Transition: the Lord of Time

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Transition: the Lord of Time

Post by patransom »

OUT OF CHARACTER
I recommend listening to Pink Floyd's Time while reading this. I particularly like this version, even though it’s not the whole song…

 

Like last time (for everyone except Shareev and Thanis), you wake up feeling uninjured and well rested. This includes those of you who were previously dead!

This time, the sound that wakes you up is not a distant rumbling. Instead, it’s a series of jangling bells. You realize that you are standing up, but completely unable to move. It’s not uncomfortable and you are not restrained, but somehow you are unable to get your muscles to respond.

Opening your eyes reveals a strange scene. You are standing in a misty void with no sky, horizon, or ground. Floating in the distance, you see various hourglasses, sundials, and other odd objects that you somehow know are time-keeping devices. Thanis and Shareev recognize digital clocks floating about. Some of them are the source of the bells that have awakened you.

You are all standing in a semi-circle. All of your allies are there, even those you saw with their brains blown out. They all look perfectly alive and healthy. There are even a few you haven’t seen in a long time: Jiam, Vulan, and the Natch-Ur Prelate, Phatem Rablil!

At the center of the semi-circle stands a tall, slender man, shrouded in a gray, hooded cloak. His arms are crossed and you cannot see his feet. He seems to float several inches above where you would expect the ground to be, if there were a ground in this misty void.

The man speaks, Pardon the interruption in your respective lives and/or afterlives. I assure you it was quite necessary, given how certain of my so-called coleagues seem to find it necessary to interfere with the time stream. He glares in the direction of Jiam and the Prelate before continuing.

I hate to intervene, but I simply couldn’t let you continue any further. Too disruptive to the balance of things, you see. Of course, it’s not really your fault, since you were manipulated by my fellow deities. I hope you understand, though, that I can’t just return you to your proper place in the time and reality continuum. You know far too much about the future or the possible future. It would be just as disruptive to send you back.

He looks at Shareev and Thanis, And before you ask, that applies to those of you who weren’t anomalies in the first place. You’ve seen too many things that can’t be properly justified. And sacrifices must be made whenever I step in. I’m afraid you two are it.

But, because none of this is really your fault, I’m going to give each of you a choice. I can drop you off into your reality/race/religion-appropriate afterlife, as if you died in the appropriate place and time, just as if your destiny hadn’t been interrupted. Some of you might find that appealing. Or you can help me with another little problem… it will be an intervention, but a much more subtle and elegant one than I just had to undertake. I would be dropping you into a bit of an unfamiliar alternate reality/time stream, but you wouldn’t anomalies, since I’d handle it properly, unlike my less sophisticated peers. Plausible deniability and all that…

I suppose I can answer a few questions before you each make your decision. It’s not like I don’t have all the time in the world. He chuckles, shooing away a particularly annoying alarm clock that has been buzzing around his head. But I’d prefer you make your questions brief. I really do have business to attend to: a conversation with Natch-Ur and Mycr, you know…
OUT OF CHARACTER
Feel free to ask this odd fellow questions, in character, while we work out the ooc details of the new game outside this thread. Feel free to ask questions as any of the NPC/ex-PC characters, too, if you feel bold, especially if you played that character for a while.

 

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Re: [Active Thread] Transition: the Lord of Time

Post by tdsprouse »

Uh, i have some questions... Where are we, and why cant we move? and where do you want to send us, and to what end?
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Re: [Active Thread] Transition: the Lord of Time

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The man in the gray cloak answers, Yes, yes. This is my domain. Depending on your frame of reference and/or educational background, you might call it The Elemental Plane of Time or The Fourth Dimension. But what you call it doesn't matter as much as the mere fact of its existence.

You are can't move while you remain here simply because you don't belong here. You're suspended, frozen, because you are out of the flow of your appropriate time/reality stream or any relevant/reasonable time/reality stream. It's perfectly harmless. You'd be quite safe remaining here, although I don't think you fit with the rest of the decor particularly well...

As to where I want to send you, it's both a where and a when, of course. It's a place and time alternate and somewhat parallel to your own. You won't find it all that strange, especially not after I've taken the precautions to inject you into it with the appropriate plausible deniability. I think you'll be quite comfortable, quite at home there/then.

My purpose in injecting you there/then is a bit complicated. Suffice it to say that certain forces are interfering with that time/reality stream in a manner that threatens to greviously upset the law/chaos balance. Really, their activities are quite outside the designated possible destinies for that time/reality stream! Now, I could do another direct intervention like I just did with you, pluck out the offending elements, you know. But that wouldn't be very subtle, would it?

No, I think the careful injection of some countervening elements should suffice to balance things out appropriately. By countervening elements, of course, I mean those of you who chose that option. I mean, to use a more dramatic phrase, heroes.
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Re: [Active Thread] Transition: the Lord of Time

Post by klakxor »

Shareev stares wide eyed at the grey cloaked man. You are a being of time then. That is immensely interesting. I would wish that I would have more time to study your realm.

I would also love to know of how your powers work. How you would be able to pluck us out of our time into your time, or in fact, your untime, for it would seem that this place bereft of time.

Anyway, before I move forward with assisting you in your time fluctuations, I would like to know what we would remember about our lives before now. How much of our knowledge and abilities will be available to us. Could I really be me if my memories and experiences are not there?
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Re: [Active Thread] Transition: the Lord of Time

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The gray cloaked man answers, So inquisitive! Not so much a being of time as a being outside of time. An observer and protector of sorts. In many realities, those who know of me call me Aniu. Although, in at least one, I'm known as The Doctor. But they have rather odd ideas in that particular universe... In any case, I don't blame you for not recognizing me, given your time/reality combination where most all deities are forgotten and disbelieved. In fact, it may be I was never a deity at all at any time in your reality. It's a bit hard to keep track of.

But, on to your main question. Let's put aside the philosophical question of whether its nature or nurture that makes you who you are, shall we? We could spend an eternity on that one. I know I have more than once... In this case, you wouldn't be much use to me without some semblance of your skills and experiences. I need to have you at least competent, regardless of whether you are you. On the other hand, I can't just plop you in as is. That would violate plausible deniability entirely and make you an anomaly for the reality where I need you. Can't have that. Wouldn't be prudent.

So, I propose to remove your memories, but then replace them. For your formative years, you'd be supplied with parallel experiences more appropriate to the new time/reality paradigm. That should guarantee you retain your most valuable qualities. In your case, inquisitiveness. As best as I can phrase it, you'd be a reincarnated version of you. They do have that concept in your time/reality, don't they?

Also, I plan on giving you back a bit of your recent experiences, but in dream form. You won't be certain as to their reality, but were you ever? Really, how do you know your whole life hasn't been a dream in the first place? Maybe you're an allegory? But I've waxed philosophical again... In any case, giving you some dreams should provide the push I need for the reincarnated you to act, to become, once again, a hero. Is that clear? Is it satisfactory?
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Re: [Active Thread] Transition: the Lord of Time

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Although no one else speaks, the cloaked figure says, Very good, I have your decisions, then. I hope those of you who've decided to retire enjoy your respective reality/race/religion-appropriate afterlives. I really do.

As for those of you who are taking up my challenge -- Shareev, Thanis, Esias, Leenah, Aeless -- I wish you the best of luck. Really, it would be quite helpful to me if your reincarnated alter egos could resolve the issues that threaten your new reality/timestream. It's called Earth in the year 2009, by the way, not that that means anything to you... But it will be pretty clear once you're properly inserted.


With that, everything goes black again.
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