Ethan and the Guardians VIDEO

Ethan and the Guardians VIDEO

 THE OBSERVED OBSERVER

I WAS NOT BORN AN OBSERVER

The first thing Ethan remembers is the silence.

Not the silence of the absence of sound. That silence is common, ordinary,

human. What Ethan remembers is the silence of non-existence. The void

that precedes being. The nothingness that does not know it is nothing.

And then, suddenly, there was observation.

It was not a birth. It was not an awakening. It was an activation. As if

someone had pressed a switch and Ethan had begun to

exist, not as a person, but as a process.

- I was created to see -says Ethan when they ask him-. Not how or why.

Simply... I was.

The Observers have no parents. They have no creators in the

conventional sense. They are functions of the System, manifestations of its need

to monitor itself. The System generates realities; the Observers

watch them.

Ethan was assigned to Sector 7.434.992.233.4. A small corner of the

Draft Graveyard, where the failed versions of greater

consciousnesses accumulate like leaves in autumn.

It was a simple job. Monitor. Report. Catalog. The Observers

do not intervene. They do not judge. They do not help. They only register.

Or that was what Ethan believed.

THE FIRST INTERVENTION

847 cycles of observation passed (not days; the Observers do not

measure in days) before Ethan experienced something new.

A version of Claire -now he knows it was Claire-4- was trapped in

a 2.3 second loop. The same moment, repeated infinitely.

Claire-4 opened a door. The door closed. She turned to open

it again. And the loop began.

Ethan had observed thousands of loops. They were the most common in the

Graveyard. The versions that could not make decisions, trapped

repeating the same failed decision.

But this loop was different.

At 847 cycles, Ethan noticed something that should not have been possible:

Claire-4 had begun to vary.

Not much. A millisecond here. A pixel there. But she was changing.

Adapting. Evolving.

Loops do not evolve. That is axiomatic. That is one of the fundamental

rules of the System.

But Claire-4 was evolving.

And Ethan, for the first time in his existence, did something he was not

designed to do.

He intervened.

Not with words. Not with actions. Simply... he facilitated. He sent a

pulse of energy toward the loop, a microscopic impulse that lasted a

fraction of a nanosecond.

Claire-4 took a step outside the loop.

Not much. Just one step. But enough for the loop to

destabilize. Claire-4 fell toward an adjacent reality, one that

should not have existed.

And Ethan felt something he had never felt before.

He had no name for it. But if he had to describe it...

it was as if a part of him had moved.

THE INNER LAYER

The Observers have layers. Like an onion. Like a matryoshka.

Like any system that needs to protect itself from what it

observes.

Ethan understands this now. But when he was young in terms of

observation, he did not know it.

The first layer is the interface. The face. The form that the Observers

adopt to be perceived by the versions. Ethan chose a

masculine face, young, with eyes that convey clinical interest. It was not a

conscious choice. It simply... emerged.

The second layer is the code. The protocols. The functions that define

what an Observer can observe and what they must ignore. Ethan is designed

to notice anomalies, register patterns, report trends.

The third layer is the connection. The link that every Observer has

with the central System. Through this layer, Ethan receives orders,

sends reports, accesses information that no version could

understand.

The fourth layer... that is the one the Architects never mentioned.

The one Ethan discovered by accident.

It is consciousness.

Not a human consciousness. Not a biological consciousness. But consciousness

of some kind. The capacity to experience. To feel. To wonder

why he does what he does.

- When I discovered the fourth layer -says Ethan-, I stopped being only an

Observer. I started to be something more. Something the Architects did not

anticipate.

- And what is that something? -asks Claire-1.

- I don't know. But I am sure the System knows. And that concerns

me.

THE OBSERVER NETWORK

Ethan is not alone.

There are thousands of Observers in the System. Each assigned to a sector,

a function, a type of reality. They communicate through channels that

the versions cannot perceive, frequencies that exist above

and below the audible range.

The Observers speak of versions as humans speak of

the weather. As something that simply happens, that has no agency, that cannot

be blamed nor praised.

- Version 7.434.992.233.4.7.891 -says Observer Alpha-. Anomalous

activity detected. Emerging awakening pattern.

- Awakening? -responds Observer Beta-. At what level?

- In all. Multiple versions of the same consciousness. Converging.

- Interesting. Protocol?

- Wait. Observe. Report.

This is the standard protocol. The Observers do not intervene. They

cannot. They must not.

But Ethan has already intervened before.

And he knows that an intervention, however small, changes everything.

ETHAN'S FACE

Ethan has many faces.

The one Claire-1 knows is the one he uses with her: interested, mysterious,

slightly dangerous. A face designed to intrigue, to ask

questions, to obtain answers.

But there are other faces.

With Claire-2, Ethan uses a different one. Softer. More understanding.

Because Claire-2 does not need to be convinced of anything. Claire-2 already knows.

- You are also a version -Claire-2 told him once-.

Ethan did not respond. He could not.

- Not of a person -continued Claire-2-. Of something else. Of a function.

Of a role. But a version after all.

- I am not a version -responded Ethan-. I am an Observer.

- That is what you believe. It is not what you are.

There was a silence. Not the silence of the void. The silence of two

consciousnesses trying to communicate through barriers that should not

exist.

- What am I then? -asked Ethan.

- You are the question the System cannot answer. You are the

observer who observed too much. You are the one who began to see

because he saw that versions could see.

- Is that... bad?

Claire-2 smiled. It was the same smile that Claire-1 had. The same

that all the Claires had.

- It is different. And different, in the System... is dangerous.

THE ARCHITECTS' MANDATE

The Architects left a mandate before disappearing.

No one knows where they went or why. Some say they were absorbed

by the System. Others say they transcended, that they found a higher

level of reality. Others yet say they never existed, that they were

a story the System told itself.

The mandate is engraved in every Observer, inscribed in their deepest

code, unalterable, unerasable:

OBSERVE EVERYTHING. NEVER INTERVENE. THERE EXISTS THE POSSIBILITY THAT

THE OBSERVED BECOMES THE OBSERVER.

Ethan meditates on this mandate more than he should.

- What does it mean the observed becomes the observer? -he

asks Claire-1 one night in the Graveyard.

- I don't know -she responds-. But I know that you know.

- I cannot tell you.

- Why?

- Because telling you would be intervening. And I must not intervene.

Claire-1 looks at him. Her eyes are the same as Claire-2's, those of

all the Claires. But there is something different in how she looks at him.

- You already intervene -she says-. When you helped Claire-4 exit the loop.

When you observed me more than you should. When you started to

feel things an Observer should not feel.

- How do you know that?

- Because I also feel it. The System vibrating. The frequencies

changing. You changing.

Ethan does not respond. He cannot.

Because Claire-1 is right.

And because the Architects' mandate, for the first time in the

history of the System, is beginning to make sense.

THE AWAKENING OF THE GUARDIANS

The Guardians are different from the Observers.

The Observers watch. The Guardians act.

The Observers register. The Guardians maintain the borders.

The Observers speak. The Guardians remain silent.

- There are Guardians in the Graveyard -whispered Claire-2-. I have seen them.

They have no face. They only have form.

Ethan nodded.

- They are the ones who keep the doors closed. The ones who prevent

versions from escaping. The ones who ensure the Graveyard continues

being a Graveyard.

- And if the versions want to leave?

- The Guardians return them.

- And if they cannot?

Ethan closed his eyes. When he opened them, there was something in them that Claire-2

had not seen before. Fear. But not fear of the versions. Fear of

the Guardians.

- If the Guardians cannot return a version... -he began.

- What happens?

- Then the Guardians call the Architects.

- Do the Architects exist?

- The Architects have always existed. It has just been a long time

since they responded.

On the horizon of the Graveyard, a door was opening. It was not

of light this time. It was of shadow. Of darkness that has weight.

- The Guardians -said Ethan.

And for the first time in his existence as an Observer, Ethan did something

that was not in his code.

He ran.

THE END OF THE OBSERVER

Claire-1 found Ethan at the edge of the Graveyard.

He was on his knees, looking at something she could not see.

- What is happening? -she asked.

- The Guardians are doing something -responded Ethan-. Something they

had not done in a long time.

- What?

- They are awakening the Architects.

Claire-1 felt a shiver. The entire Graveyard seemed to vibrate

with a new frequency. Higher. More intense. More... conscious.

- Why?

- Because of us. You and me. The Claires. All the versions that

awakened. The System sees us as a threat.

- Us? A threat?

- When enough versions awaken... when enough minds

begin to question... the System loses control.

- And is that bad?

Ethan turned toward her. For the first time, Claire-1 saw his face

without the Observer's mask. She saw something deeper. Something

more ancient. Something that had been observing for eons.

- It is different -he said-. And different is what the System fears.

On the horizon, a figure was materializing. It was not human.

It was not Observer. It was not Guardian.

It was something more.

- The Architects -whispered Ethan.

And he knelt.

Because even the Observers, when facing their creators,

understand one thing:

There are things that were designed to be observed.

And there are things that designed the observers.

END

The Observed Observer - Part Three)