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

[ifhebeworthy]

Not at the parties I'm familiar with.

[ he eats one in a single bite and tosses the toothpick away. ]

More fighting and drinking. [ a pause. ] ...Mostly fighting and drinking.

[heliophilic]

[Wait. Parties can have fighting in them? Why hasn't he ever been invited to those parties?]

I've been invited to the wrong parties, apparently.

[ifhebeworthy]

Aye.

[ though he holds a distant look in his eyes. ]

It's been a while myself.

[heliophilic]

[He forces himself to look around the room, at all the beautiful people in their beautiful gowns hiding their ugliness behind a sea of white.]

Hard to get invited to the right parties when these are the ones you get invitations to.

[ifhebeworthy]

[ he glances around as well, the two of them sticking out like a sore thumb. ]

I wasn't invited.

[heliophilic]

[That turns his attention back to the red x in front of him.]

Then why are you here?

[Once, Midnighter would itch for an opportunity for a fight. Now... he's a different person, though he has no idea for good or ill.]