In an astounding blur, the events of last week’s Odyssey rush through your mind…
A date turned deadly in the International Mall of the Universe, an insidious digital slavery ring masquerading as an arcade, all out WAR – in the metaverse.
And finally, a hidden revelation… buried deep in the past (of the #announcements channel). UNCOVERED by Fate through a journey so unlikely that only the GRANDEST OF FORCES could push the pieces into place to make it so…
A journey we call… THE SUITES ODYSSEY!
…A journey which we shall now conclude, dear reader, for the next tale awaits eagerly beyond the page.
See you at the end.
—
Ah, that’s right.
Heh… perfect timing…
…
New Dream
Upon remembering, Fib finds himself back in his body… sitting on a bench in the middle of a brick courtyard – the sky above a mixture of soft purples, golden yellows.
“Yeah… this is exactly where I was… right?”
He meanders outward through a gated tunnel and into the winding pathway of a city street, passing one… two basketball courts. People seem to be dressed up in matching garb, grouped together and facing off, competing playfully.
The breeze is crisp, and auburn leaves cross over the pathway in small gusts of wind as Fib remembers the season of Fall exists.
“Fall… the season of Sports.” Fib murmurs to himself, quickly acclimating to the sudden context in which he finds himself.
Through the slim alleyways between friendly looking buildings Fib makes out what appears to be stadiums swirling with differently colored lights, scattered along the now darkening horizon into the distance. Before him, people are making their way to and from their evening destinations, pulled indoors by the autumn chill.
The sun is setting, iron lamps flicker on, the brick pathway Fib walks takes on a new dusky countenance as the colors of the day are now painted all in the same streetlight.
At peace, mind empty, Fib begins to wander up a great hill upon which a tower is visible, cresting above the city. As he makes his approach stars begin to peek out from behind the swirling evening sky. The city is spreading out now, trees are more abundant and piles of dark leaves swirl between the scattered walls.
Fib stands before the tower. Although the dark, almost black stone of its outer walls blends it into the sky, its warmly lit interior shines out through small slitted windows in a spiral towards a great crowned spire. A short gate in a low garden wall opens at Fib’s push, a wild terrace surrounds the base of the tower on all sides but for the pathway towards the entrance, the overgrowth is balanced, purposeful.
A heavy wooden door, Fib stands before it with mild apprehension.
“Life has many doors…” Fib repeats, remembering something from what seems like long ago.
He pushes it forward and it only creaks slightly as he is let into the warm light of the tower.
Looking upwards, a giant chandelier hangs low into the middle of a spiral staircase which stretches forever upwards towards the distant towertop.
Fib begins the ascent, the dizzying spiral staircase extending further and further upwards, the stars in the night sky shifting in a gentle parallax through the windows. His upwards progress unclear but for the chandelier’s position marking the ascent. All of it begins to spin beneath Fib’s feet like clockwork, as if he is walking in place.
But when he finally reaches the top, the polished stone of the stairway vaults itself into a grand atrium in which there appears to be no ceiling but instead a slow, time-lapsing churn of galactic light.
Strange inventions are scattered throughout the space, workshopped partway, games and sports yet unheard of, memorabilia from universally acknowledged athletes – their most glorious moments framed in pictures, spinning holograms, jeweled trophies… All twinkling in the starlight of the endless ceiling but also basking in the warm glow of a fireplace off to the side of the chamber.
Fib wanders towards the glow of firelight, two luxurious chairs sit at an angle in front of it. As he makes his way towards it he notices a man sitting in one of the chairs.
Is this who Ian met with… ? Fib wonders, time becoming harder and harder to trace through his memory.
“Fib… I’ve been expecting you.” A surprisingly young voice says.
“Uh… yeah?” Fib responds, failing to meet the moment.
The young man stands up, his eyes glowing with purpose, time itself framed by Fate for Fib, history unfolding in the present.
“Name’s AJ… welcome to Planet Vayner.”
He extends a hand.
—
The Suites partners with Vayner Sports!
Let’s just get to it.
After connecting with Vayner back in January of this year, we have steadily been building our relationship and sharing our respective visions for the future of sports fandom. Our talks have been productive and it’s clear the potential resulting from a collaboration between our organizations is incredibly potent.
Well, we are VERY proud to announce that our talks culminated into an official partnership with VaynerSports!
This is a pivotal moment for The Suites, opening our DOORS to an INCREDIBLE array of talent represented by VaynerSports – from famous MMA fighters like Tony Ferguson, Vitor Belfort, Sean O’Malley… to major sports athletes like Dwayne Harris, Kirk Cousins, Bo Bichette… PLUS the many brands and associations within the powerful Vayner network.
Furthermore, we would like to announce that we have been building a custom Suite for Vayner in anticipation of what is to come…
And what is to come? Well, we’re aiming at exclusive events which reach across the chain and through the cosmos to holders of Vayner and Third Time assets… and we strongly suggest you STAY TUNED as our plans together develop.
The Suites has always had the VIP fan experience in mind as one of the pillars of platform, and this partnership injects rocket fuel DIRECTLY into our project as we approach what will become yet ANOTHER frontier experience (see Photo Finish LIVE) on the edge of what is possible, created by Third Time.
We’ve said it since the beginning… the future is SO BRIGHT for The Suites. If you’ve held on through the perilous journey of the last year, congratulations, hopefully you’ve been STACKING IT UP because the best is yet to come.
Onwards!
Fib Newton, CM
….
… wait there’s more?
—-
A Fireside Revelation
“…I’m not sure but… I have this nagging feeling that I left something behind.” Fib, now sitting with AJ in the grand atrium by the fireside.
“Interesting, what seems to be missing, Fib?” AJ asks, his tone somewhat bemused.
“Like a certain… corporeality?” Fib guesses, pulling from somewhere randomly resonant.
“Ah, well you lack a body.” AJ smiles.
“Uhh… but I’m right.. here…” Fib trails off.
In the warmth of the firelight, dazed by an untrackable series of events, a deep exhaustion settles over Fib’s mind.
Man, I’m lost.
Since reawakening on planet Vayner, Fib’s memory had seemingly reset. Indeed, upon trying to recall when or where he was, he comes up short. However, for all the lost context of the past, the path forward remains most clear to him in his mind. So, out of a simple lack of options, he proceeds forward.
“Where are you now?” AJ asks, confusing Fib further.
“That’s… kind of hard to say.” Fib answers back, from some involuntary part of his brain.
“From what you’ve said, I can tell you were on a journey, some sort of quest…
You were hopping from planet to planet, searching for your final destination in a string of explorations.
But, you see, the 7th planet didn’t exist where you were… only here, where we are now… do you understand?
…You would have never found it there.”
AJ speaks all of this staring deeply into the fire, face calm, tone measured.
__
“So there was no 7th planet?” Fib asks, realization dawning on him slowly, memories of space warfare flashing in violent clips across his mind.
“There was no more a 7th planet on your former path than there was an arcade from which you’ve never returned, that is to say… You are now of the proper materials to be where you are.” AJ turns, gauging Fib’s face – which is now concerned looking.
“Am I still in the metaverse?” Fib asks, beset. The stars continue to swirl across the endless ceiling in an infinitely colorful cacophony of time and space.
“No, you’re somewhere… in between-” AJ pauses, inhaling from a wooden pipe, exuding otherworldly peace.
“But even then, you’ve never been quite… real, Fib”
“Come again?”
“Your body is just as real here as it was anywhere, as it will be anywhere else.” AJ speaks, his words thundering into Fib’s skull.
“What is real has long since been inadequate to cover all of Fate’s possibilities, Fib.
I think you’ll understand soon, because it’s not quite done yet.”
AJ turns, his eyes glowing white, the stars begin to toss like the violent waves of an ocean in stormy turmoil above them, out of control. The room shakes, Fib’s brain experiences a violent contraction and a hole seems to open up underneath him… his consciousness leaves.
…
Back In The Saddle
Fib lights up a cigarette, back in the smoking and ruinous cockpit of his severely damaged mechsuit.
Drifting through the battlefield, which has come down to singular pockets of hand to hand mech combat sprinkled throughout utter ruin, and yet, in the distance, another battle begins to sweep in from the outskirts of the drifting scrap of the previous battle, which is being repurposed as cover for a wave of scattered laserfire between newly battling forces.
“Computer” Fib exhales from his cigarette, resigned with new purpose. AJ’s words still ring in his mind and yet the familiar cockpit of the mechsuit within which he bore witness to so much metaverse violence solidifies his mental frame.
“… what’s brewing over there?”
*wE are DeteCTINg kiNETIc confrtAtiON betWeeN THe FTX leGIoN and the BiNANce foRCeS…crackle… ENeRgeTIc coNtaCt wiTh thIS uNIT In T-5o SECoNds…” The suit’s system chirps from the nearly shattered front console.
“FTX and Binance…?” Fibs eye’s expand slightly.
“Nuts.”
And just like that, the wave of battle is upon him. Fib drifts helplessly amongst the once haunted scrap, now a 3 dimensional battlefield for the wildly violent confrontation.
Fib watches as FTX, seemingly on some sort of retreat, quip into the Binance forces in small waves – posturing bravely but are near-instantly wiped out by Binance’s superior firepower. The bodycount begins to stack up in Binances’ favor as the brutal yellow laserfire from their monstrous battalions shreds through repeatedly the feinting FTX forces.
Lasers graze the mechsuit Fib sits in, finishing his cigarette, they chase back and forth across the suit’s visor at an insane pace. This proceeds for many moments as the wave of clashing forces proceed to cross over Fib’s slowly drifting position…
However…
A dark force begins to gather. Something shifts… the pace of combat slows down, seems distracted. A digital vortex made from building blocks yet unknown to mortal minds coalesces above the battlefield.
An enormous, legless entity emerges from the vortex, summoned into existence by it. The battling armies cease their combat maneuvers to gaze up at this impossible new development.
Looming over all… is Zuck himself. His red eyes glowing, expression cold and blank, skin pale against the black smoke of space battle. His mouth creases into a smile that his eyes don’t match. He begins to inhale through the nose.
Fib stares up in paralyzed horror, watching the ghostly essence of fallen soldiers insufflated out of destroyed cockpits and battlefield scrap, consumed by the enormous entity as his size expands, as his form becomes more solid. When the consumption of the souls completes itself, he pulls one leg, then another out of the vortex like a malevolent Looney Tune.
His true form.
Casting his cruel eyes over the battlefield, Zuck observes the movements of the scattering forces as they attempt to flee. He opens his mouth and rips a massive beam across space. A swathe of unfortunates are consumed in galactic soulfire, their heroic stories becoming brutal tragedies in the darkest turn of events imaginable.
Slowly, detecting the lifeforce of Fib nearby, Zuck’s eyes center on the miniscule, drifting mechsuit which Fib still occupies.
He stares through it, through the visor and right into Fib’s eyes. His mouth opens as Fib slams the eject button. The beam that fires from Zuck’s mouth evaporates the mechsuit in an instant.
–
Lost
Fib wakes up, again. But he is drifting through space… there is only ruin. His spacesuit’s power reserves read: Low.
Most starlight in the area seems to be extinguished, as if absorbed.
“Zuck was waiting for more bodies…” Fib notes, falling through black space without friction. Dull light reflects on the outside of his helmet from the disintegrating ruins of the battlefield.
Fib closes his eyes one more time… drifting through the metaverse… his purpose fulfilled..
“Anything is possible… in the metaverse…” Fib remarks, before disappearing.
…
—–
Epilogue
Back on Earth, a powerful new enterprise of digital horse racing has given rise to an event called the Degen Derby, in which digital communities can compete in a horse racing game that MIGHT AS WELL be real life – Photo Finish LIVE.
A man wearing aviators and a santa hat sits in front of the camera – calling the race with a panel of colorful characters and distinguished horse racing experts.
The Derby comes to a close, a raucous event that will certainly go down in the books…
But there is one more announcement. The sunglass-ed man stares into the camera, his tone even, a million lightyears of distance between every neuron.
“We’d like to talk for a moment about…
…the MVPs.”
END
_
