In the globe-spanning city of the Grid, where attention is currency, rogue broadcaster Julian Hale is going broke. Facing social and literal erasure, he dreams of a 'primal exploration'—an escape to a reality with teeth. Using outlawed tech, he punches a hole through universes and finds him: Garran, his alternate self, a hunter living in a savage, pre-civilized world. Julian’s moment of 'cosmic wonder' shatters when their connection triggers a universal immune response, violently swapping their lives. Julian is stranded in a wilderness that wants to eat him, while Garran is caged in a sterile pod, assaulted by digital noise he cannot comprehend. The swap isn’t a one-time event, but a chaotic, recurring cycle, forcing them to impersonate each other in worlds designed to kill outsiders. Their only sanctuary is The Pod, a shared dreamscape haunted by a persistent STATIC_GLITCH, where their minds begin to dangerously merge. This unwanted fame paints a target on them, exposing Garran’s world to a mega-corporation that sees a new reality to colonize. Hunted by corporate armies and an ontological auditor bent on deleting their paradox, Julian and Garran face an impossible choice. They can sever the link forever, accepting a life of imprisonment and losing the only person who understands, or they can embrace their fusion, risking their shared identity to wage a war against 'freedom vs control' on two fronts. They wanted to escape their cages, but found a shared one instead. Now, that cage must become a weapon. But when one soul fights a war in two bodies, can either of them survive the victory?
35 chapters
In the globe-spanning city of the Grid, where attention is currency, rogue broadcaster Julian Hale is going broke. Facing social and literal erasure, he dreams of a 'primal exploration'—an escape to a reality with teeth. Using outlawed tech, he punches a hole through universes and finds him: Garran, his alternate self, a hunter living in a savage, pre-civilized world. Julian’s moment of 'cosmic wonder' shatters when their connection triggers a universal immune response, violently swapping their lives. Julian is stranded in a wilderness that wants to eat him, while Garran is caged in a sterile pod, assaulted by digital noise he cannot comprehend. The swap isn’t a one-time event, but a chaotic, recurring cycle, forcing them to impersonate each other in worlds designed to kill outsiders. Their only sanctuary is The Pod, a shared dreamscape haunted by a persistent STATIC_GLITCH, where their minds begin to dangerously merge. This unwanted fame paints a target on them, exposing Garran’s world to a mega-corporation that sees a new reality to colonize. Hunted by corporate armies and an ontological auditor bent on deleting their paradox, Julian and Garran face an impossible choice. They can sever the link forever, accepting a life of imprisonment and losing the only person who understands, or they can embrace their fusion, risking their shared identity to wage a war against 'freedom vs control' on two fronts. They wanted to escape their cages, but found a shared one instead. Now, that cage must become a weapon. But when one soul fights a war in two bodies, can either of them survive the victory?
World
