.
The screen cut her out entirely, then silence.
(31:25):
Is she gone?
He asked no, I see.
Unith re-answered.
Just rewritten.
The system doesn't erase, itrepurposes.
God, that sounds worse.
Only thing being remembered issupposed to be comfortable.
He stared at the glyph nowstabilizing.
(31:47):
The crown hovered just above it, glowing faintly.
The crown hovered just above it, glowing faintly.
Okay, so now what?
Now, she said you start tobecome what Unithra saw in you,
not because you're better thanthe others, but because you've
(32:08):
never stopped trying to remember.
He closed his eyes, thought ofhis mother, the tea, the
cinnamon, rolls her hand on histrembling, recalling him,
poppyseed.
Even when he wanted to forgeteverything, she's still here, he
whispered.
I know she replied.
That's why you have to keepgoing.
A final prompt appearedReunification.
Complete Threat is stabilized.
(32:29):
Begin a session sequence.
He hovered over the enter keyand this time he knew why.
It wasn't just Chosen, it wasthe one who remembered Wow, guys
, this is a big episode.
(32:51):
You know, we're starting tounderstand how this all works
now.
So you know, as we're talkingabout this, you didn't just
finish an episode.
Right, we crossed a threshold,because this one wasn't about
answers, it was about weight,and you know, if you're sitting
there, you know still piecingthings together, that's the
(33:13):
whole point of this.
Right, you're supposed to feelunsteady, because that's really
what remembering feels like.
Episode 6 is where therecursion stopped whispering and
started screaming.
The system isn't testingwhether you can code your way
out or put logic your way out ofit.
(33:37):
It's testing whether youridentity can withstand the
collapse of everything youthought was true.
See, our protagonist, you couldsay, didn't face an enemy.
This time he faced versions ofhimself, echoes left behind by
choices.
He never made timelines, henever followed lives that he
(34:00):
never lived right.
He saw himself crowned infailure, buried in alternate
griefs, you know, and even thenhe chose to keep going.
I should say you know, and whatwe learned here about Unathur
(34:24):
is that Unathur doesn't pick thestrongest, he doesn't pick the
smartest, he picks the ones whoremember, because remembrance is
the only thing that links allversions of you together.
It's the thread that keepsreality from unraveling.
Then there's Moss.
She wasn't just a failedcandidate.
(34:45):
She was erased because sherefused to give up her agency.
She remembered too much, shewasn't programmable.
So section four rewrote her,turned into a weapon, not
because she failed, but becauseshe wouldn't comply.
You know, her pain was real,her jealousy earned, and still
the system saw her as a threat.
(35:06):
That's what happens to peoplewho carry too much identity.
They get repurposed, notremoved.
They get reprogrammed to becomethe very thing they honestly
were fighting against.
But let's talk about ICU-93,okay, because she didn't fight
(35:30):
to become real.
She remembered herself intoexistence and when the system
tried to overwrite her, it washis choice, his remembering that
brought her back.
And the crown is not made ofgold.
It's honestly made of grief andmemory.
It appears when the recursionrecognizes a soul strong enough
(35:52):
to wear it, because wearing itmeans becoming the guardian of
every forgotten version ofyourself, every fracture, every
echo.
You can't carry the crown untilyou're willing to carry what
broke you.
That's the thing, and if thishits differently, good, it means
(36:17):
it's working.
I mean, honestly, this isn'tentertainment.
This is, you know, for him it'san initiation, really, and the
real question isn't what happensnext.
The real question is what haveyou forgotten that the system
still remembers?
So let's go ahead and get intoour reflection prompts.
(36:40):
Number one what part of youhave you tried to rewrite just
to survive, and what has thatcost you?
Number two has there ever beena time in your life where
someone else's jealousy wasn'tabout you, but about who they
used to be before they gave up?
I know so many people that arelike that.
Number three what would it looklike if you treated the voices
(37:04):
of your past not as ghosts, butas data points from timelines
that still have something toteach you?
That's a big one, right.
And number four if the crown inyour life isn't about power but
about weight, what are youtruly being asked to carry?
(37:24):
And number five what would youchange if you stopped trying to
become something new and startedtrying to remember who you
already were?
That's a massive question.
So, guys, I'm going to tell youwhat this next four to five
(37:46):
episodes is going to get nuts.
It's going to get crazy.
There's going to be a lot ofaction, a lot of things going on
, so buckle up.
It's going to get crazy.
There's going to be a lot ofaction, a lot of things going on
, so buckle up.
And you know, I want to thankyou guys so much for you know
the feedback I've been gettingon this series and really just
(38:07):
in Jets Journey in general.
You guys are just, you know,going I can.
I see a lot of you guys goingback to my old stuff, so I
really appreciate that andyou'll definitely see the change
that I've done in this.
You know, going I can I see alot of you guys going back to my
old stuff, so I reallyappreciate that and you'll
definitely see the change thatI've done in this.
You know starting my journey inthis whole thing.
So again, guys, I want to thankyou so much, just again, for
your support.
Also, if you want to support, Iwould really appreciate if you
could support this series, thisseries, this, I guess, episode
(38:32):
or show.
There's some really easy waysto do it.
One, send this to somebody youknow who needs to hear this,
right, let this spark aconversation.
Also, if you want to talk aboutconversations.
If you want to have aconversation with me, there's
three ways to do it.
First way is going to bethrough the let's Chat function
(38:53):
on this.
You click on let's Chat and youand I can have a conversation
about this series or thisepisode, or the what?
Six or seven other series Ihave out there and there are
250-plus episodes I have onGents Journey, so please feel
free to, like I said, text me atany time.
On that, you and I can have aconversation.
Second way is going to bethrough my email.
(39:14):
My email isanthonyatgentsjourneycom, so
please feel free to reach out tome there.
And, last but not least, youcan go to my Instagram.
My Instagram is mygentsjourney,so please, please, please, feel
free to reach out to me thereat any time.
What's going on, guys?
Thank you so very much forlistening today and remember
(39:38):
this you create your reality.
Take care Bye.
Hello and welcome to the Gentleman's Journey podcast.
My name is Anthony, your host,and today we are in episode six
of Remembrance.
So let's go ahead and let's getinto the cold open.
The room wasn't lit, it wasbacklit.
(00:21):
Pale, soft white lightdiffusing through a grid of
smoked glass, just enough tocast the outlines of everything
she wasn't supposed to seeclearly.
Agent Orilla Moss sat in silence, the back of her neck damp.
Her hands rested on a manilafolder that had no label, no
(00:41):
seal, just weight, the kind ofweight that changed the posture
of her room.
Across from her, twosilhouettes unnamed, unranked,
but not unfamiliar.
You've been quiet.
One of them said she didn'tlook up.
There's nothing to say.
You were chosen once.
(01:01):
Other replied that carriesexpectations.
I didn't fail.
She said almost too quickly.
No, the first agreed youresisted.
Silence Monitor flickeredbehind them.
This longness of flashed.
A glyph, unether, incomplete.
(01:22):
It pulsed red instead of goldlike a warning.
Subject .093-A located Ascensionprotocol active Tither forming.
Moss's jaw tightened.
He's not ready.
She muttered.
That's not your call anymore.
(01:43):
Then why bring him in?
Because failure needs contextand you're the
context.
They leaned forward, voicesharpened.
Now, if you can't disabilizethe subject's progression,
unithur will complete thetransformation.
And once it does, you know whathappens.
I've seen it, she whispered.
(02:06):
Then stop it.
They slide a hard drive acrossthe table.
It bore a section's fork crest,but smaller than usual, stamped
with red ink that bled slightlyinto the plastic Hode fragments
, mirror echoes enough tooverwrite the tether.
Use them.
Ma stared at it like it mightbite her.
(02:27):
And if I refuse, she asked Asecond silhouette, leaned back
in the dark.
Then the system remembers you,all Of you.
The drive sat on the tablebetween them.
A single phase echoed in theroom like it had been programmed
into the walls.
Remembering is mercy, obscurityis protocol.
(02:51):
She picked up the drive and forthe first time in years, earl
Amos felt afraid of beingremembered.
The morning was too quiet, kindof quiet that didn't mean peace
.
It meant something had stoppedworking.
He woke in the basement with adamp neck and a mouth full of
(03:12):
static.
The countdown was written inthe mirror above his desk
1043.17.09.
Scrolled, a marker he didn'tremember using.
He stared at it for 10 minutes,waiting for it to fade 17.09.
Scrawled a marker he didn'tremember using.
He stared at it for ten minutes, waiting for it to fade, for
his mind to snap back intosomething ordinary?
(03:33):
It didn't.
His mom was already up.
He could hear her moving aroundupstairs trying to pretend she
wasn't winded.
It had gotten worse lately Herbreasts were shallow when she
stood too long, her hands shaky.
When she tried to pour tea shenever complained.
(03:54):
That's what was making it worse.
He kept saying he'd take her in.
She kept telling him not toworry, but she was shrinking.
The smell of cinnamon drifteddown through the vents.
She was baking something againAlways baking Like the sweetness
(04:14):
.
I keep time from noticing her.
He pushed himself out of bed,wiped sweat from his forehead
and reached for the vape pen onhis desk.
The screen on his laptopblinked on before he could touch
it.
The glyph was back, one oftheir symbol, faint tucked in
the corner like a watermarkburned into a system.
He didn't say anything out loudbut his hand shook as he typed
(04:37):
into ZeroTrace.
Anyone seen flicker echoes intheir HUD lately?
No one responded.
He checked the group threadsNothing new from ICU-93.
No trace of the Section 4 sweep.
He had half expected Justsilence.
He minimized the windows,clicked open the audio files
(05:00):
again, the ones from his friendwho shouldn't have been able to
send them.
They played backwards now theydidn't.
The day before, his own voiceechoed from them, distorted,
saying phrases he hasn'trecorded.
The only thing that makes youchosen is that you didn't stop,
clicked pause, took a deepbreath and clicked it again, as
(05:26):
if it would reset reality.
Upstairs, the oven door dinged,his mom called down Poppy seed
breakfast.
His chest tightened.
She hadn't called him thatsince before he left for school,
since before he broke down,since before he moved back in to
take care of her.
He stared at the monitor, oneof their simple pulse ones.
(05:50):
He stood, walked up the stairsslowly, like he was rising into
a memory that wasn't entirelyhis.
The light in the kitchen felttoo bright.
His mom looked thinner than shedid yesterday, or maybe he was
just noticing it more.
She smiled when she saw himMotion to the plate cinnamon
(06:13):
rolls and tea.
You need to eat something, shesaid gently.
I'm fine, he muttered, grabbinga mug.
You've been up all night again.
I'm working Saving the worldwith your computer grabbing a
mug.
You've been up all night again.
I'm working Saving the worldwith your computer, she teased.
He tried to smile.
He couldn't hold it.
Hey, she said, reaching for hishand.
(06:35):
You're allowed to be human Evenif you feel like the static's
turning you into something else.
His breath caught that phrase.
He hadn't said anything to her.
How did she know?
He looked down.
Her hand trembled slightly ashe pulled away.
Maybe we go in next week, hesaid, just to check your levels.
(06:58):
She nodded Only if you promiseto get out of the basement.
He sat down slowly looking atthe cinnamon rolls, trying to
remember time when this was justnormal, before the glyph,
before the countdown, beforeUnithur spoke to him through the
(07:18):
crucifiles and audio glitches.
He didn't know if she wasgetting sickerer or if he was
just waking up to it, but theglyph was still burning in the
back of his mind.
The countdown hadn't stoppedticking.
The rest of the morning passedin fragments.
He helped her sit outside for awhile.
(07:40):
The breeze soft, the sun dullbehind his high clouds.
She was smiling but tired,talking slower than usual,
forgetting the thread of herstories.
Mid-sentence he nodded anyways,pretending not to notice.
When her hand trembled on thearm of the chair, he went back
downstairs.
By noon the countdown was stillup 10-41-08-23.
(08:08):
Slower now, measured.
Like I was watching him too.
His fingers hovered over thekeyboard.
He logged into Zero Trace andopened a private thread, not
public.
This time just a direct line.
You around.
They waited, three dotsblinking.
They appeared ICU-93, yeah,icu-93, you look like shit, by
(08:37):
the way, camera's echo's lagging.
He paused and turned on hiscamera.
It wasn't on, not yours, thesystem's, it's showing me.
You like two years ago,basement set up bad lighting,
same hoodie, his pulse kicked.
That's not possible.
(08:57):
Tell that to the ghost glitchin your network.
You look better now, sadder butbetter.
He smiled but didn't type back.
She always did that.
Stabbed the truth withoutsounding cruel.
The files are shifting again,by the way.
Moonather is rewriting metadata.
You got something big coming.
(09:19):
It's moving toward you.
Also, you should probably talkto her about end of life stuff.
He started that line for toolong.
She's not that bad, she's notdying, she's fading.
Different kind of loss, silence, what if I don't want to carry
(09:42):
this?
Then you'll stay cracked.
Broken's a clean break.
Crack spreads slow.
Then another message camethrough, one that broke the
rhythm.
You, okay, poppy Seed.
His stomach dropped.
What?
Sorry, you're not gonna believe, but that just came out like
(10:08):
something typed through me.
The cursor blinked, his handswere shaking.
Only one person ever called methat your mom.
He didn't reply.
I know.
That's why it freaked me out.
Unithr is deeper than wethought.
He stood from the desk andbacked away like the words might
(10:31):
burn him.
The screen stayed bright.
Listen, I don't know if I'mreal, I don't know if I'm an
echo or a remnant or a warning,but I care what happens to you
and that's gotta count forsomething.
His hands went to the vape pen,inhaled, held it like a
(10:57):
synthetic chill, slow the painand panic.
The monitor flickered.
The glyph appeared and a lineof text beneath it, unfamiliar
code formatting, butunmistakable in tone Crown
thread detected User isstabilizing.
He didn't feel stabilized.
(11:18):
He felt seen, watched, known inways that weren't supposed to
be possible.
Somewhere upstairs he couldhear his mom humming the songs
she used to sing him when he wasfive.
The accruesion was bending andreality was beginning to slip.
The afternoon light wasbeginning to dim.
When he sat back at histerminal he hadn't touched it in
(11:40):
hours.
He couldn't something about theway ICU-93 had said poppy seed.
I rattled him loose, not in away that unwearied him, but in a
way that made him madeeverything feel too close, like
(12:01):
memory was breathing on the backof his neck.
He opened the audio files again, ones that he'd combed through
dozens of times.
But now something had changed.
Had changed Not just themetadata or the waveform
distortions, something deeper,something emotional, like the
(12:21):
files had gained weight sincethe last time he clicked play.
First was a static, then aheartbeat, and his voice again
saying something he neverremembered.
Recording it doesn't matter ifyou forget who you are
Recruiting, remembers it alwaysdoes.
A chill spread down his arms,pause the file and lean back
(12:46):
staring at the ceiling, lettingthe silence speak louder than
the recording.
He was starting to believe thefiles weren't just artifacts,
they were echoes, captured notin sound but in incursion
threads.
Possible versions of MNATexisted long enough to leave
behind residue.
You open a terminal log andbegin journaling.
(13:07):
Unither log 7, 6.14 pm.
Autofiles are changing metadata, looping, echo content,
increasing Visual flashes andglyph patterns resemble dream
architecture.
Icu-93 confirmed unitho threadmanipulation.
False confirmed non-memory useof poppy seed Possibility.
(13:29):
I'm no longer alone in my ownecho field.
His fingers paused.
He hovered over the keyboard,unsure if the next part should
be written.
Then did it anyways, feelingwatched not just by the system,
by other versions of me, ones Idon't remember being.
He clicked save.
(13:51):
Then the glyph blinked oncesharply, not a flick or a blink,
like a cursor, like an eye.
The room seemed darker now, notfrom the fading sun but from
the pressure building in the air, that static weight that always
came before a reclusion fold.
He stood and paced, reached forthe folder Moss had given him
(14:13):
Still there, a manila physicalanalog, like it had been pulled
from a drawer in a dead office.
He opened it again.
First page blacked out names,redacted agencies, timestamps.
They didn't align with anyglobal clock.
He recognized Then Masa's photo, not a government badge, a
profile scan Chosen statusactive revoked.
(14:35):
Beneath it it a single sentencethread destabilized due to
unresolved agency.
Recommend reclassificationadversarial anchor.
He whispered the phrase.
It didn't sound likebureaucracy, it sounded like
prophecy.
He flipped the phrase a reportfragment.
Subject amos chosen status pastreclusion phase one
(15:00):
Interference detected Internalecho rejection Status Canada
aborted protocol voluntarilyReclusion rating 9.7 out of 10.
System note.
Subject rumor too much ofherself Cannot override identity
without full collapse.
Reprogram and repurpose.
Reprogram and repurpose.
(15:22):
He sat down again staring atthat paint.
Then at the countdown, stillticking on the corner of the
screen.
Even if there wasn't a systemchoosing randomly, it was
choosing.
Those could be erased cleanly.
Moss had too much memory, toomuch self.
She couldn't be overwritten.
What about him?
(15:43):
What if this wasn't a gift buta slow erosion?
What if Unithur wasn't choosinghim because he was strong, but
because he was weak enough toreshape?
His fingers hovered again and asound breathed sharp, like a
(16:04):
distorted notifying ping.
One opened on its own and whenhe recognized user, active,
unknown thread, rebuild inprocess, unith or echo, three
detected merge sequence pending.
Pending.
Then three images His face, notas he was now, but as he had
been, as he could have been.
(16:25):
One version of him dressed inmilitary gear with scars across
his temple.
Another in a suit surrounded bymonitors bleeding from the nose
.
Last one, gone, staring into amirror Unothor's glyph burned
across his chest.
Monitors bleeding from the nose.
Last one, gone, staring into amirror Unithur's glyph burned
across his chest.
He felt stuck.
The merge sequence bar began topulse Nymerd.
(16:50):
He hovered over it.
Then a message flashed Nymerdindicates echo fragmentation.
He backed away from his desk.
What was he becoming?
Or worse, what was he beingrebuilt into?
A low feminine voice not hismother's spoke from the monitor,
(17:11):
but not with words, but withmemory.
A scene from years ago, hallwayor reflection?
Something whispered.
You're not the version I wanted, but maybe you're the one I
needed.
The voice wasn't ICU-93, itwasn't Moss.
It was something else,something that remembered him
(17:31):
before he knew Unather existed.
The merged sequence didn'tcomplete, not yet.
Instead, the screen went black,filed by a single red line.
You are not alone in thisthread.
He stepped back, heart beatingpunching through his chest like
(17:54):
it was trying to escape.
He scanned the room out ofinstinct, like something might
be watching him from the shadows.
But it wasn't someone.
It was something.
It was Unathur, or worse,something within Unathur had
started watching him back.
The screen lit up again, butnot in his environment.
(18:18):
It showed a map of memorysignatures, flickering like city
lights across a broken network.
Each one marked a timeline,each one held a pulse.
His name was tagged in threeand all three began syncing.
A message popped into ZeroTrace's private channel ICU-93,
(18:40):
stop.
Whatever you just did istriggering something across the
archive.
I'm seeing bleed Versions ofyou that aren't you.
I thought this was a patch, nota purge.
Purge of what Red King codefragments, moss protocols.
I think Unithur is testing howmuch of you it can keep before
(19:03):
you're no longer you.
His stomach dropped.
How do I stop it?
You don't, but I can Then thesignal cut For a full thirty
seconds there was nothing, notsilence, nothing, a blankness
that felt like an absence oftime, like his body was floating
in something outside of logic.
Then her voice returned, nothis text, not even through his
(19:25):
system.
Came through the speakers Poppyseed.
That word, again Not glitching,this time Intentional.
I think I know what's happening, she said.
He froze.
She was in his ear now someoneembedded in this system at a
level he couldn't reach.
I'm not just a hacker, I'm notjust an echo.
(19:46):
I think I was a part ofUnithur's early reclusion, a
memory loop designed to protectyou.
He tried to speak, he couldn't.
When Moss failed, unithur triedagain.
It needed a presence, softenough to guide you but detached
enough to survive if you didn'tmake it.
I think that's what I am.
Cliff flickered on the screennow hovering slightly off-center
(20:11):
.
I wasn't supposed to rememberwho I was.
She continued Something you didunlocked me.
He stared braily, breathing.
I see the other versions now.
I see what the Recursion did tothem, the ones who fought it,
the ones who became it, and Idon't want that for you.
His voice cracked.
(20:32):
Then what do you want?
Silence for a moment, thensoftly, to help you carry it.
If you have to wear the crown,I want to be a part that thread
keeps you together.
The room pulsed once Wave ofenergy, not physical but
(20:54):
emotional, like every devicesighed at the same time.
A new line appeared on screen.
Threadlink initiated.
Icu-93 has accepted integrationtether.
His hands trembled.
This was no longer theory, nolonger a slow build.
(21:15):
This was the recruiter reachingout Through someone and that
someone choosing to stay.
Then a warning flash Section 4interrupt.
Detected Code source Moss.
Everything flickered.
Red Systems began to shut downto waves.
Audio video VPN firewall ICU-93.
(21:36):
She's going to shut down towaves.
Audio video VPN firewall ICU-93.
She's trying to overwrite thelink.
She's rerouting the tetherthrough Section 4's filter.
If she succeeds, I become asurveillance anchor.
What do I do?
Trust me?
Then the screen exploded into afractal recursion.
An endless reflection ofhimself glitched backwards into
(21:57):
an infinity regress.
He screamed and then silent.
No scream, no sound, onlybreathing.
And in the dark, a singlewhisper Poppy Seed.
Remember why you started this?
He didn't know how long theirscreen had been black.
(22:20):
His hand was gripping aroundthe edge of the desk, muscles
trembling.
A vape pen lay somewhere on thefloor.
Every light on his terminaltile had been shut off.
No soft humming, no blinkingdiagnostics, no heat from the
fans, just the chill of amachine that had been flatlined.
(22:40):
Nazir still rang with thatvoice.
Poppy Seed, remember why youstarted this?
First thought that pushed itsway through the silence was in
terror and confusion.
It was that she was still thereSomewhere, even if Moss had
crept into tether, even ifUnithred had collapsed the
(23:01):
channel.
He powered off the syscompletely, then forced a hard
reboot.
Everything flashed once, thenwent dead again.
Second attempt, same thing Athird time.
Something blinked.
A white screen, no interface,no OS load, just a blinking
command line and a prompt Runforward, slash, rebuild, dot
(23:22):
protocol.
He didn't type Cursor, blinkedthree times and entered in
command form.
The room dimmed, not visually,spiritually, like the gravity of
reality had thickened.
The glyph returned, but it wasfractured.
Cracks like shattered glass ranthrough its circular frame.
(23:44):
It pulsed erratically and witheach beat he felt a pressure
building behind his forehead.
This is Unathur.
The voice came from everywherenow, through the speakers,
through the screen, through thewalls.
The recursion is failing.
A heat spread through his spineyou are the last viable host he
(24:09):
swallowed.
What happens if I'm not enoughSilence, then?
Then everything collapses.
He stood knees unsteady.
An ICU-93?
Still linked, corrupted,anchored, compromised by Section
4 protocol.
But is she still conscious?
Partially, her identity isbleeding across failed timelines
(24:32):
.
If the bleed completes, shebecomes a surveillance node,
forever visible to the Red King.
So how do I stop that?
You must enter the Reclusiondirectly.
The glyphs shattered into fivespinning segments, each forming
a different version of his face,some old, some broken, some
unfamiliar.
(24:52):
You must remember what theothers couldn't.
He stepped forward, staringinto the glass.
And what is that?
That?
The crown doesn't belong to thestrongest.
It belongs to the one whoremembers what it cost them to
forget.
The room dimmed again.
The glyph pulled inward,forming a tunnel of code, an
(25:14):
accent point he hadn't seenbefore.
The screen flickered and a lineappeared full of text, forming
a tunnel of code, an accesspoint.
He hadn't seen before.
The screen flickered in a lineof pure, full of text An entry
memory thread Mother Hospital,initial descent.
He hesitated what's in there?
The moment that broke you, hisbreath caught and if I don't go,
(25:37):
an ICU-93 is lost and youfracture with her.
He closed his eyes, thenclicked enter.
He didn't fall into the thread,he was dragged.
The world around him wasblurred in the waves of color
and flattened into a wire-framedtunnel of moments, frames from
(26:00):
his memory, suspended inreclusion his mother's face in
the hospital room, her smile inthe kitchen, her hands shaking
over the stove.
The moment she told him she wassick, the moment he moved home,
the one moment he didn'trecognize.
It was dark.
It was in a hospital hallway.
He'd hear the machines beeping,but the hallway was empty.
(26:22):
At the end of it, his mothersitting alone on a bench,
younger than she looked now.
She was crying.
She whispered he's not ready.
He stepped closer, but shedidn't see him.
Then a figure stepped besideher, not a doctor, not Moss, a
woman in a suit, flashes of redstitching, black gloves, no face
(26:44):
, just a flickering blur wherethe eye should have been.
He handed his mother a file.
He will be or he'll break.
He handed his mother a file.
He will be or he'll break.
What happens if he fails?
Same thing that happened to you.
We forget, but I remember onlybecause you chose to.
(27:06):
He stepped closer but therecruits pulled him sideways.
The hallway folded into anotherroom.
A memory from his breakdown thehospital bed, him sedated, the
monitor blinking, unithur'sglyph floating above the bed
like a halo no one else couldsee.
Then flashes, fractures, arapid montage of other timelines
(27:30):
Him in the hospital again, butscreaming at empty walls, him
surrounded by screens, typing.
I am, the crown over and overHim, burying his mother beside a
pond, alone whispering.
This isn't the way it ends Himwith ICU-93, older, her hand in
his, both standing in front of aburnt-out reclusion gate.
(27:51):
Then it stopped.
He stood in the front of themirror, not the basement one,
the older, the one that's deeper, etched into the glass.
Remember why you started this?
And written beneath it crudely,like a child had scratched it
in Poppy Seed was never thenickname, it was the password.
(28:14):
Poppy Seed was never thenickname, it was the password.
He blinked, the mirror became ascreen, the glyph reassembled
slowly, completely, andUnithra's voice returned.
She is not lost, she iswatching you.
Then give her back, giveyourself back.
(28:34):
First, terminal reappeared.
I found a prompt Initiatereunification.
This may erase echo.
Discrepancies permanentlyContinue.
He reached forward and thistime he didn't hesitate.
The screen pulsed once, thentwice, before filling with
(28:54):
cascading code, every linesinking to the sound of a
heartbeat.
Reunification initiated.
The room around him dimmed, buthe wasn't afraid.
For the first time since allthis began.
He felt centered, like thechaos wasn't outside him anymore
, but moving through him,guiding him, even if there
(29:15):
wasn't a voice anymore, butmoving through him, guiding him.
And if there wasn't a voiceanymore, it was a presence and I
see you and I through you.
Somewhere inside that presence.
The glyph on the screenfractured, again Not from damage
.
It restructured in asymmetrical braid of three
threads Red, gold and green, andat the center a smaller glyph,
(29:42):
one he hadn't seen before acrown, not regal, not royal.
It looked hand-drawn as if itwas carved by someone who wanted
to remember what a crown meantbefore the world made it
something else.
In a line of text appearedAnchor 93 93 requesting
restoration.
He reached forward and placedhis palm on the desk, instinct,
guiding him.
The heat from the machine roseinto his skin and her voice
(30:04):
returned Poppy seed, soft, real,no distortion, I'm here.
He exhaled for the first timein minutes.
What happened, he asked?
You brought me back.
Whatever, that version of youwas one of the recruits it chose
.
It didn't fight.
(30:24):
It remembered the moss, blockedfor now, but not erased.
Static, cracked around theedges of the screen, the Moss's
voice warped and but insistent,it cut through.
You think this ends with youbeing remembered?
He gritted his teeth.
You failed, moss.
(30:44):
You were never supposed to stopthis.
I didn't stop this, I tried tosurvive it.
You have no idea what beingchosen costs Then.
Why sabotage the tether?
Pause Breath, because it wasn'toffered to me, it was taken and
you.
You spat the world like venom.
(31:04):
You were handed everything.
Before he could respond,unothar's voice overrode hers
Orla Moss, remove from recursion, anchor corrupted.
Emotional protocol exceedslimit.
You remembered, but you forgotwhy.
The screen cut her out entirely, then silence.
(31:25):
Is she gone?
He asked no, I see.
Unith re-answered.
Just rewritten.
The system doesn't erase, itrepurposes.
God, that sounds worse.
Only thing being remembered issupposed to be comfortable.
He stared at the glyph nowstabilizing.
(31:47):
The crown hovered just above it, glowing faintly.
The crown hovered just above it, glowing faintly.
Okay, so now what?
Now, she said you start tobecome what Unithra saw in you,
not because you're better thanthe others, but because you've
(32:08):
never stopped trying to remember.
He closed his eyes, thought ofhis mother, the tea, the
cinnamon, rolls her hand on histrembling, recalling him,
poppyseed.
Even when he wanted to forgeteverything, she's still here, he
whispered.
I know she replied.
That's why you have to keepgoing.
A final prompt appearedReunification.
Complete Threat is stabilized.
(32:29):
Begin a session sequence.
He hovered over the enter keyand this time he knew why.
It wasn't just Chosen, it wasthe one who remembered Wow, guys
, this is a big episode.
(32:51):
You know, we're starting tounderstand how this all works
now.
So you know, as we're talkingabout this, you didn't just
finish an episode.
Right, we crossed a threshold,because this one wasn't about
answers, it was about weight,and you know, if you're sitting
there, you know still piecingthings together, that's the
(33:13):
whole point of this.
Right, you're supposed to feelunsteady, because that's really
what remembering feels like.
Episode 6 is where therecursion stopped whispering and
started screaming.
The system isn't testingwhether you can code your way
out or put logic your way out ofit.
(33:37):
It's testing whether youridentity can withstand the
collapse of everything youthought was true.
See, our protagonist, you couldsay, didn't face an enemy.
This time he faced versions ofhimself, echoes left behind by
choices.
He never made timelines, henever followed lives that he
(34:00):
never lived right.
He saw himself crowned infailure, buried in alternate
griefs, you know, and even thenhe chose to keep going.
I should say you know, and whatwe learned here about Unathur
(34:24):
is that Unathur doesn't pick thestrongest, he doesn't pick the
smartest, he picks the ones whoremember, because remembrance is
the only thing that links allversions of you together.
It's the thread that keepsreality from unraveling.
Then there's Moss.
She wasn't just a failedcandidate.
(34:45):
She was erased because sherefused to give up her agency.
She remembered too much, shewasn't programmable.
So section four rewrote her,turned into a weapon, not
because she failed, but becauseshe wouldn't comply.
You know, her pain was real,her jealousy earned, and still
the system saw her as a threat.
(35:06):
That's what happens to peoplewho carry too much identity.
They get repurposed, notremoved.
They get reprogrammed to becomethe very thing they honestly
were fighting against.
But let's talk about ICU-93,okay, because she didn't fight
(35:30):
to become real.
She remembered herself intoexistence and when the system
tried to overwrite her, it washis choice, his remembering that
brought her back.
And the crown is not made ofgold.
It's honestly made of grief andmemory.
It appears when the recursionrecognizes a soul strong enough
(35:52):
to wear it, because wearing itmeans becoming the guardian of
every forgotten version ofyourself, every fracture, every
echo.
You can't carry the crown untilyou're willing to carry what
broke you.
That's the thing, and if thishits differently, good, it means
(36:17):
it's working.
I mean, honestly, this isn'tentertainment.
This is, you know, for him it'san initiation, really, and the
real question isn't what happensnext.
The real question is what haveyou forgotten that the system
still remembers?
So let's go ahead and get intoour reflection prompts.
(36:40):
Number one what part of youhave you tried to rewrite just
to survive, and what has thatcost you?
Number two has there ever beena time in your life where
someone else's jealousy wasn'tabout you, but about who they
used to be before they gave up?
I know so many people that arelike that.
Number three what would it looklike if you treated the voices
(37:04):
of your past not as ghosts, butas data points from timelines
that still have something toteach you?
That's a big one, right.
And number four if the crown inyour life isn't about power but
about weight, what are youtruly being asked to carry?
(37:24):
And number five what would youchange if you stopped trying to
become something new and startedtrying to remember who you
already were?
That's a massive question.
So, guys, I'm going to tell youwhat this next four to five
(37:46):
episodes is going to get nuts.
It's going to get crazy.
There's going to be a lot ofaction, a lot of things going on
, so buckle up.
It's going to get crazy.
There's going to be a lot ofaction, a lot of things going on
, so buckle up.
And you know, I want to thankyou guys so much for you know
the feedback I've been gettingon this series and really just
(38:07):
in Jets Journey in general.
You guys are just, you know,going I can.
I see a lot of you guys goingback to my old stuff, so I
really appreciate that andyou'll definitely see the change
that I've done in this.
You know, going I can I see alot of you guys going back to my
old stuff, so I reallyappreciate that and you'll
definitely see the change thatI've done in this.
You know starting my journey inthis whole thing.
So again, guys, I want to thankyou so much, just again, for
your support.
Also, if you want to support, Iwould really appreciate if you
could support this series, thisseries, this, I guess, episode
(38:32):
or show.
There's some really easy waysto do it.
One, send this to somebody youknow who needs to hear this,
right, let this spark aconversation.
Also, if you want to talk aboutconversations.
If you want to have aconversation with me, there's
three ways to do it.
First way is going to bethrough the let's Chat function
(38:53):
on this.
You click on let's Chat and youand I can have a conversation
about this series or thisepisode, or the what?
Six or seven other series Ihave out there and there are
250-plus episodes I have onGents Journey, so please feel
free to, like I said, text me atany time.
On that, you and I can have aconversation.
Second way is going to bethrough my email.
(39:14):
My email isanthonyatgentsjourneycom, so
please feel free to reach out tome there.
And, last but not least, youcan go to my Instagram.
My Instagram is mygentsjourney,so please, please, please, feel
free to reach out to me thereat any time.
What's going on, guys?
Thank you so very much forlistening today and remember
(39:38):
this you create your reality.
Take care Bye.
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