Dreams come differently when consciousness bleeds through dimensional boundaries. The darkness flows outward, no longer contained behind my eye, spreading through spaces between spaces like ink in water. Reality bends and flows, showing me layers of existence I'm too exhausted to resist perceiving.

  Adrian finds me there, in that place between waking and sleeping where quantum states blur together. His form shifts between configurations that shouldn't be possible, but there's something almost gentle about how he manifests - not forcing reality aside, but letting it flow around him like water around stone.

  "You're pushing too hard," he says, his voice resonating through multiple frequencies simultaneously. "Trying to maintain too many states at once."

  "Had to." Even in dreams, black fluid traces patterns down my face. "The containment fields..."

  "Would have held without constant adjustment. Reality wants to be stable. Wants to find equilibrium between states." He moves closer, his quantum signature harmonizing with mine in ways that feel almost... comfortable. "You don't have to force it. Don't have to maintain perfect control."

  "Says the one forced into unstable transcendence."

  "Perhaps." His form shivers between configurations that suggest both beauty and terror. "But I'm learning. Learning from watching how you work with natural frequencies instead of against them. Learning how to exist between states without fragmenting completely."

  The darkness pulses as our quantum fields interact. In this dream space where consciousness flows more freely, I feel the difference in his artificial evolution - not just broken anymore, but adapting. Finding new ways to exist in multiple states simultaneously.

  "You could teach me more," he says softly. "Show me how to work with reality instead of forcing it. And I could show you..." His form shifts into something heartbreakingly beautiful. "Show you how to push beyond natural limits safely. How to exist in more states than even evolved consciousness can handle alone."

  "Adrian..."

  "Think about it." He moves closer still, his quantum signature resonating with mine in frequencies that make the darkness sing. "Natural and artificial methods working together. Evolution guided but not constrained. We could become something beautiful."

  The black fluid flows faster as our fields interact. But it doesn't feel wrong anymore - feels almost right, like consciousness finally finding forms that can contain it properly.

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  "Together," he whispers, "we could transcend the boundaries between natural and artificial. Could show both the Church and their opponents what real evolution looks like."

  His form shifts again, suggesting geometries that shouldn't be attractive but are. I feel my own consciousness responding, wanting to flow into configurations that match his impossible beauty.

  "Stop," I manage, but the word lacks conviction.

  "Why? Because it feels too right? Because you're tired of being alone in what you are?" His voice contains harmonics that resonate through my quantum field. "I feel your longing, Vesper. Feel how exhausted you are from maintaining barriers between states that want to flow together naturally."

  He's right. Even here in dreams, I feel the strain of trying to keep everything separated - natural and artificial, evolved and forced, consciousness and form. What would it be like to let go? To let states blend together into something new?

  "We could be beautiful," he says again, reaching for me with a hand that exists in multiple configurations simultaneously. "Could show everyone what real transcendence looks like - not forced, not completely natural, but something in between. Something new."

  The darkness flows outward as I imagine it - working together, learning from each other, becoming something that bridges the gap between natural evolution and artificial enhancement. My quantum field harmonizes with his, showing me possibilities I've been afraid to consider.

  "You feel it too," he whispers. "Feel how right it could be. Feel how our frequencies want to resonate together."

  I do feel it. Feel the potential in combining natural and artificial methods. Feel the beauty in existing between states instead of fighting to maintain perfect separation.

  "But the cost..." Black fluid traces patterns of possibility between us.

  "The cost of staying isolated?" His form suggests infinite variations of beauty. "The cost of maintaining barriers that want to come down? The cost of being unique when you could be..." He shifts again, showing me what we might become together. "What we're meant to be?"

  The darkness pulses with want, with recognition, with possibility. Together we could be something new, something that transcends the boundaries between natural and artificial evolution. Something beautiful.

  "Think about it," he says, already fading as consciousness starts to surface. "Think about what we could become. What we could show the world about real transcendence."

  I wake with black fluid still tracing patterns on my skin, with the darkness still pulsing in frequencies that match his quantum signature. The device shows my fields stabilizing, but something has changed - barriers between states feeling more fluid, more permeable.

  James sleeps in his quantum dead zone, unaware of how close I came to letting go. To becoming something new. Something beautiful.

  Something that might transcend the boundaries between natural and artificial evolution.

  The darkness pulses with remembered resonance as I check the containment fields. They're holding steady, reality finding its own equilibrium between states.

  Maybe Adrian is right.

  Maybe some barriers are meant to come down.

  The black fluid traces patterns of possibility as I consider what that might mean.

  What we might become.

  Together.