THE FRACTURED WORLD: ARRIVAL

[modormenace]

 

A

rrival for some goes all but unnoticed. It's a sudden shiver, the sensation of being watched... and then nothing at all. Life continues serenely as it always has. The only indication of any change comes with sleep, wrapped in dreams: vague and distant echo imagery of another life, melting away in the morning.

 

F

or others, arrival is a sharp jolt. In the space of a single blink, they find themselves in an unfamiliar world, surrounded by the trappings of a life they have not lived. They are replacements, spirits taking possession of bodies belonging to people very much like themselves...

 

A

nd for the rest, arrival is a procedure. Routine. Those ported in to the Fractured World wake hazily in the comfortably dim light of the Porter room, laid out on an exam table. Their wounds, if they remember having any, have been healed— and even those who remember their own deaths find themselves miraculously restored. As they regain consciousness, an automatic audio-visual presentation is triggered. Regardless of their backgrounds or physiology, all imPorts 'see' and 'hear' this message as if in their own language:

"Greetings, imPort."

The voice is calm and gently authoritative, almost certainly selected by committee.

"On behalf of the Synod and all imPorts it represents, we welcome you to the planet Earth."

A decidedly non-humanoid robotic arm holds out a palm-sized device and rather insistently demands the new arrival take it. This is the imPort's comm, used for accessing the Porter's database of information, as well as the communications Network— though it won't receive communications from outside the Porter building until carried through one of the many Gates set up in a long, crescent-shaped array on the far side of the room.

As each Gate is approached, information about the faction it leads to flashes up on the comm device's screen. Which will you choose?

THE WHITE TOWER SANCTUM AURORAE KRAKOA HOUSE OF M EMPIRE OF LIGHT EQUALITY BEFORE LAW THE TWIN CITIES OLIN VALE EDEN SEEKERS OF THE NEW DAWN NORTHWESTERN IMPERIUM GREEN PIECE MAD BURNISH LUMINARY

Comments

[helpdesk_hero]

Horrible song, that one.

[David sighs and rubs at his temples before moving to a tree to lean against it.]

And if we don’t? If I’ve helped lead us all to our deaths?

[rebelarrow]

[Judd isn't fully sure what he means, but he knows that's beside the point so he lets it drop.]

David, not to undercut anything you have done for us since Krakoa's founding, but you did not make any of us come here. You control none of our lives. We were all well aware of the risks that would come from founding this place.

[helpdesk_hero]

[The adults were. The children, the teens...]

Not everyone here has a fully developed pre-frontal ccrtex, Judd. Some people are still shit at decision making.

[rebelarrow]

[Judd's quiet for a moment, debating something. Finally...]

They wouldn't kill the children or the younger teens.

[A pause.]

They're more valuable to them alive.

[helpdesk_hero]

[Kill? No. Take? Yes. It was David and Rimuru and Jane and Allison that would suffer for the decisions they had made.]

You're exactly correct, of course. They are more valuable.

[rebelarrow]

Yes.

[Part of him was glad that David understood, part of him wished that he didn't.

He hated this place. Not Krakoa, but everything around it.]

[helpdesk_hero]

Sometimes... I just wish I could go home.

[He wishes, so deeply, to be home. But this is home now, including all its problems.]

[rebelarrow]

I'm sure that's a sentiment shared by many... including myself.

[But he doesn't think it's going to happen any time soon, either.]

[helpdesk_hero]

[In a way, David was luckier to be here than he was back home. But there isn't much he can do about that, or anything really.]

Of course, I have nothing to go home too.

[rebelarrow]

Are you one of the ones who have arrived here after death?

[helpdesk_hero]

[No. And there is some relief at that. But that almost made it worse.]

No. My life there is just... unworthy.

[rebelarrow]

At the risk of sounding cliche, perhaps you simply haven't found your purpose yet. If I had been pulled from my home a year earlier, what I was able to live through would have seemed impossible.

[helpdesk_hero]

[What? David looks confused. Of course he's found his purpose. He helps lead Krakoa!]

Why are you saying that? I work hard.