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

[ct_7567]

You know I can't. I've got responsibilities elsewhere. So that all this mess can be solved at some point.

[ He's not sure it ever will be. He sighs, scrubbing his hand through his short hair - it's been getting long; he wears it longer and longer these days, but even he can only tolerate so much - and looks at Martin. ]

I'm not saying I don't want you around, kid. But you're not obligated to come every time. You've got to build a life for yourself too.

[vokrad]

And do what? [he scowls a little.] I'm good at this stuff. And...I gotta stay good at it until we're done, right?

[whenever that is. he doesn't know and he rarely asks; too much future-thinking makes him anxious, and he has few outlets for that sort of energy outside of the work he and Rex share. tinkering, disassembling and reassembling arms, things to keep twitchy hands and twitchy minds busy.

he prefers the present-tense, because at least then he can do something in it, even if he doesn't know what to do.]

Then we go.