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

[looking_sharp]

His name. Rude actually flinches at hearing it. IT hasn't been used in so long. And that's... shocking. Sure, he had considered it possible, but he hadn't expected it.

"You know I don't seek trouble," he offers. But really, he does. He seeks a very specific kind of trouble. Knowledge. It's always a potential problem.

[sighsheavily]

That flinch was impossible to ignore. Cecelia's ear twitches as she scans him over, a frown deepening.

"Do I?" she wonders, her brow knitting. "Pray, tell me what it is you are seeking today, then. Just the scenery?"

Something's off. Well, many things are off, but now she's worried he's one of them.

[looking_sharp]

Damn. He was good at infiltration, but not like this. Not when he had what seemed, effectively enough, to be amnesia.

"Answers. And not to be punished for not having them."

And he has nothing. Not her name. Not the name of this place. Not how there is a house with things that fit him. Not the answer of who the Rodolfo here was. Or is? Rude doesn't even know.

[sighsheavily]

"Punished?" she echoes, incredulous. Slowly, Cecelia folds her arms. "We're talking about punishable offenses now, are we? Why? You've been here near as long as I have, why would I have to be punishing you?"

What did he do? What didn't he do? Gods, if another rug was going to be yanked out from under her, it may as well come from someone she'd grown to trust, huh? It fits a bitter narrative.

/remembers rude would recognize young Cece

[looking_sharp]

Oh Cecelia, that's where you're wrong.

"I have been here a grand total of an hour and a half," Rude corrects her. And then turns to look at the woman. Wait... She does look... No, it can't be, can it? She looks a touch like a red-haired woman from a bookshop, not long after he came to Nonah.

"Are you Cecelia?"

there can be no mistaking

[sighsheavily]

Cecelia blinks a few times, stiffening with alarm and silent for a beat before her eyes narrow, sharpening. Rather than fluster and bluster as the girl she'd been would, this woman is already scouring her memory for possible reasons for such an unusual response.

"I am. Are you still Rodolfo?"

And yet...

[looking_sharp]

That was a response he was shocked by. Both the confirmation and the question. It's enough that Rude reaches up and takes his sunglasses off. A very rare thing. But it leaves his face far more expressive.

"I haven't been called Rodolfo in many, many years. But yes. I am. But as of a few hours ago, I still went by Rude, and was in a city called Nonah. Then I woke up here. I don't know where here is."

[sighsheavily]

A familiar wave of dread rises, threatening to make Cecelia's head drown in a murky mess of worry. All because a pair of sunglasses moved -- a pair that rarely leave the man's face (save for sleeping? maybe? she can't even confirm that much after all this time!).

Unease is here to stay when she hears Nonah aloud; her mouth twitches before pursing into a thin line to stifle an incredulous sound.

"I haven't heard the name of that place in a very long time," she says slowly, quietly, as if speaking it too loudly would draw unwanted listeners. As if it were a power word itself.

She unfolds her arms, taking a step back, gesturing.

"Come with me. We can't have this conversation out in the open, even in this place."

If matters were involving that world, she wanted to be extra careful, and the safest place she can think to go is the mansion.

[looking_sharp]

Really? Really long? Had he just... Gone forward in time? Or left the imPort cities to go home and come back IMMEDIATELY to the world but in its future?

"That distresses me," he admits before nodding to the woman. No reason to try and flee. All he had was his fires (or so he thought) and he would not burn this place. He won't be Sephiroth.

[sighsheavily]

"What a relief," she mutters flatly, pushing through carved oak doors and into the mansion. "It wouldn't do for you to be so unaffected while I'm left to sort it out myself. This way."

Down a wide, elegant hall that seems ill-suited for the space outside (ah, magic), Cecelia makes a beeline for a staircase and a stately room right at the landing. Once he's entered, she closes the doors and turns around, a hand still lingering on one of the brass handles as she eyes him.

"Sit down." She nods to one of the velvet-cushioned chairs in the room. "Start at the beginning: The last thing you did or said before your eyes opened here."

[looking_sharp]

What a space. Beautiful. But in a very sort of place than he was used to. Interesting. He moves immediately to the chair and settles himself.

"I brushed my teeth, shaved my head smooth, and laid down to go to sleep in my bed in Nonah."

So really, it was as simple as sleeping in one place, waking in another.

"I'm sorry, it's not very interesting."

[sighsheavily]

Instead of scoff or scowl, Cecelia purses her lips as she listens, then pushes herself away from the door, over to a rosewood desk and rummages through a few drawers before finding what she wants.

"You didn't chat with anyone? Hear anything unusual? Strange words or melodies?"

As she asks, she rounds the desk and moves over to him, holding a palm-sized prism that she lifts to eye-level to peer at him through like some oddball physician.

[looking_sharp]

"None of those things," he agrees, frowning. "A few hours before I had spoken to Rufus Shinra. If your Rodolfo has had a similar experience to me, then you are aware that we're from the same world and he was my boss."

No strange words, though. And no melodies.

"Why do you ask?"

[sighsheavily]

"Because I'm trying to rule out a few things," she says, peering through the prism for a moment longer before withdrawing it from her line of sight.

"It wouldn't be the first time feywild magics caused mischief...only the first time in this realm. That I can recall, anyway." She shrugs.

"In any case, there's no Nonah here. Not the sort you would mean, anyway. Not if you're from where I think you are."

[looking_sharp]

"And where do you think I'm from?"

Because he doesn't know where he is. So why not tell him that much?

"While we're at it. Where am I?"

[sighsheavily]

"I was there before, you know." She leans against the desk, setting the prism down. "That realm. Everyone chatted on that network, remember? All in one spot.

"Not like here."

[looking_sharp]

Is she saying...? Rude needs a moment, to process all of this. He was in a new world. A new realm? Except was this somehow the same Cecelia? Just older? Rude's hand comes up to rub at a temple.

"If I understand you, this is another version of that world. And you've been in both."

[sighsheavily]

She smiles grimly.

"That's right. I was still a silly child then, but...it was better there than here. At least there, the consequence of being so fussy wasn't quite so dire.

"But yes. More than one realm with that strange machine. More than one realm where others are drawn. It just turns out this one is a great deal more strained in its reaction to that fact."

Her expression grows more distant and somber as she speaks, her gaze drifting past him.

"I can't say I've heard of anyone else...remembering that place besides me, though," she murmurs. "I thought I was the only one."

[looking_sharp]

"Silly child, maybe. But you had good taste in books," he offers. Hardly a consolation if she was so far removed from the young woman who had the time. Who didn't look so... strained.

Still, he takes what she says in silence. Considers her. Considers all that is presented to him. He had thought himself about to be punished for not being the man she had known. Instead, a strange confession.

He'd wanted knowledge. Here, he had received it. Just not in a way he would have wanted.

"Perhaps they chose silence, to bear a seemingly singular burden unremarked on. Or perhaps you were, until now."

[sighsheavily]

His remark pulls her attention back, and she blinks a few times, showing unguarded surprise for a moment. A bit of red creeps up her neck to her cheeks, but after a few breaths, she swallows back that alarm.

She didn't expect to be remembered. Of course, she never expected anyone to remember that world in general, but making it personal is always more poignant.

"Yes. Well. Speculation, obviously." She waves her hand a bit. "I can't confirm any of that myself -- that would expose the Vale's location to less friendly sorts, and I've worked very hard to keep this place from being a place worth...acquiring."

[looking_sharp]

Well, for him it wasn't nearly so long ago as it was for her. For him it's months, and she had given him more than a few things he'd read recently.

"The Vale? Acquiring? I'm still lost here, Cecelia. This place is beautiful, but I don't know what to do. Or what I should be doing."

[sighsheavily]

She sighs heavily (Elle picks good journal names) and runs a hand through her hair, smoothing it out for maybe a second before frizzy bits pop out.

"Right, you're fresh as a daisy now, aren't you? That's inconvenient. Hold on..."

Pushing away from the desk, Cecelia walks around his chair to a bookshelf on the wall behind him, picking at spines and stray folders before pulling a binder out. Walking back around, she offers it to him. It's a simple office binder, but inside are collections of clippings, printed or hand-transcribed articles and announcements, and transcriptions of interviews covering the early events of the fracturing of society.

"You've got some reading to keep you busy for now, I would say. Start here."

[looking_sharp]

Well, at least she's giving him resource materials. And in a way that he will appreciate and tear through quickly. His attention goes to her after he's had a chance to look at the cover of the book.

"I'll read it. But... I might have questions."

[sighsheavily]

"You will," she assures, shrugging. "And you'll find maybe a few answers to satisfy, but not all of them from me. I don't keep up with every detail of the goings-on in the world as it stands now; I don't want part of their parade. It's why I made this place and keep it secret.

"You'll have to speak to others who reside here. More recent transplants."

[looking_sharp]

Of course. Rude even nods his understanding. But he pauses as well, thoughtful.

"Why am I here. Not me, Me. Him me."

He needs to know what led him to an idyllic looking place such as this.